AUTHOR'S NOTES:

FIRSTLY, this chapter was originally going to be a good bit longer, but if I didn't stop it here it was going to be a long while before I reached an appropriate stopping place and I have university starting back up in a few days, so I wanted to get a chapter out before that started just in case it ends up eating a significant portion of my time and I can't update for another month or more. So short chapter and introducing everyone's favorite shopkeeper for now+a little bit from Abydos.

SECONDLY, Ragna and the Origin Re: Well, the answer to that is kind of but also not really. Blazblue's localization kind of had some problems with terms in a few places because of how much they changed the terminology vs JP. Which is how you got things like the term "Observer" being used for both what Rachel/Amane were(Bystander in JP, or Onlooker in CF's subs) and also what "Observer" actually meant with people like Noel, Kokonoe, etc... I'll still be going with English terms 99% of the time because it's what everyone knows by now, save the rare one off like the example I just gave. In the context of The Origin, referring to the girl in the Master Unit, it's not a descriptor but a proper noun since it's used in the same way a name/title is. Because she's basically "The Origin" of the world as they created and maintained it with the Master Unit. Kind of like when Ragna went by Bloodedge as their only name, even if that's not really a 'normal' name. It's easy to get a bit confused with how Blazblue's like that and loads of things which sounded like were only 1 thing actually had 2-3 different things also part of it.

Noel was also not created by the Master Unit, she was made by Relius as a Murakumo unit and ended up with pieces of Saya's soul because of that, but then they kind of also ended up tied to The Origin(Though not made by her) due to being a reflection of her(Saya)'s soul and Izanami being the Origin's Drive personified while also inhabiting Saya's body, and then in CF Noel tried reclaiming the pieces of Saya's soul, including Izanami's and YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN FROM THE LAST PARAGRAPH? But I'll stop before I go too much into it since this isn't meant to be Omni's Blazblue lore corner, fun as that is to discuss. But the Origin didn't make Noel because of that, even if Noel was connected to her and for a while, Noel didn't even really properly come into being because she got blown up in Ibukido before the smelting process could be finished in a good chunk of the timeloops. It was Ragna, specifically, The Origin created as the hero of her story and why when he died that was a reset but not with Noel and loops could go on where she didn't even really exist.

Angel 24 was one of the larger convenience store chains in Kivotos. Open 24 hours, as the name implied, it was also where Sora would be working her part-time job, though her's was a little unusual as she would be working directly inside the SCHALE building for Angel 24's branch there.

Sora wasn't going to lie to herself, the prospect of working there did make her nervous with what she'd seen circulating on the news about it, but she needed the money and as a middle schooler not many places would employ her for a part-time job. So what we she supposed to do? At least her first shift was supposed to be easy! The store had been set up in advance so someone, her in this case, could easily get right to work the moment power was back up and things were secure. Angel 24 refused to break its commitment to staying open as much as possible short of a natural disaster.

However, that'd also left it empty from anything that could go bad in short order, so the current stock was mostly limited to some various weapons and ammo to supply them, alongside some non-perishable food and office supplies. The low inventory, coupled with everything that'd happened recently, meant it was doubtful Sora would be seeing any customers until regular inventory got stocked next delivery. Though… Even if that wasn't the case, and there wasn't a giant pit outside the front entrance being repaired, who'd come into the SCHALE building to buy things anyway?

"It really makes the shift kind of boring though…" Sora, dressed in the Angel 24 uniform of a skyblue apron, which matched her eyes and halo that was a four pointed circle with a smaller one inside it and then a gem within that, over a white t-shirt with black cuffs and a matching bow, sighed to herself. She wasn't sure if it being a quiet day made up for just how early she had to get up. She'd barely had time to brush her long blonde hair that went past her knees. It'd only been an hour and the sun was barely fully over the horizon too. How was she going to last a whole shift like this?

Behind the checkout to the store laid out much like a standard convenience store, Sora fidgeted nervously to herself. The weight of her phone in her pocket taunted the young girl like a forbidden fruit. This was her first day and she had to make a good impression! But… There really was nobody around or sign of them coming. So surely browsing her phone a bit wouldn't hurt, right? She couldn't seriously be expected to stand here like a statue for no customers for hours, could she?

With one last glance around the store, craning her head around to be extra certain nobody was coming, Sora finished her phone from her pocket and started playing around with it, catching up on some of her feeds. Kivotos was such a busy place lately that keeping up with it all was hard.

Sora wondered if she might run into the new teacher who was the talk of social media right now. He worked in this building too, didn't he? Well, with how early it was even if he did show up at some point, it probably wouldn't be for a while.

