Vash rubbed his stiff shoulder. Man, he really was getting old… or maybe that was because he hadn't done such a wild stunt for a while. He refrained from taking off his coat though, not exactly a sight he'd want children to see.
"Sensei, are you sure there's nothing off anywhere?"
And now, I'm making the medic worry over me… He wasn't a stranger to attentions. It just didn't feel the same when the one who carried the license for medical practice was much younger than him. Hinomiya Chinatsu was a soft-spoken, compassionate girl. She had pointed ears, bright yellow eyes, and red patterns floating above her head. I still have no idea what those are, now that I think about it.
Setting appearances aside… "Yeah, I'm fine. See, I can still coordinate my whole limbs."
He did a skip while raising both of his hands and flexing around the finger joints. The blonde student looked a little perturbed, but the frowns softened to neutral position. It didn't seem like she was entirely convinced, though it might have to do with the fact that they were about to storm into Schale office which had turned into the nest of a sniper-using terrorist. It was like entering a tiger's den… one with a preference for obscene amount of explosives, apparently.
"Speaking of which…" Vash glanced back. He didn't think he'd see the day where people could somehow make it out alive with only singed clothes and some light bruising and pinkish skin after getting caught up in a tank's detonation. "Yessh… I really didn't expect that to happen."
The defeated delinquents had been rounded up by the GSC members who chose to stay behind and coordinating with some local Valkyrie students. The highlight of the day was, of course, the drivers of the Crusader Tank. They wore radical outfits for being delinquents, with exposed front or midriff and painted face masks. Though they were injured, they were still the picture of health in Vash's humble opinion.
He still felt bad for them. He didn't mean to take out the tank in such an irresponsible way, but when Hasumi chose to focus on the sniper instead of retreating, he suddenly found himself moving out to the front. Still—
"I thought Rin was exaggerating it, but you girls really are tougher than normal."
His voice had carried over to the vanguard, it seemed. Hasumi was the first to look back.
"Sensei must have come from a faraway place," the black-haired girl said. Her wings, her height, and just about her everything were large to him. And yet, her smile was a soft and small one. "We, students, can take quite a beating. Compared to adults, I think it is safe to say that we far exceed your imagination?"
Vash had little else to do other than to nod. That was indeed the case, but it wasn't all there was to it.
For example, Hasumi's quick-thinking and decisiveness was not one that could easily be replicated even back home. She was a sniper who fought in the frontline, yet she still managed to reconsider the wider tactical decision upon encountering an unexpected element in the field. There was also the physical feats exhibited by Suzumi and Yuuka, the former fighting through clever positioning while the latter marched ahead to lure in the enemies for easy picking. Had these girls spent their whole lives learning the ins and outs of gunfights?
No, their general behaviors perfectly match their battle temperament, so they only learned marksmanship simply because it's just common sense to them?
The fact that no blood had been shed likely played to this unique worldview. As a result, these girls needed not carry the heavy burden of drawing a line on the sand in which one's life must be weighed down and chosen over the other. Kivotos, albeit one hell of an outlandish place, stood diametrically opposed to No-Man's Land. It was a completely insane place, and yet… it was also peaceful, and harmless to the point of playful. To these odd children, gunfights must be a clean solution to all conflicts if compared to the bloodiness of fistfight.
In other words… "I really am in a different world."
Morizuki Suzumi wasn't particularly skilled in anything. Well, saying that might seem like she was demeaning herself, but it was more like she had no problems with any given task in the battlefield. There was no terrain she particularly took issues in, yet there was also no place she genuinely had a full grasp over as if it was the back of her hand.
In short, she was a generalist. And so were her fellow teammates.
Hrrm, things may get rough from hereon. According to Hasumi's brief observation, the mob leader occupying the Schale office was undoubtedly the Fox of Calamity. Known as Kosaka Wakamo, she was a problem child hailing from the industrious Hyakkiyakko Tourism Academy. Her school affiliation explained her ability to recruit so many delinquents to her cause, and her specialty in spreading massive collateral damages through bombs and stuff meant… In an enclosed space, the effectiveness of her explosives will more than double, and should she focus in one target at a time…
Suzumi decided that things wouldn't do at the rate they were going. She tapped her squad leader on the shoulder, prompting a glance over the shoulder.
