Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This is not my world.

I opened my eyes and recognized this fact instantly.

A quick glance at my surroundings revealed I was in a strange space. Beneath me, to my left and right, and across from me were fabric, cushioned seats in long rows separated by metal poles and guard rails. Above were metal objects hanging from horizontal poles that slowly waved back and forth. Perhaps some sort of handle to hold on to?

Large windows were set behind each grouping of seats, opening up to a view of beautiful waters and a cityscape far in the distance filled with tall buildings. The sun shining on the water ushered in a purplish tint that ricocheted off the metal inside the room. The angle of the light made it difficult to see the outside clearly as everything was awash in the light of this world's star.

The shaking of the room and the way the outside seen through the window steadily panned proved the room was part of a vehicle of some kind. Perhaps an advanced locomotive? If that was the case, the furniture and handles made sense.

If there is more than one cabin, then the population that would require such a vehicle must be significant. Or perhaps its purpose is to move military assets from one battlefield to another.

Whatever the case, at the moment only one other passenger sat in the locomotive.

Directly across from me, a woman sat with a straight back and hands folded on her lap. Her long, light blue hair transitioned to pink on the inner side and reached all the way down to her seat with bangs that covered her left eye. A blue braid mixed with a few strands of pink hair reached down from the left side of her head down to her chest, covering up a wound judging by the bloodstains beneath it that dripped down her front.

Her outfit comprised a white jacket, possibly military, over a white dress along with a pair of tall, white, laced boots. On her chest were two star medals and some other insignias.

The injuries on her body provided more evidence that she was a combatant or, more likely, a military commander of some kind. Both cheeks were bloodstained, and she had a tear through the right side of her torso. Another wound in her chest oozed blood. With how slowly she was bleeding, the significant size of the puddle of blood beneath her feet showed she had spent at least several minutes sitting in this space.

"It was my choice..." she began, smiling faintly, showing no pain in her expression. "And all my fault. My decisions, and everything they led to." I sat straighter to match her and present her with absolute respect. Though her injuries seemed manageable with minor medical attention, she made no attempt to heal herself. Perhaps she had already given up.

If that is the case, I may be listening to a final confession.

She continued on, the light of the star and her bangs obscuring part of her face.

"It had to come to this for me to realize that you were right all along..."

To the best of my knowledge, I had never met this woman before. Natural blue and pink hair did not appear commonly in my world. So, how did she know me?

"... I know this is very shameless of me, but I must ask for your help."

"Sensei."

The word sent a jolt through me. I didn't recognize the word at all. Perhaps a title of some kind, or another alias used for a mission I no longer remembered.

And yet something deep within knew that the word referred to me and no one else. A sense of familiarity and respect for the term and an understanding that it held incredible weight.

"You'll forget these words, but it won't matter. Even without your memories, you'll probably make the same decision under the same circumstances..."

"..." So I did lose my memories already. Or 'my' memories are no longer accessible. Maybe this version of myself sitting in this seat is separate from the one who helped this woman.

"Which is why... what matters are the choices we make, not our past experiences. There are choices only you can make."

Who was I to you, woman from another world? What did 'Sensei' mean to you? Why didn't you listen to my words?

Blood dripped into the puddle beneath her feet.

And how did things become so horrible, you learned of your own folly?

"I've spoken of responsibility before. I didn't truly understand it back then, but I do now. Adulthood, responsibility, obligation... and the choices you make that extend beyond those ideals. Even the meaning behind them."

Adulthood? I sat up even straighter and examined her again. Was she much younger than she seemed and looked up to me as an adult? Or did I have a role working with children?

It was a strange word to appear here. But with relation to responsibility... not enough pieces to be sure. Enough to form a guess.

"Sensei."

Another jolt. A word I would never take lightly. A role 'that extended beyond ideals' to use her words.

"You're the only one I trust."

"Only you can free us from this twisted, distorted fate..."

"... and find the choices that will lead us to a new reality."

Ah, now I see.

I understood then.

"This place does not exist," I declared to the world.

Strings and letters in a variety of colors criss-crossed my vision. A complicated web of thread and yarn-like rainbows erupted from behind the dying woman and laced its way through the locomotive cabin.

Behind her, the windows flickered and cracked until the city and water vanished from sight entirely. Instead, they displayed a different scene entirely. Another unrecognizable memory.

Through the window's portal, I witnessed myself standing in the center of a battlefield. Smoke rose from destroyed buildings. Rubble made of shattered chunks of stone and rebar scattered in every direction. Grey clouds filled the air, and soot-colored rain splattered across the annihilated land. The skies themselves seemed to weep with despair over the devastation.

I must have been fighting until that point. Without my usual hairband keeping my ponytail together, my long, dirty purple hair spread across my shoulders, discolored by grime. Blood dripped from a wound in my side, and my grey and white clothes were burnt and disheveled. I didn't recognize the make of the clothes, but they seemed to be some combination of jacket, shirt and pants.

Sitting in the locomotive, I wore a pristine version of the same unknown outfit. However, it wasn't my attire that stood out the most.

The side of my face had changed into a ghoulish black with glowing white cracks skirting across the transformed skin. The corruption reached down into my neck, and black mist seeped out from beneath my clothes. My left eye was sealed shut by the deformation as more colored strings floated and flitted around my head. My right eye pulsed with a faint green light atop its black iris.

Something was eating away at me. The pile of transparent, torn apart strings at my feet showed as much. Proof of a namesake being invoked.

Across from my doppelgänger in the windows stood another woman wearing a black, long-sleeved dress with a dark-green underside and a notable cut on the left side to reveal her legs. A pair of gray wolf ears sat atop her head, connected to long hair of the same color reaching down to her lower back. Both her eyes had slit pupils, though one was white and the other black.

Above her head, a black with a greenish tinge... halo? floated. It consisted of two rings, both broken, with the outer ring having four points each going in different directions.

In her hand, she carried some sort of metal tube device I didn't recognize. I could only assume it was a ranged weapon of some kind considering how she pointed it at the other me. No obvious sharp edges or large surface areas pointed to a usage for slashing, stabbing, or brute force trauma. Perhaps it worked as a highly complicated crossbow.

She gritted her teeth and moved the weapon to point at a flat, glowing object in my right hand. It looked like a piece of metal with a window on the front projecting a blue light.

A loud noise erupted from the weapon as something fast careened into the flat object, cracking its glass.

To my left, in the locomotive, a window exploded, and glass scattered across the floor.

The blue-haired girl in front of me did not even acknowledge it, still staring at me with her one visible blue eye not hidden behind her bangs.

Another loud noise and the object was struck again. This time, the 'me' I viewed from outside staggered backwards from the force of the impact.

The window on my right shattered as the entire wall crumpled inwards. The colored threads nearby fell to the floor, torn asunder by the glass shards. Nothing remained of their intricate design and carefully constructed purpose.

"Please..." The girl in black muttered as she used the weapon again. The target received a third hole as it flew out of my corrupted hand and clattered against the ground, its blue light fading.

More windows in the locomotive broke, the ground quaked, and the walls bent inwards.

Only the small space where the girl in white and I sat remained unaffected.

I see.

I closed my eyes.

"Sensei, I'm sorry. It's my fault," the girl in black cried out.

This place does not exist, it is merely a Last Will. A final request. A space to request a Miracle's advent or its eradication.

"It's not your fault." Both versions of myself spoke in unison.

The girl in black groaned; the girl in white shook with shame.

You say that a different outcome would have occurred if you had trusted me more, even if I made the same choices. Then, it is my failure for not establishing that trust.

I didn't know the me who stood on the battlefield across from the woman in black.

I didn't even know the me who sat across from the woman in white.

But once again, someone called to me with their final thoughts and prayers. If someone trusted me enough to deliver me this Last Will...

My responsibility is to answer.

Once more. One more time.

To claim a new destination for those who called me by that name.

"I ☐☐☐☐☐☐, accept the role." We both stated our resolution.

One shouted in shock. The other's sad smile exuded hope.

And then the world collapsed.

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This is not my world.

Unfamiliar walls, ceiling, and floor appeared as he opened his eyes. Not just unfamiliar, but fully foreign. Multiple objects in the room stood out as completely unknown with unclear functions.

So, not a kidnapping to another country. A completely separate world, perhaps?

Separate world or not, he recognized an office when he saw one. A wooden desk, papers stacked up, an electric lamp, and other objects showed someone used it in a bureaucratic role.

He patted the sofa underneath him and then looked at the side table next to the sofa. On it sat his leather duffel bag.

So I'm not without supplies. That also helps rule out kidnapping. Somebody placed it here specifically.

"So you really are here... Sensei."

A girl with long black hair, blue on the inner layer, stepped into the room. Her white uniform, which ended in a short skirt, and white jacket had multiple gold buttons and accents. A military outfit perhaps, maybe one of a high rank. The gradient blue inside her coat matched a night sky, giving her an ethereal look.

She adjusted the thin glasses sitting atop her pointed ears and stared down at him with piercing blue eyes.

"I didn't think it'd be true, but... you are here as she said you would be, Sensei."

He pointed at himself and raised an eyebrow. The term 'Sensei' struck him as familiar and unfamiliar in equal measure.

"Yes, let me explain the situation."

She gave a detailed summary of the main points he wished to know.

Someone called the president of a body known as the General Student Council summoned him from his world to this one: Kivotos. He was called upon to serve as the teacher, no, the Sensei of the entire city. This was to handle some grave matters that threatened the existence of the city.

The woman in front of him, Nanagami Rin, served as the Vice President and the second in command of Kivotos. As expected, the uniform indicated her high rank.

Throughout her explanation, he remained silent and answered only in pantomime. It was far too dangerous to speak when too many variables remained unanswered about the summoning itself. Even despite his years of schooling, he'd never heard of a method to summon a single individual to another world. By some miracle, it occurred anyway.

Rin frowned at his continued reluctance to speak. "Sensei, you..." she interrupted herself and pulled out a letter. "The president mentioned something about this in her notes on how to handle you."

My summoner knew enough about me to devise specific plans and notes? That's... concerning. I'm completely ignorant of this place, and yet they know me?

"Hmm... she says if I'm struggling to communicate with you, I should tell you..." she stopped and pulled the paper closer to make sure she followed the instruction correctly. "To tell you that she 'already paid the toll'?"

Ah, that changed things then. If she had already paid the full cost, then his summoner knew what she was doing.

He couldn't even guess the scale of the cost and toll sacrificed, only that it must have been significant.

Spitting on that effort went against his moral compass.

The first step was to test his use of language by accepting her greeting. "Nice to meet you, Rin. May Cestarok grant you the blessing of Masetov."

Thankfully, some quirk of his summoning allowed him to understand and speak in Kivotos' language without issue. As long as he intended to utter his words and didn't think about how to word it in his language, his words were automatically translated. But if he intentionally spoke in his language, then the words remained indecipherable to Rin.

"... If he grants you the blessing of Masetov, say, 'May good luck find you'."

Eerie! Who taught her a correct, non-standard response?

After finishing some more introductions and short greetings, she guided him to an elevator while he continued his fact-finding observations.

The decor and technology seem to be on a higher level than my own world. Even if the technological levels aren't vastly different, the scale of their industry easily outstrips my own. He looked out the window of the elevator at the vast skyline of towering buildings and pristine waters. In addition, the population of Kivotos is at least tenfold our own judging by the size of these structures.

Far out in the distance, he could see a large white tower with a glowing white pillar emanating into the heavens. Around the pillar floated several light blue halos, easily covering the size of a small town.

When he pointed it out, Rin explained that the building was the Sanctum Tower, the heart of the Academy City. Nobody knew what the halos were or why they existed, but they had floated above the whole of Kivotos since long before anyone remembered.

"I didn't even think to mention them; they are such a natural part of our day-to-day lives."

"And your own halo?" He asked as he looked at Rin's light blue halo with three star shapes on the right side. "As far as I can tell, I don't see any angel wings or other relevant heavenly authority."

She looked pleased to have personally caught his attention, breaking his streak of questions about the city/country. "Students within the thousands of academy districts have halos that protect us and buffer most harm that comes our way. This makes us much more resilient than the other residents, like yourself."

As he looked down at the streets below, he saw many other 'students' walking around, each with their own unique halo above their heads. Among the crowds there were also some people made entirely of mechanical parts. Bipedal animal people, including cats, dogs, and birds, composed the last group of citizens. Neither the animal or mechanical people had halos, setting them apart from the 'students'.

In that case, he stared out the window at the Sanctum Tower again. These larger halos are likely connected to the halos the students have. Perhaps a system that manages their abilities? Something that designates the 'students' from the other races?

The elevator trip, more advanced than at home but still recognizable, was too fast for him to glean anything specific. The only thing obvious to his eyes was that the heart of the city was an apt term. All the arrays of halos in the air seemed to stem from that one singular spot. Strange to imagine the residents didn't even think about the phenomenon.

Still, if it was a rule to be accepted, then he'd accept it without further questions as well. Being a teacher, a 'Sensei', didn't seem to involve objects of power.

Once they reached the ground floor, four students marched up to Rin demanding answers for the chaos across the city. Apparently, crime was on the rise. Parts of the city's infrastructure were also collapsing for unknown reasons.

According to Rin, the top administrator of the Sanctum Tower, the GSC President, vanished from the city, leading to the cascading issues.

So... right before or immediately after my summoning? But it seems the chaos started earlier than that.

"We had been searching for a way to bypass verification, all to no avail... until now," Rin explained.

Sensei scratched his chin. Loss of control of the city, a toll paid, a summoning completed, a chaos impossible to manage, and only now a sudden solution appeared.

The pieces fit. "I suppose I'm somehow the answer then," he tried to confirm with Rin. The other girls, who hadn't paid attention previously, now stared at him in shock.

"You? Who even are you?" The impatient, blue-haired girl asked.

Oh, isn't that a loaded question? Rin pressed me about the same thing. How to respond?

"This is Sensei. Not only is he going to be teaching in Kivotos, he's also been personally selected by the General Student Council president." Rin answered for him, preventing him from needing to wax philosophical again.

"The president selected a man without a halo to teach us all?" The black-haired girl with large wings questioned.

"I've never even seen an adult human before..." A silver-haired girl muttered.

Hold up.

"Rin." Pause. "Please elaborate."

"I already explained that since you aren't from Kivotos you do not have a halo, right? In addition, all students are female,of and we don't have any other adult humans in the city. So, you may attract a lot of attention both for being an adult and a man."

"Understood."

........ What's a human? Context clues pointed to those who were neither beast-person nor mechanical-person, but he wasn't sure of that. The number of details to understand the rules of the world fluctuated with each explanation.

Sensei decided to simply listen for now while observing anything and everything in the room. The more he learned, the better his chances of not being caught by surprise later. Differences in common sense were normal between worlds, and it seemed his responsibility was much higher than initially assumed.

Each revelation slapped him with the absurdity of the situation.

"... You're here to serve as the advisor for a club that was formed by the General Student Council president."

"The Federal Investigation Club: Schale."

"This isn't your average club—more like a type of extrajudicial organization. Since it's a federal club, you'll be allowed to register students from any academy in Kivotos. You're also permitted to conduct battle activities in each academy district without restriction."

From Rin's earlier explanations, it sounded like there were thousands of different academies across different districts. This meant that he was not just summoned to deal with problems in Kivotos, but granted with authority over tens or maybe even hundreds of thousands of students.

And if he was not just the only 'Sensei' but effectively the only 'Teacher' or 'Instructor' and all other teaching was handled by 'Blue Ray lessons', whatever those were, then essentially....

I've been called to serve as a benevolent dictator of what might even be a continent-sized city. The exact opposite of that bastard on the throne. A person who could teach, lead military campaigns, stood above the individual district authorities, and lacked a proper check on power with the president missing. Did they even realize the threat this posed, or was Rin's desperation just so deep that she would turn a blind eye?

Even a wildfire seemed pleasant when freezing to death.

A snag revealed itself immediately, though. Apparently, in Schale's club room sat an item he needed to perform his duties. And said building was being raided by a group of thugs.

"If we need to retake a building, then..." he muttered and glanced at Rin and then the four girls standing in front of them.

It seemed she came to the same conclusion, with perhaps several levels more spite and malicious glee in her thoughts than his. "How fortunate of us to have you trustworthy academy representatives here with us."

"Huh?" The blue-haired girl, Yuuka, asked in confusion.

"We're going to need your help in bringing peace back to Kivotos. Let's go."

"Not yet." He held up a hand. "I need to take some preliminary steps before we leave."

Rin frowned, but acquiesced to his delay. "What do you need, Sensei?"

"For starters...."

He looked at the strange tube-shaped objects each of the girls held.

"Let's get some introductions, and how you fight."

"Hanekawa Hasumi, vice chairwoman of the Justice Task Force. We serve as the protectors and enforcers of justice for Trinity General School. "

If he was going to bring students to battle....

"Hayase Yuuka, treasurer of Seminar. Seminar is the student council body, and thus the highest authority, of Millennium Science School. And don't you forget it!"

... and the toll was paid to summon him upon this land to serve as 'Sensei'....

"Morizuki Suzumi. Member of the Trinity Vigilante Crew. We are an unofficial club of volunteers who help where the JTF might not reach."

... then he would bring everything he had accumulated over the years to bear....

"Hinomiya Chinatsu, I'm a member of the Disciplinary Committee of Gehenna serving under the Head Prefect. We keep the peace."

... and pull out every scrap of capabilities and potential these girls held within themselves.

He gave a nod to each of them in turn and smiled.

"Hasumi, Yuuka, Suzumi, Chinatsu. Nice to meet you. I'm Sensei."

Class begins once more.

"Let's all learn from each other today and save a city."

. . .

From there, things progressed smoothly. He learned about each of their weapons, so-called 'firearms', and led them into a battle against a group of thugs and a tank to retake the battle.

For a cobbled-together squad of those bothered by the GSC's inaction, the composition of the team worked far better than he expected. Chinatsu served as a backline healer. Yuuka's shields allowed her to protect herself on the front lines from the opposing gunfire. Suzumi used explosive flash grenades to stun her opponents. Finally, Hasumi carried the strongest weapon to tear through the Crusader Tank.

Rin's worries about his ability to stand on the battlefield without the durability of a halo seemed to be accurate. While nobody let him find out how effective a gun would be against his flesh, even small wounds would accumulate. Meanwhile, the students and punks alike took multiple bullets before they went down.

It was rare to see such sights on the battlefield. Rarer to be standing on the side of allies with such abilities to shrug off damage so easily rather than in opposition.

Still, it was at least a six to one battle, so he brought all his commanding experience to keep track of his four special agents as they maneuvered through the abandoned streets to take down their opponents. Thankfully, three of them worked daily to take down thugs and delinquents and keep the peace of their schools.

The fact that this was a daily occurrence raised numerous questions about the possible revolving door of justice or even lax prison maintenance, but he didn't consider that his job nor his concern.

Completing the wish of his summoner to bring order back to Kivotos remained his number one priority.

With only... a few irrelevant hurdles that got Rin to glare at him repeatedly stemming from extreme differences in common sense... they soon liberated the Schale building.

But one delinquent remained without being secured.

Who is this now? Sensei wondered as he reached the basement and peeked inside.

In the center of the room was another desk with electronics on it sitting in front of an altar of some kind. Above the center of the altar, a broken stone slab floated silently.

"Mmm... how am I supposed to destroy this if I don't even know what it is?" A woman with a fox mask and large fox ears murmured as she spun around a firearm with a blade attached to the end. The red and black flower prints on her black clothes matched the black flower in the center of her five pointed, red halo. More shocking than her unknown style of attire, though, was her power.

This must be Wakamo, the dangerous escapee Rin mentioned.

He'd seen her from up in the helicopter but paid little attention with his focus taken by the tank. Now that he was much closer, he could sense that she oozed with power. At least a tier or two above Hasumi, who was the strongest student he'd seen so far. From her nonchalant attitude to her fit arms and legs, his instincts told him she was a force on a battlefield.

Truly someone built to be a destroyer.

And now that he was in the room, that very same destroyer was staring him down.

Still, even if she was a criminal, didn't she count as a student if she had halo? Rin didn't state that he was only Sensei to a specific group. In fact, she heavily implied Sensei served every student, insane as that workload sounded.

With that in mind, he readjusted his ponytail and smiled at her. "Good afternoon."

She stuttered. Stepped back. And bolted!

Without a hint of hostility — no, perhaps something else instead — she streaked past him through the only door out of the basement and vanished.

"... Nice to meet you!" he called to her afterimage.

Strange woman. Kid? I should probably ask about that later.

"... Hm? Who were you addressing, Sensei?" Rin asked as she entered.

"Ah, I thought I saw somebody. But maybe it was just a shadow." He didn't need to explain about Wakamo if Rin didn't notice her.

"I see. Well, here is what the General Student Council president left behind. The Shittim Chest."

She handed him a flat metal object that looked similar to a picture frame with what looked like black glass covering the center surrounded by a white frame. It didn't look constructed of shittim wood from the shittah tree? Nor did it appear as a chest.

"And this is...?"

Rin frowned and then looked pleadingly at Sensei. "Please tell me you know what a smart tablet is, Sensei."

"Should I!?"

"... I'll try to help you navigate it. The president said you'd be able to take control of the tower with it. None of the other members of the council could activate it."

Her esteem and hope declined before his eyes.

However, he didn't hold the same opinion.

You didn't pull someone from another planet, an alien of a completely separate race and rule set, without being sure you picked the correct target.

He followed her instructions on how to activate the 'OS' and navigate the 'screen' to reach a 'password entry'.

A blue light appeared on the screen, and a large stylized S appeared in the center.

'Please enter the system password'

"I'll... step away so as not to interfere." Rin said as soon as she helped him reach the screen. Glad to see the activated Shittim Chest, but he suspected she still didn't believe he would know how to proceed.

After looking behind only four times in concern, she exited the room.

Left alone, he tapped the side of the tablet and stared at the password screen.

There was no reason in the world for him to know what the password was. This wasn't his world; it wasn't his language; it wasn't his technology.

But he remembered.

Deep in his core, from whatever place the importance of the word Sensei lurked, came the answer.

"... We thirst for the seven wailings."

"... We bear the koan of Jericho."

The screen changed as a new message appeared over the password entry.

Password accepted. User identified as ☐☐☐☐☐☐. Confirmed.

Welcome to the Shittim Chest, ☐☐☐☐☐☐ Sensei.

Converting to operating system ARONA for biological authentication and generation of a verification certificate.

The world warped around him as a blinding light emanated from the tablet. Colored strings, threads, and letters burst out of the Shittim Chest as a miracle manifested itself in the basement of Schale. Faster than he could process. Dense beyond measure.

When the pain finally stopped ravaging his eyes, he found himself in an entirely new space.

Water lapped at his feet.

Chairs and desks were scattered in every direction across a dilapidated classroom whose walls and roof had long collapsed. Past the destroyed wall, he could see water stretching out to the horizon under a bright sky with scattered clouds.

At the nearest desk, a young girl with short blue hair and a small braid on the left side of her head slept with her face on the surface of the desk. She wore a white hair bow on her head and a blue uniform top with a short white skirt.

... Who?

---------------------------------------------------------

"Mmmm. H-huh?"

The young girl opened her eyes and yawned. Slowly, her classroom came into focus.

Standing there was a tall man with purple hair tied into a short ponytail. He pointedly looked towards his right, at the sea extending to the horizon.

"S-Sensei!?"

For how long had he been standing here! She'd waited so long for his arrival and slept through it!

"If you're here, th-th-that must mean you are Sensei, right?"

He glanced at her, winced, and glanced away. "And you are?"

She urged herself to calm down and collect herself. This was her big moment. First impressions were important, and she failed the very first one badly by sleeping!

"My name is Arona! I'm the system manager that lives inside the Shittim Chest, serving as its main OS. Think of me as your trusty secretary, Sensei! No matter what you need to do, or if you have any confusion about technology, I'll be here for you!"

He nodded and continued staring out at the sea. "So you are aware of my ignorance of this world's machinery? I certainly didn't expect to be transported to another world after entering a password."

"Well, that last part is something only the Shittim Chest can manage. Whenever you want, you can activate the chest and come join me here in my classroom. Time moves slower inside here, so we can chat in this mental space while your body stays standing outside. I can even talk directly to you while you are outside as well though!"

She jumped to her feet and bounced over to him. "But yes, I've been waiting for you all this time! Just for you, Sensei! I'm so glad to finally meet you. It took a long time, but you came!"

She was so excited, but Sensei didn't seem to match even a fraction of her exuberance. "Well, it's nice to meet you too," he finally spoke after continuing to stare around the classroom.

At least his words were polite even if she wasn't sure how much she could believe them.... Did she screw up from the beginning? Was he mad because she was sleeping?

Well, she'd just do everything right from now on! Starting with the biological authentication. If she proved herself useful, he'd eventually warm up to her, right?

"Umm... would you mind standing a little closer?" She asked with a twinge of fear. She honestly didn't know what she'd do if he simply said no.

Thankfully, he shuffled closer, waters lapping around his leather shoes.

"Just a littttle closer," she requested so she could get a full sense of the tall adult. He had to be at least over six feet (183 cm)! Soon she'd know his exact details once they completed the authentication.

"Now, place your fingertip against mine."

He complied with her request, and a shock transferred through both of them.

Instantly, the information about his vitals poured into her.

He really is an alien... she marveled. Most of him was the same as what she'd expect from a human. But there were a variety of differences, some large and some small. A familiar shell with unfamiliar internals.

"Almost... and all done! ♪ Now I'll be able to recognize you whenever."

He glanced down at her for a moment as he stepped back. Again with the distance. What could she do to improve this situation?

"Um... umm.... I can show my capabilities! Is there anything you need right now?"

"Then, the most important thing right now is the restoration of the Sanctum Tower's permissions. With the president missing, the city is falling into chaos."

"I can do that!" Anything to prove her worth. "I'll restore access permissions to the Sanctum Tower."

With it, Sensei would control all of Kivotos. A change to the entire city.

The GSC would certainly want to have the power sent their way, but....

I'll trust Sensei. Whatever he wants to do will be the right choice.

She'd waited for him for so long. Now was the time to prove herself.

Just as all his other students had proven themselves earlier today.

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What a day...

Hayase Yuuka, treasurer of Millennium School's student council, leaned back in her train seat as it barreled along towards her home academy.

From the start, it had been a mass of chaos she couldn't even try to calculate. Since she woke up, she'd been fielding complaints from across the academy about the power outages from the wind generator shutting down. Naturally, this was in place of the seemingly ever-absent President Rio. Then, fed up with the GSC's seeming inability to handle their job, she made her way to the District of Utnapishtim to complain directly.

Instead of what she expected — a talk with the GSC President including an explanation and plan to address the issue — instead she met the vice president. Rin then announced that the president was gone and that some strange adult would be the Sensei of the Academy City.

She hadn't taken it well.

"I was way too harsh in the beginning... but how was I supposed to react!"

Her mutterings turned into a shout that caught the attention of a cat couple a few rows down and a fellow Millennium student to her right. She couldn't place who the student was immediately, but she recognized the behavior of desperately avoiding her gaze. They were almost certainly from a club that burned the school's cash as if they had an infinite money printing machine.

Which they didn't!

She put the thought of the endlessly burnt budget aside to think back to the man called Sensei.

He really didn't seem all that impressive when he introduced himself.

He was tall, by her calculations about six foot two (187 cm), though with a slouch that made him look closer to six feet even. His long purple hair nearly went down to his shoulders in a messy ponytail, and long bangs obscured part of his face. He had unkempt stubble on his chin and black bags beneath his eyes. All that, plus his ancient style of clothing, erased any gravitas the title might have given him.

She'd believe he walked out of a historical film rather than accept he was supposed to be in charge of students. The out-of-place black tie that didn't match the rest of his old clothes, likely provided by Rin, didn't help.

And then having his first question to her be to point at her gun and ask what it was? And then not know what a gun even was!? Nobody could blame her for thinking it all was a sick joke.

But after she explained its purpose as a ranged weapon...

Yuuka looked out the window at the skyscrapers of the approaching Millennium district and remembered the barrage of succinct questions he leveled first at her, then the other representatives of Trinity and Gehenna Academy.

"What propels the projectile? What is the expected range? How much time between one projectile being fired before the next is ready? If fired from the same location repeatedly at a non-moving target, how many attacks will strike true?"

The questions might have seemed obvious, were obvious, but what caught her attention was how fast Sensei gained an understanding. By the time he reached Chinatsu, the last student he grilled for weapon details, his questions became more focused on comparing the weapons and their unique attributes.

"Seems my world doesn't have an equivalent to this gunpowder you described. Otherwise I could imagine we would have pursued something similar," he had explained while examining the firing mechanism of Chinatsu's handgun.

Then, after she showed her ability to generate shields around herself, he fired the gun at her shield just to confirm its effectiveness!

And he almost completely missed even at close range!

"And then all the questions about my shields. How many shots of equivalent strength to breach them, and are there possible weaknesses when hit repeatedly in the same location. Is this why he is a Sensei? Because he can spring a pop quiz on us that quickly?"

Despite her grumblings to herself, she couldn't help being intrigued by that point. He had been intensely logical and thorough in his fact-finding endeavor. Just through listening to him asking Hasumi about her sniper rifle, Yuuka had understood far more about the winged Trinity student's capabilities and role in combat.

And then that proved invaluable when they actually went to retake the Schale club room.

Even while up in a helicopter with Rin, Sensei's orders from his headset (also a piece of technology completely new to him) were clear and concise.

Before they fought, she wouldn't have believed for an instant that four students from different academies working together for the first time could manage that level of coordination. Honestly, she expected she would need to take charge the moment combat started as the front-line tank.

Instead, Sensei had monitored how many bullets had impacted her shields, told her to take cover to replenish them when they were close to shattering, and directed her to intercept the reinforcements the moment they appeared. Only someone with a deep understanding of her condition and the state of the battlefield could give commands that effective.

She hated to admit it, but she could not replicate that feat.

Perhaps that is why the president granted him so much authority despite being from somewhere outside of Kivotos. For all the GSC's many faults, the president's immense talent and intellect caused her to be chosen for the role unanimously. She must know something that the rest of us don't.

As she got off the train, she turned to look back in the direction of the Sanctum Tower and the Schale club building far beyond it.

She needed to find a way to speak with Sensei more. Not only for her own curiosity, but also to get more information for President Rio and the rest of Seminar.

"Wait... Sensei never discussed reimbursements for all the bullets I used..."

She had her in!

---------------------------------------------------------

How do I even begin reporting this?

Chinatsu stared at the empty document on her phone and groaned. Whatever she wrote would first have to go through executive officer Ako before it reached the Head Prefect. Which meant she would need to have the details that would satisfy both parties.

There was just so much to record. Sensei was of course the most important, but she wasn't sure whether to focus on the objective details or instead give her personal impression.

Lacking a better way to approach it, she chose to modify the SOAP note format she would use for medical examinations. It was familiar and gave her something to grasp onto.

The first was the Subjective section. She focused on what information Sensei provided directly.

He referred to himself only as Sensei and, when prompted for a name, demurred and said, "Just Sensei will suffice."

When Rin described him as coming from outside of Kivotos, he didn't give any follow-up explanation.

He was unfamiliar with firearms and most of the technology shown that relied on computer infrastructure, such as phones. However, electric lights, automatic doors, and the elevator didn't bring about any particular reaction.

He explained that he had "some" experience on the battlefield with very different weapons. After trying her handgun (and nearly losing his grip from the recoil) he grumbled about...

She tried to remember his exact words as he handed the gun back. It was a strange phrase.

"Won't work. Completely incompatible."

As she glanced through the other subjective notes, one thing became obvious. Sensei provided little information about himself.

The first part of the Objective section was easy to describe based on Rin's information. The GSC President was missing and arranged for an adult to serve as Sensei for Academy City as leader of an independent investigation club. Essentially, the president had chosen someone who was unaccountable to the GSC to grant near-unlimited power. While the schools still had their own authority over their affairs, Sensei's position allowed at least some interference.

Then came the objective information about Sensei as an individual.

"... He frequently observes his surroundings."

Even when testing Yuuka's shields or examining her handgun, his eyes would quickly flit in a different direction before returning to what he was previously scrutinizing.

Chinatsu wasn't sure if the others even noticed; that was how quick the movements were. But when he did it while talking directly to her, she realized it wasn't a trick of the light. His eyes were actually darting about mid-conversation.

And that wasn't all related to his sight. She couldn't be 100% sure without a proper test, but she still marked it down.

"Sensei has an unusually wide field of vision. He waved back when I waved at him from what should have been a natural blind spot. It is possible that it resulted from his previously mentioned fast eye movements, but I do not believe his eyes moved to capture my movements."

Then there was her Assessment.

Who was Sensei?

From his personal descriptions and objective abilities during the mission, he had combat experience, likely in a leadership role. Quick to gain assurance that all his students would follow his orders exactly as commanded. Highly observant, with fast cognitive abilities to pick up brand new concepts.

He cared enough about the students to express concern about them entering combat until they demonstrated how effectively halos reduced damage. He was quick to pivot upon understanding that lethal harm was nearly unprecedented in a firefight and showed no further qualms afterwards.

While he will probably struggle initially to acclimate to a different world, it does not seem like it'll take long for him to become familiar with the concepts necessary to live in Kivotos.

Unfortunately, as his goals and background are unknown, it is too early to make a guess on how his presence may impact the Pandemonium Society or the Eden Treaty.

"As for the Plan...."

It really wasn't her place to make one considering that should be Ako or Hina's position to make any calls on how the Disciplinary Committee should proceed. But if she had to give her opinion.

"The Prefect Team should seek more opportunities to reach out to Sensei and establish a rapport. We should avoid any actions that may allow Sensei and his near-unlimited power and unknown desires to be used by the Pandemonium Society."

And now... now she could only hope Ako would actually read the report this time.

---------------------------------------------------------

"Here you go, Miss. That is one Triple Scoop Choco Mocha Parfait, two cherry tarts, a plate of macaroons, a chocolate hazelnut pudding and a honey milk tea."

"Thank you," Hasumi smiled as she accepted the plates of dessert from the waitress. Her eyes gleamed as she looked at them, trying to decide which to eat first.

"Are you... expecting anyone else to join you today?" The waitress asked, a bead of sweat appearing on her forehead.

"No?" Hasumi answered, confused by the sudden prying.

"Ah. ... Understood. Let me know if you need anything else." The waitress bowed slightly and walked into the kitchen.

"Hmm, it tastes even more delicious after such a stressful combat." Her large black wings flapped happily as she started on the first tart.

When she first heard that their opponent was Wakamo of all people, she honestly considered the operation doomed for failure. Kosaka Wakamo, the Fox of Calamity, was among Kivotos' most infamous criminals. Some would even argue she is the most dangerous of the seven escapees.

She remembered reading about how much difficulty even the SRT Special Academy's legendary FOX Platoon had in apprehending Wakamo in the past. Even though Hasumi was second in command of Trinity's Justice Task Force, she wouldn't even pretend to be on par with any member of FOX Platoon in sheer tactical training and armaments. If Hasumi had been tasked with developing a plan to take on Wakamo herself, she would have needed to send multiple squadrons of the JTF and mobilize Tsurugi with full artillery support to even stand a chance.

Still, she followed Sensei's orders when he insisted on pressing forward despite Wakamo's presence and the arrival of a Crusader tank. In all honesty, that was more to display her willingness to listen to the orders of a commander than faith in the plan. To her shock though, following those same orders resulted in Wakamo retreating, the assembled delinquents vanquished, and the tank destroyed.

She did her best to maintain her poise and composure, but the urge to shout in triumph at their success was difficult to hold back.

Next time she wouldn't have any hesitation if Sensei gave them orders to fulfill. He had proved his worth as a commander in that combat. Even putting aside Wakamo, having a hastily cobbled together group take down a Crusader tank was enough of an accolade.

Also, I need to make up for failing to instantly respond to orders earlier.

After nearly losing his grip on Chinatsu's weapon while testing their capabilities, he had turned his gaze to Hasumi and told her to fire on Yuuka as well. Questioning the order... had been a mistake. Even though she had only known him for a few minutes, the irritation and disappointment in his expression were obvious.

"Hesitation leads to mistakes, and mistakes lead to failures. And failures lead to... hm, I suppose they only lead to a bout of unconsciousness here. But even that places excess pressure on your teammates and can jeopardize everything you are fighting for."

Which really just raised more questions about what exactly Sensei's home was like and what his previous job responsibilities were. In that moment, he sounded like he had stepped out of SRT Academy itself. The Special Response Team formed by the GSC brooked no arguments when they were on missions and took combat deadly seriously.

Hasumi dug into the parfait as she cast thoughts of SRT out of her head. They were certainly impressive, but comparing the JTF to them was comparing apples to oranges. They each had their own responsibilities, and teaming up with Tsurugi naturally lead to a different combat environment and tactics.

An errant swing of her wings as she continued demolishing her desserts nearly took out a fellow customer. Embarrassed, she pulled her wings closer in and looked at her black feathers.

She was sincerely glad that they had corrected their misunderstanding quickly. When he mentioned he was 'impressed by their size' she had assumed he was talking about... something else that was big... but his following clarification about wingspans kept her from saying something stupid.

"But what did he mean by them being far more integrated into my body than his world normally allowed?"

It apparently wasn't the first time he had seen a person with wings, even if they were rare. But if they weren't usually "integrated", did that mean people weren't born with them in his world? Or maybe they were more like the featherless wings of Gehenna students? She would need to discuss that more in the future when they got a chance to speak again.

At least they had exchanged contact information for MomoTalk so she could reach out in the future. Though with how perplexed he was when we tried to introduce him to the app... and apps in general.... it might be best to hold off for a bit. Let him acclimate.

But as if to address her concern, a MomoTalk notification appeared on her phone.

Though its contents only raised new concerns.

---------------------------------------------------------

President, what sort of person did you send to Kivotos and how did you even find them?

Sensei was... an enigma.

It had taken no time at all for her to realize he was a strange man, even for a mysterious adult summoned through unknown means. Her first question after introducing herself and explaining the situation, following the President's notes, was naturally to ask his name.

'Names have too much power to be expressed to a stranger. Feel free to call me by whatever moniker you prefer.'

Things didn't start off well, to say the least.

Here was the last hope the President left before vanishing, and he refused to discuss his name, didn't know what a Sensei was, and had never seen a firearm or explosive before.

But then the irksome school representatives had barged in, and his mannerisms slowly shifted.

When she spoke with him, he rarely looked at her, more focused on the scenery outside the windows. But with the others, he instead switched to a very focused approach and began fielding questions and examining every aspect of their fighting capabilities. Did he treat them more seriously because they were acting under his command?

Perhaps it was only when truly faced with the role that he began to take it seriously.

Then, just as her faith started recovering... they got to the helicopter.

Sensei did not like the helicopter.

Sensei really didn't like the helicopter.

Rin would forever be glad that the other girls didn't see the fit Sensei threw the moment he found out that they intended to use a helicopter to fly to the Schale club building.

'How are you certain the amount of lift it generates will consistently hold it up?'

'We are crossing territory, correct? Then why are we using a vehicle for travel between them?'

'I am not getting on something that relies this much on faith.'

'What does science have to do with flight?'

Nothing she said convinced him to trust the helicopter. Only reminding him that his other students were alone without his guidance unless he got on managed to sway him. And then he exhibited other strange behavior like jumping repeatedly before takeoff and then while they were in midair. To 'verify' something.

And he looked at her like she was the strange one for not jumping as well!

Then the fighting began, and his demeanor shifted entirely. Whether he suppressed his concerns about the chopper or stopped caring, he no longer commented about it for the rest of the flight. Instead, he was fully focused on giving commands and leading the battlefield from afar.

His efficient control of the battlefield was already impressive for an outsider, but midway through he did something even more surprising. Something Rin was very thankful the others were unaware of, especially Yuuka, who would have certainly complained.

He stopped watching the battlefield. Instead, his focus was on the large halo that floated above this section of the district.

While still giving commands.

Rin's role was an administrative one, and combat-related activities were overseen by Chief Defense Officer Kaya, so she wouldn't purport to be an experienced tactician.

But rhythmically tapping the chopper's window at a steady tempo with only the occasional glance down at the ground did not seem like what a commander should do.

And yet it worked.

He accurately called for Yuuka to refresh her shields when they were running out, called for Suzumi's grenades as she readied another volley, and ordered Chinatsu to heal each time she prepared another mystic syringe. The latter being one of the few times he looked down at the battlefield, if only to determine who to target.

It was eerie. Even creepier when he grinned, no, leered at the sky above Kivotos and started muttering to himself. Something about... understanding the rules now?

After that, he resumed watching the battlefield properly and didn't spare another glance at the sky. But that look was one she wouldn't soon forget.

Nor would she forget when the Crusader tank came out, and he asked for an explanation 'as if he was stupid'. And upon hearing Yuuka's impolite but accurate 'big gun, big boom', opened up the window and chucked one of Suzumi's grenades onto the tank. Then used the commotion to have Hasumi blast it with her armor piercing rounds.

She still wasn't sure when he had stolen the grenade.

From Suzumi's confused sputter on the comms, it didn't sound like she knew he'd swiped her weapon either.

"He is effective as a commander; that much is true. But is he effective as a Sensei? I hope we get a chance to find out."

Now in the basement of the Schale Club building, she leaned against a wall and continued to pass the time by reviewing her memories. So many events had happened one after another in only three hours.

And now she waited for this stranger to activate the Shittim Chest and take control of the Sanctum Tower. He didn't even know what a tablet was, and yet for some reason the President had left it to him while informing no others. It was essentially nothing more than relying on a miracle to save the city. But she grasped onto that miracle.

Even if he did somehow manage to activate it, would he know how to transfer authority?

Would he be willing to?

Rin was careful to explain only exactly what Sensei needed to know about how important the Sanctum Tower was, but he displayed a worrying shrewdness. If he dug into her words, the truth that whoever controlled the Sanctum Tower effectively controlled the entire Academy City would come to light. That kind of power would certainly tempt an outsider who didn't have any reason to respect the current order.

She stepped away to not interfere. But she also didn't want to be present to see her last remaining hope commit a crushing betrayal.

"It's been several minutes now, and nothing has happened. Maybe it is worthwhile to enter the storage room again and see if Sensei needs assistance. If he has bypassed the password but is stuck on some other authentication..."

A rumble through the ground and the flickering of lights prevented her from continuing the thought.

"Is this the aftershocks of the Sanctum Tower being activated!? Did Sensei really manage it?"

If he did... then all that remained was the transferring of authority. In exchange, he would give up everything for little in return.

Nervous energy forced her to pace outside the door. Perhaps she should have explained more about how much authority the position of Sensei has. Or given guarantees for his position and benefits once the GSC resumed control of the tower.

Was it right to solely believe in someone's goodwill?

Her phone rang.

With shaking hands, she answered it.

"We have control of Sanctum Tower again. The whole GSC, not just the president, now has access to all of its authority! We can start handling all of the issues Rin!" Ayumu, Rin's secretary, yelled in happiness through the call. Normally Ayumu wouldn't resort to shouting, but even she was being carried away by relief now that the end of the city could be averted.

"Good. Understood." Normally she would have said more, like thank Ayumu for her hard work during this time, but Rin needed to take a moment for herself.

Discussing everything with Sensei was important, but he could wait a minute. She put a hand over her eyes and leaned against the wall again, enjoying the cool metal.

He wasn't just an enigma. Sensei would now be upgraded to an impossible person.

And thank goodness for that.

. . .

Her tasks were effectively over now that control had been transferred, and she could chip away at the avalanche of accumulated work that had been put off due to the lack of authority. Still, it felt wrong to leave without finishing a tour of the building.

Now with the chaos quelled, she would fully embrace him as the Sensei of all Kivotos. He easily earned her trust.

"You can consider this to be the Schale club room. This is where you'll be working starting now. You do not have any particular goals outlined, but in exchange you have tremendous freedom in how you can pursue what you need to do."

"I see." Sensei glanced around the office quickly before refocusing on her. "Then I have something I'd like to discuss with you regarding that." He held onto the Shittim Chest a little tighter.

Rin nodded. There were certainly more than enough things he would be seeking clarity on if she had an understanding of his character. "Feel free, I'll provide any knowledge I have."

"I'm quitting."

".............................................What?"

Chapter Text

"Quit.... quitting? You? Are quitting?" Rin repeated Sensei's words as she desperately tried to keep up with the shifting situation.

Sensei nodded while staring blankly.

"Wh-why? Is there something about the room not to your liking? Or your responsibilities?" Rin stammered as she processed the now former-Sensei's statement. "I'm sure we can come to an understanding if we discuss your needs further!"

[Did I say something wrong, Sensei!? Is that why you won't look at me directly!? If you give me a chance, I can prove myself to be your most trustworthy secretary!] Arona's voice blared out of the Shittim Chest at nearly the same time as Rin's.

Since Rin didn't react to the second voice, she seemed unable to perceive Arona's voice. Another mystery of the Shittim Chest.

Not-Sensei pursed his lips at the dramatic reactions. With the way they were reacting, you'd think he was the unreasonable one.

"I agreed to be Sensei in order to save this city from chaos. I was your only hope and, despite my misgivings, I am not cruel enough to leave you without the ability to manage your own world." He trudged to the corner of the clubroom, observing the surroundings with each stride.

Many things were unfamiliar or more advanced versions of what he was familiar with. An uncanny world pressing in from every direction.

Once he reached the window, he pressed a hand against the glass and stared at the clouds passing through the halos in the distance A reminder of the true order permeating Kivotos.

"Now, control of the city has returned to your hands. You don't need a strange Adult mucking about in your affairs."

[But what about the students, Sensei! They need your help!]

"If the issue is that you are a proxy, Rin, and not the president or whatever title you use, then simply promote yourself and manage the city. If my duties are so nebulous, with no guidelines, guardrails, or guarantees, then it is the same as my position being superfluous.""

Hearing Rin step closer, he turned around and stared her down. Throughout the complete debacle starting with his arrival and concluding with Schale's liberation, she maintained a strong poise with few slip-ups of her controlled demeanor.

An occasional snap of her patience, perhaps, but who wouldn't when dealing with unreasonable conditions?

Now, though, she looked devastated. Her obvious distress unsettled Sensei, but he stood by his words.

Rin drew a steadying breath. "I... don't think I've properly explained the type of role 'Sensei' occupies. Even if the president returned tonight, it would not be a substitute for your position. The GSC is powerful, but we have many limits with the academies themselves. Not to mention a fair amount of suspicion directed at any interference we have."

A natural result of any decentralized political system. Nobody liked a greater power looming.

"While I do not know why the president considered your role necessary, your lack of direct affiliation with the GSC is a major boon. You are an independent force who can help any academy or student organization without the need to rely on bureaucratic measures."

He only listened in silence as he had gleaned most of this from previous conversations.

"Whatever it is that the president foresaw, she declared that you would be a necessary existence for Kivotos. That is why you were summoned here."

And there it was, the ignored aspect of this whole situation. "I want to be clear that I have no particular ill will towards anyone I have met so far."

A young girl's sigh of relief met his ears.

"My problem is with the foundation of this arrangement."

"The foundation?"

"I have no memory of agreeing to be summoned to this unknown land, one where I am unfamiliar with the rules and technologies. Even worse, one in which I cannot use the weaponry and where, we assume since no one will shoot me and test it out, I lack any defenses against said weaponry. This leaves two possibilities. One, I was kidnapped from my world against my will. Two, I agreed to come here and no longer have my memory of this agreement."

"..."

"So your president is either a kidnapper or someone who can use a method that manipulates a target's mind to erase memories. Which of the two do you prefer?"

[But that's...] Then Arona too became silent. Neither presented an objection to his words.

"...You are right, Sen-", Rin cut herself off. "You are right. I apologize."

And then she bowed low. Not-Sensei twitched at the movement, not expecting the sudden show of respect.

Without looking up, Rin continued. "Kivotos is a foreign land to you, and I fixated on the advantages you bring the academies. In the short few hours you have stood in our city, you have already prevented chaos from ruling and forfeited power and authority that could have served your purposes. Rather than being unsatisfied that you will not take more work without benefit, I should be appreciative of what you have done."

Now he was the one unsure how to respond.

"Thank you for your efforts. Truly, we owe you more than I can express."

"... Raise your head. Your gratitude has been received and is appreciated." When she faced him again, tired resignation clear across her face, his frown deepened. "You are a student, right?"

"Yes, I am a third-year. Students typically spend three years in high school, so this will be my final year as a student. ... Why do you ask?"

He scratched his neck and looked away. "Just takes a lot of maturity to respond the way you did. Especially from a child. Before you revealed yourself as a student, I assumed you were an Adult."

"Oh. Thank you?" An awkward silence filled the room.

For now, I need to understand enough about how this world operates to establish how to live. If more mistakes build up and I'll fail to manage expectations.

Rin was the one who cut through the silence as he began to consider an exit. "Um, I know you said that you wouldn't give your name to a stranger. Do you still consider us strangers? If you don't want to be Sensei, I'm not sure what to call you."

"Oh, that." My explanation of why I refuse to provide my name. "First, to be clear, you aren't the stranger here. It is Kivotos that is the stranger and from whom I keep my name a secret." He needed to ensure there was no misunderstanding here. "Even if we became close, I may still keep my name secret."

[Kivotos is... a stranger?]

"As for what to call me... from those I've met so far it seems that names with three to four syllables comprising a hard sound and a connecting sound each are common. So perhaps... Fo-re-na. Is that a commonly used name?"

"Forena? No... I don't think I've ever heard of a name like that."

[Tapping into the GSC's databases... nobody has a name like that, Sensei. I don't think it means anything either.]

"So it's a nonsense name that nobody goes by. Perfect. I'll use that until I determine a better alias to go by."

[I vote Sensei!]

Were these 'operating systems', whatever that meant, supposed to be this chatty? Did Rin's 'phone' also speak to her?

"...If adding another trait that makes you stand out is what you want, than congratulations, Forena."

Even if she thought it was a stupid name, she respected it. Another point in her favor.

"Thank you. Now, I suppose since I am not Sensei, I shouldn't stay around in this club room any longer."

With a handkerchief pulled from his pocket, he cleaned his fingerprints off the window glass, erasing all traces of his presence.

"I need to decide where I want to stay for the night and determine my next moves. Maybe see if I can determine a way to reverse the summoning."

The man with the moniker Forena walked past Rin towards the door without looking at her face. It pricked his conscience to disappoint someone as respectful as her, but this was necessary. Agreeing to take the job was a one-way path.

There was a weight to the role. One that surpassed even "Teacher" and far, far exceeded "Instructor".

Not again. I won't take on another title without understanding the full extent of the burden it lays claim to.

"You didn't appreciate being summoned to a world where you lack protection and a way to fight... but you still intend to go out to an unknown world without any assistance or knowledge? You don't even have any money."

Neither met the other's eyes. Despondency clashed with forced indifference.

"Wouldn't be the first time I've started from zero. I'll scrounge my way to something. Asking for more after rejecting your proposal wouldn't feel right. Though sparing a small cash advance would be nice."

"... And what about the Shittim Chest?"

His footsteps halted.

Through it all, his grip on the tablet never weakened. Whatever purpose the artifact served, their existences were now intertwined.

The shock that ripped through his organs when presented with the password screen, the howling in his ears as typed in the password that appeared in his mind, and the sense of the world rebalancing as it activated... he hadn't forgotten those sensations.

More than the building, the tower, or the position as one high above the students, the Shittim Chest was his.

But was it his or was it Sensei's?

"I..."

[Please don't leave me behind!]

The world shifted, and he found himself back in Arona's destroyed classroom. Arona rushed forward and clung to his body, tears welling up in her eyes. He looked away, focused on the sea in the distance, while she sobbed into his cotton work shirt.

"Please, Sensei! I don't know what scares so much, but I'll protect you from anything. I'll create as many miracles as it takes to make sure no bullets touch you."

He flinched and snapped his head down to look at the crying child. After a moment he winced and looked away, his whole musculature tensed from her words.

She hadn't previously mentioned any defensive functions with that moniker.

Sensing his usually elevated heart rate spiking, she pushed onwards. "Whatever information you need, I'll provide it. Serve you to the best of my ability! I'll be the best supporter you've ever had."

Clenched fists shook.

"Just please, look at me!" She sniffled as snot slid onto his shirt and tried to wipe it off with her sleeve. "Don't shut me off and leave me alone again! Even if you don't want to help anyone now, I believe in you! Even if you are Forena instead of Sensei, let me stay by you!"

A sigh cut off her pleading. 'I'm a cold person, not a heartless one.' How many times did he tell trainees that?

Only a truly indifferent person would deny such an earnest plea.

"... Ah, dammit, you win." He crouched down to her eye level and wiped her face with his sleeve. The cute yelp she made as he rubbed her clean at least made him smile before he looked back at the sea again. "We made something like a promise, didn't we?"

When he raised his pointer finger, she gasped. Her halo changed from a blue dripping one to a red heart. "That's right, we did!" She placed her finger against his and smiled in relief, only a few traces of her tears still present.

Then he was back in the clubroom. How much time passed in the outside world compared to inside Arona's classroom? And why could Arona's halo change shape while everyone else's remained static? Something to investigate later with his new partner.

Perhaps assuming that he was wavering when he froze in the doorway, Rin stepped behind him again. "Forena, I have a proposition for you to consider."

"I only promise to listen." He continued to face the open doorway, equal parts to keep his will strong and also so she didn't see his shaken emotional state. Children's tears always cut deep.

"That is acceptable." She adjusted her glasses and steeled herself.

"What about taking the role of Provisional-Sensei? We can announce to the academy student councils that you haven't yet decided if you want to take the role and are testing it out. With that title, you can still use Schale as your residence, receive some financial assistance, and likely request some help from students if you want extra protection. Then you can also enter the academies and familiarize yourself with Kivotos."

"... Considering that the job responsibilities of Sensei are so vague, how does this differ from the official position?" It was important to understand how Rin envisioned the differences between a provisional and true Sensei.

"First, I won't leave all these documents and civil requests I was hoping you might review."

"That's a start."

"And it doesn't put any expectations on you to assist. You are a stranger to this land. If you want to focus on your needs, I can't blame you. You will reap the benefits without the responsibilities. And unlike the General Student Council, you will not have the same weight of burdens until you wish for it."

"Hmm."

"... Is even that not enough?"

Forena tossed the term around in his head. The weight of Provisional-Sensei feels similar to that of Teacher rather than the heft of Sensei. And it even assumes the possibility or rejection if I choose a different route. Reap the benefits without the responsibilities, huh?

Rin's eyes widened as Forena began snickering before devolving into a full-blown laughter.

[Sensei knows how to smile like that?] Arona's shocked voice slowed his momentum, but he kept his good humor.

"If I turn down a deal as lopsided as that one, then I'm simply a fool. You got me, Rin."

She gasped and clenched her hands. "Does that mean...?"

"Yeah, for now I'll be Provisional-Sensei." The title, expectations, and vision wrapped around him like an imperial cloak, fundamentally changing his relationship with the academy city.

"Please take care of me."

--------------------

"So, Forena, do you have any idea what you want to do first?" Rin asked.

They were currently in her office in Sanctum Tower. While she intended to leave him to manage his affairs after securing his agreement to be the Provisional-Sensei, he had insisted on returning with her with a simple explanation:

'My bag is still on the table in the president's office. I don't want to let any janitors rummage through my few belongings. Some are extremely private.'

Honestly, she didn't remember there being a bag in the room when she met him. Explaining her confusion only elicited an annoying chuckle and an insistence that, while he wasn't surprised, it definitely awaited his return.

At least the trip back involved fewer complaints and questions than the first. But he still repeatedly jumped in the helicopter during liftoff, which was incredibly disconcerting. Any attempt to encourage him to cease received an even more stubborn refusal.

It wouldn't be their last argument.

As soon as they returned, he insisted on buying her a meal and having it taken out of his initial salary. Considering she had pressured him to command a battlefield and take on a job he didn't want, she considered it her duty to treat him instead.

To think we'd spend fifteen minutes arguing over who should pay for a meal.

Her final compromise was to allow him to pay if she chose the meal. And the result was that they were eating onigiri from the GSC's break room.

"Before we switch subjects. Next time I'll treat you to a proper meal at a restaurant, Rin. That's a promise." He chuckled and bit into his third rice ball. "I do like how you utterly ignored the spirit of the request and relied on the wording instead to catch me. Good stuff!"

She gracefully unwrapped another salmon onigiri. "I can't tell whether you are being sarcastic or not."

"Dead serious. Reminds me to be more careful and specific next time. Such carelessness would get me burned in my world." He glanced over at the unused utensils. "Also, I'll have mastered those 'chopsticks' next time, so I won't embarrass you in public if I desire that 'ramen' you mentioned."

"Next time then."

Satisfied with her agreement, he began cleaning up. "To answer your question, though, I have a few priorities that need to be addressed."

She nodded and began finishing her last onigiri.

"The first is to determine where I should seek medical attention should I need it. The second is to find resources to learn about this world and establish where our common sense diverges. Third is to see if there are any students I can call upon for protection if I end up in a bind. I can't use any of your firearms, so I'll be reliant on others."

"Since you lack a halo, I wouldn't ever recommend getting involved in a firefight. But if you are interested in learning how to use a firearm as a last form of self-defense, I assume with some training—"

He cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Won't work. I told you, I can't use your firearms. No amount of training will fix that. There was already significant resistance when throwing that grenade. And that relied only on downward force. A gun is right out."

"... Resistance?" She tilted her head.

"A rejection phenomenon. Felt like I was struck by lightning when I used Chinatsu's gun. Either my people didn't discover gunpowder because our world disallowed it," he stared out the window, "or this world disapproves of certain creatures who lack 'Mystics' using firearms."

As if what he said was even remotely normal, and not utterly baffling, he shrugged. "Maybe both. Still, been hit by enough lightning strikes for one lifetime. Don't want to experience the sensation every time I try to use a weapon that I can rely on others for."

And the followup only raised more questions about the world he came from.

Better not to dig deeper. Maybe he was teasing her. Maybe it was genuine (and a little terrifying). Either way, if he didn't want to be a hero and jump into firefights, she wouldn't complain.

"Regarding your first two goals, I recommend taking a trip to Trinity General School first. They have the largest library in Kivotos, which should be able to provide you with any knowledge you are searching for. The school also hosts the Remedial Knights club, a gathering of students focused on serving as medics. Gehenna Academy also has the Emergency Medicine Club but..." She trailed off.

"But...?"

She adjusted her glasses and glanced to the side. "I'd rather a different large academy provided your first impressions. Assume Chinatsu is an outlier among those students."

"... So, I should go to Gehenna first if I want to have more reasons to reject the Sensei label. Message received, Rin."

"That isn't–" she stopped herself as a big, cheeky grin formed on his face. Huffing, she leaned back in her chair. "It isn't nice to tease your potential students, Forena."

"If being a teacher in Kivotos means I lose the right to tease my students, then I might as well give up on the position now." Now, his grin was actively taunting her. "Being a teacher should have a variety of perks, and student glares after a joke are the one I live for. Close second is the warmth in the chest when I see a student succeed and grow, I suppose."

"Haaaaaaaah. I'll accept this as a positive sign you are being less distant and leave it at that."

That at least she was sincere about. When in the Schale building, and even before then, Forena-Sensei kept his distance. He barely smiled, stayed hunched in on himself outside of battle, and was efficient to the point of being cold.

Now he had pushed back his bangs and started cracking jokes. A sudden shift, but a welcome one.

"Sharing food is a time-honored way to get to know someone after all," he responded with a small smile. "Then I'll take your advice and inform Suzumi and Hasumi that I will be visiting Trinity. I know my message asking them to keep quiet about my presence bothered them."

"Understood. I wish you the best on your journey, Forena."

Perhaps next time I'll be able to simply call you Sensei without worry.

Rin cleaned up the onigiri wrappers, ignoring the buzzing of her phone and the inevitable deluge of delayed work that needed to be addressed. This was a rare break, and she would savor it for as long as she could.

Maybe if Forena went out the back exit, she could pretend to still be in a meeting with him?

With his goodbyes completed, he started to depart.

But something compelled her to jump to her feet and try to reach him one last time.

"Sensei."

If her use of the title annoyed him, he didn't show it.

"I hope you come to love Kivotos as I do."

As a child, she had looked up to the General Student Council and the work they did to keep Kivotos running. Following that childhood adoration brought her all the way to where she was now.

"It has its problems, its difficulties and some days it can be maddening. Especially as of late." Beyond those windows, millions of people went about their lives, all under the same blue sky. Laughing, struggling, fighting, and learning. And she would continue to support all of it however she could.

"But Kivotos is my home, and I want to see it thrive even more. I know there is a reason you were chosen by the president to be our Sensei. May you find it soon."

He said nothing in response. Their gazes were both fixed on the city skyline and far into the distance beyond it. Letting Kivotos speak for itself.

Then he straightened his back, waved his hand and walked out of the room. "I'll keep that in mind."

She stared after his back until the elevator doors closed behind him. "... I can only hope I did enough, President."

---------------------------

[Welcome to Trinity, Sensei!]

"Oh, I already feel more comfortable here. Some good old stone and brick buildings. Great. I can work with this."

[Does this school remind you of your world, Sensei?] Arona asked as she 'looked' out the tablet at the world around. She had been enjoying their tour through the city, cheering with each fresh sight, probing him for opinions, and asking for hints of his past.

As a person with many questions himself, Forena didn't mind the intrusion. If pressed to answer honestly, he'd admit that having a cheerful travel buddy was a delightful change of pace.

"Still more picturesque than what you'd find in my world. But I'd use that to describe everything in Kivotos. If I sent photos of the city to the old crew, they'd ask what dream I stepped into." He gazed at the immense stone building near the front of the school. "Everything is so consistently spaced and organized in design. Not sure what sort of planning allows any of these buildings to exist as they do."

[I believe that would be architecture and planning using math, Sensei.]

"Ick."

[Why do you hate math so much, Sensei! You are going to be a teacher!]

"Math and I will happily exist in separate rooms where we never need to interact. We will both live better being forever estranged. The most important math thing I learned is that uncontrolled gambling is bad. If I become Sensei, my students must find satisfaction in this lesson."

Arona sighed and rolled her eyes. When Forena didn't respond, she repeated the motion, this time moving her entire head simultaneously. [I'll prepare some guidebooks for when you need them.]

Ignoring that ominous proclamation, Forena approached the front gates of the school.

Before he got far though, a squadron of short girls all wearing the same black uniform stood in his way.

"Halt! Suspicious individual detected! State your identity and submit to the JTF." The student in front held her gun at the ready while the others crowded around him.

"See, Arona, this is what I mean by uniformity being weird to me. Never in all my years have I seen something like this." Their outfits all had the same design with a black beret, a black uniform top with a red ribbon, and a black skirt with red accents. They even had the same haircut, comprising long black hair with straight-cut bangs that hid their eyes.

Utterly baffling.

[Introduce yourself as Sensei!]

Time to ignore that request. Secretly, he admired her persistence.

"I am the provisional Sensei hired and appointed by the GSC. I was told Morizuki Suzumi would be meeting me here." The vigilante crew member had been very enthusiastic about serving as his escort through the school, and who was he to refuse?

In the worst-case scenario, her grenades were the only weapons he could use with limited repercussions. Plus, he was aware of her capabilities and familiar with her methods. If her club didn't take so much of her time, he might have considered calling on her for escort duties to the other schools as well.

"The Vigilante Crew doesn't have the authority to let intruders onto the campus. The Tea Party has directed that only authorized individuals may enter. Turn back."

Disdain, but also a trace of nervousness. Hasumi and Suzumi seemed to work together without issue... but perhaps their two organizations are at odds.

"I also reached out to Hanekawa Hasumi. I assume she has the authority you need? Were you not informed of my arrival?"

Some girls in the back began nervously whispering to each other. The girl in front hushed them and then turned back to their supposed intruder. "W-we haven't heard of a Sensei coming to the school. We aren't so easy to be tricked."

"... I can show you our MomoTalk logs."

"Wait, is he actually a Sensei?"
"I didn't know we had one of those."
"Is the chat with Senpai real?"
"But nobody gave us any warnings."
"Hasumi-senpai has been really busy though...."

The girls huddled together while the leader nervously looked around. All pressed together to whisper, they looked like a vibrating black ball with red accents from afar.

Oh, no. It's adorable.

"W-well if you are a guest of senpai, then we will escort you to our club room, and she will see you when she is available. And if you are an intruder, then it will be a quick trip to a holding cell while the Tea Party decides what to do with you. So follow us." The lead student gestured with her rifle to follow.

"... In the latter case, wouldn't I only be an intruder because you escorted me into the school? Also, I still need to wait for Suzumi."

"J-just follow us! We can't have a suspicious adult looming around the gates. If you don't want to comply, then..."

"You won't be doing anything," Suzumi declared from behind the group.

They jumped at the sudden voice. The mobs in the back turned to face Suzumi with their rifles at the ready while the others still faced Forena.

"This is a Justice Task Force operation; the Vigilante Crew has no place getting involved," the leader declared.

Suzumi ignored them and focused her attention on the solitary adult. "Sorry I'm late, Sensei. Some delinquents ambushed me on my way to meet you. It took me a few minutes to handle it."

He waved away her concerns. "It's fine. I think we'd be having an issue even if you came here on time."

"Do I need to scatter them? I don't want to come to blows with the JTF, but if you are going to force Sensei to come with you... I will intervene."

A flashbang was already in her hands. The other students were ready with their rifles. Tensions were rising on both sides.

[I'll protect you, Sensei. Super Arona will keep you safe.] The blue-haired AI pumped her fists in a show of strength.

Forena, on the other hand, was less concerned. "I don't think that'll be necessary," he said to assuage both of his students. "I recognize that pair of... wings."

About fifty feet away, he clearly saw Hasumi rushing towards the brewing conflict, wings and chest swaying wildly.

"Wait, wait, that's Sensei! Don't fight near him; he doesn't have a halo!" Her shouting made all the younger JTF members stiffen in shock. Suzumi sighed and put her flash grenade away after confirming the guns were lowering.

"Good to see you, Hasumi," Forena greeted her with a smile.

"Good... to see you... as well, Sensei..." she leaned against a wall to catch her breath. "Sorry... intended to be here... but we are dealing with..."

A series of explosions shook the area, and a cloud of smoke rose into the air from a building deeper on campus.

"... That. Dealing with that. All JTF members except two... to me."

"Yes, ma'am!" They saluted. After a few moments of disorganized scrambling, they chased after Hasumi.

Forena chuckled at the array of "Sorry, Sensei" and "We'll remember you next time" and other such calls from Hasumi and the girls as they vanished towards their next mission.

Now left alone with only one other member, the leader of the JTF mobs flushed in embarrassment and looked at the ground. What little bravado she displayed earlier dried up as she realized that she had called Sensei an intruder.

"So, can I enter now?"

"Sorry! Please do!" She yelled before looking at the ground again. "And.. and please don't blame Hasumi-Senpai. I should have reached out directly to confirm."

"Don't worry about it." Without thinking much of it, he reached his right hand out and patted her on the head. "You were trying to do your job and keep your school safe. I'm not going to get mad over a kiddo being a little overzealous."

"R-really?" She gazed up at the adult with wide eyes.

"Wasn't a bad idea to escort me to your club room if I was insistent on entering the campus. But your problems started when you wanted to have me follow regardless of whether I was entering or loitering. Take it as a good learning experience." He flashed her a smile and retracted his hand. "You have the time and drive to grow into a reliable senpai like Hasumi."

He stepped past the now crimson-faced student and He stepped past the now crimson-faced student and stepped next to Suzumi. "Now that that is settled, shall we stop by the library?"

The silver-haired girl nodded. "It would be my pleasure, Sensei."

--------------------

NNow with the issue at the gate handled, there was nothing to interrupt Suzumi's escorting of Sensei.

That was what Suzumi had hoped.

"Flash Grenade!"

Another group of delinquents screamed in pain at the eye-searing light from Suzumi's grenade. Not missing the chance, she rushed forward and threw the leader to the ground and got ready to subdue the others.

Sensei only watched with his arms crossed as she worked. Not a single word hinted at approval or disapproval. Suzumi wiped some sweat off the back of her neck and steadied her breath. This might as well have been a routine patrol for the Vigilante Crew rather than an escort.

None of the ruffians she dealt with posed a single threat, but...

The pressure is so much higher with Sensei watching!

"W-with that settled, let's continue. Once we reach the other side of the plaza, we'll be at Trinity's Central Library," Suzumi explained.

One delinquent tried to complain about the, frankly reasonable, treatment, but she threatened them with a shake of her music player.

Remembering the usual punishment of hours of the song "Baby" left on repeat, the delinquent wisely said nothing else.

Sensei raised an eyebrow, but thankfully didn't pursue the matter further. He likely still didn't know what a music player was.

"Continue leading on, Suzumi," Sensei responded while still looking at the delinquents. Without another word, he bent down, opened the leather duffel bag on his shoulder, and left a protein bar on each of their laps.

Once they were further from the delinquents, the silver-haired student turned to look up at the adult walking next to her. "Sensei, why did you do that?"

"The Vigilante crew can only suppress delinquents, correct? It is the JTF that needs to bring them in for punishment. I looked up the difference before I came here." He gestured with the tablet in his hand and re-positioned the bag hanging off his shoulder.

"That's right." Suzumi nodded with a look of surprise. To think he had already investigated the differences in the club jurisdictions.

"It looks like Hasumi and the JTF are busy today. Their legs might be tied to that pole for several hours. Delinquents or no, they are still students and should carry a snack." He shrugged. "Maybe I'm a meddling, provisional. Sensei."

"... That's very thoughtful, Sensei. I didn't even consider that aspect." Did he look down on her for leaving them tied up without food? Would this mark down his evaluation of her and the Vigilante crew?

As if seeing through her concerns, he chuckled and shook his head. "Leave it to the adults to consider how to properly feed the problem children. You have enough on your plate. Also, I don't need to deal with this every day, so it's easier to be kind."

"...Okay." Suzumi decided not to argue further. "Thankfully, we only need to cross the plaza to reach the library. There shouldn't be any more groups like that today."

These proved to be famous last words.

. . .

"Flash grenade!"

"Hm."

. . .

"Deploying flash grenade!"

"Oho."

. . .

"F-flash... grenade."

"Suzumi... I think I'm running out of protein bars."

"I... I promise you, Sensei Trinity rarely has this many problems. We aren't Gehenna!" Desperation to plead her case caused her voice to crack as she tied up another group of delinquents. Is every miscreant out today!?

From eavesdropping on some JTF officers running by, it seemed even the Katinger Sushi Rangers were out in force! No wonder the other gangs exploited the opportunity with the JTF preoccupied.

"So that's what a flash grenade feels like. No wonder they all scream when hit point-blank." A strained voice came from behind her.

Dawning horror curled into her guts as she slowly turned around. Sensei, the adult she was supposed to be protecting and proving her worth to, had his eyes clenched tightly and his teeth bared in a grimace. One of her grenades, smacked backwards during the scuffle, sat several feet away.

"Are you okay?" She asked in a panic. "We need to go to the medical ward! The Remedial Knights, maybe?" The pressure and weight on her shoulders proved too much to handle. "I'm so sorry! I can't believe I didn't realize you were close enough to be affected. This is all my fault. I should have done better."

On that fateful day when she worked under Sensei to secure the Schale building, a shocking MomoTalk appeared on her phone. A simple request: refrain from discussing his appointment with the Tea Party until such a time as he formally accepted the position.

Because he was unsure whether he was going to be Sensei permanently.

But it was the next MomoTalk that was even more shocking. Nanagami Rin, the acting leader of Kivotos, created a group chat with all four students who participated in the raid. In it, she delivered a second request: do anything in their power to make the adult have a pleasant time and convince him to keep the role.

All four naturally agreed and vowed to share information to ease Sensei's introduction into Kivotos.

And now I've only shown him our campus is full of lawless students and injured him with my grenade! What if this is the reason he quits?

The amount of time they spent together was already so short she hadn't been sure whether he would remember her. That was her fault; she chose not to butt heads with Hasumi and let the JTF Vice-chairwoman speak as Trinity's representative. But even in that short period, she had come to a firm belief.

Sensei was someone who would be necessary for Kivotos.

That day, she saw his talent as a commander. Today, she witnessed his compassion and understanding. Across all aspects of the job (except maybe teaching classes normally covered by blue-rays) he seemed a perfect fit.

But nobody knew exactly why he considered ending his career prematurely. Thus, they didn't know what might tip the scales for his decision.

"Don't worry, Suzumi," Sensei replied while rubbing his eyes. "I'm the one who stepped closer when it went off. I wanted to see how it compares to the flash stones from my world. Not your fault."

Relief made her legs buckle, and she nearly fell on her butt. Now Suzumi was glad he couldn't see her; it would be embarrassing after her near-panic attack.

"So...how did it compare?" She asked after pulling together the last shreds of composure.

"Turns out that getting blinded by a massive, searing flash of light is equally unpleasant regardless of world. Even with a mystic involved here, the effect isn't too different. Stuns longer, though." He opened his eyes and shook his head to dispel the effect. "While flash stones continue to blaze far longer."

