The ride over had been a brief, but interesting one for Ragna. It was his first time ever using a helicopter to move around and it sure beat walking. Given how hurriedly he and everyone else had been rushed out to the battlefield by Rin, he hadn't had any time to get the other girl's names, besides Yuuka's. With the flight over there not even 10 minutes, it'd given him time to get everyone's names and an idea of who he might be working with in battle. Once more, it felt comparable to getting a refresher on something he had already known instead of truly forgotten.
The tall girl with wings who wielded a weapon called a sniper rifle was named Hanekawa Hasumi, specialized in longer range engagements with a weapon called a sniper rifle. The girl he'd assumed was some kind of medic, which turned out to be an accurate assessment, went by Hinomiya Chinatsu and focused on tending to injured and using her pistol when needed. The last girl, with a wing on her head, who had the sense to not interrupt the conversation so it could get to the point, was named Morizuki Suzumi and specialized in mid to close range with her rifle and had a multitude of flashbangs on her.
Ragna was the furthest thing from a gun expert, in his world personal scale guns, though not heavy armaments, had fallen massively out of favor of melee weapons supplanted with Ars Magus, a fusion of magic and science that could grant great power and abilities, as guns had been useless against the Black Beast in the Dark War. The notable exception had been what his younger sister, Noel, used long after the Dark War that was a special one created specifically to combat the Black Beast called Bolverk. That had been capable of transforming into a multitude of weapons, from pistols to a railgun, and Ragna had seen her use, or been on the receiving end of, the weapon enough times to get an idea of what to expect from them. Coupled with his extensive general knowledge and experience on combat, he could still work with this even despite knowing the broad applications.
He'd also been caught up to speed about how truly dire Kivotos situation was. Power supplies were shutting down, and with the rumors of the missing General Student Council president, coupled with the panic of facilities losing power, it'd caused a massive upsurge in crime that'd thrown certain areas into downright anarchy. The city had looked so perfect and beautiful from up high in that elevator ride, but here it was teetering on the edge of disaster in truth.
But the ride had to eventually end as the Helicopter approached a somewhat quieter area to touch down. It was a heavily developed area with numerous tall buildings and wide streets, yet utterly devoid of any inhabitants, and Ragna could understand why. Not far ahead, he could see signs of destruction, broken windows, some clear areas where explosions had gone off, and even a few holes in a building.
It was still a fair distance from the SCHALE building, but it served as a decent middle ground to drop off the four students where they could begin clearing a safe path for the helicopter to fly the rest of the way. Otherwise, it would've been easily shot at by all the gangsters blocking the remainder of the path. It was a simple plan, really, let the students clear things after being dropped off while the helicopter, and Ragna, hung back till the coast was clear.
Like hell he was going to do that.
The very moment the helicopter touched down, Ragna threw open the door and jumped right out of it to several confused exclamations and gasps.
"S-Sensei!? What are you doing?!" Yuuka lept right out of the helicopter and immediately in front of him to block Ragna's path, SMGs in hand. "You're supposed to wait in the helicopter, it's dangerous for you out here!"
"Yeah, so? Just because you're tough, doesn't mean you're invincible either." Ragna answered, utterly unphased as he moved to walk past her, only for Yuuka to dart in front of his path.
"Sensei, we're not in danger, but you are!" Suzumi echoed the sentiment as she left the helicopter and rushed to Yuuka's side, grabbing onto Ragna's bad arm. "We have our halos to protect us, but you don't and you're an outsider to Kivotos on top of that!"
"Ragna-sensei." This time the words came from Chinatsu, who sounded deathly serious as she exited the helicopter. "Unlike us, a single bullet could put your life in grave danger and you are already suffering from a disabled arm and eye."
Oh, right, the halos… More knowledge came forth, as if triggered by the mention. That explained the lack of concern for themselves dropping right into a firefight. Most residents of Kivotos were exceptionally durable already, but the halos took things to a greater level. They provided some kind of superhuman protection to the students of Kivotos, granting them strength and power far exceeding what a normal human was capable of, even to the point where weapons that could pierce straight through a person and kill them would only be a mild to moderate annoyance for somebody like the girls. Higher level Ars Magus would've been necessary to have the same kind of reinforcement and durability to nearly ignore a conventional firefight for any normal person.
But Ragna wasn't a normal person either, even with his powers limited.
Ragna scoffed. "Look, I know I'm far from my best shape right now, but if I'm supposed to be overseeing combat, then like hell I'm going to just sit on my ass doing nothing. I've faced way worse than a few bullets."
"E-Eh? What kind of language is that for a teacher?" Yuuka recoiled with a perplexed look caused by Ragna's chosen vocabulary and his blatant disregard for his apparent safety. "No, that's besides the point right now!"
A large, firm hand was put on Ragna's good shoulder, followed by Hasumi's voice. "Sensei, there's being brave and then there's being reckless."
