Another big blast echoes the school, with now some parts burning from Helmet Gang's action. The shout and maniacal laughs of the gang members are nothing but irritation to Shiroko's ears.
The wolf peeks out from her position, with their enemies none the wiser.
Shiroko then tapped her earpiece, "Garulu is now in position, sensei."
"Ok," Saito spoke. "Is everyone else ready?"
On the other side of the communication device, the older girl spoke in her usual cheery tone. "Hai~, Dogga is in position too!"
"Why are we even using code names? You know what, I don't care, Basshaa is ready."
Meanwhile, Ayane and Saito both remained in the meeting room to oversee the operation. He nodded and looked at said elf girl. "Alright, your call, Tatsulot."
Ayane nodded and picked up her headset. "Everyone, attack!"
Shiroko is the first one to rush out of her cover and begin to take down her enemies. Getting caught off guard, the Helmet Gang members were not able to respond to the attack properly, thus a few of them became easy pickings.
"Wooo~" Nonomi also came out from the side of the school building, unleashing rain of bullets at anyone that was within the firing range, further disorienting their enemies.
"W-wait?! Are those Abydos girls?" One of the Helmet Gang members shouted in shock.
The leader -who is at the entrance of the school- growled and shouted "Get them! Set the whole building on fire if we have to."
"Oh no, you don't!" Then from the front door of the building, both Hoshino and Serika began to fire back at the gang members, with Hoshino at the front with a riot shield and Serika backing her up.
While a few of them were taken out from the ambush, the rest began to fight back or retreating the ones that were knocked out.
"The strategy is working, Sensei!" Ayane exclaimed in their communication device, "Your idea of reducing the number of enemies without the need for excessive force is helping us a lot."
The Abydos Students did not relent their counterattack, nor did they give any opportunities to break open the girl's defense.
The leader of the Helmet Gang growled at the sight of her gang getting slowly pushed back. "How the hell did these 5 push us back?! It's just 5 of them, just keep pushing, they will break their formation!"
Try as they can, the Helmet Gang simply could not breach Abydos' defense. In fact, the Helmet Gang began to be on the defense while the Abydos students were the one to be on the offense.
The push kept going for another 10 more minutes, which by then, the leader of the Gang decided to give up and retreat.
Ayane walked out to the street, watching as the gang members ran away from their school. "We… we actually did it."
Nonomi then jumped and hugged Ayane, swinging the poor girl in the air. "Yay! We won! We did it!"
"Hahaha! How do you like that! Helmet Gang?!" Serika shouted as she jumped in celebration.
Shiroko remains silent and smiling, watching as her friends celebrate their victory, while Hoshino just sleeps on the side of the walkway.
Not sure how she is okay with it, but Shiroko hoped it won't become a habit in the future.
"Alright everyone, let's go back to school now." Ayane declared to everyone and began to walk back to their school, still on cloud nine. Unaware of the cloaked figure, who also held an object on their arm.
"... Phase 1 complete." They muttered as they walked back into the shadow.
With the rest of the girls gone back to school, Saito decided to begin discussion about their request and the situation that they are currently in.
"So let me reiterate. All of you are the only students in this school, am I correct?" The students all nodded. "And so far, I was the only one who answered your short-term problem of local gangs harassing all of you."
"That's right." Ayane replied. "And we thank you for helping us. If not for your simple, yet effective tactics, our school would be taken over."
Shirko then added her voice to the conversation. "You must be experienced with handling tactics, right Sensei? Even if it is a very simple tactic that we could come up with, you were able to make it so that we use the least amount of resources for the maximum result."
To which Saito replied with a shake of a head. "Nope, I had never been on the battlefield before coming to Kivotos."
"Then how-"
"I read up about tactics and improvise from there."
While not the answer they expect from their new teacher, the girls are nonetheless impressed that someone with no experience could help them tip the scale of victory that well.
"Anyway," Saito moved on from the conversation, not wanting to dwell on it any longer, "Aside from Ayane and Shiroko, I actually still haven't got all of your names."
The two girls that did not introduce themselves then step in front, and then introduce themselves.
The first one is the energetic Izayoi Nonomi, who made Saito crack a small smile thanks to her chipper tone and infectious smile. The only cat girl in the group then introduces herself as Kurimo Serika, who was also in the same year as Ayane.
