"We're here! Shiba Seki Ramen, the best ramen stand in all of Kivotos, if I do say so myself," Serika proudly declared.

The Abydos students stood before a quaint looking ramen stand.

"Serika works part-time here, as you've probably figured out by now," Hoshino explained.

Yuuka nodded. "I see. It's got a rather homely feel to it."

Millennium was a big school, but small businesses were rare in that district. It was different from what Yuuka's come to expect, but she didn't dislike the atmosphere of the outdoor dining environment. It must be hard to run a business by yourself after all…

Nonomi pointed to a group of customers. "Hey, isn't that-?"

Five students from Gehenna walked up behind them.

"Oho~ If it isn't Abydos High School?"

Leading the way of those students was a professionally dressed red-haired woman.

Nonomi said, "Oh, it's our friends from Problem Solver 68!"

Ayane explained, "We're acquainted. They're from Gehenna, and they helped us out with a few big problems before."

The red-haired girl protested, "We're not friends! We merely occasionally have aligned interests."

Ayane sighed. "That's one way to put it."

The group heard barking coming from the ramen stand.

"Oi Serika? You're finally here!"

"Master Shiba!"

A shiba was tending to the ramen stand and beckoned the group to come over.

"Hi Master Shiba, looks like today's pretty busy."

Master Shiba laughed. "Course it is! This is the busiest I've been in years! And we just keep on growing. At this rate, I might be able to hire a full-time employee."

Serika asked him, "Do you need my help today?"

Master Shiba shook his head. "Goodness, no. Even I'm not cold-hearted enough to make you work on an occasion like this. Yuzu's a lil' swamped, but she's managing."

Yuzu? Yuuka thought. No way…

"So?" Master Shiba asked as he turned to the big group. "Who's the guest of honor today?"

Shiroko patted Yuuka on the back and pushed her forward. "This is Yuuka, our new classmate at Abydos."

"Yuuka huh? You couldn't pick a finer school to enter, seeing as how they led you to my humble ramen shop! Hohoho!"

Yuuka nodded in agreement. "All the girls here have been very friendly to me so far."

"Alright, let's get you seated and up with a menu. Oh, and just for today, everything's on the house."

Serika winked at Yuuka. "See? We got it. Feel free to order anything you want here. Although, I do have a couple of recommendations."

Master Shiba looked at the five Gehenna students behind the Abydos students.

"Those kids with you too?"

Shiroko asked, "Who, Problem Solver 68?"

Nonomi interrupted on her own with, "Yup! Can we sit together with them?"

Master Shiba announced, "Oh, why not? If you're with them, then you don't have to pay either! These kids from Abydos really did a lot to help me out, so don't feel bad about it."

The five students from Gehenna looked at each other and nodded.

Yuuka took a closer look at each of them. She seemed to recognize one of them. The girl with silver twintails and her bangs covering one eye. That girl made brief eye contact with Yuuka and smiled.

Master Shiba shouted at an employee on the other side of the dining area. "Yuzu! Can you take this group and merge those tables over there?"

"Coming, sir!"

The girl quickly walked through the maze of tables to get to the big group of students. She stammered out, "U-um, this way."

The girl led them to a table in the corner of the outdoor dining area with two tables and arranged them and the seats to face each other.

The group took their seats one by one, the Abydos students on one side and the Gehenna students on the other. Yuuka was seated in the center of the Abydos side. When Yuuka got seated, she couldn't take her eyes off of the employee. The employee made eye contact with Yuuka and froze.

The two girls were locked staring at each other for an uncomfortably long time, oblivious to the chatter around them.

That is, until Serika called out to her.

"Hello, you there Yuzu?"

"Ah!"

Yuzu broke eye contact with Yuuka and looked at Serika.

"Yes, Serika-senpai?"

"For the last time, you don't have to call me senpai! You're older than me. But anyways, this is where you're supposed to take our drinks."

"Ah. O-of course. Would you like anything to-to drink today?"

"Just water for me."

"I'll have this green tea, please."

"One original Ramene for me."