"What is it, Suzumi-san?"
Hayase Yuuka. A member of Millennium's student council, Seminar. Her calculation was fast, her tactics and strategies bound with exact precision. Though she seemed to have a fiery temper when beset with problems, she had shown off that her real self was one of a caring and thoughtful persona. The teacher's decision to put her in the leadership position certainly wasn't wrong, and now…
"Can we go over our plan in taking down Wakamo, once again?" The gray-haired girl tilted her head. "A refresh will help solidify our next course of action."
"Hurm…" The girl with pigtails furrowed her eyebrows together. "Certainly. What we must first do is to take out her line of sight."
"Explosives? Smoke grenades? Flashbang?"
"Smokes. She wears a mask, we do not." That made sens. Yuuka certainly had thought things through. "There's not much else other than direct confrontation after that. None of us here have experiences in fighting off the infamous fugitives of the Federal Correction Bureau. Their combat power is largely unknown, and we are ill-equipped unlike the elite squads of SRT. Well, even if things led to a breach operation, I will still ensure everyone is under my protection. You girls should come out only after my signal."
"I see… that's a commendable spirit, Yuuka-san, but I hope it won't come to that." A lull appeared in the air. "It'd be nice if we could have the building's blueprints."
"Unfortunately, we are running out of time. Can't really let the fox tags explosives on the building's foundations, can we?"
That's also true… Getting buried alive was a frightening prospect like no other. Durable their Halo might be, it wasn't like they were invincible. Plus, we do have a VIP with us, and the Acting President following right after us.
Speaking of which, the back line had been oddly quiet. Suzumi turned around, looking past Hasumi, Chinatsu, and…
"...huh?" The red-eyed girl blinked owlishly. "Uuuh, girls…?"
"Hm? Is something the matter?" Hasumi inquired.
"Where… did the teacher go off to?" Suzumi pointed with her index finger at the empty air next to the representative of Gehenna.
"...eh?!" Chinatsu immediately stopped walking. She turned her head left and right and then to the back, seeing not a single presence or tail of the extremely conspicuous dashing red trench-coat. "Huh!? Sensei? Sensei…!?"
"Hinomiya-san, weren't you conversing with sensei just a minute ago?!"
"I did! I only took my eyes off of him for five seconds…!"
Suzumi could hear a slapping sound coming from nearby. A cursory gaze allowed her to identify a gloved hand pressed tightly against the face of one Hayase Yuuka. As much as she wanted to prevent the angry volcano from erupting, words would more than likely fall on deaf ears, and her following thought certainly did not need to be spelled out for the sake of everyone in the room.
Well… I guess, no plan survives first contact…?
A guy with hairs standing on ends looked up to the concrete ceilings. Somehow, he had a feeling that somebody was screaming in impotent rage just now.
"That sounds almost like Meryl…" Vash paused and shook his head. "Yeah, nah. That can't be right."
He must be feeling homesick. It was natural, after that bout of enlightenment over his place in this strange new world. He did still have a few things even back home, and he missed all the people that he had come to know and care there. Were they doing alright, even without him around to liven things up? Had they manage to change for the better, living while adhering to a kinder ideal instead of swimming down the currents?
"...actually, they might still be doing fine. With or without me…" The man hung his head low at his own depressing, but definitely accurate assessment of himself. "Argh, let's just stop thinking. Now, where was I?"
Since there wasn't a time to look for building blueprints, the right way to explore every nook and cranny would be by splitting up. He knew, he knew. There was definitely some flag-raising thing there, judging from the empty hallways, locked rooms, and dusty floors everywhere he went. The power was barely on, so he figured out that the building had been set to run on emergency mode. At least it looked relatively functional and regularly maintained to top form; the kind of deathtraps a mangled, abandoned ruin of a colony ship tended to have in store was…
Yeah, this is definitely way better. "Not that I know where I'm going by this point…"
Well, he could at least theorize a few things. According to Rin, she needed to hand out some things directly to him in order for this Schale organization to start functioning, meaning there were valuables stored somewhere in this building. Since the General Student Council ruled over the city, that also must meant these important items had quite an oomph to them. Something that good would need safekeeping, so it couldn't possibly be in an easily reachable place—much less one visible to naked eye.
