AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Alright, let me get this out of the way. Concerning they, there's not anything wrong with the singular they and that's not even a recent thing. I've read older books or played games, one even just last month, which occasionally threw in the singular they, even for people with a known gender, and I've also seen plenty of people talk like that with using they now and again over he or she so that's just a habit I picked up but it's not just me. The vast majority of the time Ragna's referenced in the previous chapter it ain't with they either. As a whole word across the entire chapter, referencing anyone at all in narration or dialog, it only shows up 60 times, 78 if you count "their", and 21 of those are referencing Ragna. He or his, exclusively referencing Ragna, shows up 112 times. And the students use he or his too, they're very far from using they only or anything. I don't think I'm doing anything egregious here and I'm not gonna change it or address this again outside DMs. Like to try and avoid bloating the word count before the actual chapter addressing reviews unless it's a commonly mentioned thing or I can't respond cause guest review or DMs were disabled.
Day had long since passed, leaving the cloudless night sky full of shining stars above the desert of Abydos. Despite the state of the district, there was still a good amount of life left to the once prosperous school, with a handful of people walking the streets or shops open even into the late evening. Some people even enjoyed the night, as while Abydos wasn't exactly an unpopulated area, the lower population density and abandoned sectors meant the light pollution of the sky was minimal compared to most of Kivotos, letting one see a starry night that not many other districts could enjoy without the need to go far from home and civilization.
But Hoshino's evening stroll wasn't for looking at the stars.
Everyone at Abydos worked long, hard days to ensure the continued survival of their school, but for Hoshino she had her own secret, unpaid side job she did nightly. Once the sun went down and she was certain the rest of her friends were gone and asleep, Hoshino loaded up her gear to patrol the wild streets of Abydos to ensure the safety of it's citizens. The shadow of night always made criminals more bold than the day and somebody had to be around to make the handful of remaining citizens still feel safe. The hours may've been long and one reason she tried to sneak in whatever naps she could during the day, but Abydos deserved whatever fighting chance it could get.
That didn't mean it wasn't tiring.
"Haaah…" Hoshino yawned to herself as she watched another group of helmeted troublemakers she'd got done beating up fleeing far from the current pocket of civilization she patrolled. "Guess none of them know anything..."
It was a good thing that Ragna had called for a break for the day to discuss their new findings tomorrow instead of today. It was… Certainly troubling and Hoshino had given it some though already, but, well, the old folk like her still needed their sleep between working almost all day and night. She'd been at this patrol for a while nonstop and still had a ways to go. But she usually took an occasional brief break to have a snack and sit for even a few minutes just to give her legs a breather from all the walking. Was now a good time for one? She'd chased off any problem children in this spot and tonight had been weirdly quiet compared to her usual patrols, was it because of the base Abydos wrecked earlier? It was unfortunate, honestly. Hoshino had been hoping to perhaps find some more crumbs of evidence about the Helmet Gang's mysterious backer, but all her searching came up empty.
"Bit late for a stroll on a school night, isn't it?"
Hoshino nearly jumped at the sudden, recognizable deep voice that came from behind her. With a turn and not remotely able to hide the surprised expression on her face, Hoshino saw Ragna walking toward her from slightly down the street. "H-Huh? Sensei? What're you doing out this late?"
"Same thing you are." Ragna said, putting his hand on his sword's pommel. "Looking around the district a bit and dealing with anyone causing problems."
"Aw, me? I was, uh, just taking a walk." Hoshino lied with such an unconvincing voice she immediately regretted it. No, that was stupid, no way he was going to buy that. He had to of seen the girls running if he was this close when he called to her.
Ragna's slanted eyes would've said everything, even without sarcastic words. "Uh-huh, so blasting that girl in the face was just your way of saying hi then?"
Yep. Caught red handed.
Hoshino let out a long sigh, cheeks flushing with heat. How'd she get caught like this? Years of doing this where not one other student stumbled on her and yet she gets found out by the adult instantly.
… Or was this yet another thing the mysterious man just 'happened' to know?
"Uhe~, guess I'm busted then. Being found out like this on your first day here… This is so embarrassing." Trying to act casual, best to keep things light for now, Hoshino said while averting eye contact and scratching her cheek nervously. "Can you, um, just pretend you didn't see anything?"
