Another break, another chapter… Sorry about that. To be fair, this chapter is the longest one so far. For anything significant, I've taken the suggestion to cut back on the italics, which should make things less confusing. More importantly, this is Cain's interaction with the Prefect Team as a whole, including its leader. A very bad first impression to make, but one that should be mitigated by interesting interactions.

But we won't be starting with him. Rather, we'll be starting with somebody who's been missing for most of the last chapter.

So say hello to Hoshino, and your first glimpse of just how much fun she's been having for most of the morning.

Enjoy!

*Chapter 18: Destruction and Deception*

Despite having lived here for years, she never really made a habit of investigating the few high-rise buildings that weren't buried by sand. She didn't need to go to a stuffy place full of uncaring adults to defend her home.

That changed in the past year. Not because she suddenly wanted a taste of corporate life. This entire arrangement disgusted her to no end.

No. She wasn't here by choice. She was here because she was forced to by the enigmatic abomination beside her.

"Goodness me, things are heating up, aren't they? Amazing how things can blow up in everyone's faces at the worst possible time."

She didn't give him the satisfaction of hearing her gnash her teeth, even though it was damnably hard. Oh, how she wanted to fill this guy full of buckshot and rush off to help everyone. But she knew from horrifying personal experience that that wouldn't work. If it could, then she wouldn't have even entertained this bastard's presence for a second.

"Now, now, no need to get frustrated," he continued, patronizing her, meaning her efforts to hide her annoyance weren't very successful. Just one more failure in her life.

"You ought to be proud instead! It all started with a bang because of you."

She didn't bother hiding her anger and her utter misery at this point. A nice relaxing day turned into one of the worst days of her life.

She couldn't answer the calls and texts pleading for her to tell everyone where she was and to come help them. She couldn't give some sign or message that would answer their questions, assuage their worries or at least let them know where the hell she was. This monster with a face of shattered ebon wouldn't let her.

She couldn't do anything but watch anymore. Watch, and pray to whatever gods were listening that her friends and her teacher would weather the storm.

She was depressingly right this morning. She KNEW that taking this call would absolutely suck.


The flashbangs might have led to a blindingly bright start to the engagement, but it wasn't enough for us to truly gain the initiative. So of course, we needed a little more bang for our buck. "Bomb, then take cover!"

The FTF followed my orders with a grenade each, while most of Problem Solver retreated, their lack of resources meaning that only one of them had explosives to spare. Naturally, Mutsuki chose to throw out the biggest bomb she had: Her secret explosive bag, leading to a cascade of explosions that blanketed the area in even more flame. Just to give us a little more time, she also threw up a smoke bomb to veil our escape.

She had more in her arsenal than I had expected. Certainly a boon for my purposes.

Much as I wanted to join my group in running for cover and safety, I had another job to do. I squinted my eyes as much as I could and looked at the buildings across the street. They managed to land pinpoint mortar bombings to our location without hitting me or the Abydos girls. That meant they had a visual on our position. Of course, their boots on the ground could do that easily, but you didn't content yourself with that if you knew you were going to get into a scrap.

And the telltale glint of sniper scopes up on the buildings meant that my assumption of how that came to be was right.

Fortunately, between my little lightshow and the shakeup of Mutsuki's bombs, they had been completely thrown off-balance, and I could see them wavering as they adjusted their sights. This would be a gamble, but even if it didn't hit, this ought to scare them into hiding.

The smoke of the bombs matched with the confusion of the flash bang wouldn't protect me from the wrath of the mortars if those daemons dared to actually fire them at me. I wasn't in a million pieces at that moment, so it looks like political protections and the need to keep me alive and healthy served me well.

Taking solace in that assurance, with a smirk of confidence that didn't match how utterly terrified I was, I looked straight into one of those scopes and winked at it.

That hopefully confused them enough to give them pause. After confirming their position, I drew my pistol, prayed to the Emperor for a steady hand, then fired off a lasbolt. To my surprise, I swore I heard yells of shock from the windows, but knowing these girls' durability, I didn't bother to check if I had a confirmed takedown. I simply bolted off to the nearest empty building, where I happened to be accompanied by Aru, Haruka and Serika.

"What took you so long, Sensei?! Staying out there could be dangerous!" The little cat girl admonished me.

"Had to take some eyes off of us," I clarified for her.

"That was incredible, Sensei! You knew there were snipers there!" Ayane sounded off from the comm link.

"They could have had troops on the ground with a sniper in hand, but that was the best for multiple purposes." Many scouts had snipers for a reason, and once they were done with recon and, in this case, spotting for the mortars, they could move to fire support with a good vantage point.

"W-well, since it was important… Just don't keep putting yourself in danger like that!" Serika insisted. Don't worry, Serika, I have no intention of doing that… More than I need to, which is unfortunately far more than I ever wanted, but that was my life. And my second life…

"I'll try not to," I promised her sincerely, because that's what I always did anyway. I tried not to sound so resigned when I did. "How many snipers are left, Ayane?"

"Four in the building, but that's because you managed to take one of them out with your pistol!" She certainly had a right to be surprised. Even I couldn't believe I made such a lucky shot.

"You managed to take out a sniper with your laser gun…" So she heard that. Looks like Ayane connected our new additions to our comm links already. A good show of initiative, but the assuring revelation came with its downsides. As usual, Aru disturbed me with how much she idolized me, which only got worse when it was followed by Shiroko.

"As expected of Sensei. It really was no big deal for him." She was similarly proud and admiring of me, which made it no less unsettling. Time to head this off at the pass before anyone else was flashing shiny eyes at me.

"How many people are we looking at, Ayane?" It wasn't a number I wanted to hear, but in the interests of tactical planning it was better if we knew.

"We have 120 in total Sensei, all infantry, no armor. You took down a fair number with all the initial bombings, but it wasn't enough to take out too many. Majority of them are wielding assault rifles, with shotgunners also in play. Discounting the one you took down, they have eleven snipers left."

120. They had us outnumbered fifteen times over. I tried not to loosen my bowels and consoled myself with the fact that, despite being outnumbered so badly, that was still far less than I expected. I certainly expected some vehicles to be deployed, but they didn't even have a single transport. If they really were so wary of me based on my supposed military genius, why didn't they bring a hundred or more and some vehicles? Did they believe their training would make the difference?

Or perhaps it was because the administrator COULDN'T bring more. Whether it was to prevent the head prefect from smelling a rat and putting the lid on her deployment or having to leave more bodies behind to take care of the home front, this might be the most that Ako could bring to another district without too much cost.

"Figured as much," Kayoko mused over the radio. "The Prefect Team doesn't have too many vehicles, and the Pandemonium Society isn't going to let them borrow their heavy armor on a normal day, let alone when Ako is acting sneakily and trying to avoid Hina."

How convenient. Politics may be an abominable nuisance for me on most days, but it's been an Emperor-sent boon for me on this particular occasion. Assured once more by my enemies being obstructed by the hand of bureaucracy, I focused on the battle in front of me. "Can you figure out where the mortars are?" They weren't heavy artillery. They had to be somewhere relatively close by.

"Explosion analysis says they used 50 mm mortar shells… And considering the firing angle…" A few seconds of furious keyboard typing later, and we had our answer. "I see them! They're three kilometers away from you, straight down the road ahead!"

"That's not too far, but that's practically an entire district away with all the Prefect Team standing between them," Kayoko grumbled across the comms. "And with those snipers up there, sneaking up on them will be a chore and a half. We can't hold out forever."

"True enough," I admitted, her analysis of the situation matching my own. Of course, I knew things she didn't. "For most people, at least. But I believe we have the perfect team to do just that."

If you can make them believe it, surely you can make yourself believe it and make it true, Cain. Look over the situation and see what you have.

Thanks to our dynamic exit, we had some breathing room. Currently, we were taking cover down the path towards the school, holed up in some of the other empty buildings. The Prefect Team were taking up the other three paths of the intersection, either lying unconscious or trying to find a way to proceed.

Right now, because of my little stunt and Mutsuki's foresight, there were no eyes on us. This was our time to prepare.


It said something about the Sensei that even all the way over here, he managed to give her a splitting headache. Lesson learned, you can indeed be blinded and deafened by a flashbang over a cellphone. Sometimes, good technology had its downsides.

What followed was another abominable explosion that immediately cut out her feed. After a moment of staring at her tablet, completely appalled, she immediately made an effort to try and regain contact with the deployment force, switching over to general comms instead of using a phone.

"Away team, do you hear me?! Status report, now!"

After a few stressful moments of hearing nothing but static, but eventually she got her answer from one of her fellow heads.

"Ako? Ako, can you hear me?"

"What happened, Chinatsu? What did they do?!" she demanded.

"Sensei prepped some flashbangs under his greatcoat and then let them loose, then the others followed suit with their own, more powerful explosives. Mutsuki included."

She groaned. The emphasis was entirely necessary. That little prankster knew deeply how to get the most bang out of her very limited buck. "Casualties?"

"15 of us, including one of our sharpshooters in the building."

The overhead snipers? "That doesn't make sense, surely the explosives didn't reach that far."

"… Cain Sensei managed to take one of them out with his laspistol."

Her eye twitched in disbelief. So the man knew that they had snipers pointed at them and managed to take them out with a pistol. Laser-powered it may be, the fact remained that he discerned how they managed to spot their mortar payloads and managed to use his pistol to take down one of their snipers, whichever one it was, from across the road. His threat level was rising all the more.

"… Oh and Iori's phone was in the blast zone. It's beyond help now."

"My phone…"

The despondent whimper in the background had Ako sigh in pity. That explained the comms cut. Another tale of misfortune from their unlucky field captain. "Nothing for it then. So what's your current position?"

"Mutsuki added a smoke bomb to her explosives so they managed to cover their escape and take shelter in one of the empty buildings. We're currently positioned in the other three intersections and awaiting orders. They haven't revealed themselves yet."

Guerilla warfare. This will be incredibly frustrating. "The snipers have repositioned already?"

"Yes they have. They've spread out across the higher floors."

"How many sharpshooters left on the ground?"

"Seven left."

Good. They still had enough to split them up between different teams. "Very well. Divide the remaining troops into squads of ten. Form a blockade that will prevent any stragglers from breaching our rear and going for our mortar bombers. We'll send out two squads apiece to go down the side roads, to search the buildings, and once we've found and engaged them the other squad can cross the middle to ambush them. Avoid the center as much as possible to prevent potential crossfire. If you can't see them now, they took cover before the smoke bombs dissipated, so they couldn't have gone far."

She could already hear rapid footfalls and the unmistakable sounds of bustling activity after her orders were finished. "Everyone's moving out. We can only hope for the best."

"I have to ask, what WOULD be the best for you, Chinatsu?"

