It was, without a doubt, a very unusual request. There had been cases where he had to find lost pets, entertain the crowds as a magic show's partner, or even cleaning clogged public park toilets, but something this caliber was basically unheard of… or maybe his exploits had spread far and wide that it was about time.

That being the case, he pored over the request while eating breakfast. One leg raised on the chair, a cup of instant coffee in one hand, a slightly brown toast with sunny side up egg, and a few bacon strips to savor—though the half-lidded glare sent by Arona hurt his conscience a bit.

[This is violating so many table manners, sensei.]

Vash pursed his lips. "Well, I need some "me time" too, don't you think?"

Arona drew out a sigh. She looked resigned, so the adult considered this as a win. He ate his breakfast unhurriedly before going back to the request at hands, pending for acceptance of course… He had no intention to reject whatever task that stumbled its way to his office. It wasn't like Schale had actual duty to it beyond "fix the city and regain public order," which he believed had done a stellar job at. He wasn't bragging, needless to say. He was just that awesome of a guy.

Still… this request, he had a hunch about it.

"Say, Arona." The man with black hairs that stood at all ends glanced to the side. He caught his assistant consuming a strawberry shortcake with a carton of strawberry milk on the side… This brat, she actually dared to complain about table manners while eating high-calorie stuff right in the morning. "Since we never covered these topics before, mind answering some questions?"

[Uh-huh? Is there something that piqued your interest, sensei?] The personal assistant who lived in the digital realm tilted her head.

"What's that ring above your head?"

[...heh?]

"It's pretty neat. Some of the girls I've met so far have different colors and shapes to them, but really, the heck are they for?" Vash didn't feel like pointing out that it made the students angelic in appearance. It wasn't helped by how Hasumi and Suzumi straight out had wings—literal wings that definitely were part of their physiology. In a far different, more deranged place, he'd have presumed human experimentation, but Kivotos had proven to be a safe, comfy haven as it could get. Therefore… "Are they some trendy accessories for school girls—ababababababaaa!?"

What was that? What was that!? Why did he feel like an electrical shock had ran through his being!? No, wait, he was being zapped but how!? AronaaaAaaaAAaaaAAA, my brain be a trembbbleeeeeeeee?!

[Sexual harassment! Sexual harassment! I can't believe you, sensei! What the heck are you thinking this early in the morning…!?] A tomato-faced Arona yelled out, both hands stretched out to the screen as if grabbing ahold of it. [Pervert! Pervert…! Punishment!]

"AbababababABBABABABAAAAAA!"

...well, that was how monday morning signaling his second week in Kivotos turned out. It took a lot of effort to calm down the blue kid, but at the end of it, all he could get about the round things above her head—and by extension all Students across Kivotos—were that they were indeed angelic halo… or Halo. Whatever. Naming aside…

"They come on when you're awake and dipped away when you're fast asleep or completely unconscious, huh?" Vash rubbed his chin with two fingers. "Looks like a telltale sign for naughty kindergartners who don't like afternoon nap. Really nifty, wish all kids have that sort of thing. Would have given all parents and caretakers easier time back home."

[Ahahahaha… I guess from the eyes of adults, it feels like that, huh…] Arona wore a troubled smile. [But, umm… well, about our Halo… Sensei, it's just—]

"Oh no, I don't really have anything else to ask. I was just curious," Vash gave the AI girl a casual hand-wave. "Sure, I've never seen anyone with a halo before, but you react so strongly when asked. I won't pry if you're not ready for it yet. I'm a classy gentleman, you see."

[Ha-haa… I'm not sure a true gentleman calls himself that way…] At his words, tension evaporated from Arona's face. It sure made him wonder how sensitive the subject was, but well—not like there was any harm to not knowing it. Plus, it was a pretty little identifier representing one's own existence. Vash liked the concept of it. [Ko-hon! We-well, then. Sensei, do you have any other question, now? This great Arona will assist you to the best of her abilities!]

"Sure, sure. So, next up. About this request." He prodded at the message box left hanging in the right side of the smart tablet. "Apparently, a school can just be on the verge of shutting down. This is mighty shady, don't you think?"

[Eeeh…? I don't know where you're going here, sensei…]

Vash picked up a toothpick to clean the bits stuck between his molars. It was made out of a material called bamboo, which seemed to have its own scent and flavor to it. Quite an oddity, but he didn't mind it. The aftertaste spreading through his mouth felt like a palate cleanser.

"I mean, schools are big here." Vash chewed at the toothpick. "From what I can tell, they own lands, districts, facilities and road accesses even. They manage whole sections of this massive city and only bow down to GSC. If a school got reduced to a sorry state like this, shouldn't it be treated as a big problem?"

