The pale blue moonlight pierced through the cracks in the ceiling of the train station at the edge of the Abydos Desert, illuminating the four girls below in its cool gaze.

"It's too cold," Hoshino bluntly said. "I should have brought my body armor with me. I forgot how freakin' cold it can get here at night."

Shiroko poked Hoshino. "Wanna share the scarf?"

Hoshino gently swiped Shiroko's arm out of the way. "No thanks."

"Serika's here!" Nonomi blurted out.

Off in the distance, the four girls gathered to see their favorite catgirl walk up the stairs to enter the station proper. Serika took out her phone and checked the time and scowled.

Hoshino waved at her. "Hey! I gotta respect the hustle. Seriously."

"Hey? What gives, calling us all the way out here? This better be important!" Serika complained.

Hoshino clapped her hands together. "Okay, now that we're all here, I can explain what's going on."

Ayane glanced at Hoshino and asked, "What's the deal with Yuuka?"

Hoshino put one finger up and took out her phone with her other hand. "I'll get to that. There's something you all need to see first."

Hoshino unlocked the phone and took out a picture. Serika, Nonomi, and Ayane looked at the phone and gasped. A picture of the main Abydos school building with a hole in it.

"Piqued your interest huh?" Hoshino coyly said. "Well, let's get down to business. Earlier tonight Shiroko and I encountered some thugs who broke into our school and tried to plant listening devices all over the place. That's kind of screwed up right?"

"Why would they do that?" Nonomi asked.

"They were sent in to do it by someone. Normally this kind of thing wouldn't bother me too much, we could have continued on as normal with those things there in the first place. The act itself isn't what ticked me off. But what really got me is why they would do it? What the heck would they have to gain from bugging our tiny-ass school?"

Hoshino put her phone away and punched her fists together.

"So, I decided to ask them politely about it. They refused to cooperate, so I got in a little fight with them, and it ended up like this."

"What!?" Serika shouted, stomping her foot. "You got in a fight and didn't tell us?"

Ayane furrowed her brows. "Hoshino, do you know how irresponsible that is? How are we gonna repair that? You know we don't have the funds to fix the school!"

Hoshino rubbed the back of her head with her hand. "Heehee, my bad. Sorry about this. I really am! And I know this sucks for us, I know we've been working hard to bring down our debt, but believe it or not, this isn't why I called all of us here. You might have noticed that I didn't invite our precious new transfer, right?"

Hoshino glanced at each of her classmate's faces. They were each focused on her and didn't speak.

Hoshino tilted her head, then went back to talking. "It's because those thugs are after her. Why? Um." Hoshino scratched her cheek. "Where to begin…"

Shiroko spoke up. "Yuuka is a former member of Millennium's student council."

Serika narrowed her eyes upon hearing this.

Shiroko continued, "And there was some sort of big scandal that happened in Millennium recently, and I guess Yuuka got kicked out."

Serika interrupted her to ask, "Do you know why?"

Shiroko shook her head. "Nope."

"Anyways-," Hoshino said. "-the important part is that Millennium has completely shut off all trade with the rest of Kivotos. The people who were sent after us want to dig up dirt on her or something, or at least figure out what exactly Millennium's trying to do. And you'll never guess who sent them! Any guesses?"

Ayane answered, "The other big schools."

Hoshino snapped her fingers. "Bingo. Now I don't know if you guys have checked the news recently, but… Here, let me bring up some new news articles."

Hoshino took out her phone again and navigated to the Kronos news website.

"Now let's see here. Protestors in Trinity burned down a building this week. When aren't they protesting something?... Local Hyakkiyako gang wipes out entire Valkyrie division… Gehenna spy balloon shot down over Millennium, interesting."

"A balloon?" Nonomi asked.

"Who would be stupid enough to spy with a balloon?" Serika added.

Hoshino replied, "Gehenna, apparently." She kept on reading. "Oh, this one happened a few hours ago. Gehenna Disciplinary Committee bombed, inciting looting. Now what… Hmm… A tech mall in the district was looted by rioters. Okay, that makes sense."

Hoshino stroked an imaginary beard.

"Now what do these all have in common? One single thread linking them together? It's Millennium."

The girls stared at Hoshino in silence while they processed that information.

"Actually I think that Hyakkiyako gang isn't directly related, but my point still stands."