"Heh, don't worry. I won't tell anyone else at Abydos what I saw." Ragna said with a reassuring, almost teasing grin. "On one condition. I'm coming with you for the rest of your patrol."
"Huh?" Hoshino stiffened, looking directly into Ragna's eye. That was even worse! What kind of a ransom was that!? "Sensei, that's not pretending nothing happened!"
"What can I say, people like to call me stubborn." Ragna said with a hint of mockery in his voice, the grin quickly turning smug.
"Arg, did you come here just to tease me!?" Hoshino slumped forward in defeat, looking down to hide her red face.
"Nah, that's just a bonus." No shame in his voice, Ragna answered.
Hoshino was half ready to bury her face in her hands. Ragna wasn't just a potential menace to safety but to her heart too! How was she going to get out of this one? Say it's too dangerous? Nope, couldn't do that when the guy had more strength in one arm than most people had in their whole body. Fake cutting her patrol short? No, then it'd be even worse if she ran into him again.
"I wanted to talk to you about a few things, actually." The man added.
Hoshino froze, looking back up in confusion as some of her embarrassment faded. "Uhe? Me? What did you want to talk with oji-san about?"
"Thiiiiiiiis might take a bit, how about we have a seat and take a break?" Ragna said, gesturing to a nearby bench.
Hoshino closed her eyes in thought, feeling a sudden sense of growing unease in her chest. When somebody said that, it was often a more serious matter, and if Ragna wanted to single her out then it couldn't have been anything to do with today's revelation or the rest of the school. It had to of been about her. Yet, with only knowing him for not even a full day there should've been nothing to talk about. Well, except perhaps one thing...
Maybe she had been a little too overtly suspicious. It was hard not to with the danger Ragna could've posed though.
"I guess it's a good time to relax for a few minutes~." Putting on a mask of friendliness, Hoshino said as she strolled over to the bench. "These old bones could use a rest anyway."
Ragna soon followed her, taking a seat on Hoshino's right after removing his sword and leaning it against the bench. The red coated man crossed his leg and leaned back against the bench in a casual manner. But his words were anything but. "I'll get right to the point, so don't try waving this off with some excuse. I know you don't trust me."
Hoshino's body went tense, face falling to a frown. So that was it, huh? She almost considered trying to play it off, but something told her that wouldn't work with how forceful Ragna was. So, it led to Hoshino's words coming out resigned, yet with a hint of her usual light hearted tone. "Sensei sure is blunt as a hammer."
On the one hand, part of Hoshino had tried to keep her suspicions a bit secret, but the other part of her meant it as a subtle warning. Ragna wasn't some hapless person who could barely defend himself or make it to her school. If that were the case, then even if he was an adult Hoshino would've still carefully watched him for inevitably being a bad influence on her younger classmates she had to protect, but she wouldn't have been too worried beyond that. But that was not the case. The man could launch a tank down the street and was probably tougher than most of Kivotos if it matched his strength.
If Ragna wanted to be, he wasn't just a potential bad influence. He was a threat, one she could deal with if it truly came to that but the other girls didn't have the strength she had and Hoshino had to protect them. If Ragna was so determined to stay in the district, Hoshino felt better knowing she could keep an eye on him and try to figure out what his game was around Abydos rather than off on his own all the time.
It was hard not to be a little skeptical with how little she knew about the man besides the fact he was aware of information that was impossible with his story. The Foreclosure Taskforce wasn't even an official replacement for the Abydos Student Council, there's no way it would've been recognized by anything adjacent to the General Student Council on a student registry and the man didn't merely suspect a conspiracy, he knew. Few people would have the confidence he had without being utterly certain of their decision, and there was no way he had enough to jump to that conclusion from the one meeting everyone had. There were only a few ways somebody would know that and his intuition felt too good to merely be based on guessing clues…
And yet, if that truly were the case, some of his actions just didn't make sense to Hoshino. He'd quickly gone trying to gather evidence for said conspiracy, he'd immediately answered Ayane's call for aid, and he was ready to stay in their district to help however he could to find more evidence and must've been part of the reason tonight was so quiet if he patrolled the streets. Plus, well, while like hell she trusted the GSC much being put in the position he was had to mean something. If this was some kind of long con, why bother exposing details to complicate things when Ragna's strength could've made taking the school easier? It was so… confusing.