"… That nobody gets seriously hurt and we won't burn any bridges after all of this is over."

Chinatsu made her opinion on their presence here very, unpleasantly clear before they left. Frankly, she was more likely here in case Sensei got hurt instead of any of their own. If she didn't know any better, their head medic was hoping that he would pull off another miraculous upset against them.

"We'll deal with whatever comes after. For now, we just have to bring him in."

Tough luck. After all, they had nearly a hundred of Gehenna's best against the remnants of an abandoned district, a few annoying but ultimately easily handled criminals and one unknown, if unusually talented adult. Surely, that would be enough.


"I've confirmed their positions, Sensei. They've sent out four squads of ten, with two squads each going down the roads flanking the center."

Squads of ten? They haven't quite seen the merits of the smaller squads yet, have they? Or perhaps they're taking conventional formations to ensure that the odds are massively stacked in their favor in any engagement, ambush or not. Whatever the case, this slows down their general movement at least.

"How are things on your end, Kayoko?"

"We're almost done rigging our post." She paused. "Correction, Haruka's almost done. Should be done in about a minute."

It was another one of Haruka's talents. Mutsuki was undoubtedly Problem Solver 68's demolitions expert. When it came to keeping, getting and using explosives, whether in the heat of battle or setting up traps, the crew generally relied on her expertise.

But when it came purely to rigging a place up, she would leave it to Haruka. Between her natural physical abilities and her regular disregard for her own well-being, she could have an area set for demolition ridiculously fast. Mutsuki and I working together weren't nearly as fast as her, even with Serika helping me scavenge.

"Ahh, fast as always, Haruka. You're not too bad yourself, Sensei! Your improv game's pretty good!" Her laugh was as devious as it was admiring. "A little too good. Dabbled in a bit of troublemaking in your youthful days?"

While Haruka was rigging up her position on her own and outdoing us while she was at it, Mutsuki and I were responsible for trapping up our own location, with me on the ground and her on the second floor. Due to lacking resources she didn't have enough to sufficiently rig up both areas, but with so many supplies in the abandoned buildings we set up, I found enough substitutes to make up the difference. Nobody was going to miss a few cleaners, solvents and gas going up in flames, I'm sure.

Those days of pranking the less canny and perceptive back at the schola paid dividends over the years when I needed to jury rig a rudimentary substitute for explosives or other life-saving (and ending) implements. Somehow, risking my own expulsion and even execution for the sake of cheap thrills ended up saving my life many times over.

"Hey, I resent that," I replied with a fake offense. "I'll have you know that I've gotten into more trouble with disciplinarians in my week here in Kivotos than I ever have at school." I then gave a smile I knew no one but me could see. "I have a spotless disciplinary record to prove it."

"So either you were an absolute angel or you never got caught." As I expected, Mutsuki didn't buy that piece of frak at all. "Well, I know what I think at any rate."

"So you even know how to improvise explosives and other contraptions as well… That's amazing, Sensei," Shiroko complimented me with her usual soft-spokenness over the comms. "Could you teach me how to do that too?"

"That sounds pretty ominous," Serika said warily from behind me, unsure if she wanted a more effective Shiroko if she was going to use such skills for more… unsavoury pursuits. Worse still, I could absolutely see her taking to my lessons like a Krieger to a trench shovel.

"We'll talk about that later." Hopefully, never, though in my heart I resigned myself to enlightening these girls on the majesty of improvised explosives. "Notice any movement from the snipers?"

"None so far, Sensei," Aru promptly notified me.

"They're probably waiting for the others to move out before they risk exposing themselves," I mused. At their most cautious they probably won't dare to take a shot until an engagement breaks out. Might as well follow their example. "Do NOT take the first shot, Aru. As much as you can, focus on sharpshooters that are far out of our range instead of providing support fire. They'll expose themselves the moment the closer engagements begin."

"Got it, Sensei." No hesitation or second-guessing herself. Looks like she was shaping up here.

We were split up into two buildings on opposite sides of the street. We escaped down the road directly opposite from the Prefect Team, lying in wait for an ambush.

I had Serika and Mutsuki with me. Kayoko, Aru, Nonomi and Haruka were on the other side. Shiroko was on her own, our designated infiltrator for neutralizing the mortar bombers.

"Are you ready, Shiroko? We won't be able to support you if you get caught." They already sent some people out. There was some time before they spread out sufficiently enough to make getting past them and to the mortar teams too difficult.

"Nn. I'll be fine, Sensei. I'm off."

With that, she cut off contact with me and set out for the backlines, zigzagging through the city and relying on both her own experience and Ayane's guidance to avoid any prying eyes.

"They're getting closer to your positions, Sensei. How are things going?"

"Just about done." I took a look at our handiwork. This entire place was a death trap now, and I patted myself on the back for filling the place with explosives aplenty. All it would take was one careless step to begin a cascade of explosions all around the area.

Thank goodness nobody's lived here for some time now. The neighbors might be rattled a bit, but considering the lack of complaints we had for our past confrontations, they probably considered it part and parcel of choosing to live in this near-lawless wasteland. Satisfied, Mutsuki, Serika and I took cover in the opposite building, because staying in an explosive playground when a firefight was going to happen was just asking to be turned into splattered remains on the ground. For my case at least. Mutsuki and Serika joined me because that was just the smart thing to do, and to quote the former, she liked explosives better when she used them on other people.

"They're almost flanking your buildings, Sensei," Ayane notified us. "Is it time?"

"It is." I sighed as I contacted the one responsible for the next step in our plan. "Haruka… I know what I'm asking you to do is difficult, but you're the only one who can do it."

Somebody had to draw all the attention first for our plan to work. Who better than the one who could take more heat than any of us?

"I will, Sensei." She answered decisively. "Even if I have to give up my life…"

"You will not," I cut her off definitively. Never mind the fact that the Prefect Team probably wouldn't, or even couldn't, do that. It would reflect badly on my karma if the Emperor saw me needlessly sending off mentally unstable little girls to death after all. "The more you can take care of yourself, the better it will be for all of us, alright? Only fight as long as you have to."

"… Yes, Sensei. I promise I will."

Something felt different about how she answered that time. She was surprised at my concern, and would take my words to heart. If she got it into her head, then I suppose that's good enough.

"… Alright then." I formed the aquila and placed it on my chest, asking for strength from the Emperor once more. "Take them down, Haruka."


"I will, Sensei."

Once Sensei gave the order, she strode out of the shelter of the buildings and into the desert sun, exposed for all to see. The moment she did, the Prefect Team immediately halted.

"Contact, Igusa Haruka! Take cover and slow her down for the mortars!"

She was pelted with countless bullets, but they did little more than bump into her and fall harmlessly into the ground. They already declared what they were trying to do. Those bullets might not do much to her, but those mortars might.

She couldn't let them stop her. Sensei risked his life for her and the rest of her friends. If she failed, they would take him away and stop him from saving other people. His efforts for saving a useless thing like her would be repaid with capture and isolation as the people he tried to save lost everything.

"I will NOT let that happen!"

As the explosions cracked in the distance and the bombs edged towards her, she made that resolution in her mind and swore to make it true.

The shells landed right beside her, bursting into flame and shrapnel. Her vision was filled with black smoke as the bullets stopped.

"D-did we get her?"

Strange. Those mortar shells… In the past, they would have stunned her, given her pause for a bigger barrage to come. Yet now, they felt just as useless as the rest of their weapons did.

It didn't matter how or why. As she walked out of the flames, she gripped her shotgun tightly, ignoring the gasps of fright that followed.

"You're in Sensei's way. You're trying to hurt him. You're trying to stop him."

A baleful glare, as hateful as every word spewing forth from her mouth, stopped all of them in their tracks.

"And for that YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!"

Their assault, once delayed, was renewed once more. The storm of bullets did not stop her as she ran for them. Sniper shots joined them, plinking harmlessly off of her. Such things might have stunned her before, yet they did not now. Even as the mortars came for her once more, they did little but provide fire for her own rage. Rage that she ensured she would unleash once she got in.

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

With a war cry she fired her shotgun in unceasing bursts, blasting away anyone she neared. Those who wielded the same weapons as her tried to use the same tactics on her, but she bowled through every slug spread and shot them down. Those with rifles and other mid-range weapons tried to back away, but she refused to let them go, chasing them down and blasting them to smithereens. She shot and shot, and shot, and shot until she ran out of bullets, and when she ran out, she resorted to striking them with the butt of her gun, slamming it on their heads, stunning them with blows to the gut or batting them away. She couldn't slow down. She reloaded one or two slugs at a time before letting them loose upon her opponents. She shot, swung, smashed and slammed, ignoring every blow that came her way. This is what was required of her, and so she would do it well.

There were those that were retreating back towards the Prefect Team or hunkering down further away. Tempted as she was to chase them, she forcefully held herself back. Lady Aru and Cain-Sensei didn't want her going too far away from the rest of the teams. She would hold back and defend the rest of them, as she was told.

"HARUKA!"

The sudden shout filling her ears was the only thing that could come close to stunning her, like snapping her out of a trance. "H-hyeh! S-Sensei?!"

"You've drawn their attention. Go back and support the rest of the team." After a brief pause, the words that followed made her feel warm inside. "You did well."

"A-alright! Thank you Sensei!" she whimpered, scurrying as fast as she could back into position. Now that she wasn't deep in the haze of combat, she could finally notice her surroundings. Looks like more people were coming for them from the other side, but they could deal with them easily enough with Sensei's plan. As she ran as fast she could, another voice sounded up over the comms.

"You did incredibly, Haruka! You've grown so much! As expected of my intern!"

She couldn't stop the giddy smile from forming at the praise she got from both Sensei and Lady Aru. Really, all that effort was worth it.


The moment Haruka began her fanatical charge, I swore I could feel a few of my hairs raise, and my head was drawn to the carnage I couldn't see for reasons other than the unpleasant sounds of battle.

"Arona… What was that?"

"She grew because of you, Sensei," she said proudly, a revelation which made me divert my attention towards her as hard as Jurgen could force any of the poor vehicles in his hands. "She was able to raise her own defenses at will that time."

"So her usual protections that required her to be fired upon were activated before the engagement?" I clarified. Fair enough, I'd rather raise a shield BEFORE I got pelted with enough bullets to supply a squad, but something seemed different.

"Nope!" she said proudly for reasons I couldn't fathom. "Those are two different things! She can do both of them!"

I couldn't stop the flabbergasted expression from appearing on my face. Hells, the girl was already more durable than a Space Marine, was she as armored as a Baneblade covered in rockrete now?! This was ridiculous! And judging from the fact that the rest of us were still hidden yet I was still hearing endless mortar bombardments on Haruka's location, my hypothesis was proven. They were throwing enough mortars at her to reduce entire squads to mulch and all it did was make her even madder while she tore the rest apart!