[Ah! You mean… the request for aid does not match the level of priority it's supposed to have? Amazing, you even picked up on that, sensei…!]

"It's just the result of diligent study and thorough observation." Vash narrowed his eyes in delight, a soft smile on his face. Soon after, however, his stare shifted into one full of solemn atmosphere. "Arona. To all students who live in this city… what do the schools they belong to mean to them?"

[It's… well…]

"It's a precious place, right?" Vash chuckled at Arona's hurried nods. "School life must be a heck lot of fun. Studying, chatting, running around with wild abandon and spending your evening at leisure. It's a freeing sight."

That was why… to these kids, school must be their rightful place. Away from home, but not so far out that they wouldn't know where to return. A mundane, bright and carefree daily life full of fun adventures where you could spend your times together with people of the same age, away from the observations of adults. No wonder academic institutions were once venerated by all.

"...to the people who wrote this request, their school must mean everything to them."

Enough that they refused to let it go. Enough that they would rather ask for help instead of closing their doors on strangers they had never met. Vash the Stampede wasn't unfamiliar to desperate pleas; far from it. The school of Abydos… he had never heard of it before, but he could understand one thing through this letter.

"Arona, could you please prep up an inventory list of things I need to bring to Abydos?"

[...un! Leave it to me, sensei!]

Vash smiled. As he put away the dishes at the kitchen and walked to the bathroom. In the background, cluttered noise rang out from the Shittim Chest.

There are children in need of help, he thought. But first, fresh undies to face the day!

The Sanctum Tower. It was a place the General Student Council was headquartered in, the beating heart of Kivotos. It sported an impressive number of floors, a solid range of departments and technological marvels, as well as staffing handpicked by the currently missing President of the organization.

Shortly after the incomparably useless morning meeting had adjourned itself, Nanagami Rin received a direct message from a certain office located in the city outskirts.

She stood in the middle of the empty corridor and stared long at her phone. The content of the message was short and simple, without formality whatsoever. The sender had the tone of a friendly neighbor who paid a visit just to pass off gifts, and the language he used was oddly considerate in some places. Unfortunately, the extent of frustration Rin felt as she discovered that the teacher of Schale had run off for unsanctioned business trip without consulting her beforehand, was tantamount to the volcanic eruption of Gehenna's unholy mountain of doom.

Crack—a web of harsh, jagged lines covered the phone screen. The black-haired girl adorned in white gazed upon the windows, the fitful rage gleaming behind her glasses only identifiable by a frightful secretary of the Executive Office.

Vash the Stampede was a man of many things. A journeyman with tons of impressive tales and epic escapades to tell. A gunman with a heart beating for love and peace. A dastardly handsome good samaritan, also simply built tougher and different. In any case, he was a fighter with unparalleled skills, experienced in the myriad ways life could take.

Sadly, being baked by the sun-dried asphalt road was never one of the things he had really experienced for real. The withering husk of a man eked out coarse groans, hobbling forward with a stick he had graciously received from a temporary trash dumping site several blocks behind… actually, where was he supposed to go next?

[Se-sensei! Hang in there!] The comforting, supportive voice of his digital assistant pierced the hazes fogging his dehydrated mind. [We're only a few stations left from reaching their school! Sensei, fight! Fighto, sensei! F-I-G-H-T-O! You can do it…!]

The-the sentiment is good and all, but why is this happening…!? He thought that modern convenience could bring him anywhere, but as it turned out, nearly all routes leading to Abydos School Districts had been deactivated. He had to drop off at a business sector situated right next to other schools' autonomous district, and walked the rest of the way to his client. It was absurd, insane. Why is this so familiar…!?

The sun shone really brightly the moment he entered the district proper. Rows of houses, empty and seemingly lacking in terms of maintenance stretched as far as he could see. It was a sad sight whenever he stumbled upon old graffiti and dead plants in flower pots, but what could he do? The school's surroundings must have become ghost towns for a long while now, but why? How?

This is getting fishier the more I look at it—but the sun is way stinging over here!

It burned at him with baleful heat and rays. The sunlight's intensity almost felt familiar, scorching while all-too-easily depriving him of the liquids in his body. At this rate, never mind thinking properly, he probably would collapse and turn into a mummy way before he reached the school! Rather, he was already halfway to the afterlife!

"Wah… wahter…! Wahzheerrrr…!?"

[Sensei, you already drank the last bottle 300 meters earlier!]

"Nnuuhhoooooooo! Curse you, resource-rich environment…!" I made a grave mistake, got too spoiled by all the conveniences and readily available daily goods…!

[Ah, wait! Sensei, don't run! You're just going to exhaust yourself faster…! Sensei, please calm down…! Sensei…!?]

