It was already past midnight when Saito finished his work. Looking around his office, he noticed his assistant was missing from her desk. Despite this, he knew where to find her, it had been her small personal safe haven from all troubles in her life.
Pouring a cup of hot green tea, he began to walk towards the outside, where his assistant was leaning against the railing, staring at the moon.
"Good work today." He let his presence known to her.
His assistant giggled. "Should you have said 'good work yesterday'? It's half past 12 now."
"I suppose so." He chuckled. "Tea before sleep?"
The girl smiled at him and nodded, taking the cup from his hand before he joined her at the railing.
"So, what are you thinking when you are staring at the moon?" He asked. "You always seem to always have something in mind when you look up."
"Nothing much this time… just thinking about my kohais and the school."
Right, her school, he thought to himself. It's always a sensitive topic for her and her fellow schoolmates.
"I was thinking… is it better to make all of them go to other schools instead of letting them stay in the current one?" She continued. "I mean… you saw how our school is like now. I don't want to let them carry the burden that I am carrying, nor do I want them to suffer."
The girl then cuckles. "Oh dear… I was supposed to be their leader and the one that shouldn't doubt their decision… Yet I'm here feeling doubt and wonder if I should just stop."
Saito stayed silent for a bit, taking in all of her words and looking at her sad smile as she continued to stare at the moon.
"It's ok to feel doubt sometimes, that just means you are thinking of other options." He finally answered. "Maybe it is not the ideal way of solving the problem that you imagined, but I want to think that whatever you choose, the rest will back up and support you. Or maybe they will oppose it and give another solution."
"Regardless," Saito continued. "You have your juniors to help you on your way. I'm sure they are completely okay with you showing them your vulnerability and your thoughts to them."
She looks back at him and smiles. "I'll keep your words in mind, Sensei."
He nodded back at her before he began to retreat back to his office, deciding to call it a day.
"Sensei." His assistant suddenly spoke up. "... I just want to say… Thank you for the past three years."
Saito looked back, and flashed her a smile.
"No problem, Yume."
It had been a week and a half since the attack on Millennium School and recovered. It was a pretty long week for Saito, with the amount of paperworks that he needed to sign to assist them on any materials that they were lacking.
He had to thank both Rin and Yuuka for assisting him whenever they could. Maybe he can bring them for shopping or lunch in the future.
It also helped that they had assisted him in handling some of the requests of the individual students. Mostly for requesting his help on resupplying their club on an individual level, or requesting help on giving them advice on many problems they faced.
Saito did try to help them, but with the attack last week and the amount of letters and messages he had, it is simply impossible for just 1 man to handle all of them.
Still this is the first time that he had an official school letter sent to his desk.
The content of the letter is pretty simple: Okusora Ayame, a student from Abydos High School requested for assistance and supplies as they had been harassed by local gangs who are likely trying to take over Abydos school building. In the letter they had also mentioned that they had been requesting the General Student Council for help, but said organization did not respond to their cry for help.
"I need to ask Rin about this on a later date." Saito asked. There is gonna be a reason why the General Student Council was not able to help, even a tiny bit to this school. "Can you tell me more about Abydos, Arona?"
"Yeah, sure." Arona replied. "They used to be one of the largest schools in Kivotos, surpassing Trinity and Gehenna today. But they had lost their influence due to desertification and outside influence."
Hearing the summary of what Arona said about the school, Saito concluded that he really needed to talk to Rin about Abydos and why they had not received any help from the General Student Council. There has to be a reason other than budget or the fact that it is a small school.
"Guess, it is time for us to visit another school." Saito remarked as he stood up from his seat and began preparation.
As Saito picked up everything that was needed to supply the Abydos Students, he thought about how he should travel to said place. "I feel bad for Styx for basically being my personal driver every time I need to go somewhere further than the district I'm in. I wonder if I should get a vehicle of my own?"
He lets the thought go through his mind for a bit as he finishes getting everything he needs, and proceeds to call Styx if he can bring him to Abydos.
The robot agreed and was willing to get him there. There was a problem though.
"Oh, Abydos? I can help you to get there but…"
"What's wrong Styx?" Saito asked.
"I can only get you to the end of the highway towards Abydos. After that, the roads are either too narrow or blocked off by the mountains of sand."
"...Oh."