She was terrifying in so many ways. Kayoko may have the most esoteric powers and Mutsuki knew how to work explosives, but in terms of skill on the battlefield, Haruka was without a doubt strongest in Problem Solver.

Haruka's rampage did more than just destroy our opponents' formation (and quite a few of them, it should be said). When shotguns and explosions didn't fill my ears, the occasional crack of Aru's rifle, taking out any who would attempt to pot one at her incredibly enthusiastic devotee (for all the good that would do), signaled to me that our enemies were forced to reveal themselves just to counter one nigh-unstoppable juggernaut.

"I've taken down three already Sensei!" Aru declared proudly after a bevy of shots. Predictably, she yelped as the sound of a bullet impacted with crunchy background static a little too closely for comfort. "I-I'll slow down on that for now!"

"You do that," I sighed. The universe so loved to take her down a peg. Perhaps it should tell her to be a little more cautious in that regard.

"The squads have started to converge! The ones on your flank are going for the other side!"

Looks like they were acting just as I predicted. Taking on 40 ridiculously durable troops at once was a daunting task for our small force, but split up into smaller squads of ten? With a little help, it could be manageable enough. Knowing just how distracting the haze of battle could be, I had to call out to that ridiculously durable shotgun maniac before she over-extended. "HARUKA!"

The yelp and shocked acknowledgement of my call was good enough for me. That meant she was listening. "You've drawn their attention. Go back and support the rest of the team." Belatedly, I decided to give a few words of encouragement since her mind needed a lot more reinforcement than her body did. "You did well."

The delay in her reply felt like she didn't expect such a compliment at all, though she recovered quickly enough. "A-alright! Thank you, Sensei!"

It was uncomfortable hearing just how happy she felt just from a little praise. Whatever damage her body didn't take, her self-esteem took more than enough to make up for it. Depressing to hear, but that wasn't a problem I could deal with now. I had others taking up my time after all, and it would only make her (and of course, me) feel worse if we wasted the opportunity she gave.

"Are the rest of you ready?"

"Yes, Sensei!"

"Yup, ready to go!"

"Hah, I've been waiting for this!"

"Bout as much as can be."

The emotions were mixed, but they were sufficiently motivated, and that was enough.

"Then we execute."

The squads flanking our side were forced to cross through the center in order to get to Haruka, passing right by our buildings. Hurried as they were, they simply couldn't expect the bevy of grenades lobbed at them by Mutsuki and I on one road, and Serika for the other.

"Kufufufu, doing this legally is WAY too fun!" Mutsuki cackled as she followed up the explosive shower with one of bullets, peppering the scattered remnants on her side with a deluge from her machine gun. Fragile and important as I was, she provided covering fire as I emerged, potting whoever I could with lasbolts. Serika meanwhile hopped out of cover and engaged the stunned prefect team outside, taking measured shots at disorganized Prefect Team while they were out of cover and only stopping when they found shelter of their own.

"Damn them, they got Mutsuki's help…" Unfortunately, while we got a good number of them, their field captain Iori wasn't one of them. "Gonna have to do this myself!"

She leapt back from cover and I thought to interrupt whatever plans she had with my laspistol but the surge of power I felt coming from her made me reconsider. I didn't know if my shots could stagger her before she got off a shot, and I didn't need to recklessly challenge myself to accomplish that, so I moved out of the way.

The smirk told me that she'd seen that coming.

The shot that came out was, as I was warned, a violet projectile that sailed straight and true. It would burst upon impact and into a cone of energy that could even pierce cover, and testing whether that would apply to my carapace armor was a fool's errand. It was why I had Mutsuki pour on the support fire to keep the rest of the squad down while I evaded her shots. A harrowing prospect, but one I had to deal with.

It was easier than I expected it would be. Unfortunately, that was because she wasn't aiming for me.

The warp-powered bullets rocketed past the windows, through one end of the building and out the other… And right into her target.

"AGHK!"

With a shriek of pain, the bullets slammed into Serika, the violet energy pulsing through her and bursting through her. Utterly horrifying. The girl predicted that I would evade the first shot and didn't bother aiming at me for the rest, making consecutive bullseyes while under suppressing fire, through an entire building's worth of clutter!

"Serika!" Came Ayane's horrified shout over the comms.

"Cover her now!" I shouted to Mutsuki. It was imperative that none of us were taken down!

"Just give up now, Sensei!" Iori proclaimed to me as the rest of her team rose from cover and looked at me. "There's ten of us and only two of you! Don't force us to gang up on you, Sensei!"

Forced. The very idea had me fuming, and the expression that showed that evaporated her confidence. "Perhaps you're very heavily obligated to go into this farce, but how do you think WE feel about this?! Don't complain about being forced when YOU LITERALLY INVADED US!"

Kayoko did tell me that Iori wasn't very good at arguing and was easy to appeal to with words and emotion. That wasn't entirely an act, so what little emotion was there at least made the deception convincing.

She hesitated at my words, her deadly aim wavering. "I-"

"RAAAAAAAH!"

Clearly, Iori was a little premature with her counting. Between that vengeance filled cry and the burst of energy from behind me, Serika had seemingly forced herself to rise again by sheer willpower, aided by warpflame-enhanced rage. Between her own enhancements and Mutsuki's support, I hope that would be enough to deal with the remnants in their area.

Their show of force also helped me out. With my own distractions for the captain and the rest being shocked by Serika's resilience, their eyes weren't on me anymore. It was then I moved, fingering a grenade and rolling it towards them.

"Wha-?!"

As the grenade exploded at Iori's feet, I fired upon whoever else was left standing. Slightly more resilient than the rest, they were stunned but not knocked out after my barrage while the rest went into cover. My hand then went for my chainsword, brandishing it while turning it up to maximum.

The very sight and sound of it was enough to give pause to the remaining prefects I could see, a delay that would prove to be their undoing as I drove in and sliced one of them, paralyzed and unable to react until it was too late, into the wall. I then sent another one to join her there on the backswing. I then thrust my blade into the abdomen of another, leaving her splayed out unconscious on the floor. I was about to go for the last when, to my surprise, Iori stood to meet my challenge.

"It's gonna take more than that…" she hacked out. "To take me down!"

Instead of shooting me though she twirled her gun and held it by the barrel. I had to admire her gumption. Did she really want to take me on in close combat while I wielded a weapon she had no idea of, with an improvised one?

It was the look in her eyes that answered my question before her charge did.

The first thing she did when she dove was come in with a wide swing which I easily evaded. She followed that up with another easily evaded backswing, and then a spinning strike. I was about to go for a counter when she followed with a kick that very nearly got me in the (armored) gut. When she steadied herself, she adjusted her grip and tried to thrust at me with the butt of the rifle instead, and then again when it failed, and then an upswing that would've smashed into my arm.

The attacks that followed were of a similar nature. Swings from different angles, combined with kicks and even punches. I had to compliment her. She genuinely wasn't bad at this. She was better at hitting things with the back end of her gun than most guardsmen were at shooting with the front, and she was very good at that too. Wielding her battle rifle like a club with extreme proficiency, you would think it was made this way.

Even though she wasn't using it properly.

With how hard she was swinging it, those spikes could have impaled me and stuck me right through… But they had no chance of doing so, even if she did land a hit. She was attacking me with the blunt portion of her weapon, even though she had customized the other side for a proper melee. She was also placing herself between me and her armed comrade, and only ever used moves that would disable or debilitate me at the worst, never going for my face and only aiming for my limbs or center mass.

Even now, in the heat of battle, her mind was probably stricken by her knowledge of my fragility, and took steps to make as sure as possible that I wouldn't be killed. She was smirking when I moved out of the way, both out of confidence and probably a little relief that I wouldn't be hurt.

All it took was one mistake, overextending a thrust just a mite too far. It was the first time I actually swung my sword at her in this fight, and the next would be the last. The utter surprise in her eyes didn't go away as I followed it up with a thrust that grinded into her torso, which eventually smashed her into a nearby lamppost. The entire exchange felt longer than it actually was, taking no more than 10 seconds and ending with two swings on my part.

To answer my question? No, she really didn't believe she could try to take me on in a brawl and win.

Shame. She might have put up a better fight if she wasn't so distracted. The battlefield was no place for hesitation like that. Then again, my first encounter with Problem Solver showed that I didn't have as much right to talk in that regard.

"N-no way… You completely outmatched Iori in CQB…"

I gave a flat look to the last remaining member of the squad. When she noticed me staring at her, she gasped and tried to aim her weapon at me. A fine idea, which was why I was already doing it. A few shots with the laspistol, and that was that.

I sighed. That was my part done. I looked to the other side and found Serika panting hard as she fell to her knees. I carefully made my way through the building and helped her to her feet. I didn't bother asking if she was OK. She was beyond that. "Your resilience is quite admirable."

Despite herself, she couldn't help but chuckle painfully between breaths. "I feel worse… Working overtime…" As someone who did experience part-time jobs but not the piercing implosions of warp-powered bullets, I'll have to take her word for it. I hope I never have the pleasure of feeling them.

"Just as stubborn as the last time we fought, kit-kat," Mutsuki said proudly from above. "I should know, some of the bullets that hit you were mine!"

"I swear the next time we fight you I'll give you a taste of that," came the dark rumblings from my side, and I felt obligated to cease that train of thought before Serika was tempted to move up that timetable to now, state of hurt be damned.

"Save that for another time. We still have more fights to come." I looked over to the other team and checked up on them. "Kayoko, how'd your engagement go?"

"Went behind them and forced them over to your minigunner, just like you asked. Between her and Haruka showering them with lead, and Aru sniping everyone out of our reach, they couldn't do a thing."

A fine rout. They definitely had an easier time then we did, but that was part of the point really. Aru was definitely better than the average sniper, but Iori clearly ran circles around her in that regard. It's why my team (mostly me, it should be said) had to be the one to deal with her rather than the rest, so Aru could be free to counter snipe distant threats. Time to check on the second phase. "Status report, Ayane."

"Shiroko's just about there. I'm finished preparing too."

"Then drop a med-bomb on Serika if you can spare a drone," I requested of her. "It's all up to her now."


She felt like her eye would end up permanently twitching with how unbelievably this fight was playing out, and definitely not in a good way.

"What do you mean Haruka walked through a barrage of mortars and a squad's worth of bullets and sniper fire?"

That was the very first ridiculous report she got, and they never stopped. The squad that was supposed to support their comrades beset by an angry fanatic was forced into a decidedly horrible position by Kayoko's demonic roar, which was mercilessly taken advantage of by the minigunner Nonomi. Once Haruka returned from her rampage and joined the fray, there was little they could do.