Ayane pushed up her glasses. "Yes. The tech exports from Millennium… And it's not just the physical goods that they've stopped exporting, but no students can enter or leave the district without express permission. It's a catastrophe."

Nonomi took out her phone and showed it to the other girls. "My phone screen's pretty cracked, so I was waiting for the new Zoom Phone to come out, but it looks like they're not gonna sell them outside Millennium anymore…"

Ayane said, "And not just high luxury tech like smartphones. I just realized that practically everything in Kivotos relies on something made in Millennium. Pretty soon, we're gonna start seeing infrastructure breaking and vehicle repairs that only they can make. It's actually kind of incredible how much they affect the rest of the city."

Hoshino nodded in agreement. "Right on the mark. So, what did our dear friends over at Gehenna do because of all this? They sent over spies to spy on our little transfer student. No doubt thinking that just because our school is so small that they can get away with picking on us."

Serika yelled, "What? Those assholes! We can't let them get away with this! We have enough on our plate already! We don't need more! The nerve! We kicked their ass once already, we can do it again!"

Hoshino closed one and put her hands in her pockets. "Afraid it's not going to be that simple. This was just one incident. But it literally happened two days after Yuuka transferred here. What's to say it won't happen again? Who's gonna try to mess with us next? What are they gonna do? Is Trinity gonna kidnap us as hostages? Maybe Kaiser will come back and try to strongarm us into selling the school again using leverage from Millennium? Who knows?"

Hoshino sighed.

"The way I see it, whatever happened at Millennium that caused Yuuka to transfer out isn't just gonna go away on its own. Do you know why I think that?"

Hoshino opened her closed eye.

"The one who actually gave the order was the Head Prefect, Hina. You know, the polite one that called off the invasion that other time."

"Hina?" Serika asked.

"Yup. I think that normally she's a pretty smart lad, and she seems to like me from what Sensei told me. So why's she trying to piss me off like this? Well, duh. Because she thinks that what Millennium can do to her is worse than what Abydos can do to her. Lesser of two evils. If you were in her shoes, who would you try to not piss off more?"

The other girls reflected on this question, unable to come up with an answer.

"Exactly," Hoshino said. "But I'm losing the point here. Let's just cut to the chase huh? Kivotos is about to blow up, but there's one way that our tiny school can get away from this. If we completely cut ourselves off from all of the politics here. And what's the best way to do that?"

Hoshino snapped her finger.

"Simple. We expel Yuuka."

Shiroko furrowed her brow at this statement. The other girls just stared at Hoshino.

Hoshino sighed. "I guess I should explain myself. The five of us here haven't done anything to piss off the other schools right? As far as most of them are concerned, we don't even exist anymore, a relic of history. Minus that one other incident with the Prefect Team, but that was more of a fluke because of Sensei. But with Yuuka in our school? A high ranking member of one of the Three Great Academies? Oh you betcha we're at the center of attention now. Or at least the opening act for Millennium. So what's the best way to shed the heat? Well, we remove the heat source."

Serika scoffed. "We can't just expel Yuuka like that, though. Don't we need like, a reason?"

Hoshino closed her eyes. "Well we don't need a reason. Just like Shiroko said with that lawsuit idea earlier today, we can just make something up. Pin blame for that dastardly school bombing on her. I don't know. We can be flexible."

"That's-" Serika tried to say in response, but she caught her tongue. She looked at the other girls to gauge their reaction. Nonomi looked startled, and Ayane looked furious. Shiroko, as always, didn't let any emotion change her face.

Hoshino looked down at the ground. "I know you guys didn't want to hear this. So I've decided to make the decision for us. As the acting president of Abydos, I'm going to expel Yuuka."

"Hoshino." Shiroko stepped forward. "You can't be serious right now. You didn't tell me THIS earlier."

"Yeah, well. I wanted to break the news to all of you at the same time."

Nonomi uncharacteristically raised her voice. "You can't just expel Yuuka like that! She's one of us now!"

Hoshino clicked her tongue. "Seems like you guys still don't get it. Fine. You guys know the trolley problem, right? Here goes. A train is coming down the tracks, and it's going to hit a group of people who are unaware that it's coming. You can flip a switch, and it will change its track to hit one person that it wasn't going to before. Will you allow that group to be killed, or become a villain who sacrifices one person to save the many?"

Hoshino then turned her head. "And Nonomi. Yuuka is NOT one of us. Has she been in Abydos since her first year of high school? Does she know the struggles of being a student in the poorest school around? Has she fought tooth and nail with us against gangsters and Kaiser? No to all of them."

