Having finished negotiating with Hoshino, the girls decided to do a change on their usual routine, instead of just finding ways to pay off the debt, they decided to discuss what to do with the money. There were two main proposals, Serika wanted not only to use the money to pay off the interest for at least half a year but also use the rest to pay for a part of the principal, the reasoning being that it would not only make a dent on the debt but also reduce the amount of interest they would have to pay, this was supported by Shiroko. Ayane however wanted the whole of the money to pay for interest payment for the rest of the year, saying that if they kept up the current pace at the way they pay the debt, they would make consistent dents on the debt and pay less interest anyways, said idea was supported by Hoshino while Nonomi abstained. In my opinion both were good ideas, but seeing as there was a tie, I was called to be a tiebreaker, both ideas took the long term into account, but seeing as I wanted these girls to have some breather, preferably for a year I made my decision.
"I'd recommend Ayane's proposal, if what she says is true and you raise up money in the low millions anyways, by the end of the year you'd probably have several hundred millions of yens, enough to pay off the interest for several months and make a dent on the debt yet again, it's a snowball effect" that is, if Kaiser is going to allow them to do that, if my suspicions were correct then their creditors were never going to allow them to get rid of the debt, but there was no need for me to tell them that unless I had concrete proof, which wouldn't happen unless I got access to Kaiser loan's intranet, and so far the only thing I can give them is a map of Kaiser Construction's acquisitions in Abydos, which is to say, almost all of the district save for the school itself and the only one that knows that is Hoshino.
"Sensei, but why? we would get much more of the debt removed if we used part of the money to pay the principal and even get the interest payment lower!" protested Serika.
"Which you would pay anyways, it would take more time, but it would be more progressive and safer, if this turns out to be a bad year for all of you, you can recover from it and still have some money to give when they come knocking next year, is that why you proposed it, Ayane?" I asked, the elf girl adjusted her glasses.
"That is correct, Martin-sensei".
"For those reasons I think it's prudent that you use all your money to make a year's worth of interest payment" I replied.
Serika looked like she wanted to argue further but she shut her mouth, knowing there is no way she can argue against it, personally I would have gone with her proposal, but unlike myself the Foreclosure Task Force is far more limited in resources than me or SCHALE, let alone what I had as Executor of the Combine or Governor of New Eire, but when you have limited resources and your ability to pay loans depends on part time jobs, you have to think ahead and protect yourself against bad seasons as good as you can.
With that out of the way I stretched myself, "while I would like to spend time with you girls strategizing on repaying the debt, unfortunately I have other obligations" I wrote my number on a piece of paper, "this is my personal number, call me when something urgent comes up, other than that I'll see you girls at four in the afternoon" I said.
"Goodbye, Martin-sensei" replied Ayane and Nonomi.
"Don't be a stranger, sensei," said Hoshino.
I left the school building and went inside the SCHALE helicopter parked on the courtyard, immediately after I frowned and took my pad as the helicopter lifted.
"Sierra, any updates?" the holographic form of the office suit wearing kitsune appeared, this time instead of an impish grin, she had an apologetic one.
"Sorry, captain, no dice, apart from a few possible leads we have no definite conclusions" I figured, it was their Clearnet after.
"So it seems we have to find a way to connect you to at least the intranet of either their bank or PMC" I hummed "in theory it shouldn't be too difficult, we just need an insider to carry you to a terminal alongside Arona, though I think Arona would only go if she could be guaranteed she won't be smashed against the floor while going on a storage device, yeah?" the AI nodded.
"Yeah, the poor gal is scared out of her mind with the possibility, not even by bribing her with ice cream I could get her to do it".
"Arona is not as simple minded as you think, Sierra", I shook my head.
"But she's a kid, kids like ice cream!" she insisted, sitting on the chair, even if she was still a hologram.
"She is also an AI with higher computing power than an Alpha Core".
"So am I, and I like ice cream too!" replied Sierra, I shook my head.
"Moving on, this is going to be like Hybrasil, hopefully Kaiser is a bit more careless than Tri-Tach and can't defend against cyberwarfare as well as Tri Tach" I rubbed my temple, "problem is, where to get you to a terminal linked to their intranet, it would be difficult to get you to the terminal of a desk clerk, like in Hybrasil, we need an insider, but I repeat myself, sorry, Sierra"
"Its fine, captain, its sometimes fun to listen to your…shower thoughts" replied the AI, now with her characteristic impish grin, which prompted Arona to come out with a pout, "Sierra-san, don't bully Sensei" oh boy.