On the other hand, there was Mutsuki, that feline girl Serika and the Sensei himself. After being bombed, they all took the opportunity to finish the rest. She thought that she had them once Iori took down the cat girl, but after the Sensei distracted Iori and the cat girl surged back into battle, they turned the tide distressingly quickly. She even received one last report that the Sensei demolished Iori in melee, but sadly, that was to be expected. He had a dedicated melee weapon and though Iori was one of the most talented rifle users she'd ever seen whether she was shooting or swinging, she was no match for a dedicated combat specialist wielding a weapon they'd never seen before.

That was it then. 40 squad members, including the field captain, down when they outnumbered the enemy five-to-one.

"Ma'am, we have the Sensei in our sights! We can take him down!"

Oh hell no.

"Do not, I repeat, DO NOT EVEN TRY!" she immediately told off the mortar bombers. "Leave taking him down to someone else!"

"But… But WHY ma'am?!" came the swift reply from the bombers, which was rather logical to be fair. "They're tearing us apart! He's the one making them so strong! If we can take him down…"

"I can't say," she said regretfully, "but trust me when I say that you can't."

"With all due respect ma'am, WHY?!" came the shouted response that took her aback. "Going behind president Hina's back didn't sound like a good idea already, but we thought it was for the good of Gehenna! You were ragging on him about keeping his meeting with that Trinity girl confidential, but you're keeping stuff from us! What aren't you telling us?!"

"I-"

Any defense she was reflexively mounting died in her throat. That was a good point.

It generally wasn't the subordinate's place to question their superior's orders, but with proper reasoning, that was very recommended to do. And this was well within reason, but she very much didn't want to tell them either.

By the Sensei's request, very few in the city knew that he wasn't as resilient as the inhabitants here. From what Chinatsu gathered, even the animals and robots were more durable than him because, by his own admission, one lucky bullet in the right place could end him.

She could understand completely why he didn't want that getting out. That was a weakness that was better off not being known, and she would be damned if she was responsible for that happening. And yet her subordinates were entirely right to question what the hell she was doing, especially with how badly things were going.

But should she tell them? One more group who would know of his secret might spiral into everyone else in the Prefect Team. And then the Pandemonium Society and the rest of the district. And then the city.

And what would that end up doing to him?

"Administrator, tell us what to do!"

"I-"

Whatever answer she was about to give was cut off by the unwelcome sound of another boom that certainly wasn't coming from them.


It took her about 5 minutes to sneakily make her way through their invaded streets on her bike. She was a little delayed at the beginning, but quickly picked up speed once the rest of the team diverted the Prefect Team's attention, and she snuck past the central picket line, allowing her to pedal as quickly and quietly as she could. Her satisfaction at keeping out of sight was marred by every mortar blast that thundered in the air, worrying her that one of her teammates or worse, Sensei would become their unlucky target. Worry wouldn't help her solve the problem though, and she concentrated on the task given to her. The biggest alarm came when she heard Serika went down, but after she was assured that she was fine, she could completely focus on her mission.

Once she neared her destination though, Ayane immediately asked her to halt.

"There are about 15 of them there, Shiroko," Ayane notified her. "Three teams of five, split up among three different streets. There are two dedicated mortar people per team, so while you have the initiative you'll be facing nine effective combatants."

Still within acceptable margins of error for her if she got the jump. Still, it would be better if she could take out more of them as quickly as possible.

"Sensei really helped again, huh…"

She couldn't believe that she was able to apply her skills with biking to help defend their home. And then with this suggestion, she could bring those skills to a fight.

She looked down at her grenades. She had five of them. Before he came, she could barely content herself with having one or two at most.

That would be more than enough, she thought as she could feel power welling inside of her.

She snuck for the last time, making her way to the furthest team, wondering why she could hear them arguing about one thing or another instead of firing. Fine by her, that was less heat for everyone, less focus on her, and more opportunities for her to get the drop on them.

She took a deep breath and then moved out.

She pedaled as fast as she could, and before anyone would notice her, she retrieved one of her frags, thumbed off the pin, and tossed it at their general area.

She thought she could feel her heart drop when it bounced a little further away from the center of the team… Until her grenade started glowing and then exploded with the brilliant radiance of cerulean light. The weapons and ammunition they had went up in flames as well, but their conflagration was swallowed by the one she created.

"What an explosion… Shiroko, you took all of them out in one toss!"

She barely had time to widen her eyes before they narrowed again. If she would be blessed with this power now, then she would use it to the utmost.

It was hard to ignore an explosion like that one, and she could feel unseen eyes snap towards her like a searchlight.

That was fine. They knew where their comrades had been struck down. They didn't know where their assailant had disappeared to afterwards.

She cycled over to the next team and unhooked another grenade, making a repeat performance as her blast consumed the squad and their armaments in blue once more. As she pursued the final team, Ayane spoke up in warning once again.

"They're splitting up Shiroko! Some of them have taken shelter in the buildings and are ready to ambush you with crossfire from the high ground!'

"Not a problem." She gradually slowed to a halt about a street away from the target area. She then unholstered her weapon and switched off the safety as she snuck into the nearest building, heading for the second floor with Ayane's guidance.

Their machinegunner was there, aiming her weapon down her original direction in the hopes of anticipating her movement. Unfortunately for her, she had eyes in the air warning her of the ambush and turned it around.

"No movement on my end," came the gunner's voice. "Continuing to sweep the area for contact!"

She waited for the conversation to finish before she charged in. Remembering Sensei's close combat techniques, she slammed her foot behind the person's knee. Before a cry could escape their mouths and alert the rest of the squad, she used her gun to cut off her breathing until her halo dissipated.

That was one down. She looked out the window to see the mortar team still trying to disassemble the mortar under the protection of another armed defender. She'd rather finish this before that happened.

With the aid of superior positioning, she opened fire on the trio from above, taking care not to hit the weapon or the ammo. After a few bursts, the riflewoman and the mortar gunners were downed. She then took cover as she was fired upon from the opposite building. Crouching down, she adjusted her position and fired back, her more accurate bursts managing to take out the final member of the mortar teams.

With a sigh, she reloaded her gun before switching on the safety and strapping it to her back once more. "Mortar teams neutralized. Mission complete."

"Damn… It hasn't even been ten minutes. You're pretty good," that canny one from Problem Solver 68 said in disbelief.

"Didn't doubt you for a second, Shiroko. Well done."

His faith in her made her feel a strange, yet not unpleasant warmth well up inside her as she smiled. Despite the desert heat, she was tempted to hide her face behind her scarf even though no one was watching. "Thank you Sensei. It was because of your guidance."

"A good teacher is most effective with a good student," he continued, and yeah, she was definitely hiding her face now. "Though compliments aren't what we need. Only action."

"Right. Returning now." She replied, getting her head back in the game as she leapt out the window, grabbing onto the one below to slow her fall before finally descending onto the roads. She ran for her bike, kicked up the stand and started riding back to her friends.

They would win this. With Sensei's help, she knew they would.


A strange tingle in the back of my palm made me instinctively look ahead as Shiroko took care of the mortar teams. Something… something different was going on over there. What was happening?

"Looks like she managed to awaken powers of her own, Sensei," Arona illuminated me proudly once more. "She managed to power up her grenades because of you!"

Is that what that was? A simple, yet effective ability. Her assertion was rather confusing though. "What did I have to do with it?"

"You managed to let her bring more of herself into battle, which means she brought out more of her potential!" She continued, still glowing with pride. "That's what you do for your students, Sensei."

Really? A talking to and some creative decision-making is enough to awaken psionic powers? Surely it couldn't be that easy for budding psykers to gain power. Then again, I had little prolonged experience with psykers back at the Imperium (especially with Jurgen around, I likely wouldn't have been aware of any of it unless it was obvious) and none at all with their training. Plus, these girls were different from the ones back home. I did surmise self-expression was an integral part of all these schools. It appears that hypothesis bore fruit.

"Well, that's what I'm here for," I humbly espoused, accepting the obvious kudos from the AI with a little trepidation, because other than deaIing with whatever grand conspiracies the President was part of, I couldn't think of any other possible answer. I focused on the battle at hand instead. A little over a minute of various explosions and sounds of gunfire later, and Shiroko voxed over to us once more.

"Mortar teams neutralized, everyone. Mission complete."

"Damn… It hasn't even been ten minutes. You're pretty good." Kayoko's disbelief was warranted, biking several kloms undetected to take out three squads that outnumbered you 15-to-1 was a grand feat.

"Didn't doubt you for a second, Shiroko. Well done." Of course I didn't doubt her. If this mad plan failed, the battle would be significantly harder. So it's more like I was praying that my mad gambles worked, as they usually did.

"Thank you Sensei. It was because of your guidance." Her reply was filled with the usual openness I expected of her, and since she did so well I felt no harm in pouring it on just a bit.

"A good teacher is most effective with a good student," I responded with a smile, before becoming serious once more. "Though compliments aren't what we need. Only action."

"Right. Returning now," she replied, though I swore her voice was slightly muffled. Must have been some static. Oh well. So long as it didn't interfere with Ayane's part, this would be fine.

Forming a patrol line to prevent ambushes was honestly not a bad protection against guerilla warfare. It was substantially less ideal if you knew your opponent had fire support, because you were just providing clumped up targets for them to annihilate, unless you assumed that they wouldn't possibly use them on home territory.

They were underestimating just how hard and desperate we were.

"Ayane? Are you ready?"

"Flak 41 ready to fire, Sensei," she answered firmly. "Aim down the center?"

"Straight through the heart," I agreed. "Let it rip."

"Understood." The cannon's machine spirit rumbled in the background as it endeavored to adjust its heading towards the target. A few seconds later, Ayane declared its completion with one simple, beautiful word.

"Firing."

Ah, artillery fire. When it was on your side, it sounded better than the grand chorus of an orchestra.


After the initial explosion she immediately tried to reestablish contact with her mortar team. "Granate Eins, what's your status?! Repeat, what's going on?!"

"We heard an explosion from their side ma'am!" The second team sounded off in a hapless alarm. "It was a big one, they might have been taken out in one blast!"

Somebody managed to sneak past their lines and get to the mortars that fast?! How?! Everyone was on foo-

Wait a minute.

Sunaookami Shiroko. Her hobby was biking.

Three kilometers in five minutes was a hard ask for most, but perfectly feasible for an accomplished cyclist. But she had her ride with her at this moment and managed to make her way through the city undetected… What horrid luck.

"Cease bombardment. Split up and take shelter before she can find you!"

Clearly she wasn't fast enough, because one more explosion later and a cry of alarm came once more. "Drei's been taken down ma'am! Our gunners have taken split formations while we disassemble the mortar!"

"You must hurry, she's mounted on a bike and can strike hard and fast!" Shouts of agreement followed, harrowed and wary as they were, and eventually she received an update from the gunner.

