You might be wondering why this chapter seems so ridiculously long compared to the others. That's because I thought it'd be shorter. As it ballooned in length, I then thought of splitting it up into shorter sections. Then I remembered Cain's emotional state by the end of the chapter and I kept it as this big thing in front of you. Hopefully, you'll be satisfied.

*Chapter 3: Initiation*

Leaving the solid cover of our own building and going out into the open exposed me to the crisis wracking Kivotos, in all meanings of the word. Not only was I at risk of being assaulted by gangers, delinquents and whatever other ne'er do wells were ravaging the land, I could see the damage they'd already dealt to the city.

Fires blazed all around, whether they burned from the wreckages of destroyed cars or engulfing whatever miscellaneous belongings were in their grasp. Holes blasted in buildings scattered rockrete and other construction materials every which way.

Strangely though, the area was lacking dead bodies. Not a single one laid sprawled on the floor, bleeding or torn apart. Either the criminals were unusually merciful, which I found a fat chance of considering this whole riot, or this particular area had effective evacuation policies. Neither option seemed correct to me. It felt like genestealers stealing living bodies for implanting, yet the lack of bloodstains couldn't suggest even that.

Something was up, something dreadfully important, and I didn't like missing the details.

"Suzumi, where did you say those delinquents were coming from?" Hasumi asked her fellow, if unofficial, peacekeeper.

"A few blocks up ahead ma'am," the vigilante confirmed for her. "They're currently busy looting, so we should be able to get the jump on them if we hurry."

Our formation was that Chinatsu and Rin were at our backs, having been designated by me as our field medicae and a noncombatant VIP respectively. Hasumi was next, with her firearm being a long-range, single-fire weapon. And then there was Yuuka, and me, and then Suzumi at the front of us, given the shorter range of our weapons and Suzumi's knowledge of the first wave we were to face.

"That path leads to our destination, so as much as I'd prefer avoiding combat, a preemptive strike is consolation enough."

Rin's assertion was logical and would've warmed me up to her more, if it wasn't partially her fault that I was in the middle of this disaster in the first place (the rest of the blame being with that mysterious President that had up and left the party while forcibly plopping me down here to clean up after her).

As we came to an intersection, I kept my head on a swivel, with me taking the right while Yuuka was on the left. Everything was as quiet as could be.

Of course, that was when disaster struck.

"Ey, look over there! GSC people!"

Four of our enemies came out of buildings on either side of the intersection, more young girls with halos, builds and hairdos of all kinds, the only commonality among them being face masks that did a crude job of hiding their identity. Luckily, I was close enough to another building that I could quickly step back behind the wall on one side, but Yuuka and Suzumi were too far from any cover. Suzumi, tempered by her vigilante experience, reacted quickly and did the next best thing, diving for the ground and rolling into a textbook, one-kneed crouched firing stance. Luckily enough for her however, the idiots who were firing at her were using autoguns and had the accuracy and enthusiasm of a wild ork. When she took her new position, they still spent a good 3 seconds firing on the same spot she left while charging her position, an embarrassingly ineffective tactic that led to them getting into range and being filled with bullets from Suzumi's own counterattack.

Yuuka was not so lucky. One of the idiots used the exact same charging tactic with even WORSE accuracy, not a single bullet landing even close to Yuuka. The other, however, was using a stub rifle and managed to land a single well-placed bullet in Yuuka's neck.

I expected two things then. A shower of blood as the spray of bullets hosed down the two idiotic hostiles that fell. Yuuka, joining them on the ground as the brilliant tactical wisdom of conscripting an accountant to fight a ground war made itself known.

"ITAAAAA!"

What instead happened was that the bullets all seemed to smack into Suzumi's enemies, falling to the ground alongside the students with the notable absence of even a single drop of blood. The contraction and disappearance of their halos caught my eye well. Yuuka, despite being hit straight in the neck, shouted with all the inconvenience of getting slapped. "That hurt, you jerks!" In a fit of frustrated anger, she took out a second autopistol from her belt and began charging her enemies right back. "IT'S NOT OVER YET!"

Yuuka devoted the entirety of both of her magazines to committing ballistic vengeance. Justifiably horrified by the figure of a screaming immortal wielding dual autopistols while charging straight for them and unable to counterattack due to blowing all their ammo in an self-foiling ambush, the two girls were hosed down in a hail of automatic fire.

Despite the horrid assault, once again not a single drop of blood followed the two girls crashing to the ground. To a one, the rising and falling chests of each of the girls showed none slept the sleep of the dead. The disappearance of their ever-constant halos was the only sign they weren't getting up.

Yuuka panted hard, seemingly more inconvenienced from the exhaustion of coming down from an anger high rather than taking a shot that would be a certain kill for any average person. "Never… EVER… do that to me again!"

While Yuuka reloaded her guns with unexpected ease for her position of a treasurer, Suzumi stayed in place and continued to watch the roads for incoming enemies. "Are you OK Yuuka-san?"

"Ugh, they were using JHP rounds! That's cheating!" she whined, sounding less offended at the attempt on her life than the fact that it hurt. "They sting way more than normal, and they might even leave a mark!"

"Hollow points aren't illegal, you know," Hasumi pointed out as she caught up.

"In my academy, they are now!"

Chinatsu followed and took a closer look at the impact point and shrugged. From her bag she unclipped one of the syringes and injected the green liquid within into Yuuka's body. A brief wince and sigh of relief better, Yuuka gave her thanks.

"You're fine, Yuuka-san. So long as you don't get another hit like that it won't even seem like it happened."

Meanwhile, satisfied with the lack of an ambush, Suzumi stood up and nodded at me. "The coast is clear, Cain Sensei. No enemies following up." She tilted her head in askance a short moment later. "Sensei?"

I couldn't blame her. My mouth was as wide open as an Ogryn about to chow down on some unspeakable "nosh" . By all rights, these girls looked like normal humans, and yet they shrugged off the kind of damage that left people in pieces and body bags, not standing up and complaining about any tiny bruises they lead or sleeping soundly on the ground. I'd seen ORKS go down to barrages like that, and because stubs and autoguns didn't cauterize, you'd know the ones that didn't from the bloody wounds that were left behind, and these girls didn't even have that.

And I knew they were real bullets instead of tranqs, riot suppressors or any other nonlethals, because unless the buildings were ludicrously brittle, they wouldn't have holes in them from those weapons. It was true that stub weapons were often foregone for las weapons, but they were FAR from harmless. For all their weaknesses, they could still kill even the staunchest of mankind's enemies. They existed since before mankind left Holy Terra and even now, in the 42nd Millenium, the idea of abandoning them never crossed anyone's minds.

"By holy Terra, what did I just see? How are you still alive?!" I shouted, unable to control myself.

All of them had looks of complete confusion in their eyes. "What? Sensei, this is pretty normal," Yuuka said as though she hadn't just been shot in the throat by a dedicated antipersonnel round. "You'd need something a lot stronger to down a student in a single shot like that. Isn't it like that where you're from?"

"Most certainly not!" I answered definitively. "A single bullet would be debilitating for the average man, and the amount you filled them with would be enough to tear them apart! Even the shot you took would leave you a bloody mess that couldn't speak if you weren't dead already!"

The grisly image was enough to make the girls wince, and Chinatsu in particular covered her mouth in horror. "Really?!" Yuuka said in disgust and alarm. "We thought that…"

"We thought that because you were leading from the front, you were just as resistant as us Sensei," Chinatsu answered warily. "We're more durable than people outside of Kivotos, especially us students. Our halos allow us to survive far more than most people. We're certainly not immortal, but we can take a lot more than most."

Emperor on Earth. I was transported to a world where the average person had the durability of an armored Ork. That explained everything.

The lack of dead bodies wasn't due to some sinister mastermind taking the dead for their own use. It was because there were no dead to begin with. With the students' halos either emanating some psychic power that considerably dampened blows dealt to them or enhancing their physiology to the point of absurdity, they survived the initial attacks and left before whatever threshold of damage that could actually hurt them caught up to them.

The casualness with which these students met the current crisis also made far more sense. Yuuka, the least experienced of my own group, sounded like she regarded all this chaos with less gravity than a dirty account book (in both senses of the word), and why would she when death was probably a distant concern compared to having to deal with inevitable cost of all this, which would more than likely not extend to mortality? Given the ease with which she handled her own guns, she probably had minor experience dealing with such troubles herself. And I suppose I'd be as relaxed as that Momoka girl if I was eating chips in a nice little bunker while already having the physical resistance, if not pain threshold, of a greenskin.