Interesting tidbit about his world to learn later. But before that, there was something else that caught her attention. "... Mystic? I'm not using any mystics. I'm just throwing flash grenades."

"..." His silence only added to her confusion. "My mistake. Misunderstood something about the weapon. Sensei is still learning about what is technology and what isn't."

"O-oh. I see." That made sense. He was still new to Kivotos.

So why did she get the sense he lied to her face?

"Anyway!" Sensei clapped his hands and continued walking towards the library. "I have to say, I'm quite impressed by the work you do here, Suzumi. If it isn't too much of a problem, I might call on you for escort work outside of Trinity."

"H-huh?" This was a fantastic endorsement, but... why? The whole day had been a mess from the start. "I don't know if I'm worthy of that praise, Sensei."

Before she knew it, his right hand was on her head and giving her several pats to stress his words.

"It's okay. It's okay. Be confident." He bent down a little, so they were at the same eye level. "We've been attacked four times, and the only damage I've taken was self-inflicted. And did you hear what the second group said before you took them out? They were active because they had heard you were preoccupied with other matters and weren't on patrol."

There were no words. She only stared blankly at her Sensei.

"You are so effective and consistent with your job that delinquents change their behavior to stay out of your way. Quick to act, while kind enough to use a debilitating weapon, not one that leaves longer bodily harm."

He rubbed her head a few more times, his smile engraving itself in her mind.

"Also, I think it's fun to walk with you. And that's critical for a good escort."

Oh no, I'm about to cry right in front of Sensei.

He wouldn't care; she was sure of that now. But she would feel so embarrassed!

Deep breaths, Suzumi. Deep breaths! Willing herself not to lose it, she took a shuddering breath to steady herself. "Thank you."

She volunteered as part of the Vigilante Crew because she wanted to and found value in the work. But sometimes... she had her own desires. A day to rest without troubles. To be acknowledged for how hard she worked, even if she wasn't part of a sanctioned group. A desire to be recognized outside her volunteering.

Somehow, this adult whom she barely knew seemed to see through her straight to those desires. Was this why he, of all people, caught the attention of the GSC President? She would believe it in a heartbeat.

"Sensei... have you ever worked for something that you value but also sometimes wish you didn't need to do? Or at least would like a break from."

He smirked.

"You mean my entire career until my summoning?"

Ah, that's why. She didn't know what his career was. But she knew he understood the feelings she struggled with. The words she didn't even know she needed to say until his presence pulled them out.

"I see. Thank you, Sensei."

His smirk resolved itself into a regular smile, the wind blowing his bangs out of his face so she could see his eyes. She hadn't been able to tell before, but now she saw his eyes were purple. A familiar color.

The moment was broken by one of the delinquents still tied up nearby. "... Wait, the Vigilante Crew bitch can make a face like that? What the hell is going on today?"

Oh, my face better not be red!

Before she could say anything else, Sensei stood up to his full height and swiped one of her flash grenades. Without looking back, he tossed the grenade behind him, right at the delinquent who spoke up.

"Not again! MY EYES!"

"Move your mouth to eat your protein bars, not spout stupid stuff," Sensei snarked with a look of annoyance. Turning back to Suzumi, giving her enough time to recompose, he gestured with his chin to the building ahead. "Now, Suzumi, will you please show me inside the library?"

"Yes, Sensei!" She walked ahead of him, pointedly not looking at the groaning delinquents.

In doing so, she missed the series of looks ranging from annoyed to exasperated Sensei directed towards the tablet in his hand.

--------------

"After s"After some detours, here we are, Sensei. The Central Library of Trinity."

The provisional Sensei only managed a few steps into the building before stopping to stare in all directions.

At the front of the library was a large ornate wooden desk with room for up to five clerks to sit behind. On top of the desk were a variety of books as well as two computers and several spiral notebooks stacked on top of each other. At the moment, no one was using the desk, but it was clearly equipped to handle a rush of students when exams were upcoming.

It didn't take much to imagine how busy the foyer would be during those times. Even the old floors, while well maintained, still bore the slightest indentations from centuries of students waiting in line to be seen.

Past the front desk, rows upon rows upon rows of bookcases stood in perfectly organized sections. Bookshelves covered even the walls, many of which were surrounded by nearby couches and plush chairs for readers to enjoy.

When he looked up, he saw that there was even a floor of smaller bookshelves that needed a ladder to reach them. Books, books, and more books were in every direction.

Suzumi smiled as she glanced at her Sensei. From the moment she had met him, he had seemed to take everything in stride. Even when he was unfamiliar with firearms or technology, he mostly seemed puzzled and quickly accepted what he could understand and what he couldn't.

This was the first time she had seen him utterly stunned.

Eyes wide, mouth hanging open, he only goggled at the sight before him.

"This... this entire building is the library? All of it is only for storing books?"

"Hm? Yes, like I said, this is the Trinity Central Library. It's the biggest in all Kivotos." Suzumi tilted her head at the odd question.

"I... I thought... I suppose I misunderstood." He staggered over to a pillar, still shellshocked by the sheer enormity of the library. "So all this space is for books alone."

"That's right. Welcome to Trinity Central Library!" An energetic voice came from behind a bookshelf.

An orange-haired girl with silver rectangular glasses poked her head around the side of the bookshelf. Her long hair reached down to her legs in twintails secured by plaid green ribbons and also extended past her ears into two small wings. Both her wings and the ends of her hair steadily changed to yellow at the tips, giving it a two-tone look.

Despite her boisterous energy, her voice remained at an appropriate level for the library, loud enough to be heard but not enough to disturb the readers deeper within.

As she glanced at the two, she did a double take upon seeing the newly arrived adult. "Oh? Who are you? I'm certain I've never seen you at the library before." She quietly zipped to the front desk and set down a pile of books on the counter before turning back to the pair.

Suzumi gestured at Sensei. "This is Sensei, recently appointed to be the leader of the Schale club under the GSC."

"Provisional Sensei. The 'Provisional' is important." Provisional Sensei interjected with little strength, still awestruck by his surroundings. He didn't even have the wherewithal to send a pointed look at Suzumi.

"Oh, a new Sensei? How fascinating! I've never heard of the GSC hiring one before. Ui might know if it has happened far in the past though..." The girl stepped forward and quietly clapped her hands together. "Welcome to Trinity, Sensei. I'm Endo Shimiko, a member of the Library Committee and caretaker of the Central Library. If you've come here, you must be looking for some books, right? What type of books do you like to read?"

She radiated intense excitement as she leaned forward, trying to gauge what type of stories might intrigue her newest library-goer.

"... Before that, I have a question. I..." he hesitated as he looked around at the bookshelves again, "assume I know the answer, but still need to ask. And I ask this with full sincerity; it is not a joke."

"Of course, what is it?" Shimiko answered without missing a beat. It was her job to answer anything that a reader might need to know. The history of the library, its books, checkout policies, anything that might strike a patron's curiosity, she was ready to inform and support.

"So... I'm guessing that if your library is this big," Sensei looked around again. "Your books don't explode?"

"..." Shimiko stared.

"..." Suzumi stared.

[...] Arona stared.

Shimiko was the first to break the silence.

"No!? Why would you ask that? Do books explode wherever you are from!?" She wanted to think he was pranking her, but the question was so sincerely asked.

"Yes?" Sensei looked incredibly sheepish as he scratched his beard. "I assumed this library's vast size is to handle book breakdowns. Divided into separate walled areas so that any explosion only impacts part of the library. Back in my world, we have multiple smaller libraries to protect against that eventuality."

"Why do the books explode!?" It was taking every shred of well-honed decorum to keep Shimiko from shouting. "I've read every single book in this library, and I've never heard of books exploding before."

"All of them!?" Sensei's mouth dropped open again as he stared at the thousands of books housed in the library. "Aren't you a student?"

"Yes, and I love to read so I read everything I can, at least until I ran out of novels in all the Trinity libraries," Shimiko explained with a nod mixed with equal parts pride in the accomplishment and sadness about reaching a limit.

She then remembered the point. "But that's not the point. Why do the books explode??? Do I need to ban you from the library? I won't let anything harm the books here." She shakily reached for a huge encyclopedia to use as a bludgeon.

"Well, when they cease to be books," Sensei explained unhelpfully, "they revert to their original state, and sometimes that is one that explodes. Some only disintegrate or shatter, of course. But you must always prepare for an explosive ending."

"... Huh?" Shimiko let out a graceless query.

"Hm. Perhaps if I get a better look at the books of this world, I'll be able to explain it better. There have been significant differences in my common sense and this world's nature. That is why I came to this library in the first place, after all." He leaned over and perused the titles of the volumes stacked on the front desk. "Would you be able to assist with this goal?"

Fitting for one of the Library Committee's top members, Shimiko switched gears at the request. While she desired to know more about what sort of place Sensei was from (a separate world?) her excitement to introduce a reader to new novels overwhelmed her curiosity. "Of course, what sort of books are you looking for?"

"Something like an encyclopedia or reference book for children to start. Something that explains concepts that even a toddler would have a basic understanding of. Then maybe a more complex reference on anatomy and medicine."

He pulled up a list on his tablet and checked the notes.

"A primer on the layout and recent history of Kivotos might be useful to supplement internet searches. Anything on ancient mythology that you consider trustworthy... I've already been led astray by the internet once."

[I'm sorry, but that Flying Spaghetti Monster webpage looked really professional.] Arona whimpered with regret as she recalled last night's revelation.

Sensei counted on his fingers and thought about his choices. "And for fun... how about any book that explains how helicopters work."

"That should be goo- what the," he exclaimed as Shimiko rushed forward and dropped two books on the desk before rushing off again. "Did she- how the blazes?" Once again, the Central Library shocked him, this time by the capabilities of its librarian.

"These are my recommendations, Sensei." Shimiko said, radiating cheer. After setting them down, she began fiddling with the end of her left twintail. "I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on the books. For ancient mythology, we should really check the Antiquarian Bookstore. Ui manages the books there that suit your needs."

"Do you also know where all the books are located because you read them all?" Sensei asked as he examined the spine and bindings that connected the pages to the cover of the children's encyclopedia.

"Yep! It is my job to make sure that all books are put back where they are supposed to be." She frowned as a thought crossed her mind. "Sometimes students bring in books from outside or read in the library and leave the books in some random corner, so a few get unorganized. But 99% are where they should be."

"I must say, Shimiko, I am thoroughly impressed. Seems you are worthy of the title 'True Librarian' even as a student." He looked around at the nearby sofas. "Suzumi, do you mind if I spend some time here to make sure these volumes are what I need before I check them out?"

The grey-haired girl nodded as her purple halo slowly rotated above her head. "I'll use the opportunity to do a patrol of the perimeter. Worthwhile use of time considering how many gangs are active today. Send me a MomoTalk message whenever you are ready to leave."

With that settled, Sensei made his way to one of the plush couches and set his pile of books to the side.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" Shimiko asked, brimming with nervous excitement. "Nobody else is around at the minute, and my juniors can take charge of the front desk if others come in. I can help answer any questions."

"You are the type of reader that wants to see the reactions of those who take your recommendations, huh." Sensei chuckled. "Sure, I won't take up too much time from your day."

"Thank you, Sensei." She plopped down onto the couch next to him and adjusted both of their pillows for maximum comfort. "Don't mind me at all. I have some papers to read."

At least, that was the plan. But barely a minute had passed when she felt compelled to interrupt the quiet again.

"Um, Sensei. I know it's an encyclopedia for children, but you really should slow down if you want to absorb anything. You should take time enjoying every word."

[I noticed that too. You don't need to skim everything you read, Sensei.] Arona chimed in to chastise him as well.

"... I'm not skimming it, though? I'm reading at a regular speed." He frowned at her baffled look. "I'm actually reading a little slower than normal to make sure I'm not missing any minor details that represent contrasts between our worlds."

"This is slow for you, Sensei?" Shimiko could barely believe it. Even if the content was for young children, the pages were still large. And yet the adult was spending no more than 20 seconds on each page. His eyes barely even seemed to move left or right as he blazed through the page.

"Yes," he answered after some hesitation.

"Are you considered a fast reader where you are from?" Now, her curiosity couldn't be contained. "You strike me as an avid reader."

"Not particularly. Maybe a tad faster than average." He didn't look up as he continued to flip through the pages. "Oh, that's how you divide your units of time. No wonder I keep almost being late for the trains. Need to thank my assistant more for keeping me on schedule."

[You are welcome.]

Shimiko watched him read for a few minutes before interjecting again. This wasn't the type of common sense she expected him to find in any of the books she recommended. "If you really are reading every word, Sensei, you are reading somewhere around 700 or 800 words a minute... that's about three times faster than an average student. You are nearly reading as fast as I read, and I've won speed reading competitions!"

"Oh... huh." He clicked his tongue as he continued reading about how the calendar divided days, months, and years. "Thank you for pointing that out. If I do officially take the job of Sensei and teach classes, I'm going to need to adjust my expectations dramatically."

"You are going to use books to teach, not just Blu-Rays? If you need to borrow any books to use for classwork, let me know." Shimiko's halo tilted back and forth happily as she imagined the scenario. This was a perfect chance to get more readers.

"... Good point. I need to cross that bridge first, huh? Which makes brushing up on common sense even more important."

Sensing that he was now going to fully focus on the books, Shimiko returned to her own reading. While she had so many questions about the strange adult, she knew how rude it was to keep pestering someone when they tried to focus on reading.

Only the sound of pages turning passed between the two of them as they sat close enough together that their shoulders were almost touching.

Save for one minor interruption as Sensei started reading his next book.

"Oh, so flight does rely on science.... no wonder Rin looked at me like I'm insane."

Shimiko only added it to her list of future questions.

And a blue-haired AI with a large sweat drop on her forehead let out a retort only heard by one other, [I could have told you that much, Sensei].

-------------

"Intruder! Burglar! Invader!" A sharp voice rang out in the darkened building. "Leave now before I.... do something!"

"But... I have a library pass and was told to meet the president here..." Sensei's voice dripped with exhaustion as he tried to calm the unknown speaker.

Poor Sensei should take a nap with me in the Shittim Chest later.

"By who! And why! Explain!"

"Shimiko sent me here to check out a text related to ancient myths and religions."

"That's right, Ui. Also, friendly reminder, this isn't your house! People are supposed to come here if they have a library pass without receiving an interrogation." Shimiko's voice came from behind Sensei in the darkness.

"Should have known it'd be you.... what a troublesome junior."

As the light turned on, Sensei turned the Shittim Chest so its camera pointed towards the room's occupant. Within her partially submerged classroom, Arona smiled at the courtesy Sensei showed to her.

Even though the power of the chest allowed her to see in all directions, Sensei consistently would aim the tablet's camera towards the students he was meeting for the first time. It was absolutely unnecessary, but she appreciated his thoughtfulness.

Hmm... she seems fun, Arona contemplated as she got her first proper look at Ui.

The Library Committee president wore a blue hairband on top of her long, black, messy hair. Over her traditional white Trinity uniform with a long skirt and blue ribbon, she wore a disheveled sand colored sweater.

Currently she held onto one of her books as if it might be stolen at any minute. Her blue eyes darted around to check for more intruders before staring skeptically at Sensei.

"So who are you, why is an adult coming into the old library?"

"Didn't we just explain it was to get a book?" Shimiko sighed and shook her head. "Sensei, meet Kozeki Ui. Ui, meet the Sensei of Schale. It's a new independent club under the GSC."

"Provisional Sensei. The 'Provisional' is important."

Arona sighed as Sensei continued his common refrain. "When will he accept the role completely? He is already doing such a good job at it," she said to herself.

She sat on the desk and kicked her heels back and forth. After taking a quick nap while Sensei was reading followed by drinking some of the strawberry milk he had provided the previous night, she was full of energy. Nobody was going to be able to cause Sensei any problems while Super Arona was up and at em!

Of course... Ui seemed to be more worried about Sensei causing trouble than the other way around. She and Shimiko went back and forth as the president went on a rant about a supposed Sisterhood plot that Sensei might be a part of. Meanwhile, Sensei wandered around the smaller, but still substantial, library they found themselves in.

"Absolutely stunning..." he whispered as he waved his hands over the bookshelves, never getting close enough to touch the antique novels. "The weight of history here is palpable. Do you always maintain this space, Ui?"

"Y-yes. So don't touch anything without my permission. Some of these volumes need to be handled with extra precautions, like gloves, or opened only in dim light."

"...Do any of these books explode if handled incorrectly?"

Arona facepalmed as both librarians exclaimed in horror at the idea. Why was Sensei so fixated on this idea. If he was so scared of exploding books than he should just rely on her to look up any information he needed!

But she couldn't be too upset. It was great to see him interacting with his students. Even if it meant she needed to be quieter and he wouldn't speak directly to her as to avoid looking like he had an imaginary friend (which she refused to pretend to be!), she appreciated watching him act as Sensei.

"Well, I had to be sure..." he was busy defending himself. "So it isn't because you both are True Librarians then, you just don't have books that explode in the first place."

"...You've mentioned 'True Librarians' twice now. Is that a term from where you are from, Sensei?" Shimiko asked.

Arona leaned forward in curiosity as well. There were so many big and little strange things about Sensei's world. There always seemed to be something a little off about his expectations of how things worked.

For some reason, asking directly about his past displeased him. When she asked him about the name of his world, or his actual name, or what it was like to live in a different place he refused to answer. But if he made a mistake that showed his different perspective or needed to fix a misunderstanding, then he would be quick to divulge the information.

"A True Librarian is one whose books will never explode. A person whose love and respect for the books under their care is so strong, the texts will resonate with it." He continued to wander around the walls, awestruck wonder in his expression.

Though he couldn't see it, Arona could tell that Ui stiffened behind him.

"Honestly, I'm feeling quite blessed to meet two True Librarians in one day. I've only met a handful in my life, and none were as young as you two. Looking at the covers, I can imagine how much care you must invest to maintain these in such beautiful condition. Similar to much time and love you need to read all of the books in that massive library." He turned around and smiled at the two librarians. "Truly impressive work."

"W-well as long as you understand that they need to be treated properly, perhaps I can lend one to you." Ui's eyes were watering, and a blush appeared on her face. "I-I'm not used to compliments like that."

"Good job, Sensei," Arona cheered to herself. Just a few serious words of consideration were already winning over the prickly librarian.

"Thank you for the compliment, but... you still haven't explained why your books sometimes explode." Shimiko saw an opportunity to press the questioning.

Arona got out another carton of strawberry milk and eagerly awaited the explanation.

As Sensei turned back to the books, Arona perceived a peculiar sensation course through her. After experiencing it repeatedly since meeting Sensei, she began to sense a pattern.

When Sensei was about to properly reveal something about his world, she sensed something akin to a thin film peeling off his body. Like an invisible barrier was slowly being removed. Something that divided him from the rest of the world weakened.

I hope I keep getting to see this... until the day there isn't anything dividing him from us.

Was this what he meant when he said he could sense the love and respect the books had? To see something that wasn't actually there, but still resonated in spirit? Something to check with him later... if she could pry an answer out.

"Hmm. Well, I may be a provisional teacher, but that still makes me a teacher. So let's have a quick lesson on how I'd teach it in my world. Our common sense."

The charge in the air intensified. Unaware of the source of the sensation, Shimiko and Ui shuddered unconsciously.

Arona watched as he took out the book on aerodynamics he had borrowed from the Central Library and flipped through it. "What is a book? A book is a collection of works bound together through some mechanism and crafted with the purpose of being 'read' by someone."

He pointed at the book's binding. "Without a binding, it is simply a scattered set of written works, like a pile of paper, parchment, or leaves that lack unity. If it does not have a purpose of being 'read', then it falls under the purview of art at best. Or worse, lacks any meaning to be derived."

"As long as it keeps these traits and gains recognition as a book, then it will remain bound," he chuckled at the slight wordplay, "to the concept of a book. Anything carrying the concept of 'book' can be read and stored in a library. This occurs regardless of what form of matter composes each work."

He put the book back into his bag. "An extreme example would be the Fires of the Fifth Tribe. It's a set of flickering flames. Within each flame are yellow elements shaped into the script of the tribe that created them and read by priests on festival days. Together, all the fires are 'bound' by a system of fire pits. If you walk past them at just the right speed, you can read the ancient myths described by the flames."

"That sounds less like a book and more like a Mystery..." Shimiko uttered in a hushed tone.

"Wait, so under that logic could you make a book out of water by designing it so you can 'read' the waves it produces?" Ui prompted.

"If with a proper binding? Yes. I've read a few such books. Then, once it has taken the concept of 'book' appropriately, a librarian can put it on a shelf with other books. Afterwards, you can take it down and flip through the pages like a book made of cloth, paper, or parchment." He pointed to the shelf behind him. "Just like these you see behind me."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... I want to read the water book." Shimiko declared.

"Same." Ui agreed.

"I want to read the fire book!" Arona shouted. Too much water already.

Sensei chuckled. "Sorry girls, I'm no librarian, and I didn't bring any books with me when the president summoned me. To finish though, the reason the books can explode is if librarians fail to take care of them or they cease to have readers. Then it isn't a book of fire; it's just.... fire."

He paused.

"In a library."

"The other books!" Ui yelled as she imagined the catastrophe. She then winced at the echo of her own voice.

"Sensei... you should be careful about telling that story if you are ever in Millenium." Shimiko scratched her cheek awkwardly as she contemplated the story. "I think the Mystic researchers will lock you up for interrogation because that sounds like something out of mythology."

"I'll keep that in mind," Sensei agreed, then turned to watch Ui suddenly scamper to the far wall and check on one of the shelves.

Slower, she stumbled back towards the group and held out an old blue volume. "Y-you wanted a book on ancient myths. I think you might enjoy this one. Some stories of the ancient gods sound like what you told of your world."

Arona giggled as she watched the students and teacher continue to interact. Sensei vowing to take care of the book and expressing his excitement over getting so many recommendations from True Librarians. Ui being torn between embarrassment and gratitude for the acknowledgement. Shimiko requesting to meet up later to hear Sensei's thoughts on all the books he was borrowing.

The rules of the two worlds Sensei bridged varied wildly; that much was clear. One lacked halos, gunpowder, and numerous elements of advanced technology. The other cared about 'concepts' that seemed to defy science and likely carried far more mysteries than Sensei had yet revealed.

But it was that wide divide that made Sensei, Sensei. Even when he left the library committee later and caught up with an exhausted Hasumi, he continued to display a sincere appreciation for effort that brought smiles from his students.

'There is still a lot I don't understand yet, but I do recognize the time and attention you put into your work.'

Maybe he didn't want to recognize it yet, but to those students, there was already nothing 'provisional' about it.

Arona danced with her umbrella with a giddy skip across the watery classroom.

Now, she only awaited the moment he finally chose the job for himself.

Chapter Text

'I'm very sorry, Sensei.
Prefect work in Gehenna is unusually laborious.
The number of arrests rose thirty percent higher than normal.
I am unable to serve as an escort today.
I truly hope to have the chance to introduce myself properly next time.
- Chinatsu'

Seems Gehenna is experiencing a surge in crime like Trinity is. Even after securing the Sanctum Tower, the aftereffects of the GSC's loss of power still ripple through Kivotos. Criminals are trying to snag what they can grab before order is fully restored.

Inconvenient, but since when did criminals ever act conveniently?

It should be fine to at least peek my head around the front gates, right? "Since we went to Trinity, we should check Gehenna."

[Okay, Sensei! It's adventure time.]

That had been the plan at least.

And then Forena had gotten off the train and tried to make it to the campus.

KABOOM

"Call the Prefect Squad! The Hot Spring Development Department is on another rampage!"

Ratatatatatatatatat

"It's the Gourmet Research Society. A restaurant served steak reheated in a microwave. Everybody scatter!"

Boom Boom Boom

"Is that a goddamn tank!? Why is the Pandemonium Society moving!?"

"Some idiot stole all the pudding that was supposed to go to them today!"

"Run!"

Sensei smiled slightly as he listened to the raucous sounds coming from the district he was about to step into.

"Arona."

[Yes, Sensei?]

"We are going home."

[What about touring, Gehenna!?]

"Not happening today."

Sensei wordlessly purchased another train ticket and walked back towards the train he had arrived on.

"It's everyone for themselves! Throw those grenades and get the hell out of here!"

Some delinquents came rushing towards where Forena was, the sound of machine gun fire following in their wake.

Not looking where they were going, one tripped, her grenade slipping out of her hand and flying at Forena.

Shit!

He jumped to the side, ready to roll out of the way of the impending explosion.

[Sensei!]

The Shittim Chest glowed with light. Before his eyes, a partially transparent blue thread burst from the tablet and wrapped around the grenade and coiled through the air like a massive snake.

A sudden heavy gust of wind blew through the area. The windsurge carried the grenade in the opposite direction, where it exploded harmlessly.

While the wind managed to defang the grenade, it also sent the other delinquent's skirt upwards with enough force that she stumbled backward and crashed to the ground with her fellow.

"Was that… urgh." Forena grasped his arm as a shock ran through it.

[Are you okay?]

"Just a bit of pain. It'll pass. Was that one of your Miracles, Arona?"

[Yes, I manipulated the air to push the grenade away, but did some shrapnel catch you? I should have calculated all the trajectories perfectly without any margin of error…]

He checked his arm. As expected, there weren't any injuries or even damage to his clothes. Whatever caused the pain pulsed from inside his flesh.

"No, your calculations were perfect. The source is something else."

[Hm?]

"Think there was a bit of a reaction from the Shittim Chest activating. This is the first Miracle you've made since I've been holding it, right? Since I didn't let you use one to protect me from the flash grenade in Trinity."

[Umm, yes.]

He glanced at the girls who were trying to stand up while complaining about the unexpected wind gust.

As expected, they didn't see the string or threads of phenomena. Only the result is visible, not the cause. At least to the students.

"Can you make those Miracles as much as you want? I see why you are proud of them."

She puffed out her chest. [As long as the Shittim Chest has energy, I can call upon them. It costs a bit each time, but small miracles are easy for your best secretary.]

So that's how she pays the toll; it comes from the tablet's energy reserves. I'll need to make sure I charge it.

The fact that basic electricity could be converted to Miracles made his head hurt, but the Shittim Chest was nothing if not miraculous.

He clenched his fist to confirm that the pain was gone.

[It's strange. I'm surprised that it caused you a little bit of pain.]

"Yeah, I'm surprised that it caused me a small amount of pain, too. Still, to be safe, let's keep the Miracles at a low rate for now."

[Okay…] She sounded utterly crushed. He didn't blame her; she probably expected to perfectly avoid any damage.

"A little pain though is nothing compared to what would have occurred if that hit me. Thank you, Arona, you saved me there.

[Sensei…]

"Now let's get out of Gehenna, warp speed." He speed walked to the open train doors.

[Sensei? Wait, are you sure we can't stay a little longer?]

"Absolutely not. I'm not going there without three prepared escorts. I thought things looked bad when viewing the district from afar. But the charged energy in the air is even worse now that I'm close. Not today. At the very least, not without my bag."

When he left his companion of several years in the Schale club room, he had considered it might be a poor decision to leave without it.

Conversely, he didn't want to feel dependent on its familiar presence when going to every new location. The leather duffel bag, constructed with methods that so far he hadn't seen replicated in Kivotos, contained the few reminders of his old world. Only the three smaller pockets on the side had items that originated from this world.

Mostly protein bars.

Now he was very happy to have left it behind. What a perfect excuse to turn around and leave the chaotic school district in the dust.

[Then who will you choose as your escorts? Suzumi?]

He shook his head. While Suzumi was a great escort, she was a student from Trinity.

One of the earliest things he learned about the city was that Trinity and Gehenna were constantly at loggerheads. Perhaps it wasn't that surprising seeing how many of the Gehenna students he had seen had demonic horns and wings while many Trinity students sported angelic traits.

Taking a Trinity student into the district would make things worse, not better.

Which was a real problem because so far he'd only really interacted with Trinity. "Perhaps a trip to Millenium is in order first. As a rising power, they are neutral to this political quagmire."

"A trip to Millenium is always worth it," a white-haired student with bangs covering her eyes commented next to him. After a quick glance at her nametag, Forena noted the Millenium Science School's logo.

"A most unbiased assertion, eh?" He asked with a grin as she giggled. Across from them, a feline grandfather and grandchild duo laughed at the interaction after barely holding it in when Sensei fled back into the train.

He gave both kids a protein bar. He had packed too many in his pockets for how short his trip ended up being.

An hour later, he stepped back into the Schale office with a groan. The day wasn't wasted; he learned many things about the Gehenna district, but Rin would soon be checking in and seeing what he was doing and silently probing if there was a way to convince him to take the job already.

I respect the hustle, but I don't need everyone checking in on me like I'm a loose boar.

As he stepped inside, he paused in the doorway.

"Hang on, you are new."

In the center of the lobby floor, someone left a single black card. He bent down to pick it up and sat in a nearby chair to get a closer look. Even though he knew he didn't need to, he perched his tablet nearby so Arona could get a better look as well.

The card, only a bit larger than a typical playing card, had a design of white cracks near the bottom on both the front and the back. While the back was blank, the front displayed a picture of a dark map with the streets marked in grey and a single white dot in the center.

"Arona, you have the capability to protect me should I need it, correct? Even in situations far more dangerous than that single grenade earlier?" He confirmed, voice measured and all sense of mirth vanishing. "And if some pain does come my way, you'll ignore that to keep track of my total health."

[Yes, Sensei. No matter what you face, I'll make sure you are safe.] There was a faint shiver in her voice, likely a result of his tone change, but Forena ignored it.

"Good, I might need it."

[Wait, why? You aren't going to this location on a card this suspicious, right? Do they not have traps in your world? Because this is screaming trap. I can send you a playlist of videos detailing how to handle scams.]

"Why wouldn't I check out the location?"

He grinned, but the smile didn't reach his eyes.

When he first arrived in Kivotos, he witnessed the beautiful blue sky stretching far into the distance with the halos floating below it.

And unobservable by anyone else, a golden wound from his arrival. Surrounded by an uncountable web of multi-colored strings, threads, and chains.

And further beyond, almost out of sight, a smaller black scar. Likely long closed from when it too was an open wound in this world.

If he read the situation correctly, he was not the only foreigner within the Academy City.

"I think I finally got the invitation I've been waiting for."

---------------------

Three hours later, Forena wordlessly reached the building indicated by the map. The sun had set by the time he arrived, following a train trip and a long walk through the city. Whichever district he had found himself in, this section seemed to be mostly uninhabited, with the lights from a few huge glass and steel buildings illuminating the sidewalk.

[I really think we should turn back, Sensei. Something doesn't feel right about this.]

"Doesn't matter. This is important." He hiked up the shoulder strap of his bag and entered through the glass automatic doors. At the far end of the room were five elevator doors. As soon as he approached them, the second opened its doors as if awaiting him.

He snorted and accepted the invitation and stepped inside. When the doors closed, the elevator began automatically rising to its destination without any of his input. Soon enough, he found himself on the 45th floor.

The floor was pitch black except for a tiny sliver of light coming from a door at the end of the long hallway. The only other source of light was the faint light from the elevator's button panel. Shadows pressed in from all directions, granting only the option to retreat or advance.

Setting the tone, I see. Do you also wish to be my light in the darkness? Or is that too poetic?

[I-I'm here for you, Sensei! No-no matter what happens, I'll protect you.]

He patted the Shittim Chest in response. If not for Arona's presence, he wouldn't take a possibly foolhardy risk like this. Not when his safety in the city remained in total doubt.

But I'm also not one to turn down an invitation simply because it's ominous. If I turned around now due to a little shadowy scenery, the crew at home would never let me live it down.

And, he put his hand on the doorknob and pushed forward, if it actually is an assassination attempt, we'll deal with it like usual.

"Welcome, provisional Sensei of Schale."

Sitting at the desk was a single person in a black outfit with matching black gloves and tie. His head was almost completely black except for a large white crater where one of his eyes should be, which splintered out into glowing white cracks across the top of his head. Part of his head was perpetually emanating black fire.

With a large glowing white grin, he indicated for the provisional sensei to sit down in the chair across from him.

In response, Sensei tapped the Shittim Chest and returned to Arona's classroom.

"Sensei!? Why are you back here?" Arona said, shocked at his sudden intrusion.

He didn't have time for explanations. Too much time passing in the outside world would generate suspicion. No more than a minute could be allowed.

But still.

"Why?"

"Sensei?"

"Why is someone with that condition here?"

The familiar skin degradation. Light radiating out of a burst core. The way the de-saturated strings, invisible to a layperson, oozed their way out of the cracks to cling across his skin like a nest of vipers.

He didn't expect to meet an Overtaxed here in Kivotos.

Still, it's not exactly the same. I need to probe further before forming a conclusion. A single incorrect assumption could lead to catastrophe otherwise. If Kivotan humans can look so much like my race, it's not impossible there are other similarities coming from a separate source.

"I need to avoid appearing overly distressed. Any negotiations will be tilted his way if I show too much shock."

Collect myself.

He forced out all the air in his lungs with a forceful hack and let the sensation of breathlessness forcefully enter.

Cold.

Extremities turned numb with the cratering of his blood pressure.

Colder.

His heart skipped one beat, then a second. Then ten beats.

Colder.

A shallow breath called his system to motion again. Anxiety and shock dissipated. A reset completed.

"Arona, remain on standby for orders."

She probably had thoughts, but he expected obedience in this moment.

"Yessir!"

Attagirl. He'd make sure to get her something when he returned to Schale.

What was it she liked again...?

...

The cold seeped in deeper. I'll remember later.

Sixty seconds. Twelve passing in real time. Right on target.

Unaware of how much time passed for Forena, the mysterious man continued. "I've been hoping for a chance to speak face-to-face. The enigmatic individual chosen by the General Student Council. Owner of the artifact known as the Shittim Chest."

Forena averted his eyes slightly and sat down on the offered chair. Once settled, he asked, "And who do I owe the privilege and pleasure to?"

"Ah, of course. Before any discussion, introductions are in order. I am part of a group of outsiders to Kivotos like you, though we do not come from the same worlds or from yours. For the time being, we've found a suitable name to borrow. We call ourselves Gematria."

Too calm for an Overtaxed being in my presence. There must be some truth in his claim that they come from separate worlds. Or this world hasn't cottoned on to the fact that we should be at odds. Perhaps we will skip past needing bloodshed after all.

"And you personally?"

"I'm fine going by 'Black Suit'."

"Oh, we get to go by aliases here. Good to know." Being surrounded by so many students who casually introduced themselves with their actual names caused him no end of heartburn. Clearly, it wasn't as dangerous a practice here, but still it unnerved him each time.

Always remember, there is no such thing as a 'safe' practice, only one that currently does not endanger. He repeated his Teacher's words in his head.

"Then, since I am a provisional sensei, perhaps I should provide one of my aliases. Which one though..."

He paused and considered the multiple options. It should be one that has validity in this world so it can't reference a place or time. And not one that opens me up to scrutiny. An alias that says what is needed and nothing more.

A name filtered upwards. Short. Succinct. Veiled. Disgustingly ironic.

"You can call me Torn."

On cue, the sensation of the world pressing inwards rattled his body. Whether it was real or merely a habitual reaction, he couldn't tell. But it was unpleasant nonetheless.

Like tongues licking across his existence, salivating hungrily for every drop of essence they could glean. Every scrap of knowledge and history he provided brought the wall one brick closer to demolition until it would swallow him whole.

He would throw the world that morsel then to tide it over; it had long lost its relevance.

Black Suit's grin deepened, metaphorically, at the cool response. "Torn it is then." Ah, hearing someone with that appearance use the name is even grosser than anticipated. How droll.

"My group wishes to speak to you." Black Suit opened his arms wide. "We would like to welcome you... as a new member of Gematria."

Ah, but here it was. Torn smiled faintly as things finally moved in an expected trajectory. The sudden greeting by someone with the appearance of an Overtaxed, especially that specific visage, threw him for a loop, but he regained his footing. This was, after all, one of the key reasons why he hadn't taken on the title of Sensei.

Not all job offers appeared day one.

"For now, I would like to know more about your organization." Unlike when he was speaking to the students, his tone was cool, and each word was chosen slowly. While he relished the approaching conversation, the cold still filtered through his reactions. "What are your goals and intentions here in Kivotos? I'm sure you don't hold hands only due to a collective status as outsiders."

"Right to the point, I like that in a business partner." Black Suit intertwined his fingers and leaned forward. "We, Gematria, are... observers, explorers, and researchers. Each of us have our own areas of expertise and interest, but we share a simple desire: to know."

Vague, but we can work with this. "Intriguing. I have held roles akin to a researcher before." Torn chuckled and waved both hands outwards in a large shrug. "Though I would never say it has been my career's focus."

The movements were exaggerated, but he decided to let his body language speak as much as his words. Whenever a phrase bothered him, there would be a corresponding facial expression or posture change. Torn planned to do the same when the opposing side granted him something to work with.

Theatrical. Hollow. Methodical. Distant.

A way to communicate his 'values' more than his 'desires'. Let him fish around in the murky ponds I provide.

"Oh? How wonderful to know we have such commonalities." Black Suit returned with an overly amiable clap. "What sort of research captured the attention of Torn? Perhaps we can assist?"

The smile vanished from Torn's face, and his neck muscles tightened. "Is it the habit of Gematria to dig into the affairs of a member's previous world?"

"Forgive me. I overstepped." While his tone was apologetic, the sleazy mirth in his voice was unmistakable.

"In fact, we share a policy of only sharing what we wish. The fruits of our efforts we take pride in. I often do not know what direction my colleagues are moving, and they hold the same respect towards myself. Some endeavors have been group efforts, of course. But privacy is paramount amongst adult affairs."

Torn relaxed with a curt nod. For now, every detail he provided about his world served to blockade and corner his possibilities in this one. Too much prying and he'd leave without further questions.

[Sensei, I think we should leave. Nothing about this arrangement seems natural. He has massive creepy vibes.]

Two taps to the back of the tablet in response. It was a simple signal between the two of them.

[You want me to keep quiet and observe... okay. But I'm keeping watch in case anyone else shows up! I'll secure an escape route at a moment's notice.]

What a convenient child.

With Arona nervously sitting on the sidelines, he resumed the conversation with Black Suit.

"Do you like working in groups, Torn?"

"When given a choice between solo work and team efforts, I do lean towards the latter."

"What do you consider the most important factor in a successful group effort? Especially when there are conflicting desires."

"Shared direction. Even if your ends, values, and goals differ in the particulars, if you can communicate a direction that all parties speak to, then you will be more successful."

"I half-expected you to respond with 'communication' alone."

"I won't waste either of our time on the obvious. We aren't talking about an office job here. My turn, what do you see Kivotos as?"

"A treasure trove."

"You truly do value succinctness, don't you?"

"The ability to express a clear vision is important."

[... Are you enjoying this that much?]

Arona's words made him aware of the slight smirk on his face. With the fear of a battle lessening, the cold would slowly filter out.

"... True, because it's fun, isn't it." He answered both.

"Pardon?" Black Suit tilted his head at the sudden statement.

"Puzzling out the intentions of someone else. Finding clues in their words. Fishing for scraps of information found in the words and in the silence. Even understanding the meaning behind the 'sign' of treasure trove." A relaxed smirk played across his face. "It's fun. Playing with words is fun."

As much to himself as to the other adult, he muttered, "Not a habit I would keep when interacting with students."

[...]

It wasn't right for a teacher, let alone a sensei, to dissect the words and thoughts of a student like some science experiment.

"Ha. Hahaha." Black Suit's laughter echoed eerily in the bare room. "I am also having fun speaking to you. I'm sure speaking on the level of the children all the time must be... diminishing."

"Do not presume too much; it is different, not lesser." He closed his eyes and blocked out the light emanating from Black Suit's form. Erecting a solid wall between the two.

"Hm. It seems I must be careful about causing offense..." His words were followed by the sound of a pen writing on parchment. "Or perhaps you are simply exaggerating your reactions in order to make your stance clear. Forthright in a fashion."

Torn opened his eyes slightly to look at the enigmatic person before him. It had been a performative rhetorical question. Both were establishing that they understood the way this game would be played. Neither were 'forthright' while in the probing stage.

"You've introduced the nature of your company and the expectations of a member. Any half-respected job application will then follow with the benefits. Why should I consider Gematria?"

"Of course. Naturally, you would want to learn what we provide. In fact, the possibilities of support are so numerous that it is better to let you dictate the terms."

Sensei opened his eyes completely to fully face the mysterious entity. Blank checks were never simple.

"So tell me... what is it that you seek in Kivotos? We can elucidate all manner of secrets and truths should you accept our proposal."

"I'm not sure what we seek regarding 'truth' will match. No offense, but I prefer what my eyes can personally observe."

"Hm, I know you are concerned about needing escorts. Perhaps some methods to guarantee your safety and security are to your liking. Methods that allow you to explore Gehenna without issue. Places to live without fear."

Their informant network must be vast to be this up-to-date.

"Tempting, but not enough. I could maintain my current position, make connections, and utilize those. I do not need to step down from being Sensei for that." At least, that was his current aim.

"Ah... I see the misunderstanding." Black Suit slowed his speech to emphasize each word in his explanation. "We in Gematria do not require you to abandon your role as Sensei."

[Huh?]

"Oh?" For the first time, Torn leaned forward with his elbows on the desk. Perhaps I've been too hasty in my judgement. "Is this not an attempt to poach me before I finalize my position?"

"Far from it. In fact, we would appreciate it if you did take the position of Sensei formally. It is only right that an adult rules the children of Kivotos."

"..."

"We simply ask that you prioritize your role as a member of Gematria over your position of Sensei. Such resources at your disposal can aid your aims and ours dramatically. I'm certain we can come to understandings and partnerships that lead to benefits in our respective research. Schale's influence and allowances are not ones that I am willing to underestimate."

"I see," Sensei responded after a few moments. He ran his fingers across his stubble-covered chin in contemplation. "Sounds almost like you are more interested in Schale than you are in me."

"Far from it. If any random student were granted the power, we would not be interested. I'm certain that an outsider to Kivotos like us has knowledge and capabilities that would benefit Gematria. Even providing perspectives we lack can be invaluable in the search for truth regarding Kivotos' mystics."

The cold flowed back in.

Torn closed one eye and scoffed. "But you aren't going to complain about access to what I could provide as Sensei."

"Is that wrong?" Black Suit asked with sincere curiosity. "Power is something valuable, I'm sure even someone who has made your... specific choices would agree."

Black Suit stood up from his chair and leaned against the wall, his gaze fixed on the sights beyond the slats of his shuttered window.

Now seeing the man fully in profile, Torn used the delay in the conversation to observe his demeanor and outfit to get a better idea of his condition.

Along with the white-collared shirt and black coat, he also wore long black pants, black socks, and black leather shoes. Except for the small area between his wrists and shirt cuffs, no other parts of his extremities were uncovered.

Whether the affliction, if it could be called that, extended beyond his upper body was unclear. If he focused, he might be able to see whether the threads of phenomena extended that far, but he didn't wish to push it.

Maybe I should have dressed up more. It was a sudden thought, but he only brought one pair of clothes to Kivotos: his casual brown breeches, white socks, and white work shirt. Other priorities prevented him from focusing on his wardrobe more than adding the tie Rin gifted him. Even his beard wasn't being maintained, though that was more out of stubbornness to avoid looking like a sensei just yet.

Compared to that, Black Suit's outfit showed coordination and control. He'd need to look into what that style was called later. If there wasn't anything akin to his world's formal wear, it might be a worthwhile starting point for dipping his toe into foreign fashion.

Black Suit sighed. "I expected you to agree, but perhaps power isn't valuable in your eyes."

Hm. A misreading. I assumed my silence counted as assent. I'm not so insane to think power isn't valuable.

Black Suit turned back to Torn and picked up a few pieces of paper from a large pile. “Truthfully, I don’t understand the choices you’ve made up until now and hoped this conversation would elucidate them for me.”

"Hmm..." He could guess which baffled the enigmatic researcher.

"You could have ruled over all of Kivotos. You had it all for a brief moment: unfathomable power and authority over the city and its Mystics.... and yet, you cast it all aside without a second thought. Even now, you contemplate tossing away another opportunity, even if a lesser one. I could keep offering you knowledge and powers, but I fear that I am approaching you from the wrong angle."

Torn felt Arona's piercing gaze on him when he glanced at the Shittim Chest. Perhaps she too wondered about his decision to forfeit Sanctum Tower.

"Tell me— why make such a choice? Truth, influence, riches, power... your choices leave you none of those. So why!?"

Torn. Forena. Sensei (provisional). ☐☐☐☐☐☐. The individual bearing more than those titles looked forward with a blank expression.

A flat wall raised against the other's irritation and curiosity.

One minute, then two, then three, passed in silence between the adults.

The air vibrated with a charged anticipation. No matter how long Black Suit stared, no information was forthcoming without the willingness of Kivotos' newest outsider.

"Haaaaaaaaa..."

It was Torn who initiated the stalemate, and also he who ended it. "Being asked why I would abandon something valuable... reminds me of old times..." he muttered. With eyes closed, he addressed Black Suit's doubts.

"Certainly, I could have ruled Kivotos if I had maintained control of the Sanctum Tower. But then what? Would I have been like the King—"

He jolted upwards in his chair, causing Arona and Black Suit to flinch. His right hand slammed into his sternum, and his left raised in a knife hand, palm facing his face. His eyes opened as wide as they could, his pupils dilated.

"MAY HIS REIGN END IN FIRE AND HIS ASHES BE SPREAD ACROSS THE SIX DIRECTIONS."

With the required curse completed, he returned to relaxing in the chair with his eyes closed. "And then dictated control over all I could see? I've seen the results of that, and I'm not interested in endless revolution attempts. Nor am I sturdy enough to avoid numerous assassinations."

"Even discounting the possibility of acting as a tyrant... what are riches in a world when I know not what is valuable and what can be purchased? What is influence when immediately betraying the one influential person I knew and closing out that line of learning? What value does truth serve when I have not even established why I might value it?"

"Above all..." his eyes opened a fraction, "what is power without a purpose?"

"..."

"I didn't come here today looking for an opportunity to gain what I already discarded. I seek to understand the playing board I have landed on and determine what my purpose will be. Gaining knowledge is paramount, but not of the sort that you covet and intend to offer. Not in your ways at least."

'Purpose'. Something far harder to obtain and hold on to than riches or power. Would his fellow outsiders provide one for him? Did they even have one for themselves he would recognize?

It was with some sorrow that he was beginning to doubt it.

"Not in our ways... care to elaborate?" Black Suit asked.

"You are researchers for the sake of uncovering truth. I seek knowledge in order to know how and why to live. Knowledge for its own sake does nothing; it's simple hoarding. I may die tomorrow, and everything I've learned will sink into the pavement and vanish."

Dark irises met each other in the cold office. "Have you ever lived like you were dying? Like tomorrow is a gift, never assured? Where a frozen eternity grabs at your ankles with each step, and you know not when you will plunge into those depths forever?

He swiped a hand through the air. Transient trifles like power mean nothing when they vanish upon your last breath. I seek something that will make me smile with pride at the final tolling of the bell. That echoes into the future when I can no longer provide the song."

"Intriguing. You seek a form of immortality, then. Perhaps you will sync well with one of my fellows in Gematria if that is your aim," Black Suit said and crossed his arms.

"If death is so prominent in your thoughts, perhaps that is where we can step in to assist. With our methods, it is possible to be elevated to where such fears vanish. A promise of great longevity and—"

SLAM

Torn's left hand grabbed the surface of the desk, long nails digging deep grooves through the lacquer finish into the wood beneath. His chair rolled across the floor behind him, blasted backwards when he suddenly stood.

The cold was gone. Fire flowed instead.

A beast crouched, back bent and pupils dancing.

[S-Sensei! Calm, calm down!?]

More than a flinch this time, Black Suit stepped back twice at the sudden wave of hostility.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa."

Torn forced the air out of his lungs, and waited for his heart rate to choke.

Control. Control. Control. This is not the time for heat, this is the time for cold.

His clenched left hand loosened. Scraps of wood dropped out from under his fingernails onto the desk.

"It seems I have damaged your desk."

"... Indeed."

"As an apology, I will consider the last minute to have not occurred."

"Very well."

At least now no doubt remained that Black Suit's world differed from his own.

Nobody would be so foolish to utter a Taboo so brazenly.

After a moment, Black Suit strode around the desk to stand near Torn.

Points for bravery after my little stunt.

"... It has been long enough since I found myself in this world, it seems I have forgotten what those first days were like. Or perhaps the worlds we came from were too different to match perspectives."

Even if his mouth remained stationary, his demeanor made it look like he had a thin smile.

"Torn, you fundamentally distrust this world, don't you?"

A pause, and then a nod.

"Does what you seek, this purpose, remain in the dimension you have left behind? What if Gematria helps you research a way of return while you hold a purpose as Sensei?"

"No. Returning is not a priority for me. The chain of command will soon take effect and my replacements will fill my empty chairs. They'll assume I simply perished somewhere. I was soon to be transitioning anyway... turns out it was a more dramatic one than anticipated."

"Then shall I assume these negotiations are over? Nothing I have offered seems to strike your fancy. Baffling, but I cannot seem to find an in." Black Suit sighed in frustration and ground his heel into the carpet. "

"'Sensei' offers me a purpose, one I am unsure if I am capable to match. 'Gematria' plays to my strengths but is not enough of a purpose on its own. Unfortunately, the role of Sensei is one that cannot serve two masters. It would be one thing if it was 'Teacher' or 'Instructor'... but alas."

While his facial features remained permanently locked, the tilt in Black Suit's neck and the tension in his shoulders provided evidence of his consternation. "What difference does a title make?"

All the difference in the world." Torn patted the Shittim Chest while releasing a long, drawn-out sigh. "You may not be underestimating Schale's influence, but you are certainly underestimating what 'Sensei' means to this world. The significance, its meaning, what it serves as a sign for, all are intertwined with the nature of Academy City. Its very nature will cause it to be the eye of the storm."

"What it serves as a sign for, you say." Black Suit said, his voice lowering. "Interesting. One of my companions is very engrossed in the nature of Signs. In fact, it is he who impressed upon Gematria that we must reach out while you were yet to wear the mantle and symbology of Sensei. Perhaps you, like him, see the world in a way I do not?"

So he is the one who is keeping tabs on me? I wondered who that might be.

"And so, upon realizing that I'd arrived, your group then orchestrated Wakamo's attack on Schale to test my capabilities and learn what you could."

[Wait, that is what lead Wakamo to attack?] Arona couldn't help blurting out.

Naturally, he'd found the whole affair to be suspicious. Now his suspicions would be proven right.

"... Wakamo? That escaped criminal? We have no influence or connection with her."

"..."

HUH!?

He couldn't help it, he stared in shock and confusion as Black Suit continued. "We only discovered your arrival after the attack on Schale, not beforehand. From there we investigated and learned of the Shittim Chest and the missing president's moves."

If not you, then who? He barely managed to keep that as a thought rather than words which would undermine his position further. Who was it that leaked information about Schale? About there being something important in the basement? At such perfect timing?

This wasn't the place to dwell on it. If he wanted the proper time to consider new possibilities... he'd been so sure of his assumption too... then he'd need to close out this meeting.

"Maybe I was not the correct person to reach out to you with this opportunity. I am a researcher first and a businessman second. My fellows who deal more in the intangible, they may be able to reach you through a different avenue. Truthfully, this conversation only convinces me further that you are an asset we should not let go of," Black Suit said, pointedly not digging into Sensei's confusion.

Closing the door completely would be a shame for both of us, wouldn't it? If he didn't choose to take on the position of Sensei officially, Gematria did serve as an adequate vessel to rest in while he determined his role within Kivotos.

In fact, why was he even acting like he was declining Gematria for being Sensei? It wasn't like he promised himself to only choose one or the other. Why did he spend the whole meeting digging his heels in deeper towards choosing Sensei?

As if listening to his thoughts, the face of a worried blue-haired girl flickered on the Shittim Chest.

... Shit.

Annoyed, and a smidge amused at the persuasiveness of a certain OS, he looked back at Black Suit. "I don't think that is a bad idea. How about this? Even if I take the role of Sensei, I will leave the door open to act as business partners in the future.

He continued as he warmed up to the idea more. "Even if I choose not be a member of Gematria, your organization does intrigue me. I think there may be times where our interests align. Labels and titles are important, but adults can work beyond those."

Black Suit clasped his fingers together and tapped his knuckles in a consistent rhythm. "Business associates... I see. Gematria itself could be seen as an alliance of convenience. I think this arrangement can suit our collective desires well."

"Then do we have an understanding?" Torn reached out with his right hand.

Black Suit nodded and clasped Torn's hand. The two shook hands as they stared into each other's faces, still trying to glean anything they could of the other.

After holding each other's hands for an unnecessarily long amount of time, they broke off the handshake. Each with their own thoughts.

All that talking, and it ends so easily. But I suppose we both have exhausted our words and thoughts. Nothing left but to plan our next moves.

With negotiations finalized, Sensei turned to leave the office, but stopped when Black Suit called out to him.

"Let me be clear as I can. We have no interest in a conflict with you. We do not wish to see you as a potential obstacle.... and certainly do not want to deal with the consequences of starting a war with you should our interests conflict." He turned to the desk and tapped on the area now permanently scratched. "I believe as Adults we can be civilized and come to understandings should such a time come."

Torn gripped the doorknob tight enough that his veins popped in his arm. Then he looked over his shoulder at the Gematria member. With pupils so dilated they almost completely encapsulated his black irises, he stared back at Black Suit.

"Good. You are right to want to avoid such a thing."

If the drums of war sounded, he would answer them once more.

Those were his last words as he exited the office, descended via the elevator, and eventually stepped out of the building.

[Sensei, you aren't really going to choose Gematria right?] Arona asked as soon as he was out.

"I don't know," he said truthfully. "I'm sure you have a lot you want to say, but can it wait until I'm back home? I have a lot of thoughts to sift through."

[... You promise to talk then?]

"Promise."

She went quiet again. It tugged at his conscience, but he seriously needed to think on things. And also rest on the taxi ride back.

Revealing so much of his existence and thoughts left him exhausted.

. . .

As soon as he reached his apartment, he sat on his bed and leaned back to face the ceiling.

"Gematria, huh? Kivotos continues to intrigue."

[I don't like that man, Sensei. You should keep a distance.]

He found himself pulled into the chest again. Before he knew it, the young AI was before him. She was clinging onto her umbrella rifle and biting her lip in a deep frown.

Huh, orange spiky halo this time. That one is new.

"Couldn't you tell that he doesn't have anyone's interests in mind except for his own? He sees Sensei as someone who should rule over the students, and that's not right. Please tell me that you don't agree with him at all."

True to her word, she waited until he arrived home to unleash her pent-up thoughts.

"I don't want you looking at people like he does. Or being so cold. I like when Sensei looks at his students with pride and care. When they smile back, glowing with happiness for being with you. Even if it isn't a 'purpose', doesn't that alone have meaning?"

Forena responded by reaching out with his right hand and patting her head and ruffling her hair. After the intense meeting, it was nice to unwind by smooshing his assistant a little.

"Senseeeeeeiiiii, I'm being serious." She complained but leaned into the head scratches while her halo flashed between orange and pink.

"Oh, you are absolutely correct, Arona." Forena never doubted that fact. "He sees the world as full of things to be used for his purposes. Whereas I'm seeking paths that create purpose. Sensei has always carried that meaning. Eventually we will be at odds on at least some issues."

He poked the pouting girl's cheek and enjoyed her flustered expressions. "But he is also someone who may be useful in his own way. If we use each other, options that might otherwise be blocked may open. Nothing yet has given me a reason to flat out reject Gematria. And I still haven't chosen Sensei either. I may reject both if a third option answers to my desires."

"Mmmmmmmm, fine." She kicked some of the water around her feet. "I just get nervous since you still won't choose to be Sensei yet. I don't want you to keep saying 'the provisional is important' every time you introduce yourself."

No matter how old I get, it never gets easier to say no to sad children, huh?

"Well, if you think of anything to offer on the side of Sensei, I'm all ears."

It wasn't really a serious question, and a bit of an unfair one. The mental exhaustion kept causing him to fail at his social cues.

"Um, um, something Sensei wants... probably not my snacks..." Arona said to herself, halo spinning wildly.

"Don't take it that seriously. It's fine."

"Uh. Hugs! I can offer extra, extra hugs! Gematria wouldn't do that, would they!"

He blinked.

"Your counter offer is... hugs?"

She flushed scarlet. "I mean. Um. It was a joke."

He laughed.

Far more than a giggle, it was a full throated guffaw. Louder and longer than any other laugh since he arrived in Kivotos.

"Muuuu, don't make fun of me!" She stomped her little feet only causing him to laugh harder. Kicking his feet in pure amusement. For all the enjoyment and fun of playing with words with an Adult, this beat it all.

Wiping a tear from his eye, he spread his arms open. "I don't know, you should give me a taste of the rewards, don't you think? I need to know how good your hugs are, Arona."

She stared at him, still blushing. Then a blue-haired cannonball slammed into him.

Arona wrapped her arms around his torso and pressed her head against his chest. Pouring every last drop of her care and desire to keep him here into the hug, she didn't leave any space between the two of them.

He hooked one arm around her back and rubbed her hair with his free right hand. A warmth to push back the cold.

"This is a fantastic hug. It's been three years since I've received one. Maybe you are onto something."

"Three years!" She tightened her grip further. "Then this is a special perk. Gematria can't match it!"

He smiled and continued stroking her hair.

What a sweet, helpful young lady. He'd need to get her some more banana and strawberry milk later.

"Yeah. I'm sure Gematria can't match this."

Maybe he wasn't strong enough to hold the weight of Sensei. Maybe he didn't know the world well enough to do the job properly. Maybe he already did all he needed to and should exit the stage before he was forcibly ejected.

Or maybe he needed to stop thinking about Sensei as someone working solo.

"Well now that I know who my alternate employer might be..."

He wiggled in her grasp enough so they could lock eyes. "How about this? Let's make a bet. It will take some prep, but if I lose the bet..."

He smiled and this time it fully reached his blue eyes.

"I'll drop the provisional from my title."

Her halo instantly turned into a heart. "Absolutely! I'll make sure to win!"

------------------------------

After twenty minutes of being glomped, Sensei finally asked a question that'd been on his mind. "Oh, Arona. Do you happen to know what sort of clothes Black Suit was wearing? I quite liked that style."

"You mean... a suit?"

"Right, Black Suit. What was he wearing?" Forena asked again.

"That outfit is called a suit, Sensei. That's why he called himself Black Suit, because he was wearing a Black Suit."

"... His name wasn't referring to the black playing card suit?"

"No."

".................................................. Arona, your provisional Sensei feels stupid and upset. Increase hug velocity."

"Aye aye, Sensei!"

Chapter Text

Provisional Sensei Day 4

“Back to Trinity.”

[Back to Trinity!]

Forena stepped out of the train, jumped three times, looked around, and proceeded on his way back to the main gate of the school.

After last night’s discussion with Black Suit and their subsequent deal, the need to learn about the world’s medical practices reached new heights.

He glanced down at the Shittim Chest. Arona sat on her desk, kicking her legs in happiness while humming to herself. Since they shared a heart to heart, and he brought up the concept of a wager with his employment as the prize, she’d been over the moon.

Still, nothing was set in stone. Not even the shape of the wager or whether he would initiate any plans.

Before anything, it is imperative to make contact with medical professionals. Arona believes her miracles are sufficient for my safety, but that is a reckless strategy. Especially considering the small harm done to my arm when she creates a Miracle, I need to research other methods.

If she ever hesitated to create one in an effort to avoid injuring him, the risks ballooned significantly. A single misjudgment could lead him straight to the grave. No one else seemed to fully appreciate that risk except him.

Prevention is one step. Following risk management, you need clear protocols for how to handle a crisis that couldn't be prevented. That's where medical technology comes into play.

It was a shame that he couldn't go meet Gehenna's Emergency Medical Club. According to Chinatsu, the situation still stormed within that district and he refused to put a barrel of a gun against his head only to search for some bandages.

Hasumi greeted him at the gate. "Hello, Sen...provisional Sensei. I apologize again for the trouble last time you were here."

"No trouble at all Hasumi. Are you sure you can spare the time to guide me to the Remedial Knights and the library? I don't want to impose."

Her huge wings fluttered and she stood up straighter. "No need to worry Sensei! I will switch out if need be! I can do whatever makes your day easier!"

"...okay" Forena said, narrowing his eyes. Why is she so nervous? The shift in her stance, the loud voice and clipped sentences. You'd think she'd seen something scary.

“Then, let’s get you to the Remedial Knights without a single issue!” Hasumi said with forced positivity and tenseness in her every move.

[Did she eat something bad?]

“Maybe?” Sensei muttered. “Or something happened in Trinity that I’m unaware of.”

[I’ll keep watch, Sensei.]

Hopefully, no grenade issues today. Telling Arona to let me be blasted by Suzumi's flash grenade was one thing, but Gehenna's issues were a whole different beast.

The Vice Chairwoman of the JTF led the way through the city. As per her word, the trip to the Remedial Knight's building went without issue. In fact, he didn't see any other students around.

No, there simply weren't any students nearby. But if he looked further out, there were some girls wearing black uniforms near all the crossroads leading to the street they were on. An entire squadron working to sequester him from the rest of the school. Far more than he needed or desired.

"I suppose no trouble can occur if you don't allow anyone near," he said, probing Hasumi for her thoughts.

She flinched. "Um. Don't worry, Sen- Provisional Sensei." Why did no one call him Forena except Rin? "We want to assure you don't have any of the issues you did last time you were on campus. We have our security handled far better than the nutcases in Gehenna, you can believe us."

He nodded in response to the undeniable statement. Biased, sure. But accurate.

"And as requested, the Tea Party only knows you as someone still deciding whether to take the role and will not be interfering."

"I see..." he said and then paused and considered her statement. "Why do you know that detail of Rin's plan?"

She flinched again.

"Ah. Now I understand your behavior." He shook his head and sighed. "Rin must be sending you multiple messages, pressuring you to be on your best behavior."

"N-no. I-I simply have had very peaceful discussions with her to update the JTF!"

[Hasumi is a bad liar.]

Agreed, Arona. Agreed. "I'll tell her to dial back the pressure campaign. Don't worry about never showing mistakes or weaknesses. If you are too good at your job," he shrugged and gave her a wry smile, "I might think you don't need a Sensei."

"But, I, uh," she sputtered, eyes spinning. Finally, she relented. "Is it fine to relax a bit?"

"Please do," he instructed as he entered the hospital. "I don't like feeling like a dictator."

After entering, a girl dressed in a nurse headdress, a white jacket over a white, pink and white, and a white and grey skirt trotted up to him with a big smile on her face. She had pink eyes and short pink hair with a small ponytail tied with a red bow. Throughout her outfit, including on her gun, were pink accents that matched her hair color.

"You must be Sensei, right? I'm Sumi Serina, a member of the Remedial Knights." She gave a small bow and looked to Hasumi. "And hello to you too, Hasumi. I hope you are feeling better since last week."

While Hasumi stammered something about feeling fine and that there was no need to mention injuries in front of Sensei, Forena returned her hello with his own introduction.

However, his attention wasn't on Serina, but on the hospital itself. He breathed in the faint smell of chemicals and darted his eyes around to pick up every bit of technology present.

If I want to live in Kivotos, I need to ensure that I can survive in Kivotos.

"I'll take my leave here," Hasumi said. "Let me know when you wish to return to the library and I'll escort you."

“Okay, Hasumi, see you later!” Serina said with a cheery demeanor as Forena nodded. “Come this way, Sensei. I’ll show you all the sights.”

He felt a little bad for Serina. Here she was, showing positivity and all the respect, professionalism, and kindness to be expected of a nurse, and here he was obsessing over every scrap of information he could glean from the tour.

"This is where the patients that require long-term care stay," Serina said as she showed him to another room. As he expected, all the patients were animal people. The halos of students also seemed to help recovery.

Despite the difference between the worlds, the hospital honestly didn't differ as much as he expected. Regardless of plane of existence, bedrest and fluid lines were important for recovery. Even the heart monitors displayed information he expected, though some of acronyms escaped him.

The hell is a SvO2 reading?

The equipment room especially attracted his attention. Skin hooks, forceps, needles, vials, gauze, tourniquets, drains, clamps, reflectors... all of these were familiar sights from home. Better shape, perhaps, and more consistent in their designs, certainly, but not so different he wouldn't recognize how to use them if left to his own devices.

There were a few differences though. One was the boxes full of a strange serum stored in syringes that looked similar to what Chinatsu used before. He meant to cut open his arm later and verify if they were as effective on him as they were on students.

Still, there was something missing from the tour.

"Where do you keep your flesh farm?"

Serina's peaceful smile broke into a look of utter bewilderment. "Flesh... farm?"

"Yes, do you not have those?" He'd been looking for a while to see where they might keep the facility. One always needed proper light, humidity, and nutrient vats for the growth of skin and organs, but he didn't see a hint of their appearance.

"No," Serina said after waiting for a 'kidding' that never arrived. "We don't have flesh farms... whatever those are."

"So if someone received burns into the bone layer, you wouldn't harvest some epidermis to replace the destroyed section? Or grow some bone marrow to inject into those suffering from Ossokargat?" He paused and repeated the word. "...That one didn't translate, did it? Perhaps you don't have that disease."

Serina looked a little ill as she imagined it. "No, we would need to use skin grafts for the former and treatments for underlying bone marrow causes in the latter case."

"Finally, something my world excels in compared to yours."

As expected, their medical technologies aren't as developed. With so many students being resistant to physical trauma, it would naturally be a lower priority. That was one of my concerns, but at least it isn't drastically far behind. He readjusted his duffel bag on his shoulder. At least I have backups of some tech if I need something desperately.

While Serina reeled in confusion at his words, another student entered the room. "Serina, can I get your assistance! We have a patient who fell through a glass window and has multiple lacerations and he isn't reacting well to medicinal treatment alone."

The purple-haired girl noticed Forena and quickly bowed. "I'm sorry sir, this is important."

"Alright, Hanae, I'm on my way. Sorry, Sensei," she said and paused. "I think I need to assist here."

Forena nodded. Why would he ever impede a student doing their job? "If you need assistance, let me know. I have some experience as a surgeon."

"You do!? Please, any help is appreciated." Serina ushered him to the side of the room as she prepared the appropriate tools. "I'm surprised, I didn't expect you to have studied medical techniques."

"Everyone in my field is required to learn some basic battlefield triage, including surgery. Don't expect any professional feats like reattaching a limb though. Handling a disembowelment case would also be quite difficult." He didn't want to raise her expectations too high. Deep lacerations and compound fractures — kids stuff — were his limited specialties.

"Your people can reattach limbs?"

"Sure, wouldn't get very far if we didn't at least know how to do that, now would we?" Why was he getting as much confusion as when he mentioned the flesh farms?

"...Have you ever needed a limb reattachment?"

He shrugged as they entered the surgical area and put on protective equipment. "A few times. Unpleasant, I can assure you. Good thing Sailor's Floss is so versatile."

She tilted her head.

"Don't have that either? Different tech routes then." Forena opened his duffel bag, shocking Serina at its seemingly sudden usage, and pulled out a spool of thread. "Strength of a ship's rope harnessed into the shape of thread. Also clears out scurvy. Easily dissolved by citrus, so be careful with it."

Serina gawked at it, briefly forgetting the patient.

"I can show it to you in action," he offered as he gestured at the operating room where the patient, a young kid it seemed, started crying. "It'll serve as a good example."

"Sure, Sensei. I look forward to your instruction."

"Then get me some forceps assistant. I'll show you a taste of my world and my skills."

...And hey, if it is actually that valuable and works without complications, maybe I can sell some if I need cash.

. . .

Later that night.

'Forena: Rin, please lay off the other girls a little. They are all walking on egg shells around me as if a single mistake will make me give up on being Sensei.

Rin: I don't know what you are talking about.

Forena: Yes you do. I appreciate how seriously you are taking my decision, but too much pressure only causes problems.

Rin: … I will take your words into consideration.

Forena: Great. Then, can you do me a favor and send over some of the documents you would have wanted me to complete this week? I want to see what I can do with them. Some that aren't due for a few days.

Rin: Understood. I will send you some of the easier, lower priority ones then.

Forena: Thanks. Rest when you can.

Rin: … Maybe in a month.

Forena ended the conversation there and sat back on his bed in thought.

[You are interested in looking at paperwork?]

"Not yet. Not yet."

[Then why?]

"Our bet, Arona." He smiled to himself. "This is stage one of our bet. Let's see how dedicated our vice president really is. Would you like to hear the wager?"

[If that is what it takes, then absolutely.]

Good girl, Forena thought to himself. And with that, perhaps my fate is already sealed. Three days from now will be very interesting.

Provisional Sensei Day 5

[Are we not going out today?]

“Maybe for a bit later, but not for now. I want to scope out more of Schale’s facilities.” Sensei answered Arona while humming to himself. “I still need to spend some time setting up the bet, so I might as well familiarize myself more in case this becomes my permanent home. I’ll be hitting the ground sprinting.”

To leave more distance between himself and the position, Forena had opted to only enter the lobby, club room, and basement of Schale. If anyone else followed in his footsteps and took the job, then they would find all other facilities untouched.

Nothing more than a selfish ‘consideration’.

[Let’s explore then!] Arona responded with great cheer. She was extremely easy to please. Even hinting that he might drop the provisional title was enough to form a great big smile on her face.

[Are you sure this isn’t a way to avoid staying in the club room though? You seem to avoid staying long.]

Perceptive. I didn’t expect her to notice. I barely realized the habit myself.

“Not exactly. At least, not my intention. Learning about my surroundings is important to not make mistakes later. What if a room provided some material or resources I need. Or worse, a threat I need to handle. A quick investigation is beneficial.”

[I see. Still, why do you keep avoiding the club room?]

Damn, didn’t distract her. Perhaps honesty is the best policy. “It is a little disconcerting is all. It is set up in a perfect manner. In fact, too perfectly. If I personally requested an office setup, it would look like the club.”

[Doesn’t that make it convenient?]

“Too convenient,” Forena said, frowning. Too many convenient coincidences set his nerves on end. “Imagine I sent you to Gehenna and you found a classroom suited to all of your tastes and preferences even though you never spoke to anyone from Gehenna. Wouldn’t that set you on edge?”

[I guess? But first I’d be thankful someone thought of me to support my preferences!]

Forena appreciated the positivity even if he couldn’t match it.

It isn’t only the office. Why were the four students who appeared to confront Rin a perfect team of front, back, middle, and healer? Who tipped off Wakamo on the day I arrived if not Gematria. When did I learn the password to the Shittim Chest?

Something sought to corner him. To clear the path straight to Senseihood.

And because they provided me the perfect secretary, I’m starting to march that way despite all the risks.

He glanced at the tablet and watched Arona’s bright eyed stares as she observed the new surroundings. The risks to myself, and the risks that might fall upon my students.

[Hm, what’s this though? Did someone leave a light on?]

Turning his attention away from his tablet, he approached the end of a corridor he hadn’t yet walked through. Light streamed out of a glass door at the end.

[Onwards!]

“Woo,” came the dry reply. As he reached the glass door, it slid open automatically. On the other side, an unexpected sight greeted him. “A convenience store?”

How long has this been here? Even one of Rin’s colleagues — he never did get the name — had stated that the club room was out in the outskirts. Of course, even those in the outskirts needed to buy food, but inside his building?

“Going quiet,” he muttered, and Arona nodded in response. After several tests, they had determined that only he could hear her voice, no matter the setting. High on his list of priorities was not to have anyone suspect he was hearing voices.

Back in his own world, where hearing voices others couldn’t wasn’t unusual, he would employ a different strategy.

Forena stepped into the store and looked around. The store really screamed ‘Kivotos’ from top to bottom.

The shelves were well organized, with different brightly colored products covered in consistent mass-produced packaging. A nearby shelf held boxes of grenades, while one wall had a variety of firearms of different sizes. Some iceboxes — no, refrigerators — were arranged at the back and filled with food and drinks. Whoever staffed the building stocked another set of shelves with firearm maintenance, repair, and upgrade materials.

His world also had the concept of ‘convenience stores’, but Kivotos easily surpassed his for the convenience factor. It was like a weapon, food, and necessities shop rolled into one. Unfortunately, he couldn’t use firearms, so a third of it was worthless to him.

“Anybody in here?”

“Waaaaa!” A high-pitched shout answered his question.

Following the sound of multiple items spilling onto the floor, he strutted to the front of the store. Technically, with maybe only two asterisks after the word, he was the owner of the building.

A young girl — what else would he expect from this world — popped out from behind the counter. She had long blond hair with two tiny twintails, a blue halo, a... noticeable forehead.... and a blue clerk’s apron on top of a white uniform. On her back were two small white wings.

“W-welcome to Angel 24!” the girl yelled with a nervous stutter. She blinked in shock as she got a better look at Forena. “Huh...? An adult? A-Are you that Sensei person I’ve heard about?”