"Hey."

Sora almost jumped out of her skin at the voice, nearly dropping the phone she scrambled to shove back into pocket in the process. Ack, a customer had seen her slacking off! She'd get fired for sure if they reported that! "W-Woah! Wh-When did you get-"

Sora paused, something catching her eye before she had more than a moment to comprehend the individual with a gruff voice was abnormally tall and in a red coat. It was a monstrously huge, at least 200L, duffle bag that looked big enough to fit Sora herself inside of it if she so much as slightly balled up. Normal people didn't come into a store with that unless they had one thing in mind.

She was about to be robbed on her first day of work.

"W-We just opened! T-There's barely any money in the register!" Sora shouted in a panic, throwing her arms up in hopes it would make her look less threatening. She knew this job had been a mistake!

The man looked at her flatly with his single open green eye. "Woah, hey, calm down kid. Do I look like I'm stupid enough to rob the same building I work in?"

"Huh...?" Sora blinked in confusion. With a few more moments to process the person before her, Sora started to recognize more about him. Huge sword on his back, spikey white hair, all something she'd seen a lot lately. "O-Oh! A-Are you the new adult working at SCHALE I've heard so much about?"

"You expecting anyone else to show up this early?" Ragna said dryly, like it were obvious.

"N-No…" Sora lowly answered. The rumors said Ragna was an ill-tempered man who'd smash a person and the whole building they were in for getting in his way, something quite believable when he'd blown the hole outside big enough to fit a tank into. Best she try to stay on his good side and not get fired for getting the whole shop destroyed.

"Well, you and everyone else already know who I am, who're you? Notes about this place said there was a shop here, but nothing about who was running it." Ragna continued.

"Oh, um, m-my name is Sora. This is my first day as a part-timer here at Angel 24. N-Nice to meet you!" Sora said, trying her best to keep her voice polite and not like she was terrified of the man possibly punching a hole in the store.

"Sora, calm down." Ragna said, Sora's deception entirely unsuccessful, with his voice softening. "I'm not gonna loot the place or yell at you. So take a deep breath and relax."

It wasn't that Sora was worried about, but the gentler voice was unexpected and did help a little. Following his instructions, Sora took a moment to calm herself before speaking, some of the nerves leaving her body. Scary or not, Ragna was still a potential customer and this was what she was being paid for! "Um, sorry for thinking you were a robber…"

"Don't sweat it, not even the worst welcome I've gotten in a store before. Waaaaay down on the list." Ragna said with a reassuring casualness.

Sora wasn't sure to be more relieved or confused at that statement. How did you top that?

"Gotta say, you look pretty young to be handling this place all by yourself." Ragna added before Sora could find her words, looking more than a little skeptical of her.

"Oh, w-well, practically no other store hires students my age and I needed the money…" Sora added awkwardly. Was she so nervous it was that obvious? She had to do something to show she was still capable! Especially after Ragna had caught her on the phone. Come on, Sora, turn this around! "I-Is there something you needed help with?"

"Yeah, go ahead and just ring up the whole shelf's worth of these." Ragna said, reaching behind him to the shelf in front of Sora's checkout, grabbing three boxes of ammo in his large hand, and tossing them onto the space in front of the girl. "I'm gonna grab a few things from the other one."

Sora blinked as Ragna promptly went off to another rack in the small store without so much as another word. That… Wasn't how a transaction was supposed to work. "U-Um, sensei-"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll get the rest myself." Ragna said without looking up from the other stand he was browsing. "I only got one arm, so I'm not bringing all that over one at a time or putting a bunch in this bag just to take it out again. I don't exactly see anyone else coming in being held up."

"Um, a-alright then?" Sora, too caught off guard to argue with the forcefulness in Ragna's voice, answered and started scanning the ammo boxes multiple times while doing her best to count the boxes on the shelf. This wasn't exactly how she expected her first shift to go, but she didn't want to get on Ragna's bad side. At… Least it made things less boring?

"… The hell are party bullets?" After a minute, Ragna's confused voice spoke up.

Sora paused her scanning, looking at the adult viewing a package while thoroughly perplexed. This was her moment to make up for her earlier mistakes! She just had to sound confident! "Oh, they're a popular item for playing Russian Roulette! They don't hurt as much as normal bullets and some people like some of the effects, like confetti, they have."

"What kind of a game is Russian Roulette supposed to be and why would you need bullets?" Ragna asked, glancing between Sora and the package.

