Woods scratched the top of his head as he looked at a thin tablet. Not the medicine kind, the technology type. He wasn't usually one to turn this type of crap on, seeing as he mostly just watched TV even when he was an old man. Looking up at Rin with confusion, he saw her furrowing her brows, sharp ears twitchy with confusion as well. She blinked, however, when the realization hit, and said, "Sensei, please, tell me you know how to open a tablet..."
"... Kid, I've been here for all of about an hour. Your tech's alien to me..." He replied, looking around the tablet's exterior for buttons. If there was one common thing among technology like this, it was that they at least had some real thin buttons to turn things on. Luckily for him, he did find a series of what seemed to be volume and alarm buttons on the left side of the tablet as he was looking at it. And a button on top.
Rin spoke, "D-Do you... Want me to help you?"
He shook his head and decided to try a gambit, seeing as he wasn't about to let himself be embarrassed by having a teenager show him how to use stuff like this. He'd lived to 2025 for a goddamn reason, after all. So, pressing the top button, he saw the screen flash on. With a grin, he said, "Gotcha!" only to also notice a round button at the bottom of the screen. He blinked, then sighed.
Examining the screen, the man soon saw that it had a very fancy 'S' for a logo, with what seemed to be interrupted writing below that he could faintly make out. It spelled 'Shittim Chest'. Flashing at the bottom of the screen was a microphone-shaped icon and the bold, red request SPEAK PASSWORD. He blinked, then asked, "The hell's the Shittim Chest?" confused ad such a weird name for an item like this.
"It is this tablet," Rin clarified.
"Oh..." Woods let out, then snorted, "Weird name."
"Indeed," Rin said, unamused. Woods felt awkward. She told him, "Please, press your thumb against the microphone on screen and speak the Password..." to which Woods suddenly started to sweat a little. He blinked, closed his eyes and tried to remember anything that so much as hinted at a possible password for this. His mind drew blanks multiple times, while Rin had gotten to reading some sort of report.
He opened his eyes and narrowed his lips. Did the person who brought his ass here really think he could be Sensei to these kids? Was this even normal in the first place?
It was then that his mind flashed. Almost automatically, his mouth moved and the sounds came out, "We thirst for the seven wailings... We bear the koan of Jericho..." only for the screen to suddenly flash the moment he removed his thumb from the data system. He blinked as the screen flared white, while Rin simply smiled. She knew he'd remember eventually.
Once the white faded from the screen, Woods was greeted by the sight of a flooded, half-collapsed classroom, the modern city skyline of Kivotos sitting in the distance. Within the classroom itself, a young girl with silver hair, a halo similar to that of everyone else, a white bow that looked like rabbit ears and a blue and white sailor uniform was fast asleep at a desk. He swallowed, concerned, as he listened to the unknown girl snoring.
"Mmm... Castella cake... Banana milk goes better than strawberry with it," She mumbled cutely, fast asleep and drooling. Woods felt a momentary well in his heart as he snorted, then, he felt a pang of guilt. Looking up at Rin, the VP nodded and pointed at the girl. He hummed, sighed and looked back down, then suddenly felt like he was standing in the middle of the classroom.
He blinked, looked around, dumbfound, then sighed and poked the little girl's cheek. She let out a quiet, adorable whine, "Mmm... Five more minutes, plehs..." which made Woods feel a little extra bad. He continued poking her, though. He wasn't advancing without waking her up. The girl whined again, letting out a longer whine, then opened her eyes and straightened out. The inbuilt camera of the tablet clicked and started tracking, locking onto Woods's face as the young girl opened her eyes. She rubbed them and asked confusedly, "Wuh... What's happening?" only to pause, her face glowing red, her Halo pink and her eyes wide. She whined, then said, "S-Sensei, is... is that you!?"
Woods snorted, "Hey, kid..."
"Y-You're... You're Sensei Woods?" She asked, almost disbelieving and quite happy to see him. He nodded, grinning proudly at that. The girl blushed, patted her face and started whining, "You're really him! Oh gosh, what time is it! N-No, nevermind!" before straightening up and smiling, greeting him with, "Greetings to you, Sensei! I'm Arona, the AI and central OS of the Shittim Chest! Think of me as your own personal secretary of a sort!"
"An actual goddamn AI?" Woods blinked, "You're fucking with me, right?"
"N-No," Arona blushed, "Also, p-please keep expletives to a minimum. It's a bit scary."
"Oh, sh-... Sorry," He replied, awkward. He then asked, "So, you're my secretary and the operator on this thing, then. What's that mean?" honestly curious over what Arona could and couldn't do. It almost felt like Woods had suddenly gotten a little daughter to take care of. Part of him prayed the girl didn't actually need to eat anything, because that'd make things a lot more awkward than they already were.