Cycling around the neighborhood is one of Shiroko's favorite activities -actually cycling in general. Sure, the Abydos district can be extremely hot on some days, but the feeling of wind rushing to her face and getting exercises before the school starts is something that Shiroko will never not enjoy.
Looking at her watch, she noticed that it is time to go to school now. She only has half an hour to cycle from where she is back to school. Then she needs more time to shower before the morning meeting.
And so the gray wolf girl quickly cycles to the residence district, a place where not many people live nowadays and local businesses are closed permanently. Rapid desertification can do that to a place. It's rare to find anyone walking this street nowadays, so a man in a suit lying on the road would definitely stick out-
Shiroko immediately slowed and stopped her bike in front of the collapsed man. Looking closer, she realized that he is a human. Not an animal person, not a robot, a human.
The man, meanwhile, did not react to her stopping in front of him and simply stared at the sky.
After staring at the man for a few more seconds, Shiroko decided to speak up seeing that he did not try to strike up a conversation "... Do you need help?" She asked him.
The man nodded, and his stomach immediately rumbled.
"Oh, thank goodness. I actually thought you were unconscious the whole time. I guess you are just hungry." She said.
Without missing a beat, Shiroko brought out an energy bar from her bag and gave it to the man. The man uses whatever energy he can muster to take the energy bar and replenish his strength.
Once he finished his food, he shakily got up. "Thank you for the energy bar, I was stuck in this place for 2 days and ran out of supplies. Can't even call the emergency number to get help here too."
Shiroko sympathizes with the man. Unless they are in a populated area, their school or places not ravaged by the desert, then any phone signals are either extremely weak or non-existent.
That begs the question. "So, why are you here in the first place?"
"I'm here for business," He quickly replied. "I had a request from Abydos High School to help them resupply and deal with the local gangs in this place. You wouldn't happen to know where the school is right?"
Shiroko then put two and two together, realizing that the man in front of her is the teacher that Ayame was talking about. "... Are you the person from Schale that we asked for help?"
The teacher immediately perked up. "Are you from Abydos High School?"
Shiroko nodded, telling him that Abydos is the only school around the area, confirming to him that she is a student from Abydos.
"Then will you bring me to your school? As you can see, I'm not from around here." He asked.
Shiroko nodded, letting out a small "Mm" and told him to follow her.
"Right, I haven't introduced myself yet." The teacher said, "Name's Sendou-Saito, and you're…"
"Sunaookami Shiroko. Nice to meet you, Mr. Sendou."
As the two began to walk to Abydos High School in silence, Saito quickly stopped and looked behind him. Lingering for a little bit, he decided to ignore the nagging feeling of someone following.
Saito silently hopes that he is wrong and there is no one actually watching them.
It took about half an hour for both Saito and Shiroko to walk to Abydos High School. When they both reached the school, Shiroko continued to lead the teacher to the meeting room.
Knocking on the door and opening it Shiroko announced her presence. "I'm back."
In the meeting room, Saito saw there were four people sitting around the table. The first person he saw was a girl with navy blue hair tied in twintails in a black school uniform and red gloves, with cat ears on her head and a pink aim sight halo.
"Welcome back, Shiro…ko?" The girl greeted the fox girl.
"Shiroko, who is that behind you?" She then asked.
Then the other girls perked up from cleaning her minigun. One of them looks a little older than the Shiroko, possibly a year older. The girl has pale blonde hair and wears a white shirt and black skirt without the tie and replaces the black blazer with a beige cardigan.
"Oh, Shiroko kidnapped someone?" She excitedly asked.
Saito lightly shook his head, trying to tell them that he was following Shiroko, but a bespectacled younger girl with pointed ears beat him to a punch. "Shiroko, you can't just take someone from the street and bring them to our school without reason."
All Shiroko and Saito could only just look at her with a blank face, and simply just tell her that it is not the case. "No, she did not kidnap me, I actually wanted to come here and she just brought me here."
"Oh…" The elf girl said. "That's a relief…"
"Visitor? Why would they want to come here?" The cat girl asked.
Saito raised his eyebrows? "Wait, who amongst you girls is name Okusora Ayame? She gave a letter to me to help this school."
Then the elf girl walked forward, "That's me, sir. And you are…"
"I'm the advisor from Schale, Sendou Saito. Nice to meet all of you."