“Provisional Sensei. The provisional is important.”

“R-right. The boss did mention that fact....” She looked around uneasily before plastering on a shaky customer smile. “M-my name is Sora. This is my first day as a part-timer here at Angel 24. Nice to meet you!”

“Nice to meet you too.” His stance loosened as he gave what he hoped was a comforting grin to the young girl. Especially important for the upcoming question. “Not to be rude, but you seem a bit younger than my other students.” Some girls were just tiny, and he didn’t have a single complaint about that, but something felt off.

She blinked in surprise and nodded. “Well, naturally, I’m a middle schooler. Practically no other stores hire students my age, and I needed the money...”

Forena frowned at that explanation. If his understanding of the school years and ages was correct, that meant she was thirteen or younger. While he was unsure about most common sense, she admitted that hiring someone her age was uncommon. For a young girl to need money that badly here in Kivotos...

He quickly rid himself of the frown, thankful that she was looking to the side and missed it. Sora’s nerves were high enough; he didn’t need to exacerbate the issue. Nor was it his place to pry.

Still not looking directly at him, she continued her explanation. "Coming to work here is pretty scary, though. I heard this building was raided by a delinquent and charged by tanks."

“If that happens again when you are here, I’ll scoop you up myself and bring you upstairs to the clubroom where you will be safe.” If she needed to work in Schale, he was going to damn well ensure she was safe.

“Hawawawa,” she squeaked, blushing crimson. “Um... okay. Sure. Right. Yes.”

[Sensei will go hero mode.]

Let’s not get crazy.

Sora ducked behind the counter to not explode from the combination of nerves and embarrassment, and Forena let her do so. This was her first day, and he didn’t want to overwhelm her any further.

While teasing kids could be fun... time, place, and target were important factors. He hadn’t yet built up that sort of rapport with the middle schooler.

When she popped up again suddenly, now I want to play that old pop up festival game with the big hammer, he could still almost see the spirals in her eyes from accumulated stress. “I’ll keep that in mind.... but from I can tell, you’re the only regular customer this store might get, Sensei.”

Quite possible. If pressed to guess, he would say that the location in the outskirts was to limit accusations of interference or coordination with any single school. Would be extremely difficult to stealthily approach the building. A byproduct of that is… nobody else was around. While he didn’t know it, he and Sora had the exact same thought at the same time.

How will this place stay in business like this?

“N-not that your patronage isn’t valued, of course!” Sora shouted, realizing that any perceived slight against possibly her only customer would be terrible for the store’s bottom line. “Angel 24 is open around the clock, so stop by anytime you need something!”

“I’ll do so. Do you know who will be taking over the other shifts? I should get acquainted with all the staff if we’ll be working in the same building.”

The answer was not what he had been anticipating.

“I’m the only clerk for this Angel 24. But even if I’m new, you can count on me to do my best!”

Now, Forena was not from this world. He would be the first to declare that his understanding of the world’s common sense and rules was mostly composed of scraps, snippets, and scattered thread. Children’s encyclopedias, leading a raid, a negotiation with an adult, and some escorting conveyed a very specific subset of skills and knowledge.

But I’m pretty sure “around the clock” means “all hours.”

While he contemplated following up on this confusion, she flashed a bright smile. “We are open 24 hours! Visit us anytime!”

“... And you are the only worker, or did I misunderstand something?” He asked, desperate for his poor grasp of math to be the problem here.

“Um... it’s just me... but, but, I can assure you our store has very reasonable prices. Better than the other stores in the area, so you should buy a lot!” The rehearsed corporate lines caused Forena’s eye to spasm.

“So you are a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week ‘part-timer’.”

“Y-yes.”

“Okay. No.“

She flinched at the sudden viciousness in his tone. Sorry, Sora, but this is an intolerable situation.

“See-ree, get me the contact information of Angel 24. I’m going to have a talk directly with management over this one. I will not tolerate a child working all day every day. Absolutely not.”

[... I’m letting it pass this time, Sensei, because I’m also mad. But don’t call me that again.]

He still didn’t know what this See-Ree was, but he knew that sometimes people talked into their phones by addressing it. Also, Arona had an odd rivalry with it. Still, this wasn’t to tease the AI; he wanted Sora to know verbally where he intended to direct his ire.

“W-w-w-wait, why are you contacting management? I-I’m sorry if I did something wrong, but can you please overlook it? I... really need the paycheck from this job.” Sora’s lip trembled and tears formed in her eyes. How could she not realize it was the situation that was intolerable?

Tables were going to be flipped if he met the Adults that approved this nonsense in person.

“Sora,” he said with as much gentleness as he could muster, “you have done nothing wrong. But I’m not so crappy an Adult that I’m going to let you be stuck here. Even if you were an Adult, I wouldn’t approve of a permanent job like that. Even worse, since you are a child. You should be making friends, studying, or doing fun things.”

"B-but... the money..."

“I will personally use my powers to assist your income or push for different working conditions without impacting your paycheck. I will not let my ego negatively impact your needs. The duty of an Adult is to prevent such concerns from children.”

Sora took a shaky breath and then smiled faintly with the same crimson blush.

Perhaps she isn’t used to someone going to bat for her this intensely. If she was anything like the kids back home, her nervousness may have kept her from expressing her needs and wishes. That only leads to being trampled by others.

[But, Sensei, how long can you do that if you are only provisional?]

Forena tensed up and tried not to hear what sounded like two carriages slamming together in his mind as his brain shorted out.

Shit.

Arona used a variety of means to coax Forena into taking the position, but a vicious reality check was a new one. Effective too!

“I’m not finished setting up the bet just yet,” he muttered to Arona. That was a contract and he was not going back on it. So if he needed to do something in the now that was completely effective...

“Hey Sora,” he said louder as she tried to parse his strange line about bets, “I want to make sure that you have a smooth first day that doesn’t require you to stay up all night. It’ll be hard to change your sleeping schedules immediately, right?”

“W-well yes... but I don’t want you reaching out to management... please.”

“Then, here is what we will do. You’ll work like normal... and at 8 o’clock tonight.... Schale will buy your entire day’s inventory.”

“Ho-eeeeEEEEEEEHHHH?”

[That... doesn’t seem practical long term.]

“B-b-but how?”

Wordlessly, he slapped the Adult Card onto the counter.

“Is... is this the adult card? I was told you pay later with this?” Sora poked at the card as if it might explode. But her eyes were sparkling as she looked at it from different angles. “I’ve never seen one before.”

No matter the world, kids loved something that seemed to promise infinite money.

“I’ll put it all on my credit and sort it out once my salary situation is figured out. Worst case scenario, I’ll sell some of the technology I brought from my world” Forena said with exhaustion leaking into his voice. This morning exploration took it out of him mentally, spiritually and now financially. “Temporary solution, but I’m sure the company will appreciate the windfall. A good Adult knows when to show they are operating in good faith.”

“And if someone needs something desperately while I’m gone?”

“I’ll sleep in the building tonight. If someone enters in distress, I’ll walk down. I can even sleep in the late afternoon and come down to say goodnight when I wake.”

Better inform the company so they don’t overstock. Ammunition and guns I can store upstairs. Perishables… I’ll need to determine the logistics of storage or donation. A headache, but it gives me something to do after exploring the rest of the building.

“Y-you don’t need to do any of this for me, Sensei... but thank you.” She sniffled while doing her best to keep up her smile. This time it wasn’t the customer service one, but a genuine one of appreciation.

The smile was soon replaced with a shaky open mouth “hawawawa” as Forena’s right arm unleashed a storm of head pats.

. . .

Forena: Sorry, Rin. Didn't get a chance today to look at that paperwork you sent over. I should manage it tomorrow, though! Learning the ins and outs of the building and dealing with a sudden influx of merchandise took up all my time.

Rin: If you are unable to handle it, please let me know soon.

Forena: Of course, I'll do just that.

Provisional Sensei Day 6

Yuuka adjusted her tie as she stood outside the Schale club room. It was important that nothing be out of place in her uniform. On her shoulders, she carried the dignity of Seminar, Millenium School’s student council.

She was determined to leave a good impression on the Sensei of Schale! It wouldn’t be any of the disciplinary committees of other schools, but a proper student council member who showed him that it was his duty to support Kivotos. In doing so, she would give Millenium a leg up over the other schools and secure the gratitude of Rin of the General Student Council.

And most importantly... get Rin to stop badgering her with MomoTalk messages! It was equal parts annoying and concerning anytime the proxy leader of the city was in her DMs. That couldn’t stop soon enough.

Deep breaths, Yuuka. Keep your composure, be gracious yet firm, and keep to your objectives. All things can be understood logically.

She pushed open the door and entered the clubroom for the first time.

A quick glance showed that Sensei still hadn’t fully moved into the office. There were multiple sealed cardboard boxes along the wall by the window and on top of the shelves of a storage rack. The assorted guns on the wall were useless to the halo-less adult, so they were likely decorations from before he moved in.

Really, it looked like he was doing his best to not live in the world. Even from afar, her impressive eyesight allowed her to see the layers of dust on multiple cabinets.

Honestly... he is so stubborn about not stepping over the line! Even in MomoTalk he keeps being so distant!

The stubborn fool in question was eating some bread at his desk. He gave a small wave, but his furtive glances to the side only raised her suspicions.

“I’m so sorry to bother you while you are eating. I was delayed in getting the invoice I mentioned in my message ready. Please take a look when you have a moment.”

“It’s fine. I wanted to eat something small today. I... may need some assistance reviewing the invoice though, please understand.” He was still squirming, far from his confidence when leading them in battle. Did she do something to cause this?

It was almost like... no, exactly like when she came to do an inspection on the budgets of a club after they had done something utterly asinine with their finances.

“Let me tidy your desk while you are eating,” she offered to maintain the poise of a Seminar member. Anything to show him to benefit of being Sensei. Also, she did honestly feel bad about interrupting when he was eating; she hated when people did that to her.

“Thanks, Yuuka,” he muttered after taking a big swallow of the bun, “I can look while eating.”

"You really should be eating something more nutritious than just bread though," she admonished him. "Don't make that a habit."

“Believe me, I will soon have more than enough food ordered in. This is only temporary...” His muttered second sentence was almost inaudible.

“Hm, okay. Some days you need a small snack to get through it. I understand.” As she tidied up his desk and he stared at the simple invoice as if it was a fierce foe, she noticed a receipt lying nearby.

Forever focused on numbers, she couldn’t help noticing a strange discrepancy. One line specifically was much longer than the others.

Water bottles... fifteen dollars... coffee cups... five dollars... coffee packets... thirty dollars... protein bars...

“TWELVE HUNDRED DOLLARS!?”

“But the coffee maker was only fifty because it was on sale,” Sensei muttered, looking anywhere but the enraged treasurer.

“Sensei! Explain this receipt! This is a month’s worth of food! Why did you spend twelve hundred dollars on protein bars!? Did you give up all other meals for protein bars... you must be out of your mind!”

“Okay, so, let me explain. There is a reason for this!” Sensei yelled in despair as she towered over him. All thoughts of poise and dignity and showing him the value of her work were out the window.

“I’m listening,” came her clipped response.

“So when I was buying them online, I was trying to decide how many I needed. Initially, I was going to buy twenty to try them out. But if I eat one a day — I was quite fond of protein bars in my world, you see — then that’s not even a one-month supply. And then I realized I would have students who I should feed as well. So even thirty might not be enough; I don’t want someone escorting me who goes hungry. So I doubled it to sixty.”

“... And? How does that lead to this?”

“... The site had me put in how many boxes I wanted... not how many bars.”

There was a tense silence between the two. When he seemed to remember he was supposed to be the Sensei, he sat up straight again and tried to say that he didn’t need to defend his spending habits to a student.

“PROVISIONAL Sensei,” that deflated him again, “did you buy sixty boxes of protein bars?”

“Even I don’t know what to do with them...”

She resisted the urge to yell at him. She needed to remind herself that he was new to computers and such a system could hit even the technology-literate. “Fine. I understand how this happened, but it’s the only time I’ll accept it. I’m going to start reviewing your expenses myself! Where do you keep your checkbook and credit statements?”

"Checkbook?"

“.... Sensei. I’m going to keep calm. So, gather all your receipts from the past few days.” She stepped around to his side of the desk and leaned over him to grab some papers. “From now on, I’ll be your bookkeeper and the one monitoring your expenses.”

“Hold on, Yuuka,” he interrupted her with a suddenly serious tone. He sat up straight in his chair, losing his usual slouch, and faced her directly. Only now did she realize how close they were together, and she had to keep from blushing.

“What, got a problem with that?” She spat out far harsher than she intended due to focusing on keeping her composure.

“You... are going to help me keep track of my finances and the math involved? You think it is normal and follows the rules for a student, a child, to do that for an Adult?”

She sniffed at the comment and its implication that she was too young to handle someone’s finances. “Sensei, I’m the best treasurer in the city. I can assure you, something like this is absolute child’s play—“

“THANK YOU, YUUKA!”

He slammed his head downwards in a bow so sudden she nearly fell on her butt. “E-eh?”

“You don’t understand how much of a relief it is to have help! I always had a subordinate or higher-up handling the company’s budget and expense reporting. I hate math! Please tell me what to do.”

“O-oh, well then.” She puffed herself up with pride and smiled a little. “Geez, you better remember that nobody else will be helping you sort your receipts like this...”

“I owe you my life.” He said with utter seriousness. “Can you also provide financial advice about investments? There is this mine I’m interested in buying a portion of…”

How did we suddenly switch topics like that? Wait, he wants to do mining? “Are you getting involved in crypto!? Absolutely not! I forbid you!”

“Eh, what’s a crypto?” He tilted his head. “I mean a mine where you mine stones from the planet’s underground. I found one that gets these gems called pyroxene. Very few are involved with it, but I have a sense its value has simply yet to reveal itself. Especially considering its name.”

She facepalmed and shook her head. So he won’t immediately choose to become a full-time sensei but wants to dig up rocks, okay. Sure. All these plans on how to win him over and this is what he presented her.

“Sensei, be honest. Are you the type to get scammed a lot?” First the protein bars, now some gem she’d never heard of.

“Far from it.”

The confident delivery cut her short. Yuuka removed her hand from her face and properly faced (Provisional) Sensei. His powerful gaze radiated a confidence and dignity strong enough to almost force her to agree without question. Against her wishes, she felt herself drawn to his powerful aura. A simple demeanor change, yet it switched the tone of the conversation completely.

Now mining rocks didn’t seem so foolish.

The adult prepared a cup of tea while he spoke. “I’m a little infamous for a sharp nose and great instincts when it comes to investments. Not perfect, who is, but my victories far outstrip my failures. Improperly tapped markets was my forte.”

While she wavered in the face of his charisma, he placed a cup of tea in front of her. “It’s all about understanding the rules. That’s all life is. Grasp the shape and meaning of the hidden ones, and you’ll ‘dig,’” she groaned at the pun he was clearly proud of, “into the patterns that surround us.

“Then why do you need me,” she asked. If he was so confident and accomplished why not proceed alone?

“I, uh, need someone to help nail down the specifics. Once we get into the 20% stake versus 25% stake versus 15% but with a downpayment… help. Please. Math. It burns. How do I calculate profit, my crew is dying.”

It was the most confident begging she ever witnessed. No change to his expression or posture. Yet the pathetic whine in his voice…

“Jeez. Fine. If you are looking to invest I’ll take a look and keep you from being ripped off. But you better listen, you hear! Maybe I can even get your input on Millenium affairs if you smell a good deal.” He won’t be asking that often, right?

“Yuuka!” he yelled and slammed his body onto the desk in a sudden bow. “Thank you so much!” Bow. “You won’t regret it in the long term, I swear.” Another bow. “Glorious savior. Brilliant treasurer. Slayer of the exponent. Decimal diva.”

Yuuka let out a long sigh at how quickly he abandoned any trace of dignity when math was involved. Still, this... did accomplish her goal, didn’t it? Now Sensei was looking up to her, owed her a debt that she could use to help Millennium later, and secured her a reason to be around him more in the future.

This was perhaps the only time in her life she’d be appreciative of someone being terrible at financial literacy.

A sudden stroke of inspiration flashed in her mind. A way to accomplish her last goal was right in front of her, wasn’t it?

“But... I can only do this for a ‘provisional’ Sensei for so long. Now, if you were a full-time Sensei, I’d be able to justify my time to the president more.” She smirked, savoring each word of the explanation as she painted him into a corner. “Right, Sensei?”

“GUH.” He curled in on himself a little at the sudden jab. Oh, breaking his composure was fun. She could get used to seeing him looking flustered....

“Riiiiiight?”

“Didn’t think I was gonna be struck with that again so soon after the last hit,” he muttered into the table, without the energy to bow again.

“Now, let me take a look at these credit statements...” she said as she took a look at the webpage Sensei had on his screen when she arrived. It was equally important to make him aware of her value as it was to demonstrate it sincerely. All his finances would be in line before she left, and she’d get Schale’s reimbursement for her bullet usage.

“Wait, Yuuka! Hold on a second!” Sensei yelled desperately.

“Sensei, is there something you don’t want me to see? You need to be a responsible adult, so there better not be any weird adult purchases or—“

Her eyes looked at a huge entry near the bottom of the credit list.

“I can explain—“

“WHAT DID YOU DO AT ANGEL 24!?”

Oh, I won’t let him off for this one!

. . .

Forena: Good evening. Sorry, again Rin. Today was busy going over my finances and visiting the library again. I needed some books on investment strategies and fashion of Kivotos. But it should be done by the morning.

Rin: ………… Okay.

---------------------

Provisional Sensei Day 7

Forena: Good morning Rin. I, uh, didn't get a chance last night like I expected. I'm sending them back to you this morning. I know the deadline is really soon so hopefully you are able to handle it. I'm going to be working with Yuuka again today. So it should be fine right?

Rin: ………….. Just send them over. I'll handle them somehow.

With that last message, Forena closed MomoTalk. "Tonight's the big night. Let's see what the future will hold. It's all in your hands now, Rin.

. . .

“Geez, I didn’t think Yuuka was ever going to let me off today,” Forena commented as he walked through the dark streets. “I barely had time to myself. Wasn’t yesterday’s credit handling enough?”

[You did also put meals for Serina, Suzumi, Ui, and Shimiko on your credit card yesterday, Sensei. That was a lot of expenses, considering how expensive Trinity district is. Plus, you were the one who wanted her evaluations regarding that pyroxene mining operation.]

“They took time out of their day to help me research mining techniques in Kivotos; it was a worthwhile expenditure. Even Yuuka agreed… eventually.”

Still, this wasn’t the first time he’d been yelled at over finances multiple days in a row. If the alternative was to do them all himself, he would withstand any screams from the Treasurer and thank her for her consideration of his financial health to boot!

It was sad that a student decided he needed to be ‘taken care of’, but Forena was an Adult who knew his weaknesses. Sometimes being an Adult was accepting the charity of others with grace.

“Now, shall we see the result of our bet, Arona?”

[I’m sure I’m going to win!]

He looked up at the night sky and the stars and halos far above the DU. Cutting through the sky was the tallest building in the whole city, the Sanctum Tower. Forever humming as the beating heart of the city. The foundation stone of Kivotos.

But today, his target was a different building: the GSC headquarters.

When he stepped up to the front door, the doors slid open automatically to welcome the provisional Sensei.

“Good evening, Ayumu. Thank you for putting up with my request,” he said with an apologetic smile at the student who greeted him back.

Iwabitsu Ayumu was Rin’s secretary and a member of the GSC’s Arbitration Office. The tall student had long wavy blonde hair reaching down to her legs and green eyes that seemed to always be open in surprise when near Forena. On her forehead was a blue crystal, while on her back she had two large black wings that seemed to fit more with Trinity than the GSC.

Forena still hadn’t gotten a primer on how students chose between attending a school or the GSC, so he wouldn’t be surprised if she was a former Trinity member after all.

“No, it’s no—,” she failed to suppress a yawn and rubbed her eyes, “no problem at all. I know you’ve been working hard since you got here. I’m glad I can be of assistance.”

“Seriously though, I owe you one. Let me know how you’d like me to return the favor.” Dragging a student out at midnight wasn’t exactly becoming of a Sensei, provisional or no, but it was important in this case. It was faith in that belief that led him to forgo taking an overly apologetic tone, instead simply showing his appreciation with a big smile.

“U-um, in that case. I’d love some pointers on how to complete my work more efficiently! I’m always falling behind on tasks, so if you have any advice or can sit with me one day I’d appreciate it!”

That was... completely in his power and played to his strengths. Huh. Convenient!

At least it wasn't a third example of his limited capabilities or another rough reminder of his weaknesses. He readily agreed to the request and patted her on the shoulder when she began to sway.

“Are you going to be alright returning home by yourself?” It’d partially defeat the point of her letting him in, but he didn’t want to leave her to her own devices if she was this sleepy.

She quickly shook her head while blushing as she let out another yawn. “I-I’ll be fine. Momoka pulled some strings with the other transportation officers and secured a cab for me. It’s waiting outside and will drive me home.”

Momoka… that was a name he still couldn’t put to a face. Perhaps he’d be meeting her soon.

With that settled, he bid her a good night and she wished him best of luck.

Once Ayumu had left the building, and he verified her cab was on its way to its destination, Forena marched to the elevator. Almost all the lights were out given the time, but the elevator still responded to his Sensei of Schale ID card. It wasn’t enough to let him into the building yet, but Rin didn’t want him to get stuck if he separated from a chaperone, so she keyed it to the elevators.

“Moment of truth, Arona.”

[Yes, Sensei.]

Tablet in hand, they rose together to the one floor that still had lights on despite the time.

“Knock knock, care package,” he said cheerfully as he knocked on the Vice President’s office door.

“Who could that—wait, S-sensei!? I mean... Forena?” Rin’s shout was followed by the sound of something falling off a desk.

“Are you decent, Rin?” he teased with his hand on the doorknob.

From inside the Shittim Chest, Arona tilted her head at her Sensei’s actions. Wasn’t this supposed to be serious?

“What kind of question is that?” Rin huffed from within her office. “Come inside if you need something. I hope it’s not something that could have been an email instead since we just spoke on MomoTalk this morning...”

He laughed and entered the door while shaking his head with a wry smile. “Who ever heard of a long-distance care package? No, this needed to be done in person.” He stepped inside and let out a faint “woo” at the sight of the piles of paper on top of, and around, Rin’s desk.

“They exist though? Could have left it in my mailbox or hired someone else to deliver it when it isn’t literal midnight.” Exhaustion sharpened an already sharp tongue until it was razor-sharp as she jabbed at him. Her expression shifted as she remembered she was trying to ingratiate herself with him, but the exhaustion won out.

He examined her face as he sat down in front of her. Halos apparently didn’t do an adequate job of preventing someone from gaining black bags under their eyes. In addition, her hair had become frazzled with numerous split ends.

She blushed as she realized she wasn’t in a presentable state, not having expected his sudden intrusion. “So, what do you need? If you have more late paperwork, please send it tomorrow.”

Instead of answering, he eyed the tops of the piles of paper and the varying symbols representing different academies. “Is this all the work you need to complete tonight?”

“Not tonight. Some have a whole day before they need to be filed. Turnaround time in the GSC is tight. A single error will get a rejection from the other offices, and then it needs to be fixed same-day or it’ll be fully rejected. Let alone all the requests from other schools where they tack on whatever deadline is convenient to them without any consideration to the GSC’s needs.”

She sighed and gave up on acting proper. “I wish I could just toss it out sometimes and not care anymore. But I can’t even say we’ve hit ‘stable’ yet.”

Incredible emotional maturity not to complain that I dumped even more work on her.

She picked up an expense form and checked that the numbers added up. “We are only barely preventing further backsliding.”

“... And is some of the work you are completing the type of requests you would send to Schale if you could? I know a few of the ones I sent can honestly be tossed out and nobody would know. Why not avoid the hassle?”

She missed the guilty wavering in his voice, or the sheer seriousness of the question. Focused on her work, she never looked up to see the two blue eyes staring at every movement or the clenching of his hands.

After a few minutes of silence between them, where she tried to pressure him to drop the topic, she gave in and sighed. “Yes, some of this work is what I’d be assigning to you. I know it seems like a lot — I can’t lie and say it isn’t — but it isn’t always like this. And even if I can ignore that paperwork you sent back, it still holds value to students. Even if it exhausts me, rejecting things for my convenience is against my principles. Please understand when you are evaluating the pros and cons—“

“I lose the bet then.”

She looked up from her paper and adjusted her glasses to get a better look at Forena. “Excuse me?” The words had sounded so resigned, but his expression was peaceful, as if he had resolved something difficult.

He leaned back in the chair and spread his arms wide as if to encompass the full room. “I lost the bet I made. I bet you wouldn’t be up here doing my work at midnight. But you are, so I lose.”

A shadow almost seemed to appear of her face as eyes narrowed and glasses flashed from the accumulated fatigue and irritation. "So you used me in a gamble. Did you enjoy it? What was your losing condition if I was pulling all-nighters, hm?"

He rested an elbow on the desk so that cheek met palm. The animosity didn't bother him at all and his peaceful visage stood in stark contrast to hers.

“I have to take responsibility and be Sensei.”

[I WIN! Sensei! Sensei! Sensei!]

“...... Huh?”

Heh, sometimes a person gets exactly what they want so easily they cannot process it.

“No provisional about it,” he clarified and closed his eyes. “I can’t be the only one not making sacrifices around here. Even a few days of delay are straining the system. You, and Kivotos, win.”

Rin didn’t respond immediately. Shellshocked initially, her eyes narrowed. Perhaps he acted too nonchalantly about it. If the sharp stare was any indication, she seemed suspicious that he was joking. Or worse, was too used to having what she wanted yanked out of her hands right when she obtained it.

Can’t even blame her for being suspicious after I quit so quickly the first time.

But when he nodded slowly with a smile, silently assuring her of his honesty, relief swept over her. “Then Forena, I mean, Sensei... I can call you that now, right? There isn’t some other concern holding things back?”

Ooh, he really had done a number on her. “That’s correct. Honestly,” he frowned as he thought about it, “you are basically the only person who respected the name in the first place. Which I appreciate, by the way. Everyone else came up with excuses to call me something else or push me to introduce myself as provisional Sensei.”

Arona nodded with some murmurs of agreement at the pressure campaign the students had unleashed upon Sensei. She might as well have been the captain of that brigade in secret.

He chuckled and closed his eyes to think over the previous several days. “So soon we will only be the ones to remember it, I’m sure.”

Rin chuckled. “First time I’ve shared a sort of secret name with someone, Forena-Sensei. Will you only be going by Sensei now if Forena was only a temporary placeholder?”

“Sounds good to me on both accounts, Rinny.”

“What did you just call me... I’ve changed my mind on sharing a secret name between us, Sensei.” She glowered at him.

“Ouch, shot down.” He laughed and waved away her sharp look. “But I mean that sincerely. I appreciate your respect of my identity, short-lived as it might have been.”

“Then why,” she paused with a complicated expression mixed between disappointment and confusion, “did you bet against me? Why bet that I would toss aside my work?”

“Oh, that’s easy. Because I expected I’d lose.”

“Hm?”
[Oh?]

Sensei picked up one of Rin’s pens and spun it between his fingers. “It would be too difficult to explain. The common-sense divide is too vast. Just... accept that I had to do things a certain way in order to accept this position. A ‘justification’ strong enough to be inarguable was necessary to make a consequential decision of this magnitude.”

It would be so, so much easier if he was home. His people would understand the need for justification and why he approached his problems in this manner. They’d see it, understand it, and expect his behavior.

No matter how I consider it though, I’d need to bring the walls down and reveal so much of my world to reach an understanding. Explain the significance of certain choices. How can I explain to those who can act so easily a need for pretexts, arguments and the form a decision needs?

The answer he came to was simple: he couldn’t. Rin and Arona would need to be satisfied with vague explanations and accept this was the best method available after speaking to Gematria.

He glanced out the window at the halo that surrounded the Sanctum Tower. "You all say Sensei so easily... but I think the only person who truly understood the sheer significance of it was the former president. Both what it means to have one, and how deep the weight of consequences had to be to require one."

"“Can you speak plainer, Sensei?” Rin was all business once again. This had to do with her precious Kivotos. The city she asked him to learn to love.

“... This is going to be a rougher year than you might expect. Even you don’t know how, when, or why the GSC president arranged for a summoned adult to hold such inexplicable power over the population of this city. What must she have seen to go to such lengths?” He sighed and looked back at Rin who sat with gritted teeth and brows knitted with anxiety. “Nor what she said to convince me to leave my world in order to mitigate a foreign world’s chaos.”

“Unless, as you have guessed, the summoning mystic operated without your consent and effectively kidnapped you.”

“Oh, right, that.” He effortlessly dropped another bombshell. “No chance of that. I don’t have any memory of it, but I certainly agreed to come here.”

Rin groaned and pressed her fingers into her temples. “It is too late to keep doing this to me, Sensei. How do you know that much?”

“My bag.”

“Your bag?”

He gestured at the leather duffel bag that he continued to keep by his side. The only thing that came with him besides his clothes. The same bag he naturally directed attention away from when speaking to others. Even Rin, who had been speaking to him for several minutes, looked surprised when her attention was brought to it. It had skirted her conscious awareness. As it should.

“When I checked its contents for the first time, I knew I had agreed to come. It is filled with common items, the type of things you could buy at our equivalent of a convenience store. Normally, I might carry some of them on my travels if I knew the location I was aiming for might not have that particular item. But that still would only be a small number.”

He patted his companion. “The only reason I would fill it with all these items is if I was sure that where I was traveling to, I wouldn’t have access to any of them. And the only place that fits that description is somewhere that isn’t my world. So you see, Rin,” his eyes flashed with a faint light, “I wasn’t just summoned. I was given time to prepare.”

“And you don’t remember any of this?”

“I don’t recognize buying any of these supplies except for some medicine I’ve kept for months. Whatever the reason, this was strategic.”

Honestly, it disturbed him a little. How much was coincidence and how much counted as an intentional design orchestrated by the GSC President… or even himself? Who he met, when he arrived, what he brought, how Schale was organized, and even why Wakamo attacked when she did became questions as to the scope of this web of manipulation.

Whatever the answers, only thing I know for sure is the situation was dire enough to justify my approval and the president’s efforts.

“But that would imply...” Rin grasped at the logic behind the choices made by the president. The goals her friend embarked on fulfilling. “Then, what is to be done now in that case...”

“A fabulous question, one worthy of an entire class to digest. My temporary answer is simply to endure and get rest when you can. Speaking of...” he got up and walked over to stand directly next to Rin.

“Sensei, what are you — eep!?”

“Sensei is enacting a curfew and bedtime as of now~” Sensei hummed after pulling Rin’s chair out and picking up the student into a princess carry. Whistling without a care in the world, he walked the struggling girl to the sofa he napped on during his first hour in the city.

“P-put me down! This is not only embarrassing, but you might hurt yourself.” She blushed, too busy being stunned by his audacity to be angry.

“I feel like all of you students are underestimating Sensei too much,” he continued, pleased to see an expression on her face that wasn’t tinged with exhaustion. “You all seem to treat me like I’m absolutely weak, but I’m simply incompatible with the weaponry system of Kivotos. Sensei may not have the crazy strength some of you possess, but he can still lift over his own weight without issue.”

As he gave the explanation he’d been biting his tongue on for several days, he wrapped the stunned third-year in a blanket and situated a pillow underneath her head.

If you can’t even properly stop me from doing this, you are so much more exhausted than you realize, Rin.

“I can’t take a break. I need to get more work done!” Rin protested while too caught up in the blanket to prevent him from taking off her glasses and gingerly setting them on a nearby corner table.

“These papers are officially Schale property and the responsibility of the Sensei of said organization.” He paused. “Unless it’s math so complicated my tablet can’t handle it. Then I’ll toss it to you when you wake up. This isn’t a negotiation; you already told me some of this was to be my responsibility. I outrank you on this.”

“You don’t know the first thing about the specific formats and methods we use to handle our documentation.”

“Oh, look how fortunate I am! There are piles of already completed paperwork filled in by the esteemed Nanagami Rin I can reference and learn the methodology from!”

“You say it is too late for me, but it’s the same for you.”

“On the contrary, I immediately went to sleep after Yuuka stopped admonishing my investment attempts and feel amazing. Good try though, I’ll note it on your performance review.”

“Sensei, you—“ she tried to sit up, but he pressed his left hand to her shoulder to keep her from rising. The adult’s right hand was preoccupied rubbing the wrinkles between her eyebrows with slow circular motions.

“I’ll apologize for the forceful method in the morning. For now, let me say this, Rinny. I will be Sensei because of you.”

She stared at him, their faces close as he placed his chin on the armrest by her pillow. She didn’t complain anymore and only listened as he loosened the stress held in her forehead.

“The president, and the me I don’t remember, set up the stage. However, becoming Sensei was not a choice I could make on my own. Sensei is not a Teacher. Sensei is someone who steps up because of the effort of students to overcome hardship. One who carries the name ‘one who’s lived ahead’. Because of you, I can be the Adult who steps up onto the stage to live ahead of you all. Thank you. It is now my turn.”

Whether exhaustion overwhelmed her or she finally gave in to his expression that brooked no argument, he didn’t know. The result, though, was obvious: her eyelids drooped until sleep took her.

Task one successful. Now for the more complicated one.

The piles of paper were daunting, almost overwhelming to look at. Almost any student who walked into the room would have turned around immediately at the ridiculous display.

Sensei’s vicious grin, like a predator about to sink its teeth into its next meal, was only visible to Arona.

How convenient to have everything I need within arm’s reach.

[Are you about to do something extreme?] Arona asked nervously. That wasn’t the sort of face anyone should have towards a ridiculous workload.

He popped into the Shittim Chest, holding onto a pile of paper with the symbol of Red Winter Federal Academy emblazoned at the top. In a place where the sleeping vice president wouldn’t hear, he admitted his true feelings.

“Don’t you see, Arona? Now it’s our turn to see how this city ticks.”

With that cryptic explanation, his consciousness returned from the Shittim Chest and he sat down in Rin’s chair.

It’s time to understand what the rules of this land are.

Sensei, advisor of the Independent Federal Investigation Club S.C.H.A.L.E, chosen of the GSC president, teacher to the students of Kivotos, and many more titles to come... officially reporting for duty.

Chapter Text

This isn't my room....

Rin stared blankly at the familiar, but not that familiar, ceiling in a daze before closing her eyes. This had to be a strange dream. When she woke up, she would be back in her room after a short sleep before returning to all the work that remained.

The piles and piles of work that remained.

Face twisted in displeasure, she tried to spin and shift in the blanket and leave this strange dream. Unfortunately, couches are thinner than beds, and she soon teetered on the edge.

Panic forced her to proper wakefulness, and she rolled back, confusion radiating through her. She was wrapped up in an unfamiliar cloth, not in her home, and lacked any recall of how she got here. Was this a kidnapping by a gang? A coup attempt?

“Careful there, Rin. Eating dirt first thing in the morning is a quick route to ruining a day.”

And now there was a male voice from somewhere in the room!? Who could....

Still focusing her sight, the adult sitting at the desk, her desk, was a fuzzy mess. But also he was a recognizable fuzzy mess.

“Forena?”

“... Huh, that feels odd hearing your first word of the day be that name. Looks like it might hang around a smidge longer.”

She blinked and stared groggily at him while her brain tried to catch up to the ever-developing situation. Rin was not a morning person at the best of times. A routine developed over years led her to manage the morning so she could approach her work in a rational and thorough manner by the time it rolled around. Now, none of her habits were possible from the couch in the now familiar room.

“Wait. I remember... you put me to sleep, Sensei!” It was all coming back. The adult’s declaration, carrying her to the couch, all the times he ignored her rejections of his improper goodwill, all of it came back in vivid detail.

Brimming with indignation, she sat up and groped for her glasses. Once equipped and ready to berate him, she fully took in the scene and paused.

Sensei glanced at her before returning to his work on the piles of paper. She watched in stunned shock as he blazed through reading one page after another without help. When he needed to mark something on the page, his hand breezed across the page with incredible speed.

During her sleep, he completely changed his outfit. The out-of-place clothes from his world were replaced with a grey suit and a white shirt. On his chest he wore a lanyard with his Schale badge. She didn’t know when, but he even cleaned up his stubble and now was completely clean-shaven.

Rin stared at him in shock as he continued to work. Clothes really do make the man. Just changing his outfit, putting some gel in his hair and ponytail, shaving, and no longer slouching completely shifted his demeanor. Now she would recognize him at a single glance as Sensei.

It was a sign of determination she didn’t expect. Was he the type of person who jumped into his work completely once he finally decided on something? Even watching him work was shocking due to his surprising intensity.

“Wait,” she exclaimed as her amazement faded into horror, “you need to read through everything properly .”

Blanket still wrapped haphazardly around her shoulders, she staggered to her feet and wobbled over to her desk. “There are very specific procedures you need to follow that I haven’t... introduced to you...”

How is this possible? I don't see any mistakes on these pages. He is even following proper protocol for the format of an inter-department request. Did he figure out the structure from reading my completed documents?

“According to the head librarian of Trinity, my reading speed is much higher than most students. Also, I have long experience being a paperwork slave, so I know the importance of proper formatting,” he explained dryly while completing another request.

“I can see that,” she stated, still stunned by his speed. Even when she was working at full tilt, it would be hard to operate this fast.

But judging by the piles of paper still organized on the desk, he needed a significant amount of time to ramp up and understand what might be needed for each situation.

Sensei glanced up at Rin’s cloudy expression and followed her gaze to the piles of paper still on and around the desk. “I’ve separated the work I’ve completed into several categories. Pile 1 are those I am certain I completed per requirements. Pile 2 includes all documents that require a stamped seal, and I know those are finicky, so I waited until you were awake to discuss procedure.”

It was as if he was reading her mind. Forena addressed her concerns about leaving him alone one by one.

A pile was devoted to work only Rin held the authority to directly address that Schale couldn’t interfere with.

Another pile was separated by binder dividers into smaller sections based on a specific requirement he wanted to verify before sending out.

He left sticky notes on each. ‘Seeking confirmation: Chinese numerals necessary for all invoices?’ ‘Seeking confirmation: Trinity requires all requests completed in triplicate?’ ‘Seeking confirmation: Valkyrie invoices need separate authorization through the chief of the Defense Office?’

And he was correct regarding all queries.

Rin adjusted her glasses and looked at the last pile. “Then what are the concerns with this one?”

“The math is higher than simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division, and I refuse to be involved with that.”

Sensei was putting her respect for him on a rollercoaster ride.

“Don’t look at me like that, Rin,” he whined. “We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Better I don’t touch anything my tablet can’t confirm for me than deal with endless reworks.”

She sighed, but couldn’t disagree with the logic. Rework was an endlessly frustrating task, especially if Aoi got involved. The Chief Financial Officer would sniff out any mistakes or issues with regulations in a heartbeat and was merciless in her rejection.

In some ways he was lucky he lacked mathematical acuity; Aoi would grab him in a heartbeat to help with balancing the GSC’s financial records.

Perhaps sensing that his victory was imminent, Sensei smirked at Rin in a way that made her want to yank his face. “So, did you sleep well to the sound of my pen?”

“We aren’t doing this again. This was a mistake that I won’t be repeating.” Rin growled, glowering at him.

Before he could reply, likely with a smartass remark, the door to her office opened. “Oh, Rin is making mistakes now?”

Into the room stepped a short student with pink hair tied into two fluffy twintails. Her long blue demon tail swishing behind her and tiny black horns with green tips showed she was from the Gehenna district. In the middle of eating a chip, she froze upon seeing the scene in the room.

“Momoka... you,” Rin began.

The tiny girl’s smirk made Rin seriously contemplate throwing her out the window. “Oh, it’s that sort of mistake. I see, I see. Well, even the great Rin needs some relief from her work. I was wondering why I didn’t see an End of Day email from you when I woke up this morning. Now I see you were too busy with Sensei.”

She nodded with whatever understanding she came to.

It was at this moment that Rin realized she was standing in her office… in the morning… while hovering over Sensei’s shoulder. To make it worse, she had messy couch hair, a disheveled uniform, and still had the damn blanket wrapped around her shoulders!

Without a single care for her building rage, Sensei greeted Momoka. “We haven’t met yet, have we? I’m the new Sensei.”

“Nice to meet you,” Momoka chirped. “Please take care of our Rin.”

“Oh, she is taking care of me more than I am taking care of her,” he paused and then smiled pleasantly, “well except last night I guess I took care of her more.”

“Sen. Sei.”

“Is Rin awake? Oh, good morning, Sensei!” Ayumu walked up behind Momoka as if to add to the mess. “Good morning to you as well, Rin.”

“Good morning, Ayumu. Did you get home safely last night?”

“Y-yes I did,” Ayumu stuttered as she looked properly at Sensei and Rin. Rin could feel her cheeks heating in equal parts anger and embarrassment at the predicament Sensei had put her in.

“Oh, Sensei,” Momoka chomped on a chip and laughed, “so you were the reason Ayumu needed a cab home after midnight? I was wondering who she might be seeing, to think you are already getting handsy with both her and Rin. Color me impressed.”

Sensei smiled at the comment, and then slowly turned to look at Rin.

Rin, now absolutely sure that her anger was beating out embarrassment, smiled darkly right back at Sensei.

“If I say more, I think I’m getting a stapler across the head, so I’m going to shut up.”

Wisest move he made the whole morning.

After explaining the situation, calming down a flustered Ayumu, and scaring off Momoka with the threat of an increased workload, Rin felt the weight of exhaustion creep up again.

This was a different tiredness than overwork. A clinging exhaustion from managing emotions far too high for so early in the morning. All with a full day still ahead of her.

At least she had her chair back.

"Three more concerns before I head out for my work shift if you'd indulge me a little longer," Sensei said from his new position in the corner of the room she relegated him to.

Be happy he took the job, Rin. Be appreciative that he did about ten hours of your workload and didn't set anything on fire. Focus on the importance of his role to Kivotos. Try to ignore how he suddenly awoke to a mean, teasing streak the moment he became Sensei.

One deep, steadying breath later, she bid him to continue.

“I put a couple papers aside over here. They were unusual requests and, well, demands from Gehenna.” He waved at stack of paper in his grounded corner. “Seems to be a location of strong centralized power, but their paperwork is... mostly terrible? These all can be rejected if I’m understanding this correctly.”

“Correct. Makoto of the Pandemonium Society submits correct paperwork maybe one in ten times. The problem is that those one in ten are extremely important.”

Despite the chaos that academy maintained, you needed some level of competence and political acumen to maintain her high ratings and grip on power. Extremely frustrating as it meant they couldn’t dismiss anything submitted out of hand.

Sensei slapped the pile onto the shredder where it belonged with a refreshing smile. They were similar in that emotion. “Got it, got it. And Red Winter, on the other hand, seems to have multiple leaders? Is it similar to Trinity’s Tea Party, where there is a triumvirate system?”

It was too early in the morning to hear that name. Rin sighed and shook her head. “Red Winter has frequent changes in leadership. You are seeing the results from different policies.”

He flipped through the pages again, looking at the top of each one. “... Multiple leaders in the same week?”

“Occasionally.”

He raised an eyebrow and pointed to the last page. “Also, do they use... pudding as a currency?”

“Occasionally.”

“.................. A delightful society whose methods create circumstances that require unique approaches and should be handled at an appropriate pace, I see,” he commented after a significant delay.

She recognized the pain in his eyes as it mirrored her own.

Translation: So that’s a pain in the ass I’m not going to deal with until I have to!

“Final question... and I want you to answer this with sincerity because I ask it without judgement or humor.” He stood up and sat down in the desk chair across from her with a serious expression. Spurred on by his change in mood, Rin sat up straighter in her chair and faced him.

“I will do what I can.”

“Which academy is the shame of the General Student Council? The one the GSC failed. The one that even the president could not properly address.”

Her gaze urged him to continue his line of thinking.

“No matter the location, no matter the organization... someone gets left behind. And with a federalized authority body like the GSC overseeing so many districts, there must be ones that do not get the support they need. You’d be spread too thin otherwise. What I want to know after spending a whole night going through so many requests...”

His hands rested on top of the two largest piles of paper. Now that she considered it, he must have learned a tremendous amount about the city just through the type of requests that were filtered past her desk. But not every district.

“Which district is the one you first think of as one that stopped even reaching out because they had already been abandoned?”

Maybe he already knew before asking and wanted confirmation. Or the large absence amidst the wave of information caught his attention and suspicions.

Either way, the answer was obvious if he wanted to know who even the president lamented failing.

“Abydos High School. I wouldn’t use the term, but per your description it would match as the ‘Shame of the GSC’.”

He nodded without judgement or derision. A simple acknowledgement and nothing more. “The history books I borrowed from Trinity spoke a lot about Abydos, and yet I didn't see any paperwork from them. What happened?”

There was no point in hiding it; a simple search online would tell him the basics. “Abydos was once one of the largest three districts, rivaling Gehenna and Trinity. It is in fact the oldest school in all of Kivotos. It could be said that the history of Kivotos is the history of Abydos.”

He urged her to continue, staring at her while barely blinking.

“Starting about five years ago, a wave of desertification hit the district. The desert was always part of Abydos, but it suddenly began expanding. Sandstorms wiped out massive parts of the district, and the vast majority of the residents needed to flee. In only a few years, the district has now become mostly sand and ruins.”

“What of the school itself?”

“Like the rest of the district, it is a shell of its former self. After the sudden death of its student council president two years ago, it is now on life support with only the vice-president and four other students to its name. Before you ask, I do not know why the vice-president has refused to take on the role of president and all entreaties from the GSC have been ignored.”

Sensei placed his tablet on the desk and began typing furiously. Compared with his impressive writing speed, his typing was far slower. Likely a result of inexperience. “Foul play by a rival?”

“Excuse me?” That wasn’t the question she had expected.

“It was one of the big three schools. Millenium is one of the youngest schools and rose as the oldest school fell. And now you mention the first death of a student I have heard, especially odd considering the protection your halos provide. Was there any suspicion that the desertification was a result of foul play?” His voice was quiet but held a force to it that made her shudder.

“Millennium is renowned for its scientific pursuits, but even they can’t cause a cataclysmic climate shift like that,” Rin assured the wary Sensei. “And halos protect us, but we are not invincible. It isn’t unheard of for a student to die, and Abydos’ environment now is one of the harshest in all of Kivotos.”

Sensei relaxed a bit, and the pressure in the room diminished. Trust an adult to move straight to such a horrifying possibility.

Though the president has kept an extremely close eye on Abydos throughout her tenure...

"Hm, it is true that I haven't seen any student deaths in the last three months of obituaries I investigated, but that doesn't mean it is impossible."

Rin flinched in horror at the revelation. "Obituaries?"

"You learn a lot about a world by how people die and how they are mourned. Please continue about Abydos."

She decided to let that one slide for now. Perhaps this was normal for his world. She took a deep breath to steady herself and remember where she was in her explanation.

“As I was saying. Making the situation worse, the school needed to spend tremendously to keep the district functioning and is now under a massive debt that even we don’t know the full extent of. While they reached out many times to the president for help, the GSC can’t simply bail out one district, no matter the size. Every other school would then demand similar financial compensation for their woes.”

“And I’m sure they weren’t booing when one of their greatest rivals came crashing down.”

“Quite,” Rin agreed with a sour expression. Rivalries between the districts were intense. While they weren’t at war like in the far-flung past, that suspicion never fully left the councils.

“Then I have my first target as Sensei.”

Damn it, I was afraid he was going to say that.

“Sensei, the situation in Abydos is one even we can’t resolve. The few schools we have informed of your presence are already extremely suspicious of Schale’s power. Resolving an easier conflict would build good PR and show the other schools that you are a force they can rely on. If your first effort fails, it’ll be a weight across your shoulders that will impede you in the future.”

He stared at her, without judgment and without agreement.

“I urge you to consider the different proposals offered to you first. ... But you are going to listen to that about as faithfully as you did to me last night, aren’t you?”

It wasn’t a question. His eyes were resolute.

“Rin. I was summoned here to do what the GSC can’t. I do like diligent people like you quite a lot, I can assure you.” She blushed a little at the comment. “But Sensei is someone who will take the reckless path when there doesn’t seem like any other way to protect these kids.” He slapped a hand to his chest. “I’ll be the one to step up.”

“... Fine. I wish you the best. Shall I prepare an escort?”

“No need, Rinny,” he smiled and waved his tablet at her. “I already prepared it.” He stepped out of her office, giving his last request as he exited. “All you need to do is let every school know that Sensei is here.”

---------------------

“Greetings, Black Suit. I didn’t expect to meet again this soon.”

Black Suit chuckled as he entered Gematria’s sanctum. “Hello Golconde, Decalcomanie,” he greeted the duo. “It seems many unexpected things are happening all around Kivotos. What is a meeting between comrades when compared to the shifts within this city?”

Even compared to Black Suit, Golconde and Decalcomanie were an enigmatic duo. Golconde appeared as a monochromatic portrait of a man wearing a black bowler hat. He was stuck permanently facing away from the frame he was held behind, only visible as the back of his head.

Decalcomanie’s body existed outside the picture frame as a man wearing a brown trench coat and wielding a cane. However, while Golconde was simply a head, Decalcomanie was headless, with black smoke emanating from his severed neck. He held Golconde’s portrait in his left hand to serve as his missing head.

“I suppose that is true. Compared to the arrival of a new foreigner to our midst, what is this meeting but business as usual?”

“But of course!” shouted Decalcomanie.

“Will it only be the two of us in attendance?” Black Suit looked at the two empty spots on the floor.

“The Maestro and the Madame are currently preoccupied with their project in the ruins. They have yet to express the same level of interest in the newcomer as we have.”

“Hm. Perhaps it is for the best.” Black Suit recalled the meeting with the provisional Sensei. “I’m not sure how well the Madame and he would have gotten along.”

“Regardless, we are here and very interested in your thoughts after meeting him.”

“Of course!”

“Hm. To summarize the most important point: Sensei will not be joining Gematria. Unfortunately, I never managed to bring to him a purpose that resonated with him enough to pursue our ends in tandem.” Black Suit crossed his arms and sighed. “And while I offered him the opportunity to join us, while still taking on the Sensei title, he didn’t believe he could do both.”

“Naturally,” Golconde said without hesitation, “there was never a world in which you convinced him to side with Gematria. To do so would flout all conventions.”

“... I fail to see how my efforts would always prove to be fruitless,” Black Suit said with a hint of irritation in his voice.

“What traditional story would allow the protagonist, the hero, to join hands with a group such as ours before the first act’s beginning? The opening act must establish his standing before such twisting of the narrative will be allowed.” Golconde ignored Black Suit’s irritation and spoke with full faith in his words.

“But of course!” Decalcomanie yelled vigorously.

“His role as Sensei holds too much meaning. The sign he embodies requires him to stand before his student. It is the shape of the very hole he was summoned to fill. It is why I am so fascinated by what his choices will be.”

Black Suit tapped his foot. “But he abandoned the position already once; would that not go against your reading?”

“A simple refusal of the call, my dear, Black Suit. Taking such a leaf from the Hero’s Journey only verifies my suspicions of his existence.”

Black Suit tutted. No matter how much he might wish to deny Golconde’s confident assertions, it was true that he failed to convince the foreigner. In addition, Torn’s arguments leaned more towards taking the role, mostly expressing a skepticism towards his ability to handle it rather than any dislike of the students. The possibility of his becoming a true sensei remained likely.

“... Well, the discussion was not fruitless. I learned much about Torn through his demeanor and answers. We even came to an agreement to see each other as business associates and keep the possibility of future collaborations open.”

“Torn?” Decalcomanie asked with a deviation from his usual ‘of course!’

“That is the epithet he requested he be addressed by during our talks. I’m not sure if he uses others.”

“Torn... Torn... Torn!” Golconde laughed as he repeated the word. “Now I regret not attending your meeting. Besides being torn between different decisions, I wonder what other meanings he holds. Surely it could not be that alone. What sort of sign did he embody? What texts does he refer to in his existence? Curious.”

The portrait of the man shook with his laughter, his head still facing away from Black Suit. Decalcomanie held onto his “head” tighter to ensure it did not slip from his grasp.

“Speaking of, Torn mentioned that we were underestimating the role of Sensei. He also mentioned the signs. Never have I so wished you were present in a business meeting of mine. While it is possible to be unrelated... he saw the scar left behind by his arrival in Kivotos as well as vestiges from when one of us arrived.”

“You say that as if you do not normally wish we were present in your meetings.”

Black Suit merely chuckled in response.

“Truly... does he also see into this existentialist’s limbo as we do? No, his behavior doesn’t seem to match. Perhaps his sight only touches the barest threads of the meaning of things. Perhaps I should introduce him to the Library of Lore in the future...” Golconde hummed to himself. “Ah, how the story deepens with every turn. A weight sinking into the very foundation of this land and its Mystics.”

His words grew more passionate, an oration presented to the world itself rather than his quiet colleague. “What else can you call one who rejects the role of king to stand amongst the people, but that of hero? This narrative, shall it truly be written for him? If not villains, what role shall we hold in his pathway? What meaning will we drip onto the signs that surround us? How will he decipher our text?”

Curiosity almost transformed into giddiness. Yet it never crossed the line. For he read the texts too deeply to lose himself beyond his research.

Black Suit did not share Golconde’s enthusiasm. “... Then you truly believe him to be part of a narrative as a hero?”

“Of COURSE!”

“... Then perhaps I should move before his journey truly begins. I don’t expect him to be involved with Abydos, but if by any chance he does.”

Black Suit turned to walk away. “If everything is finished before he can move, then there will be no story left to interfere in. I will address Kaiser and tell them to finish the job.”

“Of course!”

“If that is your will. I look forward to seeing what text you both glean from each other’s signs.”

Black Suit waved his hand and then halted, a remaining doubt nagging at him. “One last thing, Torn assumed we had a hand in the attack on Schale. I do not believe we had any hand in it, but I wanted to confirm. You did not aggravate the prisoner, correct?”

“I was not aware of our illustrious friend’s arrival until he completed his task there. The aspect of destruction’s move was not mine. It was a natural consequence of the structure and nature of this world and the summoner who began this tale.”

“That being?”

Golconde laughed once more.

“What would be Sensei’s story without a prologue?”

“OF COURSE!”

“Hmph. Farewell to you both then.”

Black Suit stepped out of the room and vanished, leaving only the paired duo behind. Sign and text blended in necessary harmony.

“... Finally, it draws near. One who leaves a scar so deep into the nature of Kivotos that its heart will be exposed for all to see. Even those that lack the sight. Let us be audience and hurdle to the one whose rules shall reveal that which underpins this world’s beginning.”

Only the world existed to answer him, and it was not so quick to respond. Nothing but the echoes in the large room remained as he vanished.

---------------------

4th Day as Sensei

“So this is Abydos,” Sensei noted as he looked at the desert out the window of the train. Across from him, Suzumi of the Vigilante Crew and Serina of the Remedial Knights were also seeing the view for the first time.

“I’m so glad Captain Mine approved my leave of absence to help you, Sensei,” Serina said as she checked her phone. “It says it’s 97 degrees (36 Celsius) outside. You are at risk of heatstroke if you wander around outside for too long!”

Sensei chuckled at her passionate care for his health. From the moment the pink-haired member of the Knights Hospitaller helped him verify the efficacy of Mystice medicine, Serina showed an almost excessive care for his health. Apparently, bruising his hands as a test spooked her.

When he sent in his request for the two Trinity students to assist him in his exploration of Abydos, the delay in their arrival had been procedural, not due to lack of enthusiasm. Suddenly swiping a medic from a school was, apparently, something that needed some finessing and a wad of paperwork to boot.

Having the luxury of letting bureaucracy run its course before medics can be deployed between districts is quite novel. To think they are accustomed to having that sort of time available. Inter-district emergencies must be rare.

Back in his world, medics moved around as they pleased when they wanted or per the needs of conflict. He wouldn’t disparage either system, though. The knights were enthusiastic, trained, and certainly had work to do. Even during his brief talk with Serina for the first time, they had multiple students recovering from a ‘rocket attack’ — whatever that was.

While Serina worried about the weather, Suzumi relaxed in her chair with her headphones on. The Vigilante Crew member was ‘on duty’ whenever they weren’t completely safe, so Sensei encouraged her to at least relax during their travel on the train.

Seeing that they were approaching another station, he glanced at his tablet. Arona gave him a silent thumbs-up to show they had arrived at their destination. With desertification being so rampant in the district, only the train maps were valid.

During the three-day delay between choosing to assist Abydos and getting Serina and Suzumi’s approval for a multi-day leave of absence, he and Arona had poured over multiple maps.

If we hadn’t triple checked who knows how lost we would have gotten...

Arona was a powerful AI, but she was bound to whatever information she accessed. And misinformation plagued Abydos via out-of-date maps and websites that looked polished but were long abandoned.

Even the one they were using was more in the realm of ‘probably accurate’.

“Looks like this is the stop closest to the school’s current location, everyone ready?” Sensei asked as he secured his bag on his shoulder. Their copious excess luggage was to be stored at the station until he put in a request to claim it. Being the advisor of Schale really came with numerous perks.

Serina and Suzumi agreed, and the three of them prepared to disembark. When the doors opened, he quickly tossed a pebble from his pocket out the doors and watched it clatter across the cement.

Serina and Suzumi disembarked first after a glance at each other, and Sensei followed afterwards. As soon as he stepped onto the cement, he hopped three times and surveyed his surroundings. “Hm, welcome to Abydos, I suppose. Nothing to be worried about yet.”

“Um, Sensei. Are you feeling okay?” Serina asked with a concerned expression. “Are you worried about deep vein thrombosis during travel? You should stand up during travel if that is part of your medical history!”

“He did the little hop thing before and after getting on the train as well though,” Suzumi noted in confusion.

“For simplicity’s sake, call it a superstition from my world. I know it’s irrelevant here, but habits die hard.” Explaining the particulars of the little ritual would raise more questions, and everything pointed to it being a useless conversation.

This was absolutely not the information he wished to provide to Kivotos yet. Better to keep the purpose locked up.

Adapting to no longer needing to do something always takes longer than simply following a new rule set.

Neither looked convinced by the explanation. Which was good since it was a weak reasoning. Also, they’d need to accept it.

Walking past the girls and the issue alike, he continued, “I’m good now. Let’s make our way to Abydos High School.”

“Okay.”

“If you are sure, Sensei.”

He checked the map Arona provided again. “So we should first turn left at the light...”

Three hours passed before they all had to come to the same conclusion.

“Well, we are lost.”

[I’m sorry, Sensei! You barely get any signal here!]

He sighed and shrugged. Arona laughed at the possibility of getting lost in an urban environment, but Sensei took the warning seriously. None of this was unaccounted for.

“Got protein bars for when we are hungry,” he assured his students. He ignored Suzumi’s ‘Of course you do.’

“I have water and electrolyte gummies so we don’t get too dehydrated or low on sodium.” Serina announced. “I’m surprised you haven’t needed anything yet, Sensei. It’s far hotter than Trinity ever gets, and you aren’t sweating much in that suit. Are you sure you aren’t dehydrated?”

“Sensei has always been tolerant of high temperatures,” he explained. Upon seeing her disgruntled stare, he relented. “But it has been an hour since our last water break. Once we get on top of those ruins over there, we can take a break and get the lay of the land.”

Now she was all smiles. If a little extra self-care was all that was necessary for that relieved expression to bloom on her face, he’d do so easily.

Where once there must have been a bustling shop, there was only sand and destroyed appliances. A busted cash register and vending machine showed that the building had been looted at least once. Sensei sat down in the shade of a broken wall and took a swig from the provided water bottle while Suzumi patrolled outside.

Life has a mischievous quality to it that hits when you least expect it. This cheeky habit of reality presented itself once he was properly comfortable and ready for a nice relaxing rest. “I see a student cycling nearby, Sensei!” Suzumi yelled.

Social activity! “Call out to her! She might be a local.”

“Or a delinquent,” Suzumi said with a flash grenade at the ready.

“Or a local delinquent. I’ll accept a criminal if we can get some directions out of them. Sensei isn’t particularly picky at the moment.”

“On it.”

While Suzumi handled catching the student’s attention, Sensei finished the water bottle Serina provided. Better to stay back in case firearms got involved.

“They have an Abydos ID!” Suzumi yelled from further down the hill.

“Perfect, let’s meet them then.” He worked to suppress the wide smile on his face. How refreshing. I forgot how fun it can be to work on a job where you don’t know the possible outcomes ahead of time.

While walking down the hill, he got a better look at the girl. Grey hair down to her shoulders, a blue cross-shaped hairpin and... were those wolf ears? He didn’t want to incorrectly attribute which animal she was connected to so he would wait to confirm that. As he got a better look at her eyes…

Heterochromia of the pupils? Fascinating. Her cyan eyes had slit pupils, with the left one being white while the other was a natural black.

“Trinity students, and... an adult from the General Student Council?” The girl had stopped her sports bike to talk to Suzumi, but her heavy panting and the impatient tapping of her foot betrayed her rush to get somewhere.

“Afternoon. I’m the Sensei of Schale. Not sure if my name precedes me yet,” Sensei greeted the girl. “Are you from Abydos High School?”

“Sunaookami Shiroko. Yes.” She stepped off the bike to stare at the Adult with enough intensity that Suzumi instinctively prepared for combat and Serina stepped protectively in front of him. “Are you here on some kind of academy-related business? Are you... here for Abydos?”

“That’s correct. I’m performing inspections on the schools and chose to check Abydos first as it’s the oldest school.” It wasn’t incorrect, but nobody would want to hear the actual reason.

“Then,” she took some heavy breaths as a desperate look flashed in her eyes, “can you save Abydos? Please.”

Sensei and the Trinity students tensed up as they saw the pain in her expression. Her hand was shaking as it held onto the handle of her bike, and her teeth ground together. Now that he looked closer, he could see that her white shirt underneath her jacket had dirt stains and flecks of blood. She was also favoring her left side as she stood.

Pushing through the pain.

“Serina, give her some painkillers and prepare for more intensive care once we reach our next destination. Suzumi, we might be entering into combat soon, so be on the ready. Shiroko, can you explain what is occurring and bring us to Abydos?”

“Nn. I can do that. Thank you.” She bowed her head.

Well, with it in range like that, what else was he supposed to do except pat her? “You are in luck, Shiroko,” he remarked as his right hand ruffled her hair and ears. She didn’t seem to mind and only expressed confusion. “You are officially the first person to request my services in person since I’ve become Sensei. I’ll give you a whole 130%.”

She closed her eyes and clenched her bike handle tighter before beginning her story.

It wasn’t a particularly complicated one to keep track of. A local gang had been harassing Abydos for several months in an attempt to take the school building. While they had pushed them back every time, the Abydos students reached the end of their ammunition and supplies and needed to retreat. With no more resistance, the gang took control of the entire school building.

“Yesterday we were still laughing and planning our next activities until the attack. Now... everyone is at their wit’s end,” Shiroko finished with a grimace. “It hasn’t even been a full day, but the gang is now entrenched in the annex. And the annex is the only building that remains of the school.”

“That’s awful,” Serina lamented, “to lose your very school like that.”

“So, you’ve been scrounging the local area for any spare ammunition you can loot. Even with your injury,” Suzumi noted. She pointed towards Shiroko’s bag, where they could hear scattered bullets bumping against each other.

“Yes.”

“Commendable work,” Sensei marveled. “Doing whatever you can to survive even in hardship is truly difficult.”

“Abydos is all I have,” Shiroko said with a finality the others didn’t question. She gripped her blue scarf and clenched her teeth. “It’s home.”

“Like I said, you are in luck. I’m trained in protecting homes.” Sensei smiled reassuringly, but only got a confused tilt of the head back.

“? But you don’t have a halo or a gun. You seem to have good stamina and strength but not enough to physically manhandle your foes. Are you actually skilled in stealth and espionage? That would be very useful, but not as much for protecting a home.”

“I more meant... never mind,” he trailed off. Regaining his enthusiasm, he continued past the surprisingly insightful analysis of his physical capability. “We will retake Abydos today.”

Shiroko nodded and said nothing more. Whether she believed his words didn’t matter. Her school was put into a situation where there was no choice but to believe. Rin already made it clear he was on his own in how he handled things.

After running for an hour, and getting another compliment from Shiroko over his stamina in the heat and some concerned looks from Serina, the group finally saw a blockade of rubble with four students huddled around it.

“Oh, Shiroko is back.” A student with short black hair, red glasses, pointed ears and a white butterfly hairpin looked over to the group. “And... who?”

“Trinity uniforms? Shiroko, did you try to steal from another district! We told you specifically not to do that.” Despite obvious injuries, a student with long navy blue twintails and cat ears stood up and started shouting at Shiroko.

“Oh? There is an adult too. Did you try to kidnap somebody and Trinity got involved? Is this an incident?” A girl with pale blonde hair opened her green eyes in shock, and... amusement?... as she stared at Shiroko.

The fourth girl, a petite girl with long pink hair and a large ahoge, seemed to be napping while leaning against a large riot shield. Of the four girls, she sported the worst bruises and a disheveled uniform. However, her pink halo above her head showed that she was still awake and likely alert.

“... Well, they jumped to conclusions quite fast,” Sensei remarked while trying to hold down the corners of his lips. It’d be rude to laugh at a desperate student.

The tone of their expectations made him wonder about Shiroko’s reputation among her peers. That escalated shockingly quickly.

Shiroko was quiet with a hint of displeasure in her blank expression before explaining the situation. “Settle down. He is a school visitor, and the Trinity students are his escort.”

“A visitor at a time like this? Are you sure they aren’t working with the gang to finish us off!” The girl with cat ears yelled and pointed her, presumably empty, assault rifle in the direction of the group.

“High spirited that one~” Sensei chuckled as Serina and Suzumi instantly sprang to his defense. “I can assure you I’m not part of any gang.” He took out his ID badge and showed it to the group. “I’m Sensei, the newly appointed advisor of the Independent Federal Investigation Club SCHALE.”

The girl with glasses immediately bolted forward to get a closer look at the ID badge, ignoring the yell from her companion. “No way! You are actually from Schale?”

“Your letter worked, Ayane!” The blonde yelled and clapped her hands together excitedly.

“R-really? Oh...” The student with cat ears awkwardly lowered her rifle. “Sorry.” Still, Sensei could see there was heavy suspicion in her gaze.

“Letter was effective. Smart move, Ayane,” Shiroko nodded her head in agreement. “Agreed to help protect Abydos.”

“I didn’t think it’d be answered so quickly,” Ayane admitted. “It was a desperate move, but once we got the announcement of Schale’s existence two days ago, I thought I needed to at least try.”

“But didn’t you ask us to come along a few days ago?” Serina asked in confusion. Suzumi only nodded in response. Sensei had a sense Suzumi and Shiroko might be cut from similar cloth.

“You sent in a letter?” Sensei tried to confirm. After seeing Ayane nod, now equally confused, he scratched his chin. “If you sent it two days agao, it’s still probably being processed. I didn’t look at today’s paperwork since I already planned to be in Abydos.”

Did the pink-haired girl’s eye open slightly for a moment there? Sensei felt he might be under observation.

“So... that likely means you don’t know our situation,” Ayane said with drooping shoulders. “If you are only here for an inspection, you wouldn’t know about how bad our ammo and supply situation is.”

“No, I didn’t,” he admitted. Even considering Rin’s description of the school’s plight, he didn’t expect to find the girls completely cut off from their school. “But we will see what I can do.”

“Tch, so even when the GSC does something, it won’t be enough to get rid of the Kata-Kata Helmet Gang from the school.” The catgirl scowled as she looked down at her empty gun in frustration.

“Now, now, at least we know we can get support even if it’s delayed. A few minutes ago we thought we’d need to scrounge through the desert. This is already an improvement!” The cheery blonde saw the silver lining in the situation.

“I didn’t say I can’t do anything,” Sensei commented as she input some commands into his tablet. “I only need a bit of time. In the meantime,” satisfied that his commands had been accepted, he looked at the group. “I’d love to get closer and have a round of introductions. I think if Serina has to stare at those bruises without doing anything for another minute, she is going to lose it.”

He chuckled at the embarrassed yell of “Sensei!” from the pink-haired medic. “You are all in fantastic hands with her. I needed to get all kinds of approval to pull her from her usual job to come here as one of my escorts. Nobody wants her to leave her post and miss her cheer for a day.”

“Moouu, Sensei! Stop it!” Serina complained as she lightly bopped his arm. “I’m nothing special, not like the Captain.”

“Well... Captain Mine is a force of her own in a different way,” Suzumi muttered.

“You are right; we should prioritize the wounded and also introduce ourselves.” Ayane urged Serina to start helping her nearby companions. “We’re the Abydos Foreclosure Task Force. I’m Ayane, a first-year in charge of the task force’s records and operations.”

Foreclosure Task Force? Rin didn’t mention a name like that.

Ayane pointed to the catgirl, who was wincing as Serina applied antiseptic to her wounds. “This is Serika, also a first-year.”

“Hey,” Serika replied while still eyeing the visitors.

“And there are our second-years: Shiroko and Nonomi.”

“Hello, Sensei!” The blonde-haired girl greeted them with a wave and a huge smile on her face before wincing from the movement.

“I’m the first person to request Sensei’s services in person,” Shiroko boasted. When the group looked at her, Nonomi’s eyes practically glimmering with interest, she looked away. “... Not that I’m trying to sound special or anything.”

“Hoshino here is our president and lone third year,” Ayane pointed to the ‘sleeping’ student. “She protected us during our retreat and took the brunt of the Helmet Gang’s attacks, so she is recovering.”

“It’s also normal for her to be napping at this time of day even without gang battles,” Serika added with an eye roll.

“Uhe~, is someone talking about this old timer?” A sleepy voice came from the student in question.

“Oh, she woke up. Say hi to Sensei, Hoshino!” Nonomi poked the small girl with a bright smile.

“We have a sensei now; that’s new. I just can’t seem to keep up with the times anymore...” she drawled as she opened her heterochromatic eyes and looked at the bemused adult. “Nice to meet you, Sensei,” she greeted with a lazy grin.

“Once again, our ages aren’t that different...” Ayane sweatdropped.

“You’ll understand when you are my age~”

“Nice to meet all of you. This is Suzumi, a second-year from Trinity’s Vigilante Crew. And let me properly introduce you to Serina, a second-year from Trinity’s Knight Hospitallers.”

“Serina, Serika, Suzumi, Shiroko, and even Sensei. So many S names gathered in one spot,” Nonomi giggled.

“Nice to meet you all,” Serika briefly followed polite protocol before getting angry again, “but why are we making jokes right now? Even with new people, we can’t do anything without ammo! And the gang still holds the school!”

“If we sneak in during the night...” Shiroko started to suggest before being cut off by Ayane.

“We already discussed that. You’d need to bludgeon them all one by one before they have time to wake up and alert the others. There is no way that is going to be feasible.”

“Can climb the wall to get through the windows,” Shiroko persisted.

“It’s not about the infiltration that’s the problem...” Nonomi said with a sweat drop forming.

As the girls argued over how to approach the situation, Sensei waited calmly and observed the dynamic. They were a close-knit group; that much was obvious. Supportive of each other but also not willing to give in to nonsense.

Despite being a first-year, the group seemed to defer to Ayane as a leader figure. But when he observed the sleeping third-year.... It was obvious at a glance that she was strong.

Sensei glanced at Suzumi to see if she seemed to have noticed as well. The Vigilante Crew member glanced at Hoshino with some confusion, but didn’t linger on her. Perhaps she is noticing the dissonance but hasn’t figured out where it stems from.

In general, Suzumi remained focused on her escort role and stuck by Sensei’s side. Maybe with a smidge of envy towards the silliness of the Foreclosure Task Force? It was hard to tell with her expressionless ‘work mode’ face.

[Sensei, they are almost here!]

He nodded his thanks to Arona. He stepped to the center of the group and clapped his hands to address everyone. “While we wait, I have some questions about your firearms if you’d indulge me. I can give better support if I know your capabilities.”

“Sure, I can tell you all about my minigun,” Nonomi declared with a smile.

“M-mini gun? As in... miniature? ... That?” Sensei stared at the massive firearm, the largest he had seen so far in Kivotos besides the tank.

“Yep! The Little Machine Gun V. It’s my favorite weapon,” she said, swinging the gun around and giving it a big hug.

“... Noted.”

That this was a little version of anything was the first time Sensei actually became nervous about any of the weaponry in Kivotos.

Before he began to cross-reference his understanding of weaponry with the complicated design of the ‘minigun’, Suzumi stepped up.

“You should tell Sensei every little detail — from accuracy to speed to range and even any unique points — you can unless you want to be bombarded with questions.” It was wisdom born of experience. “He will get the knowledge he wants one way or another.”

“Was I that bad?” Sensei asked with a little guilt at Suzumi’s far-off expression.

“Not bad. Intense.” She corrected with a small smile. “But it’s what allowed us to push back Wakamo, so I don’t begrudge it.”

“Wakamo of the Seven Prisoners!? I thought that news article was a crank one from Kronos,” Ayane exclaimed.

