Compared to many other districts in Kivotos, Abydos was quiet. There were a fair few citizens commuting to and from work, but the vast majority of people fled the district when the sandstorms kept piling up. The result in many of these places were quiet and empty streets devoid of people, but full of sand.
"It's. So. Hot."
Aru, Haruka, and Mutsuki were sitting underneath a tree fanning themselves off, trying to stave off the heat coming from the Abydos desert. After their encounter with Hina, Kayoko split off from the rest of Problem Solver 68 to locate and bug Yuuka's apartment while she was away at school. The other three problem solvers were waiting for nightfall to begin their mission of planting listening devices in the rest of the district and the school itself.
"Uuuuuuugh-" Aru moaned. "I really messed up."
"What's up?" Mutsuki asked.
"I said a lot of cool things to Hina back there, but now Problem Solver 68's gonna get shut down."
"So? We do the job and then at the end of it all, you just keep it alive? I don't see the problem here."
"And go back on my word? You know how I am by now, Mutsuki. What kind of boss would I be if I went back on my word?"
"Your decision."
Aru opened a water bottle and took a big chug.
"No, I think this is the best option moving forward. When we graduate, we won't be able to use the Problem Solver 68 name anyways since it belongs to the school. So, silver lining, I get to create a brand new business ahead of time."
Haruka tried to encourage Aru.
"That's a good thing right? We get to be a real company now and not just a school club pretending to be one!"
"You don't have to put it like that! Problem Solver 68 is a real company! But, yes, you're right about everything else. But what ticks me off is that we're going to lose our credit score and reviews! We worked hard for them damnit! Ahhhhhh!"
Aru laid down on the ground and faced the top of the tree they were sitting under, the view of the sky obstructed by leaves.
"Aw, who cares about that?" Mutsuki asked with a wide grin on her face. "Our credit score sucks anyway and everybody thinks we're a bunch of losers. It's probably a good thing that we're wiping that off from the face of the planet."
"Mutsuki."
"Yeah?"
"You're not helping."
Mutsuki clenched both hands over her chest.
"Ouch! A shot through the heart! You sure know how to destroy a poor girl's feelings!"
A gust of wind bellowed through the park, rustling the tree canopy, allowing sunlight to rest on Aru's face.
"Hmmm. We're going to need a name. A new name, for a new company."
Haruka scratched her head. "Um, what about Problem Solver 69?"
Mutsuki chortled. Aru looked at Haruka with a stoic face.
"Denied."
"But why? Can't we just add one number to indicate that we're a successor to Problem Solver 68?"
"Problem Solver 68 is just a name, Problem Solver 1-67 never existed. Or at least, I don't think they existed. And besides, the number 69, Haruka."
Aru paused, long enough for Haruka to start fidgeting around.
Aru then sighed.
"If we use 69 in our name, some people might get the wrong idea about what kind of agency we are."
"They will?"
Aru sat up and nodded.
"Yes. We're going to need something more professional. We don't have to use a number in our name either."
"You got any ideas?" Mutsuki asked.
"Hmm." Aru was lost in thought. "I think it's gonna be a good idea for us to throw off our Gehenna roots."
"Agreed. Nothing but bad vibes from them."
"And we need a catchy name. One people can remember!"
Haruka added her suggestion. "I think people see that we're from Gehenna and think we operate only out of Gehenna, but we can offer our services to anyone in Kivotos, right?"
Aru clicked her tongue in satisfaction.
"Good point. We advertise our services to all of Kivotos, and we'll get clients from all around the city! We can start the name with Kivotos then. Kivotos Problem Solvers… No, too boring."
"Kivotos Agency," Haruka said.
"Too generic, that doesn't say anything about us," Mutsuki replied. "What about Dime-to-Crime? That's already our motto, I definitely think that's gonna stick out as a name."
Aru pondered that for a bit. "A bit too on the nose for authorities, I'm afraid. But I do like that name. I'll have to keep that in mind for our more underground activities. I am trying to start a legitimate business here after all. Oh, what about the Kivotos Underground Agency?"
"The K.U.A.?" Mutsuki said. "I don't like that acronym. Sounds a bit like K.I.A. Makes it sound like what's gonna happen to us on our first job."