And then there is the sleepy one who greets the teacher lazily, the third year Takanashi Hoshino, who just happened to be the president of Foreclosure Task Force, the one and only club in Abydos School.
Saito wanted to say he was surprised by the knowledge considering how both Ayane and Hoshino carried themselves, but he chalked it up to both just equally sharing their responsibilities.
And with everyone introduced, Ayane decided to move to the main topic of discussion. "I want to once again thank you Sensei for helping us just now. If not for you, those thugs would have taken over the school now."
She gave the teacher a quick bow, before she continued to explain their situation. "I'm sure you noticed now that our school is in desperate need of help, Sensei. The Helmet Gang was not the only crisis that we need to deal with right now."
Saito then spoke up. "I see… Can I ask what the Foreclosure Task Force's purpose is? I assume this club is formed as a means to combat whatever crisis that all of you are facing right now."
Ayane then confirmed his assumption with a nod. "Yes… well… sort of. This club's goal is to bring back Abydos to its former glory. And as you can see… we are the only members since we are the only students left."
Shiroko let out a small hum. "All the other students here had either transferred or dropped out and left here."
"Considering the state of the city and this school, I don't blame those students." Still, Saito had to admire the determination of the remaining of the students in Abydos and their will to keep this school alive.
"Combining that issue and also the arrival of the Helmet Gang attacking us, all of us here are having a difficult time defending this school." Shiroko continued.
The girl then turned her head to Saito. "If not for your arrival, Sensei, then we will be in big trouble."
Saito shook his head. "No, don't need to thank me, all of you here executed the plan that I improvised on the spot flawlessly."
In response, Hoshino lets out a small whine towards Saito. "If not for the supplies you deliver just now, then we would be a sitting duck."
Nonomi, joining in the conversation with Hoshino, enthusiastically nods. "Yeah! Now we don't have to worry about the Helmet Gang anymore!"
Shiroko disagrees, however. "No, I'm sure that they will come back later. They won't take this loss well and will want revenge."
"Yeah, they won't take the loss well, and we still have other things we need to worry about too." Serika mumbled.
Hoshino suddenly then stood up. "I have an idea."
Everyone then looked at their pink-haired senior in shock, as if she just said the most outrageous thing that a human being could say. Saito, who doesn't understand why everyone in the room reacted that way, tells her to go on.
"If history is going to repeat itself, then the Helmet Gang will attack us again in a few days." She explained. "So why don't we strike while the iron is still hot, and finally take them out of the picture? And we do have the supplies to fight back now."
No one answered her immediately, as they were still staring at their senior in shock. Looking at her junior, Hoshino could only groan and looked at them in disappointment. "I know I'm not the best when it comes to planning, but all of your staring just hurt my feelings, you know."
Ayane realizes what she just did, quickly looking away in embarrassment. "S-Sorry… it's just you never really suggested any kind of plan to us before."
Hoshino then goes back to sulking. Before she quickly recovered and looked at the teacher. "So, Sensei, are you willing to help us again?"
"Sure, I am already involved. At the very least, I'll see this through." Saito replied.
"Ok." Shiroko stood up and took her gun and the necessary items for the next fight. "Then let's get ready everyone. The Helmet Gang's base is 30 kilometers away from here, we have plenty of time if we leave now."
Nonomi then stood up. "Let's do it then! They won't know what hit them."
Ayane then looked around the room before she and Serika finally stood up. "Well, since everyone is in for the plan, I'll join in too then."
"Well, what are we waiting for, let's just get this over with." Serika answered too and began to move out to their next location.
The walk to the Helmet Gang's turf was a relatively quiet one, and Saito discovered that there are places that have no traces of the sand that covers much of the Abydos. The streets that he is walking now, although not very clean, do not have traces of sand in the air and on the ground.
The quietness however, did not give the Abydos group any sense of peace as they journey deeper into the territory.
And this puts everyone on edge. "I know we beat them pretty badly, but why is there no one patrolling and guarding?" Serika mentioned.
Turning around the corner, Hoshino and Shiroko inspect both the left and right side of the corner, making sure there is no ambush for the countless times that they did. But like before, there is not a single soul in sight.
Ayame frowned at the result, as much as they like that there is no one stopping them from taking them down for good, everything about the current situation is too convenient.
"Everything here just feels too quiet." Ayame expressed her concern.
Even Hoshino agrees. "I don't see a single stray animal too. This place usually has stray cats walking around."
