AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Aaaaand we're back! Sorry bout the delay, this one took a while due to the length, decided to move a few things into the next chapter or else this would've been a 16k word chapter, and because the story updates on JP did a number on my motivation, not in a good way either. Will see how much I end up using or not from that...

One quick note I also forgot to mention last chapter. Those of you who play Blue Archive know that a few characters, Nonomi as a particularly relevant example right now, sometimes end their sentences with a star symbol to indicate a more playful or cute style of speaking. UNFORTUNATELY, fanfiction's formatting doesn't appear to support it and will just delete the symbol so I've had to substitute a ~ sign for that function since I see it's sometimes used for a playful/cute tone. Because * doesn't look cute enough. If somebody does know a way to have the star symbol show up on this website and I'm just being stupid overlooking something, please let me know in the reviews somewhere.

Out of habit, Ragna was generally an early riser even when he didn't have the luxury of resting without worry of an attack, so by the time he woke up it was still on the earlier side of the morning. Even from within the dilapidated interiors of the abandoned building, Ragna could see the sky was clear, but with the sun only just beginning to rise it lacked the usual vibrant blue of midday with the sky's duller shade instead fitting the colder atmosphere that was yet to be baked in the scorching heat of the afternoon.

Rising to his feet, Ragna briefly stretched his body to help himself fully wake up. According to the time, even with that meeting with Hoshino he'd managed about an extra hour or so of sleep. Nice, no wonder he felt a little more rested. A little more of this and maybe Arona would get off his back about sleeping more. But, he could let the girl nap for a bit longer herself, he'd already woken her up once with his early habits.

He probably still had a short time before the rest of Abydos would start showing up at their school. Maybe he cou-

Ragna's eyes went wide.

Shit, Rin.

Ugh, he'd said that was future him's problem and now future Ragna was present Ragna. Well, he might as well rip the bandaid off now instead of trying to further delay and risk forgetting about it. The longer he waited, the angrier it was going to make the acting president. It was a bad idea to not tell anyone he was going to be out of office.

With a slowiness to his motions, as if he could somehow avert the inevitable by pushing it back even a few extra seconds, Ragna retrieved his phone and, after struggling for a minute to remember where to send a message via Momo Talk, found Rin and slowly typed up a brief message.

'Left for Abydos yesterday. Staying here for a while, won't be in the building.'

Without Arona to help, even with some of the extra accessibility feature she'd set up, typing with one hand was still annoyingly slow for Ragna so he kept it brief. No sense making this harder than it had to be.

"Alright, guess that's done. Might as well-"

The sound of Ragna's phone blaring in alarm cut the man off. With a creeping sense of dread, he looked a the number and recognized it as Rin's. The fact it hadn't even been 30 seconds since he'd sent the message somehow managed to give every ring a palpable sense of menace to it. Crap, this was going to suck.

With a groan to prepare himself. Ragna answered the phone and held it to his ear. "H-"

"Explain yourself."

"Hello to you too." Ragna answered with dry sarcasm. "If I knew you were going to call me this fast, I'd have skipped the text entirely."

"Ah, so I am to assume you merely sent such a brief message due to your difficulty typing instead of assuming this notice was good enough to run off and leave the SCHALE building unattended for a long period with no other notice?" Rin's tone was pointed and equally as dry.

… Yeah, sure, why not go with that.

"Uh-huuuh, yeah I prefer phone calls instead of texting because of that." Trying to make his voice sound as convincing and not at all like he was improvising, Ragna answered.

Rin somehow managed to make the ensuring silence so exasperated, Ragna could perfectly picture the girl pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Hey, hey." Ragna's voice suddenly turned stern. Why was he supposed to be feel like the bad guy here!? "I was told SCHALE has a lot of freedom to operate how I want. Abydos asked for help and so I came here. Busy dealing with something that's going to be easier to handle if I'm here instead of constantly going back and forth."

With a deep breath, Rin began speaking again. Her voice somewhat more level yet still firm. "Sensei, it's not as if you can't do something like this. I understand that with the size of Kivotos and on a long term assignment, constant travel back and forth is impractical even with railways. The Abydos School District is a problem we've, regretfully, never had the resources or time to try and properly address. If you're able to help those girls where we failed to, then I believe you're doing the exact kind of work the president hoped SCHALE would do. So far, I don't doubt that you're taking aspects of the job seriously in your own way."

Ragna restrained a sigh, his expression turning into a frown instead. Yeah, something about this was feeling a bit familiar and he could guess the direction. Well, Ragna supposed he could lighten up a little on her. The man knew she had to be working overtime to deal with getting Kivotos back in order as the acting president and was neck deep in bureaucracy. Filling that kind of position took a certain character and temperament, while Ragna knew he was not that type of person. "Look, Rin, I already said I'm not the kind of person who's good with office work or that kind of stuff, so I'm not gonna get this immediately. Wasn't planning on staying there yesterday, but found some bigger trouble than I expected and got a little caught up with that, so forgot to say anything, sorry."