"Oh! I can assist in anything you need, ranging from giving you reports on the situation in Kivotos at the moment of inquiry, to keeping track of certain items and paperwork you need to complete, to ensuring contact with the students you've met via MomoTalk, a special texting app I have on me. I also have a calendar, record-keeping capabilities, a map, internet connection and-" Arona enumerated...
Only for Frank to interrupt her, stating, "Alright, alright, I getcha, kid. Jack of all trades. That's gonna make my life a hell of a lot easier while I learn my way around this place. Glad to have you. Arona, you said, right?" while he looked her in the eyes. Well, as close to it as possible, by staring into the camera to give the AI something to look at. Honestly, this wasn't... Bad... Just surprising.
"Yes!" The girl smiled. Woods hummed, then wondered. He hovered his finger over her head and her eyes almost seemed to track it, then he gently rubbed the screen where the top of her head was. She beamed at that, her halo turning a bright green color. Woods grinned. So he could give her pats. That somehow made him terrifyingly happy, while Arona chuckled, "T-Thanks, Sensei! But maybe we should get to the tasks at hand..." a lil' awkward.
"Right," Woods sighed and nodded, pulling his hand back. He looked between her and Rin and asked, "What's first on the docket, then. Paperwork? Meeting some of the staff? What exactly am I supposed to be doin' right now?"
Rin nodded, "I'll show you to your office in SCHALE and we can begin paperwork. Keep Arona and the Chest close by," before she stood up. The pair then took an elevator up to the top of the building and, much to Woods's surprise, found themselves in basically the Penthouse of the Tower he'd been brought to. Entering the massive office, where various computers and other such items resided, Rin said, "This will be your office. There is a bedroom to the left, a kitchen on the second floor and various other amenities should you need them... Other than that, I can provide you a tour of SCHALE Tower as a whole if you wish."
"... I'd appreciate it," Woods said, dumbfound. Motherfucker really had moved up in the world, hadn't he? He grinned at the sights he could see from up here. Almost all of Kivotos was visible through the windows and the dome let in just the right amount of sunlight for him to see everything. He followed Rin who, with Arona's help, explained every single facility in SCHALE, from the Crafting Center, to the surprisingly barren Cafe, to the residence areas and offices.
It wasn't long after that, about an hour or two later, Woods was upstairs signing documents with a pen and paper. He hummed to himself tunes from Vietnam while Arona casually sat around, smiling and parsing through any extra forms that would need to be printed, signed and scanned by her new Sensei. He murmured to himself when he wasn't humming, something about 'complete disbelief about this bullshit' and some other stuff. Arona barely heard it, thankfully.
The man told her, "You know, this is still..." He hesitated, stopping himself from swearing again, "It's still crazy to me... Why'd your GSC Prez decide I would be a good support element here? Like..." He scratched the back of his head, "I'm a retired Marine... Not that good a teach, considering my goddamn temper and... I don't know, I think I'd be a bad influence on the kids."
"She chose you for a reason known only to her, Sensei..." Arona replied, smiling, "And we all trust her judgement."
"Rin said the same damn thing," Woods murmured, then sighed, "I still say I'm a poor choice for Sensei..." and signed a form for one of the schools nearby. Trinity, which seemed to be some form of hyper-religious place going by the form itself. He chose to ignore that for now, not wanting to get involved with them. Setting the form aside for later scanning, the man continued.
Arona shrugged, "You seem nice, at least."
Woods snorted, "If that was a qualification for being Sensei, I think you could'a found any random old man to be it. I'm not that nice..." and he sighed. Memories of 'Nam replayed in his mind like a bad migraine and part of him wondered if anyone knew what they'd done by dragging him in. He rubbed his forehead and murmured, "Not nice at all, in fact, considering what I did back in the day. Think I'd've gone to hell first instead... Not here..."
"The President hasn't been wrong about anyone so far," Offered Arona. She smiled meekly at him, then reassured him, "I doubt she'll be wrong about you, Sensei."
Woods narrowed his lips, then sighed, "If you say so, Arona... Thanks for the vote of confidence," and he smiled back. Honestly, how could he say no to that face? To any of these kids? Sure, most of them packed enough heat to make an old-timey special ops guy like him look for cover in a heartbeat, but that didn't mean jack diddly-shit to him. He was apparently picked because their Prez thought he could help. Help fix whatever was wrong with Kivotos that Gang Warfare was so freaking prevalent among the youth. Seriously...
Best give it a whirl. He never knew, maybe he'd actually like being Sensei to these kids. Worst he could lose was his new job. Then he'd have an entire modern University City to wander through like a bum with an assault rifle. Honestly, not that bad either, but he'd rather stay employed and with a roof over his head if push came to shove. Plus, how hard could it even be to help these kids? He had his own gun, after all.
