*Chapter 2: THE SENSEI FROM THE IMPERIUM!*

Confusion was the word of the moment, because I was absolutely lost. My mind was burning through all cylinders simply trying to comprehend my own existence.

"Excuse me, could you repeat all that again?"

The woman sighed. "I suppose you being here was unexpected enough that a little confusion is warranted."

I've learned from experience that in times of utter panic and confusion, one goes back to their instincts and reflexes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, despite my complete and utter confusion, a lifetime of dishonesty made me revert to a simple action which I knew of far too well: Pretending everything was alright and buying time.

"Apologies, miss. I just find myself out of sorts being here. May I ask who you are and what's going on?"

I took a closer look at the woman standing above me with her piercing stare. White gloves covered her hands, while her arms were covered by the sleeves of a similarly hued coat, bright white save for the golden buttons and blue lines on the outside, with a blue band around her arm. Her outfit seemed to hug her figure a little too well, accentuating her huge... assets. It was startlingly brief, and the black stockings covering her legs did little to make it any less tantalizing.

Her face, hardened though it was by the piercing blue-eyed stare didn't mar her beauty at all. Glasses framed her blue eyes and her strange two-toned hair (black outside, blue within) was seemingly completely natural.

What DID mar her beauty were the pointed ears on the side of her face, a common sign of the damned Eldar. What WASN'T common to them was the halo above her head, a thin strip of oscillating blue and green that occasionally jutted out into small pointed tips.

Emperor on Earth, did I just get caught up with the Aeldari again? Worse, considering her authority and the clear sign of power she had on her, did I just involve myself with the upper echelons of their kind?

I tried not to let my unease show. Again, lifetime of dishonesty. Basic and reasonable as the question was, the woman had no trouble answering me. "Very well, let me explain the situation again." She then put a hand on her needlessly accentuated... center and introduced herself. "I am Nanagami Rin, and I'm a General Student Council Officer of Kivotos, the Academic City. You, on the other hand, are the teacher we have summoned here..." Her eye raised with dubious regard, reminding me all those years ago of Colonel Mostrue, who (rightly) always smelled a rat whenever it came to my undeserved reputation. "... Or so it would seem."

"So it would seem," I repeated again, trying not to sound skeptical. A General Student Council Officer? An Academic City? Don't tell me I got summoned by a bunch of juvies playing around with the warp. "How does that work?"

She sighed, shaking her head as though she herself couldn't believe I was here. "Pardon my uncertainty, but I only say that because I still don't fully understand how you got here, Cain-Sensei."

So even she didn't know how the frak I got here? Grand. At the very least, I wasn't the only here confused today. Still, there was more I could ask. "What exactly is a Sensei? Certainly not a title or name I've ever had."

"It means teacher. We've called you here because that's what you are." She shrugged noncommittally. "Or so I've been told."

"Out of all the reasons to be called... It was for my TEACHING?" I hope I could get across just how utterly lost I was. People generally knew me for my unintentional heroism in war, leading the men and women of the Imperium to victory against its most hated foes in the field of battle. Much as my little cadets seemed to like my teachings and took to them well, that little plaudit is generally not the first thing that came to mind when it came to Ciaphas Cain.

"I was not made aware of why you were chosen," she said apologetically. "That would be..." she hesitated "The one who knew of you. The General Student Council President. She did not tell me about who you were and why you were so important. She was the one responsible for bringing you here." She drawn out, painful sigh followed soon after. "Don't bother asking for her. She's... Unavailable right now."

Even more questions erupted. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a bit of a big name around the Imperium, so not hearing about me means that I'm in an exceptionally backwater world, which only brought about SEVERAL more problems. Even worse, the one responsible for this travesty wasn't here, and from the emotion in Rin's voice it seemed like nobody knew where she went. Fantastic indeed.

"Frustrating as that is, I suppose that question is less relevant to you, so I can deal with that later." I tried not to let my irritation grow into anger, focusing only on my utter confusion instead. "So if you don't know how… WHY am I here?"

She didn't answer me at first. She simply motioned for me to follow her to look out the window. I followed without comment, hoping that this would lead to something important. I noted that I was in a reasonably decorated office, neither matching the opulence of most planetary governors nor the pragmatism of military bases. I'd more find its like in the business district or a legal office than others I was more familiar with: Glass floors, wooden pillars and furniture, a few random art pieces to spruce up the room, a cogitator and lamp on the desk... Business, first of all. We walked to the area behind the desk, which gave a majestic view of the beautiful skies above and the city below.