It didn't mean she had to trust him, however.
"Yeah, well, I always prefer the direct approach." Ragna said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "And if we're going to be working together figuring out who's behind all this, then it's better if we can at least try to get along without constantly thinking I'm the bad guy."
"Mhm, that's really easy to say." Hoshino said, narrowing her eyes slightly and letting some of her friendliness drop. If Ragna was going to get right to the point like this and already knew her suspicions, then there wasn't any point in trying to fake being casual.
"Yeah, it is." Ragna casually with with a wave of his hand. "And I know this isn't just about you either, you're worried about everyone else too so I get being extra cautious. Because you're the only third year in the school it's pretty natural to feel like you have to look out for the others and be responsible for keeping them safe. That's why you're taking on these night patrols all by yourself to keep the district safe and lighten their load a bit, right?"
"Uhehe, when you put it like that it sounds kind of embarrassing…" Hoshino trailed off, looking down at the ground and focusing on nothing in particular. That was almost exactly it. She was the oldest at Abydos, a year ahead of everyone else. It was her duty to look after her underclassmen and try to set a good example for them, yet also still be an approachable person who looked after others. Just like what Hoshino herself had gotten as a first year…
"You can't read minds too, can you sensei?" Half serious, Hoshino turned her focus back toward the man. He really had an almost supernatural knack for discerning a bunch of information off of so little.
Ragna scoffed. "Hah, no, I can't. I've just kind of been in a similar situation. Not exactly the same, but I have two younger siblings. We all had a... Pretty rough childhood, and as the oldest I always felt like it was my responsibility to look after them, to do whatever I could to protect my siblings from anything or anyone that could hurt them. Even after we all grew up and got separated, part of me never stopped worrying."
Oh. For once, that explained the other's freakishly good intuition on this topic. "Then, sensei, you understand why little old me's not ready to just blindy trust an adult like you when you show up conveniently knowing everything."
"Yeah, I do. Hell, I was something like that when I was a kid too. Took a bit for somebody to get me to ease up." Ragna replied with an unusually light hearted, nostalgic even, grin.
Hoshino blinked. She hadn't been expecting that. Was that why he was so… Persistent in trying to be friends? "What do you mean?"
"When my siblings and I got moved to a church, there was a nun looking after it. I remember when we first got there, Jin and S- Er…" Ragna stopped for a second, scratching his head with a light scowl, like he was trying to sort out some inner conflict. "Noel, had fallen asleep on the way there. The Sister just wanted to give them a proper bed to sleep in instead of the floor, but I still got in her way at first and didn't want to let her even touch them. Because damn near everyone I'd known up to that point outside my family always had bad intentions for us and I didn't trust anyone. But there wasn't a mean bone in her body and she ended up being one of the kindest people I ever knew, she never had anything bad in mind. Never thought I'd be on the other end of that situation though…" The man muttered the last sentence to himself more than Hoshino.
Hoshino stayed quiet, listening closely yet somewhat lost in her own thoughts. It wasn't exactly the same, but the overall experience and sentiment was… Very familiar to her, so much so it was even making her feel a bit unnerved despite the fact it explained a bit about Ragna. "It's hard to live like that, sensei..."
Ragna's face turned toward Hoshino, an understanding look on it. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you know what that's like too."
Hoshino looked away from Ragna, staying quiet to instead gaze out into the sparsely populated streets of Abydos. Ragna was telling her a lot of personal information out of the blue like that, granted she had still prompted a bit of it. It answered some of her questions and yet left plenty still hanging. Was he expecting her to start opening up too or something? She could empathize, she'd gone through a period in her first year that wasn't so different, but it didn't mean she had to start revealing all her secrets too. But if his story was true, then he would've understood the story behind her perspective better than many could. It'd been so long since she'd talked to anybody about it… But she still just… Couldn't do that, not to somebody she barely knew, no matter how much they would understand.
Ragna sighed, his voice lightening up slightly. "Look, you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, my point is that I get where you're coming from. So, I'm not gonna ask you to suddenly trust me and act like we're best friend. Talk is cheap."
Hoshino tilted her head, returning her gaze back to Ragna. "So what do you want then?"