“You led a battle against that Wakamo, Sensei?” Even Serina was shocked.

It hadn’t registered as that troublesome of a combat, so he hadn’t seen the need to discuss it. Suzumi seemed to think otherwise.

“Met her briefly too. I’d say she simply retreated of her own will rather than being pushed back... I don’t want to oversell the raid.”

“Seven Prisoners who?” Hoshino asked with a yawn.

“Hoshino, you really need to read the news sometimes...” Serika complained. “Wakamo is one of the most dangerous criminals in Kivotos. A one-woman ball of destruction.”

“Oh, is she now?” Hoshino looked at Sensei closely. “And you lead a group against her? Maybe you should give the same tactical support to us as well when we can fight again~”

“Oh, I plan to.” Something told him that this group, while tight-knit, wasn’t the best at coordination.

“That’d be great, Sensei.” Ayane looked at the adult as if he were a gift from the heavens. “Trying to siege a building is really hard without proper logistical support, and I’m often too busy keeping track of medical drops to keep an eye on the full battlefield.”

“Even more of a reason to tell Sensei everything about your weapons. It makes him more precise,” Suzumi added on. “Eerily so.”

“Didn’t need the last line, Suzumi," Sensei said.

Serika frowned but then shrugged. “So the plan is to attack tomorrow or however many days it takes for Sensei to get us supplies?”

Sensei checked his tablet again and smiled. “If you intend to fight as soon as you get resupplied, then you better hurry with your gun specifications.”

The Abydos girls looked at each other in confusion. Suzumi chuckled at their faces, and Serina smiled while healing Hoshino’s injuries.

“That sound. Drones?” Shiroko turned to look to the source of propellers cutting through the air. Once she found the source, her eyes widened in shock.

“I asked the Rin of the GSC what is a suitable gift when introducing yourself to Kivotos. She recommended this.”

He spread his arms wide as ten drones laden with the packages, lovingly stocked full of Angel 24 goods, he had stored at the train station flew over a nearby ruin.

“Thanks for having me!” He laughed as crates of guns, ammunition, and supplies landed all around him. The shocked stares of the Abydos girls only made him laugh harder.

After a few moments of silence, Nonomi said what they were all thinking. “Being an adult is amazing!”

Chapter Text

Shiroko quietly observed the adult, Sensei, as he conversed with the others, who were still in shock over the arrival of so many supplies.

When she requested his help, she didn’t expect anything like this. Standing there in the desert with two escorts from Trinity, she expected he was a weak person who needed protecting.

That he needed protecting hadn’t changed; he still lacked a halo. Now though, she was reevaluating the ‘weak’ part.

Even the two students from Trinity needed to take occasional breaks when running through the unfamiliar desert. Sensei managed it without even breaking much of a sweat. Sure, Shiroko was the same, but she was used to the desert environment from biking to and from home every day for school.

Suzumi had also been absolutely accurate about the intensity of his questioning. Hoshino tried to be lazy in her explanation of her shotgun and received a barrage of ultra-specific questions that she only avoided by practically diving into an ammo crate.

Then the knowledge that he led a group to go against the Seven Prisoners, even encountering one, and walked away without issue? It didn’t seem like he was hiding any unusual physical capabilities, but there was something that made the adult stand out.

I’ll know more when he leads us, she concluded and checked a nearby box to find any ammo compatible with her assault rifle.

“I can’t believe you brought so many supplies for us when you didn’t even know about our plight,” Ayane marveled while trying to hold back tears. As their logistics leader, the pressure on her was tremendous. In each battle, they used more ammo than they could replenish from contract jobs. Slowly bleeding them dry.

To the point they lost control over the school, their home, when the gang ran their ammo reserves dry. Nobody expected a force three times larger than normal to sweep through until all they could do was fight with their fists or flee.

Seeing the crates turn their fortunes around in an instant was overwhelming to Shiroko; she could only imagine what was going through Ayane’s head. Not surprised to see her cry.

“And such a wide variety too,” Serika commented. “Wait, are these Chromium Hammers for assault rifles? These are expensive!”

“I didn’t know what sort of weapons you girls would have, so I brought everything I thought might be remotely relevant,” Sensei explained.

“Why does this one have so many protein bars?” Shiroko asked as she picked up a large box.

“... Protein bars are good snacks, and I wanted to make sure you all aren’t hungry.”

Shiroko nodded and accepted the explanation. During her intensive exercises, she ate a lot of protein bars and energy drinks. “Claiming as mine.”

“Wait, those are for everyone!” Serika yelled. Even though I’ve never seen her eat protein bars. Stingy.

“Multiple boxes.”

“Wait, she is right. Seriously, how long do you intend to feed us snacks?”

“... They have a long shelf life,” Sensei said after thinking for a moment.

“Sensei makes a good point,” Shiroko once again agreed. These supplies would last for quite a while.

What she didn’t understand was why Suzumi was giving Sensei a tired look.

“Even so, this is amazing. I didn’t expect to find ammunition boxes for my gun. So few use miniguns like me,” Nonomi laughed with delight as she fitted her gun with new ammo. “It’s almost like you bought the entire ammo counter of a convenience store.”

Shiroko didn’t miss how Sensei stiffened with a tight smile.

“... Sensei?” Nonomi pressed.

“I spy an Angel 24 logo at the bottom of this box,” Hoshino commented lazily as she loaded her shotgun.

Sensei continued to neither confirm nor deny.

“Wow, is this what you meant by the power of adults?” Hoshino pressed with a smirk. “Did you do the old ‘everything from this side of the counter to the other’ trick like in the movies and buy everything even if you didn’t know what it’s for?”

“I’ve always wanted to do that once, but my parents told me it’s a waste of money.” Nonomi added on.

“Only your family would have the ability to even talk about it seriously...” Ayane muttered with a groan.

“So you wanted to show off that you have a lot of money to burn in front of your students — what a terrible adult!” Serika gutted Sensei with a final blow.

“Now, now, everyone, don’t be mean to Sensei,” Serina stepped into the middle to calm down the jeering crowd. “He is already crouching in the fetal position...”

Sensei’s pained expression showed that the pitying tone from the medic only added to the sting. “I just wanted a dramatic moment to lift everyone’s spirits. In battle, morale is important. It wasn’t an ego trip,” he blubbered into his knees.

High school girls can be merciless. This is an important lesson, Sensei. But I’m still on your side.

Looking at him like this, Shiroko didn’t see the same strength from before. Maybe she had been imagining it? No, at the very least his endurance was very real. There was no way to fake that.

She walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. Unlike the others, she had understood completely why it wasn’t a simple attempt to show off his money. If he had that much to spend easily, he would have bought a car and not walked across the desert with Serina and Suzumi.

So she’d defend him against the accusations Serika leveled again him. Shiroko would repay his kindness in accepting her request. “Sensei didn’t spend money to show off.”

“Shiroko...” Sensei looked over to her with tears in his eyes.

“Nn. Not purchased goods, they are stolen goods.” She nodded, as it was the only sensible explanation.

“.... Huh?” Of course he was surprised. Being called out for a successful robbery would be embarrassing. But it was important they all understood his actual means.

Serika was the first to respond in the frozen silence with her typical energy, also known as screaming, “Wait, you think he stole all this?”

“That would explain why they are all organized in Angel 24 crates. A convenience store wouldn’t normally sell crates of products even if you were buying their entire shelf; it’d be lots of bags.” Hoshino picked up a box and started examining the cardboard. “It even has serial numbers on it still.”

“Sensei... if you needed some grenades, you could have talked to me. You don’t need to keep sneakily taking them from my bag.” Suzumi didn’t seem to understand that sometimes circumstances didn’t allow you to ask for permission.

“To protect Sensei, who is laundering these stolen goods, we should make sure to use them all up,” Shiroko concluded. She gave the stunned adult a small smile to let him know she was on his side. Even if it was through theft, it was a theft that would assist Abydos.

Amid a variety of calls of “Sensei...” in anger, shock, disappointment, and amusement, the adult sprang to his feet out of the fetal position. “Why did we keep moving forward with the presumption of my guilt!” he yelled at the group with an aggrieved expression. “I bought all this on credit through the proper channels.”

“I-I believed in you, Sensei,” Serina called out. For her care and support, she received a sudden tackle hug from the now-childish adult.

“Serinaaaaa, I’m being bullied by my students. All because I did a bunch of good deeds, they are looking at me with suspicion.”

Serina blushed and froze in shock. But before Sensei could slip away with a ‘just kidding’, she started patting his head with a kind expression. “There, there, Sensei. They are only teasing you. Nobody believes an adult like you actually stole from Angel 24.”

I was being serious?

“Throws me off my game if you respond so sincerely, Serina,” Sensei complained with a chuckle.

Serika remained unconvinced. “Then why buy crates like this and bring them to Abydos?”

Ayana asked why they were still on that topic when Sensei’s gift was their only chance to take back the school while Nonomi watched the exchange with a big smile.

It was a chaotic mess. One Shiroko happily accepted over the misery and depression which dripped off the club for the past day. Maybe that was why they needed the chance to joke around and try to forget about the tears shed and the desperation over a seemingly hopeless task.

After all, despite the playful objections, nobody stopped restocking their weapons. Whatever helped get their school back was reasonable.

Did Sensei play along because he sensed that? During their walk, he wasn’t this exuberant and comical.

She stared at the adult as he explained about his deal with Angel 24 in order to reduce the hours one of his students was spending working at the store in Schale.

“After buying out the shop for two days, I bought nothing for three days when management refused to allow Sora more time off. It was a bit forceful, but seems the Adults upstairs realized they’d make more from a positive interaction with me than a negative one where Sora worked longer hours. Now I meet purchasing quotas.”

He continued while picking up another crate. “I don’t mind students doing part-time work. Money troubles are serious, and solutions should be taken when available. But being a kid is still important. Part-time needs to stay part-time. But that negotiation left me with crates I can’t use, so I figured Abydos would appreciate the gift.”

Shiroko’s attention shifted to Serika. Rather than another scathing comment or huffed acceptance... she was biting her lip while staring at the Sensei. Odd. Now she was curious about her classmate’s reaction.

Ayane clapped her hands to get the group’s attention. “Regardless of the reason, Sensei has given us a chance to fight back. If everyone has gotten their gear together, let’s take this fight back to the Helmet Gang!”

Amidst the three energetic and one lazy yells of agreement, Sensei checked with his other students. “Suzumi, will you assist them? Your flash grenades will be invaluable. Can put it as part of your job escorting me to the Abydos school.”

Suzumi sighed and closed her eyes in exasperation. “I already told you that you don’t need to justify everything as an escort job, Sensei. I’ll help if you ask.”

“I’m playing it safe in case Trinity asks questions later.”

“Hm, I don’t know why they would, but okay,” she agreed with a shrug.

“Sensei likes covering his bases and documenting agreements in ink,” the adult explained with a laugh. “Even if that wasn’t my usual habit, a little time with Yuuka proved how important that was. Serina, you stay back with me, and I’ll deploy you to assist where necessary.”

With their role arrangement handled, weapons resupplied and morale high, the Foreclosure Task Force, Trinity escorts, and Sensei made their way to Abydos High School.

Along the way, Shiroko continued her observation of Sensei. Now that he was done with his questions about their weapons, he instead wanted to know more about the school and the gang that attacked it.

There were a lot of questions, but none were out of place or without purpose. So it was this attention to detail that helped him push back one of the Seven Prisoners. Now I see.

Or she thought she saw. Until the fighting began.

“Shiroko, advance to the left. Once we liberate the courtyard, run up the building’s left wall and infiltrate through the annex’s window.”
“Suzumi, flash grenade through the front door in five seconds.”
“Nonomi, hold your position and wait until they are stunned by the flash grenade and have left the school.”
“Serika, fire at their feet to guide them to the front. No need to hit them; we want them bunched together.”

”””“Yes, Sensei!””””

“What’s this old timer supposed to do~?”

“Hold your position. There should be a group trying to pincer Nonomi. Once you see them, feel free to lay into them with your shotgun.”

“All these gangsters left to my lonesome. You are a slave driver, Sensei.”

“Giving you the opportunity to work off some steam.”

“Ah, you saw right through me.”

“That’s my job. Suzumi, flash grenade.”

“Flash grenade!”

“Shiroko, guide your drone and drop some more rockets on the fools outside.”

How did he know it was ready again? Shiroko questioned as she jumped onto the modified photography drone and unleashed a volley of rockets on one of the Helmet Gang ringleaders.

Now she understood what she had sensed before. It wasn’t that the teacher was “strong” it was that he was “adaptable!”

For all the time the FTF worked together, they never had coordination this precise. Actually, their coordination in general was... passable at best. But under Sensei’s command? It was in a completely different league.

Screams of confusion and fear echoed from the gangsters throughout the school building. The Helmet Gang had more members, the terrain advantage, and what they thought was the ammo advantage.

None of that mattered though in the face of the FTF, plus Suzumi, guided by Sensei. Even when unexpected elements occurred and Serika got swarmed in a courtyard without proper cover, Sensei adapted instantly by changing Hoshino’s positioning followed by a med kit drop from Ayane’s drone.

After only a scant few minutes, gangsters were being left unconscious around the yard.

“Don’t give them a moment to rest and recuperate. There are no longer any other hostiles outside the building. Advance, everyone!” Sensei called.

Shiroko nodded and entered through the window. Now, the siege truly began.

---------------------

Fifteen.

“Augh!”

Hoshino stood behind her shield and marched forward until she was face to face with another gangster. Now, it was the other girl who lacked an escape route.

Unleashing far more viciousness than she normally felt, Hoshino yanked off the other girl’s helmet and slammed her with her shotgun. With barely a whimper, her foe collapsed to the ground.

Sixteen.

“Keep it up, Hoshino.”

“Yes, Sensei,” she replied without enthusiasm.

She didn’t know why he insisted she focus on melee attacks in this corridor, but she obeyed the orders. There were more than enough questions about the adult that could be left for later. But she believed in his abilities as a tactician after see how he handled the fight in the corridor.

There must be a reason.

After entering through the pool area, she passed through the gym and laid waste to the group hiding within. Considering the different insignias on the helmets, it looked like more than the Kata Kata Helmet Gang was involved.

It explained how their usual harassers gained enough numbers for yesterday’s raid. Even with how precarious the ammo situation was, she believed if she invested all her energy into the fight, she’d manage to protect the school. Even if it meant relying on the ammo and gear in the student council office.

What she hadn’t anticipated was triple the usual number of gangsters storming the building from multiple directions. Even with all her effort, she couldn’t be everywhere.

Once Serika fell and Ayane ran out of medical supplies, I didn’t have a choice but to call for the retreat.

After clearing out the gym, she entered the annex building and continued obeying Sensei’s instructions without question. Over her headset, she heard the others discussing their individual battles. From the sound of things, everyone was doing their best and succeeding.

It was incredible what a different having large stores of ammo made. Nobody needed to question firing a shot when Ayane could provide more without hesitation.

If all the Kaiser 26 stores in the region weren’t suddenly having shipment issues due to a sandstorm. If they had relied on Nonomi’s credit card, would they have needed Sensei?

We certainly would have had a far harder time. I’m not stupid enough to ignore that fact.

She stopped her advance once she made it to the student council room.

The door was still locked to her relief. The gangsters were happily moving into the school, but they still didn’t interfere with her most important place. The one she so rarely visited.

Next time, should there ever be a next time, she would rely on what was inside without any hestitation no matter her complicated feelings around it.

It had been her intention to do just that when night fell. Invade the school, gear up, and fight until either the sleepy gangsters fell or she did. A final fight.

She was glad she didn’t have to. Fighting together was far better.

Twenty-three.

Another scream from a fallen foe blasted in the head by her shotgun made things feel even better.

Through all the questions she had, at least she could appreciate that Sensei let her off on her own. As he said, she really needed to let off some steam.

She would never, ever forget the pain of losing Abydos. She would do anything in the world to prevent the school from falling once more.

---------------------

“What is this nightmare!?” Shiroko heard one of the helmet gangsters shout as the delinquent scrambled for cover.

Another was equally shocked and confused. “How are they back with a vengeance like this? We confirmed they were out of ammo!”

“A lady has her secrets ♡” Nonomi giggled as she laid into the confused delinquents with an entire long burst of concentrated minigun fire.

“You never should have picked a fight with Abydos!” Serika yelled.

“Be glad we are letting you even run away,” Hoshino taunted as she used her shotgun as a baseball bat and knocked a nearby gangster to the ground unconscious. “Err, whenever you wake up.”

Sensei’s voice came through her earpiece, giving his next command. “Shiroko, put those athletics to work and give their leader what for.”

“Nn, understood.” She dashed forward, weaved through the desperate gunfire of a red helmet wearing gangster. Yesterday, the delinquent had been the one who led the charge, mocking the Abydos students as they failed to hold on to their school and were forced to retreat. Now she looked around terrified as she was surrounded by the collapsed bodies of her squad mates.

“D-don’t come closer.”

A perfect reply came to mind. “Only follow Sensei’s orders, not yours.” Now at close range, she kicked the delinquent in the gut while pouring in all of her negative emotions that had brewed throughout the day.

The furious kick caused the leader to double over in pain and collapse to her knees. That felt cathartic.

“I, ugh, surren- “

Shiroko wasn’t going to find out whether Sensei accepted surrender as she fired an entire magazine into the girl’s face.

She looked up at the sound of someone clapping. With a satisfied smile, Sensei stepped over to the pile of groaning delinquents and hoisted one into the air. With practiced ease, he tossed the girl out the gates.

“Battle isn’t over until cleanup is done,” he ordered with a refreshing smile. “Nevertheless, great job, everyone. I’ll permit a victory cheer.”

“We did it!” Nonomi yelled and picked up Hoshino and swung her around like a rag doll.

“Woooo~” The pink-haired senior followed up. Behind them, Serika and Suzumi shared a high five, the Trinity student a little overwhelmed by the cat-eared girl’s energy.

“The schools is ours again. They’ll…” Ayane’s voice through the comms cut off as she started sniffling, “they’ll think twice about coming after us!”

Serika’s eyes also held back some tears and even Shiroko found herself getting emotional at the quiet crying coming from their logistics leader.

She looked back at the school with pride and a soaring heart. They failed to save it once, but now it was theirs again.

And all of it was because of Sensei. When she encountered the adult in the desert and asked him to help, she didn’t expect much. Instead, he resupplied them, had Serina heal their wounds, boosted their morale, commanded their forces, and now stood with them to congratulate them on their success.

What a tremendous debt they owed.

It was only as she was staring at the school, her blank expression breaking into a soft smile, that she recognized the final trick Sensei had pulled.

Impossible, did he aim for this? Her smile vanished, only to be replaced with pure astonishment.

Despite the fierce firefights that took place in the corridors and the rough infiltration into the second floor.... None of the windows are broken. Even the doors are still undamaged.

Nonomi only used her minigun outside. Hoshino fired her shotgun in areas with excess space like the pool. Suzumi used flash grenades to direct the delinquents to choke points where Serika and Shiroko finished them off quickly. The grounds were torn up from her drone’s rockets, Nonomi’s minigun, and the grenades the delinquents used since there was no avoiding that.

But the Sensei of Schale respected their building enough to keep even its health in mind, not just that of the students.

Once again, Shiroko revised her assessment of the outsider to Kivotos.

He was strong.

---------------------

It’s difficult to push a boulder uphill.

A tremendous amount of effort and preparation are needed, and even a minor mistake of control can lead everything to fall apart. Precision in the maintaining of resources is key.

Likewise, it is very hard to stop a stone rolling downhill. It will go where it wants, and you better hope you aren’t in its path.

This was the lesson that Sensei and the Abydos Students carved into the Kata-Kata Helmet Gang.

Fueled by excitement over their victory and rage at the temporary loss of their homes, the group took on Hoshino’s recommendation to take the battle straight to the gang’s base.

“Let’s see how they like losing their home!” Serika shouted. The others yelled in unison as they arrived at the abandoned warehouse the helmet gangsters used as a base.

Resupplied by Sensei and the random bits of ammunition the gang left in the school, they already maintained an edge over their rivals. With Sensei leading them and Suzumi and Serina as support, though?

The gang didn’t have a chance.

As in the fight in the school, the FTF was not interested in prisoners, surrender, or mercy.

Even Sensei, no stranger to combat and command, winced at the brutal takedowns Shiroko laid upon the terrified gangsters at the front of the base as she sprinted through the area. With her excellent skills at parkour, she easily scaled the cover the gangsters were using and took them out.

Nonomi waited for Sensei’s command and unleashed a torrent of bullets with her minigun the moment the door to the warehouse opened. Without caring about how much ammo she used, she didn’t stop until the entranceway was no longer defended.

As for Hoshino, the only third-year with the longest tenure in the school, she found that sometimes Sensei didn’t care about being precise. “Quarter turn to the left, Hoshino, and... demolish them.”

Anyone in the line of the pink-haired girl’s riot shield, shotgun, and suppressed fury did not stand up again.

Even Serina, who originally planned to stay back, walked behind Hoshino and performed light first-aid on the victims of the slow-moving tank.

“It feels like I’m working with Captain Mine again,” Serina said with a smile as she fixed up the injuries on two of the delinquents. “I think the two of you might get along. You have similar styles.”

“What do you mean by that?” Hoshino asked as she shield-bashed three foes into the ground and finished them with a point-blank shotgun blast.

“Both of you are frontline fighters who are skilled at protecting others using the power of extreme force,” Serina answered with a smile.

“… Are you making fun of me?” Hoshino asked as she protected Serina from an RPG by knocking it to the side with her shield, the Iron Horus.

“Why are you two having a pleasant conversation while destroying us!” The Kata Kata Helmet gangster under Serina’s care complained while being bandaged.

“No? I respect Captain Mine’s methods,” Serina responded to Hoshino while ignoring the yells beside her. “I mean, she might have some difficult rumors to deal with, but she is someone who truly cares about helping others and pursuing justice.”

“Oh,” Hoshino smiled after realizing the praise was genuine. “Well, I appreciate that you can stand with me and help heal everyone. We make a good team, Trinity girl.”

“Take the shot, everyone!” Three of the helmet gangsters stood on the gangway of the warehouse fired their missiles at the duo.

Hoshino focused all her energy on defending against the onslaught. Despite the struggle, it still paled compared to the difficulty in holding Abydos without medical supplies or ammo. Soon the smoke blew away, revealing the pink-haired menace glaring at the remaining gangsters.

It was watching the horrifying combination of a seemingly unstoppable student tank brushing off multiple RPG blasts and the medic steadfastly working on the bodies left in her wake that finally broke the gang.

“SCATTER IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!”

With that final yell from their commander, the gang fled. In no time at all, Abydos High School claimed their hideout, supplies, and ammunition to add to a growing collection.

“Look, look, they left some snacks.”

“Should we keep this building for good? ☆”

“Who cares about those jerk’s stuff? They’ll learn not to mess with us again.”

“Only Kata Kata Helmet Gangsters stayed here according to the helmets on display, no wonder the numbers were lower. I wonder where they will all run to now?”

After letting them celebrate for a while, Sensei clapped his hands. “Alright, students, let’s make our way back and properly celebrate. We wouldn’t want anyone staging another attack while we are busy here. Leave the food behind and loot only what you can carry.”

The Abydos girls agreed and soon collected everything they needed, still euphoric at their victory. Once they were ready, they departed first while Sensei stayed behind with Suzumi and Serina to update his records to send to the GSC.

Figuring out the numbers would have been annoying, and he wanted to let the FTF enjoy their success without being conscious of his presence.

On the way back, Sensei caught Suzumi and Serina discussing the situation. Both Trinity students were shocked at the state of affairs in Abydos and how excited the students became after securing the ammunition stores. The fact that it was such a tremendous windfall was shocking.

“This wouldn’t ever be a problem in Trinity,” Serina said after some coaxing.

From assorted clues, Sensei picked up that Trinity was relatively well off amongst the schools and ammunition flowed plentifully. It was a good opportunity for both girls to expand their horizons and recognize how different the circumstances could be even between neighboring districts. Often those were the moments from which empathy, sympathy, and empathy would sprout.

Some might use it as an excuse to look down on others, but Sensei knew that the Remedial Knight and Vigilante Crew members would never stoop to such ego-driven antics. Instead, it would likely build their already strong and caring hearts.

. . .

“Great work today,” Ayane told the assembled girls as soon as Sensei entered the task force’s club room victoriously. She had remained behind to keep track of operations and provide drone support from afar if the group needed extra supplies.

“The Helmet gang isn’t messing with us again for a long time,” Nonomi cheered.

“We can refocus our attention finally,” Shiroko confirmed as she high-fived Suzumi. Perhaps as quieter members of their groups, they gravitated toward each other.

“I didn’t expect much when you came out of nowhere, but this really is because of Sensei’s help,” Serika gave the highest praise yet. “Thanks to you, now all we have to do is focus on paying back the debt!”

“Debt?” Serina asked as she put her medical supplies back into the bag.

The room stilled, and Serika clapped a hand over her mouth. “Shoot!”

Ayane looked uneasily at the ‘outsiders’, weighing her options. “You see...”

“Ayane, don’t say—“

“Suzumi. Serina. This is regarding the unique affairs of Abydos. I’d appreciate it if you left it at that,” Sensei requested with his eyes closed.

That drew the attention of everyone in the room. Especially Serika, who stared at Sensei with a look of shock and a little betrayal. Like she found out a parent was snooping through her texts.

“You already know?” Ayane asked.

“Is that why you chose to come to Abydos?” Nonomi reasoned.

Something about that concept seemed to infuriate Serika even further. She gripped her hands tightly and ground her teeth, no longer even willing to look at the Sensei she had been praising only a scant few minutes earlier.

“We can talk about it more later,” Sensei offered to the group. “This isn’t about you two, but every school has its own circumstances. I’m sure Trinity has more than enough situations you wouldn’t feel comfortable discussing.”

Both Trinity girls nodded with contemplative looks. It didn’t take a genius to realize they were both thinking of facets of their school that were best kept under wraps.

“... It’s fine. We can discuss it openly,” Hoshino cut in after some delay. Gone was her lackadaisical energy. Now, even with her chin sitting on the table, she radiated the energy of the president of the Foreclosure Task Force.

“Wh— Hoshino?” Serika stepped back in shock, and Ayane looked between all the club members fretfully.

“It’s not a secret; even Sensei found out about it, and I’m certain the other student councils are aware. Inaction doesn’t mean ignorance.” A hint of frustration and sadness flitted across her face before vanishing. “We aren’t guilty of anything. If not for all of them, we wouldn’t have a school to worry about a debt for.”

“Hoshino is right. Sensei, Serina, and Suzumi are trustworthy.” Shiroko continued to press Serika.

“They are still outsiders. I’m grateful, but these are two separate issues. Do you want some other school taking advantage of us if they get told? We are barely holding on!”

Serina raised a hand nervously. “Part of my job as a medic is to respect the privacy of patients. I can swear by the oaths of the Remedial Knights to keep anything you say here private. I’m fine with leaving if that isn’t enough.” She looked between Shiroko and Serina with worry. “I don’t want to be the reason for further conflict.”

Suzumi glanced at Serina before raising a hand as well. “The Vigilante Crew is not like the JTF. We are independent and only serve the students and community of Trinity, not the Tea Party. If possible, during the short time I am here, I’d like to help this community as well.”

Hoshino sat up straight and looked directly at Serika. “I’m not saying anyone will solve our problem on our behalf. But we have few options right now.”

Serika quickly looked around the entire room, realizing that she had no allies on this topic. With gritted teeth, she pointed at Sensei, vibrating from her volatile emotions. “Then why now? What, did you find out we were in debt and decide to take pity on us? Think we are easy to be used? Or what, that we need an adult’s supervision?”

“Even if the timing is... convenient… Sensei only just arrived in Kivotos. We should be happy he didn’t write us off as a lost cause.” Hoshino pressed.

“Bet that is what he wants you to think! Maybe he got here earlier and waited until we were at our weakest.”

Sensei only crossed his arms in the face of the accusations.

“I was there the very first day Sensei came to Kivotos from the outside. It’s been only a week and a half. He didn’t even know what a gun was when he arrived.” Suzumi countered.

That caught the attention of all the other students. Even Serina didn’t realize how out-of-place Sensei was in Kivotos.

The lack of a halo was so noteworthy that his ignorance in other topics sunk into the background except to those who saw it firsthand.

“It’s true, I’m still learning a lot about your firearms as we don’t have gunpowder where I’m from.” Sensei picked up one of the nearby pistols and examined the magazine. “Why I ask so many questions.”

With the strength of her arguments shaken, while her emotions remained at their peak, Serika glared at the adult.

“... Serika. You may be concerned I see this as a charity case. Whether or not you believe me, I am here because of my duty as Sensei.” He closed his eyes, testing the words he intended to speak before giving his grave lesson. “Either way, sometimes being an Adult means accepting charity even when you hate it.”

Serika reeled back as if struck. When the shock ran its course, she only had one statement. “I can’t accept this!”

With those final words, she bolted out the door, not wanting to look at anyone.

“Serika?” Ayane gasped in shock at the abrupt exit.

“I’ll go talk to her,” Nonomi said as she got up from her seat. With a sad smile, she nodded to Serina and Suzumi. “Thanks for putting up with us. It’s been hard.”

Hoshino waited until Nonomi left before beginning her explanation of the situation.

“Since Sensei is already aware, I can be brief. Our school owes a large sum to a loan company. Over 900 million yen.”

Sensei’s eyebrows shot upwards while Serina gasped in shock.

“It’s 962,350,000 yen to be exact,” Ayane added. “That is the amount the Foreclosure Task Force has taken upon itself to repay.”

“... So you didn’t know the number, Sensei? Judging by your expression.” Hoshino asked.

“It’s more than I expected,” he admitted. Considering how closed off Abydos had become, the GSC was unaware of the exact numbers. “But it’s still not the worst-case scenario I envisioned.”

Shiroko asked the question that Hoshino and Ayane hesitated on. “What was worst case?”

“Add a zero.”

Hoshino stared at Sensei, mouth open slightly for a few seconds. With her voice barely a whisper, she asked the only question her brain could form. “... You thought there was a chance we had a ten billion yen debt... and still came?”

“That’s my job as Sensei. To assist in such matters.”

The answer was so matter-of-fact that nobody knew how to respond. It was an utterly absurd justification. A job title didn’t mean any problem was suddenly his responsibility. There were hundreds of districts with easier problems.

Serina stared at Sensei with passionate awe, shocked by his virtue. Suzumi nodded with pride, having stood with the commander in a different, seemingly impossible task. Shiroko continued reevaluating the outsider who appeared in their land. Meanwhile, Hoshino... Hoshino could only stare in disbelief.

Ayane rallied while her president remained stunned. “Even if it isn’t the worst-case scenario, our odds of paying back the debt and preventing the school from being foreclosed on are nearly zero. As a result, most of the students left the school and town.”

“All except for us, that is,” Shiroko clarified, unwilling to be put into the same category as the deserters.

“How did the school take on such a huge debt in the first place?” Suzumi asked.

This was a moment to make it clear how much knowledge he already had about the situation. “Correct me if my understanding is wrong, but it was because of the sandstorms and desertification of the district. The collapse of the city, as attested by all the ruins we walked through, would have sapped the district of its finances.”

Ayane nodded to confirm his thoughts. “You are well informed. The school needed to raise funds for disaster relief each time another sandstorm afflicted the district. Anything to save the city that was being buried in sand. But the banks rejected any loans sizeable enough to have an impact.”

“So the school was forced to turn to loan sharks.” Shiroko finished the thought. “And we have been chasing the debt ever since.”

“So that’s where your ammunition problem stems from. Everything goes to the debt repayments. Nothing is left over.” Suzumi came up with the answer to the unspoken questions she had been harboring.

“Worse than that, I bet. You kids probably aren’t even repaying the debt, but are instead stuck even keeping up with interest.”

“Yes. We have barely scraped the principal.” Ayane said, pointing to the whiteboard. In the corner was the huge number she had mentioned before, with a few crossed out numbers above it. The difference between the values ranged from the hundreds to the low thousands. Barely a dent.

“I can sympathize with Serika’s frustrations. No one has ever cared enough to ask about our situation before, let alone reach out to help.” Shiroko glanced at the door Serika had barreled through in her anger. “Up until now, if anyone found out about the debt, they stayed clear. Someone acting favorably because of the debt is... new.”

“So that’s the situation.... Hoshino? Hoshino?” Ayane waved a hand in front of the stunlocked student.

“Nnn, needs rebooting.” Shiroko poked the petite girl’s cheek.

Somehow that worked, and Hoshino returned to the conversation from the depths of her thoughts. “Uhe~ us old timers sometimes lose track of our thoughts. Even if you came here to help, you can back out now. We could appoint you as the club’s advisor, but the thought alone is nice. Same to you girls, you have done enough.”

Sensei shook his head with a rueful smile and grasped the side of his chair. “Now, now, you aren’t shooing me off that easily. I’m used to having lots of titles, so I’ll happily take on the advisor of the Foreclosure Task Force as well.”

Serina and Suzumi also agreed to help in any way they could while they were escorting Sensei.

Hoshino once again stared at Sensei as if she might understand something if she kept looking long enough. “Well, if you insist on helping... who are we to stop you?”

“It’s a massive relief to have Schale on our side.” Ayane smiled in happiness at the hope now present for Abydos.

“Sensei can manage it if he tries,” Shiroko conveyed her belief that things would change. After the shock of seeing the unharmed school building, she believed that a new dawn might be coming for the school.

“Though I have to ask, Sensei.” With the hardest part of the conversation over, Hoshino flopped back onto the table. “What would you have done if the debt had reached the worst-case scenario? I think even we might have given up at that point. Numbers like that are far beyond a student’s ability to raise.”

“An Adult’s extreme measures would need to be considered. Raising that sort of capital isn’t hard if you stop caring about the means.”

“... Like what?” To the girls who struggled day in and day out to manage a smaller debt, hearing that 10 billion wasn’t hard felt like a kick in the gut.

“Again, only in a situation that dire would this even be an option I would put on the table. However, if you want an example...”

He picked up the gun he’d been examining.

And placed it against his temple.

Then with a singsong falsetto, “Pay up or the Sensei gets it ☆”

“HUH!?”
“SENSEI!?”
“Nnn, I see.”
“GUN. DOWN.”

Ayane sputtered in disbelief while Hoshino blue screened again. “W-was that an impression of Nonomi? Are we supposed to take you hostage?”

He placed the gun down, only for Serina to swipe it and move it far away from the adult. The point was already made anyway.

“No, you aren’t supposed to, but it’d be a way to give the GSC justification to interfere in Abydos’ affairs. Right now, even if individuals want to, assisting with the debt only out of a desire to help the district is impossible. The other districts would rise up and demand similar treatment for their own issues. Or question their tax contribution, as that is the GSC’s main income stream.”

This was one of the things he wanted to impart on the girls. It was small, maybe no comfort, but from talking with Rin it became clear that the president had wanted to help. It was never a matter of desire, only the realities of the situation.

“Using me as a hostage would be one method to give them cause. It’d result in further sanctions and possibly the dissolution of the current council, but that’s why I said it would only be used in the worst situations. Where it truly teeters on hopeless so that ‘terrible’ gets weighed against ‘impossible.’”

As if as an afterthought, he said, “Also, Rin will flay me alive, and I might need to sell part of Schale to make up for the lost funds since she’ll see through the ruse in an instant. So again, only when the situation hits hopeless do I pull out the poison blades.”

“Don’t... do that again, Sensei.” Hoshino squeezed out through rough breaths.

“Won’t need to. Answered the question.” The lack of weight in the response even resulted in Arona complaining to him. “And that’s only one option. There are others that I likewise don’t want to use unless I absolutely must. Better to act as if I didn’t have those options.”

“By that logic, though, you don’t see the situation as hopeless or extreme.” Shiroko commented. Of the group, she was the most interested in the intent and meaning of his words rather than the shock of the action. She’d seen him repeatedly confirm the gun was empty and locked throughout the conversation before he picked it up for his “demonstration.”

She’d remember his confident smile. “Did I ever say it was?”

. . .

“Okay, but why imitate Nonomi?”

“Biggest gun.”

Chapter Text

“I don’t know what everyone was so worried about; this couch isn’t that bad,” Sensei muttered as he smacked a layer of dust and sand out of the furniture.

After giving multiple students a variety of shocks, Sensei closed out the FTF’s activities for the day. The girls had been through losing their school, mounting a failed attempt to reclaim their school, actually reclaiming their school, taking out their opponent’s base, and revealing the deep truths about their school to outsiders.... all in twenty-four hours. Physical and mental exhaustion would soon seep in, and he wanted them to enjoy the time reveling in victory.

Since all three non-residents underestimated how badly Abydos’ economy had collapsed, they found themselves without acceptable lodging. Shiroko offered to let Suzumi stay over for the night, and Ayane agreed to do the same with Serina.

This will be good for all of them to make new friends outside of their districts.

Both Abydos girls expressed an interest in how the other girls fought and healed, respectively, and had similar temperaments. Nonomi had been sad she didn’t get a chance to offer her home as the arrangements were finalized before she returned from failing to locate Serika, but such was life.

Realizing that Sensei didn’t have a place to stay, she changed targets and invited him to stay over while ignoring Shiroko’s growing displeasure.

It was a nice gesture, but not one he ever had the intention of accepting. He would absolutely never hear the end of it from Serika if he stayed at one of the girl’s homes. Instead, he elected to stay at the school overnight.

Returning by train to the DU to sleep was also an option, but not one he ever considered. Among the supplies he brought along was a sleeping bag in case a sand dune would serve as his pillow.

Serina vetoed that plan instantly.

So, he found himself on an old couch in the storeroom. The furniture was, as he tried to remind everyone, a notable step up from sleeping on a sand dune. It would serve well.

“Quite the conundrum about the debt though. Will have to see what options they will consider.”

Arona yawned as she tried to stay up at the late hour. [You left a positive impression on them though, Sensei. If not for you, there wouldn’t be an Abydos to fight for!] Her halo changed to a heart as she continued to praise his efforts.

“Positive impression on all but one,” he conceded while tapping on the Shittim Chest to poke Arona’s cheeks. He smiled as she giggled from the tickles. “Four out of five isn’t bad.”

[She seemed to be appreciative until the debt came up. Why the switch?]

“Part of it is pride. Part of it is fear. If they are the last five standing, I’m sure they’ve said many goodbyes. Or worse, never even had the chance. Heard enough people question why they even bother or say the situation is hopeless.”

He closed his eyes and placed the tablet on his chest. “You can’t go through that without sometimes wondering if those who abandoned you are right. Even the strongest faith shakes when a situation never gets better. It’s why the military can be so hostile toward actions that reduce morale.”

Serika would hate receiving pity, but it was a shame their youth needed to be preoccupied with such struggles. It brought the FTF together like family and bound them close in ways others would be jealous of. But the cost was having anxiety eat away at them. Poor girls.

Arona yawned again and settled down on her desk, resting her head on her arms. [They’ll be so excited when you find a solution.]

“We can only hope. Find out if Serika still yells at me somehow,” he laughed at the thought.

[I’m sure she’ll be more okay with you once she gets a good night’s sleep!]

Her faith was higher than his on that topic.

His fears were proven the next day. “Go away, you stalker!”

I was only trying to figure out what businesses might be in the area. Sensei sighed. He couldn’t fully blame the girl; even he would find it suspicious to cross paths twice in the morning while on patrol.

Seeing her dash off with barely a hello to Suzumi and Serina, he shrugged. “It must be awkward for her since she was hostile yesterday after you all helped out. Don’t let it get to you. Embarrassment sucks.”

“It’s fine, Sensei.” Suzumi didn’t mind.

Serina cared more about Sensei’s health than Serika’s outburst. “Sometimes patients act like this even when they know you mean well. Make sure you drink more water, though.”

“Nnn. Curious where she is heading.”

“... I see our party has been joined. Good morning, Shiroko.”

The newly arrived fourth member of the party greeted everyone before returning to the subject at hand. “Today we don’t have class. But she is rushing somewhere. Suspicious.”

“More suspicious than an adult walking around with two high schoolers?” Sensei asked self-deprecatingly.

All three girls looked at him awkwardly in response.

“Fine, Sensei’s joke failed.”

[It’s normal for Sensei to walk around with his students.]

Can always count on you for a positive outlook, Arona.

“Aren’t you all curious what she is up to?” Shiroko pressed.

“Going on patrol for criminals?” Suzumi guessed.

“Maybe she does charity work.” Serina offered.

Sensei stifled a laugh at their guesses. Leave it to the two of them to come up with those options.

“I think it’s a part-time job. She reacted when you were talking about the part-timer you help at Angel 24,” Shiroko said.

Now that she mentioned it, Sensei also remembered how she stiffened randomly during that conversation.

“Oh, Serika has a part-time job now? That would explain why she always leaves right when school ends.” A cheerful voice came from behind Sensei.

Sensei waved a hand at Nonomi while blinking slowly. “... Am I the one being stalked?”

“Why would you think that, Sensei?” Hoshino asked as she tottered out of a nearby alley.

“.................”

“So that’s who was following us,” Suzumi concluded.

Through a series of conversations and reasoning that Sensei failed to follow, they soon found themselves outside of a ramen shop.

“... When we inevitably get yelled at, I am acting as the advisor of the FTF under the request of the Hoshino, alright?”

It would do nothing, he knew that, but he put it out to the world anyway.

“Fine with me. Let’s investigate~” Hoshino called as the group of 7 approached Shiba Seki. Sensei let the others enter first to handle the bulk of the reaction.

“Welcome to Shiba Seki... what the!?”

Yeah, this is going to go about as well as expected.

After a brief conversation where Hoshino gladly took the blame for pushing for the investigation and Shiroko expected praise for correctly guessing the location, Serika guided them to their tables.

Her school outfit was replaced with a waitress uniform for the ramen restaurant. A blue apron was wrapped around her waist with the restaurant’s logo. She wore a black top with a cyan bow at her neck and a white cloth around the back of her hair.

As soon as she calmed, she saw Sensei enter and exploded again. “Even Sensei is here? I knew you were stalking me!”

Without another word, Sensei pointed to Hoshino for explanation.

“Mmm... Sensei is bad for stalking our young Serika like this~” she teased with a lax expression.

“So first you stalk me, and then you betray me. I see how it is, Hoshino. Sensei will remember this.”

“Is Abydos a district of stalking?” Suzumi deadpanned.

“Oh, so it was Hoshino. I should have suspected.” Serika then glared at Sensei. “But that doesn’t change things with you.”

I didn’t do anything!

“Are these your Abydos classmates, Serika? Stop with the chit-chat and take their order.” From behind the counter, an anthropomorphic shiba inu with a scar under his eye ordered the part-timer.

“Not all of them… oh, whatever. Follow me. I’ll take you to one of our larger tables if even Sensei is here.”

The moment they got to the table, Shiroko and Nonomi both tried to entice Sensei to sit next to them. While Nonomi was far more enthusiastic with her calls for Sensei to sit next to her, Shiroko was far calmer and left it as an option... albeit one that came with a piercing stare towards Sensei.

“Oh, Shiroko. Don’t you want to sit next to your new friend Suzumi?”

“Spoke last night. Haven’t spoken to Sensei as much.”

Serina giggled as the two continued their lighthearted spat. “Seems you are quite popular, Sensei.”

“Haah, seems so. Now I know how my teacher felt when I was young.” Shaking his head, he sat next to Nonomi, citing that if time was a factor, he spent an hour with Shiroko before even meeting Nonomi.

“If it’s too tight, you can sit on my lap, Sensei.” Nonomi offered.

“Just sit down already like normal people! This is a big table; you don’t need to be on top of each other!”

The group laughed at the Serika’s increasing annoyed and flustered expression before settling down in their seats.

While the girls ordered easily, Sensei took a much longer time due to being unfamiliar with the menu.

“Did you not have ramen in your world, Sensei?” Suzumi asked. Since she sat on Sensei’s other side, she and Nonomi were working together to explain what each meal entailed.

“Won’t know until I see it. Might have something similar, but it has a different name.” When he arrived in Kivotos, the written and spoken language of the land had been perfectly understandable even though it was unfamiliar. While it rarely caused issues, some similar concepts didn’t always translate.

“‘Your world’, Sensei? You mean the land outside of Kivotos?” Nonomi asked, midway through explaining shio ramen.

“Hm? I’m not from this planet entirely. Either inter-planetary or inter-dimensional summoning. Not sure which,” he paused to order the chashu ramen, “doesn’t particularly matter either way.”

“... Huh!?” Ayane let out a startled yell.

“That’s what you meant by outside Kivotos? I thought that meant from outside the city, not that you were an alien.” Hoshino grinned. “Did you ask to be taken to our leader?”

“... Did I need to when it was your leader who summoned me?”

“The missing president of the GSC did?” Nonomi asked, eyes sparkling with curiosity.

Sensei pursed his lips and pulled out his tablet. “Perhaps it would have been pertinent to read Rin’s press release ahead of time. I didn’t check how she worded her announcement.”

After reading the announcement of the founding of Schale as being ‘lead by Sensei, an adult from outside of kivotos appointed by the GSC’ he agreed with his own assessment. Reading this would have been good to know.

Making a mental note to talk to Rin about that later. Why hide the president’s involvement?

“Well, let’s keep this all to ourselves… and to whichever patrons are listening in on the conversation.” Couldn’t put that cat back in the bag. “And I suppose our gracious proprietor.”

Master Shiba laughed as he got the orders ready. “To think I might have the opportunity to witness your first time eating ramen. I’ll need to give it my all.”

With that being said, the girls bombarded him with questions about his world.

Sensei used Deflect. It was super effective. Sensei used Deflect. It was super effective. Sensei used Ignore. It was not very effective. Sensei used Dodge Chopsticks. Dodge failed. Sensei used Deflect...

“Muu, what can you tell us about your world?” Nonomi asked as she leaned on her Sensei while Hoshino poked at him with the ends of her chopsticks.

“If you want a simple description...” He paused and considered his words.

There was so much that was better left back in his world. Once something was introduced, it became hard to reverse. Even a concept or idea foreign to the land of Kivotos could have consequences.

Gematria, from the little he had seen of them, seemed to be perfect evidence of that fact.

“It is a world with less violence than this one. It is also a world that embodies much graver consequences.”

“And that means?” Hoshino asked after digesting the words... and some ramen.

“Sensei’s homework assignment for the day is for you to consider those words. That includes you too, Serika.” He tried to respond coolly, but it came off smug.

“It’s not even a school day! And I’m working!” Serika exclaimed, making the family she was serving at a nearby table laugh.

“I guess this is all we can pry out of him for now.” Ayane relented and dug into her ramen.

Taking a few bites of his own before it became cold, Sensei gave them one more piece of information. “Okay, we do have some similar dishes. But the noodles are thicker and the soup stock is very different. Still, this is delicious!”

Master Shiba crossed his arms and grinned at the newcomer. “Best in Abydos.”

For the rest of the meal, the group engaged in playful banter, much at Serika’s expense.

Finally, it came time to pay. Once again, Hoshino tried to throw Sensei for a loop. “So, Sensei is treating us all right?”

“Better than making Nonomi pay for everyone again,” Serika acknowledged.

“It’s not like I mind. I’m still way under my card’s credit limit. ☆” Nonomi laughed and brushed off Serika’s concerns.

Ayane said nothing, more intent on Suzumi and Serina’s reactions. Both Trinity girls sighed and looked at each other in a mutual understanding of what was incoming.

Sensei looked at the group with mild confusion. “... That was my intention? I already gave my card when we entered.”

“Eh? That’s paying for seven people. Are you sure, Sensei? It really isn’t a problem to pay on my card.” Nonomi took out her wallet, but Sensei gently pushed it away.

“I don’t think anybody has managed to prevent Sensei from treating his students.” Serina said with a shake of her head. “Each time I express concern about his financial health, he brushes me off and then orders me dessert!”

“Technically, I was convinced to have Rin treat me by giving me some of the free food from the GSC’s break room.”

“That isn’t being treated, Sensei.” Suzumi placed her hand on her forehead.

“Yuuka is keeping track of my financial health, you just keep track of my physical health, Serina.” He winked at her to show he was fine.

She did not wink back.

With their meal complete the group dispersed with some thank yous to Sensei and a strong “don’t come back!” from Serika. Nonomi seemed to take Sensei’s treating habits as a challenge, but he didn’t intend to relent.

Part of being a Sensei was feeding his students. Even if nobody ordered him to do so, that was one of his principles.

-------

“Damn you, Hoshino!” Serika kicked a pebble as hard as she could and watched it rocket forward before bouncing off the nearby ruins. It didn’t make her feel better.

“She absolutely brought everyone there because of what happened yesterday. Just for everyone to blabber on and on about Sensei this and Sensei that.”

Sure, he might have been kind in some ways. And he did help them get the clubroom back. But he was so suspicious.

Throwing around money like that at Shiba Seki and with the Angel 24. Showing up after hearing about the debt like he was some white knight. Even the way he appeared, at their worst moment, it all felt scummy to her.

It had to be fake. Even his story about the Angel 24 part-timer was probably a ruse.

“No adults act like that. They’d rather abandon us or force even bigger debts. He’ll be the same.”

That is why it was up to them, up to her. As long as she worked more, if she took on more hours, if they found another way...

The huge number of the loan appeared in her vision again. Never letting her escape its weight.

“With my paychecks, we will be one step closer,” she said as she tried to convince herself.

Yet the surrounding city seemed to mock her thoughts. More empty buildings, failed businesses, and evidence of gang activity. Even she knew the district was slipping into disrepair by the day.

“... Can’t he hurry up and do something terrible to us so we can move on?”

The wait for the other shoe to drop was awful. And with everyone supporting him and giving him praise and attention, there was no way to push him to leave early.

It would take convincing Hoshino, and that didn’t seem likely.

The sound of rapidly approaching footsteps shook her from her thoughts. Sensing danger nearing, she pulled out her gun and peered through the darkness. “Who are you!?”

From behind a nearby vending machine, a helmeted student walked out. “Are you Kuromi Serika?”

“The Kata Kata Helmet Gang? Did we not crush you enough?” Her eyes narrowed, and her barely contained rage boiled over. “I’m glad you’re here. I have a terrible mood to work through.”

She yelled out in fury and opened fire on the delinquent, not realizing they weren’t alone until bullets slammed into her back.

“An ambush?” This was bad. She wasn’t good with large numbers without the support of the group. “I need to get—“

Her words were cut off as a massive shell careened into her, slamming her to the ground.

She coughed and tried to pull herself up, but another barrage kept her stuck to the ground.

An anti-aircraft gun? No... that sounded like an improved Flak 41 model! Where did they get something like that!

She tried to reach for her phone. If the gang now had access to weapons of that caliber, she needed to inform Ayane.

Another round stopped even that attempt and her consciousness.

---------------

Back at Abydos high school, Sensei sat by the windowsill of an empty classroom and stared into the sky above the city. The chill of the desert night felt comforting.

[You like looking at the sky, don’t you Sensei?]

“Best way for me to learn about a place is to look at it after all. And it’s still a very unfamiliar sky. But one that shares so many stories.”

While watching the stars high above, and the city’s halos far below them, his eyes narrowed.

“... Arona. Send Ayane a message from me.”

[Of course, Sensei. What message?]

“... Have her check if Serika got home from her part-time job safely.”

[Sure. But why so suddenly?]

He stared at the massive halo far out of the reach of anyone on the surface.

“Call it a Sensei hunch.”

---------------

“So it’s almost certain that something has happened to her. And you think it’s the Helmet Gang?” Ayane paced around the Foreclosure Task Force’s clubroom in agitation at Shiroko’s theory.

When Sensei messaged her out of the blue, she assumed he had crossed paths with Serika on the way home and they had had another one-sided spat. Serika was always the feistiest member of the FTF, but something about Sensei seemed to set her off more than usual.

Granted, Hoshino’s repeated prodding during the day was not helping matters.

But when she confirmed Serika wasn’t answering any phone calls and her home was empty, panic set in.

‘Call everyone to the school. I’ll contact Serina and Suzumi.’

They’d all obeyed and were awaiting Sensei’s directions. With nothing to do but wait for Hoshino and Sensei to investigate, the group could only spitball possibilities.

Currently, Shiroko’s held the most weight. After escalating by attacking the gang’s base directly, did they trigger the gang to act with greater intensity? Even delinquents usually kept to attacks during the day.

Are we again powerless to prevent things from happening to us?

The debt, the constant attacks from the Helmet Gang, the abandonment of the district and the hopelessness many of the civilians had weighed heavily on her. No matter how hard they worked, they struggled to make even an inch of progress.

“What should we do...?”

“Trust in Sensei and Hoshino,” Shiroko declared without a hint of hesitation.

Ayane marveled at the strength of Shiroko’s faith in the adult and their upperclassmen. She really believes without question that they’ll find a solution.

“Sensei informed us as soon as he got wind of there being attacks in the district near Shiba Seki. He must be working on something.”

If he hadn’t... how long until they might have noticed? If she didn’t answer my messages normally, I might have guessed she was still working her shift and not pushed to check on her for another few hours.

Had Sensei allowed them to act fast enough?

The door opened, and Sensei and Hoshino stepped into the room. Both were graver than normal, a steely determination in their expressions.

“I have Serika’s location. We need a vehicle. Where is the nearest one?”

“Sensei, I—“

“Need to move before her phone loses power. She is currently in transit to a new location. Hoshino said you all confiscated a vehicle during one of the Helmet Gang’s attacks. Where is it? Hoshino can explain more.”

It was a clipped, exceedingly businesslike approach, far different from his usual relaxed approach even when taking back the school. But something in that cold approach inspired confidence.

“There is a garage a few buildings south of here. I’ll get the keys out of the storage room,” Ayane answered.

“Do you even know how to drive a truck, Sensei?” Nonomi asked with a worried look.

“Take me there while they are searching for the keys and I’ll see what I can do.” After speaking, he got out his tablet and started typing several messages before following Nonomi.

“We’ll help you search for the keys,” Hoshino offered and followed Ayane to the storage room.

Ayane gratefully accepted the assistance. Even if they knew the keys were in that room, they rarely used it, and it was extremely disorganized. Plus, the door was extremely heavy and would automatically lock if closed. Keeping someone outside in case would be helpful. Shiroko offered to perform that role.

“How does Sensei know where Serika is?” Shiroko asked as Hoshino and Ayane dug through the piles of collected tools and contraband.

“He logged into the General Student Council’s central communication network and is tracking her phone’s location.” Hoshino answered. “That’s a secret, though. Sensei will be in huge trouble if it gets out.”

“Wait, he didn’t ask for permission!?” Ayane yelled in shock. That was a flat-out crime then!

“I asked about that, but he said if they aren’t going to say yes, then he’ll do it and, I quote, ‘damn the consequences.’”

Shiroko nodded in thought. “So even the GSC isn’t likely to let him sneakily keep tabs on student cell phones. Unfortunate.”

Well, when she put it that way, that they needed to be sneaky about it made sense.

Still, it warmed her heart to know that he was so willing to go to these lengths for them.

It probably isn’t good that we are becoming more reliant on him, but in times like these it is great to have a reliable adult on their side.

She continued to desperately hold on to that feeling of gratitude once it came to Sensei’s driving.

Otherwise, the fear would be overwhelming.

“Sensei! In front of you, in front of you!”

“I’m already turning, Ayane, calm down.”

“Why are you turning to face me? Keep your eyes on the road!”

“I can see the road perfectly while also looking at you, don’t worry.”

“Sensei, are you sure you know how to operate this truck? Didn’t you say vehicles in your world are different?” Hoshino complained as she held onto the handle above the door to keep from being thrown around.

“Still trying to figure out every function, but I get the basics. Electric carriages in my world only have forward, reverse, and stop, so these different gears are rather novel.” The adult lifted one hand off the wheel to adjust the mirrors slightly.

Ayane wished she had a pedal under her foot to hit the brakes. Instead, her foot kept slamming into the floor desperately. From the moment they started moving, Sensei slammed on the accelerator and hadn’t let off.

“Nnn. Skillful turns.”

“At least someone appreciates my art!” Sensei laughed as he careened around a corner at top speed.

Sure, he was keeping impressive control of the vehicle as its back end slid on the sandy roads and readjusting exactly when needed to keep it balanced.

Also, that was the third time they had gone on two wheels, and Ayane desperately wanted out.

They zoomed out of the city, far past the school, and zipped down the streets that connected to the abandoned neighborhood that Sensei was tracing Serika’s phone to.

“Alright, I've got the hang of it now. So where is the control to switch to top speed mode?” Sensei asked as he tapped on the steering wheel.

“You are already driving as fast as this Humvee can go. The gang even modified it to exceed its normal max speed!” Ayane yelled. At least they were going straight forward for now, but she could see Sensei eyeing the sand dunes to the right.

“... Your top speed is this slow? This might be the first time I am actually disappointed by your technology.”

Why does he suddenly look depressed!?

“To be fair, Sensei, it’s an off-road tactical vehicle. Some cars will be faster.” Serina commented while squashed between Nonomi and Hoshino in the back seat. On the roof, Suzumi and Shiroko held on for dear life with their guns at the ready.

“I’m used to about three times as fast as this. Do your automobiles reach those speeds?” Sensei asked, perking up a bit.

Ayane glanced at the 85 mph (135 km/h) dial and gulped. “No, no they don’t.”

“How droll. A victory for electric carriages then. I’ll need to reevaluate the plan then.” Then, just to send Ayane’s heart back into her throat again, he stuck his head out the window. “SUZUMI. SHIROKO. GET YOUR HEADSETS READY.”

“THE ROAD, SENSEI! WATCH THE ROAD!”

“I am, I am~ Trust Sensei’s driving. I’m not going to cause trouble driving this slowly.”

She really wished she could trust him.

“Suzumi, if the car needs a little hop, I’ll be asking you to throw some grenades in front of us. Be ready whenever. Shiroko, keep your drone pointed to the left if we need a shockwave to set us back straight.”

“... Are you intending to use the explosions to turn the vehicle?” Ayane asked in a panic.

“Of course, standard operating procedure.”

“It isn’t here!?”

“And Kivotos’ vehicles continue to disappoint.” He paused for a moment and nodded. “See, Shiroko is ready to act if need be. We’ll be fine.”

We are going to die before we even reach Serika.

“We are about to catch up with her vehicle. Suzumi and Shiroko, be ready! Everyone else, prep your weapons!”

The sound of the gravel slamming into the humvee and the abandoned street cracking underneath them made it hard to even hear his instructions even when sitting next to him.

“-rona, -racle now.” She couldn’t understand the last instruction.

She didn’t know how it worked or why it worked. Explosions rocketed in front and to the side of them at Sensei’s command, rocketing the humvee into the air as it passed over a ruined wall like a ramp. On the other side, they could see a group of Kata Kata Helmet gangsters staring, mouths agape, at the impending vehicle.

“Welcome to Sensei’s classroom, Helmet Gang!” Sensei yelled, a manic smile on his face and ponytail whipping in the wind.

The landing of the humvee slammed the nearby sand upwards, launching several delinquents into the air where they fell prey to Shiroko’s missiles.

“Don’t. Kidnap. My. Student.”

As a unit, Sensei’s students laid waste to the gang. The sheer shock of everything kept the gangsters from properly regrouping, and within moments they were all laid out by shotgun blasts, minigun sprays, and rifles picking off the stragglers.

“And that is what we call a shock and awe strategy,” Sensei clapped his hands together. “Class over.”

From inside the now damaged truck, Serika shakily pulled herself to a sitting position. The sound and fury of the battle had woken her from her stunned state. “S-Sensei? Why am I dreaming about him?”

“Sensei in the flesh, here at your service, Serika,” he said while bowing dramatically.

Ayane could only stare at him. From the moment he got behind the wheel of the car, his temperament turned into... something. Something extreme.

“Please don’t drive like that on the way back,” Serina pleaded. “Serika is hurt and shouldn’t suffer from extreme shocks.”

He looked a little put out, but nodded. “If that is your professional medical opinion, then I’ll do so.”

Ayane wanted to pick up the Trinity student and spin her around in happiness.

“Muu. Boring. Sensei’s driving is exciting.” Of course, Shiroko enjoyed the high-octane adventure.

Still dazed, Serika stared between all of them. “Huh... a nice dream before they bury me then...” She sniffled as her lip trembled.

“Aww, our little Serika thinks this is a dream. I didn’t realize she liked us so much that us appearing would be a good dream.” Hoshino cooed.

That brought Serika to reality. “Wait. If Hoshino is being this annoying it must be reality! How did you, why is even Sensei…?”

No longer willing to hold back, Ayane rushed forward and hugged her friend. “We rushed to save you. I was so worried. Sensei asked me to check up on you, and you weren’t home, and then... thank goodness you are safe.”

“Ayane...” Serika hesitated before hugging back.

“More hostiles incoming!” Suzumi yelled from atop the humvee, looking a little nauseous from the drive.

Serika looked over at the approaching forces and growled. “It’s those goons again! Be careful; they are using a modified heavy tank. A Flak 41.”

“Oh. Is that all they brought?” Hoshino asked as she spun her shotgun around. “Shall we, everyone?”

“”""Yes.""""

And as before, following Sensei’s orders made even a tank seem like a small obstacle once he launched Hoshino and Shiroko at it. His commands were clear, efficient, and made without hesitation.

If she forced the memory of the drive from hell out of her head, she had no reason to ever doubt him!

------------

Serina busied herself in the infirmary, occasionally glancing at her phone and the messages left by her captain.

The situation in Trinity suddenly devolved, and criminal activity in the district spiked among the delinquents. While the Justice Task Force was still investigating the reason, the effects were being felt in the hospitals. With so many beds occupied by both civilians, JTF members, and even the occasional Vigilante Crew members, it had become an all hands on deck situation.

The orders from her captain that came in that morning after returning to Abydos were unambiguous. She was ordered to return from Abydos the next day, three days earlier than originally planned.

Suzumi didn’t get an order to return, per se. But the panicked message from her underclassman Reisa, ended with a very unconvincing “we are handling it fine though!” interrupted by sniffles and blubbering. She also would be returning to the district.

At least keeping watch over a patient gives me one more day before I have to leave.

The pink-haired healer set her phone down and leaned around the curtain on one of the beds to check on Serika.

The normally volatile student was busy taking a nap to recover from the previous night’s ordeal. She’d been fine when they first made it back to Abydos, but then the injuries from the high-profile weaponry forced her to sleep.

After everyone got some sleep, the FTF returned to Abydos and were meeting with Sensei to discuss some of Ayane’s investigations. From the little she gleaned whenever she checked on the group, the tank they demolished had illegal modifications. None of the parts should have been accessible for a small gang, so they were trying to track down the distribution channels.

Sensei declared he would take a back seat on this process as he wouldn’t know an illegal part from a really impressive piece of kitchen equipment.

I wish I didn’t have to leave. I can’t stop worrying about Sensei.

Since they had entered Abydos, they had gotten lost in the desert and then got involved in fight after fight. Even if he shrugged and called them petty squabbles, there were multiple moments where he could have gotten hurt.

And that’s before his utterly ridiculous stunt last night with the truck! Seriously, what was he thinking!

It was a miracle he wasn’t injured by shrapnel or bruised from the painful landing. Then they fought a tank! A tank! An illegal one at that!

She was convinced now that he pulled danger towards himself. If this kept up, she’d need to follow him around even when he was in the Schale building....

You wouldn’t expect him to be the reckless type. Most of the time, he kept calm and composed. In some ways, he acted as she would expect from an adult Sensei: supportive and calm with an air of knowledge and experience that made it easy to rely on him.

He didn’t like his students being hurt and tried to command them so they avoided harm, but he wasn’t unreasonable about it. He showed his trust in his two supporters and let them do their jobs and deferred to Serina’s judgment with caring for Serika.

Honestly, it warmed her heart when he told her how grateful he was that he could rely on her without an ounce of worry.

But then he would pull stunts with the truck or recommend using himself as a hostage if things got bad enough! After all his insistence that he wanted Suzumi as an escort to keep him safe, she found him patrolling around the school alone at night! Not to mention Suzumi’s story about him walking into a flashbang to find out what it was like!

He promised that he wouldn’t actively walk into a bullet’s path just to find out what it was like to be shot, and so far he'd kept his promises. But she’d be watching him...

Her musings were interrupted by a yawn from behind the curtain. Quickly checking, she confirmed that Serika had woken up from her nap. “Hi Serika, do you need anything?”

“Oh, Serina.” Serika shook her head, looking bashful about having fallen asleep. “No, I’m 100% fine now. I can get back to the—“

Serina knew that she didn’t look nearly as intimidating as Mine did. However, serving as a medic meant being strong enough to rush around carting beds around, wrestle belligerent patients when a Code Green is called, pacify belligerent visitors when the time came, and move heavy boxes of medical supplies on the regular.

A hand on each shoulder and a gentle but firm smile kept Serika pinned to the bed before she could bolt off.

“You got hit by a Flak 41. You need more time to lie down and recover.”

“B-but, the rest of the group...”

A gentler, and firmer, smile. “You can join them in a few hours. I bet you are the type to run around from job to job without rest to help with the school, right?”

Serika could only nod bashfully.

“Then rest so you can go back to serving ramen to the best of your ability later. Or do you want to worry Master Shiba when he finds out that you were hurt after leaving his establishment?”

That guilt trip worked, and Serika leaned back into her pillows.

“Good, you’ll feel better later.” Internally, Serina was glad this had happened before she was forced to leave. If it had been Sensei pushing her to stay in bed, she likely wouldn’t have obeyed.

Speaking of the adult... “Did I hear Serika’s voice?”

“Ah, Sensei. Come in. She is resting, but she can talk.” Serina smiled while glossing over exactly why Serika was still resting in bed.

“Hey Serika.”

“Sensei!? What are you doing here!?” She sat up in bed, but thought better of trying to get out of it.

It would be embarrassing for all of them if Serina needed to keep her down in front of Sensei.

“Isn’t it obvious? I came to see how you were doing.”

“I’m doing fine,” Serika glanced at Serina, “and only need to rest for a bit. Then I can get back to my part-time job. So you don’t need to worry about me.”

“Well, I can’t promise I won’t worry, but it’s a relief to know you are already feeling better. I don’t know much about firearms, but seems you got hit with an intense barrage.” Sensei sat at her bedside. His kind expression only seemed to cause Serika more stress.

“... Why are you even worried about me?”

“Hm?”

Serina stepped back and faded into the background to not distract the two of them. Hospital beds were often where words came tumbling out.

“I don’t get you!” Serika slammed her fist into the bed. Sensei didn’t even flinch, which seemed to make her angrier. “I’ve been nothing but a jerk! And yet apparently you drove like a maniac to get me, leading the group to find me... even criminally breaking into the network?”

“...”

“This isn’t your fight. This isn’t your school! Spit out your true thoughts. You think the situation is hopeless. That we can’t fix it with what we are doing. Just...” she grabbed her face to hide the watering of her eyes. “Abandon us already, like everybody else.”

“...”

“Am I really expected to believe, like everybody else, that you just… heard about our troubles and came to save us? That you happened to appear without being asked when we are at our lowest point... even with another school’s members in tow? Who does that?”

She gritted her teeth and looked away. “Nobody else ever did.”

“... You are right; as things stand, it is hopeless to fix the issues plaguing Abydos.” Sensei’s voice was grave when he finally broke the silence.

Serina brought her hands to her mouth to stifle her gasp. There had to be more to it than that.

Serika clenched her fists but didn’t rebut him, only awaiting his exit.

“Right now, the Foreclosure Task Force might as well be cleaning out an open wound again and again every time it fills with pus and grime. Unable to stop it from growing infected, eventually such a wound will need to be amputated even if you give everything you can to keep maintaining it.”

“Heh, so now you say how you really feel. Good.” She practically spat out the last word.

“... But it is because of that diligent effort that we can still sew the wound shut.”

“...?” Serika looked up in confusion, finally properly meeting Sensei’s gaze.

“You haven’t had the tools to do more than keep things from getting worse. But that effort has been critical in allowing Abydos to still exist. It may be infected, it may seem insurmountable with what you have... but that’s why I’m here.”

“You... I don’t understand.” A tiny sliver of hope appeared in her eyes. “Is it just the desire to be a savior?”

He snorted at that and ruffled her hair. The sheer audacity kept her from even retorting, shock stilling her.

“A savior? Hardly. I’m a sensei. I’ve never pretended that I’m the one who’ll solve your issues. But when no other Adult stands up, I’ll be the one to fill in that role. To get you all what you need to do your job: be students and protect what you care for most. If that is support, advice, starting funds, protein bars, or access to a network, I’ll provide what you need.”

She stared at him and then nodded slightly.

“So, I think we’ve started off on the wrong foot. Why don’t we start over?” He cleared his throat and extended his hand. “Hi, I’m the Sensei from Schale. I was hired by the GSC to assist students and schools in reaching their goals. Looking forward to working with you to see yours come to fruition. What is your name?”

“... You...” Serika stared at his outstretched hand.

“You?”

Serina held her breath, waiting to see the potential reconciliation.

“You are so cringy!” Serika bellowed, face turning scarlet.

“.... No, my name isn’t so cringy; it’s—“

“Don’t you dare!”

Sensei and Serina laughed, making Serika blush even harder when she remembered the nurse was in the room.

“Geez, something must be wrong with your head to act like this all the time. I almost thought you might be a serious person for a moment there...” She rallied and pointed a finger right at him. “But with or without you, we are gonna settle this debt if it’s the last thing we do!”

His smile grew even larger. “I’m so excited for when that happens.”

“Wh-what!? What’s with that smug look on your face!?”

“Don’t know what you are talking about~”

“... Geez.” Still fuming and red in the face, she looked down at her hands. The shaking they had when he was describing how difficult things were had stopped. “But... looking back on it, I don’t think I ever thanked you, Sensei.”

He waited for her to continue without coaxing her.

“S-So... thanks. For saving the school and chasing after me... and sticking with us even with the debt...”

Sometimes healing isn’t only for the body. Poor Serika, she must have had a lot of things pent up inside. Serina gazed with glittering eyes at Sensei.

“Anytime, Serika. Anytime. I’m only a text message away.”

Now absolutely embarrassed, Serika slammed her head onto her pillow and turned to face the opposite curtain away from Sensei. “I-I was told I need to rest, so I’m going to do that. ... I’ll see you tomorrow!”

“I suppose we should all obey Serina’s requests before she heads out tomorrow.” Sensei stood up and walked towards the door. “Get better soon; we all miss you in these meetings.”

A very quiet voice followed. “Okay. Thanks, Sensei.”

Serina waved goodbye to Sensei, coasting on the warm fuzzy feeling from listening to the two make up. Moments like this made her job so wonderful. She would be riding these positive emotions for the rest of the day.

Beep

The sound of a notification on her phone caught her attention. She looked down, curious. One new MomoTalk message had appeared from... Sensei?

‘Tonight, I need you and Suzumi to help me one last time on patrol. Prepare some medical supply kits.’

... What is he intending to do this time?

--------------------------------------

Gunshots followed by screams cut through the quiet night in a corner of one of the abandoned sectors of Abydos.

Helmet gangsters, many already exhausted and injured from recent tussles with the Foreclosure Task Force, found themselves running away from the combat zone before being picked off one by one.

Explosions lit up the area, revealing for brief moments the broken-down buildings and neglected construction equipment that had once failed to stem the encroaching desert.

One of the leaders, still bruised from Shiroko’s vicious assault the previous day, called out to her squad mates to group up, only to watch them get taken out by headshots one by one.

“Hmph. All clear on this end.” An energetic voice called as another explosion illuminated the area.

“All done over here too, Boss,” a girl with a much calmer demeanor said without fanfare.

“G-gah... who are you people?” the Helmet Gangster leader called out, looking for the source of the voices. She froze at the sound of footsteps behind her and the feeling of a rifle being pressed against her back.

“Are you the runts from Abydos? How dare you...?”

A cool voice answered, relishing the current situation. “Please. And you call this dirty, stinking lair your base? You lot are pathetic.” She let out an egotistical laugh and continued. “Oh, well. I’ll put you out of your misery - don’t worry.”

Held at gunpoint, the delinquent could only yell in surprise at the vicious words.

“Relax. We’re just here to tell you that you’ve been relieved of your duties. We’ll be taking Abydos off of your hands now.”

Feeling the rifle no longer against her back, the gangster turned around. “Wh-what the...!? Who do you think you are!?”

Any further words were cut off as the butt of a rifle slammed against the side of her head. Still exhausted from the previous fights, she staggered back and fell to the ground, seeing stars.

A red captain’s coat with golden buckles danced in the wind behind the mysterious fighter. Her long, shoulder-length pink hair and wine red horns growing from the back of her head faced the fallen gangsters as she looked away from them all. The groaning delinquents could only stare at her back as she strutted forward away from the carnage.

“Problem Solver 68. We’ll do the crime if you’ve got the dime.”

Three team members stepped out of the shadows to follow their leader.

“The best fixers in all of Kivotos.”

With those final words, the four departed, having completed their first assignment. Their next target: Abydos High School.