"Bully? This is simply banter between a captain and his second-in-command! I've done this many times before, the captain never takes it personally" replied Sierra. Ever since Arona met Sierra the two are having a budding sisterly relationship, I say sisterly relationship because they argue like big and small sister.
"Anyways!" I cry loudly, garnering the attention of the two AIs, "any ideas on who could be a possible candidate?" I ask, Arona thought.
"Mmmmh, maybe a delinquent student from the Gehenna slums, the academy has one of the highest student populations in Kivotos, maybe we can go to one of the gangs and pay one of their members to be a double agent".
"Not a bad idea in normal circumstances, but I'd preferably want an employee of Kaiser, we're kind of in a hurry and I'd rather get someone who is already in the company"
Sierra commented with a thinking expression "that's gonna be hard, going through the social media apparently Kaiser makes their employees sign an N.D.A where they don't disclose their position inside the company, such a thing would, again, be available only in the company's internal database" that's not good, if that's the case then looking for a double agent is a crapshoot, oh well, plan B it is.
"Then we might have to get an infiltration going, perhaps it's time for RABBIT Squad to show off why even their entrees are considered the crème de la crème" I sighed "however that's going to require getting the okay from at least Baikal and Adam" I sighed once again "I'm already missing when I was the one calling the shots"
"Even when you had to wrangle your administrators?" piped up Sierra.
"On second thought, I'd rather deal with colleagues" I corrected myself.
I reached the SCHALE building a few minutes later, I went into Baikal's office and just my luck, Adam was also there "ah, just the men I wanted to talk to now".
"Advisor Livesey" greeted Baikal.
"Advisor Daud, advisor Johnson" I greeted the two men, "I'm here to petition use of our new recruits, the RABBIT Squad, regarding the Abydos case" I told them.
"What's the nature of the mission?" asked Adam, I leaned back on the chair I was sitting in.
"Oh, you know, corporate espionage" Adam did a double take while Daud sighed and rubbed his temple "advisor Livesey, please don't tell me you're planning to use our new recruits to leak information from a megacorp".
"That's, unfortunately, exactly my plan" I confirmed, he knew what I did in Hybrasil, he was one of the people I leaked the information to, "now before you deny me, I have a good reason for that, I have a reason to believe that the company known as Kaiser Industries is behind the attacks on Abydos".
"Your evidence being?" asked Adam.
"The confession on the prisoner I got plus the history of acquisitions of Kaiser Constructions has made on the Abydos district, which I will show you now" I showed them the map of ownership in the Abydos district, Adam widened his eyes while Baikal narrowed his.
"This is quite concerning, but…"
"Not enough to even start a court case, let alone win it, even when we have the favour of the acting-president it means jack squat for a corporation with a net worth of trillions and an army of lawyers and sophists willing to argue why 2+2 isn't actually 4 but 5, all for the low price of 5 million per case. No, I need far more damming evidence than that, something that they can't argue their way out off, and for that I need access to their internal network, and unfortunately getting an insider would be tricky since all employees sign an N.D.A, the company is very secretive. Add to that that Kivoto's frankly phenomenal transparency laws only apply to public institutions, and I have my job significantly hampered. Hence why I'm doing essentially a repeat of Hybrasil save for the sabotage" I argue, there were a few seconds of silence before I receive an answer.
"I'm not going to say no immediately, but we will wait until the next weekly meeting to give you authorisation" I sighed.
"Guess that's the best I can hope for, oh well, thanks anyways" I stop "humour me for a second, what were you two talking about?" Adam answered for me.
"Our visit to Trinity, one of the largest schools, we recently met with their ruling body, advisor Francis and Daud decided to make a tour of the largest academies in Kivotos to have an idea on who would we mostly be working with".
"And what have you discovered?"
"We will say it in the next meeting" replied Daud "but to let you on a secret, there is much tension in that academy, they have a treaty to sign with their adversaries, Gehenna and they are watching each other like hawks, a good atmosphere for paranoia to come into play."
"Right" as much as I would say the cliché of "ugh politics" I am a politician and I can empathize with others in my position as well, the thought of one single Pather putting a bomb in an embassy while I have one of the Gens come to my world is enough to make me stay awake at night, and I had those same situations, it also makes people severely paranoid to the point they think everyone is out to get him and unfortunately it's very hard to snap them out of it until someone forces them to look at reality. I exited the room and went back to my office to do my share of paperwork while I though of a way to get inside Kaiser that would take me less than a week, then I heard the door open, it was Therese and Mikey, the two wearing the white uniforms of Trinity, I smiled.