Nonomi's eyes widened. "But…" She couldn't respond any further than that.

Hoshino said, "I don't want to burden you guys with this decision, so I'm making it for you."

"Shut up."

"Huh?"

"Shut. Up." Shiroko glared at Hoshino. "Why do you think you can just make important decisions for us just because you're a little older?"

"Tch."

"Can't respond? Do you remember what happened last time you made an important decision on your own? Remember how that turned out?"

Hoshino narrowed her eyes. "You have any better ideas?"

Shiroko didn't say anything back.

"We vote on it." All eyes turned to Ayane. "We vote on whether or not we expel her. We are the student council. Each one of us. Not Hoshino, not me, but all of us."

"Are-are we seriously considering expelling her?" Nonomi asked.

"We have five people here," Ayane responded. "If we all vote yes…"

Hoshino spoke up. "Fine then. As the official Abydos student council, we will take a vote on expelling Yuuka from Abydos. All in favor, say 'aye.'"

Hoshino raised one hand and said, "Aye."

Ayane too, slowly raised her hand up. "Aye."

Serika asked her, "You're voting to expel Yuuka?"

"Yes. If Hoshino's picture is real and we actually are being targeted by Gehenna because of her… I can't allow that to happen. Not if I know we can do something about it. We've already suffered so much. We've worked too hard to throw it all away!"

"Then I say 'Nay!'" Nonomi screamed in response. "You say that like we're throwing away all of our hard work if we keep Yuuka. But I thought getting new students into our school was the whole point! From my point of view, you two are the ones who are trying to waste all of our hard work."

Hoshino took a step towards Nonomi. "Our school will be destroyed if this keeps up!"

"How do you know that?" Nonomi snapped back. Hoshino stepped back in response; she's never seen her friend so angry before.

"Everything you've just said is just talk of the future. But has it actually happened yet? We can still change it, no matter how bleak it might seem at the moment. If we keep Yuuka and make an enemy out of Gehenna and Millennium… So what? We just keep fighting back like we've always done, again and again."

Nonomi opened her eyes slightly, then clenched her fist over her chest. "No, this isn't about us. This is about her. We don't know Yuuka's story. We don't know what she's been through and why she chose to transfer. We don't know anything about her. Do you remember how Yuzu-chan acted at the ramen last night? What if she needs us? Are you all willing to throw her back out to the streets?"

Hoshino and Nonomi stared uncomfortably at each other for long seconds. Finally, after this showdown with Nonomi refusing to blink, Hoshino relented. "Fine. Two to one. Three to win." Hoshino looked at the last two girls. "Serika, Shiroko, your votes. You can't sit this one out."

Serika bit her lip and looked down at the ground. "I think…" Serika contemplated it for a bit, then looked at Shiroko.

Neither Serika nor Shiroko spoke.

Hoshino tried to prod Shiroko along. "Come on Shiroko. You saw for yourself what happened today."

Shiroko scowled. "Nay."

Hoshino blinked twice, clearly blindsided by this. "Huh? What do you mean 'Nay?'"

Shiroko walked over to Nonomi's side. "Nonomi's right. We've always been the underdogs fighting above our weight class. Nothing changes if we get new enemies because of Yuuka. We will keep fighting back."

"Gah," Hoshino said. "Two to two. Serika, you're the tie-breaker."

Serika looked at the four girls. Hoshino and Shiroko were looking at her expectantly, Ayane held her breath, and Nonomi looked concerned.

"So much pressure. Why do I have to be the tiebreaker?" Serika said with gritted teeth. Serika thought back to her breakdown earlier and pondered for a few seconds. She closed her eyes before announcing:

"I vote… 'Aye.'"

"Three to two," Hoshino declared.

Ayane deeply exhaled.

Nonomi stopped breathing. She looked at Serika, then Hoshino, and opened her mouth in shock and betrayal. "You-I can't believe you. You're really going to expel one of us?"

Serika couldn't bear to look at her friend in the eye while she said, "No. She's not one of us."

"How can you say that!?" Nonomi yelled back. Her eyes were starting to water up and her voice grew shaky. "We accepted her with open arms. She wears an Abydos uniform. We invited her to the Foreclosure Task Force. And we threw her a party! Does none of that matter anymore?"

Hoshino coldly said, "No. Not at all. We have bigger things to deal with than how one student feel."