A few punks ain't got nothing on a military man.
A couple days of solving paperwork-related issues later...
... It turned out Woods's biggest enemy wasn't gonna be the random biker gang punk with a TEC-9, or the sailor school uniform-wearing girly with a bat and Rifle. Nope, paperwork was the be-all end-all of bullshit for any sane man living in this day and age. He narrowed his eyes, feeling a headache coming on as he signed maybe the fortieth requisition form for some school or other. This one was about some sports equipment.
He sighed, rubbed his face, then stated, "Finished this one, too, Arona... Get scanning. I'm gonna go get myself a fucking coffee..." and stood up as Arona scanned the item as asked. He walked toward the espresso maker in the corner and started making himself a fresh cup of sweetly bitter dark coffee. Downing the shot of espresso in one go, he let out a sigh of contentment, stating, "If there's one good thing about this place, they got damn good coffee..."
Walking back with a mug of coffee that had "Nr. 1 Sensei" written on it in bold black letters in hand, Woods sat himself back down and continued writing reports and requisition forms while making sure to check the budget he had to help each school. Scratching the back of his neck, he said, "Y'know, kid, seeing ammo on req forms, right next to food and pens and pencils is strange."
"I assume there is no such thing where you come from, Woods Sensei?" She asked curiously. He nodded, then sighed deeply while Arona added, "Well, good news is more people are talking about SCHALE's work! We are receiving help requests from across Kivotos's districts, but uh... There is this one letter I think you should see..." before she pointed it out with her scanner.
Woods hummed, then pulled up the letter and began to read...
To the Advisor of the Federal Investigation Club:
Hello. My name is Okusora Ayane and I'm a student at Abydos High School. I'm writing this letter because I want to ask for your help... Our Academy is being harassed. One of the local gangs has been tormenting us. It's a long story, but we think that... This gang... They're after the school building itself. We're doing our best to stop them, but it's only a matter of time before we run out of ammunition and supplies though. And at this rate, the school will fall to them for sure.
That's why I'm writing to ask for your help.
... Can you please help us, Sensei?
Arona hummed, "Abydos High School, huh?" then she looked to a confused and slightly pissed woods as she said to him, "It used to have a large, thriving district, but they fell on hard times due to climate change. The district was so big, people would even get lost in the middle of town!" She chuckled. Woods snorted at that. No need to worry for a man who went through SERE. However, Arona let out an awkward chuckle and said, "Hehe... It must sound ridiculous, getting lost in the middle of modern civilization, so I'm sure it's just an urban legend. Anyway, I can't believe the academy's being bullied by some lowlife gang..."
"Yeah, you're tellin' me..." Woods sighed deeply, then stood up and said, "I'm gonna hazard a guess and say I need to hitch a ride to the Abydos district. Find me one of the nearest bus stations that leads to the place," as he walked over to the locker he'd stored his guns and ammo in. Grabbing the stuff, he racked the Commando XM4's bolt, feeding a round into the chamber and hitting the forward assist with the base of his thumb twice. He slung the weapon over his shoulder, pulled the slide back on this 1911 gently and nodded approvingly, then grinned and holstered the gun.
"Y-You want to go right away...?! You really don't back down, do you, Sensei!?" Arona beamed happily, to which Woods flashed a grin and gave a thumbs up. He walked over to Arona, who saluted and promptly complied, "I'll get you a route to the nearest bus right away! Stow me in your bag if you wish for me to help!" all while pulling up a map for Woods to follow.
"Thanks, kid," He nodded, then pressed his finger against the screen and rubbed the top of her head, which garnered a short, if cutesy giggle from the AI. With that in mind, Woods grabbed about as much ammo of varying types as he could carry, stowed it in his bag and vest in a spot where it wouldn't interfere with his own STANAG mags, then took the elevator down.
Out onto the street and into a bus, the man utilized the golden card that had come with his job to pay for his trip over to Abydos. He looked at the crowd of people on the bus and blinked. Ranging from other students of the GSC to... Walking, talking dogs, cats and what looked to be football-shaped head robots in suits. Stowing Arona in his bag, he found himself a seat next to an elderly Corgi dog-man.
He murmured to himself, "This fucking place gets weirder by the second..."
The old man beside him said, "You're tellin' me, pal. You look like hammered crap."
Woods rolled his eyes and replied, "Looks don't count for shit where I come from," before pausing and realizing that he was fucking talking to a talking goddamn Corgi. He sighed and sighed, "Just ignore me. Still getting used to this place." He didn't really wanna start shit while he was headed out to talk to some students about helping fix their school. Not a good first impression.
The dogman nodded, stating, "I feel ya," before going quiet and staring out the window...