Meanwhile, about forty feet away from the carnage and completely unnoticed, Sensei scratched his cheek.

“So.... this is unexpected.”

He looked at his escorts in utter confusion. “Gang on gang violence?”

Suzumi pulled out a flash grenade, ready for combat. “I couldn’t hear them well, but I’m certain those are Gehenna students. What are they doing fighting delinquents in Abydos?”

“Probably for the same reason you are, somebody hired them,” Sensei answered as if it was the obvious answer. “Heard some references to money and job.”

“Despite not having a halo, you have some good senses, Sensei,” Serina noted. She hadn’t been able to pick up any of the discussion between the two sides after the explosions and gunfire. The wind was also doing no favors as it was blowing away from the trio towards the decimated base.

“Don’t overestimate me; I think she was a little louder right then. Probably having a dramatic moment.” The way she spoke, whipping her coat around with the declaration and sauntering off like that, gave him a sense that the presumed leader was a haughty person.

“Are we still going with the plan?” Suzumi would be happy if they turned around immediately and canceled the night’s activities. This was their last opportunity to spend time together, but if not for Sensei’s insistence, she wouldn’t have agreed in the first place.

Serina bit her lip. “I feel like I should help, but at the same time...”

“We’ll continue with the mission. I think it is even more important now.” He re-positioned his duffel bag strap on his shoulder and walked towards the groaning delinquents.

One of them peered out through her helmet’s shattered eye visor and yelled in fright. “It’s that adult with the Abydos twerps!”

“Oh god it’s the Blinding Angel of Trinity! Why is she here?”

“Who puts a syringe as a bayonet!?”

Sensei whistled. “Oh hey, we all got called out. Fun.”

“W-what are you planning?” The nearest gangster tried to stand up but could only force herself to her knees. “Here to finish the job?”

“Protein bars.”

“... Pardon?”

Sensei tapped a message on his tablet. Soon, a series of drones started depositing supply crates down next to the injured delinquents.

“Serina, please start helping out the most injured members.”

“”"""Huh!?"""""

Utter confusion was rampant throughout the gang, but they weren’t in a position to reject the help. Serina didn’t let them, even when they tried.

It was when they were in the process of helping that another group arrived at the surprisingly busy base.

“Who the hell did this!? What punks declared war on the Helmet Gang?”

A gangster with long red hair, piercing red eyes and pointed teeth locked in an angry grimace stepped forward. In her right hand, she held the muzzle of a black shotgun to lean it on the shoulder of her black jacket. Her uniform came with a long grey skirt and a yellow ribbon.

“Rabu, you made it!” The leader of this branch yelled out in excitement before Serina pushed her back to the ground to continue wrapping up a swollen head wound.

“Hajime? Damn, you’ve seen better days. And who the hell is he?” she questioned as she pointed the bandage-wrapped end of the shotgun at Sensei. “Someone explain.”

“Evening, Rabu, is it?” Sensei stepped away from an Angel 24 crate of food and waved a hand. “I’m the Sensei of Schale.”

“Sensei? Oh, the adult helping out Abydos. I’ve heard of you. So you decided to ambush the Kata Kata gang members!”

“Miss, they were like this when I got here.” Sensei pointed to the spent bullets on the ground of different sizes.

“Oh yeah,” she snarled, “a likely story.”

Sensei frowned. It wasn’t a surprise that she wouldn’t believe him. Between Abydos and now, the Kata Kata Helmet Gang, he was racking up coincidences on the regular.

Not that he believed this was something in the realm of coincidence.

Suzumi stepped forward to stand between Rabu and Sensei, ready to act at a moment’s notice. So far only the butt of the gun was facing Sensei, but that could change in a moment. “While some injuries are from yesterday, your fellow gang attacked first, and we retaliated. Tonight’s ambush was from some Gehenna students.”

“Liar. Why would Gehenna students be here?”

“Um, Rabu. I-it was some Gehenna students. One had a black wing and horns, and the leader had red and gold horns.”

“........ oh.”

Rabu looked down at her bandaged buddy before thrusting the butt of her gun forward again. “T-then why are you here tonight?”

“Will you believe me if I explain it? Won’t use up my breath otherwise. Also can you put the gun down? It's making Suzumi nervous,” Sensei calmly requested.

“Mostly because you aren’t nervous about the situation.” Suzumi retorted.

“Details.”

Rabu narrowed her eyes. After scanning the area, and realizing there wasn’t much point in attacking at the moment, she lowered the gun. “I’m listening.”

“... You are a good leader, aren’t you?” Sensei closed his eyes and chuckled. “You care about your subordinates and are willing to defend them. Even hearing out somebody if the alternative would put them more in danger. I do like kids like you.”

“Huh!?” Rabu turned bright red at the unexpected compliment.

Sensei didn’t mind it and continued on. “I felt bad about scaring the hell out of your comrades last night with my driving tricks. Plus, I sensed that whoever was paying your group would pull out after losing the tank. If that was the case, then a bunch of my students would spend the night hurt and possibly hungry, paying for their failure. So, a delivery is in order.”

“‘My students,’” Rabu repeated with a scowl. “Since when are we your students? Case you haven’t noticed, your precious punks are part of Abydos. We live a life of freedom, not tied down to any school. That goes for the Kata Kata Helmet Gang and my Splashy Helmet Gang.”

“So? None of that stops you from being my students.”

Even Suzumi and Serina looked at Sensei in shock after the declaration. Wasn’t Sensei the teacher for the academies?

“Do you have halos? Are you of a normal student age? As long as you match those criteria, you are my student. All I see around me,” he spun in a circle to look at each delinquent in turn, “are my students.”

“You rocket jumped a humvee at me!” one girl yelled, still shaken from the previous night.

“You kidnapped one of my students. Sensei promises to treat everyone as students, whether troublesome or not. What I don’t promise is impartiality. I may need to lead a group to kick your butts, but I’ll send over some food and painkillers when all is said and done.”

Rabu bit her lip and tried to process the explanation. Sure, there was a logic to his words. They did have halos. By that metric, they counted as students. But who would take such a broad interpretation for deciding who to help?

Following his logic, he claimed to be the advocate of every student across the entirety of Kivotos! If even the small schools counted along with all the gangs, that made him responsible for tens or even hundreds of thousands of people.

“I don’t get it; why bother yourself with people like us? Nobody else ever has.”

She clicked her tongue, remembering all the names they were called, and the scorn heaped upon the gangsters. Sure, when they did crimes, it made sense. But even just hanging about while doing nothing would get them suspicious glares. “Go coddle the ‘proper’ kids; we handle our own.”

Sensei didn’t respond. Instead, he walked over to a piece of wall of the abandoned, under-construction apartment building the gang called their home. With no difficulty, he hoisted himself onto the top of the weathered concrete block.

“You know, one of those ‘proper’ kids you are so focused on asked me a similar question.” He crossed one leg over the other and leaned forward by resting his elbows on his knee and foot. “Some of you know her since you kidnapped her. Black hair, cat ears, goes by Serika?”

A few of the gangsters nodded. The ones with more bandages wrapped around their heads and limbs were the ones who partook in that particular plot. Rabu shook her head. Her division of the Helmet Gangsters didn’t take part.

“What Sensei finds so sad is that you all are asking this question in the first place. I’ll raise you a better question: why don’t Adults care about your concerns? Why is it a shock when someone reaches out? Where I’m from, Adults are supposed to support the goals and dreams of children. Some do more than others, but part of our duty is to protect the youth. This is without question.”

“We don’t need the help of adults to survive.” She didn’t like the look on his face. The way he looked down on them from a higher perch was annoying enough. Like he was in control. But that expression.

He looked... sad. A deep frown, the outer corners of his eyebrows drooping and a slight tilt in his head as he looked down. If it was pity, she would have been angrier. Instead, it seemed closer to remorse.

“Seems this world became so focused on supporting the students itself, it forgot to create the space so Adults would be encouraged to do the same. To me, that is tragic. When you are young, the question shouldn’t be about survival in the first place. Don’t you think it would be nice to get a little more? The occasional pat on the back, a treat from a festival stall, a piece of advice in a dark moment, and some bandages for a sore bruise?”

Unfocused red eyes looked past Rabu to somewhere far beyond. A place he would not be returning to.

“Wouldn’t that be a nice story?”

“...”

Rabu looked at Sensei for a little longer before turning around and adjusting her helmet. “Yeah, I guess that would sound kind of nice.”

“Rabu, your face is getting a bit red,” one of her comrades informed her helpfully.

“It’s just weirdly hot tonight!” She growled and kicked some dirt at the other girl.

After some light fisticuffs to hide her embarrassment, she turned back to Sensei. Immediately she regretted it when she saw his peaceful yet oh so smug smile.

“If that’s all you have to say, then you should get out of here. You already gave your pats on the back and food and junk. Unless you have something else in mind.”

“Me? Hm, nothing concrete at the moment.” Sensei popped the joints in each of his fingers and examined his hand. “Abydos is my priority at the moment. Tonight was mostly to say hello and hand over some supplies. Didn’t expect they’d get so much use after your previous employer turned on you.”

He continued on while focusing on his hands. “Couple potential ways to assist a bit further down the pipe. Maybe see if any of you are interested in joining Abydos once we get that situation cleaned up.” That statement raised shocked exclamation. “Or see if they might be willing to work something out between your two organizations. Maybe assistance with the debt clearing work in exchange for usage of some of school’s facilities?”

The responses were less intense but still shocked and confused. Sensei didn’t mind the stares in the least.

“A good old city restoration project could benefit both parties. I’m sure those who stayed in it for a night noticed the school building was a lot more comfortable than this base is. Better insulation at least, and the couch isn’t half bad. There is an old schoolhouse in utter disrepair that could use a fix-up. But these are longer-term considerations, and I haven’t spoken to the Abydos girls about any of it.”

He hopped off the wall and gazed at the night sky. “Sensei likes keeping options open. More doors, more opportunities.” He looked at Rabu with a tremendous grin. “Gotta keep my student’s welfare in mind.”

He walked past her and kneeled next to Hajime, the leader of the attack on Abydos and Serika’s kidnapping. “Be a dear and hold off on kidnapping any of my other students though, okay? In return, hmm, oh maybe later if all of you are good, I can take you on a Humvee rocket jump.”

She stared at him through her broken helmet as she processed his sudden proposition. “... Wait... that sounds really cool?”

“Wait, you mentioned this before. What was that about rocket jumping a humvee!?” Rabu yelled.

“If everyone plays nice, I’ll take you for a spin later, and you’ll see. Sensei would love to stay longer, but Rin sent me piles of paperwork to do, so I need to get back to complete that. Enjoy the snacks and rest well, everyone.”

As abruptly as he had arrived, he departed from the area with Serina and Suzumi. When he was rounding the corner, he stopped for a moment at the yell from behind him.

“Bye, Sensei!”

First it was Hajime, then a few of her followers. Finally, even the other girls chimed in to say goodbye to the adult who suddenly wandered into their lives with food and supplies in tow.

“Good night... Sensei.” Rabu muttered with a small smile as he walked out of sight.

Though he didn’t hear her words, he agreed. It was a very good night.

------------------------------

[Why did you promise that, Sensei! That was hard enough to pull off the first time!]

“Well, now that you’ve done it once, won’t it be easier the second time since you know what to expect?”

[That isn’t the point! My abilities are supposed to protect you, not encourage you to do dumb, reckless things.]

“What if I give you boxes of strawberry milk?”

[You can’t always bribe me.]

“And banana milk.”

[.... Sometimes you can bribe me.]

Chapter Text

“Why not let Sensei decide? Sensei, which idea do you think we should go with?”

Sensei, about to pop a grape in his mouth, stopped and looked at the assembled girls.

After seeing Suzumi and Serina off at the train station, the Foreclosure Task Force met for their first official meeting with Sensei in attendance. With Ayane leading the meeting, each member offered their ideas on how to solve the debt issue.

The results were... mixed.

Serika started the meeting off strong by revealing that she bought into a pyramid scheme for selling germanium bracelets to bring luck and become “boss babes.”

Result: Instant shutdown on account of buying into a blatant scam.

Hoshino recognized that the biggest failing for the school was its lack of students, which kept its income low. Sensei nodded along when she recommended increasing the enrollment numbers; it dovetailed well with his discussions with the gang members.

He stopped nodding once she revealed the plan was to hijack another academy’s school bus and hold them hostage until they transfer.

Shiroko agreed with the premise of the plan, but gave her own idea.

“We rob a bank.”

This wasn’t a one-off idea though, as revealed when she pulled out multiple hand-knitted balaclavas for each member of the FTF. The wolf girl was fully prepared for a potential heist on the First Central Bank.

Sensei admired her dedication if nothing else.

As Ayane’s blood pressure soared, Nonomi offered her recommendation.

“Two words: pop idols! Schoolgirl pop idols, to be exact!”

Hoshino dropped an instant denial of the plan before it began. Undeterred, Nonomi showed that she too had prepared for her plan, namely by coming up with poses and the stage name “Christina of the Swimsuit Gang!”

If these are the plans and names they come up with, maybe a merger with the Kata Kata Helmet Gang will be easier to sell than I expected.

With the vehement denials, Sensei assumed the meeting was coming to a close. Hoshino wasn’t about to let him sneak away that easily though and tossed the conversation into his lap to let him decide.

Well, if he was being consulted as the advisor, there really was only one choice.

“Alright, I’ll be managing your idol career then.”

Nonomi cheered and posed now that her dream was on its way to coming true.

Serika slumped in her chair, horrified at the possibility.

Hoshino leaned backwards with a shrug and accepted the outcome while keeping an eye on Sensei.

Shiroko pouted when her idea was denied, but accepted that it was important to go big or go home.

Ayane flipped the table.

Midway through Ayane’s scream, while the others were ducking for cover to avoid Ayane’s “berserk mode”, Sensei acted. With a carefree attitude, he grabbed the flipped table mid-flight with his left hand and spun it around and set it back on the ground.

“Why such anger?” he asked. Didn’t they leave it in his hands?

“Because they aren’t taking this seriously!” Ayane shouted, turning on the adult. Only he refused to flee the blast radius of her fury. “I’m the only one acting mature here while everyone else is fooling around. Even you, Sensei! Stop playing around with their jokes!”

He tilted his head as she stomped over to him. To his left, Serika and Shiroko, who were absolutely not joking with their suggestions, looked away.

“I’m not playing around.” His cool tone didn’t hold a hint of levity. “I’ve considered the proposals, and Nonomi’s is by far the best of those presented. I can already see the general framework for how to succeed.”

“... Huh!?” Some of Ayane’s fire cooled from sheer shock.

“Let’s take each of the proposals as serious topics.” He got up and walked over to the whiteboard and uncapped a pen. “Joining a pyramid scheme is a foolish move. Creating a pyramid scheme would have some merits. However, Abydos is already low on economic strength, and you don’t want to drain the remaining blood from the district.”

“W-wait, I—“ Serika tried to interject, but Sensei was already leaving notes on the board.

“With Schale’s authority, it might be easier to set up a business in another district like Gehenna to start a pyramid scam. Maybe by using some resource that Abydos has that other schools don’t have in abundance. Perhaps something related to glass made with Abydos sand? Certainly have enough of it. Now, while it has its merits, Rin will actually cut off my funding if I pull a stunt like that, so that’s a no-go.”

“S-Sensei, I didn’t want to scam others. I really thought we’d become boss babe billionaires!”

“Oh. Hm.” He looked at his notes and shrugged. “Trying to find business opportunities isn’t a bad thing. Now onto Hoshino’s proposal. That is straight out with its current implementation.”

“Heh, also because Rin will chew you out?” Hoshino asked, interested in the unexpected serious discussion. Despite her levity, he felt the intensity in her stare. Like when he first appeared before the school.

“No. Because I’d stop such behavior first.”

For the first time since they met him, Sensei’s voice turned cold. Hoshino blinked in shock at the change in demeanor and sat up a little straighter.

Good, everyone needs to pay attention to this one. Everything is a joke until someone takes it seriously.

“Schale exists to prevent inter-academy crimes such as that proposal. Instant denial.” Then the coldness vanished as if it never existed. “Still, I love the concept of increasing student enrollment. Another avenue to consider, especially since there are some individuals who aren’t affiliated with any school at this moment.” He circled the phrases “create a new business” and “recruit new students” on the board amongst his scattered notes.

“Robbing a bank is a quick and effective method for getting money. The other plans require time and people,” Shiroko argued on behalf of her agenda unprompted.

“My biggest problem is that you are hitting an Abydos bank. As I said with the pyramid scam, Abydos is unstable enough so you should aim at a different target. Stealing from your own home is foolish.” Sensei lightly bopped her head with the capped pen.

Shiroko’s eyes widened at the revelation. She yanked out her notebook and started scrawling notes into it while nodding to herself.

“WHY IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM NOT THE FACT THAT IT IS A CRIME!?” Ayane yelled, unable to handle it anymore.

Sensei looked at her and tilted his head again. “Three of you recommended a crime, so I assumed that criminal activities were allowed for consideration.”

“As secretary, I will not approve any criminal enterprises!”

Shiroko looked down sadly at her masks.

“A quick revenue burst would be great, but if we are discounting criminal activities, then we should assume that will be out of reach.” Sensei marked it down. “Which naturally leaves the brilliant plan Nonomi presented: Schoolgirl pop idols.”

“I’m so happy you see my vision, Sensei.”

“What part of that is a brilliant plan? She wants to call us the Swimsuit Gang!” Serika stood next to Ayane in opposition.

“Do you even know what a pop idol is? Did they exist in your world?” Ayane asked, eye twitching in anger.

“What world has civilization and not idols?” Sensei asked seriously.

Ayane staggered and grabbed onto a chair for support.

“Uhe~ Sensei wants to leer at us in pretty outfits. He is a man, so of course he’d want to see cute girls. Unfortunately, you only have frail me over here.” Hoshino let out a self-deprecating laugh.

In the middle of making more notes, Sensei paused and turned to her, baffled. “Hm? Why would I need you to dress up to see cute girls here? You all are cute even in regular clothes. No need to come up with a plan for something like that.”

Then, completely unaware of the bomb he casually dropped, he went back to marking down idol concepts.

“Huh?”

“W-What are you saying, you pervert!”

“Oh my ♡”

“... Oh.”

“Sensei has weird tastes~”

Caught off guard by the sudden compliment, the girls blushed and struggled to continue to dissuade Sensei further.

“So, the idol concept comes with a great narrative pre-built because your efforts are for the sake of saving your school. Pulls the heartstrings and makes any struggles you have more endearing. Even an amateur effort displays more heart when you know money is the secondary objective.”

He tapped the ‘idol’ circle he drew. “If your world is anything like mine, there should be substantial profit involved in it as well.”

He drew a line linking ‘idols’ to the ‘recruitment’ circle. “Being idols serves as a walking billboard for the district.

“If some girls become strong enough fans, they may choose to transfer in to get closer to their idols. It also works well for getting attention for middle school students who haven’t finalized which school they will attend next year. Your future juniors could be in the audience, already praising their upperclassmen.”

Ayane twitched at the thought of actually having kouhai.

“In addition, the idols themselves are always only part of the business. Their existence can lead to ancillary businesses sprouting up to handle the purchasing of goods. Local businesses will also get patronage from visitors. Even getting more foot traffic would be great for restaurants like Shiba Seki.”

Serika bit her lip.

“Then how would we even get the funds to buy outfits or arrange for venues? We are basically broke, Sensei.” Ayane, realizing that Sensei was only looking at this from a logical perspective, tried to coax him away.

“That’s what investors are for.” He pointed to some of his notes. “Any business that signs up with this idol group isn’t becoming affiliated with a small group of students like in other schools. They would work directly with what is effectively the active student council body of a district. My research points to a similar situation in Hyakkiyako, but this is an even closer relationship.”

He then wrote his own title on the board.

“In addition, all the paperwork needed to operate between districts gets handled with Schale’s authority to cut straight through the red tape. Activities for the safety and support of academies are part of my job’s very charter, so even Rin can’t complain.”

He paused. “... Well, as long as I still do my other tasks, she won’t complain.”

“If you are so gung-ho on the plan, Sensei, why don’t you become one?” Hoshino asked with a grin.

“Certainly I’d do guest appearances, yes. I’m sure the novelty alone would rake in cash,” Sensei said as if it was obvious.

Hoshino froze mid-laugh.

Nonomi slammed her hands on the table in excitement, face flushing. “Give us a demonstration!”

“Nnn. Demonstration,” Shiroko agreed.

“I-if Sensei is doing it, maybe he’d soak up the attention, so it’s less embarrassing?” Serika’s eyes were beginning to spin as she tried to keep up with Sensei’s info dump. “Wait but, no, it’s still embarrassing!”

“You’d really let a little shame prevent you from saving your school? I’m not sure whether or not to be impressed to find you didn’t burn any remnants of shame away already.”

Sensei fixed up the table so all the paperwork, snacks, and ammunition were back to where they were before the table got flipped. “Would you really turn down an enormous opportunity and instead try to rely on part-time jobs that only delay the current problems?”

“...” Ayane, Serika, and Hoshino struggled to find a retort.

“Perhaps a demonstration would be useful though. Make the possibilities more present. Let me try to remember how one of my favorites would handle a performance...”

Nonomi and Shiroko waited with bated breath while the other three prepared themselves emotionally.

After another few minutes of quiet tidying up, Sensei took a deep breath and faced the girls. “I’ll only hum the song he’d sing. The words aren’t in a language you would recognize, and such words are better left unsaid in this world. Leave that world’s affairs to that world.”

“... You really don’t like connecting with your past, do you?” Hoshino asked with a deep frown that vanished when Sensei turned her way.

Little did she know that her expression was still visible to Sensei’s unusually large cone of vision.

Perhaps something to talk about later. To sum up without prompting an extensive discussion, he gave a simple excuse. “Little of that, and I can’t hit his high notes, anyway. Not trained.”

A poor excuse, but one Hoshino accepted with a nod.

“Go, Sensei, go!” Nonomi cheered as he took his place before them.

To begin, he bowed deeply before the girls, extending his arms out to the left and right. With a quiet, sensual hum, he rocked his body back and forth as he slowly rose to face them. One hand reached for his tie and loosened it, while the other pulled away the elastic hair tie from his ponytail.

Someone, maybe multiple someones, gulped.

With his hair freed and now a single button undone, he continued to hum the foreign song as he stepped around the table, his right hand sliding along the surface. Without caring about the increased blushes on their faces, he walked past each of them, getting close but not enough to touch. Close enough for each of them to feel the sensation of his body heat, heightening his presence.

With the humming getting louder and faster, he completed his orbit to the other side of the table and caressed his own cheek. Reaching into the pile of snacks Nonomi bought for the club, he picked up a batch of grapes and raised them high above his head. With an upturned head, he opened his mouth and squeezed the grapes, letting their juices pour down into his mouth and down his arm.

No longer even hiding his seductive look, he brought his arm down again and licked the juice off the underside of his arm.

“P-PERVERT!” Serika screamed, unable to handle it anymore. Her chair clattered to the ground as she jumped up, tail and ears stiff from shock.

“Work it, Sensei!” Nonomi yelled as she snapped picture after picture with a flushed face.

Shiroko leaned over and looked at the photos. “How much?”

With the magic and moment broken, Sensei cleaned off his arm with a paper towel. “FTF members get the pictures for free. No selling between friends.”

That was fun though, how nostalgic.

Hoshino adjusted her collar and laughed shakily. “This old timer doesn’t understand the programs of the youngins’ I guess.”

“Th-that wasn’t even pop!” Ayane protested, ears scarlet as she looked away from the disheveled adult. “Why were you watching a man do a performance like that?”

Sensei tied up his hair as he fondly recalled the old days. “Oh, the performer was an idol from the local temple of sensuousness. He’d stake out a spot during the lunch rush and dance to generate tips, worship, and converts. Basically, a local celebrity.”

He frowned as he looked at the Shittim Chest perched on a nearby cabinet. Most notably at the red ‘recording’ icon. As Serika yelled at him that the story only proved he was a pervert, he picked up the tablet and raised an eyebrow.

[S-Sensei!? I- you see. This isn’t what you think.] A blushing AI tried to hide some files behind her back once she realized she was being watched.

“To be clear, I don’t mind the pictures or recordings,” he said as if to Nonomi while also clearing Arona of guilt.

[It was an accident. I wasn’t trying to do that!] His words didn’t clear her shame, though.

“Wait...temple... worship and converts....” Ayane frowned as she considered the adult’s words. “No civilization doesn’t have idols—“

Her glasses flashed as she swiftly stood up. “Sensei, have you been talking about religious idols this whole time!?”

“... Yeah?”

This time, he failed to catch the flipped table.

. . .

Half an hour later, in Shiba Seki, Sensei reflected on the encounter.

“I’m sorry, but I still don’t think I’m wrong here,” Sensei said between bites of ramen as he watched the pop idol video Ayane sent him. “Cultural differences be damned, this is only a slightly different form of worship.”

“No pop idol acts as lewd as you did,” Serika complained as she set down extra toppings for the group. “And seriously, did you guys have to come back here again?”

Ignoring Serika’s complaints, Shiroko gave some more chashu to Ayane. The secretary gratefully ate it while still stewing in her thoughts.

“I... think that depends, Serika,” Nonomi said diplomatically. “Some performers are pretty extreme if it leads to views.”

“If I were a girl, you wouldn’t have been as bothered.”

“But you aren’t a girl, Sensei,” Hoshino reminded him while not countering the accusation. Even she was flustered when he began licking the juice off his arm. “Why even bother with the rest of us? You should go on a solo tour.”

Sensei tapped the side of his bowl with his chopsticks and adopted a regal tone. “To save Abydos High School, we proudly present... Sensei with supporting roles from nobody in Abydos. Doesn’t have the same flair, does it?”

“I’ll join you as a duo!” Nonomi offered with a big smile as she scooched a bit closer to Sensei.

“Make that a trio.” Shiroko also slid closer.

“There is more than enough room; you both are nearly on top of him,” Serika complained as she moved to serve the next table. “And why haven’t you dropped this conversation yet?”

“Aww, are you jealous since you need to work while we get to sit next to Sensei?” Nonomi teased.

“As if!”

Before Nonomi flustered the first-year more, the door to the restaurant slid open slightly and a student with messy shoulder-length purple hair and a navy cap poked her head in. “U-umm...”

Serika switched to waitress mode and rushed to the front of the store. “Welcome! How many in your party?”

The new girl looked around nervously as she tried to scrutinize the menu. “Uh... Excuse me. How much is the cheapest thing on your menu?”

Oh, I’ve seen her before. Last night with the Helmet Gangsters. Since Sensei and his students stood out of sight during the Gehenna student’s attack, they wouldn’t be aware of who he was. To be cautious though, he shrunk in his chair as he ate his ramen.

Completely unaware of the identity of the student, Serika explained about the cheapest dish, the Shiba Seki bowl for 580 yen, and welcomed the student and her companions when they all entered.

According to the information he gained from the Helmet Gangsters, it was the tallest girl with long pink hair and gold and red horns growing from the back of her head who led the group. Within the store, it was the short, silver-haired girl with a long side ponytail who led the affairs.

Sensei narrowed his eyes as he heard the short girl ask for only one bowl. When he heard them ask for four pairs of chopsticks for the one bowl, his eyebrows shot upwards in shock. And then when he heard the purple-haired student apologize for being broke, poor, and being alive, his chopsticks snapped in his clenched hand.

Serika beat him to the punch before he spoke and outed himself. “Don’t say that! Being poor isn’t a crime or anything to be ashamed of. You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself!”

He nodded in approval as Serika continued to placate the spiraling student, Haruka. “You’re students! No one expects you to be loaded with cash. Still, you and your friends scraped enough to share a bowl of ramen together. That’s saying something, isn’t it? Even if all you can do is make it through until the next day, your effort matters.”

She flushed a little but said the words that came back to her. “As long as you put in diligent effort, you can keep things from getting worse long enough for someone to help.”

Good to see she is internalizing it. He often said that teasing your students was one of the few pleasures a teacher carried. Another was witnessing a student carry their lessons forward to support another. I should buy her a little gift later.

Sensei stood up and looked over at Master Shiba. Without saying a word, he pointed at himself. The chef shook his head and gave a thumbs up instead. Through their shared connection as ‘those who feed the kids’, they found common understanding. The children would not be leaving hungry today.

When he turned back to the table, the Abydos girls looked at him with understanding smiles, if a bit of exasperation from Hoshino and Ayane. “Can’t leave them alone, can you?” Hoshino asked with a dramatic ‘old man’ sigh.

He wasn’t embarrassed to admit it. The thought of four girls eating a single bowl of ramen tore him up inside, and he wouldn’t stand idly by. Even if they were hired to take out Abydos, he would support his students until they became trouble. This was a duty, a pledge, of the Sensei of Schale.

Then, when they did attack, he’d help the Abydos girls drop them in the dirt since that was a different subject entirely. Mercy and charity follow conflict with no place during it.

Speaking of the upcoming conflict... since they were sitting in the neighboring booth, it was easy to listen in on their conversation. From their discussion, he picked up that they were out of money from hiring extra workers to attack Abydos later.

“Heh. Would you expect me to do anything less? Be grateful there was enough left for a bowl of ramen.” Their leader, Aru, tried to placate the others, acting as if all of her movements were going exactly as planned.

The white-haired girl and the silver-haired girl, Mutsuki, were not buying the excuse. “You could have negotiated to make sure there was enough left for four, you know...”

“Just admit that you forgot to account for dinner in today’s expenses, Aru.”

The white-haired girl continued with a frustrated tone when their leader only laughed. “Are these Abydos students really worth blowing our entire budget on hiring extra muscle?”

“Our employer was clear. Even if the Helmet Gang is weak, they did manage to take the school once. Yet the Abydos girls pulled victory from the jaws of defeat and turned it around in a day and took the fight right to the enemy base. Something happened.”

She dramatically snapped her chopsticks. “An unknown factor has infiltrated this district, and the client will count our mission as partially successful as long as we can identify what or who that unknown factor is. Local rumors point to a partnership with Trinity.”

Ah. Crap. If they are prepping while assuming that Serina and Suzumi are part of the fighting force, this might be bad for Abydos. From the discussion, whoever was funding the attacks on Abydos was putting significant resources into the operations. If the Gehenna girls were out of money due to preparing for the battle, this might be tricky.

Aru’s group wiped out the Kita Kita Helmet Gangsters with only four fighters. Even considering the injuries the gangsters were handicapped by, this was not a feat to be ignored. They were hired for a reason: their strength and capabilities.

This was a direct result of his meddling. Whoever was aiming at the school was on higher guard because of his connection to Trinity. In that case, it was up to an Adult to meddle even further if an Adult caused the commotion.

With that in mind...

“Restroom,” he whispered. As the group’s attention was drawn to the comically large bowl of ramen the chef made for the quartet, he hid in the men’s bathroom stall. Can’t let them pay attention to me. With how preoccupied they were over Haruka’s outburst, they wouldn’t have noticed me when they entered.

“Arona, check any online information for a Gehenna student named Aru and Problem Solver 68.”

[On it.]

As he awaited the results of her search, he considered his options.

Information warfare.

Subterfuge.

Setting up extra defense.

Siege preparation.

Battlefield manipulation.

Should the group stay together or keep Shiroko as an ambush unit? Would the Humvee be useful? Focus defenses around Hoshino or focus on direct assault on Aru? Should I use any of Suzumi’s spare flashbangs or stay out of the combat?

An unreasonable number of unknowns to prepare a strategy for the combatants alone. Relying only on the students would be a poor approach; he needed to influence the battle in another way.

Should I reach out to Rabu or Hajime? Rabu’s Splash Helmet gang is at full strength, and Hajime’s Kata Kata gang is injured, yet vengeful.

It would be a good opportunity to try to clear the air between the gangsters and Abydos. If he offered some money and gave them an opportunity to get revenge for the previous night, they might accept. But he... didn’t exchange information with any of the gangsters.

Also, it might seem insincere to immediately ask for a favor.

He glanced at the files Arona was sending him and zoomed in on one particular forum thread. ‘Who keeps leaving these flyers all over the city?’

The picture was blurry, but the phone number on the flyer was still legible.

Jackpot. Now he needed to do a bit more prep. With a smug smile and a thrill of excitement, he started his plotting and scheming. Arona listened to his plan and soon was smiling as well. With a motivated green halo floating above her head, she dashed off to fulfill all of her Sensei’s needs.

A knock on the door caught his attention as he finalized his plans.

“Sensei... are you okay? Do you need some medicine for, um, stomach problems?” Nonomi asked with a voice full of concern.

“Ah.”
[Ah.]

Okay, they did deserve an explanation.

--------------------------------

Uuuuuuu, Aru groaned to herself. Why was this happening? What cruel twist of fate did she summon! Why did the nice girls from the ramen shop need to be the Abydos students she was commissioned to attack!

Only a few minutes ago, they’d been enjoying such a lovely bowl of ramen. Delicious noodles, rich toppings, a warm filling broth... after running low on funds for so long and being careful with food purchases, it was a wonderful feast. And to share it with such nice company. The three students who talked with them shared such a warm, friendly vibe as if they were old friends.

She even cheered them on as they were leaving, encouraging them in their efforts to revitalize their school!

“What happened to doing the crime as long as the client has the dime? Problem Solver 68 doesn’t let emotions get in the way, so what’s going on?” Mutsuki asked with a shrewd grin. Well, that was easy for her to ask; she was fine playing nice and then unleashing a prank right after. She didn’t have the weight of being commander of the operation on her shoulders.

“I-I know that, but...” Aru stammered and looked at Kayoko and Haruka. Kayoko only stared back, awaiting orders with a silent pressure to get on with it. Befitting the department head... but it hurt her heart still!

If she told Haruka to attack even the Prefect Team and Pandemonium Society simultaneously, she would agree in a heartbeat with no regard to her own safety. She wasn’t any help either.

It felt sleazy, but her teammates were right; they needed to take this job. All their cash was invested in completing this mission, their biggest ever. If she abandoned it because the girls from Abydos were sweet... and hardworking... and generous....

It would be her own team who would suffer from her failure to investigate it ahead of time. There was no other option.

Though she wished there was!

“The client said this group is tough, so... let’s do it. Round up the—“ A sudden phone call broke her concentration and the scraps of willpower she managed to cobble together. “Why call me now!?”

“Who is it, Boss?” Kayoko asked with a serious expression and the silent pressure to stop delaying further.

“L-let me check. Unlisted?” Who would be reaching out to me through an unlisted number? With only one way to check, she accepted the call and remained silent to await the caller’s introduction. If it was a spam call, she would be so ticked.

“Rikuhachima Aru.” A male adult’s cold, deep voice came through the speaker, making her shudder. This wasn’t anyone she recognized. “You are not picking up your office phone, so I assume you are en route to handle the Abydos job.”

“E-eh? Wh-what, explain yourself!” Aru stood up straighter and glared at the phone. “My business does not give its information to anyone without notice. Who are you to call the best fixers in Kivotos?”

Silence on the other end, and then an irritated click of the tongue, which made her shudder. “... Is it not obvious? I work for your client, that esteemed personage. How else would I be aware of your current mission, fool? Are you looking down on the Intermediaries?”

“Th-the client’s intermediary!?” Aru yelled, all bravado vanishing to the winds.

Kayoko and Mutsuki looked at each other in shock, but Aru had a bigger mess to clean up. It was really bad to make their client angry. “I apologize; please pardon my suspicion. I didn’t realize the client felt it necessary to work with intermediaries.”

“Kid—” the word stung, belittling her efforts with its caustic tone, “—do you think someone as important as them has the time to deal with every little detail? When plans change, they leave it to people like me to handle the lower tasks. Now, do you want to know how the boss has decided to assist, or should I let you flounder about without the new intel?”

“Please continue,” Aru begged without shame. Her fears about how difficult this mission might be resulted in her hiring so many mercenaries in the first place. Even with the extra armaments the client provided, her instincts screamed at her to be careful.

She preferred to handle her agency’s missions their own way without interference; it was why she refused up-front payment. But if it was intel and assistance without a contract, that was another thing entirely. How bad would it look if she not only betrayed the nice Abydos students but also failed to accomplish the job!

“The Intermediaries, starting with me, got supplies inbound. The report slapped on my desk says you hired mercs, not a bad strategy. Too many have shoddy weaponry, though. Not what true professionals have... and you are supposed to be those, right?”

“Of course!” She stomped on the ground, while alternating fear with euphoria at the hardboiled energy the man on the other end was displaying.

To think this assignment involved The Intermediaries, a whole separate group outside the client! Whoever they were. Problem Solver’s prestige would rise even higher with this success if they worked with even more agencies. “You can count on our equipment to be the finest in the business.”

“Heh, then prove it. We’ll get you those supplies so your mercs don’t look ridiculous next to you and ensure success. The girlies at that school won’t stand a chance, but be on guard. Slip up and well...” the sound of something, a cigarette?, being extinguished was heard on the other end of the line, “it won’t be pretty.”

So cool....

“Yes, we will show you the might of Problem Solver 68.” Then in a weaker voice she continued. “But this doesn’t come out of our final reward, right?”

“We aren’t so poor as to care about a little help towards our esteemed fixers. If you do the job correctly, we’ll call it a rounding error. A shipment that got... lost... if you know what I mean.”

“Yes, we will... he hung up.” Aru stared blankly at her now silent phone. “Not even a farewell or sign off.” Now that is how to handle a clandestine business interaction.

“A-Aru, does this mean we are going forward with the plan?” Haruka asked, clenching her shotgun to her chest.

“Hehe, round up the muscle! We march on Abydos!” Now she was sure, this was the path for her!

--------------------------------

“I’m reading a large armed group 15 kilometers south of campus!” Ayane called out from the Foreclosure Task Force clubroom.

“Told you, they really should have been quieter at the restaurant.” Sensei said as he adjusted his communicator.

“Didn’t doubt you, Sensei. Only shocked how brazen they are.” Shiroko complained.

“Those ungrateful pricks! I’ll make them spit up the ramen we gave them!” Serika’s fury bubbled from the moment Sensei informed them of Problem Solver 68’s impending attack, and it was far past boiling point.

“Keep to Sensei’s plan. This might as well be a small platoon. Keep them engaged where we can contain them. No matter what, we don’t go crazy.” Ayane instructed them.

“It’ll be fine, Ayane, don’t worry so much,” Hoshino drawled with a placating tone.

“It’s you I’m worried about, Hoshino. Even if you are angry, we need to hold where Sensei tells us.”

“Fine, fine.” Hoshino grabbed her shotgun and adjusted her shield. While Serika was the angriest, Hoshino was also getting increasingly short with these repeated attacks on the school.

“Move out, everyone!” Sensei commanded, and they all moved to their assigned areas.

Now, all they could do was trust in each other.

If everyone performed their roles, they had a chance to get through it.

That included Sensei as well. After taking a deep breath, he forced a hat down over his head to hide his eyes and shoved his ponytail into the back.

--------------------------------

“Yo, client ladies, you got a special delivery coming?” One of the part-timers asked, tilting her helmet to get a look at Problem Solver 68.

“Little.... busy...” Aru yelled as she fired her sniper rifle at Shiroko. From the moment the battle began, the wolf girl targeted Aru and only Aru. That would be fine on its own — Aru was able to shoot down the rockets Shiroko fired from the drone before they reached her — but it kept her occupied.

“I’ll deal with it, Boss,” Kayoko offered. There isn’t a chance Aru can handle two things at once right now.

Kayoko was annoyed that Aru had been correct. The students they were fighting were a far more potent foe than they expected. If they hadn’t hired so many mercenaries, the tide would have turned in an instant. Abydos’ coordination was fierce and not something they could rival with randomly assembled workers.

Even trying to free up Aru from Shiroko’s harassment instantly turned Nonomi’s attention onto the unfortunate assistants, who soon met a spray of bullets to the face.

Even more annoying was how spread out they all were while her allies were clumped together. Even activating her mystic to inspire fear in the enemy was largely ineffective when Serika would instantly jump in to replace whoever rushed out of the front line. But if she tried to get two at once when they were pressing forward, she would scare her own allies away.

Given time, they would win, but it was best not to let this fight take too much time. Hopefully, the supplies they were promised would turn the tide.

She pushed her way to the back of the mercenary squad and saw ‘The Intermediary’ as Aru called him. For some reason, she seemed under the impression that it was the name of an organization, but Kayoko doubted it. It was odd to see an adult this close to a battlefield, but perhaps that was what made him a high-level client. “Are you the one with the supplies?”

“Problem Solver 68?”

She nodded. “We thought you’d be coming before the battle started, but we couldn’t wait any longer. Where are they?”

“Name?”

“... Onikata Kayoko.”

“Kayoko, Kayoko,” the man extended each syllable of her name as he checked his phone. “There we go, on the list of names who can accept these. Let’s get this over with.”

He spoke into his phone, but she couldn’t hear over the sound of the battlefield. She fiddled with her handgun, Demon’s Roar, as she tried to suppress her agitation. Something about this felt suspicious, but so did the whole contract. Even Aru wasn’t sure of the identity of their client or why they desired the attack on the school.

Perhaps being fishy was appropriate after all?

Her paranoia seemed to be without reason, though. Soon enough, multiple drones came flying onto the battlefield with each carrying a large package.

“Good shooting. Enjoy the guns.” Without another word, the man adjusted his hat and walked down the street.

Who was he?

“Holy crap, is this the new model? I’ve been wanting to try out the upgrade for months?”

“Hey, which box has the ammunition?”

“Be careful; that one is full of grenades!”

Why did he drop them in the middle of the group!?

The part-timers cheered at the new supplies and completely lost interest in the larger battlefield. Without any organization, it became a first-come, first-served match over who would get the shiny new weaponry and ammo packs. For the mercenaries, it must have been like Christmas to have upgrades drop from the sky.

For Kayoko, Santa brought coal.

“Focus up, the battle is still ongoing!” Kayoko yelled. Sure, the guns were impressive, but it didn’t matter if no one was shooting!

Why hadn’t the intermediary thought to get here before the battle or drop them off in the back lines so there would be an organized transfer? Not only that, but while the guns were upgrades for the mercenaries, she expected more tactical equipment.

This was like if Makoto’s Pandemonium Society decided to do a supply drop, nothing like the collected aura the intermediary had on the phone.

With Aru occupied and Mutsuki evading Hoshino’s shotgun, it fell to her to try to regain control. She barked out orders left and right, instructing the mercenaries where to move and which supplies to leave for later.

Dammit, they aren’t even interested in listening to me. While she was part of PS68, she wasn’t the leader. Since Aru was so insistent on labeling roles, her “department head” title also technically ranked lower than Mutsuki’s “chief of staff” to the mercs.

To make matters worse, their opponents were acting even faster in response to the few orders that were listened to. They started relentlessly pushing into the platoon, no longer protecting their positions. It should have been a foolish move, but they responded so quickly it was effective.

It’s almost like they know our moves—

“Hey, did someone leave their cell phone here?” One of the part-timers asked, looking into the bottom of one of the supply crates despite the orders to move forward.

“... Shit!” Kayoko rushed forward and pushed the girl out of the way. As she had said, at the bottom there was a cellphone, currently on the line with someone.

Damn, they’d been had.

That was the last thought she had before one of Shiroko’s rockets swerved off target and landed on the crate of grenades.

. . .

“A-Aru, w-what do we do!”

Haruka’s loud yell pierced through Kayoko’s muddled consciousness, pushing her to wake up. Everything hurt as she forced herself to open one of her eyes, to survey what had happened in the battle.

“What...?”

The previously chaotic battlefield quieted during her brief spell of unconsciousness. The Abydos girls were directing their weapons towards Aru and Haruka, both of whom were covered in dirt and assorted bullet marks.

“Oh, Sleeping Beauty is awake!” Mutsuki’s voice came from above her head.

Tilting her head upwards, Kayoko locked eyes with the silver-haired explosion fanatic. Apparently, she was being held tight to the smaller girl’s flat chest. Compared to the others, Mutsuki looked practically pristine. But even Mutsuki’s normal energetic affect was broken by a strained smile and quick glances around the battlefield.

“To catch you up. We are boned! All our part-timers Aru spent all our cash on booked it once the day shift ended. Even took the new guns and ammo our ‘supplier’ provided when they left. Can you believe it?”

“I still can’t believe you let that happen,” the petite pink-haired girl commented grumpily from somewhere in front of them. “Is giving weapons and supplies to our enemies a thing for you?”

“What can I say? I have a soft spot for mercenaries. They did exactly what they were paid for. I appreciate those who keep to contracts. Don’t consider them enemies.”

“Damn...” Kayoko groaned in pain as she sat up. Yes, she very well could believe it. That was the trouble with hiring mercenaries. You got what you paid for. “The supplier was a set-up, huh?”

“Yep! Aru got played like a fiddle. Kufufu.”

“Th-this was only a setback!” Aru yelled in response, flushing at being called out in front of everyone.

“In her defense, I’m experienced in playing that role. Don’t be too hard on her. Adults are tricky that way.”

Kayoko looked up at the adult standing behind the Abydos girls. So the plan was leaked from the get-go.

“Now, as an apology for such blatant trickery, how about you girls get going now? If you choose to leave in the next thirty seconds, I’ll even let you take whatever supply crates are remaining with you.” His smug smile inspired an urge to beat him with his own ponytail. “Sorry Hoshino, I did promise to provide them to Problem Solver after all.”

“Again!?” Hoshino yelled.

The Abydos girls looked at him in shock. (To be fair, so did Problem Solver 68). Some even voiced complaints that they should be interrogated to determine who hired them, but he shut them down with a shake of his head.

“They responded too well to my calling the client ‘that personage’. Might be dangerous to force them to reveal it. Likely unaware of their true client or actually worked with an intermediary. Well, Aru? 5... 4... 3...”

“Guh. We’ll get you next time! Scatter!”

With that order, Kayoko stood and hobbled away with Mutsuki’s help. Haruka picked up the last supply crate, bowing once, before chasing after Aru. Their glorious leader held a medkit crate under each arm as she dashed off.

Not the most embarrassing moment of their career, but certainly in the top ten. She only sighed in frustration at how bad everything played out.

If not for that adult, this would have been a very different outcome.

“Hey boss, what do we tell the client?” She called out as the school vanished from site behind a dilapidated hotel.

Aru’s cry echoed through the alley. “I don’t know!”

Another sigh. She’d remind Aru about the client accepting information about the ‘unknown factor’. Whoever that adult was, he certainly counted.

“We got lucky that Sensei is nice, huh? You missed it, but Aru looked like she was about to give up the ghost when he came out and stared her down earlier.”

... Sensei?

Oh. That really did explain a lot.

----------------------------------------

Later that night, at the top of one of the few high-rises still operating in Abydos, a lone robot tapped a discordant melody on the surface of his mahogany desk. The orange LEDs in his eyes scanned the documents before him as he tried to piece together where the holes in their data were.

“Nothing is adding up. Once those brats lost control of the school the end should have been in sight. Nothing in the data predicts even the faintest chance of them turning the situation around and handling the gangs and the fixers.”

The Kaiser PMC Director’s hand crushed the document in a fit of frustration. This was supposed to be over already. Having to back down from his Mission Accomplished notice to put all operations back into In Progress stung deep. Enough that he splurged extra on the fixer to drive the final nail into Abydos’ coffin.

More failures and there would be questions about the efficacy of his planning. Especially from... that man.

“You seem troubled.” Black Suit observed.

The man in question strutted into the room as if he owned it, only adding to the Director’s annoyance.

“Simply recalculating. Some calibration error. The fixers say some ‘Sensei’ is helping the brats which is giving them a little extra fight. A minor hurdle.” He had no intention to give his business partner a chance to comment on his methods.

“...Sensei? Of all districts, he chose Abydos as his first assignment?”

This caught his attention. Black Suit rarely expressed anything besides calm control. But now he seemed concerned. “You know him?”

“He is someone I have a potential partnership with. To think we would already be on opposite sides though... is this fate or a twisted destiny?”

“Hm. Even then, it’s one person. This is only a temporary reprieve. Our plans will still proceed.” Now they only needed to look into any information on this ‘Sensei’ character and prepare accordingly when making their moves. In the end, data would rule the day.

Black Suit remained unconvinced though as he looked out the window to the sand covered skyline beyond. “A single person who overturned a predetermined end to this story. One who will be difficult to shake with typical methods. I’d recommend caution. You should proceed as if...” The distorted man, turned his face to the director, his permanent grin glowing with white light. “Yes, proceed as if I was your opponent.”

The highest praise from the egocentric man. Without waiting for a response, Black Suit walked out as suddenly as he entered, leaving the Director in the room alone.

Fine. If that was his suggestion, he would listen to it. Kaiser long prepared for an eventuality where this partnership collapsed. It will be easy to call upon some plans we kept in reserve.

Chapter Text

“So this is the Black Market...” Serika said with a stunned expression as she gazed across the crowded streets of the unauthorized district.

“Whoa! There are a ton of people here! ☆” Nonomi exclaimed as she looked up and down the street at the shops lined up. It’s almost like I’m back in Trinity’s district.

Nonomi looked back at her classmates and gave a nod of approval at their attire.

At Sensei’s recommendation, they forwent their usual school uniforms to enter the district incognito. Getting to help out with choosing outfits for everyone had been tremendous fun! Even though she was shot down for a few of her suggestions, it was nice to coordinate with everyone, almost like a school project.

Serika was wearing a shorter black jacket and black high rise cutoff jean shorts. Under her jacket she wore a pale yellow shirt that was just long enough to cover her stomach unless she stretched. In Nonomi’s opinion, the little hint of belly button was a charm point.

Her cat ears were obscured by her updone hair that was styled into two high hair buns. Thankfully it only impeded her hearing a little and didn’t actually injure her ears.

It had been hard to find a good supplier on such short notice, but Hoshino was making her new light blue dress work well. Finally, my dream of putting Hoshino in a dress has been fulfilled! For her short stature, most would think she would look to childish with that color, but the serious posture she (sometimes) maintained and the shawl on her shoulders made her look more like a rich woman surrounded by her entourage.

Nonomi would never admit to the cost of the dress. It was worth every cent to see a different look than the usual lazy senpai she showed everyone. So many pictures!

Shiroko decided to ignore every suggestion Nonomi provided and went with a different route: stealing from Sensei.

“Nn. Baggy,” she had said while wearing one of Sensei’s grey suits with a blue tie. It was only with a heavy heart — and because she looked just like a bodyguard for Hoshino — that Nonomi pointed her to a place that could temporarily hem the outfit to fit the smaller girl.

Sensei watched the whole thing amused and approved it. I’ll find my own way to get closer. This is only a temporary victory Shiroko.

Like the others, her gun was carried in the only thing that was purchased in bulk: a sleek navy blue bag that made it easy to keep the weaponry concealed. Only Nonomi carried her gun as normal.

There really wasn’t any way to hide Little Machine Gun V. Hopefully it isn’t a problem.

Ayane was staying behind in the school, but she wasn’t left out of the outfit shopping. Her normal uniform jacket had been a good basis, switching it out for a black coat that swung by her stocking-clad knees. Nonomi also provided her with a white button-down shirt and a cream colored pleated mini-skirt.

Nonomi herself had originally tried for subtle. But after seeing how well Hoshino and Shiroko worked together, her incognito gear became anything but. She had decided to go with an off-season designer trench coat and a marron top and skirt. She’d also invested in some costume jewelry that looked real from afar. To top it off, she wore a white beret.

Together with Hoshino, they looked like two underworld scions going with their two guards.

Subtlety was long dead, but they certainly wouldn’t be mistaken for Abydos students like this.

The only one whose outfit she didn’t help choose was Sensei’s, per his request.

Instead of something fun, he opted for the exact opposite approach and appeared as the type of adult you might find at a gambling parlor.

His normally clean-shaven face was covered in stubble, and he let his long hair sit messy down to his shoulders rather than in its usual small ponytail. A bit of makeup made his cheeks look gaunt, and he stood with a hunch to detract from his normal impressive height. Instead of a suit and tie, he was wearing a ratty brown jacket he bought from a secondhand store in downtown Abydos and a blue button-down shirt with the buttons misaligned.

Gone was all his usual professionalism as he mumbled to himself and wandered towards one of the shops, fidgeting with a fake wallet in his back pocket. If she hadn’t been watching him, she might have lost sight of him in the crowd.

Sensei is way too good at stuff like this, she thought, a strained smile appearing on her face. This was certainly not his first time infiltrating somewhere. Even when planning, he didn’t need long to come up with suggestions for each of us.

Their trip to the black market followed a whirlwind of activity that took place after sending Problem Solver 68 packing the other day.

Ayane determined that the guns the Helmet Gangsters used were models no longer on the market, only available from shady dealers. Sensei revealed the results of his investigations into Problem Solver 68 and their standing in Gehenna as troublemakers. Then, when discussing the upcoming loan payments, Sensei announced his suspicions about the “cash-only” policy Kaiser held.

As the first to bring up the odd policy, Nonomi beamed with pride when Sensei praised her for bringing this to his attention. The adult immediately okayed a jaunt over to the Black Market for further investigation once the loan payment was handled. This gave the girls enough time to update their wardrobes for the excursion.

“What should we do if we encounter Problem Solver 68 here?” Shiroko asked. “We didn’t expect an unauthorized district to be this big and busy.”

“Shoot on sight.” Ayane growled.

“Seriously, Ayane. What did they do outside the attack?” Serika asked.

Nonomi looked over in interest as Ayane glanced at Sensei for a moment before looking away while blushing slightly. Someone had a story to tell.~ Perhaps they crossed paths again?

“They’ll be as surprised and unprepared as us if that happens. In such a case, let me see if I can handle it,” Sensei said into their earpieces, masking it with his mumbling act. “Outside their missions, I’ve seen we can come to an understanding if we separate business activities from off-the-clock ones.”

“And how do you know that, Sensei?” Hoshino asked with a raised eyebrow. “After giving them more guns?”

Sensei glanced at Ayane and then shuffled over to a different store. “Call it a hunch?”

Oh, something absolutely happened earlier. Nonomi vowed to probe Ayane later.

Sensei’s handling of the Problem Solver 68 girls was both surprising but still fit what she learned about him so far.

After they left Shiba Seki ramen, he brought the group together and informed them of the conversation he overhead between the quartet as they discussed the upcoming operation. Then, as the FTF prepared for combat by trapping the entry points to the school, he went off on his own and tricked Aru by pretending to be an intermediary supplier.

It was good he did so too! With so many mercenaries, plus more of the black market guns the gangsters used, the school would have been in serious danger of being lost without his trickery. The Gehenna students were strong.

Once they handled it, he let them go without issue and even let all their opponents take the supplies home as gifts. Even stepping out and revealing himself as Sensei to Aru was a tactic to allow her to get a partial success on the mission.

Rather than enemies and allies, he seems to see all the students as his allies. Buuuuut he is prioritizing us above everyone else. So take that, Problem Solver. Sensei is ours!

With that mindset, it was no wonder he would so easily see their attack as a ‘business activity.’

“Enough about that subject,” Ayane requested with a serious expression. “We need to focus. You’re in the heart of the illegal weapons and arms trade, so be ready for anything. If anything does happen...”

Whatever she intended to say was cut off by the sound of gunfire from nearby.

Shiroko instantly went into a ready stance and looked around, soon pointing towards the source of the conflict.

“Ahhhhh!” A student with light brown hair, twintails tied with yellow and black ribbons, and a large white backpack came rushing down the street with two delinquents in pursuit.

“Stop right there!”

“W-waaah! No, no, no! P-please, stop chasing me!”

The girl with the backpack yelled out in desperation as she tried to avoid the delinquents who were closing in. A collision with the FTF was soon to happen as she turned to look behind her to yell at them to leave her alone.

Her protests only served to incite the delinquents further. “Why should we listen to you!?”

Oh dear, this looks like trouble. Nonomi silently gripped her minigun. No matter how she looked at it, the delinquents were harassing an innocent, and adorable, student from a different district.

“Hey. That uniform...” Ayane started to say as she stared at the approaching girl.

Yep, white uniforms like that are almost exclusively from Trinity. Nonomi saw them often enough when she went on shopping sprees in the neighboring district. The other three almost never left Abydos, so they waited for Ayane’s elaboration.

Shiroko, the lovely scamp that she is, stood her ground and waited for the Trinity girl to slam into her. The resulting crash dropped the running girl straight to the ground, while Shiroko only needed to take a slight step backward.

“O-ow... sorry about that!” The Trinity student said, not realizing that Shiroko wanted the crash to happen. Running from delinquents but still polite enough to apologize for causing trouble.

I think I’m going to like this girl... is that a Peroro backpack!?

While Shiroko checked on the girl, Nonomi’s earpiece activated. Seeing how Ayane and Serika twitched, she wasn’t the only one to get a sudden message from Sensei.

“Play along with what I’m about to do and tell her to do so as well.”

Time for some Sensei magic! ☆ What trick will he pull this time?

“We got business with that Trinity student, back off!” The blond delinquent yelled, gesturing with her gun.

“Uh... but I don’t have any business with you,” the girl responded, stepping closer to Shiroko in fear. She jumped a little when Shiroko leaned closer and whispered something in her ear and looked around in a panic.

“But we’ll make business with you! Trinity girls are always loaded with cash. If we kidnap her, we’ll get a hefty ransom!” The black-haired thug with a long ponytail declared.

Nonomi’s grip on her minigun tightened, and her smile grew strained. Abductions and ransoms were unfortunately a common occurrence in Abydos after the public order fell apart. It was always the same thing: a desire to grab at money no matter whom they hurt.

She didn’t even need to look at Hoshino to know her senpai would be bristling as well. How many times did they fight together to stop this same activity in their home?

“Abductions and negotiations! Now that’s what I call an investment plan!” The other delinquent yelled.

Serika glared at the duo, ready to throw hands. No doubt she remembered her own recent kidnapping.

“Seriously, there isn’t anybody who would care enough about me to pay a ransom!” The girl yelled as she got ready to run again.

“Whoa, whoa. Now that’s a bunch of nonsense. Hey, you.” The blond thug looked at the suit-clad Shiroko. “Help keep her in check, and we can split the profits! Whaddaya think? Looking at you, you all must be involved with some shady stuff too, right? ”

Nonomi held herself back from beating the thug over the head with her minigun.

Shiroko stepped forward, a dangerous gleam in her eye. Wait, Shiroko, Sensei needs to—

“YOUNG MIIIIISTREEEEEEESSSSSS!”

Before anyone could react, Sensei rushed forward and grabbed onto the Trinity girl. With his clothes disheveled and dirt on his face, he somehow looked even more unkempt than before!

“Who the hell are—“

Sensei didn’t give the thugs any attention as he shook the stunned and terrified girl. “I finally found you! I told you not to leave my sight! This is why you shouldn’t wear your outfit even after your expulsion!”

“E---e----hhhhh.” The girl tried to speak, but Sensei’s jostling stopped her.

“I know how much Trinity meant to you, young mistress! Don’t you worry; I’m feeling really lucky today. Those pachinko balls are singing for your tuition fees! We just need to hold on a little longer.”

“...” None of the Abydos girls knew what to make of the one-man show. Their Sensei started sobbing, legitimate tears pouring down his face and a bit of snot dripping down his nose as he held onto the now paralyzed girl.

“Tch. So she’s a dropout like us. What a waste of time.” The blond grumbled as she picked up her gun.

“Did think it was weird that a Trinity girly would be in the Black Market. Hey kid, if you lost your school, then dress like it dammit. Stop being so confusing. Go join a gang or something.”

“SUCH KIND WORDS!” Sensei turned to them, face covered in grime, snot, and tears. “Thank you for taking the time out of your day to give advice to the Young Mistress!”

With each step he took towards the delinquents, they took another step back, repulsed by the gross adult approaching them.

“Man, this blows. Let’s get out of here.” With surprising speed, the thugs scampered away from the new threat(?).

“What... was that....?” Ayane forced out.

Once the delinquents were out of sight, Sensei turned back to the group. “Sensei Diplomacy: Being Lame. Sorry for forcing you to play along, miss.” He then looked over at Nonomi and smiled.

“Wow, Sensei, I didn’t know you could act so well,” she said. Now that it was over, she understood why he dressed the way he did. It was easy to underestimate someone who looked poor and dirty like that. “Is it easy to cry on command like that?”

Sensei’s smile grew strained. “Sensei shoved a whole batch of dirt into his eyes and nose. It hurts. Water now. Please, Nonomi. Please.”

Oh, that’s why he was staring at her! She quickly fished out one of the water bottles she had brought and handed it to him. He poured it over his face and wiped the wet dirt into his now ruined shirt. It added further to the look if nothing else.

“Ugh. It’s an effective move, but it isn’t one I like repeating. I’m going to be sneezing all day now.” Sensei gratefully took a tissue from Nonomi. “You should be safe now, Miss...?”

That jolted the girl out of her state of utter confusion. “Oh, I’m Ajitani Hifumi. Th-thank you so much for stepping in. I would have been in so much trouble with my school if not for you. Sorry about your eyes.”

“They made a good point though; it’s odd for a Trinity student to be in a dangerous place like this. And I bet you aren’t here with approval from your school,” Hoshino noted, walking closer to Hifumi. “What brings you here?”

She looked to the side, a blush rising on her face, and laughed nervously. “It’s kind of a long story. I came here looking for something. It’s no longer in production, but I heard that it shows up every now and then on the Black Market.”

“Like a tank?” Shiroko asked.

“A contraband firearm?” Hoshino took a guess.

“A biochemical agent?” Nonomi was sure she had the right one. Hifumi already had grenades attached to her backpack. It was worth a guess!

Sensei opened his mouth and then closed it, seemingly thinking better of it.

Hifumi looked around in utter bafflement. “What!? No, of course not! It’s... a limited edition piece of Peroro merchandise.”

To the confused members of the group, Nonomi very much not included, she showed a picture of a Peroro plushie with an ice cream cone stuffed in its mouth.

“A limited edition plush from the Peroro and Ice Cream franchise collaboration! Only 100 of them were ever made!” She showed the picture to each of them. “What do you think? Cute, right?”

“Wow! I love Momo Friends too! Peroro is so cute! ☆ I’m a fan of Mr. Nicholai, personally.” Such impressive dedication to the toy line should be commended.

Hifumi grabbed Nonomi’s hands in delight, and they bounced together happily. “Right? The way Mr. Nicholai philosophizes is just so dashing! In fact, I recently bought a compilation of Mr. Nicholai’s work, ‘Reaching Beyond Good & Evil’! It was a first edition too!”

How fun to meet a new friend who is into Momo Friends! While she loved the series, she never shared it with the rest of the Foreclosure Task Force. With the debt looming over their heads, the other girls scrimped and saved every penny. She didn’t mind using her gold card to buy snacks and small things for the group — in fact she enjoyed being useful — but she never wanted to flaunt her wealth regarding hobbies.

She’d happily share some of her small collection with the others, but they’d never take it and things would grow awkward. There was a thin line she needed to be careful on.

Also, Hoshino simply didn’t care at all for cute toys like this.

“I have no idea what they’re talking about,” the pink-haired girl commented. “I don’t get young people these days.”

Yeah, like that.

“Hoshino... I don’t think we have ever been as in sync as we are in this moment.” Sensei muttered, hand on his face. When he saw the picture of the Peroro doll, he staggered backwards and had been leaning on a nearby wall since.

Hoshino in response....

Did she glare at Sensei?

It was so quick, Nonomi wasn’t sure she saw it properly. It might even have been a trick of the light. But what she thought she observed didn’t seem pleasant.

Whether real or imagined, after a blink Hoshino closed her eyes and waved a hand. “Guess we’ll let the youngins enjoy their perorororos.”

“Seriously, we’re practically the same age,” Serika complained.

“Are you okay, Sensei? You look tired.” Ayane scooted towards him and tried to get a better look. Considering he intentionally dressed to look ragged, it was hard to tell what was disguise and what was his actual countenance.

He wrapped a clean cloth around his right hand and patted her head. “My brain is trying to catch up with the fact that you can find toys in the Black Market. That is... not the standard of my world. Perhaps I overdid my preparations. I thought it might be far more dangerous if we caused any trouble.”

“No, you were right to do so!” Hifumi yelled, catching Sensei off guard. “The Black Market is huge and has its own law enforcement. You do not want to get on their bad side. If someone causes too much trouble, they’ll come out in force and make sure everyone involved is dealt with. Best thing to do if you see fighting occurring in the market is to run and take cover.”

“Wait, that can’t be legal, can it!?” Serika yelled in shock.

“It’s not in the slightest.”

“And yet not only do they sell contraband weapons but also... toys.” Sensei took a steadying breath. “Okay. Student lead world, I suppose I’m still holding onto too much former world common sense.”

“Former world?” Hifumi asked.

“Can discuss that later. We have our own things we need to accomplish today. Glad to know my nose’s sacrifice was not in vain.”

“You know,” Hoshino put an arm around Hifumi’s shoulder, standing on tiptoes to do so, “you seem to know a lot about this place, Hifumi.”

“I did a lot of research beforehand. It would be really bad if the Tea Party found out that I came here, and I didn’t want to cause trouble.”

“Then it’s settled! Hifumi will be coming with us until we’ve got what we came for! ♪”

“Wait, what?”

Nonomi clapped her hands together. Now they would have even more time to talk about Momo Friends and even properly introduce Sensei. “That’s a brilliant idea!”

Shiroko applauded the idea in her own manner. “A kidnapping. Good thinking.”

“No, not a kidnapping.”
“No, not a kidnapping.”

Serika and Sensei said in unison and then looked at each other. When he grinned at her, she blushed and looked away. “They may be a guide for us.”

“Well, I do owe you all, and especially Sensei’s nose, one. So... alright.”

With that settled, Hifumi joined the party on the trail for contraband! Now that she knew that was what she was working towards yet.

Five minutes later, a lightbulb popped in Hifumi’s head.

“Wait, THAT SENSEI!?”

“Oh boy, we have a lot to catch you up on, huh,” Ayane laughed.

. . .

After what felt like hours, the group found no leads on the contraband guns that were used by the Helmet Gang.

“Are you doing okay, Sensei?” Hifumi asked. “We’ve been walking for a long time.”

While it took her a while to piece together that the adult they were with was the Sensei of Schale, Hifumi caught up to speed fast. During their searches throughout the Black Market, she regaled the group with the different rumors that were spreading around Trinity about Sensei’s repeated trips to their district.

Nonomi couldn’t help feeling a little jealous while listening to the stories. If he had come to Abydos first, they would never have lost the school for even a day. It wasn’t a fair thought; she knew that, but it was one she held.

Sensei patted Hifumi’s head with his right hand for the second or third time with a laugh. “I keep telling you, I only look like a sick hobo to blend in. A little walk like this won’t cause me trouble.”

“Nn. Sensei ran through the Abydos desert for an hour without issue in a suit. Impressive stamina.”

“In a suit!?”

“It’s this old timer who is suffering the most,” Hoshino complained. “My knees and back are killing me.”

“Shouldn’t Sensei be the oldest here?” Hifumi asked, looking at Hoshino with a worried expression.

“I have the oldest spirit.” Hoshino ‘explained.’

“I’m close, but haven’t hit old man status yet. Hoshino has me beat there,” Sensei joined in.

“We’re all pretty much the same age besides Sensei.” Serika groaned.

While they were still able to joke, the group’s energy flagged even in these short respites. Shiroko would walk for another ten hours if they let her, but Nonomi wasn’t built the same. Little Machine Gun V weighed a lot!

Spotting a nearby stall, she pointed it out to the rest of the group. “They’re selling taiyaki!”

“Why are there street vendors in the Black Market...” Sensei rubbed his temples. “Rewrite the common sense....”

“No, no, that is a little odd,” Ayane assured him. “I wouldn’t expect taiyaki in the Black Market either.”

“Ayane.... thank you,” Sensei’s voice wobbled with gratitude.

“Everyone will feel better with some sugar in their systems. I’m buying!”

She wasn’t even surprised when Sensei cut her off. “It’s fine, Nonomi, I can pay for everyone.”

“Yeah, yeah, you can put the card away, Nonomi. No need to blind anybody.” Serika agreed with some trepidation. For whatever reason, her credit card always seemed to intimidate her.

“I’m always ready to spend Sensei’s money,” Hoshino laughed. “And he even offered.”

“But I offered first, and I really want some. So I insist.”

“While I’m here, you girls don’t need to spend on food. Seriously, I’ll take care of it, Nonomi.”

Maybe it was the exhaustion and low blood sugar, but that response got under her skin.

Sensei was kind and caring. The fact that he took her suggestion to become an idol troupe warmed her heart, and the way he took charge to save Serika created a memory she cherished. They all owed so much to him already. Despite this, he never asked for anything in return, only offering to give and give even more.

It was something to be grateful for, and she was grateful! Tremendously grateful. If given the option, she would hold onto him as Abydos’ Sensei forever. Maybe Trinity could borrow him on occasion since she also owed Serina and Suzumi a lot…

But providing snacks for her classmates was her job, one of her only qualifications as a member of the Foreclosure Task Force. If he took even that away from her, what purpose did she serve? The others worked so hard every day to work on the loan repayments, but if she tried to help out with solo work, they assumed it came from her card even when it didn’t.

“No, Sensei. I. Insist.”

She didn’t like the bit of annoyance that seeped into her voice. Serika didn’t notice, still preoccupied with thoughts on the card, but Shiroko’s expression changed. Whether Hoshino noticed, she couldn’t tell; her senpai was hard to read sometimes.

Still, if she didn’t stand her ground here... she would lose something important.

I want to work with Sensei, not only be coddled by him. If we did do the idol project, would he take everything on himself? Where would I even be standing? What is... even my place...?

“Nonomi. This is also something important to Sensei.”

But it was more important to her! If only she knew which words to describe the feelings. Any discussion would worry the group though, and the situation was too critical to derail over her bruised ego. Over fears of... not deserving to be part of the task force.

“Actually, I guess I’m not hungry after all. The smell is enough to make my stomach full.” She smiled, or tried to, and gave in. It was Sensei’s turn to respond.

Now, even Serika and Hifumi caught on to the tension in the air and looked between the silent conflict between student and teacher. “Nonomi...?” Serika put a hand on her arm.

Nonomi stared at Sensei, exerting her will. He could pay, but she wouldn’t eat.

And for the first time... she saw Sensei panic.

His eyes darted around, and he was sweating a little, something the sun and walk didn’t manage. His teeth were clenched and his jaw twitched slightly.

Even when discussing their tremendous debt, he kept his cool, but not when discussing who would pay for taiyaki. Something about that would amuse her later.

“Nonomi...” he started, carefully considering his words. “I told Shiroko this when we met, that Sensei keeps track of firsts. First student I met, first to ask for help, first who came to Schale ect.”

“Okay?” She wasn’t really sure where this was going.

“So congratulations...” He raised both hands up, open palms facing her, before bowing slightly. “You are the first to utterly play me. I don’t have a rebuttal. You win. I would much rather you pay and eat than I pay and a student doesn’t eat.”

Yay, but also, huh? “It wasn’t really something I was trying to win... I just want to treat everyone!”

He laughed and rubbed her head. After seeing all the headpats Hifumi got, she was happy to get one of her own. “Sensei is a bit dramatic sometimes. Bad habit of mine. Would you also buy me some then?”

“... Of course! ☆” Joy flooded in and pushed out the negative emotions festering inside. She beamed at him and rushed over to the robotic vendor before Sensei changed his mind.

“Feels like a lot of tension over taiyaki.” Ayane muttered while Nonomi talked with the vendor.

“Lesson for today. Sometimes the conversation isn’t really about the subject itself. Even I’m prone to that.”

“Nn. Food is important. Not being given too much is also important.” Shiroko agreed, catching Nonomi off guard. Maybe she understood a little more than expected.

“Speaking of, can someone help me out with one small question I still have?” Sensei asked the assembled girls.

“Sure?” Serika responded, curious what he would be asking.

“What the heck is a taiyaki?”

Nonomi nearly dropped the bag right there and then in shock before bursting into laughter.

“That’s our Sensei for you!”

--------------------------------

Turns out a taiyaki is a yummy.

While eating, Sensei chose to fade into the background and let his students talk amongst themselves. Antagonizing his student, whether intentional or not, wasn’t something he would look back on with pride. There was something in that conflict he needed to follow up on in the future. Clearly he stepped on something with Nonomi and there were several possibilities that came to mind.

He hadn’t considered it while at the market, but the difference in economic status between the girls might be a point of contention.

There must have been discussions about how to use, or rather not use, her wealth to help out Abydos. Maybe that is why she restricts herself to smaller things. If her comments about her credit line are to be believed, their ammo shortage never should have gotten so bad. And a major culprit of that would be...

He munched on the sweet snack and glanced at Hoshino. While she kept a hands-off approach, she was still the president of the foreclosure task force and vice-president of the school. As the only two second-years, Nonomi and Shiroko spent more time with Hoshino before Serika and Ayane.

Sensei sighed and bit into another taiyaki. Perhaps to make a point, Nonomi bought a small bag for him alone to eat, so it’d be a while before he was done.