With that statement alone, the group became more aware that there is something wrong in the area. The group then proceeded to the Helmet Gang's main base quicker, partly realizing that the gang might have encountered something awry.
As they made their way faster and closer to the main base, the sound of gunshots became louder and louder. And sure enough, when they reached the base, they saw something that was familiar, as what was in front of them was reported on the news.
Swarms of robotic ants march into the windows of the abandoned warehouse all the while the Helmet Gang members could only defend themselves with sticks, any guns they have and whatever they have left after their crushing defeat by the hand of Abydos.
Saito and the students did not see any injured students at the front, so they could only assume that the injured ones had been evacuated.
"So those things are the Magia robots that everyone's talking about?" Hoshino asked.
"Can't say I feel bad for the Helmet Gang after all the crap they did." Serika then quipped.
"Serika!" Ayame hissed.
"I'm just saying they deserve it!" She replied.
Saito then moved out of the cover and pulled out his Cycloneriser and the new Blasting Frog Progrise Key. Shiroko was the first to notice that the teacher was walking towards the Magia.
"Sensei?" Shiroko muttered.
"Shiroko, how fast can you and Serika run?." The teacher asked.
"Average speed. Why?" Shiroko answered.
"Listen carefully to the plan." The teacher began to lay out his plan. "I will be using my new Progrise Key to catch the Magia's attention, and I want all of you to bring as many of the students out of the fight as possible."
The Foreclosure Task Force all gasped in shock at what Saito said, but he continued to explain his plan. "Shiroko, Serika, I need both of you to be the one that rushes into the building right away, I will open the path. Nonomi, clear the smaller robots with me, take all the bullets you need for your minigun if you have to. Open fire when I call you."
"What about us, sensei?" Hoshino asked, this time with an expression that her friends rarely showed: that of seriousness and full of alertness.
Saito looked at her with just the same alertness and seriousness. "You and Ayame will be standing guard here to make sure that the smaller robots don't get close to injured students."
Ayame only hesitantly nodded, while Serika stood in front of Saito in anger and frustration.
"Why," She asked. "Why are you helping them?! They're criminals! They kept harassing us, and making our school life more and more difficult; all the while Schale and the Student Council did nothing when we asked for help! So why are you helping them when you already saw what the hell they did?!"
Everyone could only look at Serika with sympathy, all of them felt uncomfortable to help the group that had been nothing but trouble to them for a long time. Sure, the Magia is now the bigger danger, but there is no reason for them to use even more time and resources to help their enemies. And even if they help them, They don't know if these groups or other similar groups of gangs
For a few seconds, Sensei stayed silent, and Serika assumed that he was rethinking his decision to help the Helmet Gang members. "... Because they are still students that I am now responsible to take care of."
"Regardless of what background or what was the reason that led them to where they are, I'm going to help all the students, because that is what a responsible adult does."
"And this time, I won't abandon them. No more." He lifted up his Progrisekey and pressed it. "Henshin."
Cyclonerise!
Blasting Frog! Burning blast that turns evil to ashes. Type-1.
The loud announcement of the driver caught the attention of Queen Ant Magia, who aside from having red lining on their body, does not have any changes. The queen ant then made a hissing sound, and a swarm of small ants turned around and began to turn around and march towards Hoshino and Ayame.
The now transformed Ichigata shoots past the marching ants and hits another swarm of ants that are attacking the leader of Hemet Gang, where it hits the swarm dead center without hitting the Helmet Gang Leader.
The gang leader jumped in surprise from the explosion. "Don't wait anymore! Go! We'll handle the aftermath later!" Ichigata shouted and shot another grenade, this time he shot further away from the delinquent and opened a path for the students to run.
Without further instruction, Serika and Shiroko rushes towards the Helmet Gang's base of operation. With Nonomi giving them cover fire, the two students are able to get to the Helmet Gang leader and hold both of her arms.
"What the-" She shouted.
"You're lucky that Sensei wants us to save you and your stupid goons instead of letting you fend for yourselves." Serika interrupted the delinquent. "Now shut up and get to where that guy is and stay there!"
Both the wolf and cat girl then pushed her away, and all the leader could do was to grumble and listen to the people that had defeated them.
Ichigata watched the Helmet Gang leader jogging through the open path. He turned his gaze back to Queen Ant Magia. He quickly shoots directly at the Magia, who in turn has the nearby ants gather up and forms a shield against the explosion.