I looked at Rin, and to her credit she looked utterly shocked and ashamed. Likely she thought that since the GSC President chose me I'd have similar abilities to the other students, and she just realized that she was sending a fragile little thing that could die to a stray bullet into a city-wide warzone.

"... Sensei. Am I right in assuming that you thought we were just as fragile as you? You were willing to lead us students into battle despite such assumptions?"

Hasumi's words were delivered from narrowed, suspicious eyes, and that led the other girls to join her except for Rin, who knew she had little room to complain because this was all I could deal with. This kind of loss of morale and questioning of me was usually grounds for the average commissar to plant a bolt in one of their heads and tell the rest to keep fighting anyway. Never mind that I usually didn't rely on such methods so that the soldiers under my watch would be deluded into risking their lives for me, the average commissar would probably have his head ventilated in kind, probably by the girl he shot and who would probably be suffering a mild concussion at worst. And maybe a bit of trauma. Despite being used to shooting at things that annoyed them, it's entirely possible that these girls have never killed even a single soul. Obviously, I wasn't about to test those standards.

And then my palms started to tingle once more, and I had a feeling it wasn't because of the doubtful girls in front of me.

"You… Bastards…"

I instantly whipped out my laspistol and delivered a single crimson bolt unto the girl rising behind me. Clearly she hadn't had enough from Suzumi's own barrage given that she was already trying to raise her autogun, but my own shot was finally enough to put her back to sleep, the halo that reappeared on her head disappearing once again.

"What the hell?!" Yuuka said in shock. "Was that an actual laser gun?!"

Chinatsu immediately dashed past me with far more urgency than when Yuuka was hit. And why wouldn't she? Considering Yuuka's reaction and what I'd seen around me, this world was still technologically inclined to autoguns and stub weapons. Miniaturized las weapons clearly weren't in their hat yet. My shot left a visible scorch mark on the belly but not even a single significant wound to accompany it. Chinatsu's sigh of relief clearly meant that even THAT wasn't enough to even hurt them. "Still alive, and not in any danger."

"And to answer your question, Miss Hayase, we call this a laspistol. Lasguns are a little different."

The students all turned to me as unsure of what to speak, and likely even think. "As for your question, Miss Hanekawa, the answer is yes. I would lead you into battle, but only because I would expect you to do things I would as well."

I suppose 'Being forced to walk through a warzone because I literally have no other choice' wasn't exactly in the spirit of what I said, but they didn't need to know that.

"I am a Commissar. I led people from all walks of life, from enlisted soldiers to mere civilians, into battle to fight our enemies, even at risk of our deaths. This is not from a place of manipulation or lack of care, but a place of necessity. Either we risked our lives, or the people we protected would lose theirs. Those that followed us did so because they know this fact, and because we would never command them to do things we would not. This even included students. I taught others as young as you to eventually become commissars. I exerted every effort to protect them and teach them, knowing that as they looked to my example, many others would one day look to theirs. That I am here right now speaks to our victories, and those students would go on to have armies hang on their very word."

I holstered my weapon, hopefully having made my point with that load of bunk. It sounded more like the frak from the Uplifting Primer than the actual picture, not least of which is due to omitting the part about shooting dissidents in the face and that not all of my students survived, but they didn't have to know everything. "I made a mistake underestimating your capabilities, but given the greater picture I know now, I assure you of this: If you will continue to have faith in me and follow my orders, we are FAR more likely to achieve victory and return this city to normal."

And surprisingly enough, I wasn't just blowing smoke up my behind with that. With everything I knew now, we had a significantly better chance of making through this travesty without me dying (Because any of these girls dying at all, even Rin who was basically a damn civvie, was neither my biggest priority nor even in question at this point).

"I apologize for my doubt, Cain Sensei. I will continue to fight under your command."

Just as she was the first to follow me before, so was Hasumi the first to retract any objections to my leadership. Suzumi followed with a simple nod. Chinatsu stood up and walked to my side. "I've gotten unexpected new information here. I suppose the head prefect will want to know about you, and I Imagine we'll learn a lot more if you're alive enough to talk to her. I will remain."

I nodded, immensely grateful for her presence. She had a very big part to play in this, and having a medicae like her would, of course, increase my chances of survival if I did eat a bullet. I tried to ignore the fact that, in gaining the interest of a close subordinate of a high ranking official, the seeds of my reputation within the city were planted, but as I always did: Survive now, deal with everything later, and deal with everything after THAT later. Curse my luck.

"Your presence here now has HUGE implications for our school! We'll make sure you stay alive Sensei!"

It appeared Yuuka had more interest in my laspistol than me. Well, that was fine. If someone took a personal vested interest in keeping me alive, I wouldn't care too much so long as it didn't sound like trouble. Curiosity about my weapons was better than, say, holding my soul for an eternity of suffering and false pleasure. The idea that I may significantly affect technology and science in this world was something I decided not to dwell on.

I did dwell on the possibility that the Dark prince finally had me as I thought before, because now I was in a world of young, attractive AND incredibly physically resistant women. And then I tried very hard not to dwell on that any longer.

"Very good," I said approvingly, ignoring that my future here was already looking ominously eventful. "With that in mind, I will need to learn everything you feel is necessary for me to know."

"I have flashbangs."

I turned my head towards Suzumi at her outrageous declaration. I raised my eyebrows. I didn't see a single pocket or pouch where she could hold them, but given my own experience with Jurgen, perhaps it was better to take her word for it. At the very least, I wasn't tempted to wretch simply from being within five feet of her. "How many?"

"Enough."

A small smile reached my face. Yes. This could work.

As I continued to talk with the students. I made a pointed effort not to talk to Rin. I didn't know what she thought of all this, but I could deal with that later. She looked at me, but couldn't work up the courage to talk to me. If she couldn't, I wouldn't bother.


After our discussion and a few minutes of walking, we came upon the original band of delinquents that Suzumi spoke. They were gathered in the middle of a shopping district right after another intersection, with barriers, cars and other assorted objects scattered about. It was a squad of twenty, four times the strength of my own makeshift squad. Not only that, they had a greater variety of weapons as well, with shotguns and rotor cannons added to the mix. I don't know why these people bothered masking up if they all had unique halos that surely must be tracked by the schools of their origin. Perhaps face masks identified them as part of a single gang, or it was an attempt to look intimidating.

Whatever the case, their accuracy with firearms seemed to extend to the quality of their hearing. Their focus on looting and generally being a menace to the public, along with the anarchy descending upon the rest of the city, meant that they hadn't even caught wind of the unexpected encounter and impromptu strategy session that was mere minutes away.

Naturally, we began the engagement on our own terms. Hasumi doled out a powerful headshot from the relative safety of a destroyed car, knocking out her target and, as a side benefit, confirming for me that a sniper's headshot was as reliable for eliminating threats as they ever were. Screams and cries of bewilderment sounded out, causing the gangers to try and find the source of the noise. Two more were felled in the seconds spent merely searching for her before she went behind cover, partially for safety, but mostly to reload.

Time spent loading bullets was a death sentence for any stand against a rushing horde, but Hasumi didn't have a spent clip at all. She was merely preparing for the real ambush.

When the criminals reached the intersection, Yuuka, Suzumi and I rose from cover and unleashed a blistering hail of autofire and lasbolts from both flanks, downing the four shotgunners that tried to go for our sniper. The autogunners that tried to follow paled, instantly reversing course and trying to leap for cover. We took down five more in the attempted retreat. Two of them managed to leap behind a barrier, while their companions wielding stub rifles pointed their guns our way and dared us to approach.

Suzumi was ready for them, as she threw one of her flashbangs into their circle. They were custom flashbangs of her own design that added a special concussion field to the initial light flash. It didn't have the destructive force of a krak grenade, but it wreaked enough fresh hell on the senses that they were fantastic antipersonnel weapons, leaving the unfortunate targets screaming in anguish and open to even more fire. They fell back behind whatever could pass for cover, whether they be pillars, roadblocks or anything else, all while writhing on the ground. Yuuka dashed in, focusing on making her way to the riflewomen in the back and greeting them with barrages from her autopistol. Suzumi and I followed her example with the autogunners in front, scything their numbers down to three.