"What I am asking you is to at least give me a chance to earn it. If you're always watching me and waiting for the other shoe to drop and when to point that gun at me, then I'm never gonna have that chance in the first place and we're not going to be able to focus on dealing with the current threat as much." Ragna stated matter of factly.
Well, he wasn't exactly wrong in that… Provided some of that threat didn't come from Ragna himself, of course. "Sensei," Hoshino started, keeping his voice low but not hostile. "Then there's a few things I want to ask you.."
Ragna uncrossed his legs and leaned forward on the bench. "Sure, hit me."
Hoshino paused, looking up and down the man carefully, considering just how far she wanted to push for now. "How did you know somebody was behind the Helmet Gang? You weren't just guessing, you already knew before you even saw them."
"I already told you earlier, Hoshino. A gang constantly attacking your school like that doesn't make sense. Sure, it's an important building and you're some of the only people who can stand up to them, but this district is massive, they could take their own corner and hardly ever run into any of you. Makes more sense that they'd find easier targets or at least stop for a while to regroup when they keep losing. Unless they're just that damn stupid." Ragna answered without blinking.
"Oh, so sensei's just paranoid about everyone then huh~?" Hoshino added with a hint of teasing, though her voice still largely remained weighty. She still… Wasn't entirely convinced by his argument. It did make some sense, yet that was still a huge leap to make.
"Hey, I didn't say that, dammit." Ragna grumbled with a roll of his eyes. "Back where I come from, I'm used to some sneaky bastard always having their hands in everything. Trust me, I do mean everything. So I wasn't gonna just let that idea sit there without checking it out. If I was wrong, well then who cares we move onto the next problem. I don't think that's much different from you thinking I'm up to something."
"Ah, I kind of set myself up for that one, didn't I? Sensei's a mean adult..." Hoshino slouched forward in her seat with a deep sigh and returned her gaze to the floor.
Silence then descended between the pair, leaving Hoshino alone with her thoughts for uncomfortably long. With nothing else to do, the girl tapped her finger rhythmically against the cold steel of the bench while trying to think of what to say next. Did Ragna expect her to say something? There was more she wanted to ask, she did mention 'a few things', but would that be too suspicious? As cautious as she was, Hoshino didn't want to push him away from Abydos with how much they needed him, not while he was still less of a risk than the Helmet Gang and their sponsor.
A loud huff finally broke the silence, alongside the sounds of Ragna's body shifting. "Alright, I guess that's a long enough break then."
Looking up, Hoshino saw the man standing and holstering his sword around their back, moving to stand in front of her. "Hoshino, you don't have to fully trust me and I don't expect you to until I've done something to earn it, but I'm not here to hurt anyone and I'm just here to help all of you save your school. If I didn't care about any of you, I wouldn't bother getting myself tangled up in all this when I could go somewhere else for a far easier job. We're going to figure this out."
Ragna extended an inviting hand to help Hoshino up from the bench. "So go ahead and keep an eye on me as long as you want, but let me help you without expecting me to stab you in the back at any moment."
Hoshino's gaze went between Ragna's hand and his face. She had plenty of reasons to distrust adults, they always had some kind of hidden agenda. But at the same time, with Ragna's experience, it sounded like there was a time he wasn't so different from how she used to be, even still was in ways, where she once expected almost everyone to be hiding something. But here he now was trusting her to share so many personal details and only asking for a chance. She still didn't fully trust Ragna, even if maybe he wasn't as bad as some adults were that didn't make him suddenly better than them all. Even if he was helping Abydos, even if he didn't have the same ill intentions whoever was after her school had, there had to still be something he was hiding. There always was with adults.
Miracles that said otherwise didn't exist.
But, well, maybe that was exactly what Ragna once thought. She'd gotten scolded for always assuming the worst in people once and lightened up because of it. That valuable lesson felt like a lifetime ago though… One of the most important people to her had been the kind of person who'd always help another, no matter how little sense it made. Would it be that unreasonable to give him at least a chance to prove himself?
Hoshino slid herself off the bench without taking the man's hand, stretching her arms in an exaggerated manner with a subdued smile on her face. "Alright, sensei. But, since you were so inviting about it, I'll be watching you closely~."
