SURPRISE CHAPTER 4 LET'S GO
For returning readers, I expanded on Chapter 3 a bit, so check that out first.
Although the air reeked of smoke and gasoline fumes, he didn't smell charred flesh. That was a good sign. Probably.
"...better not be dead!"
Dead? Nah, not yet.
He was definitely getting tinnitus from all this 80's action movie bullshit, though. Somewhere through the throbbing in his head he heard faint yelling; muted gunshots; distant explosions. Yuuka screaming in his face wasn't making it any better.
"...would that Gehenna girl do? C'mon, think…!"
If he were cognizant enough to form words, Jasper would've suggested calming the fuck down, moving him someplace safe, and letting him sleep. It was hot – way too hot. Displaced asphalt dug into his back. Every muscle in his body ached. He was tired. Also a little thirsty.
Yuuka was able to help with that last one, at least. He sputtered and opened his eyes when lukewarm water splashed over his face.
"You're awake," she sighed in relief, twisting her canteen's cap back on and stuffing it into her coat pocket. His vision hadn't fully readjusted yet, but it seemed a bit singed around the edges. She raised her hand into view. "How many fingers am I holding up?"
He broke into a brief coughing fit when he tried to speak, so instead he lifted his own hand and mimicked the correct number: four.
None of the tension in her expression lightened, though she did give a satisfied nod. "Wakamo ambushed us," she said. Jasper let out a groan. No shit. "I think she's trying to stall us until her reinforcements arrive. Don't worry, we'll take care of her. Just stay here, okay?"
Her tone was professional, but there was fear in her eyes, clear as day.
…Huh. Maybe it was because of the light from the burning SUV, but when he took a closer look at those bluish-purple orbs, he noticed red dots in the center of her pupils. Interesting how he just now noticed that.
The Millennium student drew her submachine guns with practiced ease, then rose to her full height, which was still almost a foot shorter than him. Jasper screwed his eyes shut so he wouldn't see up her skirt.
"That fuzzy hooligan's gonna pay for making me work double overtime!" Yuuka thundered. He heard the telltale sound indicating she'd activated her magical energy shield.
Wait! Stop! Don't leave meeeeeeee!
His mental pleading failed to reach her. She left him alone behind the flaming vehicle, charging headlong into battle; the rapid tat-tat-tat of her SMGs reached his ears moments later.
Okay, cool, if she was that eager to settle a grudge against an extremely dangerous gang leader, Jasper wasn't going to stop her. Not like he could if he wanted to, anyway. But what about him? He wasn't safe here! He needed to find a place where a stray bullet wouldn't cap his ass!
He flipped onto his front, moaning, then lifted himself off the pavement high enough to crawl around what was left of the SUV. He knew he needed to get away. Hide from the danger. That needed to be his first priority.
A small, insistent part of him on the other hand told Jasper to locate the rest of the girls first.
He took a huge risk and leaned into the open.
{Fitting Music: Voltaic Black Knight (DMC5 OST)}
Her black-haired opponent dodged the thrust by a hair's breadth and rapidly backpedaled, trying to create space between them, but Kosaka Wakamo's assault was relentless. She admittedly wondered what compelled the taller girl to engage in CQC – she didn't spot a melee weapon of any sort on her person – though if Cow Tits was that eager to get herself cut to pieces, Wakamo wouldn't complain. Quite the opposite, actually.
"Dance for me, Trinity sheep! Dance like it's your last day on this miserable earth!" she cackled, taking another swipe with her rifle bayonet.
The blade dug into polished wood when the tall student raised her weapon in a desperate attempt to block. Undeterred, Wakamo lashed out again, kneeing the Trinity girl in the stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of her. She dropped her gun and doubled over, gasping for air.
Wakamo would give her no reprieve. She had no pity for those who blindly followed the GSC, even as the federal organization's power continued to disintegrate across Kivotos.
She shot the other student point-blank in the leg, bringing her down to one knee. Lifting the girl's chin with the sharp side of her bayonet, she forced her to stare down Crimson Calamity's barrel, and Wakamo had to give the Trinity whore credit when she saw the defiance in her eyes – even when looking Death in the face, she refused to cry or beg.
Foolish, but admirable.
Wakamo cycled her rifle, ready to make her regret her foolishness when gunfire originating from very close by made her fox ears twitch. She let out a pained hiss as her whole left side was peppered by small-caliber rounds; despite its lack of raw stopping power, 9mm bullets still stung like bee venom.
"Get away from her, you bitch!" a girl with purple hair and a white jacket shouted mid-reload.
Hmm. The force field surrounding her would've been an issue if she didn't have a five-to-one advantage in manpower.
"Concentrate fire on that shield!" She commanded, diving behind cover with her closest units.
They obeyed without question, hosing down the GSC loyalist with automatic gunfire even as she stubbornly kept up her push.
In truth, Wakamo wasn't terribly worried about her. She wasn't concerned about the Trinity cow hobbling away either, nor the flashbang-lobbing madwoman making her shotgunners' lives miserable. They'd all be dealt with in short order.
Contrary to whatever smear campaign the General Student Council might've peddled, she hadn't recruited all of her gang through intimidation and fear. More like two-thirds.
The rest sought her out willingly. Their reasons varied as much as their hair colors: Some looked to make a quick yen off pilfered goods; nothing more, nothing less. Others fought to earn a place by her side once she'd established a new world order, risen from the ashes of the GSC.
Wakamo was convinced those individuals only knew her by reputation, otherwise they wouldn't have aligned with a self-confessed anarchist… but they also loved blowing stuff up, and really, that was all she needed them to do.
The majority of them, however, were victims of the government's tyranny and incompetence, seeking revenge for the forced closure of their academies. They wouldn't stop until the GSC knew their pain – the feeling of helplessness as they lost everything and everyone dear to them.
The politicians were still out of reach unfortunately, at least for the time being, so they made do by taking their fury out on the GSC's lackeys. A task they carried out with zeal, as the purple-haired lapdog found out the hard way; Wakamo heard a startled "What the-?!" as her barrier shattered into pieces less than thirty feet from where they'd hunkered down.
The escaped prisoner smiled under her white fox mask. Time to play with her prey.
She gracefully leapt over the concrete divider, resting her rifle over her shoulder. Just to toy with the purple-haired twit, she beckoned her closer with her index finger, not saying a word.
The girl took the bait hook, line, and sinker. She bolted toward Wakamo, laying down fire with her SMGs and fuming mad. Several shots hit the masked felon but her halo absorbed the brunt of the damage; she brought her weapon forth and readied herself, waiting for her opponent to come just a little bit closer, closer–
Wakamo charged. She glimpsed the purple berserker's eyes widening; the girl took a clumsy swing at her with one of her guns but Wakamo was faster, sidestepping past it while simultaneously bringing Crimson Calamity's buttstock down on the back of her head.
The dull crack was music to her fuzzy ears. The girl lost her grip on one SMG and hit the ground hard, tumbling uncontrollably until coming to rest on her stomach.
"Ooh, that sounded like it hurt~" the suspended student giggled.
Her teasing comment awarded her a hostile glare from the GSC errand girl. Without breaking eye contact, she hauled herself to her feet, extending the stock on her remaining weapon.
"That was nothing compared to the hospital bill I'm gonna leave you with," she snapped.
Wakamo loved it when the prey bit back. "Well, aren't you a spirited little spitfire~! You're a bold one. I like that." Her cackling intensified. "Then again, I shouldn't be surprised. You must have a lot of self-confidence to wear such a miniscule skirt, heehee~"
"WHAT'S THAT GOT TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!"
The girl's outburst was punctuated by a storm of gunfire. Wakamo dodged into a deft roll, her mask concealing her malicious grin.