"Now that you mention it, we can use an easy to remember acronym as our base."
"What about the Kivotos Underground Machination?"
"K.U.M.? The name's a bit wordy, but the acronym rolls right off the tongue."
"Easy to swallow too~"
Aru stood up and proudly placed her hands on her hips.
"Well Mutsuki, I like this suggestion, so I'll definitely consider it when filing for our new company."
Mutsuki was actually startled by this proclamation.
"Hey, wait, I was just throwing that out there."
"Well, now that we've got that settled, maybe we should look into completing this job. Mutsuki, as agreed before, you can scout out the Abydos district and place these listening devices anywhere that looks interesting."
Mutsuki sighed.
"Yeah, yeah, you got it, boss."
Kayoko's gonna flip her shit when she finds out about the name. I have to be there when she finds out!
Mutsuki picked up her bag and machine gun.
"Well then, breaktime for me is over! I'll see you gals later! Tell me if Kayoko comes back, okay?"
Mutsuki ran off in one direction.
Aru turned to Haruka and motioned to her to get up too.
"Come on Haruka, let's go to the school and scout it out. We won't enter until nighttime, but we can still find out the most effective places to plant these devices."
Haruka nodded and got up on her feet.
"Okay! I wonder what they're talking about right now. Hopefully they're not talking about Millennium right now, because they are, we might be missing our chance."
"Hmph. Whether they talk or not is not up to us. We have one job, and I intend on doing it. We can worry about the details later."
"Oh…" Haruka meekly said.
"Now, can you help us find the school from here?"
"Okay."
Haruka booted up a navigation app and set the destination for Abydos High School.
"Um, Aru."
"Something on your mind?"
"Do you think I worry too much? I mean, I'm not good enough to live up to your expectations so I feel like I never add value to us. I'm always just following you around. Maybe you would be better off if I wasn't here…"
Where did this come from? Aru thought. But she contemplated an actual answer before shaking her head and smiling.
"No. You're fine just the way you are. If you're worried about anything, that's just you being careful. You should always take great care in the things you do, Haruka. That's how I live my life, and I would hope that's how you live yours."
Haruka nodded and smiled mischievously.
"Right. I should be more careful. Thank you, Aru."
"Hey, cheer up! When this is all over, we're getting all-you-can-eat sushi! So look forward to it!"
"I will. Hehehehe…"
Haruka got the wrong lesson from Aru's wise words.
Aru and Haruka set up camp on a tall building overlooking the main Abydos campus. Aru was aiming her sniper rifle at the building to observe what the students there were up to.
"What are they doing?" Haruka asked.
"What?"
"Oh, I was just asking what they're doing right now. I mean, you have a sniper rifle and I don't, so I can't see as easily as you do."
"Oh, sorry, I was spacing out a little there. Um, it looks like they're just sitting around. And talking. That's all they're doing. That's what they were doing when we got here, and that's what they were doing 5 minutes ago. What we need to pay attention for is when they stop doing just that. This job requires patience and willpower. So before you ask me again, the answer's probably going to be that they're still just talking, and they're still just sitting around. I'll let you know if I see any developments."
Haruka looked down at the floor in admiration of her mentor. The fact that Aru could just sit there for minutes, hours at a time, silently observing her prey. It was truly commendable.
So Haruka asked her another question.
"What are they talking about?"
"...You know what? I have no idea either."
All six Abydos students assembled in a classroom and reassembled the desks and chairs to face each other before all taking a seat.
"Okay, it looks like everyone's here," Ayane said. She stood up and made her way over to the whiteboard.
"Oh boy, here we go again," Hoshino yawned.
Ayane pretended not to hear her and pushed up her glasses.
"Hello and good afternoon everyone. I'd like to thank each of you here for attending this meeting of the Foreclosure Task Force. I'd like to start off this meeting by officially welcoming Hayase Yuuka to not only Abydos High School, but also the Foreclosure Task Force! Round of applause everybody!"
The room turned to Yuuka and began clapping.
"Pleasure to meet you. I'm Sunaookami Shiroko," Shiroko said with a gentle smile.
"I'm Hoshino, but you can call me Uncle Hoshino if you want," Hoshino winked at her.