"No movement on my end. Continuing to sweep the area for contact!"

The best she could hope for then. "She's only one girl. Keep your eyes peeled, and you should be able to handle her." Hopefully, this should be the end of it…

Suddenly, gunfire went off in the background, and she tried to get another word in. "Granate Zwei, respond! Talk to me!"

Unbelievable. All of the mortar teams were taken down in the blink of an eye…

The best they could do now was outlast them. There were far too many of them for Sensei's contingent to deal with them. Surely their supplies wouldn't las-

"ARTILLERY FIRE DETECTED!"

She felt her mouth go dry when she heard those words, and scarcely a moment later she could hear repeated explosions as the gathered squads were torn apart by fire they simply could not touch.

She couldn't believe it. He ACTUALLY ordered fire upon the very district they were defending, dilapidated as it was! And they just accepted it?! They were willing to go this far for him?!

"Two squads were downed before they could take cover, Ako," Chinatsu replied, and she tried to pretend that her medical lead's professional alarm was mixed with awe she couldn't quite suppress. "They're really keeping us on our toes now. What's the next move?"

She clucked her tongue and sighed in distress. They couldn't hunker down and rely on counter bombardment from the rest of their mortar teams anymore. They would have to chance a direct assault. A rather bad suggestion when you have artillery fire that would rain down on you at any second. "Send four more squads down and split them up. Have them go from building to building to reduce their exposure time as they surround the buildings."

They still had a chance to win this. So long as they got a team to surround the Sensei, it would all be over.


We quietly waited as the Prefect Team slowly made their way through the district. Much as we hoped for it, they were a canny bunch, practically glued to the walls and hiding inside the moment Ayane sent some flak fire their way.

"Still have rounds to spare, Ayane?"

"Still enough," she assured us, our supplies from the GSC clearly still holding up well. Despite that, I could still hear the mournfulness in her voice. "Wish we didn't have to use them like this though. It seems like a waste."

Usually I would roll my eyes at such notions if the resources "wasted" were serving our ends, but I could intimately understand that someone from an abandoned academy who had to desperately manage what they had would be rather averse to our current use of valuable artillery shells. "Look on the bright side. If we win this, I can assure you we can get more soon enough."

"… That DOES make me feel better," she answered back happily before cracking off another round. Her efforts were rewarded by slowing down our enemies and keeping them boxed into the buildings.

Including the very ones we wanted them to be in.

"… They're right where we want 'em Sensei," Mutsuki whispered excitedly by my side. "Can I?"

"Do the honors, Mutsuki," I said with a steely eye. "You and Haruka both."

"Y-yes, Sensei."

"Kufufufu…" Mutsuki's innocent giggles were made all the more disturbing by the detonator in her hand. "With much pleasure, Sensei."

A second later, and the building interiors exploded in a cacophony of flame, shrapnel and various old supplies, showing that you don't need the best to do good work. That'd be hell on renovation, but Emperor willing, that won't be our problem.

"Ahhh… That was incredibly therapeutic," Mutsuki sighed beside me. "You do pretty good work, Sensei!"

"What can I say?" I said amicably, feeling much more optimistic about the outcome of the battle than I was when it all started. "You girls gave me a lot to work with."


She couldn't believe how much things could improve in the span of a few minutes.

When this whole disaster started, she was afraid of what might happen to her friends and to Sensei, wondering if their efforts to save their school had just come to a premature end.

And then, he turned things around. Disbelief turned into awe, even pride at every move he made.

He recruited Problem Solver 68. He drew up a plan that got everyone to use their skills in the best way possible to whittle down every strength the Prefect Team had. He used the artillery as a distraction of all things and forced the Prefect Team into their traps and gave them one explosive welcoming gift in return.

The worry on her face turned into a vicious grin, and she couldn't stop the aura of smugness emanating from her as she looked at the annoying bastard beside her. "Well, you're right on one thing. Sensei really is an interesting guy, isn't he?"

Unfortunately, she didn't get too him at all. If anything, he seemed just as impressed with Sensei as she was, grinning even more with every successful maneuver and unexpected tactic he was responsible for. "Very, very fascinating." Ugh. Annoyingly enigmatic as usual. Something caught his eye and he sighed. "Oh dear, looks like this little experiment is over."

She followed his glance and her breath hitched. Oh no. Somebody was coming in that could make this very, VERY bad.

"You can go now. Join your friends."

Her head snapped towards him as he looked in boredom at the proceedings before he turned to her. "What? Go ahead. It's not like you'll make a difference anyway."

She didn't know what game he was playing, but she'd take it. As she was about to bolt, though, he had to get in one last parting shot.

"Go on then. Take responsibility for your actions."

She had to stop dead.

Her fists clenched so hard that she'd probably make them bleed if she wasn't wearing her gloves. Those words were ridiculously, FURIOUSLY insulting.

But she couldn't do anything about that. All she could do is run down and make it up to everyone for not being there.

That, and for making everything so, SO much worse.


Her ears were assaulted by a horrifyingly loud bang that had her cringing in her seat, and the accompanying afterblasts deafened her even more. She could do nothing but breathe heavily for the next few moments, until she resigned herself to being unable to do anything but ask the question. "What happened?"

"All four squads have been lost again ma'am. They rigged the buildings as traps."

They did more than that, she realized, clinical analysis intermingling with horror in her mind. The artillery fire was just a distraction, of all things, just to herd the squads into taking cover in trapped shelters. Two detachments, gone in an instant. Hopelessly outnumbered, Sensei had turned a sure victory into a very likely defeat.

Originally, she couldn't understand why these girls would be so driven to fight for him. Now, she could absolutely see why.

He turned the remnants of a fallen school and a group of nuisances into a force to be reckoned with. Haruka alone had grown from a mere dangerous distraction into a juggernaut that bowled over everything, now Problem Solver 68 might already be on the level of the Gourmet Research Society or any of the other more dangerous terrorists they had to deal with.

This was what those students of Abydos… No, everyone who met him saw. They saw someone who would do everything for those he fought for. In turn, they would grow and become what they needed to fight with him. And that was the kind of person you needed for a wasteland like this.

She thought she could handle this quickly and easily before the Head Prefect found out, but she might actually lose these troops now! What could she do?

A small ping sounded through her comms, and she was about to answer when the caller said one word that bolted her to her seat.

"Ako."

Her blood froze. Oh no. Oh noooooooo.

"H-head Prefect Hina?!" She prattled off, completely thrown off-balance by the sudden call. Oh hells, she absolutely could NOT let her find out!

"What's wrong? You sound rather frazzled. Having a stressful day?"

The head prefect making pleasantries like this? What was going on?

"N-n-no!" She answered shakily. "I'm just… Overseeing a patrol around Gehenna!" Which was technically true! If by around you included "in the general area outside of Gehenna", but that counted! No, she couldn't panic, she had to have some semblance of control here if she wanted to get out of this alive! "But what about you? I thought you were away on a business trip!"

"I just finished," she replied simply, making her breath constrict. While she would normally be excited to see Hina return, this was extraordinarily bad timing on every account! "Still, that's rather strange. This isn't your first patrol. Why do you sound so panicked?"

"Could it be that you're busy 'patrolling' another autonomous district without permission?"

She blinked at the words, unable to fully comprehend the meaning of what she said until it dawned on her, her mouth widening in abject terror.

"Stay on the line. We will have words."


Naturally, just as I was feeling good myself, my palms started tingling like I plugged them into a socket, and it only became worse when Arona wailed at me from inside the Chest.

"There's a MASSIVE spike of power coming this way Sensei! Something… No, SOMEBODY dangerous is coming in!"

I didn't need to be told. There was only one person of that caliber who I could think of that would be motivated to come here now. I didn't think she would come, considering the supposed subversion of authority the Senior Administrator did, but if she was taking the opportunity now…

"Sensei, it's Kayoko," my comms suddenly crackled. "I know this is going to sound really, REALLY bad… But I think it'd be better for all of us if we separated."

I suddenly felt like I was on a roller coaster with how much my morale was bobbing up and down every other second. "Come again?"

"YOU'RE BAILING ON US?!" Serika summarized for us. And really, there wasn't a better way to put it. I imagine that even if she hadn't received treatment from Ayane she would have wailed just as loud while she was injured.

"Kayoko, are you kidding?! W-we HAVE to stay and fight!" Aru told her, even though she could feel the winds changing as well.

"And I'm saying it would be mutually beneficial for ALL of us if we aren't seen together," Kayoko answered firmly. "I know this is a lot to ask… But trust me, Sensei. Please."

Trust a daemon that was buggering off and leaving me to my fate?! Emperor, I wish I could run screaming with them! This was the sort of thing that would have me acting like a stereotypical commissar, giving the Emperor's WRATH to all deserters, even when I did sorely want to be one of them!

And yet, there was a tiny voice in the back of my head telling me to trust her. My instincts were telling me to trust a daemon. Was it over already? Was my mind warped from this delusion of coming back to life? Was my soul already damned?

… Frak it all. I'd already lost my mind just by thinking we could fight an army with 8 people. What else did I have to lose at this point?

"… Problem Solver 68. You can go. Try to be discreet."

"S-Sensei…"

"W-we're just gonna leave you behind?"

Much to their credit, Aru was torn between her natural (and rather too understandable) desire to run and her own code of outlaw dignity, and Haruka was supremely unconvinced of leaving at all. With a sigh, I confirmed it for them. "If Kayoko says it'll be better, it will be. If all goes well… I'll see you tomorrow. Count on it."

After a brief pause, Aru tried to puff herself up. "Alright then. You better be there!"

"It was pretty fun today, Sensei," Mutsuki said from beside me with a pat on my shoulder. "A guy like you will be alright, I'm sure. Try not to get filled with bullets, ya hear me?"

Given that she was laboring under the assumption that I could take bullets like the rest of them, that was less reassuring than she thought. "I'll make the effort," I answered honestly as she grinned and left. And much effort it would take indeed.

"Sensei, I can feel somebody strong coming in," Shiroko alerted me. "I think I can get the jump on her…"

"That's a very nice bike. I'd prefer it if I didn't have to break it."

My heart sank as the voice went out on a public channel. She didn't bother with hiding because she felt she didn't need it at all.

Frankly, I could feel it.

"Foreclosure Task Force… and Sensei. I'd like to talk to all of you face to face. I won't fire unless you give me a reason to. Don't do so."

A grand warning if I ever heard one. Despite the fact that she must be surrounded by the unconscious bodies of her own troops, she didn't seem to care that she was calling out all those responsible to face them on her own.

And something deep inside me was telling me that if I actually made the attempt, then I would be dead without her trying.

"… Stand down, Shiroko. Everyone. We're coming out to talk."