The debt situation is complicated enough, but there are also the interpersonal connections adding an extra layer of complexity. Not to mention, there are still many gaps I’m uninformed on. I might be able to proceed without digging into those gaps, but right now it is unclear.

Hopefully, no snakes lurk within.

Still, wasn’t that life in a nutshell? So many previous jobs needed to be dealt with on the macro and emotional-micro level simultaneously.

Without interrupting, he listened to the girls discuss the oddities surrounding the contraband weapons and how hidden the whole operation was. With Arona’s help, he might find more info. Or, if even she could not, it confirmed that the entire process operated off the grid, which pointed to a much larger conspiracy.

Should I ask first or let them try a bit longer?

The role the GSC president hired him for focused on support for the girls, but he needed to avoid doing everything himself. Even the taiyaki issue was a tiny version of the contradictions in the role of Sensei. Students needed to learn and take care of their issues on their own and receive support where needed rather than in ways that took away their autonomy.

For now, they still had avenues and options. It wasn’t time yet for him to take over the operation.

That resolution was immediately challenged by the girl’s next revelation.

“The truck you gave your loan payments to delivered them directly to the Black Market’s Stygian Bank?”

From the moment he heard the loan payments needed to be in cash only, his suspicious rose. Too many things were operating off the grid. For a society that developed so many methods to digitally handle information, a back alley deal was as effective as it was in his world.

Kaiser Loans, huh? Unsurprising that a barely legal entity would offer such ridiculous loans. Abydos is a direct funnel for other criminal activity. My students are getting paid through taking care of criminals, and their rewards are spent hiring new ones. All while sucking away what remains of the district.

This is how Kivotos operated its dark side. Profiteering off the determination and positivity of children.

And yet they didn’t even have any evidence to confirm it or pursue the chain of dealings. All evidence sat tied to the transport logs that now resided inside the bank along with their hard-earned cash.

In normal circumstances, a revelation of that magnitude, even though still unconfirmed, might crush a group that tried so hard for so long against nearly insurmountable odds.

But the Foreclosure Task Force hadn’t operated for a single day under normal circumstances.

“It’s our only option, Hoshino,” Shiroko declared.

“So that’s how it’s going to be,” Hoshino agreed.

...?

“Come again?” asked Hifumi. Sensei was right there with her. What were they on about?

“Oh, now I get it! We’re going to use THAT plan, aren’t we?” Nonomi gasped.

“Hold on. You can’t be serious. You three aren’t thinking what I think you’re thinking ... are you?”

“Sensei already explained the one issue with the plan. Now we shall overcome it.” Shiroko said, eyes flashing with anticipation.

Like a lightning bolt, the realization struck Sensei. I did say... not to strike your own district, huh?

With his hand covering his face to cover a tired smile, he watched as one by one his students put on Shiroko’s hand-sewn masks.

He offered a silent apology to Hifumi, now clad in a taiyaki bag with a 5 drawn on it in marker.

“Would you like to do the honors, Sensei?” Shiroko asked, looking happier than he had ever seen her.

Uttering the words he never expected to say to his students, he vowed to let them run the show once more. “Let’s rob ourselves a bank!”

“All Masked Swimsuit Gang units... the mission is a go!” Ayane declared, now sporting her own mask.

Today’s extracurricular activity: Bank Robbery

--------------------------------

The bank robbery itself started off with a frenetic pace.

Shiroko never joked about her knowledge and expertise regarding robbing a bank. Under her guidance, the ‘Masked Swimsuit Gang’ moved on the bank with a precision strike to attack the primary defenses.

CCTVs were avoided and silenced. The outer security system was hacked and brought down. Shiroko personally took down the guard in charge of surveillance. The few guards on the outside were neutralized without a chance to inform their superiors or the guards inside.

“I guess there isn’t really a place for us,” Sensei muttered from a street away.

[Shiroko means business!] Arona agreed.

“I think they might be more united than even when they fought Problem Solver 68. And Hifumi is fitting right in... whether she wants to or not.”

Sensei was a man of a variety of talents and experiences. Bank robbery was not one of them. This was a time to defer to the experts.

Said expert burst into the bank’s lobby as soon as Ayane cut the power. Her heart was pounding a mile a minute, adrenaline pumping through her veins as she fired on the confused market guards.

So many times she had mapped out and imagined an opportunity like this. It was a shame that their target was not the Abydos Central Bank she spent so much time preparing for. But the Stygian Bank was similar enough in scope and defenses that the small variances mattered little.

She was surprised to find how similar the two banks were. For all the concerns Hifumi discussed regarding the Black Market, the security infrastructure wasn’t particularly noteworthy. Perhaps the Black Market relied so heavily on the Market Guards they didn’t upgrade other points of attack.

Either way, none of the Masked Swimsuit Gang — not her choice of name — complained as they breached the lobby.

“Everyone, down! Toss your weapons aside and hands where we can see them!” Shiroko yelled to the panicked customers and bank examiners.

“Those that won’t comply will be in for a good thrashing! ☆”

“Th-This is a stick up... get down if you don’t want to get hurt... please!” Hifumi pleaded, her voice wavering from the nerves. All she wanted was some rare Momo Friends merch. How did it turn into this!?

Besides Hifumi’s difficulties keeping up with the roaring tide of events, the girls came into their own as bank robbers. Hoshino took away the examiner’s hopes of calling on extra security, Serika threatened some of the examiners to stay on the ground or be shot, and Nonomi declared the gang’s — unfortunate — name to all.

Shiroko couldn’t be more proud.

Hifumi couldn’t be more terrified.

In the blink of an eye, Hoshino labeled her with the name Faust and the role of boss of the Swimsuit Gang.

“You never know when you'll find your calling in life.”

[Sensei... not you too.]

“They seem to be handling the situation very professionally. Nonomi may be having a bit too much fun with the role, but her minigun usage is keeping the bank employees occupied. Bank robberies in my world look rather different, but seems the fundamentals of intimidation and show of force remain the same.”

Sensei watched with wonder as Shiroko marched to the bank teller counter with a large black duffel bag.

[You sound like you are going to give them letter grades for extracurricular work.] Arona teased.

“Gold stars, all of them. Maybe even a little squiggly doodle. Hifumi can get a Peroro one.” He manipulated the controls on the Shittim Chest to observe the corner of the room. “So, why do you suppose Problem Solver 68 is here?”

The four students in question were watching the robbery from behind a flipped couch. While Shiroko noticed them and seemed to choose to ignore them, the others were too preoccupied with their own roles, fun, and anxiety to do anything about them.

[I don’t know. Maybe turning in money after a job? Should you warn the group?]

“Shiroko seems to be handling things. They don’t seem to be—is Aru crying tears of joy?”

[So it seems....]

While Aru underwent outlaw-enlightenment, Shiroko finished getting the transportation logs from the Bank Examiner. Along came a massive amount of cash and goods she didn’t actually request. Truly the result of failing upwards.

With the goods secured, the girls took out the remaining guards and bolted out of the area.

Hifumi, now Faust, apologized profusely as she fired behind her as more guards poured towards the bank in a frenzy. She tried to hold back tears as she imagined what sort of report she would need to give to Trinity’s Tea Party to explain this mess. Even if she invoked Sensei’s name, would that be enough? Or would that lead him to get in trouble instead?

“Waaaah, why is today like this?”

At least she did get her Momo Friends discontinued merchandise. She would spend the night hugging all of her plushies and remind herself that it was all worth it.

The spirit of a collector flowed through her as she tossed out a disc, nearly tripping over her own feet as she did so, to generate a Peroro-sama hologram to distract the guards.

As if compelled by some strange force, the group turned their attention away from the escaping students and fired on the dancing bird.

Shiroko gave her a thumbs up as they ran. “Nn. Great distraction, boss.”

“Faust takes care of our escape! All we need now is the getaway driver!” Nonomi yelled happily, completely immersed in the role. It wasn’t being idols, but this was a fun second option to her. Now she understood why Shiroko recommended it so highly.

“Less talk. More run!” Serika screamed.

“Is Sensei going to be our driver again?” Hoshino asked,

“Absolutely not!” Ayane yelled. Even standing guard in the school and only watching the drone footage, the idea of Sensei behind the wheel terrified her.

Sensei chuckled into their receivers, causing her to blush and pout. The nerve!

“Sadly, I don’t have the truck with me or enough explosives to perform a barricade jump.” He ignored Ayane and Arona’s yells at the very concept. “I’ve secured an area for you to de-mask though. Ayane, follow the directions I’m forwarding to you. Everyone else, follow the drone.”

“”"" Yes, Sensei!""""
“O-okay!”

As one group, they evaded the guards at every turn. Only a couple of short, highly coordinated skirmishes destroyed the remaining opposition.

The quest complete, the five tired but exhilarated girls met Sensei in front of an old, unused gas station. Still worried about being followed, they all changed out of their disguises back into their original outfits.

“This should be far enough away. If Ayane sees anyone approaching on her drone, we can escape via the truck,” Sensei commented.

“We really did it...” Hifumi leaned against the wall of the attached convenience store and slid down the side. “We actually stole from the Stygian Bank. The most feared Black Market bank...”

“Very professional work. Gold stars to everyone, and extra credit to Shiroko.” Sensei walked over and rubbed her head. Unlike the rest of the group, she still wore the blue mask with the number 2 written on it.

“Before handing out accolades, we need to make sure we have the transport logs,” Hoshino cautioned. She raised an eyebrow as she watched Shiroko lean into the head pats even as Sensei tried to pull back his right hand.

Remembering that they needed to confirm their victory, Shiroko sadly retreated from Sensei and opened the bag.

“Are these bundles of cash!?” Hoshino yelled as she stared into the stuffed duffel bag.

Even beyond the cash, there were also some bonds and two small ingots of gold bullion. Some jewelry and boxed gems were beneath the pile of bonds. And was that even some silver as well?

“None of you noticed how full the bag was?” Sensei asked. Reasonably, in his opinion.

“We were too busy running for our lives!” Serika shouted before turning back on Shiroko. “You saw an opportunity and went straight for the money!?”

“No... I asked for the logs as we planned. He misunderstood that I wanted everything in today’s transport and dumped it all in as well. I didn’t have time to sort through it for the logs.”

“Only eyeballing it, there is at least 100 million yen in there. Shiroko was right, we really did rob them of 100 million in five minutes!” Hoshino gaped at the open bag, still barely able to believe it.

“Nice going! Well, what are standing around for? We need to take it back to Abydos.” Serika cheered.

The air grew tense at Serika’s declaration, causing her to look around when nobody agreed with her.

“W-wait. You’re intending to keep that money!?” Ayane asked in shock, her own mask now left on the table of the clubroom.

“Yes? We can settle a huge chunk of our debt.”

“But then we would be nothing but criminals!”

Serika wasn’t about to give up that easily. The fact this was even a conversation was beyond her. A massive boon to the school, in some ways larger than Sensei’s appearance was, suddenly dropped in their laps.

She voiced her thoughts on the justice of their actions, still fuming over the revelations from earlier. “We worked constantly to earn this cash, and they decided to put it into a bank that likely funded the criminals that attacked us! Who knows what they were going to use this month’s loan payments for?”

When Ayane didn’t respond she pressed on, a fury in her heart. “Did the guns the gangsters used to kidnap me come from our cash? Did I work five part-time jobs only for it to pay for the guns the mercs shot us with? These are the real bad guys. Why should we be the ones who get called criminals!”

“Th-that’s...” Ayane struggled to respond, remembering the fear when they found out that the gangsters had kidnapped Serika only days ago.

“We lost our school because of them!”

Nonomi pulled Serika into a hug. The catgirl bristled but accepted the hug, tears in her eyes.

None of them forgot the feelings of hopelessness when they needed to flee from the gangsters, ammunition having run dry and unable to protect their home. The way they needed to drag Shiroko away as she was willing to fight until her halo broke if it meant holding onto the building. The desperate attempt to find scraps of ammunition to field an assault.

The relief when Sensei led them to victory.

“If not for Sensei, those... bastards would have won. I don’t care if that makes me a criminal.”

Nonomi hugged her harder and looked at the bag of cash. “I agree with Serika. Whatever we do with it will be better than what the black market planned.”

“You make some good points.” Hoshino granted her that much. “What do you think, Shiroko?”

The wolf girl looked at Serika before kicking some sand with her shoe. “Why bother asking? You aren’t going to allow it anyway.”

“What!?” Serika screamed.

Hoshino smiled at Shiroko who did not return the grin. “I can always count on you to know what I’m thinking, Shiroko.”

Her underclassman didn’t respond. Even if she knew Hoshino would veto taking the money, she didn’t need to like it.

Hoshino stood her ground, showing the dignity of the president she rarely wielded. “What we need are those documents! Not the cash. If we cross this line today because it’s us versus criminals, what about the next time? Or the time after that?”

Sensei frowned, but didn’t interrupt.

“If we start getting desensitized to that sort of thinking, soon we won’t see any line at all. Then there’ll come a huge crisis one day, and we’re going to end up doing something we really shouldn’t, while making excuses that we had no choice.”

She shook her head and looked lovingly around at the group. “I wouldn’t want my adorable underclassmen to end up like that. And what’s the point of protecting the school if that’s how we go about it? We could’ve used Nonomi’s gold card to pay off the debt if this is the way we were going to go about things.”

Sensei’s eyebrows rose further. So there wasn’t anything preventing that option, they simply chose not to take it?

Nonomi still held onto Serika but nodded slowly. “Well, I did offer that as a solution, but you were against it... I mean, I understand. If we use illegitimate means to pay off Abydos’ debt, we’ll just be paying it off in exchange for being beholden to something else...”

"So that’s why we’re leaving the bag behind. Only take the documents. President’s orders."

“You have to be kidding! After all of this, you choose now to take a stand like this!? This lets the bad guys win!”

Shiroko sighed, but shrugged. “You heard her. President’s orders. We don’t have a choice if Hoshino is sure of this.”

A look of absolute betrayal appeared on Serika’s face. The brief glimmer of hope she saw when the bag was opened up was being snuffed before her eyes. Maybe if they never lost the school she might be able to accept it but...

She turned away, unwilling to even look at Hoshino. Even after reminding everyone of her own kidnapping, they were going to leave it all behind. It was more than she could bear.

Hifumi opened her mouth to say something and then closed it. Even if she agreed with Hoshino that they may regret taking the cash in the long run, with how hurt Serika was she didn’t feel it was her place to speak up.

“If Hoshino is willing to pull the president card, I suppose we don’t have a choice. I’ll get rid of the bag somewhere discreet.” Nonomi sighed, but accepted the conclusion.

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll be taking it.”

Hoshino’s head whipped around to stare at the adult who finally stepped into the conversation. “Excuse me?”

He stepped forward with a blank expression and looked down at the much smaller girl. “I said, I’ll be taking the cash then.”

Hoshino smiled, but her eyes were cold. “Jeez, Sensei, I know as we get older our hearing goes. This old timer struggles with that too. Did you not hear what I said earlier? I can repeat it.”

He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Oh, I heard it. Every word of justification and explanation. You have your stance and that is commendable—” he opened his eyes and stared her down “—Sensei has his own.”

“Which is?” Hoshino’s attempt to respond in a lazy way failed utterly. Her tone was too harsh, and the other girls saw her hand clench into a fist.

“I do agree that you shouldn’t use this money for the debt.”

He raised a hand when Serika growled at another voice countering her.

“But for simple logistical reasons, not moral ones.”

Serika stilled while Hoshino stiffened.

“Let’s say my assumption is correct and the cash from the loan payments from Kaiser Loans is being funneled to the Stygian Bank for use in hiring and arming criminals. Then Kaiser is certainly to be informed of the attack on the bank. This was an operation completely off the grid where the only paper trail is analog. The fact that the logs have been taken will likely be raised to the higher ups.”

He gestured with his tablet at the bag of money. Every girl listened to him silently, waiting to see the adult’s perspective.

“Now imagine that next month Abydos suddenly pays a massive chunk of their loan off without any indications of activities that would lead to such a surplus. It doesn’t take a brain trust to assume it came from the bank. And if there is even a crumb of evidence of you girls being involved, it could invalidate your loan in an instant and lead to immediate bankrupcy.”

Serika gasped in shock. With all the discussion of bringing in money, she never considered how the loan company itself might consider it.

“So, no, I don’t think we should use this on the loan and I would have vetoed that plan myself. But leaving it out in some discreet place where anyone might find it, including the bank guards if they go far enough out, is a terrible plan.”

He looked around at the abandoned building. “What if the Helmet Gang finds it after getting another job to attack you? Now there is zero accountability to anyone how or where the cash is used. You could burn it I suppose, but there is no meaning in that.”

“I think I might puke.” Serika murmured, turning pale at the idea of burning 100 million yen.

“So I’ll take control over it.”

“To do what?” Hoshino demanded. Nonomi and Shiroko looked uneasily at her while Hifumi looked back and forth between student and teacher in worry.

“Invest back into Abydos.” He looked at the Shittim Chest. “If the loan payments are 7,883,250 yen a month and we multiplied that by 12.”

[94,599,000 yen.]

“So that right there is more than a year of your loan payments. All of which you have been scraping together through part-time jobs, selling scrap metal, collecting bounties, and other assorted activities. You barely leave the district, so that is a year’s worth of the lifeblood of the district which has been siphoned out by the loan company.”

He tapped the Shittim Chest again, pulling up economic charts for the district. A sea of red.

“And Abydos doesn’t have much blood left.”

“That is true...” Nonomi agreed, looking downcast. She couldn’t help feeling a little guilty considering her family’s role in the district’s economic collapse.

“... Sensei raises a good point,” Nonomi said weakly in the face of Hoshino’s shock. “As Abydos weakens, there will be fewer opportunities for us to raise money to pay off the loans. We might even have to go outside the district.”

Sensei looked at the defiant president, at the conflict in her eyes and the clenching of her jaw. “This was not on my plans for today, so I can’t give a detailed breakdown of my choices for the money yet. Need more information about what avenues are available. I assume some business investments, pure cash infusions, and possibly using some as loan collateral at minimum. If possible, I might use it to pressure the GSC to act.”

“And you think you are justified in taking the money and crossing that line by using dirty money?”

“Yeah. Pretty much.”

The sheer confidence and lack of care in the response caused Hoshino’s jaw to drop. Not even a shred of doubt or conflict.

At that moment, she realized there was no convincing him. Her role as president didn’t give her the right to deny the advisor’s decisions. Now, she regretted even offering him the position.

“Tch. I shouldn’t be surprised considering you only rejected Shiroko’s plan because it would hurt Abydos rather than because it was a crime.”

“Didn’t you want to kidnap other school’s students?” Serika muttered, causing Hifumi to look over in shock.

“Honestly, my response then was more a lesson in paying attention to the district as a whole...”

He shrugged. “But I simply don’t see this as a line in the first place. If the GSC attacked the Black Market for their illegal activities they would seize all the bank’s assets. As one of their representatives, I consider the seizure of these assets and restoration of them to the district they were stolen from to be within my legal purview.”

He bent down so he matched Hoshino’s eye level. “I find it commendable that you don’t want your underclassmen to do anything illegitimate and stay one hundred percent above board.” He tried to make eye contact, but she looked away to reject him. “But that is why Sensei will handle the dirty Adult world in your place. When the Adults of this world try to squeeze the life out of children, it is an Adult’s job to intervene.”

“That is part of my charter as Sensei.”

“...Fine, you win. Can’t stop you anyways. But you are buying us snacks later!”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Sensei agreed.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t done though.

“On choices I cannot make for you though, I do think you should reconsider using Nonomi’s gold card or some other method to pay off the debt.”

“No.”

“Hoshino.”

“I made that choice years ago, it isn’t changing, Sen. Sei.”

Sensei took a very deep breath and a long exhale. “But it isn’t a year ago, the situation has changed.”

Silence.

“What do you mean the situation has changed?” Ayane asked once it became clear that Hoshino was no longer going to respond.

“Didn’t we just go over how using illegitimate means makes you beholden to something else...?” Hifumi asked.

“Good. It is important to be beholden to something else.” He glanced around at the confused girls. “I don’t think the full gravity has set in to you all yet if we confirm the Kaiser Loans situation...”

“Maybe. Explain.” Shiroko requested, her eyes gleaming in the light of the setting sun.

He took the transport logs out and found the entry he was looking for.

“Kata-Kata Helmet Gang - 5,000,000 yen delivered in mission funds. Your creditor is working with your enemies. The people you owe money to, those who threaten you with bankrupcy are, for reasons we do not know, actively sabotaging your entire district. They paid for you to lose Abydos.”

Nonomi sucked in a breath. The intensity, the sheer fire behind his eyes causing her to shiver.

“No, it’s worse than that. They succeeeded! Kaiser Loans for one whole day destroyed Abydos High School! And through a roundabout method at that. You owe money to your enemy. How are you going to raise money next month, knowing that it might be put straight into the bullets aiming at your head!?”

He was impassioned now. This was the fear he had circulating from the moment he heard about the loans being in cash and the circumstances of Problem Solver 68.

“And now from our attack today, this situation is a ticking time bomb. Because if they realize that you all know where your money is going, how long until they find a different way to tighten the noose?”

For the first time, fear overcame the outrage in Hoshino’s expression.

“If all you did was keep the same debt but under a different loan company, it would be an improvement. It might even be an improvement to have a worse interest rate if only to avoid your money being sent straight to the enemy’s pockets.”

“But why?” Nonomi asked as she stared at the log files Sensei held towards Ayane’s drone. “They lose out on that income if we go bankrupt or are forced out. What purpose does it serve them?”

“This isn’t a mere bank scheme. Kaiser Corporation’s HQ must be involved if they are forgoing their short-term gains.” Shiroko narrowed her eyes in frustration. Even if they now knew the what, they still lacked the why.

“The ‘why’ stops mattering if you rip away any control they have over the school. I’ll need to research extreme measures. Possibly I will need to utilize part of Schale’s land as collateral....”

“Robbing a bank wasn’t an extreme measure!?” Hifumi protested. What was the next stage up?

Ayane shot a pitying look at the Trinity girl, remembering Sensei’s demonstration of making himself a hostage.

In some ways, he made Shiroko seem restrained.

“Robbing a bank is a small, yet extreme measure. Sensei will need to consider far larger operations. Likely involving the GSC... but perhaps I can use some of Schale’s authority. Bring up the threat of Kaiser’s collusion and expansion via criminal proxy elements to twist the arms of some of the other schools. If only I had established more credibility.”

His explanation devolved into mutterings as he sped through documents on his tablet.

Hoshino bit her lip and then raised her head to look at Sensei again. “Sensei, why—“

“Hang on! Someone is headed your way!”

At Ayane’s call, the girls put their masks back on, and Sensei rushed into the abandoned restroom while carrying the duffel bag. It was bulky, but not significantly bulkier or heavier than his usual bag that he left behind at Abydos.

“This reading it’s... Aru from Problem Solver 68!”

Sensei scratched his chin at the surprising appearance. Now that he considered it, nobody verified what happened to Problem Solver 68 after the heist was completed.

Aru stopped dead in her tracks as multiple guns turned her way. Sweat dripped down her face as she grabbed her knees, wheezing from the exertion. Scattered bruises and marks from where bullets slammed into her hinted at the fights with the Market Guards she completed to catch up to the group.

“So um... I just wanted to say...”

Hifumi shuffled over to Hoshino to check if they knew each other, receiving a nod from the smaller girl.

“I watched you hit that bank. I can’t believe you robbed a Black Market bank and got away with it in five minutes flat! Outlaws like you guys come only once in a generation!”

Sensei slapped a hand over his mouth to avoid his laughter leaking out.

[Aru doesn’t seem to be good at recognizing people...]

“Please stop, Arona, I can’t.”

Not knowing about the laughing Sensei or how stunned the other girls were at her obliviousness, Aru continued to praise the “outlaws” and begged to know their name.

Which Nonomi unfortunately — in the eyes of half her party — was happy to provide.

“We are... the Masked Swimsuit Gang!”

“That name is so...so... BADASS!” Aru’s fangirl-ing hit a new peak.

Nonomi and Hoshino continued spit balling bullshit to the enraptured Aru while the rest of Problem Solver 68 looked on from afar with a combination of amusement, exasperation, and excitement over their boss’ momentous meetup.

“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!” Hoshino yelled as she tried to play into the role. “We... will cross any line, no matter how dirty the pay. Anything is justified for the coin. That’s our founder’s motto.”

“...” While Aru was blown away by the fact they had a motto AND a founder beyond their boss, Sensei frowned.

“We can leave now, right?” Serika hissed.

“Everyone, take the opportunity to vacate.” Sensei affirmed.

“What about you, Sensei?” Shiroko whispered into her headset.

“I’ll catch up. Don’t think Hoshino wants to see me much right now.”

“...” Now it was Hoshino’s turn to be silent. Without disagreeing she yelled out one final time, “Now, time for us to ride off into the sunset!”

[Sensei, I’ll let you know when everyone has left.]

“It’s fine.”

Arona looked at him in confusion as he stepped to the bathroom door. Strange to think it was twice now he needed to hide into a bathroom because of Problem Solver 68.

“My heart is still pounding. The spirit of the outlaws! I’ll remember this day-“

“Hey.”

“ForevAAAAH!”

Aru jumped back from the wall she was leaning on as the adult stepped out of the bathroom, one hand raised.

Ignoring the shocked looks of the four girls, two who didn’t expect him at all and two who didn’t expect him to be left behind, he readjusted the duffel bag on his shoulder.

“Problem Solver 68, right?”

He grinned with surprising menace.

“Want a job?”

It was already time to start putting the cash to use.

Chapter Text

“Quite the nice office you have here,” Sensei commented as he plopped down onto one of the sofas in Problem Solver 68’s office.

“Th-than- I mean, of course. It is important for outlaws of our caliber to have a proper working office.” Aru beamed at the praise while trying to maintain a shred of dignity. She leaned back in her desk chair and happily surveyed her office. This was the first time a client had been brought directly into their office since they had fled to Abydos.

“Kufufu. But it’s so nice we are a day from losing it due to being unable to pay rent.” Mutsuki giggled and sat down right next to Sensei, leaning in so her arm was against his chest. “Since someone decided to interfere with our previous job.”

“Th-the client doesn’t need to know that!” Aru yelled. “And just so you know, Sensei, if you are here to learn more about our other client or to interfere, then give up now! We have our pride as professionals to keep... and why are you so close to him, Chief of Staff!”

Aru is so cute, Mutsuki giggled to herself as she leaned a little closer to Sensei. Their boss’ face flushed at the sight, causing her to giggle further. “Haven’t you seen enough crime movies, Aru? Important clients have to keep another cute girl next to them during negotiations. Even if Sensei is a man, we need to keep to conventions.”

“Wow, Aru, you always know how to be the greatest outlaw!” Haruka yelled, already forgetting it was Mutsuki who took the initiative. Mutsuki didn’t mind at all though; seeing Haruka smile was always worth it.

“Ah, of course,” Aru coughed. “Following protocol. Carry on then.” Despite trying to act as if she were in control, her face remained red as she watched Mutsuki’s prank.

Kayoko sighed and sat down next to Haruka on the opposite couch. “Boss... you can’t let any behavior be acceptable just because someone labeled it as being like an outlaw.”

“Oh, should I change my attitude a little then?” Sensei asked. Before anyone responded, he leaned back on the couch and placed his left arm on the back of the couch and his right arm around Mutsuki’s shoulder. Adopting an arrogant expression, he placed his shoes on the table in front of him, careful not to knock over the pile of books and magazines.

“... Kufufu, how naughty of you, Sensei.” Mutsuki’s grin grew even larger once the shock wore off. She snuggled in closer, causing Aru’s head to turn as red as her hair. Sensei never fails to disappoint.

The adult created a strong initial impression of a schemer with the trick he pulled when they attacked Abydos. While Kayoko was suspicious of “the intermediary,” the trick was layered enough, matched with his impressive acting, that she didn’t see the trap until too late. Anyone who pulled one over on Kayoko of all people deserved her attention.

The second time they met was on the road to Abydos High School’s building when they crossed paths while he walked with Ayane. He wasn’t at all shocked when she jumped on him out of nowhere and simply let her crawl all over his body without comment. For a moment, she thought he might be crafty, but ultimately a stick in the mud.

That is… until she climbed up onto his shoulders and pressed his head between her legs and instructed him to march forward.

‘Drop the duffel bag at least; that might be heavier than you.’

Deciding she would play along, she had dropped it to the floor only to see him look up with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Without warning, he had grabbed onto her legs, ignoring Little Miss Four-Eyes’ yell in confusion, and rushed forward yelling, ‘Got a hostage from PS68!’

Far from a stick in the mud, he is the type to give as good as he gets~

Still, while she would play around with him outside of business, she intended to keep an eye on him during the meeting. Many failed to handle Haruka’s outbursts. She wouldn’t play nice if he stressed out her dear friends or tried to trap them.

“What else would you expect of the overseer of the Masked Swimsuit Gang?” he commented in a cool tone, bringing her back to the present.

I’m not worried though ♪

“Ahem yes, the Masked Swimsuit Gang. Or, more importantly, the students of Abydos High School." Aru tried to push away the reminder of her shell-shocked expression upon realizing that her new idols were students she knew and not an infamous gang. “As I said, if you are here to convince us to cancel our contract—“

“Don’t worry, I see you as professionals. Also, I’m well aware that your current contract against Abydos is handled by Kaiser. No need to confirm. Not what I’m here for.”

Is that who we are working for? Even Aru didn’t know the exact details of their client, only that they were not to be messed with. It was the only reason she decided to try for a loan from the bank to continue the job despite the multitude of risks. That and a strong case of ‘damnit, you haven’t seen the last of me.’

She shared a glance with Kayoko, who scowled as she dissected the new information. This meant they needed to reevaluate the purpose of the job. It would be difficult to change Aru’s mind, but with enough pressure their boss would fold.

“... I will neither confirm nor deny,” Aru responded after some thought, cheek twitching. She must be screaming internally right now.

“I actually quite like that answer,” Sensei assured her. “Quite professional. As expected of someone as renowned as the leader of Problem Solver 68.”

“A-Aru is the best!” Haruka chimed in, happy as ever to hear her favorite person praised. “I-If it weren’t for me being so worthless, she’d be even more renowned. I-I’m the one holding everybody back. I shouldn’t even be in the room for important conversations. I’m sorry.”

Crap, Haruka is spiraling. This will be a bit. Kayoko and Aru were already on the case to try to calm the unstable girl.

“Why shouldn’t you be here?” Sensei asked, cutting through the conversation. His eyes focused on Haruka, pulling everyone’s attention his way.

“B-because dirt like me will only cause trouble for your discussions. I’m already interrupting, aren’t I? I should just explode and—“

“I trust Aru, and Aru wants you to be here. Don’t you trust her judgment?”

Oh?

That diffused Haruka for a moment as she unleashed a horde of clarifications that, of course, she believed in Aru more than life itself.

“Then I’m glad you are here, Haruka. I’m sure Aru values you more than you realize. And you are one of my precious students, so I think it is great for you to be here to discuss things.”

The purple-haired girl looked up from the ball she had curled herself into. “R-really? It’s fine for me to be here?”

“The more the merrier,” Sensei responded with a gentle smile, one he hadn’t shown any of them yet.

Mutsuki waited for Haruka to calm down before leaning forward and looking at the boss. “Aru, I think we should just keep Sensei. The Abydos girls are spoiled to get him all the time.”

“W-what are you on about! We can’t just keep him.....” she paused and thought about it, “right?”

“No.”
“Appreciate the thought, but no.”

Kayoko and Sensei both denied the plan.

“Killjoys,” Mutsuki laughed, leaning back into his side. Even Haruka looked the tiniest bit disappointed. I meant what I said, though. If these are his real feelings and not a front to trick us, the Abydos girls are lucky they got a hold of him first.

“Enough of this. Explain what you want,” Kayoko asked, voice dripping with exasperation. The fact that they still didn’t know exactly what Sensei wanted must have been driving her insane. There were still far too many unknowns .

“Good point, let’s properly talk business then now that I’ve gotten a chance to become more familiar with you all.” He sent a small smile over to Haruka, as if to assure her that she wasn’t the cause of any delays.

It worked, and the apology about to bubble out of Haruka never came.

“I’d like to hire you all to help handle some security in the Abydos district.”

“... There is no way you forgot that we are one of the dangers to Abydos right now with our other contract.” Kayoko responded with a pointed glare.

“Technically yes. Your current contract stipulating that you are to attack Abydos High School does threaten the district as a whole indirectly. But I don’t see that as being incompatible with a push to protect the citizens of the district. I’ll be the one making sure that you don’t manage to destroy Abydos High School and subsequently destroy the whole district after all.”

He grabbed one of the water bottles he had purchased on the way to their office and drank some as if he was talking about the weather.

“Subsequently destroy the whole district? What are you talking about?” Aru asked, confused by his word choice.

“Mm?” He set the water bottle down. “Well, if you push out the Foreclosure Task Force and destroy Abydos High School successfully, the district will no longer have a school or count as an academy. Once that is registered officially, the GSC loses all authority over the region. Abydos will instantly turn into a no-man's-land similar to the black market district, and all residents will be under whatever authority fills the void. I assume this to be Kaiser’s intent.”

He paused at the stunned faces. “You knew that though, right? I assume this isn’t your only office.”

No. No they absolutely did not know that.

“A-Aru, are we going to have to move again?” Haruka asked, panicking.

“Is that conjecture, or is that the perspective of the GSC?” Kayoko asked, fists clenched.

“Destroy a high school and you destroy a district. Thems the rules, and as Sensei I can’t abide by letting that happen. So as both a form of apology for tricking you all, a way to protect the district, and a way to establish a connection even when I need to repel your advances.” He stopped and counted on his fingers. “And to ensure you do not need to rely on Shiba Seki Ramen’s kindness, I intend to hire you all.” He looked over at Mutsuki. “It’s like you said; it’s all just business.”

“I don’t think this conversation is ‘just business’ anymore, Sensei.” Sensei had an unexpected nasty streak. He never said to drop the contract. But he dropped a bombshell about the consequences if they didn’t so casually it beggared belief that it wasn’t intentional.

“What do you intend to do, boss?” Kayoko asked, likely having come to a similar conclusion.

Aru pulled down one of the slats on the shade behind her and looked out the window at the district. “Sensei, would you mind stepping outside for a moment? I don’t want to discuss other contracts in front of you.”

Oh, Aru can look so cool in moments like this~ Even if she was freaking out inside, she didn’t display any of that in her current demeanor as the boss of an organization who needed to decide their current path.

Seeing Aru freak out in the face of teasing or her silly mistakes was one of Mutsuki’s greatest thrills in life. When Aru locked in as the boss, though? Even better.

Sensei agreed without complaint and stepped outside at her request.

“I think we should believe Sensei,” Mutsuki ventured as soon as Sensei left the room.

“Even though he tricked us once before?” Kayoko asked, still smarting from having a crate of grenades explode in her face. If she knew her friend, she expected Kayoko to need some extra time to warm up to the adult.

“I mean, whether we believe him or not, we are broke. Not even the black market will help fund the operation. Unless you want to ask for money from the client to get more mercenaries. We can get an advance from them while also working with Sensei.”

Aru slammed a hand down on the desk. “No upfront payments—company policy. You know that.”

“Because accepting payment in advance would give the client too much say in how we operate, or something like that?” Kayoko asked to clarify.

“Exactly. We get paid only when the job is done. That’s how it has to be. And I never compromise.” Aru nodded with her arms crossed, at least maintaining some of her dignity as their leader.

“Really? Since when?” Mutsuki asked with a little shock. Compromising was like… 75% of what they did on contracts. Even Aru’s little “one evil deed a day” compromised with “evil deeds” like buying too much ice cream for a child who spilled his treat.

“Since always!” Aru yelled, flustered that she wasn’t on the same page as everyone else. “We’re hard-boiled outlaws untethered to rules or laws! That’s always been the guiding vision for Problem Solver 68!”

“Huh, was it? I guess it does sound a little familiar.” Vaguely.

“Contracts are no different. There’s always a chance it might turn into a trap. We don’t want to be forced into doing something we don’t want to do. And that’s why we only accept payment once the job is done.”

“Okay but, we are losing the office this week if we don’t manage something now.” Aru, Aru, you need to remember we have zero finances remaining.

“Guh.”

“It does go back to that, doesn’t it?” Kayoko groaned. “Frankly, Sensei is our best chance of making any cash right now. But I don’t like the idea of playing both sides. Any failed attempt to capture Abydos, legitimate or no, would look like we are acting to Sensei’s benefit.”

“S-so should w-we just get Sensei’s contract, then blow up Sensei for the client’s sake, and then blow up the client afterwards for Sensei’s sake?” Haruka asked, stroking her shotgun.

“No, we aren’t escalating that much, Haruka!”

“I’m sorry, Aru!”

Mutsuki smiled at the hilarious idea. It was a terrible idea and would make them look like the worst of backstabbers. Ironically, acting like that would be the most outlaw-like thing PS68 ever did. And Aru didn’t even realize the potential to be the worst criminal by pulling it off.

If Aru realized that, they would be on track for trying that terrible idea, so she kept quiet.

“Seems like we have a few options.” Kayoko considered the situation. “First is to continue with the first client and also take on Sensei so we don’t go broke. Second, we drop the original client and only work with Schale, trusting Sensei that our original client succeeding is worse for us. Third... I think we should consider packing it up and returning to Gehenna.”

“Why would we need to do that! We are managing.... perfectly... fine....” Even Aru couldn’t manage to stick with the bravado. All of them knew the dire straits they were in. If they were the ones who hit the Stygian Bank instead of the Abydos girls, it would be one thing, but that was no longer possible.

“I don’t think we should consider that option. The Prefect Team would never let her off the hook.” Mutsuki fiddled with her hair. She wasn’t interested in tangling with that lot unless they needed to.

“That’s a good point.” Kayoko leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling, a classic Kayoko technique when she didn’t see any good options available. ‘The Prefect Team must see us as nothing but a thorn in their sides. Still, I don’t like feeling like we are running from them."

Mutsuki grinned at that. As far as she was aware, that was absolutely what they had to do?

Kayoko saw the look and scowled. “Don’t forget, the only reason the Prefect Team is considered to be the most feared organization in all of Kivotos... is because of Head Prefect Hina.”

Kayoko continued as if she had rehearsed every line in her thoughts. Only a person who had considered this scenario countless times could speak with such confidence. “Most of their firepower comes from the head prefect alone. She’s a veritable one-woman army. The rest of the Prefect Team is anything but invincible.”

“Really? But that is only in a situation where we aren’t broke, right?”

“Haaaaaah,” Kayoko sighed. “Yeah. We’d need copious amounts of C4 and strategic advantages. Which, if we had, we would use to deal with Abydos.”

“Maybe when we were deciding on our new base of operations, we shouldn’t have chosen the poorest district in Kivotos.”

“It had the cheapest rent!” Aru snapped in desperation at Mutsuki’s jab. “We need to build upwards to glory, step by step. First Abydos, then the city!”

“Or first Abydos, then back to the park?” Mutsuki giggled.

From her perspective, this was a boring conversation. Sensei was fun and dedicated to helping. Even if Kaiser was the client and there was a reason Aru was so intimidated, going under Schale’s wing would be nothing but benefits.

Deep down, she was sure Kayoko knew that as well.

“We will take option 1,” Aru declared, cutting through the conversation."Right Now we do not have a clear grasp on what Sensei wants us to actually do. And I am unwilling to give up our current client that easily. We said there would be another operation, and so we will do so. If we give up at the first sign of adversity, we will lose our reputation and drive."

“Then we should invite Sensei back in. I’ll get him~” Before anyone denied her, she skipped out the door and dragged the adult back in. He raised an eyebrow but dutifully let himself be puppeteered back into his seat and the same position he was in earlier with his arm wrapped around her shoulders.

Aru trembled in admiration at how smooth the transition back into outlaw mode was for Sensei before composing herself. “We have decided to accept a contract with you if the terms are agreeable to our agency. As before, we will not be discussing any other clients or obligations we are under. Simple confidentiality.”

“Of course. I have no need to convince you to change which jobs you are currently involved with. I only wish for your understanding that I will put my all into preventing you from taking the high school building.”

The intensity in his words caused Mutsuki to stiffen, Kayoko to frown, and Haruka to fidget with her gun again. Sensei is raring to go for another fight, huh? If not for his trickery and intervention, they would have won under the conditions of their last fight. Yet he seemed utterly confident that none of their attempts would bear fruit.

It could be a bluff. Or....

She glanced at Kayoko, who nodded in agreement.

Sensei held even more plans.

“Anyone ever say you can seem a bit villainous, Sensei?” Mutsuki teased as she poked his cheek to interrupt his hardened expression.

He leaned into the poke, pushing her body into the side of the couch. She tried to push him off and he leaned even harder causing her to laugh. “Far from the worst thing I’ve ever been called.”

“Oh, and what is the worst thing you’ve been called?”

It was supposed to be a light tease.

Not something to make his face drop all expression, the blank look evaporating the silly mood.

Utterly unreadable.

“...... Sensei doesn’t think repeating such words is appropriate in a setting like this.”

Then, as if the others weren’t around, eyes focused somewhere not in this world...

“I don’t even know if you have the words in your language to express them.”

“Words in... our language?” Aru probed, unable to see Sensei’s face from her seat. If she had, she wouldn’t have found it in her to speak.

Whatever it was lurking underneath his skin in that graveyard of emotions he stared with was sucked back inside as he turned to look at Aru.

“Ah, seems many people are still unaware. The GSC announced that I am from outside Kivotos, but to be more specific, I’m not from this planet to begin with.” He closed his eyes and hummed to himself in thought. “I naturally understand most of your language, but there are some concepts that simply do not translate from your worlds speak to mine and visa-versa.”

“You are an alien?” Kayoko asked in shock. Haruka stared wide-eyed.

“Something like that.”

“Then if you aren’t from Kivotos... does that mean you haven’t seen ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’ or the ‘Godmother’!?” Aru yelled in shock. Of course, she would be horrified at the idea that someone with such strong outlaw energy didn’t know the classics and was just... like that.

Now that she mentions it though, does that mean his world has the same concept of a gang leader sitting on a couch with their arm around a pretty lady while discussing business? Or was he good at improv?

He looked at his tablet, then back to Aru. “Not a clue.”

“Well... you should! Someday! We can watch it together if you want! A-As a Problem Solver activity!”

“Will take it under advisement. But to get things back on track, you will assist with my plans to protect the Abydos district at a minimum?”

“Depends on what exactly the job entails. We only take cash at the end of the job so we can approach it our way. If it is too long of a contract, we won’t be able to handle it with our current finances.” Kayoko saved Aru the long explanation.

“In that case, let’s take it as a series of smaller assignments. Each will be paid based on the scale of the effort upon completion. Keep a steady income for you all.”

After tapping on his tablet, Aru’s phone lit up. She took a look at the message and nearly dropped her phone to the ground. “How much!?”

“Should keep the lights on for a bit, no?” Sensei chuckled.

“A-ahem, not that we had any issue with our electric bill this month.” Aru tried to keep a straight face as she stared at whatever number was on the screen.

Casually ignoring the week where they weren’t able to use any electricity due to being behind on payments.

Once the contract was settled, Sensei got to his feet. “Well, shall we embark on the first assignment?”

Aru scrolled through the contract trying to find which one he might be referring to. “Which is...?”

“Helping me with a patrol to a local eatery, I’m hungry. Naturally, food is provided to those I contract with who accompany me on a job.” He grinned at the group.

“D-Does this mean we don’t need to go to sleep hungry tonight!?” Haruka exclaimed both in worry and excitement.

The grin vanished from Sensei’s face. “Was that actually a concern?”

“Don’t even pretend, Aru,” Mutsuki interjected before their boss could make up another story. “We weren’t eating anything on our zero yen.”

“... It seems I have arrived at the correct time then. Come on, up and at ‘em, kids. Let’s get some food in you.”

“W-wait, this isn’t exactly an outlaw job to go to a restaurant and get fed!”

Not the time, Aru! Sensei is going to pay for our food. Maybe if I tease him enough, we can even get him to personally feed me~

He shook his head and beckoned Aru over. She complied, likely silently regretting even interrupting. Haruka was one second from offering to eat dirt so the others would get fed.

“Fixers complete the work their clients assign them, right?”

“Yes.”

“And outlaws often have villains as their clients, right?”

“... Yes?”

“Then there is no problem here, is there?” He smiled and leaned in close to Aru’s ear, still speaking loud enough for the others to hear.

“I’ve been the villain in many people’s stories throughout my life. I think I fit the criteria.”

“??????”

“Now, since that is settled, onwards to food!”

He stepped out of the office, leaving Aru to stand there with question marks above her head, trying to parse the intent of that statement.

“Wait up, Sensei!” The white-haired girl followed afterwards and leaped onto him from behind like she had earlier that day.

He looked up at her, none of the creepy look from before present in his bemused expression. “Seriously, keep doing that and you’ll actually get kidnapped one of these days.”

“Not if I kidnap you first, Sensei~” Her grin grew even larger when his eyes shook a little.

Don’t make promises you aren’t going to follow through with, Sensei. We are going to have a lot of fun together.~

-------------------------------------

“Oh, Sensei. I didn’t expect you would be here today. Good afternoon.”

Sensei waved his hand in greeting to Serika while entering the Foreclosure Task Force clubroom and looked around at the empty seats. “Only you right now, Serika?”

“For now, yeah,” Serika said as she sat down at the table and took out a small lunchbox. “Nonomi and Hoshino were here earlier, but Hoshino stomped out of the room when I entered. Nonomi went to chase after her, and I haven’t heard anything since.

Nonomi sure does need to chase after angry people a lot, Sensei thought while staring at Serika. The players were different from his first day at the school, but the situation played out the same way. It didn’t take a sensei to determine that he was the cause.

“... Why are you staring at me like that?” Serika narrowed her eyes at his probing stare.

At least she had enough self-awareness to realize the similarities. “Checking on how you are doing, that is all,” he lied without a single care. “I completed today’s paperwork, so I decided to come and see how the group is holding up. Shiroko texted me a summary of your goodbyes with Hifumi two days ago, but I haven’t heard anything since.”

After the blowup over how to use the money stolen from the bank, giving the group some space seemed like the best course of action. It didn’t resolve anything, but he doubted anyone would shift in their views. Both he and Hoshino approached the problem from separate, but valid, perspectives that unfortunately couldn’t coexist.

Creating results would be far more effective than talking in circles further. With that in mind, he spent the previous day checking on Problem Solver 68 and investigating multiple Abydos businesses to understand how best to invest their ill-gotten gains.

Four of the girls responded to his message explaining his decision. Hoshino didn’t bother.

“... It was awkward yesterday. Nonomi tried to clear the air, but Hoshino kept acting like nothing had happened. Nobody bought the lies though, no matter how hard she tried to paper over everything by talking about having an old-timer’s memory and not remembering. She still had this edge to her, like at any moment the dam would break and we’d see something we didn’t want to. Ayane called our meeting to an end early since we weren’t getting anywhere.”

“Sorry for making things difficult here at the school.”

What else should he say in response? Part of the reason he stood against Hoshino so forcibly was to prevent this situation. He wanted the decision and responsibility to be in his hands alone, preventing the girls from pointing fingers at each other. The unity of the FTF was precious and sacred in his eyes.

“I’m not blaming you!” Serika shouted in response, causing Sensei to recoil in shock. She bit her lip and clenched her hands on top of the table. A slight tremor in her hands made her chopsticks splay out in both directions. “Hoshino will understand with time. She is being stubborn.”

It isn’t only stubbornness, I stepped right into her sense of morality and ethics. Those footprints are hard to wash away. “Is that really all you think it is? Stubbornness?”

She deflated a little, her shoulders drooping down as she picked at the rice in her lunchbox. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen Hoshino like that before. So... on edge. Even when I’m getting ticked off at our situation, she responds with that lazy smile and laugh. But every day since we lost Abydos, I've started to see this new intensity in her eyes. I want to ask Nonomi or Shiroko about it, but... they seem to have their own approaches.”

“...” He remained silent, letting her collect her thoughts. While the situation resulted from a series of troubles, it gratified him to see Serika speak openly. A few days ago, it seemed impossible to manage that.

“... I wanted to thank you, Sensei.”

“For what specifically?”

“Don’t say it in a way that makes it sound like I have a ton of things to thank you for!”

I wasn’t even implying that. Sensei placed his hands on his chest and frowned. What unfair treatment he would be feeling aggrieved if the insinuation didn’t come from a student.

“Sorry...” her ears drooped down when she saw the expression on his face. “I do have a lot of things I’ve needed to thank you for. But this time, I wanted to thank you for taking the money and promising to use it for Abydos.”

“Even if it caused problems among you girls?”

“Well, that part sucks,” she admitted while chowing down on her vegetables, “but leaving all that cash hidden somewhere was giving me a stomach ache just thinking about it. Like you said, that’s the money we put together after so much time and effort. Cash cobbled together from all over our district. Maybe not that exact cash, sure, but our hard work was spent to take down the school. To kidnap me. And I don’t think Hoshino fully appreciated that.”

She paused to muster her words.

“Did you know, Sensei? Losing the school to the Helmet Gang was the worst day of my life. Worse than even being kidnapped.”

“Hm.” Confessions were best handled with the smallest sounds. Only enough to verify your presence, that you are listening and letting the speaker continue without interruption.

“We didn’t know what they were doing. Would there be anything left when they were done? How many memories we built together might be destroyed by a bunch of punks? Punks who hated us for some unknown reason. Even if we took back the school, by the time we managed it, would this clubroom even still look the same? Maybe they already tore through our lockers. Did they want the building for a base, or did they really hate us enough to attack again and again and again?”

She looked at him, eyes wet from the traumatic memory of the violation of their home. “We didn’t know anything. Only now do I realize we really didn’t have a single clue. And I was so scared it was over. Or that Shiroko, or Hoshino, or Nonomi would do something reckless to overturn the situation. I’ve never seen Shiroko so desperate or Hoshino that... broken. Like at any moment she would either shatter or destroy something. And then you swooped in and changed everything in an instant, but not before we had already lost all hope.”

He scooted his chair closer and leaned towards her, letting her cross the remaining distance if she wanted. Without a word, she pressed her body against his and wiped her eyes. Accepting her silent approval, he placed his right hand on her head and lightly petted her ears and hair.

She stiffened at his gentle touch, but didn’t reject him. “Then we learned Kaiser is the reason for all of this. You were right; it is so much harder to bring myself to work when I know it’s lining the pockets of the bastards who put us in that misery. I almost don’t care what we do now as long as it gets us away from them.”

He continued to pet her hair, his fingers making small circular motions to soothe her. “Losing a home is a terrible thing to go through. Never knowing whether anything you found precious will remain. I understand. That is why I am going to do everything in my power to ensure you will experience it only here in Abydos once. Never again.”

“Have you ever lost a home, Sensei?”

His eyes widened at the unexpected question. If she noticed the way his arm jerked for a moment, she said nothing.

I suppose there isn’t a reason to hide it. There were lines he needed to abide by when speaking about his history. Words that must never be uttered. Explanations were only pulled from the sands of history when absolutely necessary. Each scrap of knowledge weighed to determine the possible ripples when it sinks like a stone into the placid sea that is Kivotos.

A simple answer from the outsider wouldn’t trigger anything of note, though. “Yes, once. When I was younger than you are now. Not an uncommon story, perhaps inevitable considering circumstances.”

He closed his eyes and remembered the wooden door covered in carvings of flowers. It was the only fancy thing in their entire residence and made a terrible creaking noise when someone closed it. Still... even that made it home, and not any other place.

“Did you ever get it back?” She stared at his face, an intense gaze pouring from her red eyes. Her lunch long forgotten.

“No. I always wondered whether the new owners kept our old door or not, and now I’ll never know. Fate never led my feet to return to the old place’s gates.” When she opened her mouth to respond, he smiled. “No need for pity. I’ve had multiple homes since then. Sensei is old enough to remember it as a sad but necessary event.”

“How were you able to handle something like that?” Serika stared at his face as if trying to divine some kind of answer in his features. “When I think about losing Abydos, the rage engulfs me, and I don’t know what to do.”

“Well, it helped, you could say, that I didn’t have much time to brood on it. Right after losing my home, I was sent to the—”

Rather than the end of the sentence, a horrific sound echoed out of his mouth. A combination of the sounds of TV static, fingernails scratching a whiteboard, and glass shattering filled the clubroom. Serika’s shriek of pain and shock added to the din, followed by the clattering of chairs when she leaped away from Sensei.

Sensei clamped a hand over his mouth, ceasing the sound instantly.

“What the hell was that!” Serika yelled, cat ears curled downwards in pain and back arched ready to spring away again. Any remaining sympathy and understanding evaporated, replaced by anxiety and fear. “Did you do that, Sensei!?”

Slowly, Sensei removed the hand from his mouth. The hell screech did not return, but the damage was done. Despite how careful he was acting, the phenomenon still occurred. He could only dryly laugh as he faced the ceiling, and what existed far beyond the confines of the single room.

“Really, World? That was a word too far? Would be fine if I called it—” he paused and considered which words matched the context of Kivotos, ‘—the academy?’"

None of the screeches that formed from a world’s censoring of the outsider echoed this time.

That just annoyed him further. “It’s our name for it! Even if you don’t agree, you can at least respect our culture!”

Serika didn’t respond, only sliding to the back wall to maintain distance. Her tense muscles were ready to spring away at a moment’s notice. In the depths of her red eyes lurked a plea for an explanation and a primal fear to not touch upon the unknown.

“I’m sorry you witnessed that,” he said with all the gentleness he could muster. Slinking down in his chair, he tried to diminish his physical presence to reduce his presumed threat level.

Where to even begin? How to describe the horrific wonder latched upon my words? Of all the circumstances to spawn it, this was not the one he expected. I’ll need to check more than the dictionary definition of those words, it seems... perhaps there is a separate historical meaning they trigger. Or is it something on a conceptual level?

When she didn’t respond, he settled on the simplest explanation. Whether she believes it will be up to her and our bond. I can only rely on trust now.

He grabbed at his throat, lightly digging his nails into the skin to leave small marks.

“When I came here from my world, I learned how to speak your language, leaving my own behind. Sometimes though, certain words or concepts do not have an appropriate counterpart.. or are best behind and never imported to Kivotos.”

The first day he stepped foot in Kivotos was the most difficult. So much to learn and numerous things he was not allowed to communicate. Horrific screeches and wails filled his bedroom after Arona went to sleep, a product of his experimentation.

“Whether it was part of the Miracle that summoned me or some leftover chains from my world, if I try to say certain words or a close equivalent then my voice comes out like that. A rather annoying side effect of my summoning best handled by not speaking of my world at all.”

“Is it... like when the TV censors a swear word?” Serika groped at an example that matched her life experiences. Sensei couldn’t blame her for the shock and confusion. In this world sudden shrieking noises from someone’s throat were unheard of.

Unfortunately it wasn’t exactly an example he could agree with easily having only the barest grasp of Kivotos television. But that wouldn’t stop him from taking the provided out.

“Something like that, a force censors my words. I can overcome it if I need to, but I usually accept the warning and move on. Again, I’m sorry. Didn’t expect a little trip into the depths of memory to trigger it.”

She stared at him as her posture inched back to normalcy. Having two pairs of ears be blasted by the wail must have been torturous.

“Until this moment, I don’t think I understood what you meant when you said you are from another world,” she admitted. Not surprising considering her prioritized focus on his status as an outsider to Abydos more than Kivotos. She shook her head and glared at him with exasperation rather than hostility. “Sensei... you are really freaking weird.”

He laughed in relief, his own stress ebbing away. At least she doesn’t seem to be repulsed. Despite it all, she stayed in the room. Her sigh of annoyance and exasperation at his biological shenanigans was better than getting a lunchbox thrown in his face or a gun barrel aimed his way.

Casually, he let go of her lunchbox before she noticed his death grip on it that held it in place.

“Jeez, what am I supposed to do with you,” she complained, kicking his chair halfheartedly. “At least give us warning when we ask questions to let us know the wails from hell might spew out of your mouth!”

“I’ll be more cautious next time.” With a resounding bang, he flopped forward onto the table in a grand show of supplication. “Forgive this unworthy teacher!”

“Knock it off, you are embarrassing!” Before long they were both laughing at the absurdity of it all.

After laughing the stress out, Serika sat back down and resumed eating her lunch. They fell into a comfortable silence as she checked the messages on her phone and he went to do the same on his tablet. Only to be greeted by Arona staring back at him, wide eyed. Her halo, now light blue and staticky, vibrated above her head. Among the many emotions her halo conveyed, this was the one she wore when in shock.

[Sensei... why...]

Without another word, he tapped on the Shittim Chest and reappeared inside Arona’s dilapidated classroom. Black clouds formed above the sea far away, inching closer to the open-roofed building. Tonight, rain would be pouring down with the tablet.

“Arona, are you okay?” He knelt down next to the small student so they were at a matching eye level. Normally he wouldn’t press her like this, but even with the time dilation within the Shittim Chest, it wouldn’t take long for Serika to notice that he was staring into space in the real world.

“Why...” her eyes wavered, and she gripped her umbrella rifle close to her chest. “You said that you would also call that an academy?”

As Sensei long suspected, whatever technology composed the digital artifact held a higher power than the censoring force. Where did the GSC president find the chest, an object containing capabilities of this level. Almost like I’m being warned.... ...whatever I say will be understood and logged by at least one person in this world.

As long as she is awake and by my side, I can’t hide secrets.

“Why would you call an academy—” her words were interrupted with his hand covering her mouth.

“Because it’s normal in my world. Don’t say it out loud yourself. In fact, feel free to forget all about it.”

A muffled, “normal!?” passed through his hand.

“Yes.” He repeated the words he was told as a child. The teachings he later passed down to his own students.

“Don’t be bothered by it.”
“Don’t be saddened by it.”
“Simply accept the flow as it is.”
“Simply accept the bends as they will be.”
“To do otherwise is to approach Taboo.”
“This too, is natural.”
“A natural rule we dare not touch.”

Time was short, but Arona’s halo now dripped with blue sadness. Judging that the only thing he could do was to somehow convince her of his sincerity, he repeated the words he told Serika. Not to hide or to brush aside, but because they were simply truth. “No need for pity. It’s normal. Just a difference of common sense.”

He removed his hand from her mouth and placed it on the side of her cheek. The warmth of her skin on his cold hand comforted them both in different ways. “Your common sense is sad, Sensei.”

“Maybe it is.” But it keeps us standing without feeling its sadness.

The classroom faded away, and he returned to the heat of Abydos the clubroom never fully prevented from seeping in. The last shreds of Arona’s heat melded into the surroundings. More sweets and strawberry milk appeared on his mental shopping list as a future apology for needing to return before they finished talking.

“Sensei, what do you think this means!?” Serika yelled, shoving her phone in front of his face.

As always, the present mattered far more than the past.

“What happened?” He scanned through the messages and mirrored her shock. “All your part-time jobs cancelled today?”

“Yeah, even Master Shiba told me not to come into the shop today at all.” She scrolled to the first message. “Something about not having the money for a part-timer anymore due to the new protection regulations, whatever those are.”

“A protection racket then. Someone decided to be clever about this.” He clicked his tongue and ground his heel into the floor. If the Abydos businesses were drained of their funds, the Foreclosure Task Force wouldn’t be able to manage their debts. “Only two days passed since our heist and already Kaiser is escalating.”

“What should we do? I had seven jobs lined up for today and tomorrow!”

“Once this is settled we need to have a conversation about when you find time to sleep... but for now call everyone and meet at Shiba Seki. I requested Problem Solver 68 meet me there today. They might have gotten wrapped up with whatever is happening downtown.”

“On it,” Serika replied and began sending messages to the other girls. Then the full weight of his words sunk in. “Wait, why are you meeting with those jerks!”

Sensei pulled his duffel bag onto his shoulder, now with extra funds tucked into the outside pockets. “Because they work for me now.”

Serika’s howl of confusion and shock echoed through the now empty room while Sensei sprinted down the hallway to the school’s stairwell. Thoughts of censored words, past trials, lost homes, and a normal he would never return to bled together into a single conviction.

His students would not lose their home again under his watch. If Kaiser wanted to pull out old, classic tricks, he would show them a few from his world in exchange.

-----------------------------------------------------------

“Why is this happening!?” Aru screamed as she hid behind a burning car in the middle of the street, using it as cover from a blast of machine gun fire.

The job was so simple that if it hadn’t come from the overseer of the Masked Swimsuit Gang, Sensei of Schale, she would have considered declining since it didn’t fit her outlaw status. The task consisted of going to Shiba Seki Ramen, eat some food, scope out the eating habits of the Abydos citizens, and finally report to Sensei. The meal would even be reimbursed as a business expense!

So why are we being attacked by Kaiser PMC!?

“How dare you attack Aru!” Haruka shrieked. Every blast from her shotgun followed a shout of “Die!” The returning volley of bullets from the armored robots might as well amounted to a hail of spit wads, completely ineffectual at stopping her manic rush.

“Kayoko, how is Master Shiba doing!” Aru called out as she aimed at more of the approaching robots.

Each of the Kaiser robots sported a camo patterned exterior and green LEDs on important joints and a green upside-down triangle on their face. Far from their usual battlefields, the camouflage did nothing in the middle of the urban environment and the green marking served as huge “hit me” targets for the talented sniper. Her rifle fired again, laying waste to one of the robots handling suppressive fire.

“Just a little shaken and some bumps!” Kayoko yelled from inside the ramen restaurant. “Nothing critical.”

Aru sighed in relief. At least the civilians are uninjured. She broke out in a cold sweat imagining how the Abydos girls would have reacted if he was badly injured. Since the robots only opened fire once they saw the Gehenna girls, it was possible they might be blamed when all they wanted to do was eat some delicious ramen!

“Kyahahaha! Isn’t this what it means to be an outlaw, Aru?” Mutsuki tossed a bag full of explosives into the fray, blasting some of the Kaiser soldiers off their feet, thus allowing Haruka to beat them with the hardened butt of her shotgun. “Being notorious wherever you go?”

“I-I suppose so. But didn’t Sensei say Kaiser hired us? Why did they have orders to shoot Gehenna students then?”

“It seems to be their policy to cut loose ends that don’t perform adequately.” Kayoko slid past the hail of bullets and took her spot on the far end of the destroyed vehicle. “They used us to take out the Helmet Gang. Now their own troops take us out.”

“This is so unfair,” Aru complained. “But, anyone who declares war on us will face the wrath of Problem Solver 68. They’ll learn to think twice about opposing the greatest fixers in all Kivotos!”

“Whatever you wish for Aru!”

“Kufufu, Aru is finally getting into the spirit of it.”

Aru grinned with the ferocity of a vicious gang leader, ready to fight on no matter how many enemies there are.

What am I talking about! These are the elites of Kaiser’s Private Military Company! We should be running, not fighting!

For now things were still kept under control. A Kaiser PMC member stood in front of each of the businesses in the area when the fighting began, but Mutsuki’s explosives and Haruka’s liberal use of C4 reduced most of the front line to malfunctioning scrap already. More continued to flood in, preventing them from escaping, but for now the balance leaned towards Problem Solver 68.

“For now” being the operative words. This was a massive paramilitary group in the end and reinforcements were likely flowing in from wherever the main base was. Eventually the tide would shift.

“I’m still looking for a good way out of her, Boss.” Kayoko muttered as she scanned the area. “The initial firefight caused a traffic jam behind us. If we can manage to clear out the right side, we should be able to sneak away.”

“But…?” This seemed like a perfect plan, but Kayoko’s scowl wasn’t the triumphant one right before a thrilling escape.

“I think it’s a trap. Even with the cars it shouldn’t be that difficult to pincer us here. So why haven’t we seen any Kaiser soldiers besides those in front of us? If Kaiser is that stupid we will be lucky, if they aren’t then we might have the true pincer maneuver building behind us.”

“Gah. Keep looking then. Sensei is supposed to meet us soon, maybe he’ll have a solution.” After seeing all the scrapes Sensei managed to get the Abydos girls through, it would be fantastic to get his support.

“He is three minutes away~” Mutsuki informed them with a giggle. With practiced ease, she rolled out from behind her cover and tossed another bag of explosives at the soldiers, laughing the whole time. The soldiers tried to turn their attention to the source of the bombing run, only for Aru’s explosive round to tear through them.

“How do you know that?” Aru yelled over the explosions detonating from both sides of the street.

“He texted me.”

“But, but why not me!? I’m the boss of the operation.” A stupid gripe considering the situation, but it still stung. How else would she get an opportunity to show her capabilities as a professional who deserved to work with a villain of Sensei’s caliber?

“Apparently Sensei assumed I’d be, and I quote, ‘having fun lobbing explosives while Aru is busy commanding and sniping.’ So I got the message since my hands are free.”

Oh! That made sense. She breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he doesn’t consider me too incompetent to inform.

“Kufufu. Or maybe it’s because I’m closer to him.” Mutsuki giggled as she joined Aru and Kayoko behind the car. “Has he given you a piggyback ride yet?” The tricky imp leaned into Aru’s side. “Or is it just me?”

“N-not yet. But—“ Wait, what am I saying!? Despite her attempts to focus on the battle, Mutsuki’s words caused her face to flare into an obvious blush. “Not that I want one anyway. Now we know he’ll be here! Haruka get back, we’ll hold the line.”

“Yes Aru!” Haruka yelled as she shot down two more soldiers. Without any hesitation or care for the bullets slamming into her back, she rushed behind the car as well reuniting the crew.

“Focus up everyone, Sensei will be here soon. Then we will transition to the next phase of the fight.”

“”"Right!"""

As long as we stick together… wait is that Sensei? Are those three the Abydos girls!?

“What the hell is going on here!” The catgirl yelled in shock and rage. “Who attacked Shiba Seki Ramen? Was it you four!?”

“No!?” This was what Aru was afraid of. “We protected the store owner from the Kaiser forces when they randomly opened fire on us! We are innocent this time! Why would we damage the shop that gives us so much delicious food!?”

The tall girl with the minigun, Christina?, looked around in confusion. “Why is Kaiser here? This is Abydos district land.”

“The owner explained to me, he said—” Kayoko tried to answer before being cut off by one of the lead soldiers firing at the car again.

“Students of Abydos, Sensei of Schale.” The Kaiser soldier, possibly a battalion leader considering the extra black armor over his shoulders and helmet, turned to face the three FTF students and the sole adult. “This is Kaiser business. We are hunting the criminals of this district to protect our clients who have paid for our protection. You need not interfere.”

“Clients?” The wolf girl asked. That one Aru needed to keep a close eye on. She still remembered how hard it was to catch the agile student once she began jumping across building roofs and rubble. Even as a potential ally, Aru would remember the bruises left behind from their duel.

Kayoko used the lull in the battle to answer. “Kaiser forced all the Abydos business owners downtown to pay for a PMC soldier to ‘protect’ their stores. If not, Kaiser Construction would cancel their leases and evict them!”

“Shut up, criminal scum! All units, your targets are the Gehenna students in the district! If any other students interfere than they are also your targets.”

On command, more soldiers began climbing over the pile of cars behind Aru’s team to pincer them.

“Sensei, assistance would be great!” Aru yelled. As Kayoko expected, going further south would have trapped them. So now they are moving in before anyone else interferes.

She looked to the adult, pleading with her eyes for him to be merciful. If only she cut off the contract with Kaiser earlier, maybe he would find it easier to move. But after telling him they still intended to keep their previous client, it would be easy to abandon them in the hole they dug for themselves.

“Sensei, we can’t leave them alone right even if they attacked us, right?”
“Sensei, should we even bother helping the jerks?”
“S-sensei will h-help us right?”
“Tch, we might need to handle this ourselves.”
“Nn, taste of their own medicine, but what do you want, Sensei?”

With all attention drawn his way, the adult looked towards the Kaiser commander.

Perhaps interpreting Sensei’s silence as assent, the robot laughed. “Correct choice, we’ll handle things here. Walk away and leave these students behind.”

The look Sensei shot his way in return caused Aru to shiver. A deep scowl etched itself across the man’s face as his neck muscles tightened and eyebrows narrowed. Even when fighting them before, he never showed an expression of such hostility towards his students.

But towards Kaiser… enmity dripped from him into the sands of Abydos.

“Foreclosure Task Force, protect Problem Solver 68! They are residents of Abydos now and work under me for the sake of the district. I will protect all of my students, Kaiser.”

Without missing a beat, the robots turned on the three Abydos girls as well. The tallest girl let loose with her minigun, tearing through the frontline, forcing the commander to flee from his post. The grey-haired wolf sent her drone to fire at the group approaching from behind, detonating two cars in the process. The black-haired girl stayed in the alleyway with Sensei, covering for him.

Wait, where is the pink-haired girl with the shield? Shouldn’t she be here too?

Once the three girls joined the fray, the real fight began. Sensei began doling out instructions left and right. Moving Haruka forward to sync with Nonomi’s advances. Pointing out exactly which pressure points Aru should be exploiting in the enemy’s line up with her sniper shots. Timing Mutsuki’s bomb throws with Shiroko’s drone and then working with Kayoko to fill in the gaps.

Order after order came in, each clear and precise amongst the din of action. Aru barely managed to find the time to be amazed before the next command caught her attention. Is this what Abydos worked with all this time? No wonder their coordination is so impressive!

Now she saw both sides of Sensei. The one he portrayed when making deals and the other when leading his students to victory. All aspects showed a level of control of the situation which bolstered morale and considered the exact needs and capabilities of the student he focused on. This was…. This was….

This was exactly what Problem Solver 68 needed!

In between the fear of the still omnipresent wave of Kaiser soldiers, Aru witnessed the future in her mind. The adult would be perfect to work with her outfit long term. With his knowledge and expertise as a management consultant, her goals to become the most renowned fixer in Kivotos grew ever closer! She needed to prove today they were worth his effort and interest.

“Everyone, follow Sensei’s lead no matter where he directs us. Haruka, take his instructions as if they came from me. Kayoko, give him any info he asks for. We are going to renowned throughout the district when we win this fight.”

“Yes Aru!”

“Fine, boss.”

“Oh, is our little Aru already that smitten with Sensei?”

Would it kill Mutsuki to not tease her about Sensei for five seconds??? “It’s not being smitten! I trust his commanding capabilities, t-that’s all!”

Still, she glanced over at the adult… just to check if he was listening to her declaration not anything else! He was facing towards the front line, so he wouldn’t be able to see her.

Yet, as if somehow he could, he suddenly gave her a thumbs up.

Whatever the reason, she wasn’t going to let that confidence down. “Keep up the pace everyone!”

A massive explosion punctuated her declaration as a mortar shell smashed into the street right behind them.

“…Huh?” Did Kaiser bring in siege equipment into the downtown with the businesses they were associated with???

“Boss! Mutsuki, Haruka! We have to get out of here! Those aren’t Kaiser’s weapons!” Kayoko yelled as she stared at the crater behind them.

Aru looked at Kayoko and then then Kaiser troops. As she said, the soldiers seemed as shocked by the sudden attack as anyone else.

“Then who?”

“The Gehenna Prefect Team is here!”
“The Prefect Team…!”

In unison, Kayoko and the wolf girl yelled out the name of the dreaded forces bearing down on them.

“…….Huh?”

Aru’s mind went blank. Only another volley of explosives landing nearby and taking out a contingent of Kaiser soldiers woke her brain from its blissful attempt to escape reality.

Kaiser AND the Prefect Team? We need to fight off both of them?

We… we….

“We just wanted to eat some ramen!”

Not the greatest last words to say before a mortar landed directly where they stood.

Chapter Text

"... What is all this now?" Sensei muttered as he scanned the battlefield and the intruders who barged the current conflict.

After the mortar took out Problem Solver 68, a large group of students marched into the street, ignoring the Kaiser robots littering the area. Most were wearing black laced up boots, a black skirt, a blue military jacket with a red tie and a blue cap. A red arm band with horn-like points sat on their left arm and... most sported straight cut bangs like members of the JTF. Is that the style of criminal managing groups here in Kivotos? Such an odd choice.

At the front of the group were two members wearing unique outfits, likely higher ranking members of the organization. One was a girl with long silver hair in two ponytails and one bright red eye visible  while the other was covered by her long bangs. Her skin stood out as a darker brown shade than most students Sensei encountered in Kivotos, reminding him of the people of the warmer nations of his world. Her black pointed tail swished behind her as she looked through the battlefield. The only part of the outfit she shared with the other members was the armband, instead wearing a white shirt, a black tie, and a longer black skirt.

The other member... was Chinatsu. The healer he met on his first day still wore her white blouse, black skirt, and red stockings.

What a way to meet again. Perhaps I should have tried to meet with her more; heavy work schedule be damned. I might have gotten a warning of this attack.

"What do we do, Sensei? All their attacks were aimed at Problem Solver 68 rather than us," Ayane spoke through his earpiece as she detailed the state of the battlefield. "Kaiser pulled back its flanking forces for now, but the sheer number students from Gehenna is absurd!"

"I don't think they've noticed me yet, let's give them a moment to state their intentions. Information is key in warfare."

He focused his hearing to pick up on the conversation between the silver haired girl and Chinatsu.