Conversely speaking, not all hiding places must be set in secret spots either. The last place people would expect there'd be something hidden would be…
"Hmm, yeah. This looks about right." Vash chuckled at the surprisingly not hidden staircase leading down to a basement. It was right behind the reception desk on the ground floor, easy to miss when all you wanted was to walk past the unhelpful receptionists in search of the lift leading to other floors. There were also some empty flower vases made out of ceramic, so the staircase was cleverly hidden away from prying eyes in such a natural way. "As expected, I'm a genius."
He felt proud of his super intelligence. Yes, he really did.
However, he couldn't find the others. Seeing that there wasn't a presence in the lobby, he widely shrugged before going down the staircase. His footsteps echoed in the dark and narrow passage, the way underground turning to be a sharp spiral which only lasted for a minute and a half. Vash could guesstimate that he was about two floors below the surface, so the place he landed in would usually be counted as basement floor. In the old books about earth's modern architecture, here would be where cars get parked in.
"Interesting… it looks pretty much like an office floor. No windows, though." Ventilation, air-conditioned, and though the air felt a bit dry and stall, the slight tingle on his skin told him of functional airflows. The hallway lit by luminous blue lines on the wall led to a door without hinges, handles, and levers. It was a white, spotless door. "This is… no way, could it be—"
[Biometric identified.]
Uh… Before Vash could think much on it, the door slid open with a serene hiss to it. It was, without a doubt, an automated sliding door. A technological mechanism remarkably familiar to him who had been raised in the colony space ship. It was even fairly thick, capable of withstanding high-quality dynamites. Just what lies past this point—?
"...ara?"
Right past the door, a teenage girl clad in a fancy dress was on her knees, fiddling some kind of device next to it. She wore a white mask that vaguely resembled a fox and in possession of a long dark hair slightly tinged with reddish tint. A flower-shaped pattern glowed above her head, surrounded by a red ring with spiked on four cardinal directions.
Probably, this was the so-called nefarious terrorist.
Probably, that thing she was fiddling was an explosive packaged with movement sensor for when the door opened by whoever would come in after her.
Probably, the beeping sounds coming from the block-shaped bomb must have indicated its activation.
…
...oh, shit! Faster than even the girl who was already getting up, Vash wrenched the bomb installed to the doorframe with his bionic left arm. He threw it into the corridor behind him, all the while stepping into a catwalk leading down to a featureless room situated lower than the corridor. The terrorist girl didn't have the space needed to retrieve her rifle slung behind her, but she still tried to retreat only to bump her back against the railing; they were still in blast radius. Dammit, get over here…!
Vash lowered his center of gravity. He snatched the girl up after bumping his shoulder into her belly, eliciting a surprised gasp from the other party. With her in tow and slung over his shoulder, he jumped over the railings and dropped down upon a sofa. The furniture, naturally, did not take kindly to the sudden impact weighing two persons doubled by their speedy fall.
As a sound of shattering broke out underneath him, a powerful but suppressed noise of explosion erupted above him. In the next second, the several inches thick door sailed through the air above him, impacting the wall on the other side of the room before finally landing on the floor; bent and crumpled like a crumpled piece of paper.
"Owowow…" Vash groaned, feeling his legs numb and his butt fortunately not a pile of cracked messes. The sofa cushioned his fall, but he did fall in an awkward position. It was a bit hard to stand… and now the barrel of a rifle pointed down at him. "Aaah… whoopsie, guess my help wasn't appreciated, huh?"
The thin clouds of sawdust and dirt were starting to dissipate. As he raised both of his hands in surrender, Vash smiled awkwardly. From his angle, the fox mask gave a twice-as-frightening menacing look to it. Well, there was the rifle, but…
"I beg to differ. All you did was just giving me… ara?" The masked girl suddenly paused. She tilted her head, even while her rifle remained in place, always ready to give him a quick ride straight to afterlife. "Ah? Arara…? You're… an adult?"