"Hello, guys, how was your first day at school?" I asked my little siblings.
"It was great, Mart!" exclaimed Therese "There are no classes, all of classes are made in these "blue rays", we have play time almost all the time and all the girls are super nice, it's so cool!" Mikey however was a bit red.
"T-there is only girls in school, I-I don't know why but they were very surprised when they figured out I was a boy" oh, that's right, I haven't heard of a single male student, I also noticed something, both my siblings had a halo, almost like an angel's halo, I sighed in relief, this meant none of the two would immediately die to a bullet, I stood from my seat and crouched over to Mikey.
"I know, it must be a bit scary, but don't worry Mikey, they won't do anything to you, they're nice girls, and even if they aren't you have Therese with you" I smiled "Therese, make sure they don't do anything to little Mikey, alright" Therese made a mock salute with a grin, I ruffled her hair "that's my girl right here, right, do you guys have homework to do or something?" I ask "I can help if that's the case" Mikey shook his head.
"Miss Maki is helping us with m-most of the homework" Maki? Ah, right, she did mention she likes children, while it is under her purview to be a teacher, since for all our extrajudicial power and being the equivalent of the Secret Services of Kivotos we technically still are teachers, she has other things to worry about.
"That's great, Maki is a very smart woman, she is a scientist, how cool is that? But try not to keep her too occupied, okay? Maki is also a very busy woman, we all are at this point, how about this? You do your homework by yourselves, using only each other as help, and I'll take you out for lunch this weekend" Therese's eyes sparkled at that, even Mikey looked interested.
"Yay, we promise, Mart!" and with that Therese took Mikey's hand and they went to their shared bedroom, I sighed and think back on what Baikal told me, Trinity was in a volatile situation with its rival, and thinking back on it I don't think just deciding which school looked the most proper was the best way for background checking the schools, I rub my temple, at least with their halos they won't get shot dead by some noodle bullying them, though them being from my world, being shot at and the image of a weapon on their heads, with all the movies they watched, is something that will definitely haunt them. I grit my teeth, I'd love to deal with this later but I also can't have RABBIT Squad shadow them every time they go to school, I'll have to ignore it for now, but I'm definitely contracting a babysitter for the two or if we have recruits from Trinity, tell them to escort them every time they go to school, I then receive a phone call, speak of the devil, it's from a Trinity student, and…oh, what the hell is this, did she use speech-to-text? That's the only way I can justify her sending a text that sounds a lot like a scream more than anything, oh she is rectifying.
"Sorry, is this the number of Martin-sensei? I'd like to apply for SCHALE, are you free?" the message read, then I received some more, all from the girls I met before, Hayase Yuuka, Hanekawa Hasumi and Hinomiya Chinatsu…I also must remember that here your name is said with your family name first.
"Yes, I am free, you can come whenever you want, we can start the interview whenever you can" I texted to all of them, though I did say they'd each have to wait, just then I heard a knock on my office door "Enter" and in comes a…rather peculiar girl, long black hair, very long black hair wow it almost touches the floor, long thin black wings with almost no feathers and a uniform made in the same style as that of Hasumi, in short, this girl looked like out of a horror movie, she also looked pale and while her face didn't have imperfection and would be admittedly cute, the expression she had almost made me reach for my pistol, however her demeanour contrasted to her appearance, she looked almost…shy when she came in.
"H-hello, a-are you Martin-sensei?" she asked, I nodded slowly, trying to not appear very concerned with her dishevelled appearance, her halo was also dripping blood that somehow didn't stain the floor, she sat on one of the chairs and for some reason avoided looking at me in the face, she was shy, which contrasts a lot with her appearance and the lever action shotguns she uses as weapons of choice, I quickly typed over her record.
"Kensaki Tsurugi, yes?" she nodded, still not looking at me "miss Kensaki, please look at me while I'm speaking" I said, she hesitantly did, showing eyes with red pupils and an expression of…embarrassment? And why was she blushing like crazy? Maybe if I get down to business, she will focus a bit "so, it says here you're the Captain of Trinity's Justice Taskforce, care to explain what that is?" I asked.