Amazing how she'd come here to investigate on a hunch after one of her patrols failed to report in. The GSC probably thought they were clever, attempting to slip a small group of students under her nose while she was preoccupied with her old friends at Valkyrie. Seeing as the girls all came from different schools, it must've been a desperate, last-ditch plan.
Doubly so considering the fifth member of their group – a tall human in an orange jumpsuit. Another prisoner? If they thought bringing a hostage would dissuade her from attacking, then not only were they dead wrong, they'd proven once and for all that the government would sacrifice its own citizens for the sake of holding onto power.
How utterly abhorrent.
Still, Wakamo found herself curious about the prisoner, even though she hadn't gotten a good look at him. She wasn't even sure if he was still alive.
She'd have to wait until afterward to see what that was about. Right now, the Fox of Calamity was on the hunt.
They were getting fucking annihilated out there.
It honestly would've been the perfect "I told you so" moment if they weren't all in danger of getting overwhelmed and killed. At the rate the battle was deteriorating, Jasper probably wasn't going to live long enough to mock the girls for their stupidity.
As much as he would've relished a victory over Hasumi, even if it was a petty one, he couldn't help feeling worried for her. The tall student was in full retreat, but it was too little too late; she was moving with a limp after taking a nasty hit to the leg. Worse was how she was still under heavy fire – the delinquents smelled blood, and they weren't going to let their prey escape so easily. She barely made it to a half-demolished concrete roadblock before collapsing behind it.
Suzumi was holding on by the skin of her teeth. What her opponents lacked in finesse, they made up for in numbers, flanking and harassing the white-haired angel, keeping her on the move and out in the open. She fought back smartly – throwing a flash grenade before each break from cover was a tactic Jasper took note of – but she was visibly tiring, and she'd be in deep shit if or when her ammo reserves ran dry.
Yuuka bore the worst of it, however. Despite putting up one hell of a fight against Wakamo, without her barrier, she was getting smacked around almost effortlessly by the gang leader. Whenever she aimed to close the gap, the business end of Wakamo's bayonet repelled her; if she tried to play it safe and keep her distance, she'd be punished by gunfire and grenades.
And then there was Wakamo herself. She cut a striking figure in her floral-patterned black robes, though the pointy fox ears on her white mask were kinda redundant since, well, she already had fox ears. Like, real ones. And a big fluffy tail to boot.
Jasper would've thought it a tactical disadvantage if he hadn't just seen her somersault over Yuuka, slip an explosive in her pocket, then kick her out of range before detonating it.
Wait. Chinatsu… Where was Chinatsu?
He leaned further out, hoping to spot the medic in the chaos. Big mistake: one of Wakamo's lackeys noticed him, turning her weapon away from Hasumi. Bullets raked the side of the SUV and he yelped, quickly darting back into cover.
"Oh shit…" He couldn't stop shaking. His heart felt like it was going to burst from his chest. "Oh shit oh shit oh shitshitshit…!"
A single round penetrated through a thinner area of metal inches from Jasper's side. He shrieked again and ducked lower, feebly shielding his head with his arms– just as a small round object rolled to a stop a half dozen feet to his left.
What was-
Oh fuck a grenade-!
He didn't think – he acted, leaping away from the SUV moments before the grenade exploded into lethal shrapnel. There wasn't any immediate pain other than where he'd landed on his shoulder but that was only momentary relief; he'd been forced into the open and he was way too close to the fireworks show. The girls were getting overrun, and, and–
Screw this, I'm running for my life!
If Rin wanted this stupid ugly building so badly, she could come to the outskirts and take it herself. Jasper wasn't dying for people he barely knew to save a city he didn't care about.
He stumbled to his feet and bolted in the opposite direction of Schale without looking back.
What had Kivotos ever done for him, anyway? Practically every student he'd met thus far either insulted him, threatened him, and/or actively tried to kill him. He didn't stop to think about how he was abandoning Chinatsu and Yuuka; he needed to escape this hellhole, now.
Jasper pushed himself to run faster when he heard footsteps chasing him. He didn't know if it was friend or foe in pursuit and frankly he didn't give a fuck; all that mattered was getting out of Dodge before–
THUD!
A pothole.
He tripped on a damn pothole.
"Oh no you don't!" Suzumi threw her full weight on him when he tried to stand up. She wrestled with his arms, pinning them behind his back. "You're not going anywhere!"
Where the bejeezus did she come from?! Wasn't she busy fighting?!
"Get off of me!" Jasper bucked and thrashed like a wild animal, but Suzumi rode him like a pro cowgirl. The small part of his brain that wasn't shitting itself in fear belatedly realized how wrong that sounded. "I said let go! It's not safe here!"
"Nowhere will be safe if we lose Schale!" she argued. "Don't you get it? This isn't an isolated incident! Riots like this one are happening all over the city, and they'll only get worse as long as the GSC's cut off from the Sanctum Tower! Now get back there!"
And do WHAT? He wondered as she yanked him to his feet and pushed him forward with her gun's buttstock for the second time this hour. What did Suzumi expect him to do? Cheer them on from the sideline?
Strip naked and throw his jumpsuit at Wakamo?
Why was he seriously considering that?
In the end he chose to go prone on the asphalt, because hey, less chance of getting capped that way, right? If he couldn't run, then making himself into a smaller target was the next best option. He spotted an intact, unoccupied concrete barrier ahead; he inched towards it, only focused on reaching safety, not the hellish war around him.
It was slow going. He was nearly struck twice by stray shots, and both times he came close to freezing up and shutting down, though he managed to fight back the panic and persist.
Eventually, after what felt like a small eternity, Jasper made it to the barrier and huddled up behind it. Shaking like a crackhead going through withdrawal, he shut his eyes, covered his ears, and opened his mouth.
"CHINATSU!" he cried out for his only lifeline. "Chinatsu, HELP!"
No response. He didn't even know why he'd called her name. Had he somehow deluded himself into believing the elf girl could pull off a miracle and save them? Maybe a subconscious part of him wanted to bleed out and die next to a friendly face. He just didn't know anymore.
"Chinatsu…!" Jasper moved his hands to his eyes, now wet with tears. He sobbed in silence for who-knew-how-long. Gunfire continued to rage right behind his little bit of cover.
Faint, rapid footfalls suddenly stopped right next to him. "Sensei!" a welcome voice exclaimed. A gloved hand stroked his cheek. "Finch-sensei, I'm here! Look at me!"
His vision was blurry, though he still recognized the kind-hearted medic. He noted she had her pistol drawn. "I…" he shuddered. "Chinatsu, I…"
"Shhh. Deep breaths. Keep looking at me," the Gehenna student instructed. She gently removed his hands from his face, then pulled a rag from her bag to wipe away the tears. "I'm so sorry! Those thugs swooped in as soon as the van exploded! Then when I found my glasses I saw Suzumi getting swarmed, and I wanted to look for you but she needed backup, and…"
She reached forward as if to hug him, though she seemingly changed her mind halfway through and pulled back, blushing. "I'm so glad you're okay, Finch-sensei," she said with some awkwardness. "Are you hurt anywhere?"
…There was that fucking word again.
Anger manifested out of nowhere. It was hot, it was bright, and unfortunately for Chinatsu – who'd simply been trying to help – Jasper directed it straight at her before he could stop himself.
"Stop calling me that!" he bellowed over the sounds of heavy combat. He shoved her away and shouted, "I'm not your damn sensei! I'm not a teacher, or whatever it is you think I am! I'm… I'm just a…!"
A troublemaker from small town America. A bum whose family gave up on him. A moron who'd thoughtlessly accepted a job he wasn't qualified for so he could get out of prison early.
A failure with no one to blame but himself.