...uh, huh? What was with that delayed response? No, wait. Don't be a fool, Vash, you're still in mortal peril right now!
Just nod and smile. Nod and… smi—
"...uh."
"...uh?"
"Uh… Huuuh…" The girl, suddenly trembling all over, took a step back. A two. Then a three and a half… "E-excuse me…!"
She suddenly squatted and leaped up. Within that single action, she had somehow managed to reach the upper platform of the catwalk and rushed into the corridor where he had come from. There was a large thud, some "gyah!" and "Kyah!?" along with the tell-tall rolling sounds of some objects. Eventually, the hubbub of chaos faded from his hearing range, leaving behind an awkward air hanging around. Also, he swore he just heard a very distant sound of explosion or two.
…
...what was that all about?
All things said, the conquest of Schale office had been done and dealt with. One student in particular had decidedly forsaken any shred of decorum in favor of choking an adult by his collars like a classic debt collector, but that was a story for another place and time.
"Don't make me out as some maniac! How many times do I have to tell you that it's our job to escort you to safety, sensei!" Yuuka screamed out her lungs. Behind her, Chinatsu rested a comforting hand on the pigtailed girl's shoulder like a nurse worrying over a patient diagnosed with hypertension. "Stop wandering around by yourself! Are you a child who can't even memorize instructions at the school field trip!?"
"That's an oddly specific example…" From the side, Hasumi murmured bemusedly.
"I have to admit that the comparison is quite apt, however." Suzumi nodded.
W-well. In any case, the formalization ceremony had been moved to the reception lobby as a result of the basement having been damaged by a bomb. Although…
"Say," Vash started. "Is it fine not inviting the others?"
"There's not enough manpower to guard the perimeter. It couldn't be helped, and at least we can trust the neighboring school representatives when it comes to integrity." Rin crossed her arms, huffing all the while. "Sensei, if there's one thing you can believe in, it's that the majority of students are horrible when it comes to deception."
Aah, so it's like that, huh… "Honesty and sticking to a decision once made is the exclusive privilege of the young… is it?"
"You may take it that way. Well, I must first congratulate you for your stellar record in resolving one crisis plaguing the city."
"Oh, right. Things got really hectic, ah well…" Vash rubbed the bridge of his nose. "It's not just because of me, though."
"Indeed. The representatives will be properly rewarded for their assistance," Rin noted out, a rectangular object in her hand which she seemed to fiddle with her thumb. "I will also ensure their issues be regarded with top priorities, as well."
"Ouh. That will definitely help them, thanks."
"Furthermore, the matter generation chamber is left unscathed. Another mercy, though I question your decision of rescuing a terrorist from karmic retribution." Rin let out a deep sigh, both of her eyes closed while her hand deftly pushed up her glasses from the side rim. She had definitely done that a lot of times it had become a habit—and what was that about matter generation chamber? "The facility blueprints, teaching manual, as well as starting budget for Schale had been placed in your office. If you would so kindly offer your hand now, Vash-sensei?"
"Right…" When he did so, a thin tablet was placed in his care. It was remarkably slim, with a display and no sign of battery or cooling attachments to it. What was this thing supposed to be? It had a stylized character on its back. "This is—?"
"The final item I am handing over is called Shittim Chest, a device entirely composed by lost technology." The GSC's vice-president took half a step back. "It may seem like a normal smart tablet, but its origins are a mystery. Its manufacturer, operating system, program structure, and components are completely unidentifiable. With it, you will be given the authority to command the Sanctum Tower… provided you can activate it."
Vash hummed, no thought whatsoever crossing his mind over the item handover. At this juncture, any further world-shaking, logic-defying revelation would not register in his mind for the sole reason being a severe lack of context over it all. He lifted the tablet with his right hand, feeling its weight which didn't even seem much.
"...it certainly looks rather familiar," he uttered out. "Feels as if I've been holding this for a long time, even."
A glint appeared in Rin's eyes in that moment. "Do you… recognize that device?"