We made our way down the abandoned building and out into the desert roads. Serika was fingering her gun as she made her way out into the open. We eventually reconvened with Nonomi and Shiroko reluctantly pedaled towards us instead of having the fight she wanted.

Well and good. I took one look at who called us out and figured that it would be a hopelessly short fight if she tried.

She had a greatcoat slung over her shoulder, the sleeves hanging freely in the air. Her officer's dress, purple and gold with slit openings by her hips, brought her an air of dignified elegance. Purple long boots with black laces and gold buckles were worn over stockings that stopped just under her thighs.

If I was just facing an overconfident officer who thought her outfit brought her all the presence she needed to command her enemies to bow to her, I'd just laugh. Instead, I was terrified.

Gigantic pinioned wings, their wingspan wide enough to engulf me in their purple embrace, flared out from behind her, tipped with silver spikes and golden carapace. A customized machine gun whose glowing barrel made it look like Imperial machinery than anything from this backwater planet. Four horns, cracked like aged rocks and glowing with purple light as they jutted out from a mane of white hair. Her eyes, shadowed with dread, and dissatisfied glare from her purple eyes that demanded her problems fixed themselves before she convinced them to. Painfully, if she had to. And then there was her halo: A jagged crown lined in purple, with a miniature diamond topped with its own ringed halo, and accompanied by two mini chevron-like structures glowing with. It looked more like an ancient machine relic, the difference only highlighting just how above others she was.

"Ugh, that was NOT fun to deal with…" I flinched at the exhausted groan coming from the side streets and found the most unpleasant sight of Iori getting up from a battering with my chainsword. "What happe- HINA?! I-I mean, Head Prefect?!"

She didn't feel as powerful as the daemons I'd fought before. But she already felt strong enough to end me with a thought. And her presence was a force all of its own. Those around who looked discouraged, disheveled or even unconscious, found the strength to stand confidently when they laid eyes on her. And suddenly, it felt like all our efforts were undone.

We'd torn through her troops, seen through all their tactics and outmaneuvered them at every turn.

And it wouldn't matter, because she was here now.

"Th-that's her," Ayane said faintly and worriedly. "Sorasaki Hina, the Head Prefect of Gehenna's Prefect Team. The strongest student in Kivotos."

The strongest in this entire city. And she was here.

And I was having such a good day.

"Looks like all of us are here now," she began, because there was no doubt who held the initiative in this confrontation. One hand went to her other glove, tightening it out of habit. Clearly, she wasn't having a good day either. "But we ought to make this more personal."

She took out her phone and pressed it, flashing the Senior Administrator's panicked face to us. "So, Ako. What exactly were you doing here? Do explain for all of us. It better be a more believable explanation than the one you gave me."

"I-I was… Just trying to arrest some misbehaving students…" she excused lamely.

"That's bullcrap!" Serika shouted, offended enough by the obvious lie to regain her gumption. Thankfully, that was enough to emphasize the Administrator's deception and forced her to speak.

"I-it's true! I was trying to arrest Problem Solver 68!" She said desperately, and what followed next was something I could never have expected.

"Really? Then where are they?"

"They're-!" That's when Ako realized that, no, we were all alone. "Wh-where did they go?! They were fighting with you! They're still around here, aren't they?!"

She sounded very much like a kid caught with their trousers down in the middle of a fib to their parents. Naturally, none of us said a word to illuminate the Head Prefect of their former presence. More unexpectedly, despite being shot at and blown up by us and the aforementioned misbehaving students, none of the other Prefect Team members, even Chinatsu, were willing to speak up in Ako's defense.

Clearly, nobody was on Ako's side here. But was the Head Prefect actually pretending to buy this frak? Bloody hell, Kayoko called it. It really WAS a smart idea for them to bail out on us. Now if only it was just as logical for me to go with them.

"Ako. I get it," she cut her off definitively. "You were trying to deal with unknown risk factors before the upcoming Eden Treaty. So you went after Sensei." Ako didn't answer, her motives laid bare without any way to deny them. Her superior sighed. "But we're the Prefect Team, not the Student Council. SCHALE, the Tea Party and the missing president may be on our minds, but we have enough on our plate dealing with our district. Leave the politics to those raccoons over at the Pandemonium Society."

So the unfavorable opinion of their student council was shared by both Ako and her Head Prefect. Rather common among law enforcement institutions. And the Guard, come to think of it. Understanding her mistake, Ako deflated and nodded weakly, unable to put up any more resistance. "… I get it, Head Prefect."

"We'll discuss the details when we head back. I have to handle this now." She glared at her administrator, making her wilt. "Cut off communications and remain absolutely still. Understood?"

"… Yes ma'am," she said, before she finally went silent.

Well. That was one problem gone. Now for the far bigger and scarier one.

"… So can we try this again? Maybe if we…"

I immediately slammed my (thankfully left) hand down hard on Shiroko's shoulder, forcing her to derail that train of thought before anything could come of it. I stared at her to make sure she wouldn't try it again, and relented.

As for who would make the first move…

"So. You're the Sensei of SCHALE."

Of course.

"That would indeed be me," I replied, hiding the bowel-loosening terror I felt at being noticed. "Ciaphas Cain, currently acting as the temporary advisor for the Abydos Foreclosure Task Force."

"I see," she nodded, taking in the situation, then raising an eyebrow. "You appear to be incomplete. Isn't there one more of you? I'd heard there were five students left in Abydos, with one operator."

"This is true," I confirmed for her, sweating internally. "But she's been unavailable all morning." I didn't know how much difference it would make, but having a united front of all the students would be better for us. Where in the warp's name was she?

"Heh, sorry about that. I'm here now!"

My head snapped towards the unfittingly easygoing voice, joined by the rest of the FTF. It was exactly as she declared: Right from out of nowhere, Hoshino had finally arrived.

"HOSHINO?!" Serika cried out beside me, completely in disbelief that her senior arrived with just as much explanation as she disappeared. Shiroko was equally mystified, simply looking on in silent confusion. Nonomi at least tried to favor her president with a smile, though wariness marred any warmth she felt.

"Senpai… Hoshino, where were you?" Ayane asked warily from the other hand.

"Sorry about that. I was… I was a little busy, then I took a nap."

That was a lie. That was such an obvious lie that I would have called it out at any other time. But even Serika understood that to do so now was a terrible idea.

"Guess I better make up for that now, huh?" She turned towards the Head Prefect, her smile no longer having any semblance of casualness. "Now then, we're all here now. Shall we try this again, Prefect Team?"

The barely veiled threat in her words was very familiar. She felt the same when she was frustrated with my lack of care with Serika, whenever she gave those wistful, wayward glances. It was a glimpse of what lies beneath her.

It had never been so open. Because now, I could swear that she felt just as strong as the Head Prefect.

You would think that that would be encouraging, just like with Haruka. The cavalry came in, a trump card just as strong as the enemy.

I couldn't feel so pleasant. The complete bafflement I felt, the dizziness of this revelation and the mystery of where she was utterly obliterated any morale boost that could have come with her arrival, a feeling echoed by the rest of the Task Force.

But whatever I felt, Hina did as well. She flinched, inching back ever so slightly as though she had seen a ghost. It was a small thing, but for the first time, the overwhelming aura of dominance she had was gone.

"Takanashi Hoshino…" she whispered quietly. "So it really was you. I knew there was a Hoshino here in Abydos even now, but I didn't think it was the same person."

"Hmm?" Hoshino raised an eyebrow at the research done on her. "You've heard of me before?"

"I used to be part of the Intelligence Committee," the Head Prefect explained, which was a very illuminating explanation. Intelligence gathering was a very good skill for discipline enforcement, and you didn't need to be a warp-powered psychic with a halo to have a countenance like Hina's after experiencing the wonders of both professions. "I took note of students of interest within each district. You were one of them. And I could never forget you. I didn't think you would stay in Abydos after your… incident."

Questions upon mysteries upon enigmas. They never stopped coming, and we could do little more but stand still. Hoshino tightened her grip on her weapon at the reference to her past, but made no other moves. The Head Prefect's eyes went from her, to the rest of us. "I see. So that's why you're here, Sensei."

What conclusion she was driving at, I couldn't imagine, but she regained her usual composure without the intimidating aura that accompanied it. "Well, it doesn't matter." Here she looked straight towards me, and I wondered if I was frakked anyway. "Just to confirm everything, there was an unauthorized troop deployment, damage of property and an assault on a federal investigator and obstruction of their duties. Are those all the offenses we are responsible for?"

We. She wasn't here for any of it, but she was taking responsibility for her force's frakups. Interesting. She was aware of what they were without explanation, but she was a former intelligence officer. She could connect the dots without much help. "In so many words."

"Very well."

And then she caught us off-guard again.

She threw her weapon away, and then bowed before us. Her head was low enough that her white mane became flecked with grains of sand, and if she felt any discomfort from that, she didn't show any of it.

"For all these offenses and more, I, Sorasaki Hina, formally apologize to both Abydos and SCHALE, and guarantee that we will never enter this area again without your authorization. I ask for your forgiveness and understanding."

"What in the hell…"

"The Head Prefect is bowing?!"

"Damn, what is WITH that guy?"

Why are you asking about me?! I'm not responsible for any of this! At the very least, while I heard disbelief at the unexpected orders, I didn't hear any dissent. I looked at the other girls, and then the holographic image of Ayane, who all looked to me like incredibly distressed sheep needing their shepherd for guidance.

At this point, there was really only one choice.

"We accept the Prefect Team's apology for their offenses towards both SCHALE and Abydos," I declared with an air of finality. Everyone, on every side, wanted this over with, and that was good enough for me. I swore I could feel the desert cool a good few degrees from the tension released by my acceptance, and I could even see the Head Prefect relax her hands ever so slightly as she raised her head with a nod. She looked back towards her troops and made the announcement.

"It's time to move out. The next train will leave in fifteen minutes. I will meet you there. Gather all the wounded with you." She then eyed her two fellow leaders. "Iori, Chinatsu, lead the withdrawal. I'll catch up with you soon."

"Y-yes Head Prefect…" Iori said meekly, turning to give me one last look before she moved to join the rest of troops. "You heard her, to the station! We meet there and get prepped for departure in ten! We're not welcome back here, so make sure you have all your gear with you!"

"By your order, Head Prefect." Chinatsu gave a small nod towards Hina, then to me. "I hope we meet under better circumstances next time, Sensei."

"The feeling is mutual, Chinatsu," I replied with a similar gesture. "Till next time."

Chinatsu then went to the nearest exploded building to check on the fallen troops there. At that point Hina was left with us. She then gave me a meaningful look.

A more… Discrete discussion then. Much as I didn't want to stay near her for longer than necessary, refusing a request from her after how much indignity she went through by taking responsibility for Ako's insubordination would reflect rather badly on me, so I looked to the rest of the girls. "Give me a few minutes. I'll catch up with you soon enough."