"Well, it's a game where you load a revolver with one bullet, spin the chamber. And then pull the trigger with the gun pointed at yourself. If it goes off, then you lose. I don't really play or get it myself... But I hear it's a popular party game, especially in Red Winter."

Ragna's expression fell so much, Sora immediately wondered if she'd done something wrong and started fidgeting nervously. He looked like a person who had suddenly lost the last bit of faith in the world they didn't realize they had, holding the package responsible like it were cursed. "What the hell is wrong with this place…"

It wasn't that weird, was it? She was just doing her job describing the product! There were definitely stranger party games anyway, like hot potato with a grenade. But maybe he preferred that instead…? No, after that reaction she better keep her mouth shut instead of making a recommendation.

Trying to get her mind off how much she'd already fumbled her first day, Sora went back to nervously finishing ringing up the first set of items.

A short time later, Sora heard Ragna approaching her register and set a few more items on the registering, including some packages of grenades. "You done with everything on the other stand?"

"Huh? Er…" Sora craned her next to look past the large man, taking one more quick count of the items there. Thankfully, with the store's lower stock there wasn't too much to worry about counting. "Yes?"

Without warning, Ragna turned around and promptly scooped the contents of the rack into the duffle bag with a few motions of his hand and turned back to face Sora. "So, what do I owe you?"

"Um, er…" Sora mumbled to herself, trying to buy time to scan the last few items as she still struggled to process the situation. Was this how every transaction was going to go for her? What in the world had she signed up for? Please just let it be because he was buying so much… "C-Cash or card?"

Ragna let out an annoyed huff at seeing the total on the machine, grumbling to himself as he pulled out a card from his coat. "Good thing I can expense this... Maybe that lecture from Yuuka wasn't useless."

A moment after Ragna placed the card in the machine, it let off a sound and he removed it, putting it in his coat while also stuffing the remaining items on the counter into the huge bag he had.

"Is there anything else you need?" Sora, trying to keep the nerves out of her voice, stated. Company policy dictated to always be nice to the customer and offer more until they said they were done.

"Nah, but what about you? Saved me some time, so not complaining, but why would they make a store inside SCHALE? Not sure who else is supposed to shop here. You really expected to sit here for hours?" Ragna said, a hint of sympathy in his words, as he looked around the store.

"U-Unfortunately…" Sora whined with a sigh. On the one hand, it definitely would be an easy job following this one odd exchange. On the other hand, it'd probably drive her crazy from lack of things to do if nobody else came in.

Ragna shook his head. "Ugh, I'd be bored out of my mind like that. I don't know what your schedule is, but if you need a break or something, feel free to use whatever's around here. Think this place had a few rooms set up with stuff."

"Eh? Oh, t-thank you!" Sora said with a smile. She didn't get a lot of time to leave the store, even on breaks, but since she had permission maybe she could find something to liven things up a bit than only use her phone.

"I'm going to be gone most of the day," Ragna said, turning and starting to make his way toward the exit. "Try not to get bored to death if nobody else shows up."

"Thanks, I'll try…" Sora said wearily as Ragna exited the store by SCHALE's main entrance, once more leaving her alone. But despite that, she still felt a little lighter than she had when coming in. That'd gone a lot better than she'd expected, based on the few things she'd heard about Ragna. He was actually kind of nice, being concerned for her and giving that offer. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy and working in this building wouldn't be so bad after all…

Ragna was hardly a stranger to traveling long distances, in fact he was already used to traveling across the world on foot and in a short time frame, so even the several dozen kilometer trek merely to the outskirts of Abydos, not even considering the distance to the actual school deep inside it, was nothing he couldn't do before early afternoon if he kept a good pace. And without the need to watch every step for some kind of mutated monster or suicidal bounty hunter, already having an innate idea of where to go, and traveling largely developed roads instead of the wilderness? The trip was a breeze compared to his usual travels.

"Mweh… Sensei, did you have to get up so early…?" Arona's sleepy voice whined from his coat pocket.

Unlike most of those trips, he had a chatty companion for this one.

"If you're tired, you can just go back to sleep, Arona." Ragna said with a sigh and shake of his head. "Didn't mean to wake you up."

"Tired? I'm not tired at aaaaaaaaaaall." Arona said in a thoroughly unconvincing voice which sounded ready to pass out if their eyes dared close for more than a minute. "I'm just… Worried about your health, sensei! You need to get some rest too! How long did you even sleep? You could've just taken a train later and gotten more sleep!"