"What about the others, Iori?" Chinatsu asked, looking at Serika and Nonomi who still held their weapons at the ready. "I think we need to make things clear with them."

"You mean the students from this school? What was it called again...? Abydos?" Iori asked with a bored shrug.

Sensei's eyebrow twitched at that comment. So Abydos's reputation plummeted so far that another school could invade without even knowing the name of who owned the district?

His duffel bag, heavy with some of the cash stolen from the Stygian Bank and the supplies from the world he would never return to, felt more useful than usual. The number of problems needing to be solved only increased by the day.

But if I can solve them effectively… perhaps the secret plan will stop being a pipe dream. Can I swipe a necessary piece here?

"We don't need to care about them. Anyone who interferes wit the execution of official duties is an enemy." Iori continued without a care, failing to notice Shiroko's glare.

"Then let's hope they stay out of our way... but procedure dictates that we state our intentions first." Chinatsu looked around the battlefield, her eyes staring longer at Shiroko's face.

"Why bother? It's more time and effort and Ako wants this settled as soon as possible. Just wipe them out with the rest if they put up a fuss so we can get out of here," she looked behind for a moment, "and not listen to her constant nagging about how necessary it is to capture those four idiots." "Who the hell do they think they are!?" Serika yelled, vibrating with fury. Guess we have a lot of people with good hearing today. "Think they can waltz into our district and lob grenades at our buildings? They destroyed part of Master Shiba's store!"

"We already are dealing with Kaiser and now this on top of it? The Prefect Team aren't small time crooks or gangs like we are used to. They are the official armed forces of Gehenna." Nonomi pointed her minigun to the ground, ready to resume fighting if demanded. "This might escalate into a political conflict if we aren't careful."

Sensei disagreed with the thought process. "This became a political conflict the moment they stepped into the district. Only Schale has extrajudicial authority to move between districts this easily."

Nonomi bit her lip and turned back to Sensei. "Still no word from Hoshino?"

"If you don't know, then I wouldn't. Serika told me you were tracking her down earlier." He tapped his headset. "What about you, Ayane?"

"No. She's never been out of contact for this long before..."

Iori interrupted their discussion. "We are here for Problem Solver. Get out of the way and we will apprehend our criminals and leave without taking you all out." Having completed the task she turned to Chinatsu. "Okay, stated our intentions. That's enough procedure right?"

"It is certainly something..." Chinatsu groaned at her fellow club member's barest handling of the situation.

"Alright, that's enough disrespect. We have to take down the Prefect Team." Shiroko pointed her assault rifle directly at Iori.

"Shiroko!?" Nonomi yelled.

Ayane went quiet for a minute, likely observing the standoff from her drone footage. Finally, she spoke the words Sensei expected. "Sensei and Shiroko are right. This escalated into political conflict already. Regardless of Problem Solver's status as criminals, the disciplinary board of another academy doesn't have carte blanche to project force in our jurisdiction without our say-so."

"That's right! How dare they!" Serika, already wound up from the Kaiser attack reached another breakpoint in her rage. "They're basically spitting in our face! Problem Solver might have started this, but they work for Sensei and Abydos now. Gehenna can screw off!"

"So you want to do this the hard way, huh? Even though it's only the four of you against our entire brigade? Surprised any school would stand by a bunch of criminals. But the Prefect Team standing down from a fight is out of the question." The silver-haired girl stared down with a serious expression, ready to fight to grab the stunned Problem Solver girls. "All units, prepare for-

"Hold on a minute, Iori!"

"Gah!" Iori yelled out as Chinatsu grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her back.

"Did that student just say 'Sensei'? Team, scan the area for civilians on the Abydos side!"

Oh, is it my turn then? Sensei intended to make a point through commanding his students in this fight, but if the other side recognized his presence then holding back was silly.

He stepped out of the shadows of the alleyway. "Ayane, keep an eye on Kaiser's forces and let me know if they start amassing anywhere in the district. They aren't going to lose this conflict gracefully." Looking at the Prefect Squad, he locked eyes with the confused sniper and the spooked medic. "Five out of ten stars for you, Chinatsu. It was a four, but I appreciated tbe quick response when hearing my name mentioned. Still underwater though, let's see if we can obtain a higher grade, hm?"

"Who the hell is this guy?" Iori asked with a dropped jaw, looking between Chinatsu and Sensei. "Is he suddenly grading you?"

Not one to let the opportunity slip out of his hands, Sensei pointed at her next. "Iori. You are starting out at three of ten stars for the terrible handling of stating your intentions."

"Excuse me!?"

Chinatsu held back her furious classmate, ignoring the yell of 'who the hell does he think he is?' and focused on the adult. "Sensei... I didn't expect us to meet again under these circumstances. I know better than to have our forces try to overcome a force under your leadership."

"Wow, you know a Prefect Team member, Sensei?" Nonomi asked with a sparkle in her eye.

"Chinatsu is one of the first students I met when coming to Kivotos. She holds the distinction of being the first person I ever saw fire a gun and worked with me on the retaking of the Schale building." To think that fight occurred less than a month in the past. Things progress so quickly when surrounded by students no matter the world.

"Tch, another girl who shares a first with Sensei."
"Wait, doesn't that mean she was part of the fight with Wakamo?"

Shiroko and Serika took very different pieces of information from the introduction.

"Wait, this is that adult you were talking about before, Chinatsu?" Iori shoved her way out of Chinatsu's desperate grip. "He doesn't have a weapon or a halo, why are you scared of him?"

"Because, Iori," Chinatsu leaned over into Iori's personal space to emphasize her point, "there are only two groups who have taken on Wakamo with four people and no casualties. The first is SRT's lauded Fox Platoon, the GSC's secret weapon. The other was our ragtag mishmash of academies that followed Sensei's commands. And that was before he grew acclimated to our world and needed to be told what a tank was!"

"Big gun, big boom, on wheels. The perfect description for someone new to explosives," Sensei chuckled.

In the brief moment where the listeners stared at him with a variety of expressions of incredulity and amusement, he tapped his receiver. "Ayane, you are up."

Even if the situation was paused, the battle could reopen at any moment. Kaiser continued shifting its forces on the periphery of the combat zone, the Prefect Team still held their cause for the invasion, and Problem Solver still generated aggro by their very presence. From his years of experience, the easiest solution he considered was to wait for Aru to wake up. Without turning his eyes or head, he observed the state of the girls to his left who were hidden by the car wreckage.

Most of his attention went to Haruka, who had already returned to consciousness and was busy staring at Aru's injuries while muttering "unforgivable" on repeat with a crazed expression.

So three troubles: Kaiser, Prefects, and a bundle of instability about to snap at any moment.

Huh. What a strange sensation. Is this what they call nostalgia?

A translucent image of Ayane appeared on the battlefield at Sensei's request. "This is Okusora Ayane of the Abydos Foreclosure Task Force. Please identify yourselves."

"Well, uh..." Iori looked back at Chinatsu and then Sensei. After getting yanked back twice she now displayed a higher level of caution.

"I can answer that," a new voice called from the back of the group.

"Ako?" Iori flinched in shock, whipping around to look behind her.

Chinatsu mirrored Iori's shock, mixed with a little concern as she fiddled with her medical bag. "Senior Administrator Ako!"

The Gehenna Prefect members stepped aside to clear a path for the approaching blue haired student. Her light blue eyes scanned the battleground, seemingly unperturbed by the situation. She wore a black headband with a red and black ribbon and had shoulder length blue hair styled in two short twintails at the back.

Her outfit... caused Sensei some pause. A very short black skirt with side slits and black thigh-high stockings held by leg garters. A white shirt with cutouts on the side of her breasts revealing some skin a blue jacket that seemed to frame her breasts even more. And a... cowbell around her neck?

Hasumi might have competition in the outfit department.

"Greetings, Abydos students. My name is Ako, and I'm the senior administrator of Gehenna Academy's Prefect Team. I'd like to take a moment to explain what's going on, if you don't mind."

"You... you didn't say you were going to be here in person. Ako..." Iori stammered.

"Then who is back at the Prefect Team office?" Chinatsu asked.

Sensei noted the surprise. Apparently she didn't even tell her own subordinates that she would appear in person for this operation. More and more things smelled fishy.

"You're their senior administrator? That would make you the Prefect Team's second-in-command..." Ayane explained helpfully. Sensei still needed to catch up on all these job and club titles. More unique identifiers than his world, but they seemed to change far less than the frequent updates he was used to.

Ako laughed and waved away the statement. "Please! You make it sound much more glamorous than it truly is. I'm nothing more than a supportive secretary to the head prefect."

"Your subordinates wouldn't have any reason to be quivering in their boots right now if that's all you were." Shiroko noted, staring at Iori.

"Extra star for Shiroko."

She beamed at Sensei.

"Wh-Who says I'm quivering?!" Iori yelled, unable to stop her stutter even in her show of bravado.

"A very astute observation! Let's see... You must be Sunaookami Shiroko."

So she knows the students of this district. The difference in intel between Iori and her is vast. Why not trickle that down to her subordinates?

"Rumor has it, Abydos' student council were the only ones remaining in the district. I suppose that must be all of you. From what I understand, there's supposed to be five Abydos student council members. It would seem you're missing one from your ranks."

Ayane continued steering the conversation away from violence while still asserting her authority. "Our president is away right now. And we're not the student council. We're the Foreclosure Task Force, Miss Senior Administrator."

"Okusora, right? Are there no student council members present? I'd like to speak with the student council, if you please."

"The Abydos student council is long gone! For all intents and purposes, we're now the acting student council here. So if you've got anything to say, you can say it to us!" Serika yelled.

Nonomi stood next to her classmates, all four united in their cause. "And if holding someone at gunpoint is your idea of having a conversation, that's pretty reprehensible, if you ask me."

Sensei only listened as the girls tried to handle the situation. If things played out well, then he didn't need to do anything but listen and wait for Problem Solver to recover. Best to let the students handle their own issues. If Kaiser reentered the battle though, he'd switch tactics.

Adults should handle Adult matters.

Ako looked between the four students and nodded. "My apologies. All units, stand down."

As one, the platoon set their weapons down. Rifles, mortars, pistols and even one machine gun all ceased to be trained on Problem Solver or Abydos.

"Allow me to apologize for my colleagues' reckless misuse of force." Ako continued once she verified there was no longer any hostility.

This was a step too far for Iori. "The hell?! But I was just following orders! Ako?!"

Ako smiled sweetly, but venom dripped from her response. "Were your orders to blindly engage using indiscriminate bombardment?"

Iori attempted to defend herself, but Ako pushed her aside without caring for the response. "Again. My sincere apologies to the Foreclosure Task Force. The Gehenna Prefect Team was mobilized to take specific individuals who have violated our academy's regulations into custody. This was an unfortunate incident, but please understand that Kaiser's attempted capture of our students forced us to act urgently."

Once again, Kaiser caused excess trouble for Abydos. It long stopped being anywhere close to amusing. In his frustration, Sensei switched which foot he tapped the street with for fear of getting a cramp in his ankle.

Then after all the concessions and politeness came the thrust of the Prefect Team's request. "I ask for your cooperation during the execution of the Prefect Team's duties."

"Not happening." Ayane's curt reply froze the atmosphere.

Ako's smile grew larger, straining the corners of her lips. "Oh...?"

"An academy like Gehenna abusing their massive forces to wantonly conduct tactical operations at a tiny school like ours?! That's a crystal-clear breach of jurisdictional authority!"

Chinatsu looked away, unwilling to meet Sensei's gaze.

"We've already determined how to handle Problem Solver. Sensei has taken their reins and will focus their efforts to make up for their crimes here in Abydos. If there are discussions for sending them back to Gehenna, it will be through our authority, not a disgraceful show of force like this."

"Sensei... has taken their reins. So..." Ako's fist tightened until it shook at her side. "… the rumors seem to be true. I assume this is the official stance of Schale, to take on these criminals with clear ties to Gehenna academy?"

Fine. It was time to make his 'stance' abundantly clear.

"Schale, and my role as Sensei, exists to support the students under my care. I have determined that the residents of Abydos are in primary need of my care and attention, and to do so I will utilize every asset I can manage."

He turned and looked at the four troublemakers. Haruka paused her creepy muttering to focus on him with a hint of mania. Aru looked on with faint hope in her eyes. Mutsuki grinned at the adult and waved. Kayoko remained expressionless, paying attention to every word.

Recently, he chose to take on the role of 'client' to keep the lights on and guarantee they didn't end up out on the streets, but that was a role of convenience. Before anything else, he was a Sensei.

"Problem Solver may be Gehenna students, but their office is located in Abydos. As such I will treat them as Abydos fixers and a group under my protection with full instruction and support. If you have a dispute around that decision, please submit the appropriate paperwork to Schale and I will process it within the next business day."

"Sensei..." Aru muttered with a smile while Mutsuki winked at him.

[Sensei... it still stuns me that you thought for even a single day that you might not be up for being Sensei. You are so good at standing up for your students! Even Nonomi, Serika, and Shiroko are moved.]

Unfortunately, Arona, there is one person who isn't going to be moved.

"That's too bad." Ako looked down at the ground, her shoulders slumped and clipboard at her side. "If that's how it has to be, then you leave me no choice. Truly, it brings me no joy to do this but..."

She snapped her fingers. Rows of guns shifted to point at the FTF and PS68.

"We have no choice but to use force to maintain our school's-"

"Enough of your lies, Amau Ako."

Kayoko stood up from behind the wrecked vehicle, ignoring Aru's attempt to drag her back behind cover. "I'm not going to remain silent when Sensei is standing by us despite everything. This situation is exactly what you wanted all along."

"So you are awake already, Kayoko." Ako's mask of disappointment faded away, replaced with a scowl. "Perhaps next time we should shift to the 120mm mortars rather than 50mm."

"Didn't you just yell at me about indiscriminate bombing!?" Iori yelled.

"Shut up."

Iori flinched at the icy order and some other prefect squad members began whispering to each other.

"Sensei, don't fall for her schemes. There is no way that Hina allowed a movement of this many troops into another school's district for us. This is Ako's plan, likely without the Head Prefect's approval. To think that the Senior Administrator, who stays in the background to make sure the prefect office isn't left unattended, made the journey personally for us is ludicrous."

Kayoko narrowed her eyes, matching the intensity of Ako's glare. "Sensei is your target, and you are willing to go to blows with every student in Abydos, and even Kaiser itself, to get a hold of him."

Sensei ignored the cries of shock from his students at the accusation. Considering the clear enmity between Kayoko and Ako, her interpretation of the intentions behind the attack rang true. Which meant... "So, you intend to capture me. How very interesting."

[S-Sensei... why are you smiling? This is bad, they brought multiple platoons for you!]

As Arona said, more Prefect Soldiers began to fill in from all sides of the street. The sheer number looked more like what would be needed for a warfront, not to target a single individual.

"Wh-what are these numbers?" Ayane's hologram flickered as she staggered in shock. "The alerts won't stop, how many battallions did you call in, Senior Administrator!?"

"All of them."

"...What!?" Chinatsu and Iori yelled in unison.

"Then who is stationed behind in Gehenna to deal with the delinquents?" Iori asked once she regained her bearings.

"Let Pandemonium Society lift a finger for once, I don't care." Ako turned away from Kayoko to focus her full attention on the adult. "Sensei is far more dangerous for the existence of Gehenna than some of our usual troublemakers running around unsupervised for a day."

"Dangerous!? Ako, what are you talking about?" Chinatsu stared at her superior in horror. Apparently nobody was privy to the extent of Ako's machinations.

"It isn't noticeable until you start putting the pieces together. The start of my suspicions came after our intelligence gatherers learned of a report on Schale that was submitted to the Tea Party. I had no clue what Schale was at first... but whatever intel the Tea Party had, it was absolutely necessary for us to acquire it as well. So I took a look at the report Chinatsu had compiled."

"You mean the one where I specifically said NOT to antagonize Sensei? The one from two weeks ago?"

“I am aware of your conclusions, Chinatsu, but it was premature. Written only when he arrived in Kivotos. But everything following has pointed to Sensei being antagonistic to Gehenna."

...Hm?

[Sensei, did you do something aggressive to Gehenna one night while I was sleeping?]

"Maybe it’s a difference in common sense? Did I fill out a form wrong?" Even after wracking his brain, he couldn't see what antagonistic actions he took to... anyone. Even the delinquents were his students and he shared food with them.

Gehenna and Millennium, the two largest schools alongside Trinity, were ones he was neutral to.

If he put it in a harsher way, most schools simply weren't really on his radar much yet. Abydos required his full, undivided attention.

"Since his arrival, Sensei has entered the Trinity district multiple times. Reports state he made connections with the Remedial Knights, Justice Task Force, and Vigilante Crew. Further, he negotiated with the Tea Party to have members of these organizations serve as his escorts into other districts."

Correct....

"One of the members of Millenium's Seminar council has been seen repeatedly entering the Schale building, implying a close relationship."

Because Yuuka decided to handle my finances...

"And upon his current tenure spent in Abydos, he worked with Trinity members directly in the support of the Abydos Foreclosure Task force. Even more recently, he worked with a student who somehow has a direct line with the Tea Party."

Didn't know that at the time...

"Meanwhile, how has he engaged with Gehenna? The only report of his appearance in the district was when he stepped off the train and then immediately got back on it after taking but a single glance at our school. "

...

[Oh... we did do that.]

"Sensei..." Ayane looked him with a complicated expression.

"In my defense I have not confirmed I am explosion-proof and there were terrorists around. A grenade nearly hit me."

Still, he was beginning to see the broad strokes of the interpretation. After getting a single glance of the chaos embedded into the very fabric of the district, he did not pursue any further attempts to interact with Gehenna. With his only escorts being Trinity students, it didn't seem reasonable to force them to guard him at a rival school. But, perhaps subconsciously, he did de-prioritize Gehenna and didn't push Chinatsu hard for a tour.

These were exactly the sort of concerns he had about taking the role. Even understandable inaction can be seen as a slight when your responsibility is everyone.

Ako was not done putting together her sweeping conspiracy. "Then to fully confirm it, not only are there more than enough rumors that Sensei is conspiring with delinquent gangs, but he has 'taken the reins' of one of the notorious criminal groups who fled Gehenna. A mysterious adult arrives with extrajudicial powers right as we are finalizing the Eden Treaty with Trinity and amasses the support of all these organizations? What else can this be but an attempt to support the Abydos district by allying with Trinity and affect the negotiations!"

"Wait, you think we are allying with Trinity!?" Ayane tried to refute it, but Ako's ears were closed to the world.

"If you aren't, then where is any member of your student council right now to speak otherwise?"

"We told you we don't know where Hoshino is!" Serika looked back to Ayane for support.

"... Never been this hard to reach." Shiroko narrowed her eyes in thought. "She has been acting strange recently."

"Perhaps I'm wrong. I admit there is that possibility. Not all things link together." Ako's brief bout of reasonableness soon ended and she stared down the adult. "But there are far too many unknown variables with Schale's existence. Sensei will remain in our custody until the treaty is signed. And we will remove a group of troublemakers off the board as well. Alternatively..."

She looked over at Aru. The redhead looked around to see where Ako was looking at before pointing at herself hesitantly.

"If you assist in apprehending Sensei, I will personally strike your previous crimes off the records in accordance with your good faith cooperation with the Prefect Team. This is your only chance to have such an opportunity presented to you."

"..." Sensei turned to face Kayoko again. "You seem to know Ako well. Is she truthful in her words this time?"

Kayoko paused and considered the Prefect Team's administrator. "I don't think she is lying. Her obsessive loyalty to Hina is her most well-known quality. Clearing our crimes is a small effort when weighed against preventing a potential Trinity-Abydos alliance."

Sensei nodded and thanked Kayoko for her informed opinion, his gaze lingering a little longer as he processed the current situation.

The oldest member of Problem Solver shivered. Perhaps some instinct told her that something big was about to unfold.

"I see....” With unusual deliberateness he spun to face the battalions with the precision of someone in a military march.   “Then let's grade this little plan of yours, Ako."

It’s fine, right?

At every turn, a new difficulty or annoyance cropped up in Abydos. Now, for the first time since he arrived, hostile intent was directed at him rather than the students.

His heart rate sped up and his breathing deepened to pour more oxygen into his racing blood stream. His body temperature rose slightly as adrenaline kicked in.

For a little bit. Just long enough to grind an impression into this place.

Students they may be, but this was an illegal armed operation born of paranoia and conspiracy. A conflict occurring while Kaiser waited in the wings, ready to strike the moment hostilities opened up. Unlike the fight with the Helmet Gang, Problem Solver, or the Stygian Bank, this entered the domain of the GSC and Shcale's extrajudicial authority.

So it was fine, for just a moment.....

The corners of his lips began pulling upwards into a deep grin, exposing his upper row of teeth.

...to inject a trace of malice, right?

———-

What is this adult talking about? Does he think he has the right to grade me like this is a school project?

Regardless of what title the GSC slapped on the mysterious adult, she refused to accept him as an authority that needed to be respected. 'Sensei' was a threat to all of President Hina's efforts in establishing the Eden Treaty, and possibly to Gehenna as a whole.

Every day their leader dealt with the nonsense from the Pandemonium Society, the endless wave of crime in the district, and the stress from standing at the top of the Prefect Team. All without complaint. Despite deserving to kick Makoto in the teeth and rule the district, the Treaty was one of the only times the Head Prefect ever interfered in Gehenna's politics. It was a beacon of hope for the Prefect Squad, a chance to reduce their workload and create a more peaceful Gehenna by working hand-in-hand with Trinity rather than constantly remaining and loggerheads and interfering with each other.

President Hina staked her time, effort, and hope on this treaty. I don't care what I need to do to protect her efforts or what punishment I take in the process.

"Fine, let's hear it. You gave Iori, what, three stars? You have no chance to escape amongst all these forces and soon Problem Solver will return with us either as redeemed accomplices or in shackles. If you are such an impressive commander, I expect you to understand when you've lost."

Mobilizing all the Prefect Squad's primary forces under Makoto's nose took a significant amount of effort and only worked due to the business trip out of the district Hina already had on her schedule. While it was gauche to overly praise herself, she took pride in the effectiveness of her scheme.

"One star out of ten."

Oh, I hate him. Even though it didn't matter, the failed score brought a scowl to her face.

"Whoa, that's a worse score than what I got."

She could feel her face flushing in embarrassment at Iori's unnecessary comment. It didn't matter, it really didn't matter, but losing to Iori still ticked her off. Even Iori's failure to handle the situation diplomatically was within her plan and expectations and yet she was rated lower!?

"I assume that means you have some magical way out here that is beyond my knowledge then. Something to break a triple encirclement, hm?" Even if Chinatsu held him in high esteem for the Wakamo affair, he was still a halo-less adult without a firearm. He'd need to be a magician to escape.

"Please, 'magic' doesn't exist in my world. I didn't even know the word until I came here." For some reason that escaped her, he refused to look at her. Instead, he faced the Problem Solver girls facing his right shoulder to the Prefect Team. A snub at least. "Honestly, if I gave the plan a grade only up to this point I'd rank it significantly higher."

"Oh?"

"While you've delved into paranoid conspiracy theories about my intentions and goals, I can see the way every event logically ties together in your mind. It's wrong," he paused for emphasis, "but even you acknowledge the possibility and decided that ambiguity is too dangerous. Raising forces of this size does make it difficult to escape from as well. Using Problem Solver as an excuse for flagrantly breaking the law against a weaker district? Perhaps not a valid justification, but one your subordinates accepted with minimal pushback."

His smile deepened, even without facing it head on it looked villainous.

"The problem is that the last stage is actually capturing me. A rhetorical question then.”

“Have you ever captured a halo-less Adult from outside Kivotos before?"

"I-"

"Sensei is talking. You obviously haven't.”

What is going on? What is this chill?

“You can't shoot me for fear of killing me. You could beat me down, but how much force is too much? Horses can die of shock from one of their legs breaking, is my body the same?”

She heard shuffling and gulps behind her. Eerily loud in the charged atmosphere.

He kept talking. Casually. Like discussing g the weather or a boring meal. The tone never matching his words.

“How much blood loss is too much? Are there certain metals I'm allergic to in your cuffs? Am I triple jointed and able to sneak out of restraints? And even if I know that my resistance may hurt me in a way that can't be repaired..."

His voice devolved into a hiss that still carried in the silence.

"Are you certain I'm not the sort of person who doesn't give a single damn about such petty concerns as 'wounds' and 'catastrophic organ failure?'

"Sensei!?" Ayane yelled in shock, while the other girls blanched.

He had to be bluffing. There was no way he was saying he'd let himself be injured out of spite!

"I don't think he is bluffing, Ako." Chinatsu whispered. Her usual composure and control, one of the emotional backbones of the Prefect Team, vanished after Sensei spoke. "One of his first requests upon learning about guns was to request I shoot him! Only so he would get an idea how close to death a bullet might leave him!"

"Good memory, Chinatsu!" The sudden mirth in his voice caused goosebumps to rise on Ako's skin. Now he wasn’t casual, but joyous. The conversation turned so dark, yet he alone seemed unfazed.

His expression was more sneer than smile.

No, he is reveling in our discomfort! What, what sort of person is he to think of something like this!?

"Since nobody was willing to blast me full of holes, I might be feeling a little cockier than I should about my chances. Maybe I should reevaluate a little, but hey, danger is the spice of life! Been months since someone put their full effort into threatening me specifically rather than my team. I'm almost glad for today, keeps me from growing soft."

"I-it doesn't matter." She needed to regain control of the situation. Even though she held every advantage, her troops were losing morale the longer he spoke. "Chinatsu is our top medic, a former member of the Emergency Medicine Department. Even if you are badly injured she'll patch you up. Don't waste your breath trying to trick us into giving up when you are the one surrounded."

"Hm, yes. I'm sure Chinatsu is great at her job and a credit to her team. Everything I've seen about her tells me she is diligent and effective. In fact, now with a better grasp of the situation, I may even give her an extra star. ...But why isn't she the one advocating for her skills in the case that I'm injured?”

That creepy grin with a hint of mania turned to look at Shiroko to his right, the only member of Abydos who seemed more intrigued than disturbed.

“Chinatsu, are you as confident as Ako is?"

"Why wouldn't she be?" Ako looked over at their team's medic, expecting a firm assent. Instead, Chinatsu looked at her with amber eyes filled with anxiety.

After an audible gulp, Chinatus raised her hand to display three fingers. "Let me ask you this, Sensei. How many fingers am I holding up?"

...?

"Three."

What!? He didn't turn his head at all, how could he see her?

He still hadn't turned away from Shiroko, leaving the Prefect Team out of the periphery of his sight. Throughout the entirety of his threatening questions, he never moved from his spot so why...

Chinatsu took a step to the left, moving even further into what should be his blind spot.

"Now?"

"Six."

She took another step. "Now?" "1." "Now?" "Not a damn clue."

Don't tell me... Chinatsu mentioned this in her documents but she assumed it was a misunderstanding or an overexaggeration. By the expressions on Nonomi, Serika, and Shiroko's faces, they were equally caught off guard.

Chinatsu grabbed her medical bag, filled to the brim with supplies to handle any situation, and rapidly shook her head. "I'm sorry Ako... I'm not confident that I can heal Sensei if he is injured. I don't even understand how his eyes work, let alone any other part of his body!"

"I'll give you a freebie information about one piece of my anatomy!" The excitement in his voice remained disconcerting. Like a child gleefully talking about a dissection. "Whereas your medical science is only now determining that the appendix isn't a vestigial organ, we've long known how our equivalent works. We can flex the muscles around it to force coagulated pus into the intestinal track to inflame and engorge the lining until it swells!”

"Wh-why you would have an organ to do that?" Chinatsu, ever the scholar, left a note in her phone with a disgusted expression. This really wasn’t the time for note taking!

"Ah ah ah," he wagged a finger and finally turned to face the Prefect Team again. "I said I'd give you a freebie, not multiple."

Without warning, his pupils shrunk in size followed by the surrounding iris collapsing inwards until it couldn’t be seen. All color vanished, leaving only a small black dot in the center of both eyes.

Ako stepped back in shock at the disturbing expression that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a horror movie.

"You'll have to figure out the rest yourself."

Ako blocked out the shrieks of her subordinates as the two iris-less eyes bore down on her with enough intensity to cause them to vibrate. I need to regain control. I can’t let him take full power over the proceedings. I’ll fall into his trap!

With a quick motion, she slapped her cheeks. A jolt of pain through her face steadied her thoughts.

"So this is what is meant by an adult from outside of Kivotos." Ako tried to piece together what remained of her composure, the two black dots haunting her vision.

Iori wasn't the type of mince words. "He's an alien freak!"

"Alien or no, we'll need to-"

"One last thing!" Once again the adult interrupted her. Only those strange eyes kept her temper from bubbling over. The gaze held her in place, like a rat frozen before a snake. The logical, sane part of her mind tried to reason that some strange biological attributes didn't make him dangerous or resilient. But his attitude, the cocky confidence he exuded as he strolled closer, weakened it and allowed the instinctual revulsion to rise up.

Even aware of the trap, she struggled to tear her way out of it. Perhaps I should have stayed in the office after all. Coming here in person makes it worse.

"Final reason you should reevaluate trying to capture me. Ta-da! What's in the duffel bag?"

“What duffel b-huh!?”

There hadn’t been a bag even anywhere near him. She was sure of that. Would happily make a bet about it.

But now after he spoke, there was one hanging off his shoulder.

Where did that duffel bag come from!? Next to her, Iori rubbed her eyes and blinked in confusion. Chinatsu readjusted her glasses. Nonomi gasped in acknowledgement and Shiroko narrowed her eyes.

He tiled his head to the side, eyes narrowing and grin widening. Everything about his posture reeked of smugness. "Or better yet, how long have I been keeping it on my shoulder and you didn't notice."

"Did anyone see him pick up that bag?" Ako demanded, looking at the assembled forces behind her. Everyone shook their heads, which didn't make sense.

"Oh, is your bag also filled with explosives! I've been wondering since I saw it in the office." Mutsuki chimed in. “Though I didn’t  notice you carrying it today.”

She paused and tilted her head. “Actually, when did I last think about it?”

With how quiet Problem Solver became, she assumed they were contemplating switching sides still. Honestly I almost forgot about them for a moment. But if they are also disturbed by his words more than mine, I will need to prepare.

Sensei laughed at the comment. "Look at us twins. Figures another person who carries a large bag might notice it easier. Don't feel bad if you didn't, it is designed to not be easy to notice. Even if, like today, I'm carrying it the entire time and even bumped Serika with it earlier. Sorry about that by the way."

"Eh? Wait is that why I stumbled when we were in the alley!"

"Just so. The only thing I brought from my world, my prized possession." He tapped the top of the bag, helping her refocus on it. Already it seemed to slip out of sight and thought. "A perception-altering, user-bound carrying case filled with items from outside Kivotos.”

Didn’t he say he doesn’t know magic?

“Who knows what is in here? Possibly something that easily ends this encirclement? A weapon? A piece of technology? A transport? Only I can open it, so only I know what I felt most pertinent when leaving my home behind forever."

The two black stars focused on her again. "So tell me, is anyone still willing to take the risk?" He took a step closer. "Who here will try to capture me, knowing that your medical technology might not matter?" Shadows from the nearby building cast darkness across his features. "Will you chance being responsible for leaving the stand-in for the missing GSC President in a puddle of his own blood if things go wrong." Another step, his iris-less pupils shaking in anticipation. "Are any of your soldiers ready to accept the consequences of this criminal act on Schale and Abydos without merit or justification?" His right hand unclasped the first lock on the bag. "Does anyone have the spirit to envision what is locked within Pandora's Box and dare to face an alien's belongings?" He planted both feet forward and crossed his arms.

"Are we... really going to do this?"

Only one response could match his declaration.

Ako drew her handgun and pointed it at his leg.

To be a prefect is to overcome terror. If I give in now out of nothing but fear and possibilities, how can I ever face my subordinates again?

"For President Hina's peace and happiness, I'll take both the risks and consequences."

The despicable adult closed his eyes.

He inhaled, setting everything in her body on edge.

"Two stars out of ten."

Why now? "...What?"

When he reopened his eyes, his irises had returned to normal. "It's a foolish loyalty and brought you to paranoia, but I can't hate people like you. Terrible plan but... I accept it. I accept you and your determination, Amau Ako."

It really shouldn't mean anything in the least, but for some reason those words comforted her. The condescension and faux-villainy faded away, matching his determination against hers. It was a shame things ended up this way, but she burned her boats behind her when she mobilized the entire squad.

"Problem Solver, you've run out of time to switch sides. Prefect Squad, prioritize the Abydos girls! Do what you can to see to it that Sensei is not harmed, I'll personally restrain him!"

"Abydos, Problem Solver. Prepare for a siege!"

———————

"Ayane, keep track on Kaiser's movements." "They are starting to move already!" "Good, try to position the Prefect squad in between them and us. Shiroko, use your drone to go airborne after nonomi sweeps that area and kicks up dust. Aim your rockets at the mortars. Haruka, take on Iori before she catches up to me please." """"Yes, Sensei!""""

As soon as the two leaders gave their respective orders, the street filled with the sounds of firearms. The Prefect Team easily overwhelmed Sensei's students in terms of numbers, but they were so packed together it made it difficult to evade the explosives which Haruka, Mutsuki, and Shiroko had in spades.

Good job, past me on making sure Problem Solver was resupplied, credit to the team.

[I'll keep you safe Sensei, just run for cover!]

All around him bullets whizzed past as he ran through the center of the commotion. The mad dash generated screams of terror from the prefect team members who likely thought they were about to be on the news for killing a halo-less adult. Little did they know of the young AI working as hard as she could to keep him safe from anything that might bring him harm.

"Ta-da! I'm going to start some fireworks!" Mutsuki yelled as she lobbed fireworks and grenades into the enemy lines approaching from behind. "I've never had so many targets before!"

"Y-yes, it's exactly what we need to prove the fearsome reputation of Problem Solver 68! Aru yelled as her sniper bullet exploded into a host of Prefect Team troops. "If, no, when we get out of this we'll be infamous for fighting the entire Prefect Team and winning."

"I don't see how we even have a chance of that happening..." Kayoko groaned. "It would be great if we had the pink haired girl with the shield right about now, but even that wouldn't be enough to turn the tide."

Sensei slid next to the grumbler, and slipped behind the car where Haruka previously sat. "Afternoon. Keep up the fighting for now, I need to check one of my contacts. Don't fight to win, fight to endure for now. We'll need to stall this battle and even use the nearby buildings as cover if necessary."

Kayoko considered the plan before peeking over the car and blasting some approaching students with her pistol. Even with the silencer, being that close to its loud sound caused a small headache. "What about the civilians?"

"I sent messages to every business in the area to evacuate while I was distracting Ako. We used Kaiser's "protection" excuse to force them to assist the business owners as they left. Ayane tracked the progress throughout and now the left-side businesses should all be empty."

With that settled, Sensei returned to Arona's classroom. With only his ever-reliable secretary present, he clasped his hands together and placed his lips on his knuckles.

"I went a little far with that didn't I?"

Arona rushed over and gave him a huge hug followed by several pokes to the side. "Sensei, you were kind of scary!"

Unperturbed about the assault on his side, he continued to perform an internal retrospective on the conversation. "I was trying for malice level one... but I underestimated my annoyance at how foolish of a plan it was. Perhaps a smidge of disappointment since I'd heard good things about the prefects? I think I might have reached malice level three.... not unreasonable considering the threat, but they are only kids in the end. Not a mature reaction."

"Level 3?" Ever inquisitive, Arona asked the natural follow up. "What level does the malice go up to?"

"10."

"What would that look like!?"

All emotion swept off his face.

Disappointment and anxiety slid off him like water colors off a canvas leaving nothing but soaked, tarnished paper.

The sudden cold caused her to flinch and shove her head into his chest to not look at the blank face... at the retraction of "Sensei" and the replacement of something else.

"Classified. Not relevant here."

Then "Sensei" returned as quickly as he vanished. "Now, we have limited time. I need to prep the next stage. Arona, be prepared to handle my correspondences during this battle. I can only look away for brief periods."

"Okay, Sensei." Arona made no movement to step away from him, which was fine for now. "Who do you need to message?"

"First off...

He rattled off instructions so fast they almost clipped into each other. It took Arona’s focus to untangle them all.

Tell Hifumi if available, I need "Faust" at these coordinates to...

Ask Yuuka to give me estimates on the cost of reconstruction of...

Formal request to Serina and Suzumi to....

Inform Hasumi about the movements of...

"O-okay, I'll handle the responses as if you are too busy to properly respond... b-but Sensei..."

The small student looked at him with shock and incredulity. Now she is beginning to see the full scope of the plan. Good, that makes things simpler.

Still, it was important to make sure his uncommon sense didn't leave hidden gaps "Do you see any issues with the arrangement?"

"B-because if anyone is unavailable or fails their task, won't everything fall apart? Isn't this carrying a whole bunch of risks?" Her staticky blue halo spun above her head, proof of the depth of her fear.

"Even if it doesn't work out, that's fine. No matter how I act from this point forward, I've already won on some front from the moment Ako refused to back down. Now it's about how I win." Different results came with different benefits. Failure was an acceptable option, though he'd love for Abydos to get a proper win instead of a beneficial loss.

Sometimes you didn't just want to win, you wanted to win and make a point.

"Back to the battlefield~" he departed with a cheery voice, leaving Arona stunned.

As the classroom fell away, he heard a quiet, stunned voice behind him. "Sensei... are you a villain?"

Oh, did it show on my face too much? The thought made him let out a laugh, causing Aru to jump at the unexpected sound. With associates like this, how can I not be a little villainous?

No one ever handed him a manual on how to be a Sensei. The position was a culmination and crystallization of ideals and responsibilities. And nothing was written down saying he couldn't be a trickster and Sensei at the same time.

Now, it was a question of time and endurance. Without much to do until the next phase, he placed his chin on Aru's shoulder, causing her to squeak in shock. "Hey Aru, sudden villain lesson. Do you know the best thing a villain can do if they are stuck in a shitshow without a way out?"

"S-strategic retreat?" Refusing to turn to look at him, her stammered response was close to a whisper. Still, being this close he easily saw the sparkle of interest in her eyes at the idea of "villain lessons".

"No, what a first rate villain does..."

[Hifumi said she is on her way to the location along with her Faust mask!]

Sensei would be teaching his students a variety of lessons today. "...is create an even bigger shitshow. Until even your opponents drown in it."

——————-

"Hey Rabu, we got a strange visitor."

The red haired delinquent set her protein bar aside and stood up at the call from Hajime, the leader of the Abydos branch of the Kata Kata Helmet gang. "Please tell me it isn't the Abydos girls or Problem Solver. It's too early in the day for a fight and I don’t need my gang getting wrapped up in your mess."

Hajime shook her head, banishing any thoughts of their repeated losses against the mentioned factions. "N-no. She has a Trinity uniform on and is wearing, uh, a brown paper bag on her head."

"…Huh? First Gehenna, now Trinity? Is every district getting involved here nowadays?" Rabu stood up and spun her shotgun around to place it behind her back. "What do they want?"

"It's not Trinity's Running Flash Bomb again is it!?" One of the Trinity dropouts yelled in fear. Being chased by her again in Abydos after already fleeing the neighboring district left her shaken.

"She says her name is Faust. And that she has a message from Sensei."

"Sensei…? Let's hear her out then." The only reason the group could eat snacks in the morning was due to the adult's efforts to send them extra supplies. She wasn't so proud that she wouldn't at least meet his messenger.

Still, the name "Faust" bumped around in the back of her mind. Where did she hear it recently?

After walking outside, she stopped in front of the Trinity student. Like the red-helmeted squad leader said, the girl wore a brown paper bag with a large "5" written with a marker and two eyeholes ripped out. It was a little unsettling, but she wasn't about to back down from a paper bag of all things.

"You are on Helmet Gangster turf, state your business." Even if it was technically another gang’s turf, she helped them repair the area enough she considered herself an honorary one until she returned home.

"I-I'm…" the girl looked down at her feet and took in a deep breath, "I'm Faust, leader of the Masked Swimsuit Gang!"

Now Rabu remembered where she heard the name. That was the group that struck the Black Market Bank! Every gang in the area was whispering about the legendary gang that popped up out of nowhere, knocked down the bank in five minutes, and evaded all the Market Guards!

Why is she connected to Sensei? Does he like collecting gangs to partner with!? Did he mean it when he said we all count as his students?

"Sensei is in trouble. The district is being attacked by Gehenna and the Kaiser PMC. He is calling on all of his Abydos students to help push them out!"

"We aren't Abydos students, we are the Helmet Gang!" One of her fellows growled at the intruder, causing Faust to buckle slightly. "Why should we bother helping."

"Sensei says… Sensei says if you are a student who stays in this district you are an Abydos student in his eyes, gangster or no!" She glanced at her phone, probably checking Sensei's message.

It was a nice sentiment, one Rabu didn't expect to hear. As if he saw them on the same level as his other students. And she did have a bone to pick with Kaiser for hiring Problem Solver to attack her comrades. But this was Kaiser PMC, a renowned military company.

No matter how she looked at it, they didn't owe Sensei a big enough favor to get involved with something this dangerous.

The legendary gangster pointed her… strangely cutesy phone towards them to show the message. "Also, he says that if we win he is going to host a ramen, sukiyaki, and yakiniku festival for everyone who participates."

"… GET READY EVERYONE. WE HAVE FOOD TO EARN!"

Sukiyaki, the food they might never eat otherwise? He better prepare his wallet!

———

In the desert surrounding the sector the Prefect Squad and Abydos were fighting in, a Kaiser soldier rushed towards the platoon on standby. "Sir, we've been ordered to sortie. Move out of defensive formation and prepare for our advance. Our primary targets are the Gehenna students with capturing Sensei of Schale as a secondary objective."

"Did they perhaps specify which Gehenna students? New intel is saying there are multiple battallions in the district."

"Specifically Problem Solver, as we are using them as the justification for our 'Protection Services' in the area. We are already getting a host of complaints from the business owners who paid and yet still needed to evacuate."

The soldier cursed. Their Director suddenly sent out the orders to send patrols to drain the local businesses only this morning and already it was causing headaches. Their units weren't trained or built for duties with only two soldiers standing in front of a storefront and no commanders. Without a strong established chain of command their strength waned signficantly. And now they would be the ones yelled at for it.

What was done was done. If they wiped all the problems off the board than no one would be left to complain. It was these sorts of calculations that lead him to be being in charge of the eastern wing. "Were you provided the descriptions of these 'Problem Solvers'?"

Every unit was informed about the five Abydos High School students, the target of the Director's harrassment campaign, and aware of the local delinquent gangs. Problem Solver was a new one to him though. Before, they were only referred to by their district.

"No sir."

"No matter." He raised the strength of his vocal systems to shout to his entire battallion at once. "Round up every single girl with horns, wings, or tails and we'll find them in the mass of bodies somehow! All Gehenna students are our targets until further intel comes in! Snag them all!"

The soldier nodded to himself. This… was leadership. Be uncompromising and ruthless to reach your goals. When in doubt, simply destroy all potential adversaries! That was the Kaiser way.

"Um, sir?" This damn messenger still continued to bother him. He would keep in mind their serial number and report it to their commander later. "If we are calling all Gehenna students enemies, what about the group coming across the border now?"

"…Huh?"

He turned and looked behind him. True to the messenger's words, a battallion approached from the Gehenna border down the main road connecting the two districts. At the front of the procession was a grey Tiger heavy tank with three other tanks taking up the rear.

"Follow the commander's orders! All Gehenna students are our targets!" Without waiting for their commander's clarification, a group of PMC soldiers opened fire on the approaching students.

"Wait, hold your fire!" Who the hell is this group!? "Our targets are to be found in the city, in the city!"

It was too late. The mass produced Kaiser soldiers barely had sentience, only programmed to follow directives without considering things like consequences or context. While they stopped firing at his word, the tank's main gun turned its barrel to point towards their group.

A grey haired student with long black horns jumped onto the tank's gun, her black and red military coat billowing behind her. The regalia of her military uniform and her matching black military hat with a golden emblem displayed her status as a leader for all to see.

"Ke-he-he," the tall student laughed uproariously as she looked at the assembled Kaiser soldiers. "So now even these tin cans are looking down on the might of the Pandemonium Society? I thought our focus would be on taking Hina down ten pegs and proving our superiority forever, but it seems we have another target! Iroha, fire on my command!"

A student with copious amount of floofy, red hair popped her head out from inside the tank with a sigh. Right after she appeared, an unusually young blond student in an oversidezed military jacket joined her as well from inside the tank. Both readjusted their own military hats, the much younger girl's having the addition of a large pink bow.

"This is going to be a hassle, but fine… fire." The redhead fired her pistol in to the sky with a bored expression.

"Boom boom!" The younger student cried out in excitement with her hands covering her ears.

The cannon fire sent his men flying. "Argh, whatever! Deal with them first. It would be a stain on our name to let them off the hook after sending a tank at us!"

If he managed to get out of this mess, he was going to kill the Director for putting them in this ridiculous turmoil.

And just like that, somewhere outside of Sensei's awareness a piece of chaos he didn't aim to create blossomed into another wave.

Chapter Text

“Unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable!”

Haruka screamed as she emptied all of her ammunition at Iori. It was at least their fifth encounter of the day, and she wanted to make sure the prefect stayed down this time. If the enraged scowl on Iori’s face was any sign, she felt the same.

“You aren’t shooting me again!” Iori yelled, skillfully darting between the shotgun blasts right outside of the range. Before Haruka reloaded her gun, Iori pelted her with bullets from her rifle. The two that landed hurt, but Haruka could manage such a straightforward attack.

Being able to stay standing to destroy things despite grievous injuries was her only worthwhile trait after all.

“Stay! Down!” Iori leaped into the air and swung her leg down in an axe kick right into Haruka’s shoulder. Pain laced through her arm down to her fingertips, nearly causing her to drop her shotgun. Pushing through the pain, she swung the empty gun at Iori’s side. She made only minimal contact, but it was enough to knock Iori off her.

“Die! Die! Die!” Without waiting for a moment to reload, she followed Sensei’s previous instructions and charged towards Iori’s position without a care for what would happen next. I’ll do what comes naturally.That was the only way to follow the vague instructions of, “get in close and figure it out from there.”

“Stop saying die all the damn time!” Iori yelled as she tried to jump backwards again. But this time her movement was interrupted as she crashed into a retreating Kaiser robot, startling them both.

Haruka wouldn’t let an opportunity slip by and swung her shotgun at Iori’s dominant hand to force the elf to drop the weapon. Iori let out a shriek of pain as she failed to move away fast enough before the weapon struck true. However, even with her fingers smashed in between both weapons, Iori bravely held on with tears in her eyes.

Bullets slammed into Haruka’s head from nearby Prefect Team members, making a staccato song of violence that made her growing headache all the worse. They were yelling something, something about a leader, but she couldn’t hear properly after all that concussive force.

I’ll share this pain! This close, nearly chest to chest, neither of them could properly aim their weapons. It was only go forward or retreat. So she did what she always did in a bind…

Advance evermore.

Specifically, with her forehead toward Iori’s skull.

BANG!

Both girls let out garbled yells after the collision. Iori stumbled to the side with blood on her forehead, maybe her own or maybe spillage from Haruka’s multiple wounds. If she only did that enough times then...

“Nn. Switching.”

“Retreat, Iori!”

An allied hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her backwards while Ako did the same with Iori. But I wasn’t done yet. If I don’t keep her down, then why was I sent out?

She tried to resist Shiroko’s forceful grip, but the attempt failed because of her own dizziness from so many repeated blows to the head. Before she knew it, Shiroko and Ako’s guards were firing at each other and at the approaching squadron.

Above her, Kayoko flew in while holding onto Shiroko’s drone. Unaccustomed to flying like this, she looked paler than usual. “Get back to the shop, Haruka. You are bleeding too much. Boss and Sensei’s orders.”

With the clear instruction delivered, Kayoko fired her pistol at the crowd of Kaiser robots and Prefect Team gunners who tried to shoot her down. With a tremendous roar, the pistol unleashed a wave of sound that panicked both enemy forces. They crawled over each other to escape the area, wounding enemy and ally alike in their rush to escape.

Disheartened, Haruka retreated to the convenience store Abydos and Problem Solver were currently using as their base. A few bullets peppered her back as she entered, and she ignored them all with nothing more than a wince. They were likely strays anyway. The Kaiser bullets hurt more than the Prefect Team’s, but they were fired more wildly. These felt like the smaller rounds of the Prefect team, but poorly aimed.

Thus, her entry into the store was marked by the sound of bullets and blood droplets bouncing off the scuffed vinyl.

“Over here, Haruka.” Sensei stood behind the register of the Angel 24 branch and motioned her over.

In a bizarre scene unbecoming the vicious chaos outside, Sensei donned a spare Angel 24 uniform and rummaged behind the counter for something. Nonomi sat on the floor in front of the counter with her minigun across her lap. The normally energetic girl’s eyes were closed as she slept to regain her energy. Serika had flopped onto the counter with her arms dangling over it, one eye open as she peered outside.

Aru and Mutsuki crouched near one of the toppled racks that served as a makeshift barricade to prevent anyone from entering through the long-shattered windows. Before she was sent outside to replace Nonomi, Haruka had previously used that same vantage to shoot anyone who dared get close to the store. Mutsuki waved at her and grinned while Aru simply returned Haruka’s attention with a firm nod.

“Here you go, Haruka. Some more shotgun rounds, some bandages for those wounds on your head and...” he pulled a red bottle out from under the counter. “a sports drink! Get some of these,” he peered at the label, “electrolytes in you.”

“I-I’m fine. I don’t need anything to drink.” Why was he like this every time she got back? Always trying to hand her something nice. Didn’t he understand she was worth less than dirt and other people might need those drinks?

He pressed it against her cheek. Oh, it did feel nice against the bullet bruises.

“I already paid for it, and it’s nice and cold. Go ahead and drink it.” After placing a final bill in the cash register, he closed it and waited for the receipt to print out. A spool of white paper gathered around Sensei’s feet from all the purchases he made in their third hideout.

Even though she didn’t deserve it, she accepted the generous gift Sensei bestowed upon her. The cold, fruit punch flavored drink did help her feel better. She realized how hungry and thirsty she was only whenever she retreated. In the heat of battle, nothing else mattered besides taking down as many enemies as possible.

Exhaustion finally worming its way in, she sat down in front of the counter and brought her breathing under control.

“Sensei... I don’t think we can do this much longer,” Ayane admitted. Her hologram flickered as she examined the damaged store. “Everyone is exhausted. The only reason we’ve fought this long is that you keep pitting Kaiser and the prefects against each other. But even that can’t last forever. Kaiser keeps sending more forces with fresh ammunition, and Gehenna looks to be running low.”

The Abydos secretary was right. Sensei exploited everything he could to manage to hold out while under siege for so long. He’d abused the fact that both Kaiser and Gehenna were averse to continue damaging Abydos businesses. Repeatedly, he bunkered in abandoned locations and focused his force’s firepower to keep one side from dominating. By making periodic appearances on the battlefield proper, he even controlled the troop movements momentarily to allow ambushes and repositioning.

In doing so, the firefight had lasted longer than anyone anticipated and had already eclipsed two hours. It was the longest battle Haruka had ever found herself in, and it seemed to be the same for the other girls. While Gehenna and Kaiser likely had training exercises that lasted for even more hours, it was one thing to train for an extended period and a whole other to seriously fight two opposing groups for that long.

I don’t know how much I can hold on either. She’d fight until she broke, of course! But each time a bullet gouged into her, it chipped away at her strength a little more. Iori’s attacks especially hurt, which was fitting for one of the Prefect Team leaders. And she was the only person besides Shiroko who was capable of defending against Iori consistently.

“I understand, Ayane,” Sensei said as he checked his tablet again.

The device never left his attention for long during the back half of the fight. I wonder what he is using it for.

“Thankfully, we’ve already won no matter how the end actually plays out. However, if everyone is willing to push for a few more minutes, we should be able to get an overwhelming result rather than a simple passing grade.”

The arrogant statement caught the attention of all the girls who were still awake.

“Hm?”
“We’ve already won?”
“Kufufu, Sensei, are you going to pull some mean tricks?”

No matter how Haruka looked at the situation, ‘already won’ was not how she would describe it. The Prefect Team was rallying against Kaiser and approaching Sensei’s final base. It wouldn’t be long before Shiroko and Kayoko needed to fall back.

“B-but if we stop now, they’ll capture you, Sensei! How is that anything but a loss!?” Ayane yelled, echoing the thoughts of many in the room.

“I-I won’t let them touch Sensei!” Haruka proclaimed, shooting to her feet. “A-all I’m good at is d-destroying things, so I’ll make you an exit no matter what!”

Even if she needed to bring down multiple buildings, rip a hole through the walls, or load herself with the remaining C4 and rush forward into the melee, then at least... she’d be of help to Sensei and Aru!

A large hand took her hat off before wrapping her head in bandages. “Appreciate the enthusiasm, but use the energy out there. If I get captured after this much conflict, it isn’t a big deal. Mutsuki is correct. I have a nasty plan even for that eventuality.”

“Then—“

“I’d rather not use it though. Might be rude of me to declare how I want things to end but...” he chuckled as he started ruffling Haruka’s hair, “I’d rather get a victory everyone here is proud of.”

“Hmph, then we should go for the flawless victory! Anything less would shame the name of Problem Solver 68!” With that declaration, Aru fired on Chinatsu, earning a yipe from the elf and knocking the medic off her feet right as she was about to start healing Iori.

“I guess it’d be lame to try this hard and then still fail to protect you,” Serika muttered with her face on the counter.

“Does this mean we get paid more the more successful the victory?” Mutsuki asked with a grin.

“The sukiyaki dinner is on me if we manage a full-marks ending.”

“”""!""""

“Well, now we HAVE to win!” Serika jumped up from the counter, her energy restored.

Aru looked away from the battlefield with a blushing face. “W-were you even listening to that part of our conversation the other day?”

“Aha, it’s been a bit since I had sukiyaki. Looking forward to it!” Nonomi cheered with a big smile next to Haruka. The second-year leaned towards Haruka with a big smile. “If you’ve never had it before, it’ll be so fun to share for the first time. It’ll be like a big party.”

“Bigger than you realize....” Sensei muttered as he finished setting Haruka’s bandages. The unexpected whisper in her ear made her body shudder and heat up. She hadn’t realized how close he was until feeling his breath on her ear.

“Don’t, don’t worry about me, Sensei. I’m sure you can save money by feeding everyone but me instead. Someone only good for violence like me doesn’t need the fancy food.” Nothing she had done made her deserve to attend a party like that. It was important not to overindulge.

Sensei went silent. Did I mess up again? Did I say the wrong thing? I really can’t do anything but make mistakes if I’ve even bothered Sensei what if that leads to problems for Aru and the others, why can’t I just stay silent forever rather than opening up my mouth and causing nothing but hardships and

She felt a hand settling on the top of her head where no injuries were present.

And then the hand started rapidly rubbing her head.

“E-eh!?” Was this a punishment? Did she finally go too far?

... It feels far too nice and cozy to be a punishment, though...

“Yosh, yosh, yosh, good hair for ruffling.”

“Ooh, that looks fun, Sensei.” Nonomi leaned even closer to Haruka, causing the purple-haired girl to panic. Was this a new form of hazing?

“What, is there bad hair for ruffling?” Serika asked, joining on the other side of Haruka. “Stop being weird, Sensei.”

Th adult laughed while leaning on the counter. “Some hair is good for ruffling; others are better suited to slow combing. A couple of people have heads best suited for pats and others are best for pets. Such is how it has always been.”

“... I said stop being weird.”

“So Serika is best for petting then,” Nonomi concluded as she helped adjust Haruka’s bandages.

“Good for pats too, but don’t tell her I said that.”

“Stop it!”

Shiroko’s voice came through Sensei’s earpiece. “Nn, I believe I deserve all four.”

“Put a pin in that. I need both you and Kayoko to retreat back here now. We are moving into the next phase.” His hand didn’t stop ruffling through Haruka’s hair, causing the girl to whine in confused enjoyment.

“Sensei, is this really the time for this? What are you doing right now?” Ayane stared in utter bewilderment.

I’d like to know as well! The suspense of when the other shoe would drop was killing her.

“Pampering Haruka while I recover from overtaxing my eyes earlier. Should have known that paying close attention to ten students at once was above my current capabilities. Need them in tip-top condition before the final phase.”

Eh? There were a lot of things she wanted to ask, but her thoughts kept jumbling up as he continued the pleasant assault on her scalp. The little head shakes kept her from seeing straight as all the anxieties came together in a car crash inside her brain. Pampered? Overtaxing? Huh?

Others around her were asking questions about his eyes, but to her shame the question that bubbled up was about her. Or it would be to her shame, but her mind was rushing too fast to register the embarrassment. “Why, why would anyone pamper me?”

He paused the muddling of her brain thing thoughts.

“Because I’ve been relying on you for this whole time as the lynchpin of my defense strategy? And will continue to do so? If you weren’t here, I would have taken an entirely different approach.”

That didn’t compute.

“Sensei, I know Haruka is great for defense operations, but is this really the time for this talk?” Kayoko asked as she entered, followed by Shiroko.

“We only need to stall for two more minutes, so this is a perfect time. Everyone get ready!” After the command, he turned his attention back to Haruka.

He seemed so bright to her. It was one of the first things she noticed when he walked onto the battlefield after their first loss.

A confidence was wrapped around him that she couldn’t imagine even pretending to have. Despite two massive forces desiring to capture him, he casually acted as a cashier and substitute medic.

Why would someone like that be relying on her?

Weeds like her should only sprout where the sun barely managed to reach, not where it focused its light.

Despite everyone rushing around her to reload and toss their remaining explosives to deter the oncoming forces, her focus remained on the adult.

She awaited... something. She didn’t know what.

Something in her expression seemed to make him chuckle. “Haruka, you seem to think that you are only good at destroying things. Well, even if that is true... what’s wrong with that?”

Huh?

“I have — had—“ he corrected himself with a complicated expression, “—a couple of coworkers I relied on that fit that bill. And we’d always invite the destroyers to our parties even if it meant ordering from two places just in case they blew up the first one. Talent should be recognized and embraced. You developed one of your talents early.”

Something clicked for her. Now it made sense. “So you agree that I’m only good at destroying and ruining things!” A relieved smile crept across her face as the panic rose in tandem. He recognized her as the failure she was so she couldn’t let him down!

But really, I should still just be destroyed rather than constantly—

He poked her on the forehead. “Didn’t say that. I just don’t have the minutes to spend convincing you otherwise. But I will say that you have a gift, a talent. And that talent is so big it allows you to also be a defender who I, and all of us, can rely on. Aru is proud to have you as a member of Problem Solver for obvious reasons. I’m sure you’ll continue to build even more talents as you get older.”

Her eyes filled with tears. Violence was all she was ever good at. The only thing she found solace and capability in. Besides that, she was a worthless existence.

A few people once told her that wasn’t the case. That nobody was only good at destroying things. But then they eventually agreed. All she could do was ruin things.

Sensei didn’t argue that directly.

He thinks I can protect with my destruction?

“Of course I’m proud of Haruka! Our entry-level employee will keep impressing you, Sensei! She will be notorious among the Fixers!”

“Sensei is taking all the good parts, trying to sweep our little Haruka off her feet, hmm?~”

“Good grief. Have we ever not relied on you? Sensei is learning what we already knew.”

Her Problem Solver comrades crowded around her, causing her to sputter and look around in panic. Even the Abydos girls were staring at her with kind smiles!

“I guess you’ve been helpful... we’ll let the attack on our school go and let bygones be bygones.”

“Nn. Protected me from the twin-tailed prefect.”

“You’ve been a big help, Haruka. I could let loose without a care knowing you were there.”

The team was all assembled, with her at the center! When did this happen!? Should she sacrifice herself for being so full of herself as to enjoy all the undeserved kindness!?

“Like I said, Haruka, your talent has been a great help in protecting as well. And you’ll need to keep using it well since we are a little behind schedule.”

“... Huh?”

“Which means it’s time to do something reckless.”

Everyone looked at him in confusion for only a brief moment.

That moment was all he gave them before running out of the building.

Into the street.

Where the fight was still in progress.

“SENSEI!?”

“Follow me, everybody!”

To her horror, some bullets were flying right at him. Haruka rushed outside to block them with her body, panic pulsing through her. The prefects outside also stared in fear at the unexpected move, pulling their guns back to avoid hitting the halo-less adult.

Only to see the bullets somehow be deflected away from him.

“Don’t forget my lovely bag!”

No longer forgotten, the duffel bag swung around Sensei’s arm like a makeshift shield. Was that how he dodged the attacks?

“Better hope your memory lasts if you wanna target me.” Far quieter into their shared line he whispered. “Get to the other alley and we’ll finish this. Haruka, on me.”

She rushed and obliged, taking any attack even getting close to her Sensei. If he believed in her....

Maybe it was foolish to believe in her. But did she have the right to think it was foolish?

She’d need to do everything she could for him!

--------------------------

Iori was not having a good day.

Really, she’d classify it as — extremely terrible — if anything.

She’d been blasted in the face with a shotgun repeatedly.

Students rolled her around the battlefield using rockets and miniguns.

Ako scolded her in person repeatedly.

Sensei gave her a failing grade.

They got into a fight with a mercenary company’s army.

A group of criminals chucked a bomb at her head. Twice.

Her own subordinate accidentally clocked her in the chin with the butt of their rifle.

And now Chinatsu was yanking her hair while screaming in her ear to put her gun down. The latest aggression stemmed from Sensei’s lunatic dash through the center of the battlefield.

All while the purple-haired problem solver went completely manic with her shotgun on anything that dared twitch.

“I need to deal with that criminal nutcase over there, Chinatsu. Let go!”

“You might hit Sensei! You know your gun hits a wide area!”

“Then I just won’t shoot!” With a grunt of frustration, she pushed Chinatsu off her and rushed towards the group of nutcases.

Nutcase number 1: The adult who decided to stare at the air while running towards the unprotected intersection.
Nutcase number 2: The bomb maniac who looked like the only person having a good time as she giggled while tossing bombs.
Nutcase number 3: The purple ball of rage telling her to die.
Nutcase number 4: The wolf riding a drone making herself into a bigger target than the adult.
Nutcase number 5: You know what, sure. The blonde with the huge chest also counted. How much money had she dropped on the battlefield constantly reloading that minigun!?
Nutcase number 6: Kayoko. For being the “smart one” according to Ako, and yet dealing with all this nonsense.

The catgirl was the least of the nutcases. She was just pissed at everything. Extremely relatable.

Iori charged into the fray, aiming at Nutcase 0, the “outlaw” leader of the Problem Solvers who started this whole headache. In a panic, Aru fired her rifle repeatedly, but Iori deftly slid under the bullets and regained her running speed. With her subordinates having fired at Shiroko to keep her busy, Nonomi reloading, and Mutsuki in the middle of replenishing her bag of bombs, this was the best opportunity she had.

While Hina’s power was undoubtable, Iori’s speed was still something to be proud of.

“I- I can’t pin her down, Sensei!” Aru yelled, her bravado turning into panic as she fired her last shot. This was exactly the opportunity Iori needed. And now with Aru being Sensei’s only shield...

“DIE! DIE! DIE!”

Right on cue, Haruka burst onto the scene with fury blazing in her eyes. This time though, she was operating as Iori wanted. With her approach from the side, she could fire her gun without Sensei being in the line of fire or able to interfere. Then Chinatsu wouldn’t be able to yell at her later and the group would lose their main shield.

And... go!

She slid to the side right as Haruka fired her shotgun, tearing apart the ground with the sheer ferocity of the blast. But it didn’t matter if the target wasn’t in range. With only the briefest moment to aim, Iori fired right into Haruka’s back, causing the other girl to stumble. Next, she slid backwards to fire another blast into Haruka’s side while avoiding Haruka’s counterattack. Finally, she launched herself forward again to deliver a third blast into Haruka’s injured head.

“A-Aru...” Haruka stammered as blood dripped down the side of her head from underneath the wrapped bandages.

Just to seal the deal, Iori forcibly negated the backwards momentum from her gun’s recoil and delivered a roundhouse kick right into the uninjured side of Haruka’s head. With a groan of pain, the other girl slumped over from the subsequent bludgeons to her skull.

“One down.” The trick her opponents were using was a double-edged sword. While it made the Prefect Team and Kaiser hesitate to fire at the Abydos students for fear of injuring Sensei, the same applied if she got close to Sensei. Even now, Kayoko could shoot, but was avoiding doing so due to how tight the fighting area was.

“You should have stayed in hiding.” She pushed Haruka out of the way to catch up to Sensei. Even if the adult was taller, she was the faster sprinter. In three seconds she would be at his side.

Before the battle, he made a whole host of threats about how difficult it would be to subdue him. While it put Ako in a bind, Iori had her own interpretation of how to handle him.

She wouldn’t lay a finger on him or fire her gun. Instead, all she needed to do was keep on him and wait for the suppressive fire to take out the Abydos students and use them to tie HIS hands instead. Let him willingly give in once his allies were all on the ground. All she needed to do was stick by him and fire on anyone that approached.

She was proud of the plan!

Even now, the adult looked at the sky as he ran, not paying attention to the battlefield. Who in their right mind would take up cloud watching at a moment like this!

He opened his mouth as they ran shoulder to shoulder and-

“Thanks, Serina.”

A red medical package flew over her head, landing somewhere behind her.

Where did that come from? The drone used by the last member of Abydos was delivering another round of ammunition to the minigun wielder. Was there a hidden last member? Ako did mention that Abydos had 5 students.

Her eyes widened as she and Sensei turned the corner at the intersection, Serika right at their heels.

At least forty Helmet Gangsters charged forward at her as one unit. At the front of the pack was a girl wearing a paper bag and a... Trinity uniform!?

Sensei laughed in a way that made her consider reevaluating her plans and instead just simply punch him in the face.

“No matter the world, nothing crushes morale like the enemy getting unexpected reinforcements.” He finally stopped looking at the sky and turned towards her. The look in his eyes exuded such calm she could only assume all was going according to his plan. “Case in point.”

“The Prefect Team beats groups like this before lunchtime!” Depending on the day. Bravado wasn’t wrong in this moment though; they still wouldn’t fire as long as she was near the adult. “Give up quietly.”

“Sure, but... tell that to her.”

The crunch of pebbles on asphalt behind her suddenly seemed so loud in the relative quiet away from the main battle.

“That. Freaking. Hurt!”

Lurching forward like a zombie, the shield that should have been broken stomped forward.

How is she still up!? No, it’s fine, as long as I’m near Sensei she can’t fire that shotgun.

That was the correct thought.

It didn’t matter much though when the shotgun was instead swung at her head like a baseball bat.

BAM.

Iori staggered to the side, stars popping in her vision. Her gaze turned unfocused. Even despite her halo, the sheer viciousness of the attack caused an unexpected amount of damage. She needed to get her bearings back.

Haruka displayed zero intention of allowing her to do so. Screaming incoherently… something about Sensei and violence… she mimicked Iori’s earlier attack and slammed the shotgun into Iori’s left side.

Only now, through the waves of pain, did she realize the error in her plan. She’d chased Sensei too far away from the rest of her team. Chinatsu, Ako, her subordinates — not a single person was in range to help.

And now Sensei was standing with a big smile next to the mysterious masked girl. Out of shotgun blast range.

There was a loud bang right near her ear, and then darkness descended.

...

...

...

“Hwuh...?”

Iori’s eyelids twitched as her consciousness returned.

“What...?”

Jingle.

Her arms were not moving the way she wanted them to.

Fully awake now, she opened her eyes to take stock of what was going on. Who the hell handcuffed me? With my own handcuffs!?

“Good afternoon.” Of course the damn adult’s voice would be the first she would hear upon waking up. “Welcome back to the land of the awake ones.”

“Did you do this?” Iori asked as she jangled the handcuffs that restrained her. When he nodded, her face flushed as she imagined what else might have happened while she slept. “Per-pervert! Do you get a kick out of restraining your students!?”

Oh, that’s a new face. For once, her words seemed to effectively strike him as his jaw dropped and he looked at her aghast at the insinuation. Right next to him, Aru also blushed and looked away in embarrassment.

“Y-you,” he sputtered, “all intended to kidnap me first, remember! How am I being labeled the pervert here? This is a false accusation!”

“Sensei, you don’t need to deny it so thoroughly; it actually makes it seem worse when you do...” Ayane contributed to the discourse.

Serika took the opportunity to throw oil on the fire. “No, he’s definitely a pervert. And a stalker.”

“Serika. I believed in you.” Sensei muttered, crestfallen.

The fact that the accusation seemed to actually bother him made her feel a little bad, but also a little vindicated. Chipping through his confident demeanor and calm handling of everything they threw his way was a little, a lot, satisfying.

The problem was in how light-hearted the conversation was. They were all too relaxed.

That meant the reinforcements were being more useful than she had anticipated. It should only be a group of delinquents, but it was also a group with Sensei at the lead. The fact that he took a small group of students against the entire prefect team besides President Hina showed his command would turn around insurmountable odds.

“You want to be caught up to speed now that you are awake?” Sensei asked before giving instructions to Shiroko through his earpiece. “This will be the best opportunity.”

“Fine.” What else could she do? Her gun was nearby, but there was no way for her to fight against this many people while handcuffed. Might as well get the information.

“Fantastic. Long and short of it is that the Prefect Team is in a pinch. With you removed from the playing field and now being pincered by the Helmet Gang reinforcements and Kaiser’s extra squads, Ako is struggling to keep the situation under control. As such, I’ve been directing Abydos to encourage the Prefect Team to get into more confrontations with Kaiser alongside the Helmet Gangsters. I believe Ako has noticed my intentions as she is refocusing her efforts towards eliminating Kaiser next. Something I’m happy to encourage.”

“Why focus on Kaiser? We are the ones trying to quarantine you and take back Problem Solver.”

“While we are on opposing sides right now, you are all my students. I don’t hold actual enmity towards you all. Terrible plans notwithstanding, I can’t be that hostile toward an attempt to protect the creation of a peace treaty between two academies. Kaiser, on the other hand, is a massive threat to Abydos’ existence.”

Even if she wasn’t the strategist type, Iori played with a sneaking suspicion that all this fighting amounted to a waste of time. Ako, did you create an enemy out of a potential ally?

Best to shove that down into her head for now. It didn’t bear contemplating.

“And what about them?” She gestured with her bound hands towards the Trinity students nearby. One bore the distinctive uniform of a medic, but she didn’t know anything about the other two. Especially the girl with the bag on her head. “You called Trinity in?”

“Sort of, but not really. Serina and Suzumi are on a trial run for what we are provisionally calling Schale Duty. The concept is that students who wish to assist me with my Sensei responsibilities can apply for different time slots. This work might be paperwork, escorting, or reporting on events they are interested in. Serina and Suzumi were supposed to have the duty this week, but I’ve been busy in Abydos, so I called them here independent of Trinity itself.”

Schale Duty? Who would go out of their way to do extra work for him?

“As for Faust... she may wear a Trinity uniform, but Faust actually counts as an Abydos resident as she leads the Masked Swimsuit Gang, which resides here. She still wears her uniform out of nostalgia. This was simply repaying a favor to me.”

“Then what about the alliance with Trinity?” That possibility served as Ako’s primary motivator. Right now with her captured, she might as well believe his words. Nothing better to do. Ako was the thinker of the group.

“No alliance between Trinity and Abydos. Only individual students helping me out. I’ll need to figure out this ‘social media’ thing and let the general student body know about Schale Duty soon once we work the kinks out.”

Iori let her head rest on her chest. Today really sucked.

“Speaking of Trinity, I have a report, Sensei. Trinity is amassing a large group of students along our border! I just got a message asking if they can enter!” Ayane reported in a panic. “Why is everyone trying to invade today?”

Sensei took out his tablet and typed some messages. “Oh, that one is me. I informed Hasumi of the JTF that I was stuck in the middle of a conflict between the Gehenna Prefects and delinquents. Then casually dropped that a large contingent of Helmet Gangsters, including multiple delinquents formerly from Trinity, were also on the move in the district towards my location.”

“... But you did that, Sensei!” Ayane yelled.

The silver-haired Trinity student shook her head in exasperation. “That would get Hasumi to move, yep.”

“Are you trying to cause conflict between Gehenna and Trinity, or not?” Iori asked. She thought she understood, but now he left her confused again. “What’s the point of tricking and lying like this?”

“To keep them preoccupied and unaware that the entire Prefect Team is here. If they think that Gehenna might be using Abydos as an alternate way of invading, they will need to move troops to the Abydos border. This keeps those troops from being available to damage Gehenna if they are on standby.”

Wait... doesn’t that benefit us? Even though we are the aggressors?

He raised an eyebrow at her, as if he read her mind. “I told you, I don’t want conflict. By lying about the series of events, it becomes questionable who struck first. Did Kaiser attack the Problem Solvers first? Did Abydos allow a few prefects in, but the conflict became a problem? When exactly did the Helmet Gangsters enter the fray? Who is working for Sensei and who broke the law?”