All of the girls seemed hesitant to leave me alone with an incredibly powerful student, which mirrored how I felt about the matter quite well. "Are you sure, Sensei? We can stay."

No, I wasn't sure at all, but the concern is reassuring enough. "This seems to be a private matter, and she made the effort of dismissing the rest of her team and leaving her by herself." Which, strength-wise, still left me monumentally outmatched from how bad I felt, but if nothing else I had to put on a show of confidence and trust by meeting her one-on-one. "Just stay nearby. She probably wouldn't pull a fast one over me after everything she's done." Of course, it could just be an act to deal with me herself, but that seemed monumentally convoluted.

"… I guess…" Shiroko said reluctantly, still clearly not convinced but not wanting to doubt me.

After a moment's consideration Hoshino put a hand on her junior's shoulder. "… I think he'll be fine. We can probably learn more if we leave things to Sensei anyway."

"… That sounds about right," Ayane sighed before glaring at her. "We can probably talk about YOU now!"

Hoshino winced and tried to laugh off the dread she felt at the oncoming storm, turning to me and pretending that she wasn't frakked to the warp. "Y-you can go on ahead, Sensei. Just call if you need us."

I shrugged before turning to the rest. "Keep her in one piece girls. I'll need to have some questioning of my own once you're done."

"Ugh…" As the FTF left for a nearby street corner, I sighed, hoped I wasn't getting myself killed, and approached the incredibly powerful daemon waiting for me.

I was already thrown off-balance the moment I approached, because I noticed our ridiculous height difference. And despite the overwhelming advantage she had in power, she certainly wasn't towering over me. Bereft of the overwhelming dread I felt when she arrived, I finally realized that the girl was positively tiny. She barely came up to my chest and had to look up at me as I moved closer to her. Her gigantic wings, her ornate halo, her four horns and her oversized weapon only made the contrast of her petite stature even stranger, like she was a little girl imperiously trying to look bigger than she was by heaving around the biggest toys she could find, except she actually knew how to use them.

I tried not to focus on that as I neared. If she was annoyed by having to stare up at me as I talked, it didn't show on her face at least. In fact, she looked quite unsure of what to say at first, until she steeled herself. "Once again, I apologize. This really isn't how I imagined we'd meet."

"I can understand why," I answered diplomatically. Assuming she actually was a responsible Head Prefect, then meeting me this way could be classified as 'a complete disaster'. Certainly not the kind of first impression you want to make on a federal investigator. Perhaps I can use this as an excuse to pry. "How exactly did you see our first meeting then? Given your interest in me, or so I heard."

To her credit, she didn't do much more than twitch a finger at being told that she was found out. "And who told you of such a thing?"

"Your senior administrator," I replied bluntly.

"Ako…." She muttered darkly, glancing sideways and probably increasing whatever punishment she had already planned significantly. Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but her eyes seemed to increase their glow and her horns seemed to crack just a tiny bit more. Anger like that would lead most guardsmen to a firing line, which wouldn't be quite as effective here, but I imagine that she had other creative punishments in store. Better her than me, I'd say, especially since she was responsible for siccing a damned army on me. In the interests of remaining cordial, I valiantly ignored her near-growls and pushed onward.

"I realize that my position does warrant some interest, but is there any reason that yours seemed significant enough to be noted by your peers?" Because I seriously did not need personal scrutiny from a damned daemon again. I had enough of that for two centuries, and I didn't want another daemon persistent enough to return from the warp for the purposes of claiming my immortal soul after me. Especially now that I didn't even know what in the HELL was up with my body, soul or whatever in the Emperor's name I was now.

It was the first time I personally caught her off-guard, and she seemed conflicted on how to answer me. She finally ended up sighing and looking at me once more with difficulty. "It's… A personal failing. Rest assured, it won't interfere with you and your interactions with us."

A little late for that, given that Ako seemed particularly disgruntled with her Head's interest in me, enough for me to suspect that that played a part in today's little disturbance, but I decided to keep that little tidbit under wraps for now. If I tempted her any more, the Head Prefect might resort to murdering her Senior Administrator for how much trouble she caused, and I didn't need to have that travesty associated with me. Once she finished punishing her subordinate in her mind, she took a deep breath, calmed herself down and looked at me once more. "Given what she pulled though, what you did today was quite impressive, managing to take on so many of my troops with only 8 students." So she knew entirely about Problem Solver and pretended she didn't so that she could stop the whole thing. I can respect her for that much at least.

"If it was impressive, it's because they were," I admitted, because I really wasn't just dissembling. They followed my orders as best as they could have, and fought with powers and skill far beyond any average guardsman. I wouldn't have been able to turn things around if not for their skills.

"As were you, I imagine," she noted, which wasn't entirely accurate, because the only thing impressive about me was that I was still alive. "The strategy was yours, I assume. But did you fight in the frontlines as well?"

"I did," I responded, and I didn't even have to lie, as much I wanted it to actually be a lie. "I couldn't ask them to fight and then leave them to it, could I?" Again, if only I could actually do that, right here and now, and basically every time I had to run off to war for the past two hundred years.

"Fair enough," she acknowledged, and I couldn't help but think I heard respect in her voice. "But I have to ask, why do you keep your…" she looked around before continuing, "unique constitution a secret? I'm sure many students would think twice before pulling the trigger if they knew, which would be quite the advantage for someone who fights like you."

An interesting personal question. Much as I wanted to keep the answer similarly concealed, it probably wouldn't hurt to explain it to her in the interests of cordiality. Equally conspiratorial, I looked around and answered in a low voice. "… How popular are assassination attempts around here?"

Yes, I kept it a secret because I wasn't sure that the positives outweighed the negatives. I had to trust that everyone, from the lowliest two-bit ganger to the most dastardly organized crime boss, and whoever else I fought in between from simple rowdy troublemakers, political opportunists or simple robots, would hesitate if they ever pointed a gun at me because they never shot somebody who would actually die if they took a bullet, for me to find benefit in revealing my mundane human squishiness. Sure, and every hive-ganger I met in my youth would shed a tear if they ever had to plant a bullet in someone instead of just shooting first and looting the corpse before leaving it to rot or be eaten by whoever or whatever was desperate enough to partake. Forgive my skepticism. Even if I could allow that those in Kivotos would be more reluctant to kill, it would take just one stray thought of desperation, one tiny accident, and consciously or unconsciously, they might attempt to end me in earnest.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side, someone or somebody either might not care or would actively try to murder my sorry human behind. And they might not shoot me from the front, but in the back, or perhaps in a building several kloms away. I didn't actually tell this to those who knew, I simply requested that they keep it a secret.

No. Better to act normal. Depressing as it was, I was used to everyone trying to shoot at me, though ironically I imagine precious few people here were actually trying to kill me.

To my surprise, she looked absolutely stricken by my answer, as though the concept of murder never crossed her mind. "… Not very." The predictable answer, since even the most powerful sniper rifles wouldn't guarantee a mission kill, and if you tried for something stronger, there was little point in being subtle. What wasn't predictable was Hina's reaction. Her mouth was dry, trying not to seem horrified by the very thought. She looked at me gravely. "Rest assured, nobody among the rank and file of the Prefect Team knows about your condition, and no one will, unless absolutely necessary. I swear to it."

I couldn't understand. For somebody so powerful and so feared, it seemed the very idea of death shook her to the core, something I couldn't quite match with the daemon she was. All I could say was a simple acknowledgement of her resolve. "I see. I'll hold you to it." The sheer disconnect between how she looked and how she acted made me supremely uncomfortable, so I moved away from personal matters. "So what exactly did you call me here for?"

Having gotten over her strange outburst, she composed herself and moved the conversation onward. "I realize that an apology isn't enough for the problems we caused today, and we have very little room to make requests of you. But in the interests of our future cooperation, I'm going to have to ask anyway."

I wasn't going to like what was coming next, was I? I inclined my head in acknowledgement, wordlessly telling her to go on. I frowned deeply at what she asked of me.

"I'd like to ask you not to announce what happened today. Not in full, at least."

Censorship. Unpleasant, but I can see why she'd ask. Of course, that wasn't important to me. "And why should I cover for your mistakes, when said mistakes were targeted at me?"

To her credit, she didn't flinch, and continued to lay out the facts stoically and logically. "It's for the sake of keeping peace in Kivotos. Should your duties take you to Gehenna, we, the Prefect Team, will be your main allies in enforcing law and order in Gehenna. Due to the… chaotic nature of our district, it will be extremely inconvenient for you if we're hampered in any way. You won't find many allies other than us when it comes to your responsibilities of keeping order."

I mulled over that thought. So the district of daemons was a chaotic madhouse after all, and the Prefect Team was the exception? I remembered Aru and her ilk were from Gehenna as well, and if they were an indication of the average Gehenna student (Kayoko notwithstanding, but then again, she considered Aru her boss for reasons I couldn't possibly fathom), the Head Prefect might not be pulling my leg.

"More significantly, the Eden Treaty, our one chance for peace with our rivals, rests heavily on our trustworthiness, and this incident might give them cause to call it off."

Now that was a better argument, I begrudgingly acknowledged. My job would indeed be far easier if I didn't have wars between academies filled with psychically enhanced students looming over my head.

"Of course, I'm not going to ask you to do this without recompense," she emphasized. "Within reason, whatever reparations you deem necessary, I will try to grant you."

At least she knew that there was no way I was doing this for free. Fortunately, I was already considering reparation ideas for after the battle anyway, and I began with the simplest request. "First off, replenish our supplies of the Flak 41 shells we used in this battle." Though the model we "requisitioned" was provided by Kaiser, the cannon itself was a model originally constructed in Gehenna. This was why I allowed Ayane to liberally waste those rounds on nothing but distractions: if anyone could refurbish our supplies, it'd be the Prefect Team.

"Done," Hina said immediately. "Send us the details and we will have them delivered tomorrow. What else?"

Don't rush. That's just the easy part. "Secondly, I want you to pay for any damages incurred to the district due to our conflict." I'm sure the locals would appreciate a renovation on credit… the yen of the people responsible for another gunfire-filled day.

As I expected, she hesitated. Unfortunately for me, it wasn't for the reasons I expected. "I would suggest looking into those buildings before confirming that request."

I narrowed my eyes. There was something big there. A possible lead to our investigation. The way my palms tingled made me feel that it was a very big piece of the puzzle we were missing, and I acknowledged the suggestion. "Very well." So what could I do instead…

A stray thought entered my mind, and I decided to wing it. I doubted she would actually accept it, but it'd be good to gauge just how sincere she was.

"This will be my last request," I assured her, though she showed no relief at the prospect as my eyes bored into her.

"I want one favor from you. Undeniable. Unrefusable. I ask you anything, and you do it."