"Oh, w-well" she stuttered in a voice with a shy tone "t-the Justice Taskforce is T-Trinity's kind of standing army and peacekeeping force, w-we mainly focus on law and order operations but we also get called for missions outside of Trinity" I wrote down "military experience" from then on the interview continued, from what I gathered this shy girl was a veritable powerhouse, whenever she was personally involved the mission usually ended in a win for the Justice Taskforce, it's a shame I don't have footage of her fighting, well that can change, I stood up, "get up, were going to do one final thing before I decide if you can join or not"
"S-sensei, w-what is that thing?" asked Tsurugi, her blush somewhat returning.
"We're going to the shooting range, I want you to show me some of your own combat capabilities" we went to the range which was on the ground level of the building, I set the targets at the effective range of an average shotgun, "alright, show me what you can do, miss Kensaki" the girl nodded and suddenly her whole demeanour changed, she now looked focused, no, she looked downright giddy, she unholstered her shotguns and using one hand she shot the target dead in the bullseye, for some reason the shotgun didn't dislocate her shoulder or the other shoulder when she fired the second shotgun, downright superhuman strength, good aiming and intimidating posture, combined with the fact that in Kivotos it takes quite a hail of bullets to drop someone unconscious let alone kill them she is strong alright, but then she did something that almost made fall on my ass, doubling over backwards she let out a bloodcurdling laugh like she belonged on a madhouse, she aimed her two shotguns and with a blast of red the dummy simply stopped existing, reduced to fucking splinters, I simply stood there blinking like a dumbass, when Tsurugi noticed it she went back to her shy demeanor.
"S-so, Sensei, d-did you like it?" asked the girl.
"You're in" I simply said "consider your request approved, I expect you here tomorrow once you finish your homework or your study, unless I need to call you on an urgent mission" the girl's expression brightened up, once I was back on my office I approved the petitions of Hasumi and Chinatsu, simply because I knew those two already and I knew how effective they would be, with that, combined with the RABBIT Squad and the integration of Suzumi and Yuuka a few hours later, SCHALE had a complete squad loadout and a reserve student for any mission we might have, good for a first start. Though I do have to object to Yuuka's complaints about how I handled my first expenses, her seeing no sense in me setting aside half of my personal funds to help Abydos cover their payments for a year, I simply told her it wasn't a waste of money but an investment in the long-term, she didn't buy it and declared herself my new financial advisor in all but name after a long-winded speech about proper spending as an adult and that I should refrain from impulsive charity.
While part of my reasoning is because I wanted to do some charity to Abydos, it's also a bit of a taunt, a bait for Kaiser, when I read the contract it did say that that while the payment would be handled in physical money, Kaiser had no right to refuse the payment and didn't ask where the money came from, so if they refused or asked where they got the money, I'd be there to record the conversation and send them to court, basically I was putting a wrench in their potential plans of seizing Abydos and dared them to do something about it, dangerous? Yes, but if they touched SCHALE the GSC would be on Kaiser's ass and I'm sure Rin would love nothing more than to send the whole weight of trust-busting upon the corporation and liquidate their assets in front of their shareholders, that is if they don't simply try to attack Abydos with a large army of mucks and take over the school before the GSC can respond, but that has other problems.
After approving those applications, I decided to then catch up with paperwork, I didn't have too much, only a pile of it, I got it done in an hour, after that I left for Abydos, if anything to go and check on those students, I won't bore you with details of my flight to Abydos, I'll simply say that I was greeted with some surprise by the students, mainly Hoshino and Ayane, the elf was typing something on her laptop while the pink-haired narcoleptic was dozing off on a table.
"S-Sensei?"
"How's my favourite elf doing?" I asked with a bit of a smile, enjoying her flushed reaction.
"E-Elf?" Ayane shook her head "n-nevermind, what are you doing here?"
"Does a teacher need a reason to visit his students?" I asked rhetorically, "by the way, where are Nonomi, Shiroko and Serika?" I asked, speaking of the devil, Nonomi entered just as I finished my sentence, carrying what looks like shopping bags, her smile widened when she saw me.
"Sensei, welcome back!" she greeted while hugging me, I smiled and hugged her back.
"Hello, Nonomi" I replied, "that your shopping?" I asked, she nodded.
"Yup! Because of you we finally have enough time to relax, I bought all of us new clothes, perfume…"
"Alright, alright, no need to tell me your shopping spree" I replied with a giggle "I just hope you aren't using the money I gave you for it" Nonomi smiled.
"Don't worry, Sensei, I used this" she pulled out something from my pocket and I instantly regrated not bringing shades, whatever it was, it was glowing so hard it seemed as if a miniature sun was born in the room, it even woke up Hoshino who tried to shield her eyes.