Ragna shook off the grip, turning to face Hasumi's worried, stern expression. Out of the corner of his vision, he could see the helicopter pilot looking onward, visibly confused at what they were supposed to do. "Did I say I was going to charging in swinging at everyone? Even if I don't jump in headfirst, I'm still going. How the hell am I supposed to do my job far away?"
Ragna wasn't one to shy away from a fight or scared of one, but he wasn't stupid. In his current state, lacking one arm to fully utilize his sword, his bad eye robbing an entire half of his vision, including the all important peripheral when it came to closer range, and lacking all his abilities with Ars Magus and the Azure Grimoire? He was practically as crippled as he could get while still being able to fight decently and had more than a few encounters like this to teach him that.
However, he could still fight and defend himself in an emergency, he still had most of his raw strength and immense skill, though limited it was. Infact, even in his current state he would've banked on being able to take, with some difficulty granted, a few groups of NOL guards if they only had standard equipment of melee weapons and Ars Magus. He was nowhere near helpless enough to stay out of battle entirely like a coward. But he was smart enough to know to avoid engaging, especially in such a long range fight, unless he happened to find some opportunistic target. He could easily stay close to oversee and help, perhaps even throw a few attacks if the chance presented itself, but still be safe. And if the girls were this terrified of him taking a single bullet, then perhaps that was surprise Ragna could leverage in the upcoming fights if anyone else had similar hesitation.
"Sensei," Yuuka's voice turned firm. "even if you were to stay back a bit, in a gunfight bullets are flying everywhere. If a single stray one injures you, that will just make our job of fighting and trying to protect you even harder. There's no to be so stubborn and reckless before we've even gotten you any kind of protection!"
Ragna let out a loud, annoyed groan. "You know what, we don't have time to argue about this crap in an emergency. It's easier for me to just prove it instead of argue." Ragna's stare hardened as he looked Yuuka directly in the eye and said in the most casual voice he could manage.
"Shoot me."
All four girl's expressions went blank, as if they couldn't believe what he had just said.
"E-Excuse me?" Chinatsu stammered in sheer disbelief.
"Did I stutter?" Ragna shifted his gaze over to the girl. "Doesn't have to be Yuuka, one of you just do it so we can get on with this. If a bullet's not gonna cripple me, then nothing to worry about right?"
"W-Well, yes but-" Yuuka started, likewise still trying to parse if Ragna had lost his damn mind.
"Then shut up and do it already so we can get moving or I'll do it for you." Ragna stated with an edge to his words as he pointed toward Yuuka's guns. "I've been shot by much bigger guns than that, hit by much bigger things, and kept standing." If the weaker modes of Noel's guns, which still shot exploding bullets that ignored the very concept of distance and barriers, didn't punch straight through, even if they hurt like hell, people less tough than he was then Ragna knew he'd still be standing. However, despite the confidence, there was another of those vague impressions that even if it wouldn't put a hole in him, getting shot by the students in particular would still definitely hurt with his current state. But if it got them off his back already a little pain was nothing. Rin had said resolving this matter would fix the state of Kivotos, and if things got even worse off closer to the tower he wanted this fixed before people started getting really hurt.
"Sen..sei." Hasumi started slowly and visibly exasperated. "We're not going to shoot you just to prove a point."
"Alright, to hell with it. Give me that." With flat words and lightning fast reflexes that left the still stunned girls no time to react, Ragna wrenched one of Yuuka's guns from her hand, pointed the weapon at his own chest, and pulled the trigger before she could scream.
The weight of an impact slammed into his chest several times before it ceased quickly as it'd come. Any normal person would've been left in utter shock or writhing in agony at several rounds piercing through their heart, sent straight to the floor as they immediately began dying the pavement red with their fading life.
But none of that occurred with Ragna. He grunted, slightly recoiling with it more so from the expectations of a hit than the force, but otherwise remained standing without a scratch on him. That had hurt… A lot less than he had been expecting it to, huh, he'd barely even felt that when he'd been expecting it to at least leave a mark. Was it because he'd simply used Yuuka's weapons instead of having Yuuka herself shoot him? Something about that thought felt right to him, but whatever, the point had been made.
"Now then," Ragna was the first to speak up, breaking the stunned silence that'd overcome the girls. "since that's over, I don't wanna hear any more whining about how fragile I am, got it?" The man held out Yuuka's gun toward her.
Yuuka, in a disbelieving daze, took her weapon back on auto-pilot, eyes darting between her SMG and the spot Ragna had shot himself.
"He's really unharmed…" Chinatsu muttered to herself as she leaned closer to Ragna to inspect his non-existent injuries.
"Hey, don't look at me like I'm some kind of circus freak." Ragna said as he pushed past the girls and started walking. "Let's get moving already, the quicker this is wrapped up the quicker everything's working right?"
At the edge of his hearing, Ragna heard one muttered comment from Yuuka. "What kind of teacher did the General Student Council President choose…?"