Yuzu noted down the orders for the table until the only person left who hadn't ordered was Yuuka. Yuzu looked at Yuuka, and Yuuka froze instead.

"Um. Um. Uhhhh-"

Yuuka was at a loss. She transferred out of Millennium so she wouldn't have to come face-to-face with her failures, but one was literally staring her right in the face. Yuuka felt a cold sweat break out, as suddenly she felt the pressure of eleven other people hurrying her up to make the most important decision of her life.

Hoshino patted Yuuka on the back, grounding her mind back in reality. "Hey, don't sweat the money. Everything's free, remember?"

"Right. I'll just take a cup of water, please."

Yuzu noted it down and began reciting the orders. Upon receiving confirmation that everything was right, she practically ran away from the table.

Nonomi tilted her head. "Poor Yuzu. She seems like she's struggling."

Serika nodded. "Yeah, I suppose. It is a pretty busy night here. Maybe I should help her out today. Ah, but Master Shiba definitely won't let me."

Hoshino yawned, "Eh, I don't mind if she takes a while to get our orders ready. Just hanging out with you guys is enough of a celebration for me."

"Hoshino…," Ayane gently said.

Hoshino looked at Yuuka. "Anyways, we all know each other here, so why don't you go and introduce yourself?"

Yuuka addressed the Gehenna students. "Hi. I'm Yuuka. Nice to meet you!"

The red-haired Gehenna student flipped her hair over her shoulder. "I suppose it is our turn for introductions. We are Problem Solver 68, a respectable business that solves any problems you might have, legal or illegal. I'm the boss and CEO, Aru."

Aru motioned to the white-haired impish girl sitting next to her. "This is the chief of staff, Mutsuki"

Mutsuki stuck a finger to her eyebrow and flicked it off to her side. "Heya✩."

Aru motioned to her other side to the girl in the black hoodie. "Department head, Kayoko."

Kayoko sighed. "Yup. That's me. Kayoko, department head of Problem Solver 68."

The gloomy purple haired spoke up next. "I-I'm entry-level employee, Haruka. Nice to meet you!" Haruka bowed her head to Yuuka.

Entry-level employee? Is that a title to be proud of? Yuuka understandably thought.

Yuuka looked at the fifth Gehenna student with silver twintails. She was staring right back at Yuuka. Finally, Yuuka managed to recognize her.

Eventually, the girl spoke up. "Iori."

Iori smiled at Yuuka. "Nice to meet you."

Yuuka knew this wasn't the first time they met. When doing official Seminar business with Gehenna, she would often meet with the Gehenna Prefect Team members. While she didn't directly interact with Iori that much, she was vaguely aware of who she was.

For now, Iori seemed to be keen on keeping Yuuka's previous school affiliation a secret.

Ayane spoke up. "Iori's not a member of Problem Solver 68, by the way. She's from the Gehenna Prefect Team. Oh, these are all Gehenna students, by the way."

Mutsuki chimed in. "Gehenna's really far away from Abydos. But after all that's happened between us, Abydos is like a sister academy now! We wouldn't want to miss their biggest event of the year!"

Serika refuted her, "Oh knock it off! We have bigger plans than a visit to a ramen shop!"

Shiroko whispered to Hoshino. "Do we actually?"

Hoshino shrugged.

Ayane cleared her throat. "Ahem. I didn't expect to see a member of the Prefect Team to come with this group. I was under the impression you two didn't get along. Any stories here?"

Iori sighed. "Well, these four got in some serious trouble at Gehenna and now they're on parole. I'm just here to supervise them and make sure they don't cause any trouble. They wanted to come all the way to your academy for some reason, and well, now I'm here."

Ayane scratched her chin. "Ah, that would explain it."

Shiroko asked them, "So what sort of trouble did you get in? Did you rob a bank? If you need advice you can just ask me."

Aru crossed her arms. "Afraid that's classified."

Hoshino grinned hearing that. "Wow. Must be pretty serious if you got the Prefect Team involved, huh?"

Kayoko grunted. "Yeah. I'd rather not talk about it."