Yuuka scrunched her eyes and uttered out a pitiful, "R-right."
"Guys," Serika sighed. "We already know each other, we don't have to do this."
"But it's fun~" Nonomi whined.
Clap clap.
Hoshino triumphantly stood up and placed her hands on her hips.
"What kind of club would we be if we didn't properly introduce the senior members to the newbies? Certainly not a formal club officially sanctioned by the Abydos Student Council, for one."
"But, we are the student council," Serika again shot back.
"Enough chit-chat. Let's move on with the introductions, how about you introduce yourself to us, Yuuka?"
Yuuka pointed at herself. "Me?" then cleared her throat. "Ahem. I'm second-year Hayase Yuuka. Am I supposed to say something else?"
"Nah you're good," Hoshino waved her off.
"Anyway," Ayane said. "I'd like to welcome Miss Yuuka to the Foreclosure Task Force. Seeing as how we're a small school and how the work we do affects every student here, we thought it was fitting to invite you in."
"Pleasure to be here," Yuuka smiled.
"As you probably already know," Ayane continued, "Abydos has a problem. Our school is around 900 million yen in debt. If that sounds like a lot of money, that's because it is. A whole lot of money and a really big problem. A terrible. Big. Problem. An astronomically high sum of money. A debt that we probably won't be able to-"
"Okay, we get it," Serika interrupted. "Point is, our school's on the verge of shutting down unless we get our finances under control."
Ayane nodded. "She's right. The Foreclosure Task Force is in charge of helping manage our outstanding debt."
Yuuka nodded.
"I see. I knew about this school's debt problem even before transferring here, but 900 million yen is still a lot."
Hoshino chuckled.
"You knew about the debt and you still transferred here? I know all of us here have our moments, but you must be pretty crazy."
Yuuka sighed.
"Okay, fine. You can call me crazy. I'm starting to wonder why I transferred here, myself."
"Ack," Hoshino nonchalantly exclaimed.
Yuuka looked down at her desk in thought.
I only just met them, but they're introducing me to some serious problems in their school. I'm gonna have to be careful that I don't let them use me and toss me aside again.
Ayane continued.
"Well, let's introduce our positions in this club. Hoshino is the official president of the Foreclosure Task Force. Shiroko is our field captain. Serika is the treasurer. And I'm the Secretary."
Yuuka turned to Nonomi and asked her, "What do you do?"
Nonomi cheerfully smiled. "Oh, I'm just here to hang out with my friends."
"Now that introductions are out of the way," Ayane resumed, "Treasurer Serika, would you please give us the monthly review?"
Serika nodded. "Right so let's start off with the bad news. Our total debt is now a bit over 900 million yen following the repayments we made to Edge Enterprises."
"Yeah, but they totally deserved what was coming to them," Hoshino said.
"That's the last time we go through with one of your 'plans,'" Shiroko directed at Serika.
"What happened?" Yuuka asked.
"We tried giving one of Serika's finance schemes a chance," Nonomi answered. "It didn't work out very well."
"We ended up blowing up one of their offices when we found out it was a scam," Shiroko added.
"I'm pretty sure we all knew it was a scam when we signed up to do it," Ayane said.
"Ugh. Anyways," Serika continued. "The good news is that with Yuuka's enrollment fee, we are now back under 900 million yen."
"I mean, we used to be under 900 million yen before too," Hoshino said with a smug grin.
"And we used to be under 0 yen. What's your point?" Serika snapped back.
"I don't have one," Hoshino replied.
Serika scratched her head in annoyance. "Okay, so following that, we need a new plan of action. Any suggestions? We need something big, as usual."
Hoshino raised her hand. "What about a fundraiser?"
"A fundraiser?" Serika suspiciously asked.
"Yeah. None of our big plans ever work, so maybe we should think small and expand from there? Now that we have a few extra students-"
"One student," Ayane corrected.
"-one extra student, we could start making some serious cash through fundraising. We can talk to some of the local ice cream shops and get a cutback from whatever they sell."
"You just want ice cream, don't you?" Ayane asked Hoshino.
"Well, yes, I do, but that's not what we're talking about right now."