Yuuka considered herself a logical, reasonable girl, especially when it felt like so much of Kivotos could be quite unreasonable. But she would be lying if she had said the past 30 minutes hadn't been testing her sensibilities. The General Student Council president missing? Some crass man chosen as a teacher by her before her disappearance? Along with said man being every bit as bullet proof as normal students were? She wasn't sure what to make of the enigma known as Ragna.
It wasn't helped by the fact that the group hadn't talked much following their teacher's little display, it seemed everyone else was likewise trying to parse recent events. At the very least, Yuuka had been able to talk Ragna out of taking point in their brief walk.
A fortunate turn of events as not long after they'd ran right into the middle of a firefight where bullets and the occasional explosion quickly drowned out almost any other sound. Yuuka could see a couple civilians that'd taken shelter peering out into the exchange, but otherwise the only people on the streets were the two factions exchanging fire with each other.
Yuuka poked her head out from behind cover to take aim at an enemy-
-and felt several rounds slam right into her forehead that sent her immediately back behind it, rubbing her head in pain. She recognized that sensation! "Ow, what the heck!? Are they using JHP rounds? That's cheating!"
"Hey, Yuuka, you okay?" Ragna, who was crouched behind a piece of rubble beside her, asked with a trace of concern.
"I'm fine, sensei, but thank you for the concern." Yuuka spoke up. Maybe there was something nice under the blunt disposition.
"Good, but have you even been in a real fight?" Ragna, chided dryly. "You think anyone's gonna give a shit about being 'fair' when they're already smashing everything?"
Yuuka immediately took back any positive thoughts she'd been having and almost growled at the aggravating man who was supposed to be a teacher. "We have rules of engagement in place for a reason or else there's nothing stopping battles from constantly escalating, sensei!"
"Yuuka, hollow-points aren't considered illegal." Hasumi commented from behind the pair as she took a shot with her sniper rifle.
"Well, they're illegal at our academy starting right now!" Yuuka shouted back in frustration. "That might have left a mark!" She was going to have to check herself in the mirror once this was over.
"Do you want to get shot again? Keep focused on the fight!" Ragna barked at her.
Did he think she was a little kid or something? Yuuka opened her mouth to reply.
And had her words cut off by another shout from the older looking man. "Hey! I got a plan to move up, so listen up!"
Listen to him? Yuuka's first thought was resistance purely on how the man had been acting, but still, there had to of been a reason the General Student Council President had chosen this… Aggravating man. If not for his personality, then maybe it was his expertise and combat ability? Well, she could give him a chance there, Yuuka wasn't going to let emotions get in the way of such an important task. "Well… I guess you are supposed to be a teacher." Yuuka stated with some skepticism.
"What's your plan, sensei?" Hasumi's voice sounded less unsure than Yuuka's.
"Hey, Suzumi!" Ragna began.
"Yes, sensei?" Suzumi, from across the street in a little alcove of a shop, called out.
"Throw one of those flashbangs at the bigger group in the middle and then we'll move up to deal with them. Hasumi, get the one closest on the left, I'll get the right, then immediately deal with the back group when the rest fall, got it?" Ragna had an intensity in his eyes while giving the orders, even moreso than he typically did with his sour default expression. There was a confidence in his delivery which made Yuuka not even question if it'd work until one fact caught up to her.
He was including himself in that battle plan? Sure, he was incredibly durable but hadn't he just agreed he wasn't going to charge in swinging at everything? You didn't bring a sword to a gun fight! This man was a headache!
"W-wait, you-"
"Just do it!"
"G-Got it, sensei!" Suzumi responded as she briefly holstered her rifle to ready a flashbang grenade. After pulling the pin, she waited a brief moment to cook the grenade before she heaved the object with an impressive throw that sailed it clear past the intersection.
Not a moment later, a bright flash lasting only an instant came and went where Suzumi's grenade had landed, several of the girls who'd been firing their guns halted their barrage with various expressions of disorientation, from shielding their eyes, trying to shamble near drunkenly into cover from the loss of sight, or some combination of the two.
"Move it!" Ragna shouted and, to Yuuka's annoyance, vaulted right over their cover and charged at the other group with an inhuman speed. With nobody to impede his progress, Hasumi knocked out one of the two vanguards with a skillful shot to their head, he was already halfway past the crossing before anyone else started rushing forward.
Following right after him, and keeping him in her peripheral, Yuuka took a barrage of shots at the stunned girls, who quickly collapsed under the rapid assault from her and Yuuka's two allies before any of them could recover, before Yuuka turned her focus to the closest girl Ragna had been meant to deal with.
And saw not a single bullet of help was needed.
Quick to where Yuuka could've missed half the motions if she blinked, Ragna dropped low as the visibly shocked girl failed to aim her gun at where he'd been an instant ago, yet she didn't even get the chance to fire another round as Ragna spun and swept her legs out from under the girl, continued his rotation in one fluid motion without a trace of wasted movement to transition into an angled uppercut with his left arm that slammed directly into the still falling girl's back, and then further followed the flow of his spin to carry her entire body like a ragdoll along his fist and slam her into the building right next to them with such force that upon her body meeting it the metal wall collapsed with a thunderous crash and all the resistance of wet tissue as the hapless victim's body was launched inside the building and cracked another wall she slammed into.