Ayane said to Yuuka, "Don't worry about them. They're not bad people. If anything, you should be careful around Shiroko."

Shiroko scoffed at Ayane's accusation. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, for starters- oh."

Yuzu came back with the drinks and handed them out.

"If you're ready with your orders…"

"I'll have…"

The students started giving Yuzu their main orders.

Serika walked over to Yuuka. "I'd recommend trying out the Shiba Seki Deluxe Ramen Bowl. It's one of our signatures and contains just about everything you could ever want from a bowl of ramen!"

Yuuka nodded. "Uh, sure." Yuuka turned to Yuzu. "One Shiba Seki Deluxe Ramen Bowl please."

Yuzu bit her lip and noted it down. "One Shiba Seki Deluxe Ramen Bowl."

She gathered everyone's menus and left just as quickly as before.

Returning to the conversations they were having before, Nonomi faced Yuuka. "So Yuuka, what made you decide to come to our school?"

Yuuka answered, "I came here on a recommendation. You all know Sensei right?"

All ten students around her nodded.

Shiroko gave a faint smile. "Sensei's done a lot for us."

Mutsuki laughed. "Fun to tease too!"

Iori blushed and looked away. "Whatever."

Yuuka looked down at the ground.

"Yeah. Sensei's… Well, I wanted to leave my old school. Just got tired of it. They recommended me to come to Abydos since they were a small school and wanted new students."

Nonomi asked, "So what was your old school?"

Yuuka hesitated before answering. "Millennium."

Iori's gaze focused on Yuuka upon hearing that answer.

Serika shouted, "What? Millennium? No way! Yuzu's also from there!"

Aru crossed her arms and smiled. "Ha. Of course we'd end up running into two Millennium students out here in Abydos. It's a big academy, and the world's a small place. When you're in our line of work, we run into the most unexpected of encounters."

Haruka nodded. "It's always f-fun meeting new people! Yup!" She nodded again, as if to confirm to herself that was the case. She continued, with a devilish smile on her face, "It's always fun to see their reaction when you start blowing them to smithereens."

Yuuka was taking a sip of her water and nearly spit it out. What did she just say?

Aru nodded in agreement. "Eloquently said, Haruka!"

Don't just ignore what she said!

Mutsuki rested her elbows on the table. "Millennium huh? So you must be, like, super smart!"

Yuuka sighed. Clearly, they were just going to ignore the red flag that Haruka gave. Maybe Gehenna students just fundamentally thought differently from her.

"Maybe. I mean, Millennium's a big school after all, haha."

Shiroko said, "The entrance exams at Millennium are some of the toughest in Kivotos, and the acceptance rate is also very small."

Serika chimed in, "No kidding! Everyone wants to go to Millennium! It's a great honor to get accepted there! I'll admit, I wanted to go there myself, but…"

"Ufufu~ Couldn't crack the code, huh?" Mutstuki threw at the catgirl.

"Shut up! It's not like you go there either!"

Mutsuki shrugged.

"Eh, Gehenna's alright, I guess. Never a dull moment there, that's for sure!"

Hoshino smiled. "Millennium huh? You dropped out of Millennium just to go to a dinky old school like Abydos? You flatter my cold, dead heart."

Ayane pushed her glasses up on her face and smiled. "I'll admit, I wanted to go there myself. I'm sure you have tons of interesting stories to tell since it's such a big school."

Aru fixed her coat and smirked. "Any interesting scandals at Millennium? Hmm?"

Iori and Kayoko both snapped their necks in Aru's direction and glared at her.

Aru cleared her throat and continued. "I know at Gehenna there's always a pretty big one every other day."

"That's because half of you are delinquents," Serika snapped.

"I always get a kick when I read my feed and Gehenna's in the headlines," Shiroko added.

Iori scoffed, clearly uncomfortable at the accusations being thrown at her school, yet accepting enough to not make a counterargument.

"Now now~ I'm sure not everybody at Gehenna is a bad person. I'm sure there are tons of nice people there too," Nonomi said.

"Y-yeah!" Haruka stuttered out. "Like Aru! She's the sweetest and kindest evil villain there is!"