"You're all pathetic."

The girls all turned their heads towards the one who said it.

"Absolutely pathetic. I can't believe you guys don't even want to try." Shiroko glared at the sole third-year in disgust. "Takanashi Hoshino-senpai. I expected better from you. I didn't think you'd give up this quickly."

The vice president of Abydos raised her voice and threw her arm back. "And what do you know? I've been here at Abydos longer than any of you. I've seen things you can't even comprehend!" She paused for just a second before continuing. "I'm doing this for you!"

Shiroko tilted her head. "You're doing this for me? Or is that the lie you're telling yourself? Because you heard my vote loud and clear. I didn't agree to this. You might think keeping her around is gonna throw away everything we've worked for, but I think getting rid of her is gonna do that instead."

"Shiroko…" Ayane softly said.

"And you two." Shiroko pointed out Ayane and Serika. She coldly remarked, "You're just as cowardly as she is. You're doing this because you're worried about the school right? So you're willing to fight terrorists for Hifumi, but not some people we've already beaten before because this time it's our school on the line?"

Ayane and Serika both looked at the ground in shame.

Shiroko said, "Just because she's not from Abydos. What's to say you all won't do the same to me? I'm not from here either."

The gaze of each of the girls focused back on the wolf girl.

"I can see the direction the wind's blowing the sand. If this is the attitude of the students of the 'Greatest Academy in Kivotos,' then maybe it's already dead. No point in any of us sticking around if we can't jump over a single hurdle together."

Shiroko grabbed her bright blue scarf and yanked it off her neck. "Guess I won't be needing this anymore. Thanks for giving it to me. I'll see you all tomorrow, I guess."

She crumpled it up in a ball and tossed it over to Hoshino, who caught it with both arms. The pink haired girl watched as her friend turned around and started walking away from the train station.

Nonomi chased after the girl. "Wait! Shiroko!" Nonomi caught up to Shiroko, but neither of them said a word to each other, instead implicitly deciding to walk in the same direction in silence.

Hoshino looked down at the scarf laying across her arms and sighed. "That's all for tonight's meeting. Let's go home."

Hoshino wrapped the scarf around her neck and followed after Shiroko. Nonomi and Ayane did the same.

Serika hung back a little and walked over to a dusty bench. She considered collapsing on it and falling asleep right then and there but decided against it. She glanced up at the moon and grimaced. "Did I make a mistake?" Serika sighed and walked towards her home.

Snap.

Yuuka placed her favorite puzzle cube down on her desk and smiled. Finally, it was solved.

"Just in time too…"

Sunlight began to pour into her room, indicating that it was time to go. Yuuka got up and grabbed her bag. She exited her room and walked down the stairs. Halfway down, she stopped.

"Oops. Almost forgot."

Yuuka turned back around and entered her room again. She picked up a letter sitting on her desk.

"So unlike me," Yuuka chuckled. "Forgetting something this important."

Yuuka stuffed the letter into her bag and opened her closet.

"And this too. It's a little chilly, isn't it?"

Yuuka began her trek over to her school. When she made it to the main street leading to the courtyard, she checked her phone.

"Fifteen minutes and a nice stroll. The temperature's just right early in the morning too. Noted."

Her pace relaxed as she knew she had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery.

The air was still, letting the girl comfortably walk down the street without sand blowing into her eyes or into her shoes.

Eventually, she finally made it to the corner that turned into the school courtyard. Coming around it, her sight immediately jumped to the hole in the wall of the side of the building.

"What?"

"Hey, hey, Yuuka-chan!"

Yuuka saw her five classmates standing outside the building waving at her. Yuuka waved back and walked over.

"Hi. What happened here?"

"Don't worry about it," Hoshino said with a carefree voice. "I got in a little fight last night with some thugs. Just a bit of collateral damage. I'm a bit of a monster, even if I don't look like it, haha."

"Ah."

Yuuka stared at the hole with a blank neutral expression, almost as if she was expecting this. She observed repair drones picking up pieces of rubble and placing them in piles, but didn't think much of it, thinking Ayane must have given them the order.

Nonomi glanced at Hoshino, her smile dropping.

Hoshino scratched the back of her head and sighed.

"No, I get it. This is on me."

Hoshino stood up and walked next to Yuuka. When she got close to her, Yuuka softly said, "Did I do this?"

"Huh?"