... Arriving at Abydos District, Woods was laughing. He said, "Yeah, see you later, Germaine! Keep your shit in tow and we might go out for a drink when I'm done here!" as he descended from the transport, much to the praise of several dozen other people and the slight consternation of the dogman who'd somehow managed to befriend his old, jaded ass.
"You bet your behind, Woods!" The dogman laughed as the doors of the bus closed and it took off to the next district.
Arms crossed, the man shook his head and murmured to himself, "A fucking dog-guy befriended me... Wonderful times in Kivotos, I guess," before he started walking. He lifted the tablet up and said, "Well, we're here. I'll start searching for the school. You stay put," only to get a half-hearted salute from the girl, who was sleeping. He nodded, put the tablet away in his bag, then started walking.
The man started walking through the winding streets of what looked exactly like a Japanese suburb, dozens of houses, small, shuttered-off convenience stores and surprising layers of dust and what looked to be sand caking the area. In the distance of Abydos District, the man could faintly make out dunes of sand that had engulfed a large amount of the District's former territories. He murmured to himself, "Climate Change, huh?"
After a while of looking through signage and marching down the somewhat terrifyingly empty streets, Woods had a feeling he'd nearly made it to Abydos. His SERE and LANDNAV courses kicked in almost instinctually, but even so the many look-alike houses put a damper on it. He was lucky enough to find signs throughout each portion of the place, but something told him things would not be as easy from hereon.
... And indeed, surprisingly, after about two days' worth of walking, Woods scratched the top of his head and thanked his lucky stars he'd bagged extra food and water for the trip. He grit his teeth, then murmured, "Where the fuck is this goddamn school, man...? You'd think the 'All Roads Lead To Rome' strategy applied here, but fuck no, they had to make this place a confusing fucking maze..." annoyed and at the point of snapping.
He sighed and pulled his backpack off his back, retrieving what was left of his third bottle of water. He downed the rest of the water inside, crumpled up the bottle and threw it in a nearby bin. Thankfully, it seemed as though the place still had cleaning services working, so there were trash bags in the bins. He sighed deeply, stretched and was about to turn back and try to find a way home...
Until he turned around and was met by the sight of a silver-haired young girl with a blue halo floating over her head. She had a blue scarf, dark-blue jacket, white shirt, a black, grey and white plaid skirt, running shoes and a backpack, as well as a rifle on her back that looked like a standard Armalite with mods. Oh, she also had god-damned Wolf Ears on top of her head.
She blinked. One of her pupils was pure white, while the other was a normal shade of black. She spoke, "Hello?" a little confused by the sight of Woods. She noted the gear he was wearing and seemed to tense almost imperceptibly, then said, "Can I help you?"
"... Yeah, right," He nodded, "You an Abydos student?"
"I am..." she nodded.
"Good," Woods sighed deeply, relieved to finally find someone to get him to Abydos. He told her, "I'm Frank Woods, adviser for SCHALE, apparently. I got your friend, Ayane's letter..." and that got her eyes to light up. He offered, "Mind leadin' me over to Abydos so we can... Shit, have a talk and so I can hand you girls some food and ammo?" before he tapped his backpack.
The girl nodded quickly and told him, "Follow me..." as she started leading the way over toward the school. Woods silently thanked God that he'd finally found someone from Abydos, noting that she also had a badge that he could barely make out. Sighing, he just followed along quietly as they passed by many more samey-looking houses, closed and half-open stores and, now, past the few people who still inhabited this place aside from the Students, he assumed.
Finding the school, Woods was a bit surprised to see what was basically a standard Asian/Japanese school campus, including gyms, main building with a strange shape, the back shed for storing stuff within the sports areas and such. Terrifyingly, though, the place's Japanese aesthetic also made it a tad more creepy than intended as they walked through the front gate. It was still well-maintained, probably by the other students and this girl. He hummed, then asked, "Hey, wolfy."
"Hm?" She raised a brow.
"I didn't get to ask your name," He said, "I'd like to get to know the people I work with. Especially you, kids. Feel like it's better for my mental health, y'know?"
"... Sunaookami Shiroko. Nice to meet you, Woods Sensei," She bowed, then parked her bike and led him inside the building and toward the main office. Inside, four more girls, namely a cat, a human-looking girl, an elf with red glasses and a pink-haired heavy sleeper resided, chatting. Shiroko looked over to the elf with red glasses and short hair and said, "Ayane... He's here. SCHALE got the letter and they sent him..."
... All four girls suddenly turned to look at Woods, eyes wide.
The Elf seemed the most surprised out of them all, face red as she meekly smiled at him. The man also suddenly felt self-conscious. Seriously. He was a teacher and he looked like a bum... Fuck.