The line went quiet for a few seconds.

"I see… I understand that mistakes or emergencies happen and it's a significant shift from whatever you're used to. Please, just try to be more careful with notifying the General Student Council before leaving next time." A hint softer, Rin said with an understanding, yet slightly scolding, tone. "I don't doubt your ability to handle part of the job, but your position has several aspects to it beyond that which still need doing, regardless of being comfortable or not. I've given some leeway while you adapt to your position, but it's important to eventually learn the stations of it as that can't last forever."

"And it's not going to. I made it through all the paperwork over what happened day one, didn't I?" Ragna fired back.

"Yes, you did. So, I know it's not out of your abilities and you're capable of it, even if needing some help. Please, just show it more often." Rin answered with words that almost sounded like approval. "We are both busy individuals, however, so I won't keep you any longer if there's nothing else. Between whatever situation came up and normal duties, I'm certain you'll have your hands full, but perhaps the situation with Abydos will help prepare for teaching at larger schools with a normal student body."

"Yeah, it-" Ragna paused for an entire second as his brain processed what Rin had said. "Sorry, what was that last part?"

"… Teaching…?" Rin's voice was near entirely flat, only the audible equivalent of an oncoming headache preventing it from being so. "What's in the title of your position."

God. Dammit. Ragna wanted to argue and say something, but no that was literally his job description and title right now. Was it even worth complaining Rin hadn't told him much if it was that obvious? Oh, sure he was more than confident in his ability to teach somebody in certain areas, how to fight, cook, tend to wounds, practical applied skills like that or hell even… Wasn't it called Physical Education? Those, he could do if he had to. But the way Jubei had taught him was a world apart from a typical school room where one learned academic subjects. If he had to do that then it sure as shit was going to be well outside what he was good at. It's not like he was stupid or anything, it's just those were COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS.

"What am I supposed to even TEACH out in a place like this?" Not bothering to hide his audible frustration much, Ragna answered. "Even I know there's no way every school's going to be teaching the same stuff!"

"You are correct, but there are common subjects and material taught across most schools. A large place like Kivotos could hardly function if there was not at least some common ground. For any material specific to each school, there should be ample notes within SCHALE for you. Although, given the nature of Abydos's situation, what's there may be sparse or not as up to date." Rin answered while obviously trying to keep her tone professional and not weary. "I hope that is your concern."

Ugh, that last sentence was just menacing. Not worth arguing over. "Yeah, sure, let's go with that. There any other surprises you wanna tell me about how I'm supposed to do this?"

The phone may have been silent, but it didn't stop Ragna from hearing the mental anguish coming from the other. The lack of words said plenty.

"As with most matters, you have a significant degree of freedom to conduct your job how you want." Rin finally said after composing herself. "An actual teacher in Kivotos is a rarity with the majority of lessons being handled by blu-rays, self study, or the occasional associate instructor robot, similar but distinct from your role. There is not exactly a standard 'procedure' for your position."

Well, that was something. Maybe he could figure something out that didn't make him want to scream.

"My job to figure this out too then. Guess it could be worse. I'll figure it out." Ragna said with a huff. Yeah, this job was definitely a weird fit for him. Half of it, he was certain he'd do fine on and played to his strengths, but the other half? It was like somebody had tailor made a position designed to do what he sucked at. Still… As much as he complained, things could've been a lot worse. It wasn't like Ragna had planned to or wanted to carry on exactly like he had for the prior decade forever, constantly fighting for one's life wasn't his idea of fun. It wasn't like his life was suddenly worry free, but besides the time loop issue things were already calmer than his daily life back home. Maybe this was just part of getting used to something a bit more normal after so much of his life being a rollercoaster. Even his childhood only had that brief glimmer of normalcy when he briefly lived in the church. Annoying as this would be though, not like he could grumble too much after what he'd said to Arona last night, she was counting on him. As long as he could still work toward figuring out whatever caused time to rewind and keep Kivotos safe, he was going to stick with it. There were big things coming and since Ragna knew about it, it was his responsibility to do what he could to help weather the oncoming storm. Despite still having gaps in his knowledge or memories, they were slowly returning and he already knew Arona would be right about the position making working with other school's easier.

"Now then, if that's all I have work to get back to." Rin spoke calmly, but with a minor edge.

"Yeah, I got a lot of shit to do to- Wait, wait, wait. There's one more thing." Ragna quickly spoke before Rin could have a chance to hang up.

"Hm?"

"About SRT, there's one thing I wanted to ask." Ragna said plainly.

Rin's following sigh was deep. "Sensei, that is not a brief topic suited for an unscheduled phone call."

"I know, you said you wanted to meet in person for that. So think you can schedule something in about a week or so? Should have a little time to drop by then." Keeping his voice level, Ragna said. "Sure that you're busier than I am so go ahead and give me a time, I'll make it work."