"Are you kidding? Fundraising? With how many people we have, we'd make like 500 yen back, at most! Next!" Serika shouted.
Hoshino shrugged. "Alright, just a suggestion to get the brain juices flowing."
"I have a suggestion," Nonomi said.
Ayane finished scribbling down notes before addressing Nonomi. "Okay, second-year Izayoi Nonomi, you may give your suggestion."
"Following what Hoshino said about starting off small, why don't we launch a small business? There are plenty of business flourishing in Abydos right now-"
"-A few, at most," Hoshino corrected.
"-a few businesses doing well in Abydos right now. If we start up an official school business, maybe people will support us for our branding?"
Ayane smiled.
"That sounds great, actually! What's the catch? There's always a catch."
"It's a lemonade stand."
"Denied," Ayane swiftly shut down. "Any other suggestions? I'm not saying the business idea itself is bad, but I'd rather not do a lemonade stand.,"
"Why don't we ask the new girl?" Shiroko said. "A healthy dose of fresh new ideas will probably do us good."
"Oh, you're absolutely right! Yuuka, do you have any ideas on how to tackle our debt."
Yuuka felt the gazes of her classmates come down on her. I shouldn't let them become dependent on me, just in case. Yuuka thought. But-
Something in the back of Yuuka's mind was itching at her. Clawing away at her sanity. But she chose to suppress it for the time being to address the classroom.
"No, I can't say anything's come to mind yet. I'd like to hear some more of your suggestions so I can know a bit more about how you all operate."
"I have one," Shiroko immediately blurted out.
Ayane frowned. "Shiroko, if it's another one of your illegal schemes, the answer is no."
Shiroko shook her head. "No, this time it's actually fully 100% legal. I've been researching Kivotos law for a while now, and I've discovered something big. There's absolutely nothing stopping us from filing and winning a big lawsuit."
Everybody's jaws dropped.
"A lawsuit," Ayane stated.
"Yes, a lawsuit. You can make big bucks from suing someone. We just need a target. Kaiser, one of the other schools, a school club, a student, a business, really any recognized legal entity in Kivotos would do."
"How are you planning on suing someone? We don't have any grounds or grievances against anyone!" Ayane shouted.
"Grounds?" Shiroko asked, clearly confused. "We don't need grounds to sue someone. We could just hire some detectives from Kronos to dig up dirt on someone. Worst case scenario, we can just make up charges. I've actually prepared a list of charges, fake and real, we could throw against Kaiser, including but not limited to using black market funds, maliciously changing our interest rates without a contract, kidnapping, spreading misinformation-"
"No, no, no, hold on! Doesn't this whole thing cost money? I thought we're done with putting our trust in scams!"
"Starting up a business requires an upfront investment," Shiroko refuted. "This is no different, we get out as much as we put in."
"Ugh, no! We're not suing Kaiser! Not without some serious concrete evidence."
Shiroko raised her eyebrows.
"Shiroko, no," Ayane firmly stated. "You can't call yourself a lawyer because you watched a TV show."
Shiroko pouted and looked away. "It was a good show…"
Yuuka decided to speak up. "Actually, this is a fairly legitimate strategy if you're dead set on suing somebody. I think the biggest issue with Shiroko's plan right now is securing funds for the trial. And of course a counter-defamation case."
Ayane sighed. "Not you too!"
Serika raised her hand.
"Actually, Shiroko gave me an idea."
"This better be good," Ayane hissed at Serika.
"All of our problems are because of Kaiser right? So all of these problems would go away if Kaiser just… stopped existing."
Ayane squinted her eyes at the Treasurer. "What are you planning?"
"We bomb them."
Ayane slammed her head on the table and laid there.
"You okay there?" Hoshino asked.
"Yeah, just, keep going." Ayane said with reservation.
"Well if you say so," Serika said. "So, if we bomb all of their offices, they'd have nowhere to go. If they buy up new offices, it might drain their bank accounts and they'll go out of business. If Kaiser goes under, our debt does too. Simple."
"Nope," Yuuka asserted. "That's absolutely not what's going to happen. A company as big as Kaiser isn't going to go away if you destroy their physical locations. Not even if you do it to all of their locations all at once. Then you'd have to deal with the potential legal ramifications of doing that. Are you even listening to yourself?"