Yuuka spoke a little louder. "I said, did I do this?"

Hoshino racked her brain for an answer, but came up short. "Um," was all she could say in response.

Yuuka broke her sight with the school building and turned towards the Abydos girls. She noticed Hoshino's new accessory and looked at Shiroko, whose appearance looked… off. The wolf girl refused to make eye contact.

Yuuka furrowed her brows, then turned her head towards Hoshino. "Nice scarf, Hoshino-senpai."

Hoshino rubbed the back of her head and laughed. "Haha. You noticed? You're wearing something slightly different too. Yeah it's fine; you probably noticed we don't enforce a dress code here."

Yuuka stretched out her arms. "Yup. Big coat I got from Millennium. To be honest, I feel kind of naked without it."

Hoshino took one more look at Yuuka and raised one eyebrow. "Hey. Now that I'm taking a closer look at you, this isn't an Abydos uniform…"

"So…" Yuuka said, looking at the other Abydos students. The only one who could even be seen looking in her general direction was Ayane. "I'm assuming you've got some bad news to tell me."

Hoshino tilted her head. "Something like that. Yeah."

Yuuka sighed. "You know, you can tell me straight up. Despite how I might have acted before, I'm normally able to handle it."

Hoshino took a deep breath. "Okay. Yeah. Well, here it is."

Yuuka held one finger up to silence Hoshino.

"But before you continue, I have a present for you. This should make you feel better. Uh, I think."

Yuuka opened her bag and took out the letter. She grabbed it in both hands and deeply bowed, presenting it to the pink haired girl.

"Hoshino-senpai. I'm dropping out."

Hoshino yanked the letter out of Yuuka's hands. "What?" she exclaimed. The other Abydos students looked at Yuuka in disbelief.

"I'll say it louder then." Yuuka stood back up. "I'm dropping out of Abydos. This is my official letter of request. I'll send one over to Sensei later today, all I need is both of your signatures."

"You're dropping out?" Serika said as she rushed over to Yuuka.

"Yup," Yuuka calmly said as she pulled her bag over her shoulder with one hand.

"But- but why?"

Yuuka raised one eyebrow and turned her towards the wall. "Isn't it obvious?"

Serika looked to where she was motioning, but only said, "Huh?"

Yuuka sighed. "It seems that at the end of the day, I'm a Millennium student at heart. This was all an experiment, and it seems like it's about time I collected my results and published my findings. But before that…"

Yuuka looked at Hoshino and frowned.

"So… what were you about to tell me?"

Hoshino put the letter behind her back. "Um. Well…"

"You were about to expel me, weren't you?"

Hoshino couldn't help but take a quick glance at Nonomi behind her before retaining her gaze with Yuuka. "Did somebody tell you?"

Yuuka put her hands in her coat pockets and closed one eye. "I'm not some naive girl who can't pay attention to people and things around her. I can tell by each of your faces."

Nonomi clasped her hands together. "Yuuka-chan, I'm really sorry."

Yuuka shook her head. "Don't be. I get it." The girl from Millennium smirked. "I really do. Haha!" Yuuka started chuckling to herself. Serika raised her eyebrows in concern and instinctively made distance between her and Yuuka.

"Haha. Yes. This was all an experiment. I knew it all along. There's no place I belong. Not anymore."

"What? What are you saying?" Serika asked her.

Yuuka ignored her and rested her cheek on her chin and nodded. "Yes, that makes sense. Noa's involved in this somehow… If not her, then definitely Rio…" she whispered to herself.

Hoshino opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something but stopped herself.

Shiroko grabbed her rifle and flipped the safety off. Ayane noticed this and grabbed her arm.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"Just in case," the wolf girl replied.

Yuuka put that fake smile back on her face. "I'm a little surprised that something happened this quickly after I transferred. But given the surrounding circumstances, I suppose it does make sense."

"Come on Yuuka, start making sense!" Serika shouted at her. "If you've got something to say, just spit it out."

"Please!" Nonomi begged. "We can help you."

"No, that won't be necessary. But if you could, then tell me, who did this? The hole in the wall?"

Hoshino narrowed her eyes. "Why do you ask?'

"I think it could be important."

Hoshino thought about it for a moment, then answered, "Hina."

"Hina? The Prefects? Are you sure?"

Hoshino nodded. "Positive. Got a confession out of the goons she sent."