"Ah, I see. I can do that then. I will send a message to you once a time has been scheduled. Is that all?"

"That's all. But hey, Rin." There was one more thing Ragna wanted to say. He'd spoke with Rin a few times now and was getting that sense of deja vu he'd had before, vague and not as clear as all the events involving Abydos but still bringing forth some scattered images and emotions. He only had a few memories that did paint a strict image of Rin, but the girl seemed extra on edge lately, though it was completely understandable with the whole situation in Kivotos.

"Yes, what is it now?" Though trying to restrain it, there was still a slight undercut of annoyance to her words.

"I know keeping Kivotos under control is a hell of a job with everything going on right now and it can't be easy. Shit has to get done, but don't work yourself to death, alright? Not a lot of people who can handle a position like your's. It's a lot at your age." Ragna said, softening his tone compared to his usual gruffness.

Once more, the line was quiet for a second, but this time the silence lacked any tension the previous pauses had.

"Thank you for your concern, sensei." Rin's words were level, but just a little lighter than before. Yet she sounded tired, like a mask were starting to slip. But it was only brief, as her tone returned to normal as she continued. "But, I can't allow myself to rest while the balance of Kivotos is so precarious. Despite the worst being over, it hasn't even been a week since we regained control of Sanctum Tower and we are still rebuilding the house of cards in the aftermath. A careless move will cause that foundation to collapse in on itself."

"Yeah, I get it. Believe me, I do, the world doesn't wait for anyone." Keeping his voice low and understanding, Ragna spoke back, some concern creeping in as well. He, of all people, knew how easy it was to keep pushing yourself far past safe levels when it was necessary. Didn't mean somebody shouldn't say something. A person occasionally needed a forceful tug on their arm to keep them from doing something stupid and plenty of people had been that for Ragna at one point. "Just take care of yourself, alright?"

"I will manage, but your worries are noted and appreciated. I have important matters to attend to now, however. Goodbye, Ragna-sensei. Do look after yourself too."

"Later, Rin." With a casual farewell, Ragna hung up the phone. That conversation hadn't been so bad, given how it started. But goddammit, he was seriously going to have to start worrying about teaching at some point, wasn't he? Well, he could… Deal with that later. Given Abydos's current situation, he could make it a lower priority for the moment over the current crisis since everyone mostly studied on their own time with how essential earning money was, rather than having structured class time. He'd just have to hope none of the girls got any funny ideas about asking for help with their schooling.

Ah, well, he could worry about that another day. It was time to wake Arona up and head over to Abydos. Maybe he could spend some time getting to know any early arrivals again if he got there before everyone did and a meeting started.

Okusora Ayane knew that today was going to be an eventful one, but that wasn't going to come until later with the ahead of schedule meeting given yesterday's revelations. For now, she still had her regular duties to attend to for school. From the daily cleaning and inspecting the desolate halls for anything useful, to planning the Foreclosure Task Force's day, there was going to be much to discuss about yesterday's findings. Not to mention her own school work.

As such, she had come into the school slightly early. There wasn't often that big a gap in everyone's arrival, but since Shiroko had to bike a decent distance from home or did some morning exercise while Serika was one of the busiest with all her part time work, on a typical day her or Nonomi were the first to arrive. Well, not counting Hoshino since despite sometimes being the actual first one there, even with her generally casual and carefree demeanor, she was almost always napping until more of the Foreclosure Task Force arrived. So the third year didn't count

But as Ayane approached the school building's main gate, she heard a few odd sounds. Shuffling feet and shifting sand, alongside some clearly male grunts. Was that… Ragna?

Peering into the gate, Ayane saw saw the man practicing off to one side of the track field, swinging the sword practically her height with powerful, yet precise motions. Despite how large the weapon was and it must've weighed, the man swung it with such ease and quickness that if Ayane so much as blinked she would've missed a whole series of motions.

Still, from what Ayane could see, even though she wasn't an expert in using a sword, a few of Ragna's motions felt slightly off or strange. The man often made quick, light swings without leaning his body into the strike, most of the force coming purely from the arm instead of the body. A few times, Ragna did make a powerful, heavy swing with his body that followed the momentum of the blow without any wasted movement in the initial swing. Yet, while still incredibly quick, upon trying to recover the flow of motion wasn't as smooth and was lagging or awkward, such as when Ragna tried to do something like abruptly turn where the flow of movement lost the same snappiness it had as he made excessive looking motions or even returned his sword to his holster on his back. The oddest was a sharp pivot where Ragna held his sword near awkwardly close to his body and leaned slightly back before returning to a more neutral stance with a frustrated expression.

"Damn, going to take some getting used to this again…" Returning his sword to its holster, Ragna grumbled with a scowl. Upon seeing Ayane, the man's expression lightened and he threw the girl a casual wave. "Oh, hey Ayane. Thought somebody would show up sooner or later."