Where the others immediately rushed to the front, these last few climbed on top of rubble, overturned vehicles or whatever else gave them a height advantage. It wasnot for sniping, but for coverage and intimidation. They were using rotor cannons, and they would provide a significant headache if not for the last surprise our little team had.

"EAT THIS YOU FREAKS!"

As the rotors began to spin, Suzumi and I went for cover. I stood tall and ready behind a pillar while Suzumi crouched behind another road barrier. Yuuka, however, stayed out in the open while she took out a small rectangular object from her pocket, which she told me was a very specialized calculator.

It was no mere tool used to cheat your numbers homework, that was for sure. That was what it originally was, but due to her fondness for it, she modified it to have this very special extra function.

While two of the rotors were focused on suppressing us, one saw Yuuka adopting the excellent tactic of standing out in the open and focused her cannon on her. If she bothered to pay attention to the rest of the battle and compared our performance to her own squad's sorry state, perhaps she'd have second thoughts.

With a burst of blue light, Yuuka was then surrounded in the protection of a circular barrier covering her whole body. It was an honest to goodness personal energy shield projected from a custom calculator, a product of pure sentimentality put to effective use. The rotor cannon unleashed a barrage of bullets that smashed into the barrier and did little else, with spent ammo clattering harmlessly onto the floor. Yuuka then took out her remaining autopistol and blasted her own far more successful wave of automatic fire, passing easily through her own field and sending the horrified woman toppling backwards over the car and to the ground.

The personal barrier's strength was made in exchange of its energy cost and duration, and scant seconds later it flickered out of existence and left Yuuka unprotected, if still absurdly durable. One of the others, noticing that their comrade just wasted a rotor cannon barrage and was rewarded with eating the road, clumsily tried to guide her cannon to Yuuka instead. Our frontliner then took cover behind another car. She needn't do any more.

Shortly afterward, Hasumi landed a precise headshot on the one suppressing us, allowing Suzumi and I to coat our final enemy in bolts and bullets. And afterwards, the battle was over, leaving the district silent.

The entire exchange probably took less than thirty seconds. In that time, with a smaller squad, we systematically dismantled a group four times our number with nary a single casualty or even a wound to our name. Flushed with victory, the girls gathered to me with pride and awe.

"I can't believe it. It was exactly as you calculated, Sensei!" Yuuka said cheerfully, not realizing the sheer cheese of the comment as a treasurer. "I didn't think that would go so well!"

"It looks like your claims of leadership were not unfounded, Sensei," Hasumi said with a smile on her face. "Thank you for your guidance." Suzumi nodded alongside her indirect superior in stoic, yet notably cheery agreement.

"My guidance was matched by your competence," I said honestly. "Save the gratitude for later. We still have more to do."

"I'm not sure how much I'll be able to contribute if things go on like this," Chinatsu added in amusement.

"Better to have and not need than need and not have, doubly so in matters of health." Especially since her services would be most helpful for the horrible possibility of me being shot, but she had her other uses even if that didn't come to pass anyway.

That little distraction we had before getting here turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I'd be sweating if I thought I was just throwing a bunch of girls with guns against a city of girls with guns. Now, I knew better.

Our enemies were a bunch of juvie gangers who barely knew which end the stubs came out, scattered all across the city. Meanwhile, I had a group of above-average students with me who had a basic understanding of tactics and experience handling these kinds of crises. Three of them were members of groups that were devoted to peacekeeping, two of them primarily acted in direct combat, and one of them (Hasumi) was in fact the vice leader of her school's equivalent of the Arbites. Both sides had troops with the durability of a power armored Ork, but while this was just a glorified session of kicking down the sandcastles for them, I was fighting a war.

There, I saw my chance. My team could easily take on stragglers prowling through the city in small engagements as we made our way to the objective, and unlike them if we took any hits we had a medicae to take care of what meager wounds we had and resuscitate any who would be knocked out. So long as I turned these girls into a reasonably competent force, we could take on all but the hardiest and most experienced of criminals in a fight and come out none the worse for wear. Our biggest problems were supplies, which could be easily scavenged from our enemies or looted from the abandoned buildings, and my own fragility, which was a problem I had two centuries of surviving to deal with.

And so it went. We trekked through the city, ambushing roving bands of gangers, stealing and scavenging supplies and going on to the next as we made our way through 30 kloms of a city under fire.

By the end of it all, we must have taken down more than a hundred haloed delinquents with little more than a few scrapes and bruises, none of them on me. And after Chinatsu's treatments, none on any of us.

Of course, it would never be so easy. If I had known how dangerous taking back my apparent future headquarters would be, I would have found the nearest intact car and attempted to drive off into the horizon before it was all over.


I didn't know how long we had been fighting, but the sun set into the orange glows of twilight when Rin called out to us that our destination was finally in view.

"There it is, Cain-Sensei. The SCHALE headquarters."

I gazed upon our objective and the site of our final assault. It was a white building with blue glass windows, a rather common motif I noticed with important buildings, similar to the Imperium's insistence on gold for its own. It was with two distinct sections, a smaller side on the right and the far larger, likely main section on the left, topped with a small antenna for receiving signals.

Oh, of course, there was also the multi-ringed halo above the building, encircling the headquarters and much of the land around it. What such things meant for presumably nonliving structure, and I could only pray that I wouldn't be spending my time here living inside an "urban clean" equivalent of a Tyranid hive ship, was a mystery I could save for another time.

I looked to my squad and raised a palm, gesturing them to halt. "We move out in ten. Rest up and prepare for one last push. Scavenge for ammunition and food if you wish, but don't go too far." I looked to Suzumi as she checked her autogun. "How are we looking on flashbangs, Suzumi?"

"I have three left, Sensei. It should be enough." That we still had any at all spoke to her resourcefulness in packing and deploying them. I wondered if warp sorcery was involved as well. I couldn't see a single pouch or pocket on her and I stopped bothering to count after the tenth time.

"We can hope," I agreed with a nod.

"I can't believe we made it this far…" Yuuka's gaze went from the path we took, one littered with the fallen bodies of unwitting gangers, and then to the SCHALE headquarters. "I do feel tired, but I feel like barely any time's passed at all."

"That's because everything we faced up to now will be nothing compared to what we'll face last."

We had two major obstructions to deal with in our bid to reclaim the HQ and the supplies that would finally allow the rest of the GSC forces to follow up with reclaiming the city. I'd been dreading the prospect of facing them our entire trip and in between our battles here I'd been racking my head thinking of a way to get past them that wasn't likely to leave me a splattered red stain on the road.

The first was the fact that there was a tank there, a Crusader Mark 1 cruiser tank. According to Hasumi, it was one of the tanks used by her academy, the Trinity General School, and thus I deferred to her expertise on the matter. Like a Scout Salamander pressed for combat duty instead of recon or my own personal use of command (and running like frak), you didn't send it to brawl with heavy armor or spearhead an offensive. You sent it to penetrate gaps in enemy lines and wreak havoc on more vulnerable targets like light vehicles, comms, supply stations and, unfortunately for us, infantry.

Thankfully I still had an inkling of a chance of surviving. My carapace armor could very well deflect the bullets fired at me from its machine gun. I'd probably still get blown through by its main gun, but perhaps I deserved the punishment if having a go at it from the front sounded like a good idea. Conversely, it was only protected by iron and steel. I made no mention of either plasteel or adamantium, but they clearly weren't using either.

That left us with three options. Hasumi was a reliable shooter with a gun that could be fitted for armor-piercing rounds, but she admitted and demonstrated quite well that she was an anti-infantry specialist, using her specially customized Impaler rifle to deal with crowds at mid-to-long range through quickly taking down individual targets. She could easily deal with the anti-infantry machine gun, but after that she'd have to shoot through the armor and hope she either hit something important or headshot somebody. Not very good odds. My laspistol might work, but unfortunately, I was running low on energy, and what little of it was left was likely better spent taking out threats I knew I could deal with rather than using it on the tank.

Which meant our best option for dealing with it was for yours truly to literally charge an armored anti-infantry vehicle like a Khornate berserker and engage it in melee combat.

Emperor, this was terrible already.

The other major problem was Kosaka Wakamo, the criminal who escaped the Corrections Bureau and caused a significant amount of damage in the city, gathering her own band of criminals around her. Wielding a bayonet, she had a penchant for chaos and anarchy, either causing havoc on her own or taking over gangs by force and then using them to help her menace the general public before abandoning them if they inevitably got caught, a textbook match for the current situation. The wanton destruction she caused along with several vulpine features (the mask she wore out of personal taste, along with fox ears and a tail) earned her the appellation of "The Fox of Calamity". Learning this raised several confused questions about the biology of the students here, but I reiterate: Mysteries for another time.