"No. Not at all." Vash turned his lips into a wry smile. The Shittim Chest clearly had a connection to the missing president of the General Student Council, yet Rin still decided to part ways with the only physical proof that could lead her to the truth. It'd be too cruel to lie and leave her hanging. "I don't have any clue what this thing is about. If I were to explain it, I feel a… deep impression about it carved somewhere inside me."
I don't forget easily, but even if I do, feelings could still remain. It was a cheesy thing, coming from him, but Vash wasn't new to amnesia. The topic brought him back to that faraway place, the city of July where it all had started. Even when he lacked memories surrounding it, the deep wound carved into the void within his mind yawned with horribly insurmountable wall of regrets. Those warm lives, scattered in the deafening roars of destruction unleashed by my own hand…
"Sen...sei?"
"Hm? Ah, sorry. I was reminiscing a bit," Vash chuckled. That wasn't a good showing he had just made, perhaps. As an adult, he needed to get a grip. Just a bit was fine; it wouldn't do to leave Rin hanging. "Anyway, I'll be sure to inform you if I figured out some things from this tablet."
"I… I understand." Tension remained on the black-haired girl's shoulders. However, she decided to set her personal feeling aside. Really, this girl was way too serious for her own good. Nobody would fault her for pushing for more, right? "Thank you for your consideration, Vash-sensei."
"Hey, now. I haven't done anything worth a dime, no?"
"...even still, I am grateful." Rin gave a respectful bow before lifting her head back up, meeting him in the eyes with a look of renewed determination. "Now, then. I must return outside to coordinate with my subordinates. I will leave you to your privacy, sensei."
"Hmm? Are you sure about that?"
"Yes. The president's letter advised me to give you some space after the handover."
Heeh, that mysterious girl sure is prepared for anything. Well, Vash did have a strong feeling that he must do something with this odd tablet in a very specific way. It'd have been for the better to have Rin nearby… But from the short time he had spent with her, the respectable girl would undoubtedly refrain from pushing against the boundary. I should give her a real, nice break in the near future.
Yeah, that sounded great. Vash waved at the vice-president who had already walked off outside, leaving the whole floor all for him. Glancing around, he decided to settle with sitting on the empty and dilapidated receptionist desk. The chairs were all too short and small for a tall guy like him, and folding his legs too much would just leave him open to surprise assailant. Well, fixing his habits, no matter how useful they were in saving his own skin, could be for later.
For now, let's see… ah, there's a button on the side of this thing.
A cheerful chime sounded out from the tablet after giving the button a long press. The screen turned to life, bright and pale blue background mixing with pattern painted in darker or lighter saturation of color. In the middle of the screen was the same symbol that was imprinted on the back of the Shittim Chest, but the way the symbol transitioned into focus felt incredibly smooth and…
"Wow, this thing is advanced. Absolutely way ahead of the era I've been living in." It was a genuine surprise to see what could only be said as the equivalent of a computer getting miniaturized to this extent. The tablet was lightweight, slim, and quite robust for an electronic gadget. It would certainly be worth a small fortune back in No-man's Land, but above all else, the processing power this device had in it was utterly astounding… nay, ground-breaking. "Rin said this is a smart tablet… I have no real clue about it, but I bet the spec of Shittim Chest dwarfs even the local garden variety."
Well, that was enough gawking, though. He returned his focus to the screen and saw a string of sentence appearing together with an empty box. A… password input?
"Hm, now I'm feeling itchy again…" Vash held the tablet in his right hand while he used his left hand to scratch his right sleeve. This was the sort of thing that appeared when his memories of July got prodded by certain keywords, back during the time where he had lost any recollection of it. Hence, the more he thought about it, the stranger this whole situation became. It almost seemed as if he had been in this situation before, as if he had once experienced a life lived in this wondrous academy city. "Oh, to hell with it. I might as well let things run their course, for now."
Giving up on thinking, he touched the empty text box, causing a keyboard layout appearing in the bottom screen of the tablet. Vash then let his instinct guiding his movement, the feeling of de javu growing stronger with each character typed. It was a password that was incredibly lengthy, unique sounding, and certainly something that he had never known about until he was done typing it out.