Yuuka tapped the side of her head. "No. That doesn't make any sense. Why would the Prefects care about an entirely different school? Oh. Right. Me. I forgot... Hoshino."

"Yup?"

"I need to know. Why are they looking for me?" Yuuka asked.

Hoshino answered, "They want to see if you'll drop some secrets on Millennium or Seminar. Don't know what specifically, but I bet it's something to do with how Big M is bullying every other school."

"Secrets? I suppose we have been pretty shady ever since Aris…"

Yuuka suddenly remembered the detail of the drones repairing the hole in the wall and furrowed her brows.

"Ayane."

"What is it?" the girl in glasses responded.

"Are those drones yours?" Yuuka asked, pointing towards the drones carrying rubble.

"No, they belong to the school, I think. All of the drones we use are."

"And do you remember where you got the drones?"

"Um, as far as I can tell, Abydos has had them for a long time."

"Huh." Yuuka put her hand on her chin. "Hoshino. Where's the Abydos central server room?"

"Huh? Why would I tell you? Student council information only."

"Let's make a trade then."

Yuuka took out her submachine guns and pointed them at Serika and Hoshino. Serika yelped in surprise while Hoshino remained unphased.

"Drop it!" Shiroko said, pointing her rifle at Yuuka.

"Your secret for one of mine. I think this might be mutually beneficial, and if anything, you might get more value out of it than me," Yuuka said, refusing to follow Shiroko's demand.

Hoshino calmly pushed Yuuka's SMG aside.

"You're bluffing."

"I'll shoot to prove that I'm not," Yuuka said, looking at Serika.

"Yuuka! What are you doing?" Ayane yelled as she took out her pistol and aimed it at her.

Yuuka aimed the free SMG at Ayane. "This is important, damnit!"

Hoshino asked her. "It's five versus one. Do you really think you can win a shootout?"

"Yes. Because it's not really five versus one, now is it? You can come out now, Sphinx."

Hoshino gasped. "What did you just say?"

Shiroko's rocket drones activated and flew in front of her.

"Sorry, Yuuka," a female voice bellowed out from the inside of the drone. "You know I can't follow orders from a former Seminar member."

Hoshino turned around to look at the audio source. "Sphinx!? You know her?"

"Affirmative."

"And you sound… different."

"For once, I was able to download the latest drivers last night," Sphinx said.

"Latest dri-!" Yuuka gasped. She pointed both submachine guns at Hoshino.

"Server room! Now!"

Hoshino threw both hands up in front of her. "Okay, okay! I can see that this is very important to you so here we go."

Hoshino beckoned to the other girls.

"Come on, it's about time I showed you all the security room."

The group went inside the building and up the stairs to the third floor. When they got to the top, Hoshino took the lead, leading down the hallway. The other students noticed the broken glass shards from the ceiling above.

"And here we are."

Hoshino gestured to the door that led to the security room. She opened the door and went inside. Yuuka went in second, and noticed a drone try to accompany her.

"What are you doing?" the drone asked her.

"Turn off the internet," Yuuka responded.

"How exactly?"

"Unplugging the router."

"Oh. In that case, please excuse me for a moment. I'd rather not let my drones fall onto the floor when you do. These models don't have bluetooth installed, unfortunately."

The drone exited the door, and the other Abydos girls went in.

"Hey Yuuka, what exactly are we doing here?" Hoshino asked.

"What I just said. Turning off the internet. I didn't know your security room was also the server room, but I guess we didn't have the best separation back in the day."

Yuuka looked at the mess of wires in the machines and started tracing them.

"Is it this one? No. Maybe I'll start from here."

Serika asked Hoshino, "What was that? The voice in the drone?"

"Oh, that's Sphinx. She's like an AI that lives in our school. The drones we use in combat are actually connected to her, although since the main computer was turned off for a while, they mostly acted by their factory programming. At least, that's what she told me."

"An AI? When did we get an AI?"

"We've had it for longer than we've been alive, I think."

"Seriously?"

Serika looked over at Yuuka, who was looking intensely at the wall.

"We didn't even know about it! Right?"

Serika looked at Nonomi, Ayane, and Shiroko, who either shook their heads or shrugged.

"Yeah. So why do you two know about it?"

"Previous student council president told me about it," Hoshino answered.

"And Yuuka?"

"I'll explain in a second," Yuuka said. "I think I found it. Here."

Yuuka pulled out a cable from a power outlet in the wall.