"Aaargh, Nonomi, put that down" complained the pink-haired girl, Nonomi quickly put it back on her pocket, I turned to her slowly and opened my eyes.
"Was that a credit card?" I asked, remembering an outline of a card in between the glowing, Hoshino groaned.
"Yeah, Nonomi comes from a rich family, so she does the heavy lifting when it comes to our out-of-school expenses, sometimes too willingly" explained Hoshino while looking at Nonomi.
"Don't worry, I'm still way below my spending limit" replied the silver-haired girl, almost too eager about it, then something came to my mind.
"Wait, you don't let her pay for the school's expenses, why?" I asked, weirded out, then it occurred to me why, Hoshino finished the thought for me.
"It doesn't feel right, it's Nonomi's money, she should be the one to enjoy it, besides I'm very sure it's not even her money 100%" replied Hoshino, ah, right, maybe her parents wouldn't be too happy if she suddenly paid millions of bucks to get her school out of debt, then another thought came to mind.
"By the way, where are your parents, do they visit you girls sometimes?" I asked, Hoshino made a "so, so" sign with her hands.
"Eh, sometimes, usually once a year for a whole week, they're not in Kivotos if that's what you're asking".
"Huh" I simply said, "anyways, where are Shiroko and Serika?" Ayane answered for me.
"Shiroko is doing her daily ride in the bicycle, Serika must be working" working?
"Oh, Serika works?" I asked, Hoshino snickered.
"Sure does, that little cat is a very diligent girl, though she never tells us what she is doing, but often times she comes back late to school because of her part time jobs" she answered, even when they have their debt problem she still is working? Even when I expected them to do it it's still admirable.
"I don't suppose you girls know where she is working, do you?" I asked, Ayane shook her head.
"Unfortunately, no" answered Hoshino "the little cat is very cagey as to where exactly she works at any given moment, no matter, I'm sure we'll find her soon, actually we were thinking on going out for dinner today, once Shiroko is back, there is this place called Shiba Seki Ramen over at the centre of the district, wanna join?" she asked with a bit of a grin, mmh, I heard of 'ramen' before, I remember a particular world of the Persean League having such a dish as a planetary specialty but I don't remember which one, it had that weird name owing to the fact that almost each planet in the Persean League had the lingua franca of the Persean League, that being Terran English, but also their own language, and I had to learn atleast three of them, not a fun experience to say the least.
"Ramen, you say? Never tried it before, okay then, I'll go" I answered, Nonomi almost gasped and even Hoshino had her eyes wide.
"You never ate ramen, Sensei?" asked Nonomi, I shook my head.
"Most of my diet was made out of spacer rations and the odd vat grown meat dish once I got enough money for it" Hoshino grimaced.
"Eugh, spacer rations don't sound good, are you telling me you ate those food bars they show in science fiction?" she asked, ah yes, in my time surfing the web in this place I found several movies that showed characters eating bars that looked suspiciously like what I ate, I nodded.
"Something similar, it tastes about as good as you'd expect" I replied, Nonomi, Ayane and Hoshino looked at me with a mix of disgust and pity.
"Poor Sensei, he never ate homecooked food" said Nonomi with a pitying tone, "don't worry Sensei, tonight you'll know what real meat tastes like" I think something got lost on translation.
"Hold on now…" I got cut off by Hoshino.
"No, no, no, don't thank us Sensei, I don't want to imagine what it feels like to eat food made out of bugs" yes, something definitely went missing, it's not like my whole diet was based off spacer rations, but by the looks of it they would not budge on me correcting them so I didn't say anything else to correct them.
"Whatever you say, I just hope I'm not imposing on any plan you had previously" I replied, Hoshino waved her hand dismissively.
"Not at all, Sensei" she said with a dismissive tone, "we did invite you after all, just relax and don't worry about paying us back".
I didn't notice it was getting late, the sun was already setting by the time I was in the school building, it was exactly 7:30, almost time for dinner for most people, by the time, I sat on a chair and decided to pass the time looking at the web through my TriPad, well, I also told Sierra to see if she could connect herself to the Clearnet to see if there was any trouble I should worry about relating to the Abydos students, which she did, sending me a text message on a private channel with a screenshot of a chatgroup between what seems to be a gang planning on kidnapping one of the Abydos students, unfortunately the gang was very cagey about who they were targeting, using a lingo I didn't understand or simply referring to the target as "her", regardless I gestured to Hoshino to come over and simply showed her the screenshot, Hoshino's eyes opened a bit, showing a bit of deviousness, her smile widened a bit.