A few minutes later, the adult faced yet another tall hurdle. In this case, it was a very physical hurdle in everything that mattered. He craned his head up, gazing listlessly at a long road with steep climb to it; he saw no such thing as stairs. Looking back, he only had his backpack on his body. It contained several sets of spare clothes, daily supply for hygiene, and a charger for the Shittim Chest. Vash then looked back at the harsh terrain standing before him. Imposing. Menacing. Also condescending.

The shadow cast over him felt as if it was mocking him, taunting him, making fun of his mortality even though it was just an uphill road. Vash decided he didn't like that smug aura, no sirree. Not. At. All.

"Guh…!"

[G-guh…?]

"Guuuoooohhhh! Don't underestimate me…!"

[He's lost it…!? Sensei, please stop! Stoooooppp!?]

Just as he was about start his mad climb on all-fours, something suddenly vaulted over the peak of the elevated road. It soared in midair for seconds until it landed and sped down, rushing headlong at him with breakneck speed. Before Vash could blink, he felt a solid impact crashing right into him.

"Gebyurahhg…!"

The world turned, spun, and swam. The blue of the sky suddenly seemed like a pool surrounded by houses and electrical posts. His vision dizzied him as if he was being put through a washing machine's cycle. When things started to slow down, his skull smashed the hot asphalt road, followed by the rest of his body. His sight was now parallel to the ground, but it was of no use.

As darkness consumed him, he swore he saw an ashen-haired wolf looming before him. It was… probably his whole life flashing before him.

It was a shiny day. A new beginning. Another new day. Spring had just arrived, so the rain had lessened and winds started to pick up their pace.

Of course, that came with the caveat of sand particles sneaking past the ventilation and every available gap to cover the school's corridors. It was a chore and a half to clean up, but since the other members were rather independent in their own rights, there was no need for a set work schedule over who must sweep the floor and wipe the windows. In this sense, Izayoi Nonomi happened to be the first one to arrive; quite an unenviable spot she had been put in, but she smiled as she was allowed to help her friends in more capacity than the usual.

She dropped her trusty minigun at the gun rack sitting in the corner of the club room, making sure she had already engaged the safety and covered it with a plastic tarp so as not to receive sand and dust infiltration. Setting aside her cardigan, Nonomi then picked up a dustpan along with a handheld soft nylon brush to sweep the surface areas above the grounds, throwing all the dust and dirt and sand to the floors before she could use the long broom to run a circuit around the entire floor. By the time she was done, she was beset by a girl donning a very familiar blue scarf and a cross-shaped hairpin…

Except, she was carrying a super tall person on a fireman's carry. Nonomi paused, holding a broom in one hand.

"Ah! Good morning, Shiroko-chan!"

"Un. Good morning, Nonomi."

The girl—Sunaookami Shiroko—was a girl of few words. However, it wasn't like she was being rude about it. The girl before her had a certain circumstance to her growing up the way she did, but overall, Nonomi believed that she was more or less moving in the right direction. Personally speaking, though, Shiroko could be likened to a lone wolf, but come to think of it—wasn't wolf a pack animal species? Hmm, what did it mean for a person to be a lone wolf, then?

Ah, wait, never mind that. "Well, it doesn't look like there's an incident waiting to happen… Shiroko-chan, it's not good to pick up people like stray cats, you know?"

"Oh… I know that. I need to accept the full brunt of taking in strays." However, Shiroko shook her head and rolled her shoulders. As a result, the very tall person let out a weird groan… huh, a male? A man? Was that an actual adult, in the flesh right there? "But, err… what do I do, Nonomi…?"

"Uuuh, what do you mean by—"

"I… ran over this person."

...oh, so this was a traffic accident all along. Nonomi finally understood why Shiroko looked stricken with emotions she had never seen before… No wonder she seemed to be at a loss for words? Then again…

"Should I get a shovel?" If it's a homicide, the Valkyrie probably won't go all the way out to here...

"...I think he's still alive. Probably. Hopefully…"

Wow, she sure sounds unsure of herself… Nonomi wasn't exactly stuck so far in the clouds upstairs, but the saying turned to be true sometimes. There was always a first time to everything.

Darkness. Total darkness surrounded him. It was a familiar, suffocating place he was most afraid of, but at the same time, the thought of him in this place also left him with a deep sense of dread.

And yet, something was different this time. He looked ahead, only to see nothing. He did not see the ghosts of his past, the marks of his failures, the lives he had let down and the hopes he had trampled upon by his continued existence. He wondered if he had been forsaken at long last, but his heart… his soul still remembered them; clear as day and bright as the first star of the evening.