I will admit, my eyes couldn't help but boggle at the sight.

"This is Kivotos, Cain-Sensei."

I could say with little reservation that it was one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen. The city itself seemed to be quite regressive in terms of technology, with neither the spires of a hive world, the factories of a forge world, nor the cities of an agri world, and yet there was a... a cleanliness to it all that seemed so different from any world in the Imperium of Man. Simple houses, buildings and skyscrapers paled to the great works of majesty in the more affluent worlds in the Imperium, but those suffusion of man and materiel could feel a little harrowing on the senses, and the simplicity had its own charm.

But that simplicity was dwarfed by the tower at the center of the city, a massive structure pointing towards the sky that seemed to have another, stranger structure above it, and surrounding it was a halo that seemed to encompass the entire land below.

One not unlike the halo upon the woman beside me, I noted.

"It is a massive city, home to thousands of different academies. And currently, it's in an unacceptable state."

Thousands of academies? She did describe it as "THE Academic City". So this place was made for teaching and producing fine students, like Catachans, Cadians and Kriegers produced soldiers and warriors for the Imperium (intentionally or otherwise)? And they called me all the way here... Just to be a teacher, something they surely wouldn't be in so short supply of? I refused to believe that was all. Something else was up. My palms tingled, as they always did when something untoward was happening.

The answer was promptly given to me when I noticed an explosion take place. And then another. Gunfire, autoguns and stub weapons by the sounds of it, as well as the telltale explosions of tanks, punctuated every bang and boom. Enraptured as I was by the majesty of the central tower, the sights and sounds of war escaped me.

So I just happened to die peacefully, only to resuscitate in a backwater city quite close to falling into complete anarchy. On brand for me, if nothing else.

"The city is in a state of chaos. You are the only one who can save it."

Ah, of course. Barely five minutes after making it to a very unpleasantly chaotic hereafter and I'm once again forcibly conscripted by a woman into helping her with situations involving entire planets. Paring that down to cities isn't much better, mostly because I've ALSO been involved with such "small-scale" matters as well, with or without a certain Inquisitor's involvement.

Worse still, that was hokey, pict-drama level stuff. I was often in a position where I had to accept that was true and deal with the consequences against my will, but I'd never heard it said without a hint of irony, and with such certainty. "And why would you say that?"

"Ever since the president's disappearance, anarchy has descended upon the city. We have all the weapons, supplies and war materiel needed to outfit our own forces and quell it, but the authority to access it was lost with her. The General Student Council has been trying to find a way around those verifications and were utterly unable to, but she once spoke of someone else with her authority. You."

Was I supposed to buy that frak? I'd just died, and now I've been told that a woman I'd never met has given me everything I need to save a city I've never seen, one she was supposed to be "responsible" for (a spike of anger lanced through my head at the thought, but I paid it no mind). But clearly, she believed in all this bunk, so I decided to play her game. "What would I have to do?"

"Simplicity itself. I can commission a helicopter to fly us all the way to a special location where you can authorize the use of the supplies, as well as access to the Sanctum Tower that will allows us to manage the city. Once there, you merely need to get past the verifications and hand over authority to us, and we will handle the rest."

So a simple flight through a war-torn city, a few verifications on a cogitator and then I'd be home free? That sounded very simple. Far too simple. I decided to put to the test the very first roadbump in that little timeline. "Go on then. Call the helicopter."

Because my answer was less of an agreement and more of a relevant order, Rin seemed rather skeptical, but acquiesced to my suggestion. She took out a small data slate and with a few taps on the screen seemed to connect a call. She held it up and projected the speaker in front of us in a haze of blue.

The speaker had the exact same outfit as Rin, but the way she wore it made it look like a different one entirely. Instead of properly wearing it over the dress as a coat, it was haphazardly worn off the shoulder, dangling by the sides of the arms, revealing that the dress underneath was sleeveless, a fact which would be far more… stimulating on a body like Rin's than the pink-haired, blue-eyed… "petite" little gremlin that was in front of us.

"Yo, Rin. Momoka here. You called?" she spoke in an easy, light voice. She had a bag of chips in her hand, snacking on them as though the city wasn't descending into madness right outside.

"Momoka, I need a helicopter for the SCHALE club room as soon as possible."

"The SCHALE club room on the outskirts of the city?" She shook her head, and somehow I didn't expect anything less. "Sorry Rin, it's crazy out there right now."