Ragna rolled his eyes. She was not convincing anyone. "I don't know, 3 hours, maybe? About what I'm used to. Didn't exactly keep track." When he was out in the woods with a bunch of seithr mutated monsters that could come up at any moment and a highly wanted man, and then all the intensive training he had to do before that, anything past a few hours of light sleep was a luxury he'd long since adapted to. It helped his body wasn't a normal human's, even setting aside the Azure Grimoire.

"3 hours!? That's barely a good nap!" Arona's now actually distressed voice cried. "Senseeeeeeeei, you have to take care of yourself if you're going to take care of your students!"

"What kind of a nap is three hours?" Ragna shot back, exasperated.

"A good one!" Arona replied in a way that Ragna could hear the childish pout on her face. "If you can do all this on that little sleep, then as your assistant, I can too no problem!"

Ragna groaned to himself, softening his voice slightly. "Arona, don't push yourself. It'll probably be at least another few hours till we're at the Abydos school building, so you got some time for a nap. I already know where I'm going."

"Mhm…" Arona hummed to herself pensively for a solid several seconds. Ragna could tell she really wanted that nap when even that sounded sleepy. "N-No, I'll be just fine!"

Ragna's face went right to his palm. Arona could be such a stubborn child sometimes and now he was going to feel guilty if she started having a miserably time trying to match his schedule. Was this what being a parent felt like? Ugh. He was in a calmer situation now though, maybe getting an extra hour or two wouldn't be a bad thing. It was kind of nice the few times he actually had a place to stay and could get a bit more rest, few as they were. "Alright, alright. I'll try to take it a little easier. Now, you going to take your own advice and go back to bed? Can't exactly be much help if you're ready to pass out at any moment."

"Deal~." Arona said with a satisfied voice that was briefly downright energetic. "Don't forget that I still wanna see you in the SCHALE uniform sometime too!"

"Just go to bed, Arona." Ragna said flatly. This was beginning to feel like blackmail. Curse him for having a softer spot for kids if they were at least decently behaved and not named Luna or Carl. Probably what he got for being an older brother to two siblings.

Not hearing any more interjections from the AI, Ragna focused back on his trip toward Abydos. With one powerful leap, Ragna shot through the air and on top of a medium sized building for a better vantage point to gauge how much he had left to go.

Far out in the distance, Ragna could see the endless blanket of sand that comprised the Abydos district. Stretching far into the horizon and past what the eye could see, the district was practically a desert. Buildings of various sizes poked through the seemingly infinite expanse of sand, with so many buried or broken one could've easily mistaken it for an apocalyptic scene of a long since abandoned city, but some could've argued that wasn't an off description. Only a comparatively small pocket of civilization stood mostly untouched against the ever advancing nature, with even that on the more sparsely populated end as most residents had long since packed up their bags to move somewhere more habitable. It was almost like watching a society on its last legs stubbornly refusing to go quietly.

Actually seeing the district that used to be among Kivotos's most prosperous, long before Ragna's arrival, only further solidified some of the memories that had been getting stirred up. He could already picture several familiar scenes with a clarity close to any of his other memories. Shiroko's excessive enthusiasm suggesting a bank robbery, Serika screaming at him when he found her during one of her jobs, Nonomi dragging him onto a shopping trip, Ayane and him losing their minds at the insanity of everyone's ideas to pay off the debt, even running into Hoshino during the night. It was strangely nostalgic... Yet it wasn't perfect. It still felt like there was a significant gap in his recollection which he couldn't will to make sense yet. But even despite that, positive feelings weren't the only emotions stirred up. There was a vague sense of unease lurking in the back of his mind as all the memories came to him, a feeling of oncoming danger and yet also… Regret. But that last one he struggled to put an image to the emotion.

Well, no matter. Maybe more would come up once he actually met the rest of the students. He was going to have to be careful with how he approached this. He sure as hell knew them, but right now Ragna was no different than any stranger to the rest of Abydos.

With another jump, Ragna continued his journey into the desert.

It wasn't often that Takanashi Hoshino made it a point to show up at school early, but there was something special about today which'd brought the sleepy girl some extra motivation to ensure the school looked presentable. Abydos's request for aid had finally been answered, not by the GSC who may as well already written the school off, but by the new organization and adult running SCHALE. That should've been exactly what everyone had been praying for, right?

Yet there was something… Off about the whole situation. Hoshino already had plenty of reasons to be skeptical of adults, but Ayane had told everyone yesterday that the new teacher, Ragna, had called her number somehow, brushing it off as being part of some "student registry" SCHALE had.