Ichigata shoots directly at the Queen Ant Magia again, and again, more ants form a shield to protect their queen.
Ichigata let out a hum, curious about the behavior of the Magia. This before he shot the Magia, he turned his head towards Nonomi.
"Nonomi, I need you to focus your attack on the Magia. There is something I need to know." He requested her.
Nonomi listened to his instruction and redirected her attack from the ants that tried to block the path for escape and to the queen. Sure enough, ants crawl on each other and form a shield to block from the bullets.
"Knew it." The Kamen Rider muttered. "This Magia ultimately doesn't have any combat quality, it can only hack the robots or create new robots and swarm us with said robots."
With that revelation, Nonomi continued to focus fire on the Magia. But Ichigata could see that this will not last, as there are other ants that are approaching them and others that are beginning to rush towards Serika and Shiroko, who are also carrying the injured Helmet Gang members.
He needs to try something different. "Do we have incendiary grenades around?" Ichigata suddenly asked.
Ayame, who had been focused on giving support fire on any ants that rushed past Nonomi and Ichigata and patching up the Helmet Gang leader, looked rushed to their bag and found 3 of said grenades and gave it to him. "Here, Sensei!"
He took the grenades and slotted it to his left arm, where the incendiary grenade was suddenly encased and turned into another 40mm grenade, with a red tip. Hoshino looked at him in bafflement and confusion on what just happened.
The grenades were then moved toward the right arm and into the grenade launcher. Ichigata took aim again and shot the incendiary grenade at the ant shield. The incendiary grenade exploded into flame upon contact, setting the ants all up in flame.
The Queen Ant Magia let out a screeching sound, and the ants that shield their queen quickly collapse; this causes any ants close to the splash zone to also catch on fire, burning away the numbers.
This however, caused Shiroko and Serika to retreat back into the base since the fire also began to spread to other ants.
Serika shouted in anger at Ichigata. "What the heck, Sensei! How are we supposed to get these people out now!"
In response, Ichigata lowered both of his arms, and then pushed and pulled the lever once. "Like this!"
Napalm! Sparking!
Ichigata took the sandogasa from his head and threw it. The hat spins around the air and the side opens up a vent. Then, it began to vacuum everything within its vicinity, including the fire. Once the sandogasa sucks up all the fire, it closes the side vents and opens a hole in the middle and returns to Ichigata, attaching itself to the gun barrel. Ichigata quickly aimed his grenade launcher and shot.
Instead of a single grenade shot out, the barrel of the grenade launcher unleashes a torrent of fire straight at the Queen Ant Magia, and all the ants that are in the way of the fire.
Said Magia tried to retreat again when it saw that it was a losing battle. But unfortunately, the torrent of fire was faster than any escaping enemies, thus the Magia was drowned in flame of Ichigata's attack, before finally exploding.
With the Queen Ant Magia destroyed, the rest of the ant robots immediately stopped moving and shut down, as there is nothing controlling them anymore.
Seeing the threat was destroyed, the Helmet Gang Leader took the chance to sneak away from the Abydos students.
The sound of a pistol shot passed by her and hit the road right in front of her. She looked back and saw the medic that treated her wounds aimed her pistol right at the leader. "Where do you think you're going?"
"W-what do you mean, 'where you're going?'" She asked.
"I meant, what I said, where are you going?" Ayame answered.
Nonomi then walked beside the delinquent and squatted down, then held her down with her arms. "We may have saved you and your gang, but that does not mean all of you are getting away for your crimes."
The leader then looked at the teacher, hoping that he said something.
And he did say something. "Sorry, but considering the explosion just now and you DID cause harm to the students that I am helping… you have to take responsibility for your own actions too."
Hoshino looked at her with a smile. "And we will also be taking the supplies that you have as a spoil of war."
Seeing how she could not get away with her crime and that she is surrounded, the Helmet Gang Leader could only do one thing.
"NOOOOOOO!" She screamed to the sky.
After the battle, the Abydos students and Saito remained back at the Helmet Gang's turf to wait for nearby Valkyrie Police members to apprehend the Helmet Gang, ending the gang's objective to destroy Abydos.
However before the leader was dragged to put behind the bar as she resisted the arrest, the Helmet Gang shouted something that threw the students off guard while causing Saito confusion.