Serika took one step back. "Yuuka? Sorry, it was just a thought experiment, that's all! I didn't actually sincerely mean that! "
Yuuka felt a vein pop in her head. That itch came back harder than ever, and she was about to explode if she didn't scratch it.
"Where's your budget?" she asked.
"Huh?" replied Serika.
"Show me the school budget. There should be much better ways of saving and gaining money than lawsuits and terrorism!"
Ayane looked up from the desk and at Yuuka with tears in her eyes. "Yuukaaaaaaaaaaaaa," she cried out.
"Ah crap," Hoshino said. "We made Ayane cry again."
"What?" Ayane said while crying. "I'm not crying!"
Serika looked through a binder trying to find the relevant documents. When she found them, she handed them over to Yuuka.
"Let's see here. Okay, I'm already seeing some serious problems. First, why is the electricity bill so high? From what I can tell, you only use at most three classrooms, but it looks like you're using the AC for the entire building. And these ammo costs! There's no way five students could have burned through that much ammo!"
"Oh, that's probably me, sorry about that!~" Nonomi said. "Hoshino doesn't want me to spend my own money on ammo."
"Huh?" Yuuka looked at Hoshino.
"I know, I know," Hoshino said. "It's a waste of school funds when we can just buy our own ammo, but it's a matter of principle. We don't go out picking fights with other people and we all act mostly together anyways, so we pool the ammo money together."
Yuuka cringed at that. "Still, that's a lot. Okay fine, you don't have to change how you get your ammo, but please try to conserve it better. From now on, only Nonomi's allowed to use full-auto."
Shiroko furrowed her eyebrows at that suggestion. "What? No full-auto?"
Serika jumped in too. "Are you kidding me? What's the point of our rifles if we can't full-auto them?"
Yuuka tilted her head. "Tsk. Too bad. You want to save money right? Well, here you can do it."
Yuuka looked at the other items on the list.
"Why are you spending so much on explosives?"
Hoshino chimed in. "Okay, I know it looks weird for a school this small to buy that many, but in the event that we robbed a bank, and I'm not saying that we did or that we would, but if we robbed a bank, then we could use as many as possible."
"Well stop it! You have more of this stockpiled than we did at Millennium!"
Shiroko whispered, "It's not enough."
"What was that?" Yuuka glared at the beast girl.
"Nothing," Shiroko said, shrinking down.
Yuuka straightened out the papers.
"Is there anything you can use the extra space in the school for? Anything at all."
Hoshino shrugged.
"Don't know. There's lots of old junk lying around here that we just haven't had time to clean up."
"Well you can rent out the rooms once you do, considering you don't need that much space. Hmm. Your main source of income seems to be tuition. But there's only six of us here."
"Yeah. It's really not a lot of money," Serika said. "That's why we keep coming up with all these crazy schemes, hoping that at least one of them will work."
"You need to set up an additional income source. Maybe Nonomi's idea of starting a business has some merits. Of course, it will need some upfront cost, but careful deficit spending can be a high-risk, high-reward gamble. Is there anything in Abydos you could start a business out of? Any farms or factories? Stuff like that?"
"Um, about that," Ayane said. "We don't actually own any of the land in Abydos. It all belongs to Kaiser Corp. The only thing we own is the main school campus."
Yuuka crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair.
"Okaaaaay… That complicates things. Any ideas? Something maybe a bit bigger in scope than a lemonade stand."
"We mass produce lemons," Shiroko said. "Wait, no, we don't have any farms."
"Well, what about labor?" Nonomi asked. "Serika has a part-time job, so maybe we can do something similar and be freelance-contractors."
"Like those Problem Solver girls?" Serika asked.
"Oh yeah! Exactly like the Problem Solvers!"
"Exporting labor…" Yuuka mused. "Well, given the very limited resources this school has, I suppose that is the best option. Any specific plans that you have in mind?"
"Why don't we just copy what Problem Solver 68 does?" Ayane suggested. "We accept any and all work that comes this way. There's a board in SCHALE that has requests from all over Kivotos. We could take a look at them and offer our services in exchange for payment to the school."