Everyone, sans Shiroko, was shocked. Realizing that the person in front of them is basically their only outside help after so long.
"W-wait, you're really from Schale?! As in the New Federal Investigation Club?!" The cat girl asked.
The blonde girl then jumped up from excitement. "That means you're Sensei! Right? Right?"
Saito nodded and began to unpack the bag, revealing multiple different types of bullet ammos and supplies that he had taken for them. "Here, these are all the things I could pack. I'm not sure what to pack for all of you, so I just take everything I can."
Ayame then shook her head. "No, it's okay. You actually came to help us! I have to tell Hoshino about this… wait, where is she?"
The cat girl then sighs. "She should be napping in the next room. I'll go get her to come here."
Just as she quickly walked out of the room, a gunshot echoed in the air. Then one more gunshot, and then suddenly, multiple guns were fired.
"Was that-" The blonde girl asked.
Shiroko looked out the window in the room and nodded "Kata-Kata Helmet Gang," She muttered. Confirming that they were under attack by the same gang that was mentioned in the letter.
Looking outside of the window by himself, Saito saw nothing but unorganized chaos. Groups of students, all wearing biker helmets using their guns, bats or metal pipe to break anything that stands in their way.
One of them shouted. "They're out of ammo! Let loose, then take over this school!"
Shiroko's face shifts to a sneer. "They really have the nerve to come back after their last attack."
The door then slammed open, with the cat girl pulling in a smaller girl with pink hair, which is just sleeping. "I got Hoshino! Now, if she just. Wake. Up!"
The girl then kept tugging at the pink haired girl, Hoshino, but all the smaller girl did was yawn and rub her eyes slowly.
"Five more minutes." She mumbled with a goofy smile.
Ayame then joined in to shake Hoshino up. "Now's not the time to sleep! The Helmet Gang is here… and Sensei from Schale is here to help too!"
The pink haired girl then finally decides to stand up on her own with her goofy smile. "Well, that's a problem. And hi, Sensei."
Saito could only just awkwardly nod at her, not sure how to react.
"Just get up and get your butt in gear! Literally! Those girls are trashing our school right now!"
"Haaa… do they know it's rude to interrupt someone's nap? I hate the Helmet Gang." Hoshino groaned before she walked towards the supplies of ammo.
With everyone beginning to arm themselves to defend their school Saito looked back outside to strategize on how to push the enemy away.
Only he found a strange scene of a cloaked figure standing among them.
"Is that person… looking at me?"
"We're ready, Sensei."
Hearing Ayame's voice made Saito turn back to the students, where all of them raised their weapons ready.
He quickly turned his head back outside, but the cloaked figure was gone. Saito wondered if that was just his eyes toying with him, or the person was there to begin with.
The teacher shook his head. Whether or not the person was there, he needs to focus on helping them right now.
"So here is the strategy…"
Wooo! Got this out in 2 months, baby!
… Which isn't really that big of an achievement, but now you know how low I set the bar when it comes to the upload gap.
So yes, this is again, a shorter chapter and it is more of a set up again. This time we are getting into Volume 1.
Now a little bit on the beginning part of this chapter, there will be some of you confused why it is there, I'll just say it is something that I want to try and experiment with, because I find there are not many people trying this kind of concept.
If you do at least know the spoilers in Volume F, then it's kinda obvious what I want to try to do.
Anyway, there is not much I want to say, I just hope I am motivated enough to get the next chapter out quicker while I sit on my plastic chair.
Momo talk #3: Take up the promise
Saito: Thanks for the help in the past week, Rin, Yuuka.
Rin: There is no problem, Sensei. Just doing my part of the job.
Yuuka: And those documents will be sent to GSC and Millenium anyway, so it is just more efficient this way.
Arona: Hey, where is my thanks, Sensei? I did contribute too, you know.
Saito: I know, thank you Arona. Still, I still want to thank all of you.
Saito: I'm sure all of us are hungry now, so how about we all go get dinner together? My treat.
Yuuka: Do you even have the money to treat us now, Sensei?
Saito: Don't worry, my bank account can handle a few dinners.
Rin: Well, I guess I'll consider this as taking up your promise with me?
Saito: I guess you can say that.
Yuuka: Promise? Sensei, please elaborate on that.
Saito: I'll tell you when we meet up at the front of the Schale Building.