That provoked a reaction out of her, her eyes widening and her hands clenching. Like I thought. If she said no, I could use that as an excuse to do something else instea-

"So long as what you ask won't harm the order in Gehenna and Kivotos-" I had to force my jaw to stay still and not smash to the ground like a drop pod as she began answering, pausing to gather herself before staring straight at me. "Then I accept. One favor from me."

But… Why?! Why would you agree to this madness?! I could ask anything ridiculous of you and hold revealing the events of today over your head if you don't do it! What are you thinking?!

The fact that she didn't break eye contact with me forced me to calm myself and acknowledge that this girl had more steel in her than I expected, and I already thought her a hard one. She was, after all, a daemon and supposedly the strongest student in the entire city. I suppose I should have expected no different.

"With those conditions agreed upon, I promise that the details of today's conflict will downplay the Prefect Team's… mistakes in inciting it." As a professional in the art of the spin, it honestly wouldn't be too hard. Not only was I already a practiced liar, I had enough experience in spouting bunk to the troops and the masses and read enough 'incredibly candid' disclosures by the Administratum to have an idea of how to do it.

"Thank you," she said in relief, before her face hardened once more. "Just one more thing."

Oh Emperor, what was it now? I raised my eyes, disguising my impatience with curiosity.

"I was unable to stop all of this because I was, on paper, on a business trip," she began. "Truth be told, it was an intelligence-gathering operation in the Abydos Desert."

And suddenly, all my impatience was gone. Information was as good as gold, and though I couldn't understand why she was telling it to me, hearing about secret operations was the kind of thing you shut up and listened to, ESPECIALLY when it was potentially another huge lead for our investigation.

"I wasn't originally planning to reveal this to Abydos at all," she admitted, and I could see a flash of regret cross her eyes. "Their academy would be shut down soon anyway. But maybe things might be better if you're here."

"The Kaiser Corporation is conducting large-scale operations deep in the Abydos Desert. To what ends, I don't know. But they're heavily armed and defended. If you want to investigate for yourselves, take caution."

Emperor above. That was more than I dared to hope. I knew where to gather more evidence on our debtors and their motives. It'd be dangerous, as it always was, but at least it was something.

But just her telling that information now of all times was confusing in the utmost.

"… I would've acceded to your request for that information alone," I admitted out of complete confusion. "Why did you only say that now?"

She confused me even more by looking quite mystified herself, as though the idea of holding that information over my head never even crossed her mind. "Why wouldn't I tell it to you? Investigating it would be for our mutual benefit. Why would I use that as payment for my subordinate's mistakes?"

Because that's practically a freebie to get me to do what you want without consequence! How… How could you not see that?! Surely something like you would see it and realize it instantly!

"Why indeed," I said, pretending to approve of her rationale and refusing to believe it for a second. This… This had to be a trick. Surely it had to be. Still, I can't reveal any of my skepticism and instead acted grateful for her acting (because surely, it HAD to be an act) like one of the most reasonable commanders I've ever met in my life. "Your discretion is appreciated, Head Prefect. Thank you for the information." I then held out my left hand, reluctant as I was to reveal my augmetics to her. This would be inevitable, and I wouldn't like it, but I might as well part on the usual polite terms. "I look forward to working with you again, Hina."

Once again, she acted most peculiarly at my words. Her eyes widened ever so slightly at the proffered hand, and I saw that the cracks in her horns did indeed reduce themselves, losing their glow and receding like time rewinding on broken rockrete. She seemed surprised at my offer, but tried desperately to hide it as she quickly recovered and took my hand. "I look forward to our future endeavors together as well, Sensei. I bid you farewell."

A tiny crack of her voice. A little bit of vulnerability I refused to see.

Because there was absolutely no way she was being honest with those words.

"Sensei," Arona spoke up quietly from within my head. "I didn't want to distract you, but I checked up on her interest in you."

"After your first squad? She was one of the first people who followed you. She's been curious about you all this time."

As she walked off, my head continued to spin as I tried to take in everything that happened today.

A sudden invasion. Fighting off an army with an ad hoc cooperation with some criminals. My incredibly dizzying interaction with the Head Prefect. And now I have to run a propaganda spin for both the district and Kivotos in general.

And I couldn't even console myself with ramen.

Emperor above, I needed a bowl of tanna. Several of them. But I couldn't have that either.

I took out my cell phone and began my work. He who has the first word can set the narrative, unless evidence proves otherwise, and if nothing else, this place made it very easy for me to speak before anyone else.

The whole city was watching. So was she.

I may not feel good, but I might as well make myself look good.


CiaphasCain SCHALE

"Today has been a tragic day for the district of Abydos.

Shiba Seki Ramen, a restaurant with years of history in the district, was suddenly bombed, and the building was completely destroyed in the process. The Master of the Restaurant has fortunately survived, though he is in need of medical attention for his injuries.

Before the Foreclosure Task Force and I could investigate however, Gehenna's Prefect Team came in first. As it turns out, the last ones on the scene were the outlaw cell Problem Solver 68, leaving them a prime suspect in the crime. In their haste, the Prefect Team moved out and attempted to make an arrest in order to take responsibility for the crime. As it turns out, they were not the ones responsible, and a brief confrontation ensued wherein the FTF and I had to clear the air between the two. The matter was settled when the Head Prefect, Hina Sorasaki, made an appearance and personally apologized for the mistakes of her subordinates.

Now, before rumors spring up about our interactions, no, I did not MAKE her bow before me in apology. She personally chose to take responsibility for the faults of the Prefect Team, which is a trait more leaders ought to follow. As for her subordinates, perhaps this should lead to a little more reflection before you consider inconveniencing your leader at any point.

For now, my condolences go out to the district of Abydos for the loss of an irreplaceable landmark, a place of good food, great people and full bellies. Rest assured, I will be making the utmost effort to find the ones responsible."

Greenhead BlankwallsAreTheBest

"Hey, hey, Sensei, did you hear the rumors about the brand-new criminals on the block?! Those absolutely incredible nutheads who decided to rob the Stygian Bank in the Black Market and actually managed to pull it off?! The security cameras blacked out while they were there, and no camera footage or pictures of them have appeared online, but they supposedly robbed the place in nothing but masks and swimsuits and were led by a dog! Isn't that weird?! Are you gonna be going after them next?!"

CiaphasCain SCHALE

"Interesting question. I do indeed know about them. Here's a far better question: Why do you? I'm a federal investigator. It's my job to know these things. To quote your bio, aren't you 'just a random student from a no-name academy', if you indeed are? Are you looking into rumors about the Black Market? Heavens forbid, are you GOING there? Why, I might have to keep an eye out for particularly inquisitive students at this rate…

Remember, the Black Market district is illegal. It's a dangerous place where criminals gather. Even with your halos protecting you from physical harm, they can't protect against everything. Forced labor, monumental debt and several other dangers can still hit you where it hurts. Including, say, a strike on your records if you ever get found out. Of course, I can't exactly stop all of you curious children from going there anyway, but please don't hold me responsible for anything that happens to you when you're there.

As for the criminals, underworld affairs, so long as they stay in their lane, will be a secondary priority compared to matters affecting students and law-abiding citizens in other districts. As for the new criminals? They'll get the fate they deserve eventually, I'm sure of that."

*Chapter 18, Destruction and Deception END*

Edited once again by Doc43Souls. Thanks for all your help!

So how did you like this little city fight? Honestly I had an idea of the outline of the fight, but certain details made me hesitate for quite a bit, such as the number and whether I still made the Prefect Team too inadequate. Hopefully, I did right by them.

The concept of innate student abilities is rather low-key in the actual game, with Tsurugi's healing probably being the most overt reference within the story. Here, I'm making the in-game skill abilities, as well as gaining them, more tied to the idea of their personal growth, which Cain, being the way he is, will help bring out more of.

Something to note is that the students Cain leads are very, very above average. All of them can easily take on squads of students, and a recent canon chapter of the Problem Solver 68 manga revealed that Haruka is CRACKED. She can literally tank an entire building of people shooting at her and not give a crap with proper motivation, before responding in kind by promptly beating the shit out of all of them until she's the last one standing. She's not that strong yet here, but she's on that path as you can see.

I wanted to give Iori a bit of a break her, as unfortunate as she ended up being anyway. She gets dunked on by everyone and the universe in every canon appearance, but she's still a beloved character for many Senseis, not least of which is because she was one of the most powerful students to recruit early in the game's life. I wanted to emphasize her skill with her rifle compared with most other students, especially since the Gehenna Summer PV shows her as one of the few who engages in melee combat with her rifle.

I also wanted to show that for as annoying as Ako and the Prefect Team seem to be here, they aren't evil at all, a fact which troubles our commissar greatly. It shows just how advantageous revealing his vulnerability could be, and of course, his paranoid logic as to why he wouldn't anyway.

Which, of course, he reveals to Hina. As you can see, she takes a personal interest in Cain here that will eventually entwine with a few running themes for him throughout the story. First are his usual assumptions about the nature of "daemons" here, and the second… Well, it has to do with his own life here. You'll read more about that eventually. As for why she's so taken aback while Ako was less so? Canonically, Hina is very, very horrified by learning about Hoshino's past, and I like to think she blocks it out. This part isn't as canon, but in this fic, Ako is somewhat insulated from that which is why she was able to figure out what Cain wanted from the deception before the Head Prefect did due to being a slightly more objective about it, even though in most other situations Hina would figure it out first.

I also wanted to show more playing with the political game. As much as Cain WANTS to punish the Prefect Team, it wouldn't really help him or anyone else in the long run. He still wanted to get a few reparations for them to at least show their goodwill. What he'll get out of that favor is anyone's guess ?

And of course… Hoshino. Yeah, I wanted there to be a far better reason for her staying out of the fight. Gematria are powerful, but they've never wielded that influence so directly in main canon, relying instead on creating mystical abominations or enhancing and taking advantage of powers that are already in the city, so we don't know how strong they are in a straight fight except for Beatrice, which is another reason why she stands out so much from the rest of Gematria. Here, Hoshino is scared of Black suit's own literal power as much as his influence. Plus, it makes the problems with Abydos as a whole hit harder for her.

And if you're wondering, who Cain is talking to in the end? She's a curious thing, but she's trying a liiiiitle too hard remain undercover. All I'll say is her name and her description are indeed both gigantic lies, and she's NOT an OC.

Now, this might be incredibly late, but did you know this has a SpaceBattles forum? Yeah, it's been there... Since the very beginning, but for reasons even I can't fathom I never really said it on ...? Anyway, just search it up the fic and SpaceBattles and you should see it.

That's it for this chapter. Will I have another one out by the end of the year…? I might be busy throughout the end, so we'll see. Cheers till next time!