Yuuka's back throbbed sympathetically exactly where Ragna had struck the girl. That looked… Painful.
But that pain was soon replaced by frustration upon realizing that was property damage they were liable for now, that idiot! There was a degree of allowance for when dealing with matters like this, but that was clearly over the top! This had to get wrapped up before the chaos escalated.
The utterly brazen display of a seeming complete lack of any self preservation instincts and sheer excessive force even gave some of the recovering remaining hooligans momentary pause, as if they were debating to continue shooting or cut their losses and run if what their disoriented vision just saw was real.
But that hesitation was just enough for two to get effortlessly taken down and knocked unconscious by another barrage of shots from the four gathered students, while a few remaining girls made a break for it down various alleyways and intersections before they could meet the same fate, thankfully before Ragna could get his hands on another one to increase the paperwork that'd be filed after this as well.
"Well, that sure went quickly." Ragna leisurely commented, observing the unconscious bodies of the hooligan girls for a moment before turning his focus back toward his party. "Hey, we gonna call somebody to pick them up or just planning to leave them here? I already see more people at the other end of the street to deal with."
"We'll send a message to Valkyrie to take care of these girls, hopefully they're not already too overwhelmed. Even still, they weren't too strong and should remain unconscious long enough that we won't have to worry about them flanking us as we move further." Hasumi, approaching the group, stated. She peered past the crater in the store Ragna had punched one of their foes through, who Chinatsu was moving closer to take a quick look at, with an uncertain look. "… Especially that one."
"Good, are all of you still fine?" Ragna asked, checking over the group.
"We're fine, sensei." Chinatsu answered. "The JHP rounds were unexpected and might leave some light bruising, but it's nothing to worry about."
"Then let's get moving before anyone else gets the drop on us." Ragna stated as he began to walk again.
"Hold it, sensei!" Yuuka shouted as she rushed up to his side and put an arm out to signal him to stop. "What was that? I know you're tough and… really strong too." Yuuka briefly glanced over to the hole in the building that looked like somebody had fired a tank round at it. "But didn't you just say you weren't going to rush in swinging at everyone!? We're also going to have to deal with the expense of repairing that since you caused it!"
"Yeah, originally I wasn't planning on it unless I saw a good opening. And I did." Ragna answered bluntly, not even acknowledging Yuuka's complaint about the property damage.
"Huh?" Yuuka raised her eyebrow, not following what the man meant.
"Sure, these girls," Ragna gestured with his thumb to some of the unconscious bodies. "are happy to cause a bunch of damage or hurt someone, they wouldn't be shooting at you with special ammo if they were't. But nobody here's shooting with killing intent."
The sheer blunt and casual way Ragna spoke his last words started forming an uneasy pit in Yuuka's stomach.
"Well, why… would we?" Suzumi asked with worry in her words.
Ragna let out a low 'hmph' as if it proved his point. "Exactly. You all looked at me like I'd lost my damn mind when asking to get shot and went on about how one bullet's a big risk to me since I'm an outsider with no halo. If you saw that right away, then I figured they would too, none of them were aiming at me like they were you. Everyone knows you'll get back up, just like I knew that girl would be fine but out of the fight, but they didn't know I would." Ragna started explaining casually.
By now, the rest of the girls had drawn close to listen to Ragna's lecture.
"So, I was counting on them hesitating for even a split second in trying to shoot me when I got close, worst that'd happen might be a little pain if I was wrong, but I guessed right. They might be bad girls shooting up the place that're gonna hurt people, but they're not that bad. They're not ready to kill a person that easily. I've been in enough fights to tell the difference." Ragna finished, his words hanging heavily in the air despite the casual delivery.
The words left Yuuka feeling uncomfortable and curious. Direct as he was, Ragna wasn't wrong. While it wasn't like nobody ever died in Kivotos and plenty of people got injured in these kind of skirmishes, even most civilians native to Kivotos often just needed some basic medication and to take it easy for a few days if no more than a couple stray rounds happened to go their way, while those with halos could come out of larger explosions, that'd wreck a building, haggard and wounded but often not even with severe injuries, when it'd leave not a single trace of a body from an outsider. The usual 'every day' violence like this between delinquents and even gangs rarely ever, intentionally, escalated beyond extensive property damage and typically non-critical hospital visits even when violent mobs went out of their way to cause collateral damage. Not that there weren't some rare exceptions.
But then what kind of life did Ragna lead where he was familiar enough with the difference between that and lethal intent? It sure sounded like the man had been through a lot of battle. The thought made Yuuka's eyes wander over toward Ragna's right side. Was that the reason for his disabled arm and eye, did he lose them fighting?
The idea brought a sympathetic frown to Yuuka's face. On first impressions, Ragna was a crass, blunt man with a temperament far from pleasant, it actually reminded her of Neru, that was exaggerated by the fact he looked near perpetually scowling with one eye always shut, and though Yuuka wasn't going to just excuse that behavior and take it lying down, perhaps the new teacher had a troubled past which explained some of the sourness that was worth a little bit of slack and talking to him later about before she made too many assumptions, provided they didn't mind discussing it.