She was the much bigger problem. Apparently, it took an elite squad of their special forces to finally apprehend her, while I had a treasurer, a vigilante, an Arbites vice-leader and a medicae that I literally just met hours ago. Significantly more competent than most, especially under my instruction, granted, but they were still greener than the juvies at a schola. Combine her intimidation and aggression with the durability of a haloed student, and I concluded she was a Warboss in all but name.

I had two options at this point. The first and preferred option was to bypass her: Subdue her other forces, the Crusader included, and then have the rest of the students lock her down while I went straight for the SCHALE building and proceeded with authorizing the supplies for the GSC forces, and then hold out for reinforcements. The other option would be the exact opposite. If she was anything like a Warboss, she wasn't so much leading an organized force as attracting any gangers to her by way of power, intimidation and the promise of an anarchic time. That meant if she was dealt with, the rest would break or fight for supremacy. I would issue a personal challenge to her while the other students dealt with the chaff. Either way, once again, putting myself in harm's way was once again a very likely option for solving the problem. Story of my life.

My thoughts were interrupted by the unpleasant echo of unrestrained feedback ringing in our ears, the telltale sign of a vox speaker going live. A sensual voice rang out through the street. "I heard there were a few persistent rats scurrying about to try and enter this building. That only means it's very important. If you don't hurry up, I'm going to be going insiiiide!"

My stomach dropped when Rin desperately came to me and confirmed what I already knew. "Sensei, that was Wakamo! We have to hurry!"

We've been had. The last pack of grunts we swatted aside on the way here seemed to have alerted her, whether by vox or a lone straggler that saw us coming and ran like hell. She would have gone in already if she caught on to their significance any earlier, but what mattered now was that the paradigm had shifted. She didn't know WHY that was our objective, but now she knew that it was, and if she destroyed the device authorizing the supplies for our forces, then we were lost.

I wasn't avoiding her anymore. I had to chase her down NOW.

"Sensei! They're charging us!"

Brilliant. Even if the only thing these idiots knew was to run at us and shoot their guns, that would slow us down, which meant more time for Wakamo to mess things up.

"Suzumi!"

The girl needed no more directions. With unerring accuracy, she threw the blinding explosive into the most crowded area she could land it in. It didn't stop all of them, between those out of range and those so angered by the sudden debilitation that they only ran faster, but I could ask no more of her in that regard.

Unfortunately, I had to do what I hated the most: Act like a stereotypical commissar.

"CHARGE!"

While the first wave of our enemies were recovering from the agony of a concussive flashbang, my ragtag force bolted for the enemy as fast as we could. Soon, the frontliners' pain was replaced by rage. Considering the ones taking point were shotgunners, this would be a problem.

To counter, I put my final card into play. My hands went to the weapon that went unused, not just today, but for quite some time since my condition deteriorated and eventually led to my death. A nostalgic weight settled in my hands, like reclaiming a lost part of myself.

With the press of a button, my chainsword roared to life, reborn just as I was. It never sounded so powerful, the whirling teeth baying for blood.

Rage evaporated and immediately plummeted into abject terror. When it came to pure shock tactics, few melee weapons had such a punishing effect on morale as the chainsword. The ear-splitting sound and the mere thought of an adamantium-toothed blade slicing into your body and tearing it to bits was enough to send most men and even xenos running for the hills.

These girls were far less fortunate than even them. They didn't know what chainswords were. All these girls knew was that they severely outnumbered me and had a tank and a vicious criminal behind them, and my only response was to shout at them and charge them with a chainsaw on a stick.

Eventually, I closed in on them before they could even move a single step and let loose a vicious swing, and time seemed to slow down.

There were obvious advantages to using ambush tactics to engage these girls, all of whom seemed to have a predilection for guns, in close quarters combat. I refrained from doing so because I didn't know what to expect when it hit them. My greatest nightmare would have been that my blade would bounce off and the adamantium teeth would barely make a mark, or even break when it met whatever warp-spawned protections those halos granted, sure as I thought they were. I would be left standing in the middle of a crowd of autogunners ready to perforate my poor, squishy human body, and then I wouldn't be standing for much longer, carapace armor or not, because at least some of those would go for my head. On the other hand, bifurcating a teenage girl who was basically just a schoolyard bully would do wonders for my image on both sides. Either success or failure would be a net loss, and only now was my hand forced to find out what would happen.

The universe seemed to compromise for me when my blade sparked for the briefest of moments, as though grinding against metal equal to its own, before I swatted the girl aside and bowled her over like a tenpin. Well enough. I let my instincts guide me as I continued to do the same for all others in my path, weaving and smashing through the gaggle of criminals as though I was back on the scrumball pitch.

This wasn't to say everyone else was dead weight. Perhaps due to my own insistence of vigilance and taking advantage of every opportunity, when my girls saw that the criminals were reduced to horrified, screaming statues, instead of following their example they followed mine. Hasumi was still dealing precision shots from afar, focused on sniping those far ahead of me. There was less risk of hitting me with this tactic, and more efficiency hitting targets I couldn't quite reach yet. Suzumi focused on short bursts from her autogun, aimed mostly at any stragglers that I ran past with my chainsword, taking them down by virtue of sheer surprise rather than any damage dealt. Yuuka on the other hand did her best to keep pace with me with one autopistol held with both hands. The low weight combined with her two-handed grip allowed her to sprint as fast as she could while still being able to accurately fire, keeping foes off-balance for the rest to finish off.

I don't know how many we cut down, shot down, or simply terrified into fleeing. The veritable army coming for us was scythed through with an ease that simply didn't match how deadly I knew these girls could be, but I knew the other boot would drop soon enough.

Said boot coming in the form of a wall of rotor cannon toting gangers with crazed, fearful eyes flanking their last fallbacks in their bid to defeat us: The Crusader, and standing atop it, the prime threat.

Her entire form screamed of both bloodlust and, well, regular lust, like a Slaaneshi cultist that spent a few months picking up a few habits from Khornates. A strange, long-sleeved outfit that was contrasted by how little it covered of her legs, with the right covered in a torn stocking, and the left only secured by some strange, spiked leg bracelet. High-heeled boots covered her feet, while an elaborately designed, pale mask marked with red covered her face. Her halo, a strange black flower outlined in bloody red, surrounded by a ring marked with lines jutting out of certain parts, promised bloodshed. And by her side was a deadly stub rifle emblazoned with her name, with a removable knife allowing her to wreak havoc at any range.

"You came running for me? How lovely," Wakamo spoke in a sultry, sadistic voice as the tank's main cannon aimed for me. "Let me give you your reward for coming so fast!"

In utter desperation, I dove for the ground while the rest went for the sides, and I can only thank the incompetence of the crew within for my survival, their cannon still aimed at my standing position when I was down for seconds already. The two-pound round sailed over my head and exploded far behind me, making me cringe at the impact but suffering no more than that. Still, that left me in the sights of a firing line of rotor cannons.

"SUZUMI!"

It was all or nothing. As the barrels began to whirl, Suzumi threw both of her last remaining flashbangs, transforming the last line into a sea of white that left many of the girls screaming and dropping their weapons, and the tank's turret veering wide of center from shock. However, Suzumi couldn't follow up on the opportunity. A single powerful shot came for her instead, blasting her away. Whether her mask had flash protection or she really was that tenacious, Wakamo had ignored the blasts of light and simply shot back.

"How adorable!" She cried out in madness and pleasure, seemingly enjoying our resistance. Black-red flames burst forth from her, and I had to hold back my horror. Fantastic. She was some kind of battle psyker! "Come and get me then!"

I tried to oblige her with shots from my laspistol, but to my horror it clicked empty, the charge in its power pack finally running dry. As embarrassing as it was mortifying, I wondered if I was about to spend the last minutes of my brief second life being utterly humiliated.

"I won't let you hurt Sensei!"

I suddenly felt wind blowing at my back, and I instinctively kept my head down once again. A shot that seemed to part the air flew over my head, sailing straight towards Wakamo's position. She quickly backflipped straight onto the tank's top hatch as the round pierced straight through the machine gun.