Aru nodded in satisfaction. "Hooooo~ Thank you, Haruka. You flatter-"

Aru suddenly stood up and slammed her hands on the table.

"WAIT, WHAT!?"

Chuckles were heard around the table.

Haruka continued, "She saved my life. And for that, I'm eternally in her debt."

Nonomi added, "We were really in a difficult situation this one time, but they actually showed up at just the right time to help us. They didn't ask for anything in return either!"

Mutsuki sneered. "Aru, the hard-boiled bad guy! Cleaning up litter on the streets of Gehenna after she saved a cat from choking on a water bottle once! But definitely because it would reflect bad on her business!"

"Ack! Shut up! All of you!" Aru grit her teeth and sit down.

Kayoko was restlessly tapping her finger on the table. She hissed to herself then looked at Yuuka. "So Yuuka."

"Hmm?"

"I'm just curious. Why did you decide to leave Millennium?"

Yuuka gulped. She didn't want to reveal too much about the specifics out of fear of scaring away her comrades. So she decided to tell the truth in broad generalizations instead.

"The culture. As you all know, Millennium's a hard school to get into. But it might be even harder to stay in. It can get very cutthroat in there, with students backstabbing each other just to get ahead in class or secure more funding for their club. I guess I was just… Done. With all of the hustle. So I wanted to go to a more friendly school."

Hoshino scratched her cheek. "Awww, she called us friendly."

Iori grunted. "Any specific incidents that led to your decision? It couldn't have been easy to just decide to transfer away from one of the most prestigious academies in Kivotos."

"Um…"

Mutsuki snapped her fingers. "Yeah! Any juicy gossip or drama? Any bad rumors floating around you? Bet all the girls called you fat even though, just to be clear, you're not."

"I'm not- Ugh. Actually, yes, there was this one thing that happened between me and some other students. It got pretty ugly and… Well…"

"Bad enough that it made you transfer? Come on, give us the spicy deets!" Mutsuki prodded.

"Um…"

Hoshino interjected. "Let's just give it a break. If Yuuka doesn't wanna tell us what happened, then she doesn't have to."

Nonomi nodded. "It's okay Yuuka. You don't have to tell us if you don't want to."

Yuuka sighed in relief. "Okay. Thanks guys."

Yuzu came back with a cart full of bowls of ramen.

"Here's everyone's orders…"

Aru looked excited to try them out. "Ohohoho! I always look forward to eating the food here!"

Yuzu started passing out the bowls.

"And a Shiba Seki Deluxe Ramen Bowl."

Yuzu passed the bowl to Yuuka.

"Oh right! Yuzu, our new classmate went to Millennium too!" Serika excitedly said to Yuzu.

Yuzu nodded. "I know."

"Huh? You know each other?"

Hoshino yawned. "Guess it makes sense that two students from the same school would know each other."

Yuuka gulped. One of the last things she wanted to see was another Millennium student, let alone a former member of the Game Development Department.

But… This is one of the only chances I'm going to get to set things right. No, maybe not set things right. But still!

"Yuzu. What happened earlier… I'm sorry. For everything."

Yuzu took a moment to process what she just heard and shook her head.

"No, actually I'm sorry. I knew it wasn't your fault. I should have told you… Before I dropped out… Sorry for worrying you. Midori told me you felt guilty about me dropping out."

"But it was my fault! I could have done things so much differently…"

"None of that matters anymore. I don't think it ever mattered… It really is nice seeing you again, Yuuka-senpai… I have to get back to work. I'm sorry."

Yuzu turned around and walked back to the back of the ramen stand and out of sight.

An unexpected gloom set over the table.

All of the bowls of ramen were sitting undisturbed.

The previous exchange dampened everyone's moods on what was supposed to be a happy occasion. Nobody dared ask what exactly happened for risk of ruining the mood even more.

Haruka, of all people, broke the stalemate. "U-um. Are we all ready to eat? I'm quite hungry. Since we didn't eat anything on the way here."

The other students all looked and stared at Haruka. As this continued on, Haruka began shaking profusely, before she finally broke.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! I just wanted everyone to enjoy the ramen! I'm sorry!"