"I see…" Hasumi said lowly in thought as her words returned to a normal cadence, even sounding impressed. "You definitely have a great sense for battle if you were able to discern all that so fast in the middle of a firefight. It even worked to our advantage since the other troublemakers were too caught off guard to defend themselves."
"The president must have had her reasons for choosing Ragna-sensei." Yuuka echoed the sentiment. Being chosen for his attitude certainly didn't seem likely, but even from the brief display and lecture, Yuuka could easily believe Ragna was picked for his combat capabilities. "But sensei."
"What is it, Yuuka?"
Brushing off the blatant move of using her first name without any honorifics, she was going to give a little slack to Ragna for the moment and the man seemed content to eschew any formality by skipping straight to first names., Yuuka answered. "If you still decide to jump into battle, please be careful. I don't think that hesitation will last long once everyone realizes you're not that fragile. And secondly…" Yuuka's tried to restrain some, but not all, of her urge to lecture the man, both until she learned a little more about him and because they simply didn't have time for it. "If you're going to jump into battle don't break things with the same disregard as those delinquents! We're going to have to file paperwork and expenses for the unnecessary damage that we cause!"
Ragna let out one of the most exasperated groans Yuuka had ever heard. "All this bureaucratic bullshit and paperwork is always such a pain in the ass…"
Ragna was seriously trying to test how much room Yuuka would give him, wasn't he?
"But fine." Ragna waved his hand dismissively. "I'll try not to break anything else I shouldn't. But if I jump into the fight, I don't wanna hear any more complaining about my safety. I can handle myself and know when to go for it or not, got it?"
Reluctantly, Yuuka sighed. "I'll trust your judgment, sensei. You did make that fight brief." It wasn't a long engagement that would've been difficult, but Yuuka couldn't argue it would've been a good bit longer without his quick thinking.
"You're definitely capable enough we don't have to worry as much as I thought we would." Chinatsu agreed. "But we do know the enemy has a Crusader Tank. Even if you're as tough as we are, tank rounds can still knock a person unconscious, so please don't be reckless if we run into that."
"Yeah, sure, fine." Ragna stated like he was getting bored of the conversation. "Let's keep moving. Rin's going to explode if we take any longer on this than we have to."
That was a thought Yuuka could agree with. The Acting President was… Something else when she truly snapped, certainly very annoying.
Oh wait no, she didn't yet know Ragna was with them and the little stunt he'd pulled. Yuuka could already picture the death glare from Rin that sent chills down her spine. Well, since it was his choice to come, Yuuka could let him handle Rin's wrath.
Most of the remaining trip to the SCHALE club room hadn't been that eventful, or, well, eventful by the standards of Kivotos. There had been two more firefights that had been taken care of near equally as fast, in part due to Ragna's quick thinking. The man really did know his way around a fight, Yuuka had to admit.
Thankfully for Yuuka's heart, what with all the stress she already had to deal with, Ragna hadn't pulled anything else to incur further repair costs, he'd stayed back to coordinate everyone's efforts, though Yuuka could tell the older man was less than pleased to sit back and was actively looking for any openings for an excuse. Or, well, at least Yuuka thought he was older. Between the white hair, attitude, and experience, at times it felt like she was talking to somebody who could've been twice her age and then others not more than a few years older than her. Ragna just grew even stranger the longer Yuuka knew him.
But she could ponder the new teacher later, they were nearly at the SCHALE club room and there was a group of delinquents stationed in their path who had apparently gotten bored and started talking among themselves, failing completely to notice everyone a few blocks down. No doubt there would be a few more lying in wait as everyone made the final push to the club room.
Before anyone could speak of a plan, a signal from Rin came through.
For a moment, Yuuka debated if it was a good idea to deploy the hologram when Ragna was right there. But on the other hand not doing so meant that Yuuka would have to middle man for her so…
With a hint of reluctance, Yuuka produced her pocket holographic drone, a useful device often carried by anyone with authority, or often built into existing technology, so as to make group communications like this easier and ensure both parties could see everything that was occurring. Phone calls and instant messaging were generally far more convenient for day to day purposes, but in situations like this, a projector was quite handy.
The translucent blue image of Nanagami Rin appeared before the gathered group, her face tense and words coming out like she were on the verge of exploding. "There are two things I would like to state. The first, is that the helicopter that was supposed to be carrying Ragna-sensei unexpectedly returned. Empty." Rin's eyes slooooooooowly slid to glare at Ragna.
"Hey." Ragna greeted without the slightest hint of intimidation from the developing glare on Rin.
Rin's expression shifted into a forced smile that tried to hide the stress ready to boil over at any moment. "Which leads me to ask, sensei… Why are you so close to the battlefield when your safety is required to regain control of the Sanctum Tower and an unlucky shot could leave Kivotos in its current state indefinitely?"