"Ohooo? It seems we still have some whippersnappers with some fight in them, kidnapping one of us? I wonder who that could be" she thought out loud.
"Eh, what are you talking about?" asked Nonomi, Hoshino looked at her.
"Sensei found out that the Kata Kata jerks plan on kidnapping one of us tonight" Hoshino smiled "thanks for warning us, Sensei, oooh, looks like they also talk about where they will be, mmmh, would you look at that, that street is near Shiba Seki Ramen" Ayane became concerned.
"Does that mean Serika is in danger?" she asked, I grimaced, then an idea popped into my mind, maybe now it would be a good time to see how good my new additions to SCHALE would do.
"Hoshino, mind if someone accompanies us to dinner?" I asked, the girl tilted her head.
"Uh, sure but why" I smiled, "I recently recruited someone over to SCHALE, I want to see how good she does in a combat situation" I crossed one leg "she claims to be an expert in that regard, I figured you girls could use the help" Hoshino thought about it for a few seconds before nodding.
"Okay, we'll wait for her as well" I shook my head "no need, I'll just tell her to go straight for Shiba Seki Ramen, we'll wait for Shiroko and then head out, she should be in the restaurant by the time we arrive" Hoshino grinned.
"Did you already make a girlfriend" instead of blushing as I think she expected me to do, I laughed.
"Ha! In your dreams, Takahashi and even if I did you think I'd tell you?" I asked with a grin "not a chance, girl, you won't find teasing material on me that easily" Hoshino kept her grin.
"Is that a challenge, Sensei?" I crossed my arms and grinned.
"You bet, if you lose its double the amount of homework for you, if I win, I'm buying you…a new blanket" Hoshino's eyes suddenly flared up.
"You're so on" she replied with a predatory grin.
Hoshino lost by the time Shiroko came, with a grin I made a reminder to give her double the workload of her usual homework by tomorrow, emphasizing Japanese and chemistry, the only subjects she really had to put on effort, as it turned out she was a good student, a slightly downcast Hoshino aside I also called Tsurugi for her first mission and called the pilot of SCHALE's helicopter to drive her to Shiba Seki Ramen's coordinates, during the time it took us to get to Shiba Seki we made small talk, from what Hoshino's favourite napping spot to speculation on who was Nonomi's parents, we arrived some twenty minutes later to Shiba Seki Ramen, which was right in the middle of the city, I also saw a helicopter that seemed to have just taken off with Tsurugi standing there, looking like she is trying to make herself small, but for the Abydos students it looked like a monster from a horror movie just arrived at their food stand, that was until Tsurugi saw me, her eyes widened and she quickly approached me.
"S-sensei, I-I arrived" she announced, I smiled.
"And just in time, Tsurugi" I turned to the Abydos students, "girls this is Kensaki Tsurugi, captain of the Justice Task Force in Trinity and also one of my very first recruits in SCHALE" I grin a bit "please be nice to her, she is a bit shy" Hoshino's eyes narrowed and a sly smirk appeared on her face when she heard that Tsurugi was the JTF's captain.
"Hoooh, the JTF's captain? Sensei, you must have rookie's luck to have been able to snag her as your recruit" she inspected the black-haired girl who suddenly found the floor very interesting, "hah, never thought Kensaki-san was actually a big introvert, names Takahashi Hoshino, pleasure to meet you, Kensaki-san" Hoshino held her hand over to her which Tsurugi timidly took.
"P-pleasure to meet you too" she replied with a stutter, Ayane looked a bit worried.
"S-sensei, a-are you sure she is, okay?" Hoshino interjected.
"Naaah, she is fine, girl is just a bit shy, is all" she approached Tsurugi with a smile "hey, wanna eat ramen? This place has the best ramen this side of Kivotos" Tsurugi looked at Hoshino shyly
"R-Ramen?" she asked, Hoshino grinned.
"Yeah, I'm sure it's better than whatever you get in the ghost realm, come on, this the place" Hoshino patted Tsurugi and guided her to Shiba Seki, with us in tow. I can't believe this girl, did she just pat someone's back and talk to them like they were an old time friend? I guess you can afford that if you're someone like Hoshino.
Serika's face when she saw us enter the restaurant, she was working in was like a soldier staring down the barrel of a grav tank while trying not to piss himself. However, she had a sense of professionalism, so she approached us with a strained smile.
"W-welcome to Shiba Seki Ramen, how may I help you?"