As to be expected. In a city where every single facet of life was going to hell, simply going anywhere was never easy. While I was completely unsurprised by the setback, Rin's eyes widened in dismay. "Crazy? What do you mean?"

"A high-priority threat student escaped from the custody of the Corrections Bureau, rallied the delinquents and started wreaking havoc around the area. LZ is too hot and they've got AA all around. They've even got a Crusader tank there!" She flicked another chip into her mouth, utterly uncaring of just how difficult my job just became. "Trying to fly there is basically a death sentence. Then again, they've probably got it locked down hard because they're trying to loot the place. GSC property, you know? Probably has important stuff inside." A little beep sounded in the background, and her eyes brightened. "Ooh, food's here! Ah well, this city's becoming a dump already, so a day or two of chaos won't make much of a difference. Anyway, talk to ya later!"

As the image switched off, I found myself incredibly surprised that this city was still standing, and incredibly unsurprised that it quickly descended into this insanity after their leader (who herself wasn't looking incredibly good by my measure) decided to go on an unwarranted vacation. I looked over to my companion trying very hard not to explode at her now absent colleague. She took a deep breath and willed herself to be calm before turning over to me.

"So. What's the plan?"

"The club room is 30 kilometers from here. We must make our way through the city on our own."

I didn't reply. That was as much as asking for me to walk to my death for a city I never even knew existed, and she understood that quite well. It was going to take an effort to convince me to risk getting shot for this deceptively chaotic city, and the chances of me saying yes were slim. I gave her a piercing stare, impressing upon her exactly how I thought of her request to walk into death's door again five minutes after I just got out.

And just like when I had to say "frak it" and face the odds in order to survive, so did she try to convince me anyway.

"Listen, Ciaphas Cain." The mention of my actual name had me raising my eyebrows. "I realize that I've not given you much reason to fight for me or this city, but taking care of it is the most important duty I have." She sighed painfully. "I have no other options but to believe in you because she did. And from what I can see of you, you might stand a chance."

I was about to ask what she meant by that when she looked down towards my waist. My first thought was to let her down kindly, telling her such distractions ill-suited the moment and would not convince me to work for her while inwardly screaming that she looked far too young for my taste, but I realized that in my haste to look at my surroundings that I failed to look at myself. I followed her gesture, and tried to hide my surprise at what I found.

I was in the commissar's uniform, undershirt, greatcoat, gloves and all, tied together with the scarlet sash. I didn't even notice that I could feel the familiar cap and visor adorning my head. More reassuringly, to my left was my chainsword, held in place by the scabbard, while to my right was my laspistol. I felt under my clothes, and noted the comforting weight of "my" carapace armor (after nearly a century on my person without anyone asking, I would like to believe that the folks on Gravalax have let that little misplacement go).

I wondered how all of this could possibly be. The only theory that came to mind was that if regulations continued, I would've been buried with full military honors in my wargear of choice. If I'd been transferred here in both body and spirit after my death, perhaps anything I had on my person would be with me. It seemed Amberly had made sure I'd been buried with my preferred laspistol instead of the bolt pistol I so often wielded in the commissariat's propaganda. As an added bonus, the weapons looked cleaner and better maintained than I'd seen them in years. Hardly enough to take on a city, especially without spare power packs, but it was better than walking in naked.

"I might be fairly good at handling these," I granted, "but one man can't take back the city on his own."

"And you won't have to," she insisted. "There's… Another reason we called you here. A far more long-term assignment."

And so I should have known. "And that would be?"

"To serve as the advisor of the Independent Federal Investigation Club SCHALE." Hmm. The place where where her objective lay. Interesting. "It is less of a club and more of an extrajudicial organization. As its advisor, you would have the power to conscript any student from any academy at any time, and conduct operations in any district without any restriction. Naturally, that means you could forcibly conscript anyone you see fit in this crisis without recrimination. All this, including extrajudicial powers to circumvent regulations as necessary." She shook her head. "I didn't even know this all existed until she disappeared. She formed an organization with this much power behind our backs, staking its entire existence on your presence."

My eyes narrowed. Basically, I had commissarial authority in all but name. Suddenly, my call to this world was far more understandable. Perhaps it wasn't as backwater as I thought, or at the very least, this mysterious President was well aware of Commissar Ciaphas Cain, Hero of the Imperium, with all the misplaced assumptions that entailed. Whatever mysterious conspiracy was hounding her and desired this madness pushed her to disappear, and in her place she would have me, (supposedly) one with the experience, will and prowess of a political officer and keeper of order, to protect this city, figure out what the problem was and deal with it. And to help with that, she'd give me the highest authority that was needed, the one I was used to and known for.