"Oh, not this again…" Ragna signed as the exasperation was palpable on his face. "Yuuka."
"Eh?" Yuuka straightened up in confusion, why was she being dragged into this?
"Just shoot me again so I don't have to waste time arguing this again." Ragna said flatly, eyeing her SMGs.
"What!? N-No! W-Why do you keep asking me!?" Yuuka stammered as she cautiously stepped back in case he decided to pinch one of her guns again. Just because she could shoot him without a murder charge didn't mean she would! But at this rate it was starting to get very tempting!
"Sensei," Rin's voice turned stern as her own weariness was evident. "now is not the time for dark jo-. I'm sorry, did you say again?" Rin's glare now turned to Yuuka. If looks could kill, Yuuka would have been dead where she stood.
"I didn't shoot him the first time!" Yuuka yelled in her defense, waving one of her gun touting hands in aggressive frustration that was pointed directly at Ragna. "He did it himself when he took one of guns!"
Rin remained silent for several seconds as she managed to convey multiple conflicting emotions with a single expression. Confusion, disbelief, frustration, resignation, it was all there. Yuuka wasn't sure she'd ever seen that kind of expression cross Rin's face before.
"Acting President," Hasumi spoke up calmly. "Ragna-sensei is, surprisingly, just as durable as we are. Despite his condition, he more than has the strength and speed to stay on the battlefield as is and it's been more effective to have him with us issuing commands. He's quite experienced when it comes to fighting."
Rin's eyes darted over to Ragna, back to Hasumi, and then back to Ragna with slowly growing surprise. "I… See. I knew there was a reason she chose you."
"You know, every time I hear that, I feel like I should be offended." Ragna stated flatly.
"Anyway," Rin continued as if Ragna hadn't said a word, the other swarm of emotions vanishing from her face to be replaced by business like professionalism. "The other important information is that I think I finally figured out who's responsible for this riot."
Rin paused briefly to ensure everyone was focusing carefully on her words. "Her name is Wakamo. She's the fugitive that escaped the Corrections Bureau after being suspended from the Allied Hyakkiyako Academy. She's a repeat offender, so I'd advise that you don't let your guards down."
"The Fox of Calamity?" Suzumi asked hesitantly, grip on her gun tightening.
Rin nodded slowly. "The very same one. But remember, your primary objective is to retake the SCHALE club room. If you are able to do so without risking the mission, by all means detail her, but as dangerous as she is, restoring order to the rest of Kivotos is far more important and she's an expert at evading capture."
"Understood. We're nearly at the club room and should have it taken back shortly. There's only one more stretch to cross." Hasumi confirmed.
Rin's expression lightened ever so slightly, yet still remained a mask of professionalism overall. "Good, contact me as soon as you've reclaimed the club room. I'll be ready to meet you there as soon as matters are taken care of."
Without another word, the projection of Rin vanished and Yuuka reclaimed her projector.
"Alright," Ragna put a hand on the hilt of his sword to indicate his readiness. "Let's wrap this up already so I can figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do."
Ah, that was right. Now that Yuuka thought on it, Ragna had made a comment back in the GSC building that he hadn't yet formally agreed to anything until he knew what he was getting into, and even Yuuka was still not fully clear on what SCHALE entailed. What was going to happen if the man decided to leave as soon as his job reclaiming Sanctum was done?
Well, the only way to find out would be to finish their current mission.
Compared to their earlier skirmishes, the battle for the SCHALE building was far more heated. Instead of a few small, scattered groups, there was a concentrated force. Barricades had been set up, and lines of fire had been established from multiple angles. These damn rioters were determined to keep Ragna and his four students away from the building.
Bullets were flying, glass lined the pavement from missed shots hitting windows, and a few cars had even blown up from being riddled by so many bullets with the multiple, dammit what were they again the guns with the rotating barrels that shot absurdly fast and were half the size of a person? Several girls had whatever those were called and were raining a small storm of bullets across the street. Ragna had put Hasumi on trying to take them out from a distance, as the sheer quantity of bullets being sprayed made it hard to peek out for a shot without at least catching a few and throwing off further aim, as just because bullets did no lasting harm it didn't mean they had zero effect.
Arg, this was so damn annoying. Even if he didn't have his Ars Magus and special moves, Ragna could've effortlessly handled this solo if the right half of his body fully worked, but as it stood, trying to rush out with how spread out the enemy was when using ranged weapons would've been a stupid choice as while he could sense their presence and violent intent, even attacks to an extent, he wouldn't be able to actually see any of the danger on his entire right side, which would've made the otherwise trivial task of avoiding the bullets a guessing game, never mind trying to defend his right half being profoundly difficult with the nonfunctioning arm. If only they used something close range instead, then Ragna could've leveraged his much higher raw stats to make up the difference even like this and taken even a large group, but he wasn't dealing with this group without a good bit of pain that way and no sense in being reckless.