"Oh, h-hello, sensei!" Ayane spoke up, feeling a momentary shyness. She hadn't intended to stare, but being caught doing that was rude. Brushing that aside, the girl approached the man with a friendly smile. "Have you been here long?"

"Nah, I only got here a few minutes ago. Haven't gotten to do as much practice as I'd like the past few days, so thought I'd catch up a bit till somebody got here." With a shake of his head, Ragna said. "Gotta get used to fighting with one arm again, can't move exactly like I used to."

"Eh?" Ayane's curious gaze shifted between the man's limp right arm and the massive sword on his back. Was that related to some of the weird movements she saw from him? She understood why lacking a working arm and eye would be an issue, but it sounded like there was more to the problem then Ayane initially assumed. "What do you mean by that?"

"Since I can't move my arm, my sense of balance and center of gravity is off. I can move my shoulder, but that's not really enough to use my arm to help counter and adjust any momentum I have while fighting. Makes it harder to commit to stronger swings without leaving myself open. Haven't really had to fight past a few swings with how quickly everyone's gone down, but can't count on everything being that easy and might have some trouble with big groups. I had to deal with this once before but it's been a while, so just have to get used to it again and won't have it mess with my reflexes. Shouldn't take long." Ragna's voice was exactly like Ayane pictured a teacher would have while giving a lecture, confident and composed, yet with a dash of casualness. "Know how you flail your arms when you start falling or spread them out when walking over something narrow? Kind of like that, your arms help your balance a lot more than you think."

"Ah, I didn't think of it like that, but when you put it that way it makes sense." Ayane nodded in understanding. Ayane wasn't unfamiliar with the idea but, besides the obvious idea of something like spreading one's arms, she didn't think about all the little ways not having both arms could effect one's balance in less obvious ways. Those moves she saw must've been Ragna's attempts to compensate for the issue. "What brought you to our school so early then? This place doesn't seem like the best to practice in."

"Well, if I got here early, thought I'd get a chance to get to know the place and everyone before we all got down to serious matters. If I'm gonna stay here for a bit, might as well get to know everybody and see what I can. Didn't exactly get to talk much with the Helmet Gang dropping in." Ragna's voice still had much of his usual gruffness, but it was a bit lighter too, friendly even.

Ayane smiled, this was a perfect opportunity then! She was curious to know more about the enigmatic man who'd showed up in Kivotos even a week ago and was given so much power. But more importantly, he was the only one who'd answered Abydos's call for the aid they so desperately needed after the district was thoroughly ignored by the General Student Council, despite prior pleas. There were a few strange or surprising things to Ayane with how much the man knew. However, despite some rough behavior, she believed he had to be a good person with how fast he came to help and already was getting to work on unraveling the attacks on Abydos. This was her chance to learn more about Ragna and give a good, proper first impression of the Foreclosure Task Force and her own capabilities. Even if she had requested the aid and it was truly needed, Ayane didn't want to give the wrong idea that the Foreclosure Task Force weren't capable with how bad a situation he had found everyone in.

"In that case. Would you like to look around the school a little with me, sensei? We didn't have a chance for a proper tour after what happened." With a warm tone and friendly smile, Ayane invited. It wouldn't be long till someone else showed up, but she'd at least have some time alone with Ragna.

"Sure, why not. Came early to get to know everyone anyway." Ragna said. "Already saw a bit of the main building yesterday, so why don't we start with some of the other ones?"

"Eh, are you sure? With only the five of us here, we don't get to make as much use of the other buildings, so they're mostly just for storage and collecting dust. There's not a lot to show." Glancing between some of abandoned buildings on the small campus, from a large storage shed to the gym area over by the sand filled pool, Ayane answered uncertainly.

"If I'm gonna be here for a while, might as well know the whole school." The man was undeterred, shaking his head dismissively. "Who knows, maybe we'll find something interesting in all the junk. A lot of the main building is just classrooms anyway, right?"

Well, that was a good point. The Foreclosure Task Force, though primarily Ayane and Hoshino, did sometimes scour around the school for anything valuable that could be sold to help with the debt or was simply interesting. Compared to most other schools, the Abydos campus was quite small, but it was still massive for only 5 students with lots of rooms they couldn't attend to. Sometimes, Ayane had a lucky find and so searching the school had become a bit of a hobby for the group's treasurer. She didn't want to give Ragna the wrong idea she was an overly uptight cheapskate though. But if he was suggesting it, maybe he wasn't so different? It sounded like they were used to using whatever was around if he camped out a lot. It would save her some time killing two birds with one stone…

"Well, if that's what you'd like, we can get started there. We do tend to find new things all the time and there's been an area I've been meaning to check." Putting on an inviting smile, Ayane took a few steps toward one of the sheds at the far end of the campus. She may as well start far out and work closer to the heart of the school with this plan.