That was more powerful than Hasumi's regular shots. I swear I could feel some strange aura from it as well. Was she also a psyker? Were all of these girls psykers? Whatever the answer, it bought me enough time to roll into cover, and at the very least the tank's machine gun was destroyed, but Wakamo was still unharmed. She immediately fired off a counter shot towards Hasumi that slammed into her, knocking her down just as with Suzumi.

"Now it's my turn!"

Yuuka shined with blue light and took my place as the Wakamo's target, her energy shield projected. She ran up to Wakamo, trusting in the power of her field, and let loose a storm of autofire. Unbalanced from evading Hasumi's attack, she took the full barrage head-on. My heart sank as it only seemed to make her angry.

"Insolent little bug!" Her aura burst forth once more, turning her black embers into an ebon bonfire. She let off a five-round burst of her weapon that destroyed Yuuka's shield, leaving her open, but still unharmed.

"Why you-!" She took cover behind a pile of rubble ahead of me and reloaded her autopistols so she could have another go.

I didn't know if she would get another chance, from the ethereal crimson flower slowly shedding petals above her head. When the last one fell, a horrible explosion ripped through the area, right on Yuuka's position.

My eyes widened in fear. That warp power was a sentence of death the moment a single one of those shots tagged you, marking you for the inevitable burst of deadly energy. At the very least Yuuka was still alive, but disarmed and on the ground. Miraculously, despite the warp explosion, she was still conscious, if riddled with dirt and scratches and disrobed of her jacket. Her halo however was frantically winking in and out of existence, as though she was struggling to keep awake.

"Ah, that was an amusing time." Wakamo's flames subsided as she pointed her gun at Yuuka, arrogantly holding it with a single hand. Perhaps it didn't matter when the Crusader's gun finally corrected its position and joined her in aiming at the girl. "Time to deal with you!"

I bolted out of cover, running past Yuuka and straight towards Wakamo as my chainsword roared to life, distracting both the deadly psyker and the girls inside. I could only wonder what Wakamo was thinking behind the mask as I seemingly ignored her shot and jumped as high as I could, trying to ram my blade through her.

She somersaulted backwards off the Crusader to evade my attack, but that was alright. Either I got her by pinning her into the tank and hopefully cutting straight through her, or my strike would conveniently sink into the gun mantlet behind her.

The chainsword went through the armor plate smooth as butter, and one upward swipe later and the tank became much more receptive to the open air. I looked inside to see the crew staring at me as though Horus himself had come to damn their souls to the warp.

They fainted dead away. That kept the tank out of commission. Now for the harder part. I looked towards Wakamo, daring her to come for me. I didn't expect to see her arms limp, ready to drop her stub rifle if her grip was any shakier. I hoped she would drop her weapon in fear, but what followed was, while not exactly harmful to my physical health, certainly did a number on my paranoia.

"O-oh my…"

She panted sensually like she was watching- no FILIMING one of Jurgen's porno-slates. Was she suddenly turned on by the carnage I wrought? I described her as a Khornate-Slaaneshi cultist, but I desperately prayed that she wasn't as depraved as that.

"E-excuuuuse meeee!"

And then she fled, bolting away at a speed I could never even hope to touch. I would pay for this dearly someday I knew, just like that damn Shadowlight haunted me for nearly a century. But whatever. Survive now, and then try to survive again later. I hate this.

"Cain-Sensei!"

"Did you just slice through a tank with a chainsaw?"

I looked back at my group to find Suzumi already back on her feet and asking pertinent questions. I smiled in amusement at her. That would sound ludicrous in most other contexts, but this was a special occasion. "Chainsword. But yes, I did. It's good that you're back on your feet Suzumi."

She rolled her arm as if that was a normal reaction to eating a stub. "Wakamo hit harder than most, but it was just one shot."

"And thanks to you, that was all she took. Thank you Cain-Sensei."

Hasumi came in with Rin and Chinatsu at her side. "I was expecting the worst when you charged straight in like that, but you even took advantage of psychological warfare with your sword, then risked your life to save one of us."

"Yuuka was the only one who received any significant injuries among us, and she'll be fine and recovered soon enough." Chinatsu looked back at the fallen bodies, slightly perturbed. "They're worse off, but they'll be fine eventually." She looked towards me

Strange times when your medicae was more worried about the state of the enemy than your own forces, doubly so when most of them were less likely to die than one of your own (example: Me). That it was justified counted as a victory in my books. I nodded in approval, stepped off the tank and looked towards the young treasurer who got caught up in all this. She gazed up at me with eyes full of wonder, seeming like she wasn't really there. "Are you alright Yuuka? Shield or no, you took a lot of fire there."

"Wh-what?" She seemed to realize I was talking to her before shaking her head. "Uh, no… Yes! Yes, I'm fine." She swallowed. "Th-thanks for the save, Sensei."

"You're welcome. It was the least I could do for your effort." She was willing to be a meat, well, energy shield for us for most of this farce and received a delayed psyker burst for her troubles, so making sure she didn't take a tank shell and another rifle stub seemed a good trade.

She couldn't find the words to respond to that, looking away in embarrassment. It was here that the last member of our party came in tow.

"Cain Sensei. We're almost finished."

I nodded at her declaration. I turned to the rest of the group. "Chinatsu, stay here and tend to Yuuka's wounds. Hasumi, Suzumi, stand guard and secure the area. We're finishing this."

The girls accepted my commands, and Rin and I entered the SCHALE headquarters to hopefully put an end to this chaos.


It was dark within the confines of the SCHALE building, either because the power was lost in the disturbance outside, or because it never had any due to never being active at all. As we went past the glass doors, we came to a general reception area that led to many other rooms. There seemed to be some emergency power, because a door light alerted us to the entrance of the basement level. I held her up and peeked inside to see if there was anyone else within.

The whole place seemed like a small research area. Off to the side of the entrance was a small library of books, more likely reference books than anything for entertainment. An office arrangement was at the bottom of the stairs, with a chair, a desk with a cogitator, more books, a projection screen and a board.

Most striking however was the small pedestal holding a floating stone. A strange, ancient aura swirled from the piece, seeming more than anything else in the room.

"Much here cannot be explained. That machine is one of them. So is the item the President wanted to give you."

She knelt down and put a finger on the wall, one part seeming little different from any other. She traced a circle with her hand, then drew an elaborate pattern I simply couldn't follow. She finished by putting the tip of her finger in the center of her invisible drawing.

The pattern then revealed itself, glowing white for a single instant before fading away. A small section of the wall opened up, concealing inside itself the treasure we sought.

"It was hidden quite well. Fortunately, that meant it didn't have a single scratch on it."

It was here that she handed to me an unassuming white framed data slate, simple in construction and design, yet just like that mysterious floating stone, seeming so much more.

"This is what the General Student Council President left for you: The Shittm Chest."

I accepted the tablet from Rin, feeling the smooth metal rest comfortably in my hand. "It may seem like an ordinary tablet, but its origins are a mystery. Its manufacturer, OS, system structure and components are completely unknown. None of us in the student council know how to activate it, and I don't even know if we have the capability to. The President said you would." Silence came down on her, and I gazed upon her, wondering what she wanted to say before she sighed and moved away, going towards the stairs.

I showed no emotion as I spoke for the first time since I laid eyes on the device. "You aren't going to see this?"

"The President left it for you. As far as I am concerned, it belongs to you alone. I won't interfere."

She then ascended the stairs and left the basement, leaving me alone with the Chest.

The moment Rin left, I finally let my emotions show, glaring at the device in my now wildly shaking palms as though it had personally offended me, disgusting me to the very core of my being.

I'd been wondering exactly how I was going to save this city when I had no idea what any of these people were talking about.

And then this little thing was plopped into my hand, and I denied the first thought that came into my head with every fiber of my being, but then I resigned myself to the truth.

I knew what this was.

At my touch, the screen lit up in a diffusion of pastel and blue, triangular shapes flittering about the screen before they assembled into a strange S shape.

Connecting to the Shittm Chest. Enter the system password.

We thirst for the seven wailings. We bear the koan of Jericho. The words flowed out of my mind as though I'd been born to say them.

Password accepted. User identified as Ciaphas Cain. Confirmed.

Converting to Operating System Arona for biological authentication and generation of verification certificate.

Light flashed around me and water engulfed me, somehow neither suffocating me nor drenching me. Through it all, only one question entered my mind.

Welcome to the Shittm Chest, Cain Sensei.