Ragna groaned, palming right to his face. "Well, guess I kind of gave you permission for that. Fine, whatever. Let's get going, I guess. Another hour or so should be enough to wrap up for the night."
"Oh, um, sensei." Hoshino's voice suddenly turned nervous. "Remember to keep this little meeting secret from everyone else. You promised and you remember what you said about promises to Shiroko-chan, right~?"
"Yeah, yeah. I didn't forget." Ragna waved his hand a few times for emphasis. "Hope you don't mind me coming along for more of these though."
"H-Huh!?" Hoshino stood up perfectly straight, her eyes wide. "T-That wasn't part of the deal!"
"I'm gonna be coming out here with or without you, so might as well tag along." Ragna plainly stated without hesitation.
"Sensei, don't you have important adult stuff to do or something for SCHALE? Skipping work is setting a bad example for your students." Hoshino whined, trying to turn the tables on the other. Sure, she wanted to keep an eye on him, but that didn't mean he had to be around her all the time!
"This is my work." Ragna stated without an ounce of shame and smug look. "Besides, maybe you'll get a better chance to judge me for yourself."
Ah… She couldn't argue that point. The man really was so stubborn…
"Uhehe…" Hoshino let out a long sigh. "I guess I can't win with you. Well, I guess we're off then."
Hoshino still didn't trust Ragna. There were still some… Strange things which didn't fully add up to Hoshino, things she almost wanted to ask Ragna now yet at the same time Hoshino didn't want to appear like she expected some kind of betrayal. But at least their commitment to help Abydos was there and it was something desperately needed now more than ever. All the other adults she'd met had it out for Abydos and even the GSC, who weren't adults, were useless. No matter what he was hiding, it was probably better than the alternative. For now.
So… Maybe she could give him a small chance.
Eventually, Ragna's night time outing with Hoshino had come to an end and the man had returned to the abandoned building he'd picked out as temporary lodgings, situated atop the roof of it while he tended to a fire made out of some wood from the decrepit furniture within. It didn't take him long to find though, the building was the exact one he'd used the first time he came to Abydos in the original timeline. Sure as shit saved him plenty of time actually scouring the desert for a place, that had been a pain in the ass. Gave him a good chance to pick up a couple of extra personal supplies he didn't get from Angel 24 too. A few supplies which his surprisingly enthusiastic companion had insisted on…
"Woohoo! I always wanted to go camping!" Arona's voice was filled with childlike glee as it came out of the Shittim Chest, which had been propped onto a makeshift stand to let Ragna converse with Arona while cooking and so she could see the stars. The girl had, somehow, changed her outfit from that of her school uniform into attire suitable for camping. The color scheme was similar to her usual outfit though, possessing a bulky sky blue jacket with white shorts and leggings.
Ragna couldn't even be surprised she could do that after everything else. Observation was such bullshit…
"Feels like you're cheating calling it camping from in there." Ragna said sarcastically, with a light hint of teasing, while turning over some of the foil packets he had on the fire. It was rather basic and far from his best work with the limited supplies he bought on short notice since he didn't want to spend too long preparing this late, but still would be a decent meal of some meat and roasted vegetables with a bit of seasoning. Well, and also the slice of cake for Arona that she had practically begged him to buy.
"Is not! I've got the right clothes and my own sleeping bag for it that you don't!" Arona, enthusiasm not dropping in the slightest, responded while energetically raising her hand high with the item in question and waving it around.
"And I'm the one sitting by the campfire while cooking the food out in the desert instead of relaxing by the ocean." Not missing a beat, Ragna answered with a tone like that of a parent purposefully giving their child a hard time.
Arona let out a very audible pout, the same kind of expression plain on her face in favor of an actual counterargument.
Not a second later, Arona's presence and voice suddenly came from beside Ragna instead of inside the Shittim Chest. "Well, now we're both here, so I'm camping more than you are!"
Ragna's expression felt flat, turning toward Arona, still in her camping outfit, to see her looking smug about herself with their arms crossed. Arona was really wielding the incredibly difficult to use power of Self-Observation, the power to rewrite the world itself capable of doing virtually anything up to changing time itself, an ability often called 'The Power of God'…
To win a petty argument.
"Arona, are you kidding me." Ragna's palm slammed into his face. "I know how draining doing something like that can be."