With Ragna in tow, Ayane led the man to medium sized building at the edge of the area. It wasn't the largest one where some bigger assets, such as a car Ayane still needed to ensure could run, but the sand sprinkled structure was still comparable to a cheaper house.

Opening the big door and flicking on the lights, the interior was littered with all sorts of random clutter, junk and furniture. It was in somewhat of an odd state, as certain parts of the room that Ayane hadn't touched yet looked like they'd not seen a living person's hand in years, dust and sand covering some of the objects or tarps. But other sections had little signs of neglected as Ayane had been through the area recently with some light cleaning while she looked for anything of interest. But one thing immediately drew Ayane's eye. A small pile of sand with a thin line of more trailing in from the roof.

"One of the tiles is slightly loose..." Stepping inside, Ayane muttered with a frown. Not only that, sand was trickling in. It wasn't any pressing concern, but left unattended it'd quickly become a larger problem. As long as it got put back in place, someone could take a look later, today would be too busy to properly address the issue and this wasn't the first time Abydos had dealt with this problem. "At least there's a ladder here. Hang on, sensei."

"No need, I got this." With confident words, Ragna walked past Ayane and under the loose ceiling board. Unholstering the massive sword on his back, Ragna held it up and the blade shot up, more than doubling the length of his already huge weapon and giving the tall man enough reach to prod at the ceiling with it. "I'll just push it back into place real quick."

Ayane blinked, checking over the weapon closely. That was a strange, yet interesting design. But more importantly… "Um, sensei, are you sure you can do that?" It was still better than when Shiroko stacked a bunch of desks as an improvised ladder for some ceiling repairs. That'd ended poorly with Shiroko, and Ayane from being right next to her, getting an avalanche of sand on dumped on them.

"It's fi-"

Like Shiroko before him, the exact same fate befell Ragna as the tile abruptly collapsed and collided with Ragna's face, bringing with it an entire bag worth of sand straight down onto the man.

"S-Sensei!?"

"Arg, stupid son of a bitch…!" Ragna swore a few more times under his breath and made Ayane's face heat up. She could sometimes let a few things slip when particularly mad, but for a teacher Ragna sure had some colorful language.

Ragna's sword returned to its original form and he shook his body around a few times to dislodge some of the sand. "Forgot how easily this damn stuff gets everywhere."

"A-Are you okay?" Ayane rushed over to the man, ready to offer any assistance she could, stepping over the hugely expanded pile of sand. Okay, things were off to a bad start with trying to give Abydos a better second impression, for as good as they could do with the school in this state, but she could still salvage this!

Hopefully...

"I'll live. Might be annoying as shit, but a little sand never killed anyone." Ragna grumbled with a scowl. "Grab me a broom and we can sweep some of this sand out, good excuse to clean up and look for anything interesting. We're pretty close to the door anyway and that was my fault."

"Y-"

"No," Ragna held his hand up practically the instant Ayane muttered the sound of a single letter, almost like he had read her mind. "I came to help out the school, so that's what I'm going to do. This one's my fault anyway."

Urg, that was true and it would go much faster with another person to do some of the sweeping and dusting. Ayane wasn't adverse to asking for help, she had been the driving force behind asking SCHALE for help, but he was talking about doing more than just sweeping out the extra sand. She didn't want to try imposing all the school's responsibilities on him at once with how severe what he'd already come for was. If Ragna was going to be so insistent though...

Not protesting further, Ayane picked up two of the brooms left around to deal with the sand and handed one to Ragna. "Here you are, sensei. Hopefully, this won't take too long. I'd hate to have to put off giving you a tour because of this accident."

"Not like there isn't plenty of time. Let's get to work."

Trying to keep working as quickly, but diligently, as she could, Ayane engaged with some occasional conversation with Ragna during the cleaning.

"Forgot the sand, there's dust everywhere."

"I-It's been a while since we've cleaned certain parts of the room."

"Can't blame you, not like there's much use here but storing stuff. Hell of a chore trying to keep this school in order with so few people. You're a pretty determined bunch."

The discussion between the two was largely light hearted and Ayane quickly lost track of the time getting to know the man. He was kind of a nice, if crude, person, though. Housekeeping like this always felt like less of a drag when another person was around to help, and just like whenever her classmates were around for a job like this, having Ragna around made the task fly by. And as most of the sand had gotten swept out of the building, Ayane was able to focus a little more on trying to find anything particularly valuable that could be sold to help with the debt. There were only a few things of any worth she could spot between her cleaning though. It appeared like Ragna was doing the same thing, as when Ayane glanced over to the teacher, the man moved about the room like he already found something specific, going more toward the far area of the building where Ayane had seldom ever checked.

"Sensei, did you find something?" Shuffling over some of the clutter on the ground, Ayane spoke up while curiously scrutinizing the corner of the room for anything that would've drawn Ragna's attention.