The anger extinguished itself as quickly as it came. Jasper buried his face into his knees, wrapping his arms around his legs. "I wanna go home, Chinatsu…" he choked out. "I want my brother! I-I don't know if I'm gonna… Oh, god…"
He felt faint, sweaty. He was beginning to hyperventilate and he couldn't stop trembling. His fucking chest felt like a pincushion full of needles.
Chinatsu was sharp enough to notice something was wrong as well as kind enough to put his outburst behind her. "Breathe, Sensei! Breathe! Look at me. Breathe through your diaphragm. Your stomach, not your chest. Inhale for five seconds, hold it for two, then exhale for five."
Jasper wasn't sure this was how you treated a panic attack… although her breathing exercises hadn't failed to work yet, so what the hell, he'd give it a shot.
The elf-eared medic watched him carefully as he put her orders into practice. "About you not being a teacher… maybe you're right. Teachers don't normally wear prison uniforms. Or swear in front of their students," she admitted. "But even if you aren't a teacher now, I still think you have the potential to become one. A great one."
Jasper slumped lower and groaned. "Gee, thanks. I'll remember that if we're not all dead in ten minutes."
"Finch-sensei." Chinatsu grabbed his shoulder and looked him straight in the eye. Her burning yellow gaze was the most intense he'd ever seen. "Although the GSC president was near-unanimously regarded as a whimsical fool, no one can say she didn't care about Kivotos. I believe she never, ever would've chosen you to lead Schale if she thought you couldn't succeed."
She gave him a reassuring squeeze. "I have faith in her plan, Finch-sensei, whatever it may be. More importantly, I have faith in you."
Jasper stared at her in awe. What really startled him was that Chinatsu sounded a hundred percent sincere; despite facing impossible odds, she still held onto hope that he'd somehow turn the tide and lead them to victory.
Mark had given up, but Chinatsu still believed in him.
…
…
…
She watched too many drama flicks.
"Okay look, that was an awesome inspirational speech, and normally this would be the part where I tear my shirt off and start shooting lasers from my nipples, but sadly that ain't happening." He flinched and cussed under his breath when a bullet chipped the side of their cover. "I still don't know what to fucking do!"
"There has to be a way you can help!" she insisted, without offering any ideas.
Letting out an aggrieved sigh, Jasper peeked over the barrier, quickly spotting Hasumi's heavily wounded figure a short distance ahead. Her uniform was disheveled and pockmarked with holes, and her leg looked like it was ready to give out. She stayed standing however, stubbornly refusing to retreat or even take cover as she plinked away at Wakamo's backline.
Her tunnel vision made her miss a random grenade bouncing perilously close. It exploded before he could shout a warning, the concussive force throwing the dark angel back and slamming her against a car. She collapsed with a pained yell and didn't get back up.
"Hasumi!" he gasped. "Wait, what's wrong with her halo? Why's it flickering?"
"She's taken too much damage! It's reaching its limit!" Chinatsu frantically explained. It was the first time Jasper saw her truly terrified. "If the halo breaks, Hasumi dies!"
And then it'll all be over, he realized, feeling a cold chill run down his spine.
He hurriedly scanned the battlefield. Yuuka's shield was up again, though she remained on the receiving end of a one-sided thrashing. Suzumi was tied up by the delinquents' remaining vanguard, engaging the bulk of them by herself. Neither of them were able to reach their fallen comrade.
Jasper Finch mentally psyched himself up for what was about to be the dumbest stunt of his life.
"Chinatsu, cover me!" He didn't give her a chance to reply before mantling over the divider and launching into a dead sprint towards the injured student.
He was relieved to find the fallen angel hadn't been knocked out – dragging her unconscious body would've been a death sentence for them both. She'd lifted herself onto her elbow, gasping and groaning when Jasper reached her.
He knelt at her side, not wasting a moment. "On your feet! C'mon, we gotta go!" he urged, hooking an arm around her waist and scooping up her rifle with his free hand.
Hasumi's red eyes widened in shock. "You…!"
"Me," he confirmed. He helped her stand upright, slinging her left arm securely over his shoulder. "Let's go!"
To Jasper's amazement, Hasumi nodded without protest, allowing him to guide her slowly back to safety. Emphasis on 'slowly' because holy crap, she really needed to lay off the junk food. He would've advised her to go on a diet if they weren't in a life-or-death situation.
Wakamo's goon squad wasn't making his task easier – several of them noticed they were exposed. Defenseless. Vulnerable. He tried his hardest not to focus on the lead flying past their heads; only on the elf-eared girl loading and firing her pistol at breakneck speed behind a solid piece of cover thirty feet ahead.
Hasumi draped one of her humongous wings over his back. She grunted every so often, her face contorting in agony as they were assailed by a heavy barrage of gunfire, and it took Jasper a second to realize what was happening.
She's shielding me with her wings, it dawned on him. She's protecting me.
Her selfless act spurred him forward. It didn't take much longer for him to make it back to his little concrete bastion, where he safely deposited Hasumi (i.e. dropped her like a sack of bricks) next to a waiting Chinatsu.
Unfortunately, that was when she stopped being cooperative.
"Don't touch me, Prefect!" She growled and swatted the medic's hand away from her injured leg.
"You're bleeding. You need medical attention!" Chinatsu insisted.
Hasumi wasn't backing down that easily, however. "I've embarrassed myself enough by relying on a criminal to carry me. I won't let a student from Gehenna Academy ruin what's left of my pride!"
Oh he was so fucking beyond done with this stubborn bitch and her bullshit. He grabbed the angel's forearms roughly and forced her to look at him, frustration and rage surging back to the forefront. This time however, he didn't even attempt to keep a lid on it.
"Shut! UP! Just shut the hell up!" he screamed right in her face. "She's trying to help you, you stupid, nasty, prejudiced, bull-headed piece of human shit! Now get your head out of your ass and let her do her damn job!"
Jasper purposefully ignored both girls' horrified expressions as he turned away to pick up Hasumi's rifle. He hefted it, getting a feel for the weapon's weight. "Is this thing loaded?"
The huge schoolgirl had trouble forming words. "Erm… I, um…."
It appeared he'd broken her big fat mouth. In hindsight, he'd probably crossed a line chewing her out like that.
He'd apologize if they lived to see tomorrow. "Is it loaded or not?!" he angrily repeated.
"The- There's three shots left in the clip," Hasumi stammered. She gave no further protest when Chinatsu began administering first aid, continuing to stare at Jasper like he was her drunk father with a belt. "...What are you doing?"
He answered her by settling the gun's barrel on the lip of the divider. He inhaled a deep breath, aimed the sights at the small band of thugs harassing Suzumi, and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
A delinquent carrying a battered assault rifle let out a surprised "Holy-!", distracted by the fresh hole blown into the side of the hot dog stand she was using for cover.
Jasper grimaced. The shot was painfully loud and the recoil battered his shoulder but he'd cry about it later; he ducked down, fiddling with the rifle's bolt handle until he figured out how to rack it. He popped up like a meerkat and fired again.
Bang!
He hit a mailbox this time.
"WHO'S SHOOTING AT US?!" another thug cried. She caught sight of Jasper before he could disappear behind cover; she reacted in an instant, swinging her machine gun around in his direction–
–and earned herself a flashbang to the face for taking her attention away from Suzumi.
The white-haired angel unleashed a sudden storm of gunfire on the gang members, quickly knocking two of them out of the fight, seizing upon the momentary confusion to launch her counterattack. She lobbed another of her signature "So you wanna be like Helen Keller" grenades at a trio of thugs who'd taken shelter behind an overturned dumpster; with their buddies scattering like leaves in the wind, they were practically sitting ducks, helpless as she closed in to finish them off.