"It's not thaaaaat bad. It's just enough that you're still the only one around who can see me anyway. I can keep this up long enough to eat! I don't have to worry as much about using a little energy since you're pretty tough.." Arona answered dismissively, the proud look not leaving her face. It was soon replaced with a curious glint as the girl switched gears on a dime and crouched down near the fire, staring intently at the cooking meal. "So is it done yet?"
And just completely brush off what he said, why did he bother? Well, if she was already doing this might as well let the girl eat here instead of inside the tablet since he could somehow bring things inside. He wasn't even sure why she needed to eat when Arona could seemingly create almost anything in her space, but Arona said 'real' food tasted better and it clearly made her happy, wasn't like Ragna needed all the food either, so it was whatever. "Yeah, fine. Should be just a few minutes."
"Weeeeeell, if we've got some time…" With an almost mischievous shine to her eyes, Arona turned around and started poking through one of the bags Ragna had got the supplies in.
"Oh, no you don't." Knowing exactly what Arona was aiming for, Ragna snatched the boxed cake slice out of her hands the second she pulled it from the bag.
"EH!?" Arona's eyes went wide with pure horror, tears already starting to form at the loss of her treasured sweet she gazed longingly at in Ragna's hand. "Sensei, I thought that cake was for me!"
"You can have it after," Ragna not so lightly tapped Arona on the head with the box and got a sound out of her. "you eat normal food." AI or not, if Arona was going to look and act like a kid, she was getting treated like one. He had a feeling Arona wasn't actually any older than his other students anyway.
Arona's answer was a pout, looking at him with begging eyes to be allowed to ruin her appetite.
"Beg all you want, but you can wait 10 minutes for dessert." Not phased in the slightest at the same expression he'd seen on several other people, Ragna set the sweet on his right, the opposite side of Arona.
Arona let out a resigned whine only a child could. "Fiiiiiiiine… How about some spoooooooky campfire stories then~? Like about ghos-"
"No!" Ragna abruptly interjected with a stern, yet shaking word, pointing accusingly at Arona. "We are not telling ghost stories!"
Arona recoiled back in surprise. But it only lasted a moment, as the little brat's face started to turn toward something teasing, perhaps even a little smug, as she raised her hands forward with twitching fingers to try and look scary. "What's wrong, sensei? Scaaaaaaaaaared?"
"I am not scared." Ragna said way too quickly to be convincing. "You just… can't hit a ghost like everything else." Oh, sure, it was perfectly possible to cheat with something like Ars Magus or the Azure Grimoire to get around that.
Neither of which he could use now.
And that was the only reason. No other reason what so ever.
Fucking Terumi.
Arona started giggling uncontrollably, covering her mouth in an attempt to suppress it that ended in complete failure. "Whatever, hehe, you… hehe, say, sensei~."
"Hey, look at that, food's ready. Moving on." Switching subjects with all the subtly of a car crash, Ragna removed one of the foil packets from the fire and casually tossed it at the giggling gremlin's face, where it fell into her hands, to put a stop to it. "Eat and then you can have your cake."
Arona's eyes lit up at the completely successful and not at all obvious distraction and she quickly started peeling open her meal.
It only took another minute to get utensils passed out and both parties to start eating, with Arona almost inhaling her food.
"Mhm, sensei this is really good for campfire food!" In a brief moment of not having her mouth full, Arona praised with a content smile and heart for a halo.
"Don't act too impressed, not a whole lot I could do on short notice and this set up." Ragna said, though a faint smile worked its way onto his face despite his words. It was nice to get a chance to do something a little more relaxing though. It'd been a while since he'd done much cooking with how the final months of the time in his world had been almost one thing after the next. Good to see he hadn't lost his touch though.
Arona paused her meal, looking over Ragna curiously but with a tender smile spread over her features.
"What, do I have something on my face?"
"No, it's not that. I've just noticed you just seem more relaxed than most of the times we've talked." Arona commented with a cheery tone. "Did talking with Hoshino-san make you feel that much better? It seemed like it went well."
"Do I?" Ragna raised an eyebrow. It was nice to see everyone again, despite the issues, so that might've been part of it but that wasn't the only thing. "Not sure I'd say that. We just haven't had the chance to talk about anything that wasn't serious. It's been all business these last few days. It's nice, but still got plenty to worry about coming up. I still didn't expect Hoshino to trust me fast, but feel like that could've gone better."