He hated feeling so useless and forced into his current position of taking cover behind a car beside Suzumi, who was busy reloading another set of bullets into her rifle. If the girls could just take out a few more on the right side, he'd been directing their attacks toward that half of the battle, or whittle down numbers enough for Suzumi's flashbang to stun them, perhaps it'd create an opening for Ragna to quickly deal with a few on the left.
Ragna was really going to have to do some studying on the specifics of guns, he could go far with his principle knowledge on combat, quick thinking, and knowing how they worked, but if this was what he'd have to do now, he needed to be prepared.
Still looking to find some way to contribute beyond tactics, Ragna poked his head out from behind the car to briefly survey the battlefield-
-And immediately ducked back down as a spray of bullets flew right over head.
"Sensei, are you okay?" Suzumi asked with concern.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine nothing hit me." Ragna grumbled.
"Hey!" The annoyed and loud voice of one of the delinquents pierced through the veil of ringing bullets. "Watch where you're shooting, you idiot! You almost put a round through his head, the grey haired old guy's gotta be from outside Kivotos!"
OLD?
Incensed, Ragna again poked his head out from behind the car, glaring at the girl in a long skirted school uniform with long red hair, an armored helmet with the visor raised, and a black jacket, ignoring the pleading comments from Suzumi to get back down. "Who the hell are you calling old, you damn brat!? I'm not even in my mid 20's and my hair's white!"
"Damn, and you already look like that? I sure don't wanna see how you'll look in 10 years!" The girl almost looked a touch sympathetic.
Ok, now he was pissed.
The sheer absurdity of the exchange appeared to have given a mini-pause to the battle, a few of the gang members having pulled their attention half over to the conversation, one of them even was struggling not to laugh.
"I have a clear sh-" Hasumi began from a short distance behind him.
"I'm getting this one." Ragna ordered with a growl. "Suzumi, give me that rock." With clearly nobody aiming at him, Ragna gestured with his head to the large piece of asphalt almost the size of a baseball.
"Huh? Er, Sen..sei?" Confused, yet still following the instructions, Suzumi lifted the soon to be projectile up to her teacher. "What are you planning…?"
Ragna gripped his weapon, just tightly enough to be firm and not crack it apart, and pulled it back behind his head. If he couldn't use his sword and his enemies were just oh so stupid enough to not care about him, then Ragna had other ways to leverage his strength and take advantage of the pause.
"Sensei, are you ten?!" Yuuka's exasperated cry came from off to the side.
The apparent leader started snickering. "Oh, I'm sooooooooo s-"
WHACK.
With such a loud sound the girl beside her flinched back, the rock exploded into bits against the taunting girl's face at such force she was immediately thrown backwards and onto the ground with a painful thud.
Ragna smirked to himself in satisfaction, the disbelieving looks plastered squarely across everyone's faces just made it even sweeter.
"Ow, OW, what the hell was that!?" The assaulted girl screamed as she shuffled back up, a large red mark covering her entire forehead. She looked pissed. "Okay, forget what I said! No way somebody with a throw like that's fragile, everyone shoot him right now!"
Yep. That was sure the kind of reaction Ragna expected with his luck. Worth it.
The still young man instantly ducked back behind the car as an entire volley of bullets sailed over where his head was a moment ago, with many more impacting the car to the point he could feel the impacts almost vibrating it.
"Well, what the hell are you waiting for!? They're all shooting at me so start firing while they're busy!" Ragna shouted over to Chinatsu, Hasumi, and Yuuka's blank expressions.
"Er, um, right." Chinatsu muttered as she, alongside the other two started taking aim.
Beside him and not daring to poke her head out for the same fear of taking a hundred bullets to the face, Suzumi looked at Ragna with a mixture of utter confusion and even the slightest hint of was that hope? "Ragna-sensei, was... this part of your strategy?"
"Well, I thought it might be a distraction for some of them, but I didn't think they were all going to start shooting me." Ragna answered as the bullets whizzing overhead started to lessen. Just a coincidence that such a perfect chance for a little payback also was the perfect opening for a diversion.
"I wouldn't think something like that would be such an effective distraction…" Suzumi said softly, sounding more impressed than she probably should've been.
The sound of bullets came to a grinding halt to instead be replaced by a loud rumbling which vibrated the floor, and a second later a much more powerful rumble came with an explosion, that thankfully hit nobody, which outright shook the ground.
"Huh? That explosion was way too big to be a grenade! Is that the tank Momoka mentioned?" Yuuka spoke up, worried.
"Alright, forget this, these guys are too much of a pain to deal with! Let's fall back behind the tank and let it clean em up! Give it a little cover while it reloads." The apparent boss's voice sounded out. "Try to make sure you hit them next time!"