He smiled peacefully and closed his eyes, slowly swaying where he stood.

“Blame everybody a little bit and I can spin whatever story I need to keep any specific group of students from being the sole cause. For excample, I’m absolutely going to blame the destruction of many of the Kaiser forces on the prefects, PS68, and the Helmets and hide any of Abydos High School’s involvement.”

An injured Aru walked over midway through her treatment. “Wait, doesn’t that make us the main cause!?”

“You are outlaws, you should like the notoriety of bloodying the noses of Kaiser and Gehenna.”

“... Of, of course! As long as it doesn’t impact us negatively too much?”

Watching Aru’s confidence rise and fall so drastically remained odd. Still, even a hardened criminal wouldn’t like getting all that heat at once.

“I’m building a quagmire so I can use my authority to muddy the waters. It’s like I told you, Aru—“ his vicious grin was that of a kid pulling a particularly nasty prank, “—the best way to handle a shitshow is to create an even bigger shitshow.”

I was absolutely right; this adult is a nutcase! He casually manipulates multiple academies and delinquents without a care. What is going on in his head?

He dropped the smile and glared at her with pursed lips. “Don’t give me that look, Iori. You are partially to blame for this.”

“How!?”

“You struggled to remember the name of the district. Of Abydos.”

...? Oh right, I did forget for a little bit... I guess.

All the nearby Abydos girls looked at him, their attention no longer on the battlefield. Shiroko especially looked at him with a particularly intense stare.

“All of you felt the district was too small and decrepit to bother asking for permission before invading. Why bother remembering the name of a school with five students?”

She didn’t have a rebuttal. That was exactly how she looked at things when first hearing the assignment.

“That won’t happen again.”

He swung his hand out towards the battlefield where Serika ran with Kayoko side by side with some prefects to push Kaiser further down the street. Pointed at Rabu leading her cohorts in a pincer operation. Swung his arm at Faust who nervously returned to throwing... mascot merch... into the crowd.

“Today, Kivotos remembers Abydos.”

“...”

Yeah, she’d remember next time.

…

I mean, how could I not when you partially blame all this on my stray comment!? Isn’t this unfair treatment!? I’m not good with names of places!

“Oh, also. Five stars now, Iori. Congratulations, it’s barely passing, but it still passes.”

Now this was a good cop, bad cop routine. He wasn’t going to let her emotionally recover.

She hated herself for needing to respond, but she did so anyway, “Can I ask why?”

He smiled at her, genuinely, and it annoyingly made this whole catastrophe feel a little more manageable.

“The plan and handling were terrible. However, you are damn good at what you do in combat. Single-handedly made my job WAY HARDER.”

A blush crept up her face. The sudden praise was definitely the good cop routine and she was falling for it.

“Seriously, no wonder the Prefect Team is so well known if you aren’t even the leader. I’ve had a pounding headache for most of the fight trying to track how and when you’d use that thing where you approach by sliding around. Two stars right there. If you made sure Haruka wasn’t getting up again and didn’t get lured into a trap you’d be at seven. Room to grow.”

That acknowledgment was... nice.

No way in hell she was going to thank him though, not when in handcuffs at least.

“Hmph, next time I’ll know better.” She looked away, wishing she could force the heat out of her face.

Only to see an explosion rock the center of the battlefield.

“Was that a tank shell?” Ayane asked. All around the impact site, students, delinquents, and robots staggered away from the damage.

Oh, it certainly was one. And fired from a disturbingly familiar source.

“No goddamn way...” Iori whispered. “You went as far as to rope in the Pandemonium Society!”

She glared at the adult who had orchestrated this total fiasco. How many organizations did he intend to wrap up in his machinations? Dealing with the leaders of Gehenna was annoying enough in Gehenna. In a different district under these circumstances, they’d be insufferable.

Sure, she’d been irritated when he gave her a low score and sicced Problem Solver on her, but she couldn’t blame him for that. They were the aggressors, no matter how Ako rationalized it. But this one was malicious.

But then she got a better look at his face as she glared at the approaching tanks. Gone were his self-assurance and playful demeanor.

He frowned further as the lead tank fired into the crowd again. “Aru, get your crew out of sight. I didn’t plan this at all. I have zero intel on the Pandemonium Society.”

“Is today the ‘Invade Abydos’ holiday and nobody gave us the memo?” Ayane asked, looking like her soul was about to leave her body. Her hologram flickered, and the sound of something crashing into a wall echoed through the audio line.

Nonomi flinched and giggled to herself awkwardly. “Sounds like the table got flipped again.”

Even outside of the camera’s view, Ayane’s voice continued on. “Now it’s the school council itself! I’m registering a formal complaint with the GSC!”

That lead tank... that shouldn’t be possible... even she wouldn’t be...

“No, she would be exactly that stupid.”

And that very stupidity was on full display once the tank ground to a halt after blasting the road into bits. The hatch opened, and a grey-haired student stepped out and stood on the barrel of the tank cannon.

The moron-in-chief crossed her arms and looked across the assembled combatants with a provoking smirk. Behind her, the red-haired tank commander and the blonde ‘mascot’ poked their heads out of the hatch as well.

With everyone looking up and staring at her, Makoto’s ego must be exploding off the charts. And the president isn’t around to knock her down several pegs. Can I redo today?

Iori’s cries to the world were met with a silent denial. This was the reality she needed to deal with.

Makoto looked around until she spotted the adult. “Kiehehe! Sensei of Schale! It seems the Prefect Team is causing you trouble! We, the Pandemonium Society, have come to end your burdens and punish our wayward students!”

“Isn’t that the same damn excuse for invading that the prefect team used?” Serika noted with a scowl.

Shiroko looked around at the scowl on Ako’s face and the look of resignation on Chinatsu. “But this time it’s their boss.”

Makoto was never one to listen to people, and she wasn’t about to pay a single bit of attention to the peanut gallery. “Come on! Sensei! Join hands with me, and we will overcome that loathsome Sorasaki Hina and complete our domination! And when we are done, half of Kivotos... shall be yours!”

“Oh, half you say?” A sly grin appeared on Sensei’s face. “... Go on.”

Why me? Handcuffed next to a lunatic, Iori could only repeat that question over and over again.

--------------------------------------------------

I wonder what she’d think if I told her I already had the chance to control all of Kivotos?

“Yes, good! You understand how powerful we could be together! And then we’d split it... erm...” The president of the Pandemonium Society lost some of her steam as she looked to the side. “Though half is... I mean, isn’t that a lot? “

Hm?

As if only now realizing the enormity of her offer, Makoto continued muttering to herself while Ako gave her an exasperated death glare. “Maybe 25% That might be enough. But I did say half. Hm....” She rallied and pointed her finger at Sensei again as the tanks behind her fired at the retreating Kaiser forces. “I will give you a portion of the world that rounds up to half...approximately!”

....Oh no.

She’s funny.

How brazen did you need to be to walk back an offer like that? And what was “rounded up to half approximately” supposed to mean?

All the paperwork he needed to complete from the Pandemonium Society now made sense if this was their president.

“Ahahaha! Did you see how Makoto immediately tried to pull back once she realized she offered too much? That’s hilarious!” A black-haired student with large curved black horns and red eyes walked towards the tank while taking pictures with a small orange camera. “Come on President, turn and smile. Ibuki, lean a little to the right! Aww, that’s so cute!”

“Kiehehe. Chiaki, this is a momentous moment. One that will be told in the history books... for it is where the mysterious organization Schale and Pandemonium Society will join hands together! Prepare to capture this moment on camera for the future generations. And make sure Ibuki is in the frame!”

Okay, now it was time to put the festivities to the side for a moment. There were still multiple situations that needed solving. “While I appreciate the offer, I think we should put that on hold for now and discuss it later. I’m not ready to make any deals yet.”

“GUH!”

Makoto’s eyes and mouth widened in shock at the refusal. Sweat dripped down her face, and she staggered backward.... stepping into thin air.

With a scream, she fell off the tank barrel and bounced off the side before landing in a heap on the ground.

The red-haired girl let out a long sigh and shook her head. “Jeez, I told you he wasn’t going to instantly agree to an alliance when you meet for the first time.”

The black-haired girl with the camera and a long billowing coat laughed uproariously as she took pictures of their fallen leader. “That’s so like you, Makoto! Instantly losing all of your cool points because you didn’t plan for him to not agree. Then dropping into the negative when you dropped off the tank. Ahaha!”

“Sensei, Sensei!” The blonde girl called out, completely ignoring the collapsed president. “Ibuki says hello! Nice to meet you!” She waved her hands, the oversized sleeves flapping around with her movements as she unleashed a beaming smile that even caused the frustrated Prefect Team members to relax. His only recourse was to cheerfully wave back with the same level of exuberance and receive an enthusiastic giggle in turn.

“Seeing Makoto eat dirt is the only good thing about today.” Iori commented from near his feet. An understandable statement considering her current situation.

Unperturbed by her accident, Makoto stood up and brushed the dirt off her skirt and black stockings. After readjusting her hat, she pointed at the Prefect Team with approximately 50% of her previous aura.

“Now, it is time for you to face your judgement. Kiehehe. It is finally time to show the world who is the true leader of Gehenna. Hina! Come out and accept your punishment for invading another district without permission and forcing me to come to retrieve your sorry forces!”

Ayane muttered to herself, “At least someone is aware, but you effectively did the same thing.”

Without caring about the peanut gallery’s comments, Makoto smirked in triumph and basked in the attention of the camera.

“President Hina isn’t here.”

“........ Pardon?”

“I mean, Makoto,” Ako’s eye twitched in annoyance, “that President Hina is out on business and isn’t involved with this operation in the least. This was a—” she grit her teeth and flashed a glare towards Sensei, “—unilateral operation under my judgment. All punishments should land on me.”

Sensei didn’t really consider it fair to get glared at. He was kind of the aggrieved party here.

“...... Hina is unaware and can’t be punished?”

“Yes.”

Makoto froze, mouth open and eyes wide. It was like she had been hit with a petrification attack. A new Gehenna Chairman statue graced the destroyed street of Abydos.

The red-haired girl, who still hadn’t introduced herself, placed her chin on the edge of the hatch with another world-weary sigh. “I warned you about this. No way Hina would okay an operation of this scale outside Gehenna. Only Ako would be so brazen. ... Ibuki, wake me up when Makoto unfreezes.”

“Okey dokey, Iroha!”

“Ahahaha XD!” More camera flashes from the merciless camerawoman. She made sure to get multiple angles as she darted around her frozen superior. “This will be a great picture for the front cover of Pandemonium Society Weekly. Even when frozen, you retain your ‘dignity’ pfft.”

“Chiaki, quiet down a bit. Makoto will eventually unfreeze and then it’ll get loud again.” Iroha complained. “It’s been noisy ever since those Kaiser troops declared they would attack all Gehenna students. Let’s take a break for now.”

Did she glance at me for a moment?

“Welcome to what we deal with on the regular, Sensei.” Iori spoke to the floor. “This is the Pandemonium Society of Gehenna.”

Some other students began talking around him, but Sensei didn’t have the time or focus to listen. Without a word he tapped on the Shittim Chest and returned to Arona’s classroom.

His little secretary trotted up to him, her blue, dripping halo bouncing around behind her. “Are you okay, Sensei? Do you need another break?”

She hopped up onto one of the chairs to stare into his eyes with concern. “I told you to take more breaks when the headaches begin! Even if Kayoko might have noticed how often you spaced out when.... Sensei? You’re shaking.”

“They’re....” he struggled to get the words out as he held back the shaking that threatened to overwhelm him.

“They are?”

“THEY ARE ALL GOOBERS!”

Arona nearly stumbled off her chair at the sudden peal of laughter that erupted from Sensei. He couldn’t help it; he couldn’t control it! The heavy rope of tension he dragged around all day snapped, and only shocked incredulity remained.

Here he was trying to play around with inter-district politics and manage a bevy of crises, and the leader of effectively a nation pratfalls without a shred of dignity while her subordinates couldn't care less!

Now presenting: the leader of the school I turned away from because its chaos values were too high. I was right to do so!

“... I think Ibuki is drawing a picture of the frozen girl...” Arona observed of the slow-moving outside world.

Sensei and Arona looked at each other before erupting into laughter again.

Arona clung to his shirt as he leaned on her for support. For this exact moment, he didn’t care if the outside world noticed him spacing out. Nothing stood out as much as the antics of the Pandemonium Society. No judge would convict him for being stunned into silence.

Alright, moment of levity over. Back to business. His union guaranteed sixty seconds of peace complete, he patted Arona’s head. “Arona, I’m going to return. Are you done with your analysis of Abydos’ social media? Is it still quiet?”

Sensei returned to the outside world as she gave her detailed explanation. The battle with Kaiser and the Prefects didn’t reach critical mass on social media earlier. But now, pictures of the Gehenna tanks plowing through the city were being widely shared. Even for Kivotos’ violence-heavy atmosphere, a fleet of tanks caught attention. Especially when they ignored the designated Tank Crossing points.

[Should I start hacking the emergency alert system?]

Hidden behind his tablet, his fist made a thumbs up. The finish line was within reach.

“What should we do, Sensei?” Ayane asked. Shiroko was already prepared for another round, but even she was feeling the fatigue.

Rabu rushed over while the Pandemonium Society, Prefect Team, and Helmet Gang stared each other down. With Rabu’s approach, ‘Faust’ let out a quiet “hiee” only heard by Sensei.

“You aren’t expecting us to fight against a squadron of tanks, right? Good food isn’t worth getting blasted into next week.”

Serika grabbed his sleeve and pulled him to the side with a hiss. “Why do you keep being friendly with the people who tried to take our school?”

“I had nothing to do with that. That’s a different division.” Rabu defended herself.

“I see my kidnappers avoiding eye contact in the back!”

“Pick our battles, Serika, pick our battles. An enemy today can be an ally tomorrow.” He looked at the Abydos students as well as Aru, who was peeking out of her hiding space. “Everyone agreed we want the Prefect Team to leave as our highest priority? Kaiser won’t be able to continue the battle after all this damage.”

Everyone nodded. Serina was dashing around to heal everyone’s injuries, but the exhaustion wasn’t going away without rest.

Also, the talk of food re-awoke frozen appetites. The sooner things ended, the sooner dinner could be served.

“Pandemonium Society. You aren’t seeking to mess with Sensei, are you?” Nonomi asked. All the nearby students gathered around their teacher, making a mixture of Trinity, Abydos, and Helmet Gang uniforms... and a Gehenna student still stuck on the ground in her handcuffs.

Being directly addressed broke Makoto’s petrification. She crossed her arms and looked at the possible opposition. “Hmph, in time Sensei will understand how valuable my offer is and come to me directly. I need to deal only with my wayward disciplinary group. Doing so will show my authority to Sensei and the whole school!”

This is a direct improvement.

“Eight points out of ten,” Sensei quickly gave his judgement, “for comparison, the best the Prefect Team managed is Chinatsu’s six out of ten.”

“Ha! Naturally, you can instantly see the difference between us and them. Kiehehe, it seems the time of our alliance is close at hand.” All previous failings were forgotten, and she smiled smugly at Ako.

At least she is easy to deal with, but likely hard to communicate with. She’ll hear what she wants and nothing else besides.

Those type of people tended to be hard for others to handle.

Sensei preferred them.

All you needed to do was learn their language, and they’d stay consistent.

“Ayane, Nonomi, Shiroko, Serika. This is a different situation than with Problem Solver. Are we fine leaving it to the Pandemonium Society to handle Ako and co?” Regardless of his opinion this was still their territory. With Kaiser sent packing temporarily, it once again became a struggle between students where he didn’t desire to overstep.

“I don’t mind. I’m more worried about Hoshino. She still hasn’t responded to any texts.” Nonomi checked her phone for what must have been the thirtieth time.

“Get rid of them all. I don’t care how.” Serika long past stopped caring about the particulars. “I want to check on Master Shiba.”

“We will discuss compensation later... but first let’s get rid of the tanks.” Ayane’s twitching eye and clenched fists boded ill for any nearby tables.

“Nn. Shoo.” Concise!

The votes were in. The tired, the needy, and the hungry won out over continuing to discuss extradition specifics.

In that case, it was time to make it official.

“Ako, I assume you will listen to your student council as this little altercation had nothing to do with President Hina, correct?”

The Disciplinary Committee’s administrative officer ground her teeth together before nodding with palpable reluctance. Internally, Sensei raised her evaluation one star as well. Extreme loyalty was a blessing and a curse. His student was smart enough to recognize that any negative action she took would continue to reflect more poorly on Hina than on herself if she didn’t surrender.

“Good. No take-backs.”

He tapped a command on his tablet as Arona connected him to Abydos’ emergency announcement system.

All across the district, speakers roared into life. From his research, they were installed as an emergency warning system to inform residents to evacuate from approaching sandstorms. With Abydos High School gutted and the abandonment of any research into the cause and scope of the sandstorms, it had lain dormant for several years.

Even in the reaches of the desert where internet connection was spotty, his voice would echo.

“Citizens of Abydos! I apologize for the sudden use of the emergency alert system, but I would like to address the confusion many of you have over recent events.”

“The emergency alert system!” Nonomi gasped in shock while Shiroko tilted her head in confusion. “It’s still operational?”

He suppressed a grin and maintained a serious demeanor. According to Arona’s data, these alerts would even be heard at the borders of the district.

Exactly where Hasumi would have her JTF members stationed.

[Social media is blowing up!]

Let’s give them something new to talk about today.

“This is not a sandstorm alert. I repeat, this is not a sandstorm alert. I am Sensei, the leader of the Independent Federal Investigation Club, SCHALE. The President of the GSC hired me as her representative for extrajudicial academy measures. I am speaking to inform everyone of the purpose of Gehennan troops within our borders.”

Iori gave him another look of, “what is this lunatic doing,” which she could teach a master class in. Ako’s jaw clenched as she listened to the message. Makoto posed with her hand over her face while laughing. Ibuki looked around excitedly at the fanfare while Iroha pored over Ibuki’s latest drawing and ignored the proceedings.

“A powerful group of ‘lawbreakers’ from Gehenna entered into Abydos. As such, Abydos High School has agreed to work with Gehenna in their removal. Due to some misunderstandings, there has been an altercation between the forces I contracted with, Kaiser’s protection services, the criminals, and Abydos High School, leading to the violence you may have seen pictures of in Rosetta Town.”

Chinatsu stared at him in shock as she grasped the extent of his wordplay. “Sensei, you...”

“This has now been resolved, and Gehenna will be retreating with the criminals in tow. We thank them for their services. I would like to apologize for any distress and confusion caused in this time. As a token of my apology, I will be hosting a luncheon festival in Rosetta Town for those impacted. If you have any concerns, please direct them to the SCHALE club office. Thank you and have a great rest of your day.”

With his message completed, he glanced at Kayoko, who was staring at him intensely from behind a large piece of debris, and winked at one of the ‘lawbreakers’. He then turned and smiled at the Prefect Team ‘lawbreakers’ standing next to the Helmet Gang ‘lawbreakers’.

Then finally, back to Makoto. The most politically powerful student standing on this stage. “So, with all due respect, please take your Gehenna students home. This is Abydos land.”

“... Iroha! We need to get an announcement system like that to broadcast tales of my victories over the Prefect Team!”

Sensei staggered to the side. Right. You can’t communicate if they aren’t listening to you in the first place!

After Iroha promised to put the order on ‘the list’, Sensei stepped forward past the Abydos residents and stood next to Ako. He placed a hand on her shoulder and received a hiss in response. “Hanuma Makoto. I need Ako here for a few extra minutes. I trust you can escort the weakened Prefect Team without issue?”

“One minute, Sensei,” Makoto pleaded. “I need to know more about this broadcasting system before I—“

Sensei smiled.

His eyes didn’t.

“Am I hearing the statement of a seven-point student or an eight-point one? You are better than Hina, aren’t you?”

That got through to Makoto. She flinched and nodded.

Soon, the tanks and Pandemonium Society students began retreating along with the injured Prefect Team. Iori walked with Chinatsu while grumbling about how today had been “the worst”. Ibuki waved goodbye and secured a promise from Sensei to visit her in Gehenna soon. Makoto stood on top of Iroha’s tank laughing until a burst of sand blasted her in the face and she retreated to safety.

Watching the procession, Sensei spoke to Ako, who stood by him. “I trust you understood the official story?”

“Tch. You didn’t specify which group of Gehenna students you called in and which lawbreakers they were here to arrest. Makoto and Trinity are aware that your fight was with us...”

“And they are the most biased speakers when it comes to Gehenna’s internal affairs and would inspire doubt in their stories of the straitlaced prefects going rogue. I’m not letting you hide that Abydos repelled you and Kaiser, but it is now up to your prior reputation to determine whether or not that was a ‘misunderstanding.’”

“Why?”

It was a question and a demand all in one. She couldn’t even bear to look at the Adult. He’d seen it more than enough times, the emotion that dripped from her.

Shame.

“Yeah, why, Sensei? Aren’t you letting them off easy? If it were me, I’d make sure to knock em’ down a few more pegs,” Rabu advised. Due to how late her gang entered the fray, she was brimming with energy. Likely eager to take the one opportunity ever to lord it over the prefect squad.

He lightly bopped her helmet with his right hand. “I’m here to prop up Abydos, not weaken Gehenna. At least not until I understand better the dynamics and balance between Trinity and Gehenna and this treaty thing.”

He closed his eyes before looking upwards towards the roof of a nearby building.

“Have I made my stance clear, Sorasaki Hina?”

Chapter Text

Everyone’s gaze followed Sensei’s to look at the roof of the empty apartment complex.

A white-haired girl stood up and extended her massive purple bat wings. With ease, she glided down towards the ground and landed on one of the demolished cars. Despite her petite frame, the sheer power in her movements crumpled the vehicle’s remains and shook the ground.

Being right next to the impact, Sensei and Ako stumbled, with the former falling onto his butt to look up at the Head Prefect.

Her long white hair billowed in the hot Abydos wind. Her purple eyes and the cracks in her black horns seemed to glow with pure power, as did the machine gun that was nearly as long as she was tall.

From the ground, Sensei looked up at the back of the imposing figure. Even though she was among the smallest third years in all of Kivotos, no one dared to underestimate her.

No one doubted the abnormal power Sorasaki Hina wielded against all of Gehenna’s many foes. So great was her fame that it wasn’t even worth it to write stories about her. A common response from students if her exploits were detailed would be, “But they all end with ‘Hina annihilates everyone,’ so why write the story?”

Some of the Helmet Gang members were the first to react. One shouted, “No, not again! The nightmare is back!” and sprinted away followed by a few of her friends. Other former Gehenna delinquents who fled to the safety of Abydos’ gangs also tried to cut and run.

Hina ignored them all and turned to Sensei and Ako while readjusting her black gloves. The bright sun glanced off the golden buttons, medals, and latches that were part of her purple military uniform and long coat that marked her as the Head Prefect.

“You’d better have a good explanation for all this, Ako.”

The glare Hina unleashed upon her subordinate froze everyone in place. Nobody wanted to get in the way of her wrath.

“H-how long have you been here, President?” Ako looked around as if to grab for a lifeline that would never appear.

“I noticed her a minute or two after Makoto arrived, but I might be wrong.” The only person unbothered by Hina’s aura, Sensei stood up and brushed the sand off his clothes. “I was a little busy.”

Hina glanced at Sensei for a moment before returning her attention back to Ako. “Asking when I arrived isn’t an answer.”

“Y-you see, President. I-I mobilized our forces to...” she glanced at Sensei, “arrest a group of lawbreakers, and...”

“I’m not interested in Sensei’s revisionist propaganda.” Hina’s voice emitted a sub-zero temperature. “This nearly escalated into war. I want the real reason.”

“....”

“Well?”

“... Preventing Trinity and a SCHALE-backed Abydos from forming an alliance and leading to the cancellation of the signing of the Eden Treaty.”

Hina looked at Serina, Suzumi, and ‘Faust’. “Not very effective, it seems.”

Ako flinched and grasped her stomach with a pained expression.

The Head Prefect sighed, and the light in her eyes dimmed. “I think I understand. This must have been done for the sake of identifying and removing Gehenna’s risk factors. I can see how the stresses you have been put under made you consider this course of action.”

“President...”

“But Ako, we’re the Prefect Team, not the Student Council. This will never be within our jurisdiction to determine inter-district affairs. Leave the politics to the raccoons of the Pandemonium Society. Our duty is to eradicate the criminal threats to Gehenna. We are busy enough with that alone.”

“... Yes, ma’am.”

“Stand down until I’ve given further directives. Makoto will be busy leading the rest of our troops back to Gehenna. ... This is an opportunity.”

“An opportunity?” Ayane called out to catch Hina’s attention. “Excuse me, we’re the Abydos Foreclosure Task Force, Miss Head Prefect. If you saw the Pandemonium Society president give her commands, you should know that Gehenna has no further role here in Abydos!”

Hina paused to consider the remaining opposition. “... Of course, I am aware of the orders given to those who were present at that moment.” She narrowed her eyes. “As well as the justifications Sensei created retroactively for all parties.”

“What is that supposed to mean!” Serika demanded. Shiroko brandished her weapon in response.

“Simple.” Hina hopped off the wrecked car and walked towards the Abydos students. “Sensei allowed an opening where the Prefect Team’s attempt to capture our troublemakers was authorized after all. It is simply through some miscommunication that the conflict arose. In any case, it is also true that you interfered in the business of the Prefect Team, Abydos.”

Sensei whistled at the comment.

Tak. Tak. Tak. Each footstep echoed in the quiet. “Makoto then ordered all Prefect Team members who were present in the attack to leave. I was not present during this attack, as you can see.”

“So?” Serika asked, face darkening and her eyes glowing.

Nonomi brought a hand to her mouth in shock. “Are you trying to argue that you still have the right to interfere with Problem Solver?”

“That is how you play with language, isn’t it, Sensei?” With an impassive face, she looked at the adult, who crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

“A valid interpretation... yes,” Sensei admitted. “Smells of sour grapes though.”

“Then our interpretation is that you need to leave,” Shiroko concluded.

“We are only here to protect Sensei!” One of the gangsters yelled in a panic. “I don’t wanna be hit by her bullets ever again! You can have Problem Solver; they are jerks anyway.”

“Hieeee!” Aru yelled from behind the store’s broken front wall.

Some of the others seemed to agree that they didn’t want to fight only to protect the troublemakers. The Trinity students didn’t seem enthused to tussle with the Head Prefect either.

“Wait... we are all exhausted and have been through enough. If we aren’t all together...” Ayane looked around. “... I wish Hoshino was here.”

Hina stopped walking and properly faced Ayane, no longer laser-focused on Aru’s poor hiding space. “... Hoshino? Could that be... Takanashi Hoshino?”

“Huh?” Ayane blinked in surprise at the name.

And then a new voice she didn’t recognize joined the fray. “Heh, what’s this all now? What a mess.”

The Abydos girls reacted instantly to the voice. A petite, pink-haired girl walked down the street carrying a shotgun and a large shield.

“H-Hoshino!”

“Where the hell were you!?”

“Sleep less.”

“Please, please answer your texts more.”

Sensei's large smile exposed most of his teeth. “Did the emergency alert system serve as a good wake-up call?”

“Sensei really knows how to make an alarm for an old man, huh~” Hoshino pulled a piece of grass out of her hair. “Sorry, everyone, I accidentally muted my phone before I slept. I know I’m late.”

Hina exhibited a rare look of shock as she stared at the newcomer.

“It sounded like things were settled, but I guess it wasn’t 100%.” Hoshino drawled. “Now everyone in the Foreclosure Task Force is present. So shall we try this again, Head Prefect?”

Hina closed her eyes. “... You’ve changed a lot since your first year. I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“Huh? Do you know me?” Hoshino asked while scratching her cheek.

“When I was on the Intelligence Committee, I took note of any students of interest in each district. I could never forget you, Takanashi Hoshino... I thought you left Abydos after the incident.”

Hoshino frowned in response but said nothing.

The Abydos girls looked at each other in confusion. It seemed like this was new lore to them as well.

Sensei placed a hand over his mouth and walked over to Hoshino without a word, placing all the Prefect Team’s opposition as one unit.

Hina stared at Sensei before suddenly widening her eyes again. “Now I understand. That’s why SCHALE, no, Sensei... that’s why you are prioritizing Abydos over every other district.”

Hoshino’s head whipped around to stare at Sensei with a fearsome expression intermingling fear and anger.

Neither an agreement nor a rebuttal came from him. Only the consistent gaze at the short students, with his covered mouth hiding any emotion within.

Unreadable.

A stalemate of silence descended between the three of them. A silent battle that outsiders didn’t even have enough context to fathom.

Hina broke first. “Well, never mind. I didn’t come here to fight.”

“Kind of sounded like it!” Serika growled.

Still staring at Hoshino, she continued, “While it was our mistake to perform an unauthorized invasion, your school still overwhelmed my prefects, handcuffed my lieutenant, scared my medic, protected our criminals, and emboldened Makoto. I’m allowed a little petty demonstration of the loophole Sensei intentionally left for me.”

Multiple voices expressed their shock. Even more joined in at her next action, though.

Sorasaki Hina, possibly the strongest student in Kivotos, bowed to Sensei and Hoshino.

“I, Sorasaki Hina, Gehenna Head Prefect, formally apologize to the Abydos Foreclosure Task Force for the unauthorized deployment and use of forces within a foreign district.”

“President Hina...” Ako muttered in disbelief.

Still bowing, Hina continued. “Gehenna’s Prefect Team will no longer enter this area without authorization. I ask for your forgiveness and understanding.”

--------------------------------------------------------

It was the perfect moment. Nothing else would surpass this.

Now or never.

With a dash, she rushed forward and...

“PERFECT SHOT!” Chiaki yelled as she caught the once in a lifetime event of Hina bowing to another student council.

Oh, this will be perfect for Pandemonium Society Weekly! Makoto will be laughing all day!

Hina, Sensei, and Hoshino looked at Chiaki in utter shock.

“Ooh, surprised Sensei face, that’s a good one too!” Click, click went the camera shutter. She was going to fill up her memory card at this rate.

“Chiaki.” Hina blushed slightly as she tried to overcome her shock. “I thought you left with Makoto. Was this another plan of yours, Sensei?”

“Ooh, was I part of something?” It seemed like Sensei had a lot of plans going on, even down to how he made announcements. It might be good for her to warn Makoto, but... Nah. Sensei seemed to be working for his students, anyway.

It will be funnier when she finds out in a dramatic moment!

Sensei slowly shook his head, looking at her as if he saw a ghost. “To my great shame, no. To think I lost track of a student, I guess my eyes aren’t fully recovered yet.”

“I’m good at sneaking to get a great shot!” She was proud of her ability to get the perfect scoops for her newspaper. Maybe not as good as some snipers, but she didn’t need to be that good.

“That shouldn’t have anything—“ he rubbed his eyes and shook his head. “Nevermind, let’s go with that. I won’t even contest your usage of the picture of me looking like a fool. I deserve it.”

“Consent, get!”

Hina placed her fingers on her temple and shook her head and sighed. “If I try to prevent you from using that photo, Makoto will throw a fit and become a pain in a different way. My negligence caused this issue, so I’ll let it go.”

Ako stepped forward to stand behind her dear leader. “President Hina, it isn’t your fault. I was the one who called the troops here. The fault lies with me.”

“Yes, you are the one at fault for exploiting my negligence.”

“Kuh!” Ako looked like she was about to cough up blood as Hina’s sharp words tore into her. “I-I will fill in 1000 self-reflection forms to show the extent of my understanding of my errors.”

“Hm. In that case, I suppose we should hasten back to Gehenna so you can start those. If you can fill in one every three minutes, you’ll only be at it for fifty hours.”

“I... but... that....” Ako drooped in resignation. “Yes, President Hina.”

“Good. Now, Sensei, I would like to have a word with you briefly before we leave. May I ask that of you?”

Sensei scratched his neck. “Fine. I have something I want to ask of you too. But first, I have some chefs who need my approval to get set up.”

“Chefs?” Hina tilted her in confusion. Behind her though, the Helmet Gang members cheered at the word.

“Abydos won the day, so we need to have a big celebration for our district.” He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled down the street. “Let’s get the sukiyaki and yakiniku cooking!”

Chiaki watched in glee at the array of activity that occurred next. Multiple chefs set up booths on the street with an array of meat dishes filling the air with delicious aromas.

A blue-haired student in a Millenium outfit dashed after Sensei, screaming about having to find out what happened to incur all these sudden expenses.

“Why did I get Momotalks asking how much it cost to repair storefronts, window panes, and walls!?”

Hina and Sensei had a quiet conversation in a corner away from prying eyes and ears. When she tried to become one of those ears, Sensei shot her a stare so withering, she snuck back to the food stalls.

The Abydos students dog piled Hoshino for her crime of not appearing on time while the self-appointed old-timer handled their harassment.

Problem Solver bowed in apology to the Helmet Gang members for some fight or something; she wasn’t paying attention to the specifics.

Faust ran away when Mutsuki tried to pull her mask off and left the event still holding two yakiniku skewers.

Shiba Seki Ramen reopened long enough to cook the last of its stock. Shockingly, Sensei even called in some ramen critics to try his food. They gave it such high marks that she felt compelled to try some herself!

Maybe next edition should have a food review section?

The excitement of the event was palpable, and her camera always had a sight to take in. Even if most of the stories didn’t fit Gehenna specifically or the Pandemonium Society directly, she was here, so it counted!

“Pandemonium Society was part of this victory, so sure, you can join in on the festivities as their representative,” Sensei said with a wry smile when he noticed she still never left.

It was only midway through the party, after watching a thrilling event apparently called “humvee rocket jump” that nearly resulted in three Helmet Gang members being launched into a building, that Sensei approached her again.

“Chiaki, you are going to be writing an article about today’s events, right?”

“Erhmrm,” she swallowed the yakitori she was chewing on, apparently served by a chef called all the way from Hyakkiyako Alliance Academy! “Yep! Maybe a few. The party, Ibuki’s first inter-district tank charge, Hina bowing, Makoto falling on her face, Ibuki’s drawing, I have so many stories to write. Today has had more scoops than some whole months.”

A bit of concern suddenly grew in her. Sensei wasn’t going to tell her she couldn’t write articles, was he? He got really intense when he didn’t want you to do something. She didn’t want to end up like Ako!

“Can I at least choose which picture to use as the front page? I have one in mind.”

Phew, that’s easy. “Of course, what do you want a picture of?”

He held out his left hand. She happily took hold of it and bounced to her feet. It was odd holding an adult man’s hand. It was so much bigger than hers, and the skin on his palm was unusually rough.

I should take a size comparison picture later.

“Follow me,” he said and led her into the crowd. Along the way he thanked the Trinity students, Suzumi and Serina, for their help and accepted a one-sided lecture from the Millenium girl, Yuuka. One of the Helmet Gangsters, Rabu?, staggered by with her face still pale from experiencing the rocket jump while Serika pushed through the crowd with bowls of ramen to be served.

So this is Sensei.

When Makoto announced the arrival of Sensei with her usual bombast, she hadn’t understood what the big deal was. Gehenna would do whatever it wanted as usual, Makoto would try to… and fail to… one-up Hina, Hina would sigh and do all the nonsense work she got assigned, and the other districts would follow their usual habits.

It didn’t seem that important, just a helper for the GSC.

Now she knew he was a walking scoop factory!

This sort of sight was one she never expected to see. She was glad Ibuki had secured a promise for him to come visit soon; she wanted to see him react to Gehenna properly.

The walking scoop factory stopped by a table where Hoshino, Nonomi and Shiroko were sitting. Nearby, Aru was talking to Kayoko about future plans. “Here we go. You stand here... no, maybe a few paces back, Chiaki.” He turned back to the table. “Hey Hoshino, come over here.”

“Uhe, making an old timer get up from their meal isn’t nice, Sensei~”

“Didn’t fight. Slept through the battles. Showed up to look cool at the end.” Shiroko complained, taking bites between each sentence.

“I think we are too tired to stand now, Hoshino. You should go with Sensei.” Nonomi agreed.

“My underclassmen are bullying me.~” Without further complaint, Hoshino stood up and walked towards Sensei. “What does everybody’s target need with little old me? Didn’t know you were popular enough to get the Prefects and Kaiser attempting to snatch you up.”

Sensei chuckled. “Heard the full story now, did you? I’m far more popular here than at home. Now do me a favor and turn that way.”

“?” She did so with a puzzled face.

Chiaki’s ability to hear different conversations even in a chaotic, noisy environment served her well as she heard his next, quieter sentence. “Now smile for the camera and pretend you like me for a moment.”

“Huh, wait, what—“

CLICK

A perfect shot! A confused smile and everything. And then just to be sure, she hopped back twice, taking another picture each time. The pictures perfectly catching Hoshino right as she complained about being pranked.

Later, after being scolded for a few other sudden pictures he requested, they reconvened in a quiet corner.

“Yeah, that’s the one,” he grinned as he looked at the last picture between him and Hoshino.

“That’s the front cover of your next edition.”

It wasn’t a picture of Ibuki, but this time she’d be understanding and put that on the back cover.

I’ll need to work through the night to get all these articles out. She had a busy night ahead.

But taking one more plate of sukiyaki for the road would be okay, right?

---------------------------------------------------------

“Let’s talk about this.”

Hina slapped a copy of “Pandemonium Society Weekly” onto the table. The front cover depicted Sensei with his arm on Hoshino’s shoulder. She was looking at him with a look of annoyed shock while he smiled like a kid who just pulled a prank.

Behind the two of them sat Shiroko and Nonomi, members of Abydos’ student council. On the left side of the picture, you could see Aru’s red hair, horns and back of her coat as well as Kayoko’s wing.

At the back right, a grumpy blue-haired girl in a Millenium uniform sat at a table next to a silver-haired girl wearing a Trinity uniform.

In the foreground, a Helmet Gang member was falling face forward to the ground, near Sensei and Hoshino’s feet.

The title read in big bold letters, “Abydos High School Overcomes Prefect Team Interference!”

Hina stared at Ako. Her administrative assistant looked queasy as she stared at the headline and attached picture, even without looking at the article within.

She then turned to Iori, who wouldn’t meet her gaze, and then Chinatsu, who responded with a simple, “I’m ashamed.”

“Ako, I’m allowing you to pause your self-reflection form writing to have this conversation. I want to hear your thoughts.” She would prod only a little. It was important for the group to synchronize their impressions. Without a doubt, the ramifications of the expedition into Abydos would reverberate through Kivotos.

Ako nodded and composed her thoughts. “I acted in rash judgement for the sake of protecting Gehenna and your efforts towards the Eden Treaty. Sensei gave me numerous opportunities to pull out, but I was determined to see the attack through to its end. In doing so, I exposed us to that worthless tanuki, Makoto, and brought down the dignity of the Prefects.”

“And your opinion of Sensei himself?”

Ako froze and then groaned. “He’s a little creepy. With the way he sauntered into battle without a care, threatened us with his own weakness, and the alien abilities of his body... he is at times unnerving.”

Alien abilities. This was something she hadn’t experienced. “Explain more about these abilities.”

Hina listened to Ako’s explanation, aided by Chinatsu, of his irises vanishing, his ability to see in places he shouldn’t and how he showed something that nobody could remember fully. A gap they struggled to fill in. Fascinating.

Now the key question. “Then, do you still consider him a threat to Gehenna?”

With an expression like she ate something sour, Ako relented. “No, I don’t think so. My failures allowed him the opportunity to strike Gehenna, and he instead promoted the Pandemonium Society. Now the rumors of his establishing an alliance between Abydos and Trinity are fading.”

“I specifically warned to not do anything to push him towards Pandemonium Society, may I remind you,” Chinatsu snipped at her colleague. She seemed to be the one most hurt by the altercation with Sensei. I didn’t expect her to grow so fond of him after only fighting together once.

Hina nodded towards Iori. “Your thoughts on Sensei?”

“Lunatic.”

Everyone turned to look at her in surprise. Under the three gazes, she blushed and slouched in her chair.

“But I guess a fair lunatic. The tricks he pulled only worked because he put himself in harm’s way or relied on crazy gambles. He was willing to give me credit for my abilities in combat though and recognized my efforts and even Ako’s loyalty.” She then growled at a memory. “That didn’t stop him from handcuffing me though!”

“Then Ako, if you could do it over and knew you would succeed at taking Sensei, would you want to do so?”

Ako went silent for a solid minute in thought. “No. I’d stop myself from trying in the first place.”

“Good,” Hina nodded at Ako’s growth. “Because I think we both prefer having a budget.”

“Hm? What do you mean, President Hina?”

Hina sighed and tapped the newspaper again. “If you managed to secure Sensei, I am almost certain he would have fined Gehenna tens of millions to assist Abydos.”

“Tens of millions?” Iori yelled in shock. Chinatsu’s glasses slipped to the side with how violently she jerked back. Ako’s jaw dropped.

“Possibly more, maybe hundreds of millions. Your stories all agree that he never seemed particularly bothered about the attempt to kidnap him once the fight began. It makes sense if he intended to use the GSC as his pawn to raise funds in such an event.”

When she pressed him during their private chat, he said as much. She remembered his serene expression turning severe as he said, “My number one priority is Abydos’ debt situation. Even my own health comes second.”

“So he is money-obsessed as well as being a lunatic!?”

“No, far from it. It hasn’t been relevant to our duties, so I never spoke of what I learned during my time in the Intelligence Division, but Abydos High School is practically at the end of its life due to debt. That is the source of its many difficulties.”

It had been years since she had thought about Abydos after assuming the school would vanish on its own after the death of their student council president. Still, she remembered the results of her investigations into their struggles. Appearing as detached as she could, she explained the particulars she knew of the crippling debt the school lived under.

“To think they were still struggling despite that...” Chinatsu muttered.

Ako pushed her hair behind her shoulders and looked down at the faces pictured in the newspaper. “In that case, I think you are right. He’d strike the back of our heads after being captured by using us to fund some of Abydos’ debt. Makoto would have jumped at the chance to find an excuse to swipe our funding to pay off, what, a third of their three hundred million yen debt?”

Hina stared at the smiling faces of the girls sitting behind Sensei and Hoshino. Every time she looked at it, it amazed her that they managed to still smile despite the impossible odds they faced. “I don’t know the exact value; three hundred is my guess based on a series of inferences. I can’t imagine it is more than that if they are still trying to find a solution.”

“I see. Still, I’m surprised Gehenna was involved in such intense scrutiny of Abydos two years ago.” Ako tapped her lips with her pen. “You also seemed well-acquainted with Abydos’ Hoshino. You spoke as if you knew her well.”

Now the topic switched to the one she desired to discuss. “Takanashi Hoshino is the reason Gehenna kept an eye on Abydos.”

She waited for the surprised reactions to subside. “During that time, even as a first-year, she was hailed as a combat genius. An elite of elites. The Intelligence Division deemed her a potential threat to Gehenna’s security.”

“One single girl?” Iori looked at the front cover again with greater focus. “She doesn’t seem like someone Gehenna would need to be concerned with.”

“The little time I saw her, she didn’t give that impression either.” Ako picked up the paper and looked at it closer.

“Hm. She does seem different from two years ago,” Hina agreed with their assessment, thinking back to her investigations in the past. “She is an aggressive frontliner, and inherently combative by nature. She had a vicious, cutthroat aura and would dominate any battlefield she stood on.”

“That... was not the vibe she gave.”

Hina looked sharply at her assistant. “This is why it is important to do proper preparations and not assume that Abydos’ small size meant we could walk all over them.”

After verifying that Ako was reflecting properly , she continued. “It is to our great fortune that she was not on the battlefield. If she retains any of her old strength... the entire Prefect Team would have been incapacitated before Makoto or the delinquents arrived.”

That caught everyone’s attention. “Would one student turn the tides that much, even with Kaiser’s participation?” Ako asked.

“Yes.”

Silence followed her frank statement.

“When I was in the Intelligence Division, a massive gang roamed Gehenna. This was during the reign of the Thunder Emperor, so you can imagine the troublesome that force was. Eventually, the Prefect Team of back then managed to barely push them out of Gehenna, forcing them to set up camp in Abydos. The operation was successful, but the Prefect Team took significant losses.”

“... The former Prefect Team...”

She closed her eyes. The shock from back then when she read the report. The need to find out more. To learn how...

“Takanashi Hoshino decimated the gang single-handedly in one day.”

“...”

“I believe the current Prefect Team is stronger than during the Thunder Emperor’s time, but if she worked with her fellow students as well as Problem Solver all under Sensei’s command? The result is obvious.”

“Jeez. To think Abydos had a secret weapon like that.” Iori leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “So we would have needed your presence, President, to overcome her.”

“Or at least to reach a stalemate.”

Chinatsu adjusted her glasses and stared at her. “Do you think she is even a match for you?”

“... Sensei seems to think so.”

“Sensei hasn’t seen you fight, and he is an outsider,” Ako defended her, but in doing so showed her bias. “There is a reason you are hailed as potentially the strongest student in Kivotos!”

“Hm.”

That would be the easiest interpretation.

However, all reports indicated Sensei had an almost supernatural awareness of the strength and capabilities of his students. Would someone like that fail to recognize their individual strengths?

No, she didn’t believe that to be the case. Considering that the tales of Hoshino’s exploits and activities vanished two years ago, it was likely she did not display her full strength anymore.

And yet, when he called her over to speak privately...

“So, you are aware of Hoshino’s capabilities?” He asked without preamble. His gaze didn’t express a hint of surprise at her decision to back down once Hoshino arrived.

“I’m surprised... has she confided in you?” She had asked.

He had chuckled with a look of resignation. “Of course not. But I can tell.” “You are just the first student I’ve met who wields a strength on par with Hoshino.”

He’d paused and glanced over Hina’s head at the girl who was being accosted by her peers. “Was it only Gehenna who was aware of her strength? Or did other schools know? Actually... my more important question.”

His lips formed a sly grin. “Do you think the other schools also remember, like you do?”

Pushing away the thoughts of the shivers his smirk sent through her, she looked at her assembled prefects. “I don’t know how Sensei judges strength, but I believe he knew about it before this battle. What he learned from my reactions was that other schools also received intelligence about her activities. The result is as you can see.”

A smiling Sensei and a bothered Hoshino standing amongst an array of students from different schools. Copies of a newspaper detailing the Gehenna Prefect Team’s failures would now be circulating through the districts far outside its usual reach.

“Sensei chose to make a statement to every major academy.”

Takanashi Hoshino is still active.

Her eyes gleamed as she considered the web Sensei sought to spin. “I can’t even fathom what his life was like before arriving in Kivotos.” What drives him to utilize everything at his disposal with such recklessness for students he only just met?

She continued, “Still, the results speak for themselves. When surrounded by multiple forces seeking to imprison him, he turned it around into a massive PR stunt for both himself and Abydos.”

Ako flipped through the rest of the report, wincing at the picture titled, ‘Head Prefect bows to Abydos and Sense!?!!?!?’.

“Abydos now has a relevancy it hasn’t managed in years.”

Iori clicked her tongue. “Even if it’s only five students.”

“But how many people know that? The pictures imply a much larger force of ‘Abydos students,’” Chinatsu countered. “Even Sensei made them yell, ‘For Abydos,’ while fighting. Not to mention the alliances he hints at.”

“But we do. If we aren’t interfering with them anymore, why does it matter?” Iori made a fair point when looking at Gehenna’s general politics. “Sensei made it clear he doesn’t seek a quarrel with us.”

“Now that you mention it,” Ako refilled Hina’s empty coffee cup. “You seem unusually tense about Abydos. What was your impression of Sensei?”

“My impression, hm?” She looked out the window and thought about the desert district far beyond the horizon where the adult planted his flag. “Sensei is...”

----------------------------------------------------------

“Sensei is truly a fascinating individual, isn’t he?”

Kirifuji Nagisa, one of the three members of Trinity’s Tea Party, sipped from her teacup as she looked at the newspaper her intelligence team brought from Gehenna.

The current ‘host’ of Trinity’s Student Council had long ash blonde hair decorated with flower ornaments and calm yellow eyes. White angel wings extended from her lower back through the back of her cream skirt dress, her feathers rippling with the day’s calm winds.

From the outside, she was the very picture of placidity and grace. But underneath, her mind churned with the calculations and considerations necessary to manage the affairs of her beloved school.

“Is this his ideal vision of Kivotos?”

While Hoshino and Sensei were the center of the picture and likely the point he intended to make to the other schools, she was more interested in those surrounding the pair. The wings and horns of Gehenna students. A Millenium Student Council member pouting next to a Trinity vigilante. Abydos students laughing while a Helmet Gangster falls over. All placed in the frame by the photographer of Gehenna’s Pandemonium Society.

A party where all those orbiting Sensei were invited.

It was a rare sight to see so many students of different schools mingling together outside of one of Hyakkiyako’s festivals. Even stranger to know it took place in a district that barely had the resources to reach outside its borders.

This could be read as a declaration of his support of the Eden Treaty.

If hostilities died down between the two schools, perhaps it wouldn’t be as rare to see pictures with Gehenna and Trinity students engaging in pleasantries.

The reappearance of Takanashi Hoshino mattered little to her. Hifumi’s letter from her time with the Abydos students already informed her of everything she needed to know about the situation. Even if the old records expressed shock and awe about the power of Abydos’ Vice President, it didn’t matter if the girl never left the district.

In fact, Hifumi’s account detailed that the Abydos students were in far too dire of a situation to pay attention to anything besides the impending closure of their school. It was Kaiser’s machinations that caused her far more concern than a sole elite.

Speaking of Hifumi...

Reports of the struggle between Kaiser, Gehenna, and Abydos included a note about the appearance of Faust, the leader of a powerful new gang that recently struck the Stygian Bank.

Hifumi requested leave from her classes on the same day and somehow encountered the Abydos girls. And then when the Prefect Team attacked, she was seen leaving Trinity in a rush and skipping out on her classes.

Which meant.... which meant...

Hifumi is consorting with a criminal gang!

The hand holding her teacup shook with repressed despair. She could only curse this Faust, who no doubt exploited Hifumi’s purity and goodwill to rope her into criminal activities!

It was as she had needed to learn the hard way. You cannot see into the heart of others. Even with this Sensei, it was possible he displayed a different face to the world and something darker lurked within.

“Which is why it’s good to have leverage over him.”

Unlike Gehenna, Sensei repeatedly came to Trinity for Suzumi and Serina’s assistance and now interfered with the JTF’s duties. This would be more than enough to demand a favor from him in the future.

The question was how to use the favor.

The GSC intended to keep its hands off the Eden Treaty as it fell within the purview of the two schools. Sensei’s stance was still unknown though... but could she trust an outsider to directly interact with the negotiation between the schools?

No. Too risky. On this one point, she agreed with the Gehenna Prefects.

But perhaps in a way that handles some risks around the treaty?

“Wow, is that Sensei!”

So lost in her thoughts, she didn’t hear the approach of her best friend until a loud voice pierced through the heavy armor of her eardrums.

“Mika! I told you not to sneak up on me like that. I nearly spilled tea on my clothes.”

Misona Mika, the second currently active member of the Tea Party, frowned and brushed her long pink hair back. “Mou, I didn’t even sneak up on you. I called your name twice. Not my fault if Nagi is becoming deaf at such an early age.”

With how loud Mika tended to be, any hearing loss might be her fault.

With a huge grin, Mika swiped the newspaper from Nagisa’s hands and ogled Sensei’s picture. “I wanna meet Sensei soon! He has only sent his requests up to you until now. I want to have him owe me favors as well.” She pouted and harrumphed in response to Nagisa’s sigh.

“Even I haven’t met him directly, you know that.”

“Okay, then I’ll be the one to greet him next time he comes to Trinity! I’m less busy than you are, so it’ll be a ton of fun.”

Nagisa narrowed her eyes. “Mika, I can assign you some of my work if your Pater faction duties are insufficient.”

The other girl backed off by five steps, her decorated white angel wings flapping in distress. “No, no, no, I’m doing enough!” She looked at the picture again and grimaced. “It’d be a nicer picture if those damn Gehenna students weren’t in it... but at least they are easy to ignore.”

“Mikaaaaaaaa.”

“I know, I know. Play nice. Geez, you really need to learn to live a little, Nagi.”

She grinned and bounced over to the table, swiping some of Nagisa’s treats as she did so. “In fact, once Sensei is less busy, I actually have an idea of how to get him to stay here for a bit!”

Mika? An idea? This had a chance of going poorly.

“Mou! You are already giving up on me before I said anything. Seriously, I thought this one through!”

And to Nagisa’s great surprise... she had.

“I’ll consider it,” Nagisa eventually relented. “For now, let’s wait and see what happens next... and what comes out of Abydos. Sensei, after all, is....”

----------------------

Sensei is someone I will need to keep under observation.

Tsukatsuki Rio, the president of Millennium’s Seminar, leaned back in her chair and scanned the plethora of computer monitors that filled her personal hideout.

The infamously secretive leader’s appearance was as sharp as her reasoning. Unlike most of her fellow Millennium students, who wore a modified, white jacket as part of their uniform, she instead wore a black blazer over a white turtleneck sweater. While not intentional, the large opening in the blazer emphasized her large breasts, and her black miniskirt with black opaque tights emphasized her long legs.

She would consider the aesthetics functional and logical, without being aware of this emphasis.

Her accessories were also chosen for functionality and practicality. On her left hand, she wore a square watch with far more features hidden than its plain exterior implied while still maintaining analog functionality in a pinch. Her pistol holster was attached to her right thigh with two straps, and her hairpin tucked into her long knee-length hair was fashioned in the shape of the Millennium logo to show any onlooker that her school was never out of her thoughts.

She narrowed her piercing red eyes as she stared at the scanned version of the latest Pandemonium Society Weekly. The mysterious Sensei of Schale smiled back at her in a way that almost seemed like a taunt.

Next to him was the Abydos Vice President, Takanashi Hoshino. A powerful student capable of turning the tides of any battlefield. One who completed feats rarely seen in the history of the region. Once upon a time, her name was whispered in hushed awe and concern by many leaders of the nearby schools.

Rio was not among those numbers.

Takanashi Hoshino may be a powerful student, but she is still that in the end. A single student. Even if she tried to attack Millennium, I’ve built our defenses to stave off armies and foes far beyond a human’s capability. She is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

No, to Rio there was only one potential threat.

The alien who appeared within Kivotos.

Potential threat. But that only meant an observation target for now.

“He doesn’t seem to be hostile to anyone at this point in time judging by his actions in Abydos. If not for the Prefect Team’s invasion, it is likely he would have quietly tried to handle the debt issue without anyone else being aware. At least above average intelligence, a quick wit to turn the tables on his foes, and a fearlessness to quickly shift foes into friends. Really, I suppose those traits would be necessary for a ‘Sensei.’”

Her companion listened stoically without comment.

His current proximity to the Prophet Binah lurking in the Abydos Desertis a little concerning. But if Kaiser’s bases and interference haven’t caused further issues, I can’t see how he would. I will simply allocate more resources to Abydos’ surveillance.

Considering how surveillance was many times more expensive in other districts, especially ones with barely operating infrastructure like Abydos, there was little else she could do. Anything too overt would either be noticed by Abydos...

... Or worse, noticed by Yuuka.

Speaking of the slightly intimidating treasurer, Rio turned her attention to the corner of the picture where Yuuka sat next to a Trinity student.

Yuuka’s actions the previous day were unusual. With barely any prompting, she had agreed to move some of the security drones from around the school’s perimeter and station them near their small border with the sprawling Gehenna district. It wasn’t enough to accomplish much, but it still indicated to the other schools that even Millennium was responding to Gehenna’s actions. Another potential warfront if the situation unraveled.

It wasn’t something Yuuka would normally agree to. It wasn’t even a logical decision in the least. Millennium gained nothing from it, and Yuuka rarely acted without consideration of the cost/benefit ratio. It was one of the reasons Rio had so quickly accepted the second-year’s application for entry into Seminar, and why she might one day hold Rio’s current office.

Yet, a request for Sensei changed that calculus. Was she acting irrationally, like so many? Or perhaps her trust in the Adult meant it was still a calculated decision?

If nothing else, it showed how high Sensei’s trust was in Yuuka to ask without an explanation and expect a positive response. Even the JTF did not receive the same methods, instead being manipulated into their troop movements.

It is good if Millennium has a representative with the outsider’s trust. But, I should request more detailed reports from Yuuka and scrutinize them deeper.

She pulled up every report about Sensei that Yuuka sent over the short time he was in Kivotos and constructed a timeline in her head as to their movements.

Within that surprisingly large rate of reported communication was one notice that she previously glossed over.

“Investment into a mine? With his rationale being that... he liked the name? How irrational.”

He didn’t seem to be the type to throw around money on strange pet projects like many of the clubs in Millennium.

“Pyroxene mined from Gehenna... ironic considering his recent struggles. But what is it about the name that he liked?” Rio asked herself.

“Perhaps there is another name?” Her companion uncharacteristically chipped in. She’d already considered that and pulled up a list of languages and alternate names.

“Hui Shi, Hwiseog, Kiseki—”

“Kiseki?”

Rio narrowed her red eyes and repeated the word again. There was another word in that language that had the same pronunciation, yet a completely separate meaning.

“Kiseki. ‘Miracle.’”

She tapped her desk as she stared at the images of the lava formed stones. Most examples were green, but all the stones in the image Yuuka provided for the batch she brought Sensei were a beautiful, clear blue.

I’ll need to obtain some samples for myself. With proper carving, those could easily sell to enthusiasts. But it still feels too simple. And perhaps raise the watch on Sensei more.

It was still far too early to label him as harmless.

---------------------------------------------------------------

“Sensei is hilarious. Bwahahaha!”

Amachi Niya, president of Hyakkiyako Alliance Academy’s ruling Yin-Yang Club, couldn’t stop laughing as the magazine copy bent in her hands.

Sprouting out from her short, scruffy hair were two orange and red horns common among some Hyakkiyako students. The left horn was broken at about half of its length. Her black bangs were straight-cut and covered her eyebrows, stopping just short of her usually partially closed eyes. Only when she looked at the magazine with a huge grin did she expose more of her orange pupils.

For her uniform, she wore a white, side-less kimono top and a white kimono with a red interior worn off her shoulders and tied with black cords to her arms. The bottom of the kimono’s sleeves extended down to just beyond her knees and were covered in gold lines and splotches and two black, elongated circles with white dots in their center. The right side of the kimono stopped at her waist, while the left side extended down further past her black skirt and ended with a gold triangle and black tassel.

She tapped her black fan with red and gold accents on her chin as she stared at the pictures of the ‘festival’ in Abydos. “To think he’d have the gall to call out some of our food critics to taste that Abydos chef’s meals. How very nervy. He used our precious workers as advertisers for a completely separate district.”

She laughed again as she read the glowing praise for Shiba Seki. “Though I suppose he knows his food. If he didn’t, it would have been easy for our school to take all the credit for the food festivities.”

“What about the main thing he is advertising?” Her vice-president, Kuwakami Kaho, asked as she looked over her own copy of the magazine. As the Lead Strategist for the Tourism and Culture Public Relations Support Team, it would be her decision whether to allow the magazine to reach wide circulation in the district.

Niya sighed and shook her head with a cocky smile at Kaho’s reluctance. Since they’d received the prototypes, her blonde, fox-eared subordinate had been fretting about whether the value of displaying the district’s culture in other academies was worth the publicity that Abydos, Shiba Seki, and she would get.

“The reappearance of Takanashi Hoshino is a shock, to be sure. I never expected her to still be around. With Sensei and her around, it seems Abydos is going to be the new rising star if left unchecked. Or perhaps it’s simply regaining a shard of its former glory.”

“Should we be worried?” Kaho asked, as high-strung as always. Niya really needed to call in Chise to calm her down.

Or perhaps not; it was funnier to see Kaho fret. “Hmmmmmmnnnnnnnnn, no. If, for some insane reason, we did have a problem with Abydos, it should fall under the purview of the Hyakkaryouran Conflict Resolution Council to deal with it. They likely have far more information than the Yin-Yang club has. Our knowledge about Abydos is mostly centered on the old Abydos Sand Festival.”

Festivals practically defined Hyakkiyako, considering its focus on tourism and culture exports. The Abydos Sand Festival was one of the few events ever to be proper competition.

Of course, that was long before Niya’s time. Before the sandstorms wiped out the oasis the festival was centered around.

“... But the Hyakkaryouran is—”

“Should they be needed, something will happen. That is all we can put our faith in. Rather than some minuscule chance of bothering the petite bruiser, shouldn’t we instead focus on our strengths?”

She grinned as she spun possibilities and plans in her mind. “We must invite Sensei to our next celebration and show him what a true festival is like. Maybe even invite some Abydos girls as publicity. I didn’t expect our new teacher to make me feel so competitive.”

Now it was Kaho’s time to sigh. “And somehow all that work will end up on my shoulders.”

“Whaaaaaaaaaat?” The smugness dripped from her fake confused outrage. “We simply each play to our strengths, Kaho. I would never skip out on work. I’ll be there to aid in planning.”

Kaho naturally didn’t believe her. Most of the time she lied about that, but this time she was being serious.

Her orange eyes stared at the picture of a fellow schemer. Sure, he had his reasons. There were more than enough justifications for why he handled things the way he did.

But that smile is one of someone who got away with a tremendous prank. Someone who absolutely enjoyed squeezing out his results from his manipulations. It takes one to know one, Sensei~ I wonder, will we get along well because of our similarities... or will we do nothing but repulse each other?

She was eager to see his capabilities with her own eyes and find out.

------------------------------------------

“Sensei is........... who is Sensei again?”

Renkawa Cherino, leader of Red Winter Academy, tilted her head at the somewhat familiar name.

Even amongst her school, which had some of the shortest students, Cherino was a rarity. She stood only 4 feet 2 inches (128 cm) and her large white soldier hat with black brim and red winter badge on the front did little to hide her tininess. Her long white hair was styled into two pigtails with black ribbon, while the rest reached down her back, making her look even younger.

BUT. She was never without her true symbol of authority and power as the president.

Her iconic white moustache.

Which certainly was not fake with spares in her desk, dresser, under her bed, behind the bathroom mirror, and anywhere else Tomoe stashed one.

But her very real mustache was not her only symbol of authority. Her white military uniform was adorned with a fur edge, gold buttons, a red inside with white accents and a brooch on her chest with a red ribbon. Along with her white gloves, her final accessory was her red president pack that only vaguely looked like an elementary schooler’s backpack.

“Sensei is the new teacher hired by the GSC to serve every academy in Kivotos,” Sashiro Tomoe helpfully said. Cherino’s ever faithful right hand, the only person she could truly trust in the ebb and flow of constant revolutions to expel or empower her, was as smart as always.

“Hmm.... sounds familiar....” It was nearly there in her memory.

Tomoe giggled and fiddled with her long pink braids while beaming at her favorite president. “He is the one who approved our request to sell CDs with your face on them in the central district.”

Now she remembered! “Right! Our new comrade, how could I forget.” She couldn’t help forgetting; after all, this was the first she’d seen his face. Now she’d remember for sure.

With nothing better to do before nap time, she flipped through the magazine and yawned. “They look like they are having fun, even though they are in the middle of the desert heat. So much meat too. Not that that is bad but where are all the sweets!?”

This was a true travesty. A comrade who understood the need to spread her glory to other districts, and he was left without any sweets? And they called that a festival? Even the Hyakki-whatever people knew to have sweet stands.

During one particularly embarrassing exile, she spent some time eating some particularly delicious dango in that district with Tomoe.

“Tomoe! Prepare a letter to this Sensei! We must invite him to the Ivan Kupala Festival and let him understand the glory of our academy and a true festival honoring our greatest export: our pudding!”

Tomoe clapped her hands. “An excellent idea, O Great Leader. I will draft the request posthaste.”

Hmm, yes. Truly, I have done great work today. This will be a well-earned nap time.

---------------------------------------

“Sensei is an adult with a good heart and a bad personality,” Hina finished her sentence after some thought.

“A... bad personality?” Chinatsu asked to confirm. She didn’t seem to like the description.

Ako seemed to struggle more with the “good heart” part, judging by her quiet mutters.

After studying the different reports from her closest subordinates, some of the rank-and-file participants of the Abydos attack, the intelligence agency, and what could loosely be called a report from the Pandemonium Society, that was her conclusion.

Of course, at the center of it was her own experience with the troublesome man.

“Every piece of information we have dug up on him points to him having a strong loyalty to his students and the protection of Abydos. He is an outsider to this world, one who does not need to take on his responsibilities to the extent that he does. It would be easy to simply fill in paperwork to assist the GSC and rake in the benefits. Yet, he instead inserts himself into the lives of students and inspires loyalty and trust.”

“In addition, he is surprisingly forgiving and willing to let slights pass. If not for that good nature, we would be cleaning up a far larger mess. Problem Solver and the Helmet Gangsters also seem to be recipients of that forgiveness and mercy. This displays a certain strength of character not many can manage.”

Chinatsu was easily convinced by this, but she was also the most biased in the room in seeing Sensei in a positive light. Too much so.

“So why do think he has a terrible personality?” Ako asked, way too excited to hear any negative opinions than an administrator should be.

“Besides the part where he is a lunatic?” Iori seems to be enamored with the word. Did she read a book or report that used the word recently?

“He enjoys using people too much. It could be said that the actions he took, manipulating each side to his whims, sprouted the best results. Ones that benefited him while also keeping the blowback to any particular group of students at a minimum. But you would expect a certain desperation to spur someone to raise and lower the threat of war so easily.”

That was what stuck out to her more than anything. If he lost control of the situation or was injured in the fight and the JTF didn’t receive his notice, the conflict might have reached heights that couldn’t be halted. Yet he was so casual throughout, absolutely emboldened and confident in his decisions. Only when Makoto arrived was his composure shaken.

“To use Iori’s words, there is a madness or lunacy lurking beneath, I think. To say that his health is second to the debt situation is noble, but his methods are terrifying. It didn’t matter what or who was available; if he found a usage, he pushed it to his ends. Being so willing to be injured or broken for the sake of a plan he knew was unnecessary is...”

She considered not saying the word that sprung to mind. It wasn’t her usual language and held the possibility of coloring the other’s perception. It reeked of partiality.

But when she thought back to that moment in Abydos. When she mentioned the incident, and didn’t see even the tiniest hint of shock from him. What carved itself into her memory was the chill when standing in front of him and an inexplicable, instinctual urge to demolish him. To answer a call deep inside that whispered that his very nature was a threat to what she held dear.

Even now, it hadn’t faded. To listen only to one’s instincts was the nature of many Gehenna students, one she tried to stay above. But back then, it had been difficult to quiet it.

“It’s the marking of someone twisted inside. I dare not imagine what sort of life he lived before coming to Kivotos to so naturally turn his very existence into a bargaining chip, threat, and rallying point. And to do so with glee...”

“Then... what are your orders?” Ako asked after waiting to see if she had anything else to say.

She had many thoughts, but it was better to leave them as simply thoughts. The worst-case scenario would be awakening Ako’s paranoia again.

Whether he was a twisted person or not, it was his own business. At least unlike Makoto he was still reasonable.

“I don’t want to owe any further favors to Sensei, so we need to pay our debts. Abydos is still in a precarious situation, and we’ve seen how he ropes others into his plans. With how low his opinion of our Prefect Team is, we need to be careful that we are not called in when unprepared. I do not mind assisting him; I simply do not want it to be due to coercion.”

“Speaking of low opinion, did he give you a point rating, President?” Iori asked.

She felt her frown deepening even while trying to remain impassive. “Initially, he gave me 4.5 points for ‘near criminal mismanagement of subordinates’, but said he bumped that up to 5.5 since I backed off when appropriate. And recognized that said mismanagement primarily was fostering an environment where nobody felt it was pertinent to go over Ako’s head and inform me of the circumstances.”

Chinatsu and Iori looked at each other guiltily while Ako paled.

“Then he raised it again to a 6.5 because I provided some information pertinent to the situation in Abydos. That is where it currently stands.”

She narrowed her violet eyes.

“We owe a favor to someone who has given higher ratings to Trinity, the Pandemonium Society, and even our district’s criminals than the collective score for the Prefect Team.”

Ako lost all the remaining color in her face. She tottered backwards a little as if her soul was leaving her body.

She wouldn’t... actually jump out the window she is stumbling towards, would she?

Hina didn’t need to find out as Iori grabbed her and dragged her back to Hina’s desk.

Once Ako regained her normal sense and finished an array of heartfelt but unneeded apologies, Hina unveiled her plans.

“Chinatsu, I would like you to reach out to Sensei. If he approves, I will be sending you to Abydos to assist Sensei in his endeavors. What was the term he used, ‘Schale Duty’? Call it that if he seems hesitant.”

“Me? Leave my post here in Gehenna?” Chinatsu seemed surprised.

Surprised and a bit too excited about the prospect. Hina’s eyes saw the smile Chinatsu was trying to hold back, but didn’t complain.

“Yes. Trinity did it first with the Remedial Knights member. We are copying them. Serves as an easy justification. It will also work as a punishment to distract Makoto when she finds out that we will do our doubled training regimens without our primary medic. I will give a warning to the Emergency Medical Club that they should expect an influx of Prefect Team members... again.”

“Ugh,” Iori looked queasy at the thought. But such was the purpose of training. The Abydos attack had revealed far too many weaknesses in the team’s formation.

“To replace Chinatsu in the drills themselves, Ako will also serve as part of the active combatants.”

“What!?” Ako yelled in horror. “B-but, I’ve never done that before, and all I am trained with is my pistol.”

“Well, it seems you have gained an interest in being on the front line judging by your behavior in Abydos.”

“I! I... I-I understand...” Ako’s resigned acceptance with tears in her eyes meant the lesson would stick.

“... This sort of plan doesn’t seem your type, President.” Iori said after staying quiet.

“Hm?”

“It’s almost a bit... conniving? Trying to balance all the different groups involved and thinking about the opinions of Makoto and Sensei. I don’t know; it struck me more like a plan Ako would come up with. No offense, Ako.”

“None taken. I take pride in putting my all into thinking about all manner of considerations of what might cause issue for President Hina.”

The silence in the room spoke volumes.

“... And I will do better.”

“Good. And if it seems out of character, then that means I was successful.” She didn’t mind Iori’s comment. “I created this plan after consideration of what choices Sensei might make in my position. Perhaps he will appreciate it.”

Chinatsu hastily followed her instructions. Soon enough, her phone vibrated with a notification.

“Sensei simply said, ‘7 out of 10 now.’”

Hina let out a sigh of relief. One problem being managed. Now, the next ninety can be handled.

--------------------------------------------------------

The cover of Pandemonium Society Weekly twisted in the adult's grip as his hand clenched the crumpled magazine.

He took a deep breath and released it.

"This isn't the time to be emotional."

With that simple self-recrimation, Black Suit released his grip on the magazine and let it fall to the ground.

He had been about to be victorious. After all this time, years of effort, he saw the finish line in front of him. The girl had finally been willing to listen to his offer.

He almost considered thanking Sensei that afternoon. After so many stubborn refusals, something in his actions taken or words uttered in Abydos had spooked her badly. She'd finally considered taking up the contract to prevent things from getting worse.

Not just considered! She held the pen in her hand. Even if she hadn't yet spoken the words aloud, her every action showed a resolution to make the sacrifices she'd avoided.

And then.

“This is not a sandstorm alert. I repeat, this is not a sandstorm alert. I am Sensei, the leader of the Independent Federal Investigation Club, SCHALE. The President of the GSC hired me as her representative for extrajudicial academy measures. I am speaking to inform everyone of the purpose of Gehennan troops within our borders.”

Now that same pen laid on the corner of desk where it'd been thrown before she stormed out of the office in a fit of fury and fear. Not even a glance backwards at him.

She won't be returning unless the situation spirals further. The debt is certainly a concern to her, but now that Gehenna has attacked and Kaiser played their hand she'll be increasingly cautious and paranoid.

The timing was what drove him mad. Was there the possibility that he knew where his student was and intended to send a message to her in particular using the emergency system? Or was it a total coincidence that he spoke at that time? Yet, it was hard to see it as the product of random chance when it perfectly aborted his designs before they came to fruition.

It was closer to fate or destiny than randomness.

"Golconde. You believe Sensei to be a hero or at least a protagonist. Does that make me his antagonist or rival? Is he a Deus Ex Machina the GSC summoned or something far different?"

The once clear future of the students of this district had grown murky from the moment Sensei arrived in Abydos. Lost in a swampy morass that didn't fit the desert which clung to the fabric of the land's mysteries.

A setback. But a recoverable one. She will not reappear before me as long as the situation remains in a holding pattern. Abydos, however, is not the one holding the advantage yet even with Sensei at their side.

Black Suit picked the magazine off the ground and brushed off its cover.

"As long as the debt exists, the possibility of her returning to finish what she started will remain."

He stared at the shrewd adult, the business associate who now fit the role of business rival.

"Who will be the one to push the next domino over? I eagerly await that answer, Sensei."

The smiling face frozen in time didn't answer.

But soon, very soon, he knew it would.