Chapter 17 - Abydos Arc: Epilogue

...

We step up to the bunker, all of us tired, our breathing haggard. It's small, made entirely of concrete and completely square.

"Hoshino should be on the other side!" Ayane announces.

"But how do we get in?" Serika asks.

"A though occurs." I say simply. Reaching into my pocket, I pull out one of Haruka's bombs I confiscated the other day.

Rigging it to the wall, Ayane tells us. "We're going to land there soon."

"Wait... land?" I ask.

"We, uh... confiscated a helicopter from Kaiser during the commotion." Ayane reluctantly admits.

"Okay..." I trail off, surprised. "Land a bit away, I'm gonna blow up the wall."

We all stand back, and after a few seconds, the wall is reduced to rubble. Ayane's helicopter lands behind us, and she hops out, bounding over to us.

We walk to the building.

"Hoshino!" The girls yell, as we see her. The pink haired girl, on her knees, is tied up with long, red wires, connected to the walls.

"The fuck were they doing...?" I ask myself. Ignoring my curiosity, I shoot each of the wires and pull them off of her.

Laying her on the ground, she slowly opens her heterochromatic eyes. As her vision comes back, they open wide in shock.

"Huh? But... how?" She asks. "I thought I was..."

"You okay, Hoshino?" I ask, calmly. Her face erupts into a blush, once she noticed our closeness.

"...Oh." She says, a smile appearing on her face. "Now I get it. This must be Sensei's doing." She tries to get up, but stumbles. I quickly catch her small body and help her up. Leaning on me, she chuckles. "The adult came though, after all, huh?"

"Of course." I say, chuckling.

"Welcome back, Hoshino." Serika says.

"Hey! Serika beat me to it!" Nonomi pouts.

I smirk. "Thought you weren't gonna say it?"

"Sh-Shut up!" The cat girl yells, blushing.

"We're glad you're okay." The wolf girl says with a small smile.

"Yes! Welcome back!" The elf girl says, smiling.

"That's right! Welcome back!" The blonde follows up.

"Welcome back, Hoshino." Shiroko says.

Hoshino's eyes widen, before she closes them while shaking her head and chuckling. "...What? Why are all of you looking at me like that?" She asks, noticing our stares. "Oh, now I get it. You want me to say the line, don't you?"

All of us look at the small girl expectantly, as she pushes off me, standing on her own feet.

"Sh-Shut up! Don't keep us in suspense!" Serika snaps.

Hoshino just giggles in response. "I can't refuse a favor from my adorable underclassmen."

The short girl looks at all of them with a big smile on her face and says...

"I'm home."

A few days later, I walked to Abydos to check on things, having done nothing but sit and do paperwork for the past few days.

"Good morning, Sensei!" Ayane greets me as I enter the Foreclosure Task Force room.

"Mornin', Ayane." I greet back.

"Today's a big day for the Foreclosure Task Force." She says. "Thanks to your help, we're finally going to be approved as an official Abydos High School club."

"Well, that's great." I say with a smile, sitting down.

"This has been a long time coming and everyone's worked so hard, so I wanted to make sure that everything went smoothly today." She explains. "It also means that the Foreclosure Task Force has official taken over the role of the Student Council. I thought it would only be fitting that Hoshino become the official president too, but she adamantly refused..."

"I figure she really looked up to her old president and doesn't wanna take her spot." I theorize.

"I suppose. As things stand, the position is still vacant..." She says.

"Well, enough about that. How's everything been going?" I ask.

"Master Shiba reopened his store as a food stall, and Serika's gotten her old job back. I hear Master Shiba's been working harder then ever." The elf girl explains. "Your efforts helped us resolve the situation with Hoshino, but Abydos still owes a nine hundred-million yen debt. That hasn't changed..."

"Well, it's not like you gals are gonna be giving up anytime soon." I say, the elf girl nodding in response.