"Think so, right about…" Not glancing back her way, Ragna pushed aside a shelf with a light rumble and Ayane could now see a massive tarp tucked away in the corner.

"Here!" With a casual tug, Ragna yanked it off, a moderate amount of dust scattering through the air with the motion, to reveal a large cart with a massive amount of.. Was that a big slab of metal?

Eye widening, Ayane raced over to the cart with an excited energy in her step, barely avoiding knocking something over in the cramped room with her rush to get a closer look at the thing almost wide as she was tall and nearly chest level in height. "Wow… That's a lot of metal…"

The cart was filled with the material, comprised of a few slabs of varying sizes. How much exactly, Ayane couldn't be sure but it had to be heavy, maybe even a few hundred kilograms. Some sheets looked pretty big.

"Look at that, told you we'd find something interesting in all the junk." Ragna said with a proud smirk, fiddling around and turning over the huge tarp awkwardly with his one good arm.

A beaming smile quickly spread across Ayane's face. "I don't think I'd have noticed this for a while between how much of this room there is to search and how hidden away it was under the tarp. This is a great find, sensei! I know a scrap metal dealer we should be able to sell this to for a good price."

"Don't get too enthusiastic." Ragna said with an annoyed grumble and scowl on his face. The tarp, having proven to be such an annoying foe to manage with his single hand had been given up by the man and dropped on the floor.

"Eh? Is there something wrong with it?" The cheer in Ayane's face quickly started to evaporate as less optimistic thoughts took over. Was it not actually worth much? With the huge sword he had, perhaps Ragna had some idea about the topic with the kind of maintenance one would need on such a weapon. Metal was metal, but that'd be disappointing…

"No, not that. Mind checking under the tarp? Not enough space to flip this thing over and turning it over's a pain in the ass with one hand with how cramped it is." The man said with a scowl, glaring at the covering like he had a personal vendetta against it.

Curious, but complying, Ayane picked up one side of the tarp and turned it over. Inside, she saw a notice written on the inside. "Let's see.. Handle with caution, this is special high-grade steel that must be kept in a climate-controlled environment…"

Ayane's eyes went wide, repeating part of the notice to herself to ensure she'd read that right, some of the excitement returning to her voice. "Special high-grade steel..?"

This was a huge find!

"Yep, that's why I wanted to check the tarp." Ragna commented, inspecting the cart and its contents. "Should be able to get a lot more than if you just tried to sell it normally without looking, right?"

"Definitely!" Ayane said with a glowing, thankful smile toward the man.

Only for it to immediately deflate and her face to rapidly burn up with a blush upon thinking over the implications of his words and how she responded. She wouldn't be… that hasty and sell the steel at a much lower price that would haunt Ayane for the rest of her life after finding this out too late if she'd found it on her own, right?

… No, she absolutely would've and felt incredibly stupid. Not just that, she would've looked incredibly stupid to the man she was trying to leave a good impression on. B-but to her credit it appeared like the tarp had been put on up side down so that notice had been hidden! Not many people would've expected it to be there without being extra careful or already knowing about it! But she was trying to appear capable, she still had to salvage this since she must've already appeared a bit stupid to not think of this!

"T-Thank you for finding this, sensei. I-I didn't meant to say I was going to sell it without thoroughly checking everything! I was just excited to find something so valuable! Wedon'tusuallyfindthingsthisbig!" Nerves quickening every word, Ayane stammered out in a desperate attempt to save whatever face she had left. Arg, nonono now she just sounded cheap and aaaaaaaaaaaaah why couldn't she keep it together!?

Ragna put a large, gentle hand on Ayane's head. "Hey, Ayane, stop freaking out. Always pays to be thorough with this stuff, but easy to overlook. Don't wanna have to run across town looking like an idiot trying to catch the truck you sold it to before it's too late to get your money. Nobody's got time for that annoying shit…"

The warm, comforting gesture was like someone had pressed a reset button on her, stopping Ayane's runaway train of thought before it get too out of control and giving her a few seconds to compose herself again. Something about the reassurance coming from him made it feel more comforting than usual. Ragna sounded pretty understanding and it did help… But that story was oddly specific.

"Did something like that happen to you?" Cheeks still having some lingering warmth, Ayane managed to ask with a calmer voice as Ragna removed his hand. That would make her feel a little less embarrassed about the situation.

Ragna's expression went flat, his eyes lingering on the cart for a second before going back to Ayane. "… You could say that."

"W-Well, at least we found something worthwhile here. We must've spent a while here by now…" Trying to change the subject, Ayane reached for her phone to check the time and found that, while not exactly late, she'd definitely spent longer than expected out here with Ragna. That was definitely going to put a dent in her plans for a tour as the usual Foreclosure Taskforce meeting was going to begin earlier than usual with the heavy revelations from yesterday and Ayane still had her own assignments to attend to. Despite Abydos being in the state it was in, everyone still had to keep up with assignments and homework, it was one of those things which kept the spirit of the school alive despite the lack of formal structure. Assignments and grading largely being done by pre-recorded blu-rays or automation helped greatly with the state of her school at least.