That, by itself, would have been somewhat of a stretch, though not impossible, for a normal school as most kept a lot of aspects to themselves even from the GSC. But for Abydos? The school which barely officially existed and had been ignored by them for so long to have its students included?

Hoshino didn't buy it. How did he get Ayane's number?

Everyone else had been too excited at finally getting an answer to worry much, or if they did they hadn't said anything. Whoever this Ragna person was, Hoshino was going to have to keep a veeeeeeeeeery close eye on him for anything fishy for the sake of her classmates. That was her job as the oldest of the bunch.

But oh well, she just had to keep a sharp eye out to find out what kind of person Ragna was. Even if he might not have been bad as some adults were, they were always planning something, had some kind of angle or goal to use people for. But he wanted to help, hidden agenda or not, and Abydos wasn't in the position to refuse, not that she wouldn't keep an eye on him just in case. It was sure going to be a long wait though and everyone had done some cleaning on the building already to prepare. However, it wasn't as if it were done specifically for visitors, they always had to sweep out some sand that blew its way into the building. They just so happened to put a bit of extra care into it this time because of the occasion.

So there wasn't any harm in a nap till Ragna got here, surely.

"Hoshino-senpai! Did you go back to sleep!?" Serika's harsh voice called out from the other room

Ooooooooor maybe not

"Oji-san's still sound asleep~." Hoshino called back, neither opening her eyes nor raising her head.

The rapid and discontent thudding of Serika's approaching footsteps followed her voice, till they stopped almost directly on top of Hoshino. "Senpai! That's not… Huh…? The room's clean?"

Addressed, Hoshino finally opened her eyes, stretching in an exaggerated manner as her handiwork greeted both girls. They were in one of the classrooms within Abydos that was arranged much like a typical class, rows of desks lined up facing the front of the room where instruction would be given, typically by a blu-ray with how actual in person teachers were basically a myth until a few days ago. But even despite Hoshino's freshly done cleaning, there were still obvious signs the room was sparsely used. From the lack of anything on a single desk, including the one at the front, to the whiteboard which had tinges of yellow due to age and exposure of the sun.

With the rather special and difficult situation Abydos had, it was no wonder the classroom was seldom used vs the one that'd become the main meeting area for making plans on dealing with the school's debt. But it wasn't all bad, those empty rooms made it a nice spot for Hoshino to go and take a peaceful nap if she ever needed some time to herself. This one even had a window one could use to view the outside, not that there was much of anything to see besides the almost never ending desert on the cloudless day.

"Uhe, nothing wrong with a nap when work's over, right Serika-chan?" Hoshino said with a sleepy grin at the other girl dressed in the navy blue Abydos blazer, her hair done up into long twintails reaching roughly her knees, but the most eye catching feature was always Serika's cat ears and how expressive they were. Especially when they twitched indignantly. Like right now.

Serika huffed, crossing her arms while trying to restrain some of her annoyance in her red, cat like eyes. "Hoshino-senpai, now's not the time to be sleeping! Ragna-sensei's already on his way here!"

"It's still early, he wasn't supposed to be here till the afternoon." Hoshino answered with a dismissive yawn.

"It's almost 12:30 and he's nearly at the school!"

Hoshino froze mid yawn.

Oh.

Maybe she'd lost track of time just a little bit with her nap, that happened to her sometimes. Even when she didn't actually pass out and merely relaxed, which was often these days.

"Guess I slept a bit long." Hoshino said with a sheepish snicker. "How do you know he's almost here?"

"Ayane-chan's drone, er... Saw him jump over a building while doing a quick check of the area around the school before our meeting." Serika answered, some of her fire slightly deflating.

"Fweh?" Hoshino straightened up slightly with a confused sound. Well that… Definitely sounded like it was him. The man was, apparently, a physical monster and while it wasn't out of reach for some students, your average girl certainly couldn't easily accomplish it. So it was either him or something dangerous for Abydos, possibly both. "Alright, alright~. I'll be there in a minute then."

After a moment of visible deliberation, Serika finally turned back toward the room's exit, stopping to give Hoshino one more firm glance. "Don't go back to bed just because 'five more minutes'!"

And with that, Serika was gone, leaving Hoshino by herself. The first year girl always had such a feisty personality to her, but she was stern because she cared. Hoshino had known Serika long enough to understand her sweet side.

Hoshino stood up from her desk, stretching the rest of her body to shake off some of the stiffness that came from being seated for so long before grabbing her shotgun to prepare for meeting everyone. Well, she couldn't keep everyone waiting on her. There was going to be a long day ahead of everyone and she'd have to see what kind of person this adult was for her own eyes.