"This isn't over, he will come and get all of you! Not even we can get away from that damn robot!"
Saito was left to wonder who was the person that the girl was talking about, but he did see that the Abydos students remained nervous or were irritated by the delinquent's words; meaning that they knew who the leader was talking about.
Regardless, the group went back to Abydos in silence as they picked up whatever supplies that they were able to, all the while the Valkyrie students stayed back and picked up evidence of the Magia attack to report to their seniors.
"Whew, what a day~" Hoshino spoke as she plopped down to one of the chairs of the Student Council Room. "I wanna go back to sleep~"
Serika followed suit as she sat next to Hoshino. "No kidding… and it's only half a day too."
"Still, we did finally take down the Helmet Gang! It should be smoothing sailing from here!" Nonomi said.
Shiroko looked at Nonomi and replied to her. "More like we can now focus on the more important matter."
"Which does beg the question," Saito finally interjects. "What is this 'important matter'? Was it related to what the Helmet Gang leader said just now?" All of them looked at him in silence. "There is something more that leads to the current state of this school, is it?"
He looked at each and every student that was in the room, who could only either look at him nervously, or look away from his eyes, confirming his suspicion.
"Well… erm… Sensei…" Ayame tried to say something, but Serika stopped her.
"Stop! Don't say another word, Ayame!"
Ayame jumped in shock from the sudden shout from Serika, but Hoshino decided to speak up, "Why not? By this point there is no point in hiding, and Sensei will find out soon."
Shiroko nodded. "Hoshino-senpai is right. Besides, Sensei is trustworthy and he has helped us, so at the very least we can return the favor by telling him."
"Besides, I'm not saying that Sensei can solve our problem, just that he is the only adult that we can turn to." Hoshino continued. "We can discuss with him to see what other solutions we can come up with. Or do you have a better idea, Serika?"
With everyone making their point and their support for Sensei, Serika was left speechless with no counterpoint to make.
Seeing the situation, Saito decided that he needed to -at the very least- show her that he is here to help with no malicious intent. "Like I said, I am now responsible to take care of my students. I don't know what adults are like in Kivotos; but I have a responsibility, and that is to help all of you with all that I can."
"So please," Saito bowed down towards Serika, shocking everyone in the room. "Let me give all of you a helping hand, and tell me what happened to Abydos."
Serika looks at him, sputtering words, and can only react the way she knows how in this situation.
She ran out of the room in frustration, shouting in anger.
"Serika!" Ayame shouted and stood up, intending to chase after her and get her back into the room.
Nonomi, however, stopped her junior, and stood up. "I'll go talk to her, you can tell Sensei the situation."
Ayame nodded slowly and Nonomi ran out of the room to find the cat girl. Meanwhile, Hoshino and Shiroko looked at Saito.
Hoshino sighs, and begins telling their teacher the struggle of the remaining Abydos students. "The truth is…"
Hooo, this took way longer than I should have let it be.
I actually wanted to finish and upload this chapter around December last year, but real life stuff happened.
After September last year, the roof of my house got burned from a lightning strike. I mean not all of the roof was burned, but it was enough that electricity had to be cut. So that was already bad enough. The worst part is actually less about not having internet access, but the fact that it took almost 2 MONTHS TO GET THE ROOF PROPERLY FIXED.
In October, I was suffering from burn out from my job and writing.
Then November came around and I had to resign from my job. I won't go into why I had to, but as I am now, I am still very busy with finding a job. It's a progress, I still am finding a job, but I have been very busy with it.
Then finally last month, my house had a renovation. So yeah, I was busy and burned out. I am so sorry for the long wait, and honestly, I don't know when the next chapter will come out.
Okay, let's go back to this chapter: I am sure those that paid attention would notice that I had the Kata-Kata Helmet Gang be taken out before even the Problem Solver showed up. I will introduce the Problem Solver into this volume, just not the same way that the game does.
And we are also taking out the Queen Ant Magia now; along with revealing the finisher of Blasting Frog form.
But in the background, something is going to happen… and that will be shown in the next chapter (or few chapters later).
So anyway… other than updating on my situation, that is all so far. I am going to update this story, but not this soon. Sorry, but I have another idea that is running in my head right now, and I really want to get it out of my system.
Maybe I should put down ideas into a series of plot bunnies that people can adopt and use it for a new fic. We'll see.