What happened to me?


I came to in a strange, watery landscape bathed in warm sunlight. No other land was visible, only the embrace of the ocean. In fact, There didn't seem to be any land at all, my feet planted firmly on the surface of the water as though it was solid ground.

It was peaceful here, and very serene. And yet, it was melancholy. Lonely.

I stood in the middle of a ruined, flooded classroom, the walls eroded and broken, desks piled up, scattered about or very rarely in place.

And sitting in one of them, sleeping soundly like the child she was, was a haloed girl. She wore a blue dress the color of the ocean around her, and her skin was unnaturally white. Her skirt, shoes and the ribbon adorning her strange blue-white hair were all white as well. Her halo, however, was a simple blue ring. Yet somehow, I knew that there was more.

"Unya… Castalla cake… Banana milk goes better than strawberry milk…"

I walked up to her. This thing held answers and was making me lose my mind, I swear to it. It needed to stop talking about food and wake up. Right. This. Instant! I raised my hand, trembling with indignation.

"Hehe… There's still so much left!"

The raised palm stopped trembling, slowly falling down. It rested on her head, and I couldn't help but shake my own.

"Not now… I still have more to eat…"

I stroked her head, encouraging her to wake.

"Hmmm… But… Hehe…"

My eye twitched. I wasn't THAT patient. I began rubbing her head a little faster, uncaring of whether it messed up her hair.

WIth a small groan, she groggily stood up. She rubbed her eyes as she forced herself awake as she stood up, barely even reaching my waist. "Ehh? What's going on?"

The moment she saw me, she went from confused, to surprised to utterly flabbergasted and amazed, and her halo suddenly burst out, splashing above her head like water.

"S-Sensei?!" She spoke slowly and shakily, unable to believe I was here. "I-If you're here, does that mean you're Cain Sensei?!"

"Apparently I am," I replied smoothly, trying not to betray my dissatisfaction at the situation.

"So I was right! Hawawa, what time is it now?!" She looked around, waving her arms with little dignity. "OK, calm down, just calm down…" I let her faff about for a bit before she finally got a hold of herself. "Well… Um… Oh I can't believe I forgot to introduce myself!"

Her halo returned to normal and she put her hands behind her back. "My name is Arona! I'm the system manager that lives inside the Shittm Chest. I serve as its main OS. Think of me as your trusty secretary, Sensei! My physical form is still small, and my voice could use a version upgrade, but I know I can be useful to you!"

I froze at her words, the full implications slamming straight into me mere seconds after I heard them. Before I could say anything else, she silenced any complaint I had with a radiant smile.

"I'm so glad to finally meet you! I've been waiting for you for so, sooooo long!"

At her words I couldn't say anymore. I wonder how long she was waiting? I finally resigned myself and gave up, putting on an easy smile. "So you have. It's good to meet you Arona."

She cheered at my acceptance with a giggle, before realizing we still had work to do. "Right, we should finish your biological authentication!"

Of course, we weren't just here for pleasantries. So why exactly was she so skittish all of a sudden. "Uhh… It's a little embarrassing, but could you bend down? It's all part of protocol!"

What was all this? Perhaps a retinal scan? Feeling dubious about this whole process, I did as she said anyway. I bent down, quite deeply I might add due to size discrepancy, until she was satisfied. She blinked a few times before she raised a single pointer finger.

"Just place your fingertip against mine, and we'll be done and ready!" She chuckled. "It's kind of like making a promise, isn't it?"

How innocently ominous that sentence was. I had no time for such promises, but I had no other choice.

I placed my finger on hers. It pulsed at the touch, and I waited for her reply. "Hmmm…"

I can't really tell.

She didn't confirm or deny my verification immediately. It was agonizing waiting for her reply. Moreover, I wasn't sure what answer I wanted. Did I want to be accepted? Did I not?

… Well, it doesn't really matter.

After a wait that probably seemed longer than it was, she seemed to shrug as if she was a child dealing with getting a crummy present. "All done! You're verified!"

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. I wasn't completely sure I was relieved, but I leaned a bit more towards it for now. "That took a bit longer than expected for a scan."

"It did?" She became dismayed, then offended. Her halo flared into angry orange spikes. "W-well I just use my eyes! You can't blame me for taking that long! It didn't even take half a minute!"

That was like using an Arbites to authorize your prints via eyesight. Terribly inefficient. "You're sure I was accepted?"

Her eyes suddenly began tearing up, and her halo started pouring more of its disappearing substance. "Y-you don't believe me?"

I looked her square in the eye. "Do you?"

The reply splashed out her halo once again, and she wiped her tears and nodded fervently when she realized what I was getting at. "I do! 100%!"

This did not engender any faith. Whatever. I'd have to buy it. If I was in, I was in. Before anything else, I had a personal question to ask. "The General Student Council President. Do you know anything about her?"

Because if anyone could give me any answers about what was going on, it would be her. And this little girl was probably my best chance at doing so.

At that, her halo normalized into its simple round form. She shook her head. "I'm sorry Sensei. I don't know who she is or why she disappeared."

Somehow, I wasn't surprised. Very well. "That's fine. I figured she would be difficult to find." Time for the reason I was supposed to be here. "The city is in a crisis and supplies for the General Student Council forces must be authorized. Can you do this?"

"Is that what's going on?!" Suddenly full of energy, she closed her eyes before opening them up once again. "Step one complete! Admin privileges for the Sanctum Tower have been given to you, Sensei! All of Kivotos is in the palm of your hand!"

"Me?" I swallowed, my throat going dry. Emperor, no. I could barely handle leading armies and teaching juvies. I did NOT want to run this absolute mess of a city. "No, give it to the General Student Council."

She tilted her head in askance. "Are you sure Sensei? That would mean giving total control of the city to them."

Her answer, given so casually and easily, hit me like a Thunder Hammer.

The headspinning revelations never ended with this city. What an INTERESTING detail.

Was the President in conflict with the General Student Council? Was it the GSC itself that orchestrated this, forcing the President to leave and plunging the city into chaos? With her gone, would they then control the tower, swoop in and save the city, and enjoy both the love and the absolute control of the people without anyone being the wiser? Was that why, despite holding the highest authority in the land, the President still believed she needed to go underground and give extrajudicial authority to an outsider to fix it, even believing a miserable state of chaos was better than allowing her colleagues to take control?

If I left this room, would I be greeted by a room of guns, ready to fill me full of lead for being an unknown factor out of their control?

Who was pulling my strings? The GSC? The President? Or was there something else?

I shook my head. Despite all the doubts I had, I had no idea of how to quell the chaos in this city on my own and keep it. But I know who could, and WOULD, even if they only had to pretend, if they ever wanted to take advantage of controlling it.

Very well. I suppose this was what the President wanted from me. Let the GSC have the ball for now. No matter what, I'll be there to see if they drop it.

"Authorize transfer of privileges, Arona."

Despite her original hesitation, she immediately dropped at the confirmation of my approval. "Alright then! Done and done Sensei! Admin privileges transferred!"

I nodded. Despite the completion of my mission, I felt little satisfaction, only questions and the weight of the burdens placed on my shoulders. Those thoughts came to a pause when the tiny girl in front of me spoke once more.

"Cain Sensei?"

I looked to Arona once again, and as if sensing my mood, she gave me a firm look. "There'll be a lot of work for you to do coming up. There will be mysteries to solve and problems to face. The lives and futures of your students will be in your hands. It's not going to be easy."

This time, her halo shined green, just as her eyes sparkled with stars. "But no matter what, you can count on Arona to be here whenever you need me!" She raised her finger once more. "I'll promise you that!"

I shook my head, smiling a bittersweet smile despite myself. Such a simple gesture from a childlike being, even though I knew better. With no authentications or verifications to think about, I tapped her finger upon my own. "Then so long as you do your best for me, I promise to give my best for them and you, Arona."

After all, I would need them for my survival. I'd be giving the ball to the GSC, but that didn't mean I couldn't level the playing field in my own way.

"It's a promise Sensei!" With a wide smile, her halo turned into a heart as light shined once more. "I'll see you later!"

As the watery world disappeared from view, my thoughts went to the future. Of mysteries, conspiracies and the battles I had to fight and the hurdles I had to overcome to unravel them.

And through all this, the only one I could trust to be at my side was a girl of Abominable Intelligence.

Emperor… Please. I just want this to end. I am so tired.