Therefore—Vash couldn't stay still. He got up, turned around, and gazed long to the infinite darkness waiting for him. He took a shaky step forward, and there he saw wisps of light flashing around him. His hearing returned, he heard muffles and whispers. The more steps he took, the brighter the world became. He started running, and the sounds became clearer.

Voices. They were voices. Rambunctious, chaotic, without set rhythm or even carefully worded out. Like noise in a crowded street, but much cleaner and easy to pick off.

He ran to that light, and so he woke up—only to have his nose kissing cold, hard floor.

"Gwueh."

Clutter. Crash. Thunk. Thud. An ensemble of noise stunned him. As senses wholly returned to him, the man without much worth to his name slowly got up, pushing his upper body off the floors which turned to be… yellow tiled floors. Sitting on his butt, he crossed his legs and leaned back—his head meeting a slightly hard cushion which turned to be a sofa. As his eyes readjusted themselves to the surrounding world, he saw what appeared to be a brightly lit room, several desks set next to each other to form a huge but makeshift conference table, a set of cheap chairs, a bunch of papers and stuff…

Finally, he met four… no, wait, five pairs of eyes. They stared dumbly at him, as if seeing something they had never seen before.

All five of them also happened to be young girls at the height of puberty. Decked in school uniforms bearing a unified motif to patterns, Vash quickly assumed they belonged to the same school, his presumptions turning into certainty upon noticing the name tags each of them carried on their persons. A familiar logo bearing a sun contained within the frame of an equilateral triangle.

…

"...uuuh, yeah? Good morn'n…?" Where have I seen that logo before… oh, right. "Nice to meet you all. Are you girls… students of Abydos School?"

To his awkwardly put question, the five girls glanced at each other. Two of them had black hairs, one of them pale blonde, another had pink hair that went all the way past her knees, and another one of them had ashen gray for her hair color. As if they all shared the same thought in that singular moment, the girls squatted down at the other side of the room and huddled together. Fierce whispers flew back and forth, but their reaction made it very hard for the only adult in the room to interrupt them.

After a long while, one of them poked out her head from the huddling session. The girl with overly developed body and a soft-looking blond hair raised her hand overhead.

"Excuse me," she started. Her voice was melodious, cozy and a bit drawn out between each word she had said. "Do you happen to be an adult?"

What the heck is… ah well, not the weirdest conversation starter I've ever experienced anyway. Plus, it was harmless. "Yeah, I guess I'm a certified adult."

"You guess?" One of the dark-haired ones voiced out as if in disbelief.

"Yeah, well. I don't really pay attention." Vash shrugged. "I'm still spritely young, the picture of fitness and energy. Technically though, I'm older than all of you combined."

"...he's joking, right?" The twintailed girl all but wondered aloud by this point.

"An old man's sense of humor…" The bespectacled girl drooped her shoulders.

"Speaking of self-styled old man…" The girl in a cardigan tilted her head.

"...I guess that narrows down on who's the best as our representative."

"Umm, hello? Shiroko-san? That's the first time I ever received a stare full of dejection from you of all people…" The pinkhead looked haggard, then she hung her head low. Now she looked totally defeated. "Ah, phoey. You girls are so mean… fine, then."

For some reasons or other, the shortest among them all left the huddle session. She languidly got up and approached Vash. Though she was standing at her full height, only now did Vash realize that even sitting on the floor, all he needed to do was to lift his head a little to meet her gaze. This girl seemed to be about… what? Could she be somewhere around 145 centimeters…?

Small didn't even begin to describe her, yet the girl with the three-tiered eye-like pink Halo let out a deep sigh. "Umm, yeah. Nice to meet you… sensei? You're the rumored adult from Schale, aren't you?"

Oh, she recognized me right away? "Is my coat that much of a dead giveaway?"

The girl twirled the hair that hung around by the side of her cheek. "Yeah… well, news spread fast, you know? So, uuh…"

Vash restrained himself from smiling. As he looked up to the girl, she coughed into her gloved fist and cleared her throat. As she slowly reopened her eyes, Vash took notice of the mismatched colors painting her irises. Deep blue, and bright yellow hued in blazing orange of dawn. A past memory resurfaced, telling of wisdom about the stars and the numerous lights dotting the empty vacuum of the universe.

"Well, sorry about the rough welcome you had to suffer through. My juniors are all very lovely and good-hearted, but I guess one of them has forgotten about traffic safety thanks to the empty streets around here…" The girl bearing the fascinating colors of albireo in her eyes curved down her lips. "Still, welcome to Abydos, home to our little Foreclosure Task Force. Looking forward to work with your guidance, sensei."

A/N: And that's a wrap! We're meeting the cast right away...!