"Is it a good idea to let her touch stuff in this room?" Ayane asked.

Hoshino shrugged. "Probably not. I don't even understand what a fourth of these buttons do."

Yuuka walked back to the group. "It's just a plug in the wall that I'm touching. Nothing else. Feel free to put it back in when I leave."

The monitors in the room turned on, displaying an audio wavelength screen. "This feels a little uncomfortable. I don't like when I'm disconnected from the internet."

Yuuka looked at Ayane. "Can you try operating your drone now?"

Ayane tilted her head. "Sure." Ayane brought her phone out, then frowned. "I don't have wifi."

Serika groaned. "Why are we making such a big deal out of turning off the wifi?"

Yuuka stared at the monitors. "Sphinx, give me information on Takanashi Hoshino."

"Takanashi Hoshino," Sphinx replied. "Third year at Abydos High School, vice-president of the Abydos student council, and president of the Foreclosure Task Force. Likes taking naps during the day, being Abydos's unsung vigilante hero at night."

Hoshino chuckled. "I'm sure she didn't mean that last part."

Yuuka looked at Serika. "That's why. This thing knows everything about you." Turning to Hoshino, she asked, "And where's the power button for Sphinx?"

"You're going to turn me off? But I just got activated," Sphinx complained.

"Tch. You're draining electricity."

"I'm not THAT hungry for power!"

Hoshino pointed at a big red button in the center of the desk under the monitors. "That's the one."

Yuuka walked over and pushed it.

"Okay," Sphinx said. "I guess I'll… Take… A… Nap…"

The monitors in the room turned off.

Yuuka sighed. "Finally. Some privacy."

Shiroko closed the door and locked it. The Abydos students crowded around the door, blocking Yuuka from exiting.

Serika crossed her arms. "Okay smartypants, mind telling us what's going on?"

Yuuka responded. "Do you want the short version or the long version? It's not like I have anywhere to be today."

Hoshino scratched her cheek. "Both?"

Yuuka crossed her arms too. "The short version is that the student council president of Millennium is playing some sort of 5-dimensional chess. To do this, she's gathering as much data from each of the schools in Kivotos as possible. This would have happened whether or not I transferred here, by the way."

"Hmph, if she's messing with us, then I can take her on," Shiroko said.

"No. You can't," Serika replied.

Shiroko took one glance at Serika then immediately broke eye contact.

"As for the long version, well," Yuuka glanced over at the only chair in the room. "Let's find a place to get comfortable. I really do mean long version."

Hoshino sighed. "Okay. Let's get out of this cramped room then."

The group went downstairs to one of the intact classrooms. There, each of them took a seat facing each other.

"Tell me," Yuuka said. "Have you ever heard of the P vs NP problem? To oversimplify, if you can verify that a problem's solution actually solves the problem, could you go the other way and compute the solution to the problem? This is one of the greatest unsolved problems in mathematics and computer science. Nobody in Millennium, and even the entire world has solved it yet.

"So why did I transfer here? It has to do with a certain problem we were facing in Millennium. See, we had this problem. Big problem. We even knew the solution and verified that it worked. But we didn't have the steps to get to that solution. Kind of ruins that knowledge, doesn't it?"

"How does that work?" Ayane asked. "If you have the solution, you should have the steps too, right? Like the process itself is the solution."

"You would think that, but that's why in science, theory and execution are two completely different things. The theory was sound, but let me tell you about the execution."

Fortress City Eridu - 2 months ago(?)

"Hello, Sensei."

..?

This voice was completely unfamiliar. Sensei looked around the elevator to find the source of the voice, but every face was known to him. Momoi, Midori, Yuzu. Strangely, none of them seemed to hear it. Even stranger, none of them were moving. Or breathing. Or anything at all. The elevator, too, stopped, as if frozen in time.

"It's nice to meet you."

The voice came from his left, and he took a look to find a pair of unknown and shining blue eyes staring him in the face. He instinctively took a step behind him, making sure to avoid stepping on Midori's foot.

"I apologize for the abrupt introduction. I realize this might not be the best time for introductions, but I thought this might be the best time for me to introduce myself."

The lady in front of him bowed. A blue halo that resembled a clock and adorned with a skull and crossbones hovered over her head. Each of the hour marks were punctuated with thorns, and instead of an hour and minute hand, two broadswords were clashing with each other. A gaudy military uniform adorned with medals contrasted against her sickly white skin and white hair. A black blindfold covered her eyes.