I sighed. I was in no mood to save this city of juvies, much less with nothing but the possibility of forcing anyone I saw fitting into an army of meat shields, but I was much in the mood for answers. "Very well. I accept your terms."

She looked at me in surprise and muted gratitude. "Cain-Sensei…"

"We save the city first. Any more thanks can come later."

This was a test, both of myself and whether I could stomach being in this city and the people in it. Having understood just how much she underestimated the difficulty of the situation, for both me and her, she nodded. "Follow me."


Rin led us to an elevator which took us from the top floor to the bottom in short order. We arrived at the bottom and disembarked from the elevator into a reception room of blinding white and blue (a motif I had a suspicious feeling I'd be seeing more and more of sooner or later), and couldn't even make it five feet without being interrupted.

"There you are, Acting President! We've been waiting! Get the real President in here already!"

A headstrong young lady with dark bluish black hair came up to us, said hair having two pigtails tied on the tops by black ring bands. She had a sensible business woman's black blazer and white under shirt, secured by a blue tie. All this was topped off by a heavy jacket, while a white belt holding two autopistols and possible ammo pouches rested at her hips, though just like Momoka, said heavy jacket was dangling from her shoulder. Perhaps it was a fad. Strangely, while she didn't have the pointed ears of an Aeldari like Rin did, she did have a halo. It was still different from Rin's: A simple black and blue ring that rotated as it hovered above her head.

"I'm here to meet with the General Student Council President. The head prefect has terms she would like to discuss."

"I've been waiting for you, Chief Officer."

My eyes bulged as I took in the other new arrivals. One was a girl with pink hair with twin tails framing the sides of her neck, a black bow tying up in the middle. She had with her a pinkish long-sleeved dress, red gloves and stockings, a black skirt and boots and a MASSIVE bag of medical supplies with her. Her affiliation was designated on her armband once again, part of the Prefect Team. Though her hair hid it well, pointed ears peeked out from within her hair, and above her head was a flat round halo with four lines bisecting the centers of opposite sides.

The other was... Distracting in a way that made it hard to believe she was a student. Massive was the word. Long black hair. A complex halo of combining patterns of circles, stars and crosses. A black dress uniform emblazoned with Justice in an ancient stylized manner, but the skirt part was asymmetrical, with one part drooping down to her calves, the other cut to reveal a startling amount of leg, made all the more distracting by the stockings that only clothed up to thighs, leaving just enough to the imagination.

Oh, and massive black wings that wouldn't look out of place on either a daemon or an angel.

And massive breasts.

Emperor protect me, was I mistaken? Was my soul actually taken by the Dark Prince, perhaps at the request of that petty witch Emelie, and punished by taking me to a world of ridiculously attractive prepubescent-seeming women?

As I was trying not to focus on the students' "peculiarities", I was aided by small sigh of frustration from the woman beside me. "How inconvenient."

A dark smile arose on her face, eyes closing with repressed frustration. "Greetings, student council and disciplinary board representatives... and those who have too much time on their hands." Her voice was pleasant, so pleasantly sweet that it dripped with poisoned honey. "I am well aware why you irksome- that is, important representatives are here today. You're here to blame us for what's happening in the academy city, aren't you?"

Hmm. Interesting. Most officials would rather be placating and assuring in times of crisis like this, but it seems this girl decided to ignore that and asks to get straight to the point. It doesn't earn points for respect, but I suppose it hurries things along.

"If you're so 'well aware', then DO something! You represent the General Student Council!" The tactic worked, if nothing else. Perhaps ignoring the insults for more important things, the jacketed office girl angrily ratted off her own complaints. "Thousands of academy districts are in a state of panic! Our own academy's wind generator shut down a few days ago!"

"There are also rumors a student under the Federal Correction Bureau's custody escaped," the medical student added.

"Illegal distribution of tanks, choppers and other unknown weapons have increased by 2000 percent. Coupled with rising delinquency and lack of enforcement of public safety, Kivotos is on the brink," the winged girl declared gravely.

"And what is the General Student Council President doing during such a sorry state of affairs?!" The office girl continued to cry out. "I demand to see her right this instant."

A fight seemed close to breaking out. It was something we had little time for, and so I deigned to intervene.

"Excuse me miss, what is your name?"