Jasper's last shot was another miss, but he didn't care. He'd achieved his goal. Suzumi was already mopping up the remnants of Wakamo's vanguard, sometimes taking a potshot or two at the foxy felon herself.
He handed the rifle back to its owner. "It's empty!"
"Your marksmanship is atrocious, Sensei," Hasumi grumbled, though she still accepted it and replaced the clip for him.
The fact that she'd called him by his proper title completely flew over his head. "Whaddaya want from me? I've never shot a gun before!" he argued back.
"Your shooting stance looks like you're constipated," Chinatsu pointed out.
"The hell did you just say to me?!"
Was she taking her rival's side? Traitor!
Jasper fired again and again, never landing any hits. That was more his fault than the rifle's; he'd only held a firearm once before, years ago when he couldn't feed his addiction and resorted to–
No stop don't think about it.
"Give me that!" Hasumi snatched her weapon away when he'd expended the clip. "You're wasting ammo! Let me show you how it's done!"
He looked at her bandaged leg, then at Chinatsu.
The medic shrugged. "I wouldn't object to her providing suppressive fire, as long as she doesn't leave this spot."
"Then target that Wakamo chick first! We've gotta get her away from Yuuka!" He peered around the barrier, racking his brain for ideas. He quickly found one. "On the count of three, I'm gonna make a dash for that van up there," he told the girls. "Cover me while I move!"
Both of them nodded. Chinatsu repositioned Hasumi on her side, helping the latter get a better angle to rest her rifle.
Jasper braced himself. "One, two… three!"
The gun went boom and he took off, racing toward a news van marked 'KNN' parked halfway inside a dessert café. A gang member was slumped unconscious beside the rear doors. He reached the van without any resistance – Hasumi's sniper fire was already paying dividends – and waved to Suzumi, who'd taken the hot dog stand on the other side of the street for herself.
"The backline! Suppress the backline!" he hollered.
She looked genuinely surprised to see him (which made zero sense considering she'd been the one to drag him back into this mess). She gave a single nod of acknowledgement, braced her assault rifle on the cart and mag dumped into the eleven-ish delinquents still standing.
He watched the battle unfold with bated breath. His students were gaining momentum, but it was too early to say they'd seized the advantage. Everything hung in the balance–
Whoa, hold on, rewind a fucking second: Did he just refer to these self-destructive child soldiers as his students?
Hayase Yuuka prided herself on her mathematical skills.
And why shouldn't she? She took to numbers like a duck to water. If Seminar's treasurer was even a fraction less capable of organizing club budgets, Millennium Science School would've been reduced to a bankrupt hole in the earth ages ago.
That said, she wasn't perfect, and as much as Yuuka loathed to admit it, she'd badly miscalculated her chances against Wakamo.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish C&C were here! She privately fumed as she jammed her last magazine into place. A seemingly never-ending rain of bullets pummeled the divider she was using as cover, spraying bits of dust and debris into her hair; the escaped prisoner's thugs ensured she couldn't get a moment to catch her breath. If she wanted to decapitate the snake, she needed to move hard and fast.
The high-pitched beep, beep signaling her cover was soon to be blown to smithereens spurred her into action.
Yuuka manifested her protective barrier and charged forward moments before the delayed explosive detonated, the blast throwing her off-balance even as her shield took the brunt of the impact. She quickly steadied herself and kept up her push, ignoring the spiderweb cracks accumulating on the shield's surface as she unloaded her MPX at the oriental outlaw calmly returning fire from her perch atop a school bus.
Said outlaw flinched as several shots found their mark. It gave Yuuka a confidence boost – Wakamo was agile and packed some ferocious firepower, but she was evidently a glass cannon. If she could just close the gap, get in a few more well-placed shots in–
She was taken by surprise when Wakamo chucked a grenade; she dove away, but the explosion destroyed her shield, tiny flecks of translucent blue fluttering into the air before dissolving into nothing.
Yuuka stumbled to her feet, gasping, though her breath caught in her throat when she saw a figure in a set of black floral robes standing inches in front of her. A long, smooth metal object pressed against the back of her neck; she barely had time to register that it was Wakamo's rifle when the fox suddenly jerked it forward and down, bringing the weapon – and Yuuka's face – straight into her waiting knee.
Her SMG slipped from her hand as she collapsed in a heap.
"Oh dear, it seems I've already broken my new plaything. What a shame." Yuuka heard the felon tsk-tsk through the throbbing in her skull. Listening to her gloat was painful, figuratively and literally.
Wakamo planted her foot on Yuuka's chest, aiming for her heart, and the Millennium student shut her eyes as she squeezed the trigger.
Bang!
"Guh-!"
Her eyes flew open. Wakamo was reeling, an ugly purple splotch forming on the felon's collarbone where she'd taken a hit. Another shot struck her square in the stomach, eliciting a wounded snarl and forcing her into retreat.
Yuuka grunted in effort as she stood up. She rubbed her head as she looked around in a daze, noticing the tattooed adult in the orange jumpsuit spastically waving his arms at her behind a poorly parked Kronos news van. Was he trying to call her over?
She retrieved her weapon and quickly navigated across the wrecked street before regrouping with him.
"I told you to stay put!" she scolded.
"Stop fighting like you've got a death wish!" he barked, completely ignoring her. She yelped when he grabbed her forearms and lightly shook her. "You! Are! The tank! Your job is to distract the bad guys so they don't focus on us! If you wanna get in close, fine, but don't just rush in without a plan!"
Yuuka blinked once, then twice. "When did you become a battlefield tactician?"
"I'm actually just making shit up on the fly," he admitted, "but a bad plan's still better than no plan, right?"
While she agreed with him…
"I'm out of ammo," she sighed, removing the empty magazine from her MPX and tossing it away. No point holding onto it.
His response was to reach around him and pull out a TEC-9 along with three loaded mags. "Borrowed this from Sleeping Beauty here," he motioned with his head to the unconscious girl adjacent to them.
Yuuka frowned slightly as she accepted the pistol. The slotted barrel extension looked ready to fall off, while crude tool marks on the receiver suggested it'd been converted for automatic fire. A potential problem considering how light and awkward it felt to hold.
Beggars couldn't be choosers though, so she nodded in gratitude and inserted a magazine. "Better than nothing, I suppose. Fine – we'll try this your way."
He nodded back, clapping her on the shoulder. "Fight smarter, not harder."
She'd ask some other time how he'd miraculously gotten Trinity and Gehenna students to work together – they had a group project to finish first, and all four of them needed to contribute to its success.
Yuuka darted toward a pile of sandbags in the center of the street, then pushed forward again, taking stock of the battle as she moved. That white-haired girl from Trinity was making the delinquents' lives hell, pinning them behind cover with a relentless barrage of gunfire and flash grenades while her darker counterpart punished them each time they exposed their heads or limbs. The thugs' only retaliation was to ineffectively blind-fire, effectively giving Yuuka free reign to move wherever she pleased.
She refused to believe the immature prisoner Rin called 'Sensei' had accounted for this in his strategy.
On the subject of prisoners, it didn't take long for her to locate Wakamo; the Hyakkiyako student's mask and animal traits easily gave away her position behind the same school bus. She was in the opening engagement of a sniper duel with Hasumi, apparently oblivious to Yuuka's presence nearby.
Part of her wanted to press the attack, until she recalled the adult's instructions. So instead she stayed put behind the sandbags, biding her time as she watched the firefight unfold. She waited until Wakamo retreated into cover to reload.
Now!
Yuuka activated her barrier and sprinted to the bus's opposite end. She kept it raised as she stealthily moved down its side, out of the gang's sight, keeping her machine pistol pointed ahead.
She caught Wakamo completely by surprise, grinning as she imagined the fox's shocked expression beneath her mask.
"Where did you-?!"