"Feel free to call me 'Loremaster.' The fifth and newest member of Gematria. At least I think I'm the newest member. As for why I'm with Gematria, I'm something of a historian, and a relic of history myself. Being with them gives me plenty of opportunities to research the history of this absolutely fascinating world. I used to be one of your students, actually, but I doubt you remember me. There was so much I didn't get to explore when I was a student, but now I have all the free time in the world! And it's absolutely liberating!"

"Gematria…" Sensei looked around the elevator. The students still weren't moving, and the elevator was still stuck.

"I modified local space-time so I could have this conversation with you. Don't worry, you're not getting any older."

"Let me go," Sensei demanded. "My students need me."

"Patience, Sensei. I need to explain something to you."

"Well go on then. Make it fast."

"This… shall we say, monster you're fighting. Divi:Sion in its full form… No, even bigger. It's hijacked the entire city, yes? I want to call it a new name. How about Aleph-Null? That's sciency enough, right? Guess it doesn't matter."

"Huh?"

"Anyways, I was talking it over with my peers, and they seem absolutely convinced that not even you can take this beast down. Most of them cried their fake crocodile tears, but their actions suggested nothing but indifference. I myself, I would say I have a big soft spot for you, given my… history."

"Get to the point," Sensei scowled. His tolerance for Gematria grew lower every second.

"I'd like to make you a deal. Well, if I'm being perfectly honest, it's more like the illusion of a deal. I'm doing this whether or not you agree with me. But I wanted to give you a heads up as a courtesy. The short of it is that, Sensei, there is no way in hell that you can beat Aleph-Null."

Sensei narrowed his eyes. "My students have beat worse."

"Ah, ah, ah." Loremaster wagged a finger in front of Sensei's face. "I know all about your accomplishments, Sensei. And what the track record you have! But you might have noticed that my powers are rather interesting. Now I can see the future, and let's just say, the future is looking pretty dark. I guess you don't need foresight like I do to know that though, the present is not much better."

Sensei frowned.

"Just in case you need a reminder, the body count today is… Let's see… Rio… Aris… Neru… Karin… Toki… I think Asuna and Akane are alive right now, actually, but Akane, bless her heart, is just about to blow herself up. I think this was always gonna happen sooner or later. Oh, can't forget the entire Engineering Department. Of course, we can always expand this list. But neither of us really want that, now do we?"

"That… is true…" Sensei narrowed his eyes at the intruder. "We've lost a lot today. But we're still not out completely. As long as I can still move, I will never stop fighting for my students, and they will never stop fighting for me."

Loremaster waved her hands. "Woah there! No need to go that far. Listen, here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna give history a little… nudge. Just a teeny tiny bit. Gonna get you out of this situation entirely."

"And what's gonna happen to us?"

"Pretend like none of this ever happened."

Sensei looked at his tablet and tried turning it on. It didn't turn on.

"Yes, you could say it's similar to the Shittim Chest," Loremaster stated.

"Why are you doing this?"

"I don't think I could bear seeing Black Suit and Galconde being depressed. You've really made an impact on their hearts, you know? That's to say nothing of how I feel about you. I want to protect you too."

Sensei tilted his head, confused by her statement. "What's the catch? With Gematria, there's always a catch."

Loremaster's smile widened across her entire face.

"I'm not gonna solve EVERY problem for you! I've been quite bored for the longest time, and I want some entertainment! Now if I let things go on as they are, things are gonna get quite dark and depressing. I don't want that. But I also don't want you getting complacent either. That would not be the Sensei that I fell in love with."

"You're in love with me?"

Loremaster tilted her head and put her finger to her mouth. After a moment of silence, she shrugged. "Yes. I don't have anything to lose by telling you this. You're not gonna remember it anyways. Guess I'm still a coward after all."

The elevator suddenly ringed. The students still seemed unable to move, but the elevator door opened, revealing a black void.

"I think I don't really know when I am anymore, so I think I'm just gonna get off here." Loremaster stepped beyond the door and turned around to face Sensei. She waved goodbye at him. "Bye Sensei! It was nice seeing you in person again! I'll see you… soon."

The elevator door began closing slowly. "Now let's make history," Loremaster managed to squeeze in before the door shut entirely.

Movement resumed in the small elevator, and Momoi, Midori, and Yuzu resumed their screams as they made their way to the ground at terminal velocity.