But Hoshino wasn't about to let her off the hook
"Yo, Serika, I didn't know you worked here!" exclaimed the narcoleptic, though her smile clearly said otherwise, "get us a table for five please!"
Serika regarded the pink-haired drowsy gremlin with an increasingly strained smile and guided us to our seats, taking our orders as well. While the three girls talked Tsurugi and I stayed quiet, I because I was busy keeping an eye on the gangers' chatroom to see when they would move in with their plan. Tsurugi meanwhile, was doing her very best at looking like a nervous wreck, to be honest I felt bad for involving her in an uncomfortable situation, but I did need the manpower. However, I wasn't about to make it too uncomfortable for her or make her feel left out so to try and encourage her to talk I left my new phone on the table and asked her.
"So, Tsurugi, I heard you're known as "Trinity's strategic weapon', mind telling us what that is about?" I asked her with a small smile. Hoshino looked at Tsurugi, herself looking away from the rest of us.
"Hooo? That's right, she kind of is part of the big guns of Trinity, what's your secret, Kensaki-san?" asked Hoshino, Tsurugi looked up to Hoshino
"W-well, m-my Mystic, for starters" replied Tsurugi "I-it amplifies the overall impact of my shotguns, almost like an energy blast" Hoshino leaned in.
"Oh? Riiiight, I saw the videos as well, its almost like one of those superhero movies in real life" the narcoleptic grinned, "I wish I had a superpower like yours"
Tsurugi smiled softly, slowly but surely, as the dinner progressed, she answered questions, made comments and even made small quips, a small step for her to fortunately come out of her shell, meanwhile I already paid the tab and mulled over the gangers trying to kidnap one of us, I concluded it had to be Serika. Sierra had covertly tracked the IPs of all the phones in the chatroom, they have all been waiting here since before we arrived, they also talked about waiting for all the customers to leave. By this point almost half an hour passed, and we were ready to leave…except we weren't.
"Serika, could you come here for a moment?" I told the cat-eared girl, she came over, still giving us a strained smile, I dropped my own smile and looked at her with a serious look "we recently hacked on one of the Kata Kata Helmet gang's chatrooms, they're talking about kidnapping one of you and I think that's specifically YOU, Serika" I told her, Serika stiffened and frowned.
"Dammit, those jerks, they even know where I work"
"Don't worry, Serika, we won't let those asses do anything to you while we're here, besides, we got ourselves Tsurugi-san, if we ask her nicely, she can bulldoze the entire gang" commented Hoshino.
"We can't discount the possibility of them breaching into the shop…I'd rather this restaurant doesn't become collateral damage, fortunately Si-I-I managed to track the IPs of their phones, which I think are from their bosses, one of them had signal five minutes ago on an alleyway facing this building, they also mentioned having artillery"
Hoshino grinned
"Oh, so they're throwing all they have at us?"
"What they have left, anyways" I corrected, I looked at the five girls, "Serika, at what time do you clock out?"
"Huh? O-oh, um in thirty minutes" she replied, then I looked at Tsurugi, Shiroko and Hoshino, an idea started to form in my head.
"Getting all of you in the field is a bit excessive, I think Tsurugi, Shiroko and Hoshino should be the ones to clear the street of the ganger remnants" I said, Serika looked surprised.
"Hang on, I don't need protecting, I can handle my-"I cut her off.
"They are probably looking for you specifically, Serika, having you protected by at least some of us will make sure that you don't get immediately captured or turned into mist by using that art-" I paused, Sierra mentioned they have artillery, while these students have demonstrated that not even a headshot from rifle-calibre fire can kill them, artillery is a whole different thing, "you don't die from artillery fire, do you?" I asked, Hoshino snorted while the other simply stayed quiet, looking at me directly as if I said something stupid.
"No, sensei, don't worry, worst thing it will do is knock us down and then wake up with a bad headache, and that's if it's a direct hit" well that was a relief, still.
"Even so, artillery can disrupt our formation, they may also have smoke ammunition, no, three people to attack while I and Nonomi escort Serika out is good enough, good thing I came with my suit on, Ayane, can you control your drone from inside the school?" the elf-girl nodded.
"It will take a while for me to bring it here, five minutes, most likely,"
"Do it now, while Serika still has time left on her shift, I want the location of that artillery they say they have by the time we're ready to leave, those guys are the only ones that haven't talked on their phones so I can't track them, and it would take too much time for me to track all the phones in their chatrooms individually" I ordered, then I turned to Hoshino, Shiroko and Tsurugi "Your next objective after you clear the street is to take down that artillery battery, will you be able to handle it or should I send Nonomi with you once you're done?" Hoshino waved her hand dismissively.