Her sentence cut off as Yuuka opened fire and pelted her with bullets. The TEC-9 jumped in her hands like an angry snake but at point-blank range it didn't matter; Wakamo shouted and backed away, straight into the open where a follow-up shot from Hasumi floored her.
However, just because she was down didn't mean she was suddenly out. She grabbed her rifle and fired it repeatedly as she scooted backward, attempting to keep Yuuka at bay.
"Someone shoot her!" she shrieked with a tinge of desperation. "I said shoot her! Are you idiots blind?!"
A flashbang went off as if on cue.
"Argh! You useless, no-good pieces of…!"
Wakamo's halo glowed, the red light intensifying into a menacing aura. She fired at Yuuka in a last act of defiance, the purple-haired student freezing in place as the explosive bullet partially lodged itself into her barrier.
Her genius mind went blank. She'd never seen this happen before. Then again, she'd never put her shield through this amount of abuse. Should she try to just endure the explosion? Could she? She put on a brave front, but on the inside, Yuuka was exhausted.
"Drop the shield and run!" a male's voice called.
That guy again?
Yuuka's brain rebooted enough to obey his order. She deactivated her shield and retreated behind the bus, Wakamo's trick bullet exploding harmlessly on the ground shortly after.
Coincidentally, it detonated around the same time Suzumi knocked the last of the delinquent gang into dreamland, leaving their leader the only one left standing. Yuuka normally scoffed at imaginary concepts like 'luck', although she couldn't deny that the calculated odds of her group making such a huge comeback were abysmally slim.
"My my, what an intriguing turn of events… I never expected this outcome." Wakamo slowly backed away from the two students advancing on her, pivoting her rifle between them. She was oddly calm despite being cornered. "It seems you can't hire good help nowadays. Then again… they say you get what you pay for, and they all volunteered for free, heehee~"
"Enough chit-chat! Drop your weapon and put your hands behind your head!" Suzumi commanded.
Wakamo's fox ears twitched and swiveled. "Why so eager? The show's not over yet," she chuckled. "You don't want to miss the grand finale…"
Something about that statement rubbed Yuuka the wrong way. Concluding that knocking her out would be the pragmatic answer, she fired her machine pistol at Wakamo to shut her up – then cursed when the cheap piece of junk jammed after only a few shots. The escaped felon winced at the impact but made no move to defend herself.
"Clearly I've outstayed my welcome. No matter. My job here is done," she said cryptically. Before anyone could ask what she meant, Wakamo popped a hidden flare at lightning speed and tossed it, concealing her from Yuuka and Suzumi's vision with a cloud of thick red smoke.
A gunshot rang out. "She's escaping! After her!" Hasumi yelled, staggering towards them with Chinatsu and the adult in tow.
"Eh, let her go. She's not why we're here." The guy with no halo – Jasper – shook his head. Though after seeing his leadership, Yuuka supposed she wouldn't mind calling him Sensei.
He looked at their devastated surroundings. "Soooo… is that it? Did we win?"
Yuuka opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a deep, mechanical rumbling from up ahead.
The flare wasn't just meant to cover Wakamo's retreat; it was also a beacon to mark their location. Jasper pieced it together right as a large boxy object rolled onto Schale's street, partially obscured by smoke.
He didn't need to ask what it was, or what was about to happen. He screamed "EVERYBODY DOWN!" and leapt behind a sandbag half a second before Wakamo's trump card blew its 40mm load.
BOOOOOM!
A heavy shell streaked over the group's heads and punched a gaping hole into a building all the way on the street's opposite end. As if that weren't lethal enough, the sonic boom shattered every window in the vicinity, sending a wave of broken glass cascading towards them – towards him.
"Shit!" Jasper glimpsed the shards above and curled into a ball, hoping against hope they wouldn't kill him.
"Sensei!"
One of his students – Yuuka, going by the voice – threw her full weight onto his back and hastily summoned her barrier, shielding them from the shower of glass fragments. He was too chickenshit to open his eyes until it subsided.
She still had to pry his hands off his face. "Good, you're not hurt. What do we do now?"
He didn't need to think twice. "RUN!"
He hauled himself up and took off, dragging Yuuka with him. The pair were soon joined by Chinatsu and Suzumi, both girls helping support Hasumi. He didn't look back at the metal beast rumbling in pursuit.
"That's a Crusader Type 1! It's the same as the tanks used at our academy!" Hasumi informed the group.
The tank boomed out another shell, smashing another human-sized hole through the wall of another building.
Curiosity won out and he took a glance behind. If he had to describe the Crusader's appearance in two words, they would've been 'diarrhea vomit' – mainly because the chassis was painted a hideous mottled brown, and partly because of the green rims on the wheels. 'Kaiser PMC' was proudly inscribed in white on the turret's left side.
It reminded him of those low-tier cosmetic skins in video games.
The tank's movements were strange; erratic almost. He saw why: the crew was avoiding their allies' unconscious bodies strewn around the street, trying not to crush them under the war machine's mass. It bought him and the girls some time before it caught up to them, if nothing else.
"Looks like they removed the auxiliary machine gun," Suzumi noted. "Thank goodness. We would've been in a lot more trouble otherwise!"
"Can't really blame them. They're quite difficult to operate," Hasumi added.
"How will we destroy that thing?" Chinatsu asked.
"We're not! We don't have the firepower!" Jasper shouted in reply. He was beating his brain with a metaphorical baseball bat, praying it would spit out a half-decent plan. "Best we can do is lure it away from Schale and disable it. If anyone has any ideas on how to do that, I'd love to hear 'em!"
BOOOOOM!
"I'd like, reeeaaally love to hear 'em!"
Hasumi looked at him. "You're right, Sensei. Making sure the Crusader can't endanger the Schale building is our top priority. I can take out the tracks, if you'll allow me."
"Wow, okay, you just unironically called me Sensei. Weird," Jasper wheezed as he pushed his sore legs to their limit. They were approaching the end of the street; he heard the tank pick up speed behind them, the metal monstrosity free of the splash zone. "Yuuka, Suzumi, Chinatsu, go right! Do whatever it takes to keep it following you!"
"Whatever you're planning had better work," Yuuka warned him.
"You'll be too dead to be mad at me if it doesn't. Hasumi, you're with me! Down there!"
He took the fallen angel from her peers, secured her on his shoulder, and led her into a side alley next to an office building. Sporadic gunfire indicated that for better or worse, the other girls chose to roll with the plan.
Jasper cleared his throat. "So, uhh… how exactly are you gonna destroy the tracks?"
"With a little trick I picked up in my Advanced Firearm Studies class," she said simply.
Vague, but he didn't have a choice.
"I'll take your word for it. C'mon, in here!"
He guided the wounded angel toward the back entrance to a looted electronics store, which led into a small side office. The floor beneath them quaked as they emerged into the display area, knocking over one of the few shelves still upright.
He laid her down by the wall near the front door. "Don't move," he whisper-hissed. "And don't make a sound. Wait for my signal."
Hasumi nodded wordlessly.
Angel and inmate both stayed still, the latter wetting his lips in anticipation as the sound of battle drew closer. The girls rushed by the missing window moments later; he saw Chinatsu first, firing her pistol one-handed at the Crusader. Suzumi came next, not bothering to waste bullets on a tank and opting instead to lob more flashbangs (how many of those damn things did she have?!). Yuuka brought up the rear with her mystic barrier and nothing else.
BOOOOOM!
Jasper's teeth rattled as everything in the store was jostled, including its hidden occupants. He held his index finger to his lips, shaking his head, quietly dissuading Hasumi when she raised her weapon.
Not yet, he mouthed to her.
They ducked lower when they spotted the Crusader's front end roll into view. Its attention was squarely on the girls – the behemoth didn't even slow down, lumbering straight past their ambush site in its dogged pursuit of his students.