"Aru's such a taskmaster," Mutsuki growled. "We skipped lunch because we needed enough money for dinner, and then it turns out that we didn't have to pay for any of it anyways!"

"I'd much rather prefer to err on the side of caution! We had no idea it would be free, now did we?" Aru rebuked.

Serika scoffed at the Gehenna students. "Are you that tight on cash that you'd skip lunch just to afford dinner?"

Ayane adjusted her glasses again. "You know if you just asked us, that wouldn't have been a problem, right?"

"You just showed up unannounced too and crashed our party! Who does that? You're lucky you helped us out and we're in such a good mood today," Serika added.

"Alright, that's enough complaining," Hoshino interjected. "Can't you see that Shiroko is hungry too?"

They all looked at Shiroko, who was drooling into her bowl of ramen. Without wiping her face, she faced the rest of the party.

"What do you mean? If we're waiting for more food to come in, then I can wait for that."

Aru responded, "Um, no, I think all of our food is here. We can just dig in anytime."

Hoshino pointed at the sky. "Come on everyone! Our ramen ain't gonna get hotter."

Mutsuki shouted, "Alright! Let's dig in!"

The party voraciously tore into their bowls. Everybody except for two people.

Yuuka still seemed to be in a slump when Nonomi tapped Yuuka on the shoulder.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Thanks for asking. About what happened… Don't worry, I'm not secretly some cold-hearted monster or anything. But I don't think I'm ready to tell you all just yet."

Nonomi gently nodded her head. "It's okay. If you ever need to just let it all out, you can come to me."

Yuuka smiled at her. "Thanks for the offer. I'll be sure to remember it. Well, Hoshino's right. We should start eating now before the food gets cold."

"Agreed! Remember to take it slow."

"Okay!"

With that, Yuuka and Nonomi both joined in.

Master Shiba placed a bowl of ramen on the floor right next to Yuzu.

"Hey, you alright, kid?"

Yuzu looked from her seated fetal position up to Master Shiba, but his shape was blurred out.

"You don't have to worry about work tonight anymore. Rush hour's over; I can take it from here. Is it something they said? Or did you want to join them?"

Yuzu sniffled and looked back at her knees.

"No. Nothing like that, sir. I just remembered some painful memories. I'll be fine. I can keep working!"

"No can do, kid. The way you are right now, you just sit there and let it all out. As long as I'm here, you're safe."

Yuzu took a sip from the broth of the ramen and immediately began coughing and kneeled over.

"Ack! It's so spicy!"

"Is it? Ah, you're crying. Guess it was too spicy. I'll get you a new bowl. This one's for me."

Yuzu jumped to her feet and rushed to the fridge to grab a drink.

"But sometimes you just need a little kick to get back on your feet. Ain't that right, kid?"

"Bye! Stay safe!"

"You too!"

The Abydos and Gehenna students bid farewell to each other. The Gehenna students watched as the Abydos students made their way deeper into the urban district before making a turn and disappearing from view.

Aru turned to Iori. "So, did you get what you needed?"

"Nothing I didn't already know."

"So the job's not over then, is it?"

"Not by a long-shot."

Aru furrowed her brows in frustration. "Of course it didn't work. She was on edge the entire time because she recognized you. Did you think she would spill any trade secrets to you of all people?"

Mutsuki let her exasperation show on her face. "Oh come on! Why are we even spying on Abydos? This is a waste of our talents. We should be blowing stuff up, not playing therapist!"

Kayoko sighed. "It's not like we wanted to take this job."

"We don't have a choice, now do we?" Aru sighed. She turned to Iori. "So, what's next?"

"Clearly directly asking Yuuka didn't work, so we'll have to employ more underhanded methods of extracting information from her. Hina figured this might be the case so she gave me this."

Iori set her school bag on the ground and pulled out a smaller bag from inside it.

"Here. Be careful with it."

Iori handed the bag over to Aru.

"What's this?"

She opened the bag to find numerous tiny discs contained inside.