Deciding it safe to take a look, both Ragna and Suzumi raised their heads over the car and two things were made immediately obvious. Firstly, was the remaining girls all retreating down a street exit, two unconscious bodies being carried among them, with some moving slower to cover the retreat and repositioning. Secondly, rolling into the center of the plaza directly before the SCHALE building was a metal monster. It had a rectangular lower body of steel taller than the average person decorated in a dark camouflage pattern that had large treads on each side of it with many circular wheels to rotate them. Above the boxy base was a smaller box with slanted sides and a single long barrel, for its heavy weaponry from Ragna's guess, which extended out past the main body, and a smaller barrel near the base of the larger one and slightly off to the side from where the big barrel ended, faster firing support guns was Ragna's assumption.
"Huh, so that's what a tank is." Ragna commented, unimpressed. The barrel looked familiar, definitely seen big guns in that style before but the rest was a new thing for him. The vast majority of larger land vehicles, beyond some for transport within cities like cars, had been abandoned in his world due to air travel being required to go almost anywhere outside of the vertically built Hierarchical Cities.
"You've never seen a tank, sensei?" Suzumi asked in confusion.
"It's the same as the tanks used at our academy!" Hasumi called out, refocusing attention on the more pressing matter. "We'll have a few seconds before its done reloading, let's go!"
It had a notable reload time too? Ragna smirked to himself. Oh, this was perfect, he could finally get an excuse to use his sword.
The tank was even bulkier than Iron Tager was, but unlike that Red Devil there was one point which made Ragna immediately dismiss any and all concerns about the machine's threat. It was slow, really slow. The main battery took multiple seconds to reload, the top half of it was slow to turn, and its only methods of defense were tied to the front facing static body and painfully sluggish upper half. Absolutely zero protection from behind. It may've been heavily armored, but to someone like Ragna when it was all on its own?
It was just one big target. A group of those girls, with the agility to exploit his literal blind spot, would've been far more dangerous.
With one quick motion, Ragna drew his large sword and vaulted over the barely intact car.
"Sensei, be careful! Tank shells aren't easy to shrug off even to us!" Chinatsu yelled with real worry in her voice.
"I've got this, that thing's not got a chance in hell of hitting me!" Ragna confidently declared as he dashed off in a blink and reached the tank's defenseless rear side before the barrel was finished rotating halfway to him as the tank itself helplessly tried to turn itself even slower
Not pausing for a moment, Ragna leaped high enough to cover a small building, gripped his sword tightly, and, just was he approached the front of the tank in his falling arc, swung hard. "Take this!"
Even with just one arm, the strength of Ragna's swing was utterly inhuman. The tank's sturdy steel exterior folded like paper around the point of impact as Aramasa carved straight through it and crashed into the ground, where the force of Ragna's swing suddenly transferring into the ground created an effect comparable to an explosion. Dust and debris was thrown up like a cloud from the impact, the pavement crumbled with so little resistance it created a crater wide as the tank was. So tremendous was the force even after smashing straight through the metal armor of the tank, not that it even slowed the attack down, that the two halves of the construct were tossed aside as if someone had picked up and thrown them, the larger back half turning twice over in the air and ejecting the now unconscious delinquents like ragdolls across the street, while the smaller front part cleaved from the main body was effectively launched down the street everyone had came from and came to rest halfway down the block.
"W-Was that part of the tank?" Yuuka's utterly dumbfounded voice called out as the haze of dirt started to settle.
"Did the ammo explode?!" Chinatsu's words were deep with worry, followed by her frantic footsteps that was soon joined by everyone else. "Sensei, are you okay?!"
With a quick motion, Ragna flipped his sword around and holstered it on his back, he could see that the retreating girls had started moving much quicker now and signified the battle's end,walking up the crater like it were stairs and back to the girls. "Hey, calm down, I'm just fine."
Chinatsu stopped directly in front of Ragna, hand already in her bag reaching for medical supplies, with a thoroughly disbelieving expression on her face that was shared by the three other girls present.
"What?" Ragna huffed. "I might not be able to deal with normal enemies that well right now, but something that big and slow isn't a problem. Like I said, I'm not just gonna sit on my ass being protected while you all are risking your own safety if I can help it."
Yuuka's eyes wandered behind Ragna and quickly shifted into something much different than surprise, something angry. "Senseiiiiiiiiiiii…!"
"Hm?" Ragna looked over his shoulder back at the destruction behind him. There was the messy crater wider than the tank was and tall enough to stand in, with pieces of the pavement thrown about in a disorganized pattern that utterly destroyed the circular pattern that had been on the ground. The back half of the tank had flipped over and come to rest on the right half of the stairs leading up to the SCHALE clubroom and had utterly crushed the steps beneath its great weight.
The hell was her problem? The collateral was nothing major and he'd held back plenty specifically not to hurt the crew but enough to trash the tank and-
"Ah, dammit." A horrifying realization slowly dawned on Ragna as he recalled some of Yuuka's earlier words. He was gonna have to get used to caring about collateral.
"Do you have any idea how much this is going to cost to fix!?" Yuuka screeched at him, face starting to turn red.
Oh, he could already picture the lecture Yuuka was preparing, far too easily for how briefly he'd apparently known her.
Hopefully he'd get some damn answers inside the Schale club room and from Rin before he got his ear talked off.