He waited. And waited. Just a couple more seconds…
"Now!" Jasper ordered when the tank was roughly a hundred feet away.
Hasumi's halo blazed scarlet. "Cover your ears!"
She stood under her own power, sighted in on her target – and fired a round at such ludicrously high velocity he swore broke the sound barrier. The bullet tore through the Crusader's right track like wet tissue paper, decimating it in one solid hit. And since the 'laws' of physics in Kivotos were more like suggestions, the round somehow maintained its trajectory, penetrating not just the tracks, but the entire length of the wheelbase.
The Crusader slumped on its side, rendered completely immobile. A trio of helmet-wearing thugs scrambled out of the crew hatch and immediately fled, shouting over one another. Suzumi was hot on their asses however; a flashbang and some well-placed headshots handily dispatching them in short order.
A strange calm descended over the street.
Hasumi gave voice to his thoughts. "I almost can't believe it," she said in quiet awe. Her radiant halo faded back to its normal deep red hue. "We actually did it. We're victorious…!"
Jasper couldn't muster the energy for more than a flat "Hooray."
"Valkyrie's succeeded in routing the last of the allied gangs from the outskirts. They put up stiffer resistance than expected, though every attempt at an organized counterattack failed." Rin informed the group, oblivious or uncaring of their haggard appearances. "How are things on your end, Finch-sensei? Are you at the Schale building?"
"We're right outside the main entrance." Jasper omitted the part where they were taking a short break on the front steps. He wasn't in the mood for Rin's nagging. Hell, none of them were.
"And Wakamo?"
He shrugged. "She got the drop on us, but we drove her off."
Rin's eyes widened a fraction, subtly betraying her shock. She didn't seem to know how to respond at first. "...Good work. I'll be arriving shortly. In the meantime, head into the basement – I'll meet you there."
"You're not gonna tie me up, are you?"
"...I'm ending the call."
"Was that last part really necessary?" Yuuka asked as he handed back her tablet.
"No, but she also didn't trudge through hell to get here."
All the girls excluding Chinatsu looked like they'd just survived a war. Their hair and faces were caked with dust, gunpowder, and other shit. The amount of bullets they'd eaten had cut their uniforms to Swiss cheese, exposing bruised skin; the marks ranging from barely noticeable, to angry purple and red blotches the size of his fist.
Jasper idly flexed his hand. Chinatsu had tended to him first, changing the soiled bandages. The medic was now seeing to Suzumi while Hasumi patrolled the building's perimeter, the fallen angel recovered enough to walk on her own two feet.
"What's our ammo situation?" he called to them.
"Empty. I would've brought more if I knew beforehand this was how my day would go," Yuuka groused. She'd ditched the pistol Jasper gave her earlier, having retrieved her submachine guns during the walk to Schale.
Suzumi did her own inventory check while Chinatsu continued to poke and prod at her. "I'm down to one and a half mags and five flashbangs," the white angel reported with a small frown. "Enough to scare off any stragglers, but that's about the best I can do."
"Then it's imperative we finish the mission with all due haste." Hasumi concluded. She looked at Jasper. "Time to get up, Finch-sensei. Find this artifact so we can all go home."
Home.
"Sure, sure." He squashed the dull ache in his chest, standing with a low grunt of effort.
"Should we go with you?" Chinatsu paused her work to look at him. She sounded worried.
Jasper quickly waved away her concerns. "Nah, I've got this. I doubt it'll take long. You guys stay out here and say hello to Rin when she shows up to the afterparty."
Suzumi nodded. "If you say so. Be careful, Sensei."
That's four for four, he mused as he ascended the steps to the building. The very same girls who'd hated him for simply existing two hours ago no longer saw him as a useless, cowardly prisoner, but now as their teacher. Their new Sensei.
He wondered how long it would take before he inevitably let their hopes down again.
He was unimpressed when he opened the front door into the main lobby. The Schale clubhouse might've been uglier than American politics on the outside, but it was a unique, abstract kind of ugly, like modern art. By contrast, the interior was as dull and boring as his brother's lectures. White walls and floors. Five sets of glass double doors in a hexagon-shaped space ahead, all leading to different rooms.
The only piece of 'furniture' in the lobby was another hexagon thingy in its center, although it didn't look like a front desk. It didn't look like much of anything, really. He figured he could maybe convert it into an indoor jacuzzi, hang a disco ball overhead, get a sweet-ass sound system to go with it… He'd been here for thirty seconds and his mind was already running wild with ideas on how to spruce the place up.
…What was he supposed to be doing again? Oh yeah, the basement.
Jasper located an elevator down a narrow hall to the right after a bit of searching. He selected the basement, smirking as tacky music played through a speaker. Some things never changed throughout the multiverse.
His smile dropped when the elevator reached the basement. The lights were turned off, though that was to be expected since the building was empty. Empty, and eerily silent.
So why are you just standing there? His mind pestered him. Seriously, what was there to be scared of? He'd just led teenage girls against a fucking tank; this was a cakewalk in comparison.
He still kept his guard up as he walked through the darkened corridors, keeping a watchful eye out for… whatever it was Rin wanted him to find. She'd never told him. Ah well, he'd bug her about it when they met up again – he'd keep looking around until then.
He checked every side room and storage closet, inspected every cardboard box he found, hoping one of them would have a label reading 'Epic Sanctum Tower Haxx' or something similar – no dice. Jasper began to wonder if the GSC's missing president had screwed up somewhere.
The thought, along with his body, halted abruptly when he rounded a corner and saw light emanating from a room to the left, at the end of the hallway.
Even more foreboding, Jasper heard movement inside. A light shuffling sound.
He grabbed a crowbar off a nearby shelf out of caution. Maybe it was the streak of bad luck talking, but he had a suspicion the President hadn't suddenly returned from her two-week vacation to finish the job for him.
A glance into the room almost made him piss his jumpsuit.
"I don't see what the big deal is about this place. What am I even supposed to destroy?" Wakamo wondered out loud, pacing aimlessly. The fox morph had her back turned to him. "Why would they fight so hard if there's nothing here? I just don't get it; it doesn't make sense…"
He started sweating. Fuck. Fuck.
The logical thing to do would've been to sneak away and notify the others. Jasper was not in a logical state of mind at the moment. He desperately wrestled back the urge to scream, or cry, or run away – stuff that would alert the crazy felon, though he was dimly aware he couldn't do nothing, either.
His legs moved on autopilot, taking baby steps forward as Wakamo meandered over to a sealed crate, still unaware of him. She wedged it open, using her rifle's mounted bayonet as a fulcrum for leverage.
The crowbar felt heavy in his grip. If her skin couldn't be punctured by projectiles, maybe some good old blunt force trauma to the head would do the trick.
He was still out of striking range when he accidentally brushed his foot on a metal screw.
Ding!
Wakamo straightened, her fuzzy ears twitching madly; she spun in a flash and oh god that stabby stick was waaaay bigger up close!
"Um. Hi?" Jasper pointedly didn't look at her gun. He would have fainted if he did. "...I'm the new maintenance guy. Have you seen the spare light bulbs anywhere?"
She didn't lower her weapon, but she also didn't blow him across the room either.
"That jumpsuit…" Wakamo murmured, tilting her head slightly. "You're an escaped prisoner too. You're not from the Corrections Bureau, though."
She wanted to talk? Good! Talking was good. He could work with talking. Talking meant he could stall until Rin showed up to rescue him.
He shook his head. "Hixenbaugh Penitentiary. Doubt you've heard of it. It wasn't, y'know, terrible or anything, but it was way too crowded. Don't even get me started on the rec yard."
"What were you in for?" Wakamo probed.
"Armed robbery. Fifteen year sentence."