"These are listening devices. I want you to plant them wherever you think Yuuka might spend a lot of time in. Her classrooms and her home. Maybe even that ramen stand we were just in."

"This all seems rather unsavory to me. I don't appreciate how you're abusing the trust we've built up with our partners in crime. Trust is met with trust, after all. That's the Problem Solver way."

"You don't need to appreciate me to do your damn job."

"This is not what we agreed on in the original contract. We are, of course, expecting additional compensation."

"Is our current reward not enough to satisfy you?"

"It was for the original job. But now that's changed and we are expecting a bit more."

"I'm afraid that's not up to me to decide. Not like I would change it anyways."

Kayoko slammed her fist on a tree and stomped up to Iori.

"You think you can just boss us around by threatening us?"

"I don't think I can. I know."

"Of course you don't think. Why would we be loyal to you if you always have a gun pointed down our necks?"

"You think I want to be here either? Babysitting you four? I have much better things to do with my time, but orders from Hina are orders from Hina. You are aware of what happens if you fail, right? Before you forget, the Problem Solvers are an official Gehenna club. So what do you think happens if we dissolve it?"

Aru and Kayoko both hissed at Iori.

"Everything about this job is a load of bullshit! Come on Aru, we don't have to follow this bitch's orders."

"Kayoko… I understand where you're coming from but we have to do this."

"Aru!"

"Everything we've worked for. To build up Problem Solver 68. It's going to be gone if we don't do this."

"Those snakes will find some other way to shut us down eventually. I say we just cut our losses and get out while we still can."

"That's an obstacle we'll face when we get there. For the time being, it's in our best interests that the club survives the foreseeable future."

"Tsk. Whatever you say."

"Iori, I accept these new terms."

Iori kept the frown on her face. "Very well. I'm expecting results in two days. Actually, I'm not expecting results at all, but I'd be pleasantly surprised if you succeeded. Given how much of an incompetent mess you are."

Mutsuki dashed towards Iori and threw a punch at her face. Iori easily sidestepped it and grabbed her arm. Iori spun around and threw Mutsuki on the ground.

"Hurk!" Mutsuki groaned.

"Mutsuki!" Aru shouted.

"Did you really think you could get me like that?"

"Don't underestimate us, you asshole," Mutstuki said while lying flat on the ground. "We still have lots of surprises up our sleeve."

Iori scoffed at the accusation. "You're right. I did underestimate you. You should be able to bug Abydos by next morning. Otherwise your club is officially disbanded."

"What? Next morning!?" Aru shouted. "That's not nearly enough time to hit all of Abydos!"

"Too bad. I'm going back to Gehenna now. Don't disappoint me. Or do. It's not going to matter either way."

Iori let go of Mutsuki and walked away from the Problem Solvers.

"Unforgivable…" Haruka whispered. Then she got louder.

"Unforgivable! What she said was unforgivable! Looking down on us! Like we're nothing but flies! She'll regret treating us like dirt!"

"Haruka! Calm down!" Aru ordered.

"Aru… I'm sorry, but how can you go along with that whore!?"

"Don't you worry about that. I have a plan."

Mutstuki stood up and dusted herself off. "Ufufufu, Aru, with a plan?"

Kayoko walked closer to Aru. "Ugh. We're not actually going to stay up all night to bug Abydos are we?"

Aru explained herself. "It's quite simple, actually."

Aru looked all around her to make sure Iori wasn't within hearing distance, then leaned closer to her fellow Problem Solvers.

"These orders come directly from the Head Prefect right? There's only one reason why she would trust us with an important task like this. So this is what we're going to do…"

…

Kayoko smirked. "Works for me. Dumb bitch."

Haruka looked at Aru with stars in her eyes. "What an impressive plan… Brilliant as ever, Aru!"

Mutsuki was impressed. Very impressed. "Ahahaha! This is one of the most devilish schemes I've ever heard! As expected of you, Aru!"

Unbeknownst to her comrades, Aru had next to no faith in her little scheme actually working.

A/N: I love Haruka! I love this mentally unstable girl, she's so precious. She's really fun to write dialogue for :)