"The good news is that Kaiser Loans is said to be under investigation by the General Student Council for making illegal transactions on the black market." She continues. "I can only assume Hifumi pulled some strings at Trinity. I'm still skeptical that the General Student Council will be able to do much to Kaiser, but this should at least make them think twice about pulling any shady business deals."

"Well, that's a relief." I say. "What happened to the CEO?"

"Last I heard, he was arrested by the General Student Council for kidnapping a student." She says.

Good, that bastard deserves to rot after what happened. Death's too good.

"The head Kaiser office released a statement saying that they had nothing to do with his actions, and that he had been fired." She says.

"I saw that on the news the other day." Scoffing, I say "Figures they'd use him as a scapegoat."

"Luckily, they are reversing course on that arbitrary interest rate from before, so Abydos won't have no pay nearly as much as we thought." She stops to take a sip of drink from her mug. Coffee, perhaps? "Sadly, most of the Abydos district is still Kaiser Corporation property." She says, sadly.

"Of course, that transaction had to be valid." I grumble. "I take it you don't know if they plan to try anything."

"Unfortunately." She admits. "Also, we still haven't heard anything about that Black Suit person."

"And you probably won't, considering his group scared the living hell out of the Kaiser CEO." I explain. "They're good at hiding, I'll give them that."

"Oh, well. I suppose I'll let Schale continue investigating him." She says.

Serika and Shiroko then walk into the room. "Sensei? You're here?" The cat girl asks.

"Yup. Got all rested up." I say.

"Oh, right. It's almost time for another Task Force meeting." Ayane realizes.

"Hello!" Nonomi says, walking in.

"Oh! Sensei." Hoshino greets, following her.

"Yo." I say simply.

"Should we start the meeting?" The wolf girl asks.

"Might as well." I shrug. "Go ahead and start." Hoshino takes that as an invitation, and plops down next to me.

"All right, then." Ayane says, clearing her throat, as the others all sit down. "Even after everything that happened, the debt remains our top priority."

"At least the monthly interest payments have gone down." The wolf girl adds.

"Great. Less time to spend working, and more time to spend napping." The pink haired girl says, shamelessly.

"I have a better idea!" The blonde says. "Why don't we use this as an opportunity to go on a well-earned vacation?"

"What are you talking about?!" The cat girl snaps. "It may not be as hectic as before, but now's not the time to be lazing around! I'm the treasurer around here. We're in just as much of an economic crisis as before!"

"True..." The wolf girl admits.

"That's why I've been keeping up with the latest economic trends!" Serika says happily.

"Not again!" I groan.

"Look at this! Do you know what this is?" She asks proudly, holding out some metal thing.

"Looks like an off-brand computer part." I observe.

"It's called a GPU! With gone of these, we could mine a cryptocurrency ca-"

"Out of the question!" I shout, cutting the cat girl's explanation off.

"What?! Why? You can't even veto things, Sensei!" Serika whines.

"I will not have my students turn into crypto-idiots. Find a less stupid way to lose money." I say with finality.

"I have a better idea. Here, take a look at this." Shiroko says, taking out a-

"Denied!" Hoshino says, not giving her a chance.

Ayane just chuckles. "The same old Foreclosure Task Force..."

"The more things change, the more they stay the same. I suppose." I say, smiling as well.

"Hmm. I'd say that we're closer than before!" Nonomi chimes in.

The girls continue to bicker amongst themselves as Ayane turns to me. "That's the end of my report, Sensei. We look forward to working with you again."

"Likewise." I say, smiling.

Yeah, a nice, happy end.

An end fought for.

An end we all struggled to achieve.

A happy end, well worth the effort.

As I look at the five girls, smiling and arguing, I can't help but think to myself...

'Yeah, these girls will be just fine.'

ABYDOS ARC: END

AN

A significantly shorter chapter than the last ones, but I wanted it to be just an epilogue. Short and sweet.

Next, Sensei gets some Down Time, until the next problem appears.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and look forward to the next!