"Ayane-chaaaaaaaan, are you out here? I see the door's wide open!" Nonomi's voice echoed from outside in the field.

Ah, she should've expected someone would come looking for her eventually. She had been in a remote corner in the dark and abandoned shed.

Alone.

With Ragna.

For an extended time.

Ayane's face started turning the same shade as her red rimmed glasses. Wait, no, that was really bad! When you thought about it, wasn't this situation kind of… Scandalous? What kind of reaction would the rest of her classmates have from her doing something like this on the second day knowing him!? S-Surely the truth would be a valid explanation, right? Or maybe it'd be better if she just didn't say anything and hi-

"Oh, hey there Nonomi." Ragna's loud voice sent Ayane's train of thought flying right off the track as he stepped toward the door.

SENSEI, WHY?

"Ah, sensei! I didn't expect to run into you here too!" Nonomi's form entered the dimly lit room. The radiant smile plastered across her face that usually made Ayane at ease instead flaring her anxiety up more.

Ragna gestured back toward the room, including Ayane doing her best impression of a deer in headlights. "Ayane was planning to show me around the school a little. Had a bit of an issue with the ceiling and some sand getting in so stopped to clean up the place."

"T-That's right!" Ayane squeaked from the corner of the room, maneuvering past some of the junk toward the two. Good, Nonomi wasn't pointing out anything strange... "Um, Ragna-sensei found a bunch of high quality metal hidden away while we were cleaning up too. We should be able to sell it for a good price."

Nonomi looked over Ayane's shoulder back toward where she'd come from, a surprised yet pleased smile rapidly spreading on her face. "Wow, that's quite a find~. You're already proving to be pretty helpful to have around, sensei."

Ragna waved his hand a few times dismissively, then gesturing with his thumb toward the hole in the ceiling. "Abydos called me for some help so I'm doing what I'm here for. I caused the sand to get in here anyway trying to push the ceiling back into place."

"Speaking of that." Nonomi clapped her fingers on both hands together. "It sounds like you've been with Ragna-sensei since you two got here, right? Since we were planning to have a meeting about yesterday soon, how about I take over with him so you can have a break before we start, Ayane-chan? You've been hard at work with all this cleaning and today's likely to be a long one~."

"That'd be great, Nonomi-senpai, thank you. There was some prep work I wanted to do for that." Ayane responded with an appreciate smile. Even if Hoshino was the official leader of the Foreclosure Taskforce, Ayane was generally the one directing the meetings or trying to help keep order with how… Absurd, some of the suggestions from her classmates could be. That sometimes led to quite the headache and less than flattering outbursts…

But Ayane put those thoughts away for now as she stepped past Nonomi and back into the blistering bright Sun of the Abydos sky, throwing a quick wave toward the two. "I'll see you later, Nonomi-senpai, sensei!"

Well, even if things hadn't gone to plan, Ayane had at least gotten to know Ragna a bit better. She'd been the one most insistent on continuing to try and petition for help, even when the rest of Abydos had long since grown skeptical to the idea. Maybe it was part of being a 1st year compared to everyone besides Serika having an extra year, two in Hoshino's case, of dealing with the situation, but her persistence and hope had paid off. As bad as the revelations were about somebody financing the Kata-Kata Helmet Gang, Ragna was already proving himself quite capable in and outside of combat, quite kind too but that was expected for somebody that answered her call for help so soon. It made her feel more confident about the situation and like maybe everyone's luck could start turning around.

Ah, but there was one thing that had slipped Ayane's mind she'd meant to ask the man, but it was a bit later now. Between being blind sided preparing for Ragna's unexpectedly quick visit and then the news from the attack yesterday, she'd completely forgotten to ask for more details about the Foreclosure Taskforce being on SCHALE's student registry. It was effectively acting as the student council, but officially the club didn't exist and with that came certain limitations if it ever had to act as official leadership. It hadn't mattered yet, but if it and the students were recognized in some official capacity by the General Student Council it would be a significant benefit, were the situation to arise. Not to mention good for everyone's mood to know. That'd be a topic Ayane would have to ask Ragna about another time, perhaps not the upcoming meeting since the schedule was already crowded.

Still, maybe she was jumping to conclusions but it was a nice thought and brought a smile to Ayane's face as she strolled through the main Abydos school building to prepare for the day.

Nonomi knew she wasn't going to have much time with the enigma of Ragna before it was time for the meeting, but some time was better than no time! She was curious about the man, yet also apprehensive how he knew so much and wanted to understand that. There weren't that many ways somebody new to Kivotos would know so much for being from outside it. There was one particular lingering thought at the back of her head, but, well, she wasn't going to jump to conclusions that quickly when she had the chance to get to know Ragna now~.