"Fifteen? For such a petty crime?" She sounded genuinely shocked. "That's preposterous! I wrecked an entire campus town, and all I was given was indefinite suspension."
Jasper wasn't sure whether the teenage terror bomber's rowboat was missing an oar or if Kivotos' criminal justice system was that lax in its punishments. Could've been both for all he knew.
"Yeah, well… it could've been worse."
He remembered the crowbar in his hand and tossed it aside. What chance did he have at this point if things turned violent? Wakamo had a fucking gun; it would've been like fighting a power washer with a banana.
"Took a plea deal to get out early. Sort of," he continued, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away. He was fully aware this was the same girl who'd nearly killed him and his students less than an hour ago, and now he was spilling his life's biggest regrets to her. "Freedom in exchange for a full-time teaching gig. Sounds like a sweet offer, huh?"
He snorted. "Fucking GSC…"
Wakamo lowered her rifle. "I know, right?" She agreed with enthusiasm. Her tone suddenly shifted and she spat, "They're the absolute worst. They locked me behind bars, threw away the key and left me to stagnate – and for what?" She furiously shook her head. "What did they think would happen? That sitting in a cell twiddling my thumbs would teach me a lesson? Convince me to change my beliefs?"
The fox girl shook her head again. "Never."
Jasper chewed his lip in thought. Weird as it felt to admit, he could relate to where she was coming from. His few years in Hixenbaugh hadn't fixed a damn thing besides his drug problem. At no point during his incarceration did he stop and think, Gee, I've sure gotten my shit together since coming here!
In the end, it was Mark who'd pushed him to do some serious introspection. A person he cared about. Not some fucking prison shrink.
"Do you have any family? Any close friends?" he asked in a quiet voice.
Wakamo stiffened. "Why do you care?"
"Just humor me, please."
Several seconds ticked by. Eventually, she gave her answer. "...No. I don't."
The frank admission made him pity her, truth be told. His circle of friends was small, but at least he had one, along with a loving older brother who'd done his best to guide him down the right path.
Realization struck like lightning.
"Damn. I'm sorry. I can't imagine what it's like, being so young and having to go through life all alone." Jasper took a small step forward, throwing caution to the wind. "...When I look at you, do you know what I see?"
"Don't move," Wakamo warned him, gripping her weapon tighter.
He raised his hands to placate her, taking another step. "I see a lost young woman lashing out in anger against a system that failed her," he said softly. "I see living proof that punishment by itself doesn't solve anything. I see what I would've become if I didn't have someone I cared about to try and keep me out of trouble."
"S-Stop! Don't come any closer!" Wakamo stepped back. She lifted her rifle, though her shaking hands made accurate aiming impossible.
Jasper gave her a sympathetic look. "But you know what I don't see? A girl who's inherently bad. Just a bit… misguided, I think."
He stopped in front of her and kindly offered his hand.
"Let me help you," he said.
Wakamo froze statue still, staring up at him, her oriental mask preventing Jasper from gauging her facial reaction. She started trembling from head to tail.
"I… I, um…" Her voice rose an octave. "I… I HAVE TO GO NOW!"
She pushed past him and rushed out of the room in a sudden hurry; he pivoted around, catching a glimpse of her tail before she disappeared through the doorway.
Jasper blinked. Okay. Not what he'd thought would happen.
BANG! BANG!
"Sensei?!" Rin dashed in a moment later, thin wisps of smoke wafting from her gun's barrel.
The panic on her face subsided, melting into pure relief. "Finch-sensei! You're alive!" she exclaimed. "Wakamo – she flew right past me. No one saw her sneak in after you, and I thought…"
"What? Naw, she was already in the basement when I got here." He sniffed his armpit and grimaced. "She must've gotten nauseous being up close to me."
Rin let out a deep sigh. "...Plausible enough. At any rate, I see you're still empty-handed. Wait one moment."
She reached down to pick up the discarded crowbar, then used it to pry the lid off another unmarked crate. She rummaged through packing pellets until she dug out her prize: a white smart tablet, very similar to Yuuka's.
"Here is what the General Student Council president left behind. Thankfully, there isn't a scratch on it." She handed it to Jasper. "Please. Take it."
"Hopefully she doesn't keep her nudes on this thing," he said half-jokingly as he accepted the tablet.
Rin sighed again. "Shut up and focus. Now, this may seem like a normal tablet, but its origins are a mystery. Its manufacturer, OS, system structure, and components are completely unknown. All we have is its name: the Shittim Chest."
"Heh. Shitt-im Chest."
"I said shut up," the dark-haired girl snapped. "The General Student Council president left the Shittim Chest to you. She said that you'll be able to take control of the tower with it. Don't open your mouth!" she admonished him when he did just that. "None of the other members know how to activate it. Perhaps you may be able to figure it out, Finch-sensei, but if not…"
She stared at Jasper.
Jasper stared back.
A third sigh. "My job here is done. I shall let you take the lead." She moved to lean against the wall, folding her arms. "I'll step away so as not to interfere… and also so I don't have to watch you bumble it," she added under her breath.
She didn't think he could do it, eh?
Jasper hit the power button, eager to prove her wrong.
{...}
{Connecting to the Shittim Chest…}
{Please enter the system password.}
Password? What password? He didn't remember any password! He didn't even know if it was case sensitive!
Oh well, he'd just brute force it and hope for the best.
password
{Password denied.}
12345
{Password denied.}
Password denied.
{Password denied.}
dick cheese
{Password denied.}
A gecko's worst nightmare
{Password denied.}
I used to work at Five Below, now I work that five below
{Password denied.}
SomeBODY once told me Kivotos was gonna roll me~
{Password denied.}
Damn, he really thought he had it with that last one. He obviously was overlooking something, but- Wait up.
"Hey Rin, do you still have the President's note on you? The one she gave me?" he asked her.
Rin approached him. "Yes, as a matter of fact. I was planning to-" She cut herself off, averting her eyes. "...Never mind. It's not important."
She withdrew the slip of paper from her pocket and showed it to him. He typed in the written message:
We thirst for the seven wailings.
We bear the koan of Jericho.
{...}
{Password accepted. User identified as J##3e^F1N(h. Error: Unauthorized user detected. Now activating emergency troubleshooting.}
"Uh-oh," Jasper uttered.
Rin grew tense. "What's happened?"
"I think I broke it."
{Troubleshoot scan complete. Operational capacity at 50%.}
{Converting to operating system ARONA for biological authentication and generation of verification certificate.}
The screen faded to white, then gradually back into what looked like a 3D background image of a classroom with blue walls and flooring. A huge section of the wall was broken away, revealing a tranquil sky with puffy white clouds, as well as a seemingly endless expanse of calm blue ocean. Dozens of desks were precariously stacked just beyond the destroyed wall.
Snoozing at her own desk was a little girl with sky blue air, a darker blue sailor uniform, and a white headband. What seemed to be an umbrella gun rested in front of her.
"Zzz… zzz… mmm." She smacked her lips in her sleep. "Castella cake… Banana milk…goes better than strawberry milk… Zzz…"
Yep, he'd definitely broken something. Who in their right mind drank strawberry milk?
The unknown girl(?) smiled. "Heehee… there's so much left…"
"Hey. Wake up." Jasper tapped the screen, poking her cheek. She fidgeted a little and snored. "C'mon, wake up."
"Who are you talking to?" Rin inquired curiously.
He showed her the screen. "This chick."
Jasper's pointy-eared companion looked at the tablet, then back to him. She wore a puzzled expression. "...The screen is blank."
"What? No it's not!" He replied, dumbfounded. "Look closer; there's a kid sitting in a classroom!"
Rin shook her head. "I don't see anything, Sensei."