—We thirst for the Seven Wailings
—We bear the Koan of Jericho
Two passages that didn't make a lick of sense. To Vash the Stampede, it might as well be a riddle in its own right, nonsensical and sounding philosophical all at the same time. He had a feeling it meant nothing, but a part of him believed that there was something important about it. There was some paradoxical value he had ended up placing in those two passages, but any confusion he had disappeared as he pressed the enter button.
—Welcome to Shittim Chest, Sensei.
"Hrm…? Well now…" There he saw the screen transitioning away, ushering a wallpaper of… a half-destroyed classroom drenched in water? "This looks weirdly realistic, as if it's got depth and width to… oh, wow."
Wait, this wallpaper did have depth and width to it. Clearly, it was a… a… what was it called again back home? Some sort of virtual environment made entirely in 3D, the fanciest of the fanciful features only seen in the colony ship. That sounded about right, and this so-called smart tablet had no problems showing that kind of interface without heating itself up to the point of meltdown. Even for a high-spec model, Vash was beginning to suspect the Shittim Chest to be a real black box..
Also, looking at it closely, there was a character in the 3D environment. It looked like a child… no, wait. It was indeed a child, a girl in her early teenage year who sported bright blue hair and a white ribbon. She wore a school uniform dyed in skyblue color, the design indicating a simpler rendition compared to the ones worn by Suzumi and Hasumi, one which also happened to elicit a completely brand new terminology in his mind.
Sailor uniform? In any case, this girl had the bearing of a student, much the same as those he had come across to in Kivotos. That being said…
"Wow, she sure is sleeping soundly…" Vash tapped at the screen. Curiosity had completely taken over him and drove him to action by this point. He also saw no harm in interacting with this funky gadget of no known origins. He tapped, slowly and quickly, then ran his finger across the screen. Unfortunately, the blue-haired denizen of the digital realm refused to wake up, instead murmuring about strawberry milk, shortcake and other sugary delights. "Hmm, the water rippled when I tapped it, so clearly this isn't a video recording."
Out of a simple whim, he shook the tablet horizontally. Suddenly, the chairs and tables and the water inside the screen were thrown around.
[Uwah!? Aaaaaaarrreeeeeeee~~~!?]
Splash, krash, klink, klank, thoom! Vash winced, completely not expecting the terrible chaos he had just invoked. The classroom was a complete mess, and there was the tiny girl in a sailor uniform whimpering with her butt hanging over a table which had fallen on its side…
Oh, she suddenly disappeared into empty air—bwah!?
[What was that!? What was that all about!? How dare you disturb the slumber of the great Arona…!?] A blown-up adorable face of a girl whose left side of her face covered by her front bang filled the tablet's screen. Her lips were drawn up into a sharp upside-down U, and a deep blue eye glared at him through the screen. [That's not how you wake up a lady! And that's not how you should treat your belonging! How could you do that to poor me! Do you have any idea just how precious my living space is, youuuuuuuuuuu—wahyah!? S-se-se-se-seseseseee….!?]
Oh shit, did I just break some codes?
[Sensei!?] The girl suddenly yelled out. In the next instance, her figure dissolved and she reappeared at a more respectable distance from the screen, drawing up to her thigh into focus. Well, she looked incredibly flustered too, but that was the least concerning matter in this moment, as she vanished yet again. This time, she reappeared behind the pile of trashed chairs and desks. [Hey, you can't do this! Our story's not even started yet and now the order of events are all broken, geez!]
The girl went on an incredibly long tangent afterwards, her eyes spinning and darting around as she threw out weird words Vash had troubles following. In the end, he tuned out the stream of stuttering and shouts of complaints, opting instead to gaze long at the ceiling in search for the right word to spell out his current mood. Yes, maybe…
Kids these days sure love to use difficult words, makes me feeling my age, ow.
A/N: And we're caught up. To tell the truth, the pacing is made to be a slow burn because I love character-driven stories the most. I'd rather take my time to get to know the characters and the goings on ever since I grew a taste for anime. As a bonus, there's only one chapter left before we can wrap up the prologue.