"Pfft, we'd end up doing dumb errands like finding lost cats and cleaning floors if we did that," Serika responded. "We might be desperate for cash, but I'm not that desperate."
Shiroko raised her hand.
Yuuka turned to her and asked what was on her mind.
"We offer security analysis. A business owner tells us to rob them so we do it. Legally."
"What's with you and robbing people?" Yuuka asked.
"Oh, I like that idea, Shiroko!" Nonomi exclaimed. "We're already quite good at robbing banks, why don't we legitimize our business."
"What?"
"Of course! We should be doing what we're already good at!" Ayane explained. "All successful businesses specialize in one thing that they're good at. We have tons of practice robbing banks, so we're naturals at this!"
"Ayane?" Yuuka shouted with shock. She's going along with this too?
Clap. Clap.
Hoshino spoke up.
"Okay everyone, all in favor of starting a security analysis company, raise your hand."
Everybody except Yuuka raised their hand.
"So it's decided then, sorry Yuuka," Hoshino said.
Yuuka stood speechless for a couple seconds before gathering her thoughts on the almost unanimous decision.
"Wait, what do you all mean when you say you have experience robbing banks?"
"It's actually pretty easy," Serika responded. "I can show you the ropes later."
Yuuka hid her face in her hands. "Okay. Okay. Security analysts. Okay, that's fine. If that's what you all want to do, I won't stop you."
Hoshino stood up.
"Alright then everyone! We've decided on a plan moving forward. Let's stew on this idea for a day and reconvene tomorrow then, yeah?"
"I can look into the legal side tonight," Shiroko said.
Ayane also stood up and signaled that the meeting was now over. "Ok everybody! Good work today! Let's let Shiroko do her thing and come back in the morning with a plan, yeah? Dismissed!"
"See you, everyone," Serika said. "I'm gonna start heading over to one of my jobs now."
"Bye Serika! Stay safe!" Nonomi said.
Yuuka was sitting down, mind blank. Ayane walked over to Yuuka and grinned with delight.
"Thank you, Yuuka. With your help, we might actually be able to make some money for once!"
"Uh. Yeah. Sure."
Yuuka was not quite sure what just happened, but she knew that she didn't want to be there anymore. She started packing her bags and prepared to head out.
"Aru! Wake up!"
"Huh?"
Aru was dozing off on the rooftop building when Haruka shook her awake.
"Haruka? What's going on?" she groggily said.
"The Abydos students are leaving now!"
"What?"
Aru looked through her sniper scope and observed the Foreclosure Task Force's classroom was empty. The six students were beginning to exit the main building and into the campus courtyard.
"Oh, that's good. We'll be able to plant listening devices all over the school once they leave. I'm going to call the others now to let them know."
Aru took her phone out and dialed up Kayoko and Mutsuki.
…
"Hellooooo?" a teasing voice came out through the speakers.
"Oh, hi Mutsuki. Is Kayoko here?" Aru replied.
"Here. Do you need something?" a softer voice said.
"Where are you two right now?"
"Wandering all over Abydos looking for juicy spots to bug! Don't worry about me, Aru, I'm totally inconspicuous and not suspicious!" Mutsuki answered.
"Good. Keep it up. And you, Kayoko?"
"I just found Hayase Yuuka's apartment. I'm about to pick the lock to get in, why?"
"Well, I'd like to let you know that she's leaving the school and is probably headed back to her home right now."
"How long do you think that's gonna take?"
Aru looked at Haruka and beckoned her over.
"Haruka, can you come over here for a second? Can you plug in Yuuka's address on your phone?"
"Right."
Haruka entered in Kayoko's given address into the navigation app on her phone.
"Fifteen minutes to get from the high school to the apartment!" Haruka answered.
"Do you think that's enough time to get in and out?" Aru asked Kayoko.
"...Plenty. Can you tail Yuuka and make sure she doesn't get here before I give the OK?"
"Got it. Haruka, let's pack up and follow her."
"I won't let you down!"
Hoshino watched as Aru and Haruka took down their camp on the roof overlooking Abydos. When they finished and got out of sight, she turned back towards the school and walked towards the ammunition storeroom.
Yuuka's gonna kill me.