As though I had never left, I was back in the basement of SCHALE. This time however, I wasn't in a musty room left in darkness, but one brightened by actual lights and an atmosphere regulated by air conditioning.

"You did well."

I looked towards the basement entrance to find Rin making her way down the stairs. "We've regained control of the Sanctum Tower. We'll be able to supply and deploy our troops and manage the city as well as we have before the President's disappearance. Your mission is complete, Cain-Sensei. We can take the rest from here."

I nodded with an easy smile, pretending that I wasn't wondering if this woman wouldn't backstab me at any moment. "Good to know my efforts were worth it, Vice President. I suppose that would be all for the day?"

"Other than speaking to your students, I'd say you have no more duties left for now."

Oh, right. I suppose I should be letting those girls know that their homes were no longer in complete disarray. "By your leave." I made to exit the room, walking past Rin and making it to the first step on the stairs.

"Ciaphas Cain."

Just like before, I raised my eyebrows, turning towards her at the use of my full name. "We asked you to risk your life for our city, not knowing just how fragile you were. Despite that, you have exceeded expectations, risking your life to lead a small force to come this far despite facing overwhelming odds. And you did so despite being confused and barely having a grasp of the world around you."

To my surprise, she made a deep bow, humbling herself for my sake. "On behalf of the Student Council… And for my own behavior, I thank you for giving every effort to complete it despite that. I apologize for so casually asking you for such a favor."

I tried to keep smiling at her apology. What I really wanted to do was explode at her, I really did. But considering how close this woman obviously was to her disappeared President, I wonder how much it stung to learn such a friend had done so much behind her back, disappeared just when a crisis came, and then learned that your friend was believing in someone else to clean up her mess.

My easy smile slowly gave way to a frown. At the very least, my face matched my emotions this time. That little bit of honesty was something I could give, if only in desperate, silent prayer that I could trust at least one more person in this world.

"This isn't your fault," I said, as much for her sake as it was for mine. For now I would blame the President for leaving us here, or perhaps whatever conspiracy ousted her from her position and away from the city. "We must focus on fixing these problems and working for the future."

Her face rose in astonishment at my acceptance of the apology, even more so when she found an open hand ready to receive her own. I still wasn't smiling, but I wasn't radiating dissatisfaction either. "May we have a good partnership, Rin Nanagami."

Her lips curved upward ever so slightly. "To a good partnership, Ciaphas Cain."

This was no contest for strength or dominance, no hidden test of reliability. I simply held her hand and she held mine, and we shook. Hopefully, things would remain so simple between us.

"Now then," she began as she let go. "I believe it's time to dismiss your students."


We left the SCHALE building to find the girls hovering all over their phones, sounding off every other second with notifications and status updates. Around us, we were not alone: Troops of all kinds could be seen, with many wearing similar blue-white uniforms and round caps. A few had stub pistols, but others had autoguns in one hand with shields of bulletproof glass in the other. "K.S.P.D", which I assumed was "Kivotos Student Police Department" was emblazoned in large bold lettering, while "Valkyrie" was written smaller. Perhaps it was the name of their unit, or, if this truly was an academic city, an academy of its own devoted to peacekeeping. Many were accompanied by delinquent gangers. Some were handcuffed and pushed with little resistance, while others were unconscious and had to be carried for deposit in the nearest van.

Arbites infantry weren't the only ones here. Tanks of all kinds were rolling through the streets, and I could even hear helicopters flying overhead. It seemed the GSC had quickly mobilized their assets through the city, rounding up whatever criminals were left.

"Sensei, you did it! The city's saved!" Yuuka raved as she closed in on me with bright eyes. "Power's coming back to Millenium and so many other places in the city!"

"Many of the criminals are being apprehended as we speak." Hasumi added proudly, though her cheerfulness subsided a tiny bit. "Wakamo wasn't one of them, but I'm sure she'll be caught soon enough."

I doubted that. I heavily doubted that. In fact, I doubted that she would ever be caught until I had to deal with the consequences. Not that I voiced that doubt. I simply smiled and pretended to believe that I wouldn't one day be facing a sadistic anarchist that seemed to get off on carnage and had personally set her sights on me.

"I reported our combat performance and everything I learned to the head prefect." She beamed at me rather coyly. "And I imagine she won't be the only one learning about you. All of Kivotos will be hearing about you soon enough."

Oh, joy. Everyone from the random people on the street to the upper echelons of the city were going to be aware of me. "Only in Death does Duty end?" Apparently not for Ciaphas Cain.

"I think they already are. Look, Sensei."

A feeling of dread welled up inside me as Suzumi pointed towards the streets. I followed her guidance, praying to the Emperor that there would be no more complications.

He did not answer.

A crowd was indeed gathering. As expected, most were students, their halos forming a floating sea of rings. I absentmindedly wondered how they never seemed to hit or cling to each other, but shoved that thought aside for other details. Most were regular students, but even a few of the police who were on standby were trying and failing to hide their obvious interest. That was fine.

I nearly lost my composure when Kivotos decided to give me one last whack in my worldview and reveal to me that there were outright xenos on Kivotos.

Cats and dogs were in the crowd. They walked on two legs, they were clothed, and nobody was bothered by their presence. They didn't have halos either, so clearly, they weren't like the students. I'd heard of Felinid abhumans only having a few feline characteristics, but this was basically just a humanoid cat! Never mind anything on dogs!

Oh, and the robots, how could I POSSIBLY forget that robots were here too? Blue artificial constructs accompanied the dogs, most with heads shaped like scrumballs. They too joined the rapidly swelling congregation without any comment on their presence.

As for what they spoke?

"Is that him?! The one who saved the city?!"

"I heard he did it with just four students to take on hundreds of criminals!"

"Is he an adult?! What school and club is he with?!"

So many questions, so many things to take a hold of. I could barely grasp what was happening when a microphone was stuck in my face.

"Excuse me sir! Kawaru Shinon of the Kronos School of Journalism here! Are you open to answer a few questions?!"

I looked down and, once again, tried not to let my eyes bulge at the sight of a dark-skinned blond with scandalous clothing. Her pants hugged her legs tightly and left little to the imagination. Her jacket was thick, but unzipped as it was, it did nothing to hide that her undershirt didn't even bother to cover her assets. In fact, it was clear to see she had no underwear up there at all.

It was only a brief moment of notice. But the sight of the microphone and the request of answers was enough to pull me back into familiar ground.

There were no xenos right now. No robots, no strange halos. Only a crowd asking for answers. And I could give them the ones they wanted.

Time to play hero.

"Only those which have already been asked."

My deep voice and unexpected answer stilled the crowd, and even the reporter, clearly of the nosier types ever present for any media circuit, was caught off-guard and didn't make additional comment. I seized the opening and continued to speak, putting my hands behind my back in the very picture of a model officer.

"I am Ciaphas Cain. I suppose you could call me the one who saved the city, but that would downplay the accomplishments of all those who worked together with me to make it happen."

A lifetime of modest dissembling made the humbling words flow smooth as silk. "I was not alone. I did indeed take on countless delinquents and gangers with the help of only four students." I gestured to each member of my makeshift squad, cameras flashing upon each one. They gave various responses of surprise and shock at becoming the center of attention. "Hayase Yuuka, treasurer of Millenium Science School's Seminar Student Council. Hanekawa Hasumi and Morizuki Suzumi, Vice-Captain of the Justice Task Force and member of the Vigilante Crew, both of Trinity General School. And Hinomiya Chinatsu, Head Medic of Gehenna Academy's Prefect Team. With their bravery, determination and skill, I was able to plow through a criminal-infested city and emerge unscathed."

The crowd clapped and cheered while the students either preened or tried to shy away from the attention. I then pointed out the various peacekeeping forces and vehicles within the area. "That is not to say we were alone in taking back the city. As you see around you, students of the Valkyrie Police and others mobilized by the General Student Council have aided in arresting the criminals we subdued but were forced to leave behind in our hasty march to take back the city. And of course, the Council itself was able to regain control of power throughout the city and swiftly return it back to each of your homes, districts and academies. This was a united effort among many. No need to overplay my own role, however important it might be."

Prop up every other player while downplaying your own, that they would make their own glowing assumptions about your character. Use that to lead to the next point. "I have spoken of many organizations here. To whom do I belong, you ask? I belong to a brand new club called SCHALE."

"What is SCHALE, you might ask? It is an Independent Federal Investigation Club formed by the missing General Student Council President herself."