"Nah, relax sensei, to be honest, Tsurugi-san would be enough for this mission, we'll be able to handle it, right Tsurugi-san?" she asked, Tsurugi, much to my surprise, changed her demeanor from shy and somewhat cute, to serious, the black-haired girl nodded.
"Yes, knowing my own capabilities and that of Takahashi Hoshino, us two could take down the gang remnants on our own, you need not fear, sensei" I smiled.
"Good, so while we wait for Serika to finish and for Ayane to scout out the artillery piece" I looked back at Serika with the same smile "waiter, more of the same please, my treat"
Ayane managed to find the artillery piece before Serika finished her shift, thank the Heavens…if that piece of obsolete machinery can even be considered an artillery piece, that "Pak 88" wouldn't even count as a mortar in a frontier world, regardless, all of us got prepared to leave, with Ayane, Nonomi, Serika and I going through a back door of the restaurant. Once we were out the three-man team of Shiroko, Tsurugi and Hoshino came out hot…I had already seen Shiroko's and Hoshino's fighting style. To give an idea, Shiroko fights like an operative from the Heg's special forces, she fights dirty, always aiming for places where it hurts, both from her gun and when she engages in CQC, Hoshino is a crowd control girl and a tank, she tanks hard and hits equally as hard, it also helps she is fast as a horse, Tsurugi by contrast is a menace, like a bulldozing Dun Scaith dreadnought, she hits hard, fast and no matter how many bullets you put into her, she just won't stop, I watched in awe as the girl rushed forward against a ten student squad and utterly subdued them in fifteen seconds without Shiroko or Hoshino.
"Wow, it's one thing for Tsurugi-san to say it but to actually see it? Damn, what do they feed kids these days?" I couldn't help but agree.
"Everyone, I located the artillery piece, it's ten minutes from here!" exclaimed Ayane, her, Nonomi, Serika and I were hunkered down inside a run-down apartment building, where we were sure they wouldn't try to bomb only to bring the place down on us, "I'm marking it down"
"Thanks, Ayane, proceeding to discipline the whippersnappers" replied Hoshino.
"Gaaaaaaahhh!" screamed Tsurugi, yeah, Tsurugi is also a different beast when fighting, like a literal beast, I've been hearing her for the past ten minutes when they started fighting.
"Ugh, I'll never get used to Tsurugi-san screaming like that" commented Serika with a uncomfortable look, "she already looks scary, those screams make me think I'm fighting a ghost" I snorted.
"Maybe that's the idea" I replied, watching the small squad advance to the artillery piece's position, apparently near the base we destroyed earlier in the week.
About thirteen minutes later Hoshino told us they were done with the clean-up, even taking some liberties in looting what they could. I dismissed Tsurugi and the rest of us went to the school, of course we made a post-mission report, but nothing was out of the ordinary so I will skip that. Just as I was about to leave them, I was stopped by Serika.
"Hey, um…Sensei" I looked back at her.
"Just call me Martin, Serika, I hate that title anyways" I corrected, for some reason she blushed…why is everyone so cagey about using first names?
"Right, um, Martin, I just wanted to thank you for, you know"she said with an embarrassed tone I smiled.
"Hey, if this is about me pre-empting your kidnapping attempt, don't worry I-" Serika cut me off.
"No, it's not that, I" she paused, correcting me before that, quite frantically in fact, she took a deep breath and looked up at me "what I mean was giving us the money, you know, half of what you had" I stopped and turned to her fully, "before you came we were literally scrapping the barrel to make ends meet and pay the interest of our loan…if you didn't come then" once again she paused "we wouldn't have been able to keep the school. This school, this is our home away from home, you saved us from being homeless" I paused, for all that these girls had some sort of inexplicable powers and bullets didn't affect them, they were still children, children that dealt with stress that broke adults, I smiled and patted her head
"It's nothing Serika, like I said, you girls shouldn't have to worry about paying bills or debt or what have you, you should worry about homework, exams, your makeup, the boy that keeps sending you lookies across class" I teased a bit with that last part, making her blush, then I continued "you girls have been dealing with stress that could break even us adults, at an age where you're not mentally prepared for it, that was the least I could do to help you girls have some sense of normalcy" I smiled, "now, go home, sleeping early and waking up early is a Panacea for a hard worker like you"