Arona frowned. "What makes you say that?"
"Because I know her." Ragna said with a shake of his head. Talking with her more had brought up a few more out of context memories "I think what I said still helped a bit, but wasn't this damn hard the first time. Guess I'll just have to see how the next few days go."
He could understand the difficulties though. It had been a process for Ragna to learn to fully trust his family's caretaker at the church, but well, things had gone a little better with her first attempt at easing him up. Celica was always much better with people and was able to get along with virtually everyone like it was second nature.
Arona's expression fell slightly, but her tone was still optimistic. "Don't worry, sensei! If you become everyone's friend once, you can do it again!"
"Hey, I'm not saying things are gonna go badly, just not gonna be easy." Ragna said, jabbing his utensil in Arona's direction a few times. "Circumstances of me being here are different as hell and guess I underestimated how much it'd change things."
Arona's halo turned into a depressive dark blue with drops coming down it. "Mhm… You weren't with SCHALE the first time, right?"
Ragna nodded. "Yeah, that was one big difference. Might've screwed up a bit knowing so much too. Not like most of it was secret though, found out just about all of it within one day of being in Abydos the first time so didn't think it'd be a problem. Thought this position was supposed to make things easier, not harder. Half wondering if this was really the right idea."
"It was, sensei!" Arona interjected with an unusually aggressive tone, worry underneath it all. "Abydos is different, but when it comes to helping the rest of Kivotos, having an official position like this will make it a lot easier to work with other school. If something did happen and that's why time looped, then maybe you'll be in a better position to stop it this time."
"Woah, calm down Arona. I'm not gonna suddenly quit or anything. Just grumbling to myself." Putting his hand on the unusually unsettled looking girl's head, Ragna said reassuringly. Yeah… She was probably right about that. Fractured though his memory still was, he could already feel the truth in Arona's words. Abydos may've been particularly troubled, but no way could it be the only school with so many problems. There were already a few scenes which came to mind...
Arona's expression relaxed a bit, though it was still pensive. "You always seem really hesitant about your job..."
"I'll manage. Just because I complain, doesn't mean I hate everything about it." Ragna flashed a reassuring smile to the troubled girl, rubbing her head a few times. "Lot less worried about dealing with people like this or fighting, that's what I'm good at. I've got you as my assistant too if I ever need it, right? So stop looking so depressed and let's finish eating before the food gets cold."
The gesture worked, as Arona's childish smile returned and she quickly went back to finishing the remains of her meal.
Ragna, likewise, went back to his own food. There was a lot he was gonna have to deal with in the following week. But the next major thing was Serika being kidnapped, assuming events didn't change radically with how differently things were already going. That might be something he'd have to worry a little about later, but like hell he was going to not take preventive action just for the sake of maintaining future knowledge when people's lives were on the line. What was the point of knowledge if you didn't use it? It wasn't like the Dark War where he was an outsider to the time period and saying something could change a century's worth of history with completely unpredictable effects. He was part of these events.
Well, no matter. Hopefully, he'd be able to smooth things over with Abydos and befriend them again. He'd technically been in this kind of position once during the Dark War, knowing people well who viewed him as a stranger with how time travel was, but it wasn't really the same with how fragmented his memories had been and he'd only fully gotten them back right before he returned to his own time. Besides Jubei and Celica, he hadn't been particularly close to anyone from back then he consistently traveled with anyway. He definitely had a lot more respect for what Rachel must've went through so many times…
"Oh, sensei. I almost forgot."
Ragna glanced over to Arona. "Huh? What is it."
"I was still asleep when we left, so did you remember to tell Rin-san you're going to be gone from the SCHALE building for a while?" With the kind of innocence only a child could manage, Arona asked. "You just started and you're the only other person there besides Sora-san right now, so probably good to leave some notice."
Ragna froze. Oh, goddammit. He'd forgotten between all the returning memories and planning around what to do with Abydos
"Know what, that's not my problem right now." Ragna let out a guttural groan. "I'm dealing with that crap in the morning. She's gonna be mad anyway, so not bothering with a message now and going to enjoy a nice meal instead."
Some parts of his position still sucked. What a day it was going to be.