This was getting more bizarre by the minute. He kept poking the girl, over and over in different spots, but she still refused to wake up.
Time to do things the Jasper way.
"WAKEY WAKEY, EGGS AND BAKEY!" He shouted obnoxiously, violently shaking the tablet up and down and startling the hell out of Rin.
"Wagh! Hey! What's going on?! Quit it! Staaaaahp!" a youthful voice screamed from the Shittim Chest's speaker over the crashing of desks getting thrown around.
Jasper gave it one more shake for no reason other than to spite her. "Oh hey, you're awake," he calmly observed.
"Why'd you do that?! I was having a really good dream!" the girl yelled at him. Then she paused, blinking the blue eye not covered by her bangs. "Wait. Who are you?"
"I'm Arizona's two-time Motorized Porta-Potty racing champion, that's who. You may bow before me." He left out that he was the only participant.
"Who are you talking to?" Rin asked.
Could she not hear her, either? What was going on?
"I'm talking to this girl, uhhh…" Jasper trailed off. "What's your name again?"
The blue-haired AI (because what else could she be?) smiled and folded her hands behind her back. "That's right, I haven't introduced myself. Silly me! My name is Arona; what's yours?"
"Jasper. Jasper Finch." He recalled something Rin said at the Sanctum Tower and clarified, "Finch is my family name, by the way. So I guess that makes me… Finch-sensei? That'll take some getting used to…"
"Sensei?!" Arona gasped. "That means… you're the one I've been waiting for! What time is it, anyway?" She leaned forward, cocking her head. "Also, you don't really look like a 'Sensei' to me."
"That's rich coming from a little AI girl with a cotton candy color scheme," he smoothly fired back.
"Huh. Can't argue with that logic." Arona took it in stride. "Moving on – I'm the system manager that lives inside the Shittim Chest. I serve as its main OS. Think of me as your trusty secretary, Finch-sensei!"
She beamed at him. "I've been waiting a long time to meet you!"
Was that why she'd fallen asleep?
Arona continued, "My physical form is still small, and my voice could use a serious upgrade… but I know that I can still prove useful to you!"
"Can you, like, pirate free movies and stuff?"
The AI sweat-dropped. "Uhhh… useful in other ways, I mean," she amended. "Oh, but before we do anything else, we need to complete your biological authentication!"
Those innocent words brought a tingle to his asscrack and peeled back the curtains on some… unpleasant memories. Jasper didn't believe he would ever fully get over the humiliation he'd suffered before boarding the bus to Elm Ridge.
"Umm… this is a little embarrassing, but it's all part of the protocol." Arona's flushed face was not making things better. She drew closer to the screen and held out a dainty hand. "Now, place your fingertip against mine."
Shaking away the lingering discomfort, Jasper touched his finger against her much smaller one – then withdrew it when a jolt of electricity shot up his arm.
"Ow, what the fuck?!" He gasped and nearly dropped the tablet.
Rin placed her hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay, Sensei?"
"No! She fucking shocked me!"
"Th-That wasn't supposed to happen!" Arona exclaimed, her voice sounding fearful and equally as surprised. "Um! J-Just hold on a moment! I can fix this!"
She pulled a hard hat and tool box from some kind of virtual hammerspace and wandered off the side of the screen. Jasper sucked his finger, glowering at the empty classroom as stock construction sounds played in the background. He wondered how an OS even worse than Windows Vista could've existed.
Arona returned after a short while, dusting off her hands. She looked satisfied. "All better! The Shittim Chest's firewalls failed to register your fingerprint and retaliated in defense. Not sure why, though." She peered closely at him. "It was almost like it didn't accept you as the real Sensei. Weird, huh?"
He shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. We gonna give this another shot or what?"
"Let's do it!"
Jasper braced himself as they touched fingers again, prepared for another shock. Thankfully, there was no pain this time.
"Heehee. It's kind of like we're making a promise or something, isn't it?" Arona giggled.
The only thing he promised was to throw the Shittim Chest off a bridge if it attacked him again.
"Let's see… Hmm…" She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them with a smile. "All done! Wow, a lot's been going on recently, huh? The General Student Council president went missing, and there's no way to control the Kivotos tower now…"
Jasper refrained from sarcastically asking how she'd managed to sleep through the breakdown of society. "Got anything to share about the GSC president? Any idea where she's gone?" he grilled her.
It was Arona's turn to shrug. "I have lots of data on Kivotos, but I know very little about the president. I don't know who she is or why she disappeared, unfortunately."
"...Fuck," he sighed. He was trapped in this academy city for the foreseeable future, then. Damn it all.
"Sorry I couldn't be more useful…" Arona's shoulders slumped, though it took only a couple of moments for her to perk up again. "Um… but I think I can help with the Sanctum Tower problem, at least. Just let me restore the access permissions! Gimme a minute!"
The machinery in the basement suddenly thrummed, roused from dormancy; the lights flickered briefly before they stayed on. Jasper and Rin both watched, mesmerized, as the Schale building came to life around them.
"Sanctum Tower admin permissions acquired!" Arona cheerfully reported. "We've successfully regained Sanctum Tower! It's now under my total control."
Wait, what?
"That means all of Kivotos is in the palm of your hand, Finch-sensei!"
Huh?!
"Are you nuts?! I can barely take care of myself, let alone run a city!" Jasper hurriedly exclaimed. "Give it to- I dunno, Rin or someone!"
While he usually paid no attention to politics outside the bare minimum, he knew the basics on how a functional democracy worked. Candidates for leadership positions generally needed three things to be successful in an election: a strong public backing, campaign funding from shady lobbyists, and a willingness to serve the people they represented instead of themselves.
Okay, maybe it was more like two things, but that wasn't the point.
Jasper was a dumbfuck nobody who'd just been given ultimate authority rather than earning it. And while it would've been cathartic running Kivotos into the ground out of petty spite, the thought of very well-armed mobs crying for his blood sounded less appealing. Heck, Rin would toss him to the wolves herself. Better to keep the city in one piece.
Arona mulled over his request. "I can transfer control of the Sanctum Tower to the General Student Council with your approval, Sensei." She gave him a curious look. "But… are you sure that's what you want to do? You would be giving total control to the GSC."
He scoffed. "Who do you think I look like? Mussolini? I came here to be a teacher, not a fucking dictator."
"Okay, fair enough. Now transferring control of the Sanctum Tower to the General Student Council!" The little AI with possible dreams of world domination closed her eyes, concentrating. The Shittim Chest made a tiny pinging noise.
Arona clapped her hands together. "And just like that… we're done!"
Rin's phone vibrated. She fished it out of her coat, read the message, then raised her eyes to Jasper. "...I've just received confirmation that the Sanctum Tower is back in our control. This will allow us to govern the city as well as we could before the president's disappearance."
"Does that mean it's finally over...?" Jasper began to sway on his feet.
She nodded. "Our primary objective has been completed. There are still a few minor tasks left to take care of, but the worst of it has passed." She paused and fixed her glasses. "I'll be honest, Finch-sensei – I still have my doubts about you. However, I can't complain about your results. On behalf of the General Student Council, I'd like to- Sensei?!"
Jasper was physically and mentally exhausted, and with the adrenaline leaving his veins, he was crashing hard.
The last thing he remembered before passing out was the floor speeding towards him.
Some of you may be asking, "Hold up, why didn't Wakamo instantly fall for Jasper like in canon?" Easy answer: Wakamo fell in love with the in-gameSensei at first sight. Jasper is not that same character, meaning he had to work a bit harder to (unintentionally) earn her affection.
Chemistry and compatibility are both important, y'know?
Overall I think I did a good job showcasing Jasper's strengths and weaknesses. Next chapter will delve into how he adjusts to his new life as Schale's Sensei; after that, it's off to Abydos!