That definitely caught their attention, with speculation running wild. I smiled. Exactly as I wanted. "For reasons unknown even to me, she disappeared, leaving its city defenseless." Let them stew upon that. Who would they blame? I was out of their minds on that front for now. But perhaps one of the other academies? The GSC? What ideas to think of…

"But not for long. In her infinite wisdom, the President formed an organization made to protect the people, and appointed me as its advisor, its Sensei. I have been tasked to solve problems around Kivotos, especially those that individual academies cannot solve themselves. I will be able to bring students from different districts with me in these investigations, in the hope that where the perspectives and abilities of those in one academy will not suffice, uniting them with others will bear more fruit. I was granted extrajudicial authority, in order to ensure that regulations will not prevent me from doing my duty."

Hmm. Scratch my previous assumptions. I sounded less like a Commissar and more like an Inquisitor, complete with commissioning random squads of very unusual people. Perhaps they should've gotten Amberly instead. She would've been more used to this, and a woman who could better fit in with these ridiculous girls. Then again, she wasn't a teacher (to my knowledge… With inquisitors, you never know how many secrets they keep) nor suffering from an acute case of being dead, so perhaps they settled for the next best thing with me, someone who must have absorbed some semblance of her brilliance by association. At the very least, I was in this travesty instead of depriving the Imperium of an Inquisitor more valuable than I ever could be.

The crowd clearly became unsettled at my frank admission of incredible authority. I raised a hand to silence them. "Your unrest is reasonable. What stops one man from overstepping his bounds and abusing his power? The answer is right there: I am but one man. So long as no others join me that is all that SCHALE is. The academies, the council, even all of you in front of me right now could simply overwhelm me if I dared to act out of line. I reserve the right to defend myself, but I will not if I deserve it. Of this, I promise you."

Give the people the power. They will relish it, and enhance the hold you have over them.

"You asked which academy I belong to? I belong to none of them. I belong to the Academic City itself. To Kivotos. To all of you." I placed a hand on my heart.

"I am Ciaphas Cain. I am the Sensei of SCHALE. And…" I sighed. I looked up at the now darkening sky, letting just a tiny bit of my true feelings out. "It has been a long day. I bid you all goodnight."

The crowd ran wild at my answers, and motioned for Rin and my students to follow me inside. Nobody else would dare try to intrude for fear of denying me even a simple request to rest and looking like a villain. They quickly acquiesced, and soon we were safely inside.

"Did you have all that prepared or were you just going off the cuff?"

Rin's incredulous look almost made the whole thing worth it, and I smiled. "I leave that to your imagination."

"That was incredible, Sensei!" Yuuka gazed at me with wonder in her eyes. "You have to teach me how to do that!"

Ah yes. She was a treasurer. I imagine she got more frak for anything she did than most. Money talked, and it often spoke of problems. It was very amusing. "We'll see. I am a Sensei after all."

"It was a great speech Cain-Sensei," Chinatsu said proudly, though with some slight hesitation. "Still, you just gave us a lot of attention. It'll be hard to get back to our academies with how crowded the streets will be…"

"The building has a hangar and a helicopter landing pad," Rin informed us, much to my surprise. That was… Significantly more than I was expecting from this operation. "We can simply call for pickup and be on our way shortly. Inform your academies that we will be bringing you home."

"If that's the case, then we better call and be on the way," Hasumi said before she looked at me warmly. "I look forward to fighting at your side again, Cain Sensei. Please visit us in Trinity General School anytime." Suzumi nodded in wordless agreement with the biggest smile I ever saw from her.

"Please visit us in Gehenna Academy as well. Our Head Prefect would definitely want to see you now, and I wouldn't mind meeting you again." A fair point. Chinatsu was perfectly agreeable and I might rely on her medical services again. I wasn't sure I wanted to meet the head prefect though. What kind of person could lead the disciplinary forces of such powerful girls? Why did the image of a daemon come to mind? I didn't want to know.

"I'm sure we'll see each other again when you pass by Millenium Science School too!" Yuuka insisted. She seemed quite… Taken by me, but though I wouldn't mind passing by, nothing more would come of that.

"I'll be sure to contact you all as soon as I can." I'd figured out how later, but all I really needed was some rest. To hell with food. That could come when I didn't want to collapse in a bed and just maybe never wake up again.

"You have performed quite a service for the city today, Cain-Sensei. We'll make sure to reimburse you for your efforts, along with all the girls here," Rin assured us. "Monetary rewards will be included, of course, but is there anything specific you want?"

I was about to humbly deny it as my heroic persona would seem fit to do, but I faltered.

One thing. Just one thing. It was unlikely, but if there was any chance at all…

"Got any tanna?"

"Tanna? What's that? I've never heard of it."

"Never you mind."

Of course. Brought back to life, forced to fight through a city of incredibly durable prepubescent psyker girls with guns, charged with making sure it doesn't go to hell and having to play it all up again. And not a drop of tanna in sight.

Curse you Slaanesh. Just end me already.

*Chapter 3: Initiation, END*

Let me make this clear. I like the original Sensei in Blue Archive. He's fun to watch in events, and the care for his students and the lengths he goes to them are undeniable. He can be a little inconsistent in some stories (Being very hesitant in some events, being an absolute degenerate pervert in others), but overall, I like him and how he was executed.

But he was basically a blank slate. We know nothing of his past, and he definitely doesn't act like how a normal squishy human in a world of bulletproof kids who seemingly have a gun fetish would act. He proves he has a smart mind, but sometimes he's just a little too accepting of things.

Cain-Sensei is not *insert name here* Sensei. We know his past: He's a 200+ year old war veteran who managed to die of old age in the world of WARHAMMER 40K. He deserves a break, and surely, being sent to a world of teenage girls where he has the technological, mental and emotional advantage counts?

God no. He comes here, gets his worldview smacked with a Thunder Hammer every hour, he's putting himself in danger again, somehow knows things he doesn't and he has to be a Hero again. It is a LOOOONG day. By the time he realizes he's INSIDE A DATA SLATE with an AI shaped like a little kid, he's trying very hard to keep calm and not go absolutely bonkers. And then come the robots and xenos, and I tell you, if he didn't have the microphone stuck in his face, he might have ACTUALLY just ran back inside the building.

And his reward is finding out tanna doesn't exist.

Pray for this man. He needs it.

Fitting a man of his paranoia, he also questions things a lot more than original Sensei. The GSC? The very nature of the students? How the hell he's even here? Yeah. Sensei takes it for granted that "yeah, this is life now." Cain, naturally, thinks "No, this is weird, this is REALLY weird, what the FRAK is going on?!" and hopes he'll survive to find out.

But they're united in their care for their students. Sensei is very open with it (and depending on your POV? A little TOO open with it). Cain-Sensei? Not so much. But as I hopefully demonstrated with Yuuka, methinks he doth protest too much. He tries to care, even when it hurts to care.

As for Rin? I am ambivalent to her, but the initial prologue didn't do her many favors, seemingly not caring that she's asking a squishy human who dies in one bullet to walk through a city full of gun-toting girls. The fact that she barely appears in the main story following this, only asking you to deal with raid bosses and paperwork, did her even LESS favors. I emphasized her friendship with the GSCP and her realization that she just asked a "regular" guy to go to war more. She'll definitely interact with Cain Sensei than BA Sensei.

Arona! Ah, her. The game doesn't put too much focus on her so students from each arc get more focus, though the mystery of her relationship to the GSCP was a big question on everyone minds. Still, I'm going to have her and Cain interact more here as well, as well as emphasize the fact that he has to deal with living with an AI now. A very, VERY powerful AI.

Put it this why. One can easily destroy the Shittm Chest, and probably Arona inside, but that involves dealing with everyone else trying to protect her. If they tried to deal with her DIGITALLY though? An entire fleet of Adeptus Mechanicus wouldn't even get close and she'd boot them out without even noticing.

I also changed a few more scenes. Sensei, despite being a squishy human, dealt with Wakamo by himself. How? Literally they come face to face and she falls in love with him, then runs away. Cain certainly has the raw animal magnetism to make this work, buuuuuuuut he wouldn't even give her the POSSIBILITY of falling in love with him. So you get a significantly more extended prologue boss battle compared to the one in game. Wakamo commandeering vehicles and gangs is a common theme with her. Taking a control of a tank is the WEAKEST one she gets.

Hope you enjoyed this installment!