As if my words were a spell breaking up the argument, all hostility was replaced with focusing on me, everyone wondering just who this peculiarly uniformed giant of a man (relatively… I was usually the largest man in the room if a Space Marine wasn't there, and these girls were shorter than most in the Imperium) was. As if noticing my presence for the first time, the girl started upon laying her eyes on me. "Hmm? My name? Oh… It's Yuuka. Hayase Yuuka," she answered in a daze.

Last names first. Notable, but never mind that. "Miss Yuuka. Your complaints are valid, and we understand the gravity of the situation. We are on the way to fix it."

"O-oh, OK…" The sheer unexpectedness of my presence alongside my assurances seemed to defuse any hostility and placate her. "An adult…" Really? That was what you noticed? Why was that so strange? "Who are you, and what do you mean you're going to fix it?"

"I am…" I remembered the peculiar manner of address that Rin regarded me with, and decided to start using it here. "...Cain Sensei. I have been commissioned as the advisor of the Federal Investigation Club of SCHALE. 30 kloms… Kilometers from here, is my new headquarters. Within the premises of the building are the means for us to gain access to everything we need to take back the city. If you know anyone willing to aid in this endeavour, we would appreciate the assistance."

My declaration made, I waited a moment for any answers to come. I didn't have long to wait.

"I will join you. Justice must return to the city."

Surprisingly, the winged girl answered first, and from her back she produced a primitive-looking yet ornately decorated firearm, resembling a long-las in structure with gold carvings and ornaments all over, including a peculiar tri-circular symbol towards the stock. My eyes narrowed. It wasn't quite Nurglite imagery, but it was very close. "I am Hanekawa Hasumi of the Justice Task Force. My gun is yours, Sensei."

Hmm. An Arbites equivalent. If she was as honest as her station implied, her skill will be welcomed.

"I shall come as well." The medic added. "Fighting isn't my specialty, but I'll try to provide aid where I can. Hinomiya Chinatsu, medic of the Prefect Team, reporting in Sensei."

So now we have a field medicae. A good addition.

"Captain Hasumi!" Someone burst in from the door outside, an albino girl with a grey uniform and black stockings, as well as a peculiar crosshair-shaped purple halo. Fitting the symbol that crowned her, the girl held in her hands a reasonably-colored and functionally constructed black and white autogun. Most notably, where Hasumi had massive wings… Behind her, this girl had a single wing on the left side of her head.

"Suzumi?" Hasumi replied worriedly. "What news?"

"More delinquents have entered the block! We have to move!"

"Looks like that's our cue." I looked to the student that just came in. "What is your name?"

Despite my presence and the question I raised, she answered without delay. "Morizuki Suzumi, Trinity Vigilante Crew member sir."

A Vigilante? Well enough. "We're looking to fix this. Will you join us?"

She nodded. "Ready to help sir."

A quick and optimal response worthy of a guardsman. "Very well. Your assistance is appreciated."

"I suppose you'll need all the help you can get." Probably unwilling to feel left out, Yuuka joined in, drawing an autopistol with blue highlights from her belt. "I guess I'll accompany you. I may just be a treasurer from Seminar, but I won't let you down."

… Well, if she knows how to use that gun, I won't stop her. Mira did startlingly well for a noble, so I guess this one might surprise me as well.

The students moved at my command, and from my back, I could feel Rin's approving gaze.

What a hack, and that was certainly a comment coming from me. I had to take back this city with her promised "army" of four students.

If I had known just how ridiculous the situation was outside, I would have told her to stuff it, run back up the elevators and hidden under the sofa pillows until everything was over.

*CHAPTER 2: THE SENSEI FROM THE IMPERIUM, END*

So ends the preliminary chapter before going on to take back the city, and more importantly, Cain will learn of the peculiar physical resistance of the students that reside in it.

A little note for 40k readers, the tech level of Kivotos is... schizophrenic. They have strange, seemingly otherworldly devices such as the ones in the Sanctum Tower and other places. They have working use of mechs, deployable turrets and other advanced weaponry. And yet, the most prevalent weapons are firearms up to our modern day, because of the appeal of anime girls wielding real guns is immutable. Oh, and when they say Crusader tank, I mean that in a world of advanced weaponry and technology, they're still using the old Crusader Mk1 and it isn't even the only old tank they use. Because why not?

I also altered the flow from the original cutscene in the gacha game to better emphasize Cain's prowess at taking control of a situation when needed.

We'll see how this madness works out later. See you next time!