"Aaaand this is the Annex building." Nonomi proudly introduced the second largest single building of the campus, gesturing with a spin around the dull silver halls her and Ragna walked through. "There's a lot of rooms here meant for club activities. We don't get much use out of them so there's all sorts of stuff you can probably find if you look hard enough. They've been a few fun ways to entertain ourselves we've found while checking the rooms. I'd love to show you around some of them, but I don't think we have the time."

"Sure sucks all that equipment has to just collect dust. Least even a little bit's getting some use though." Ragna grumbled with a vaguely frustrated, yet sympathetic, sigh while scratching the side of his head. "Place has so many empty rooms I bet Hoshino could sleep in a new one every day and still not run out by the end of the school year."

Nonomi let out a light giggle at the image. Though Hoshino had some favorite spots, it wasn't even that off with how the third year liked to sleep wherever she pleased. "Careful, Hoshino-senpai might start getting ideas if she hears you."

"Knowing her, I bet she's already had that idea without me saying a damn thing." Ragna said with a huff, though despite the words and mild exasperation, his expression was still light hearted, almost a grin.

"That definitely sounds like her~." Nonomi kept her voice playful and warm, yet the comment was a bit weird. Maybe it was just how Ragna was, after all from what little she'd seen he was a very direct and blunt man, but the familiar way he spoke about everyone was more in line with someone who'd known Nonomi and her friends for months instead of not even a few days. Perhaps he was just very direct on trying to be friendly or keep the atmosphere light? A little odd, but Nonomi wasn't entirely opposed to it. But coupled with how much Ragna knew the attitude stood out more than it otherwise would. Especially with his story…

Continuing, Nonomi kept her tone warm and friendly. She did still want to get to know Ragna more before making any judgments. "I forgot to ask too, did you find somewhere good to sleep, sensei? I'd hate for you to have a hard time just because you're helping us."

"Yeah, was fine. Don't worry about it. Not the first time I've camped out in the desert." Ragna said with a casual shrug of his shoulders. "Thanks for the offer yesterday, but I'm just doing my job and the right thing. Wouldn't feel right asking you girls to pay for anything for me with the school like it is."

Nonomi briefly frowned before her expression returned to a more caring, casual one. So Ragna had really been serious about that huh? "You don't need to feel guilty about me spending money on you, sensei. Abydos might be in debt, but that doesn't mean I am. I can't pay off the school's debt, but I can still do something nice as thanks for yesterday. It's important to take care of yourself and a good night's rest is part of that~."

Well, can't might've not been the right word. Her credit card could've paid for the school's debt and then some just fine. But that would've been trading one creditor for another without the school truly being free and belonging to the students. Besides, though provide her money they did… Nonomi's relationship with her family hadn't been the best for a while. She understood why Hoshino had rejected that idea when Nonomi had initially proposed it with how things were.

"No, I know you could spend more in a day than people make in a year and not even blink." Ragna said, holding up a hand.

Hm? Did she imply being that rich at some point?

"Appreciate the thought, but it'd disturb my sleep if I started letting my students pay for my stuff when I just got here. Haven't even done that much since we're still gonna have a lot of shit to sort through about who's after the school. You can save the thanks for when we're finally done with it." Ragna finished his words with an annoyed grumble.

Ah, Ragna wasn't that different from the rest of the Foreclosure Taskforce in that way. The rest of her classmates, mainly Hoshino though, didn't like relying on her card much. That had been why their ammo was so depleted to begin with. Though Nonomi wasn't trying to disrespect the sentiment or anything, the girl would admit she did sometimes get carried away buying supplies accidentally and not so accidentally when she could~.

Still, even if she understood why, Nonomi couldn't help feeling a little guilty about not being able to do more when her friends had such difficult lives. However, in a way it did somewhat work out as Nonomi's financial situation meant she could spend more time on school maintenance over the weekend to give everyone else the chance for part time work. A healthy studying environment was just as important as any other element!

"Well, that's true. We should probably go get Hoshino-senpai soon for the meeting so we can get on with that." Nonomi looked up and down the hall to emphasize the statement. Hoshino had a few spots she primarily napped in, but checking those might still take a little time.

But before that, Nonomi still had one more thing to ask about while she had some alone time with Ragna, but this needed a bit more subtle approach. "It's nice that we're able to get right to everything with everything SCHALE had about Abydos and the student registry. I'm kind of surprised how much it had."

"Huh?" Ragna paused for a moment, his expression drifting toward sour. "Oh. Right. That. Yeah, sure helped give me a good idea about the situation coming here."

"I hope you weren't reading everyone's embarrassing secrets in those files. Sounds like they had quite a lot there~." Nonomi drew a few steps closer to Ragna with a playful smile and voice.

Casual though her words were, Nonomi was also fishing a bit for information. It wasn't that she distrusted Ragna, but his reasoning behind knowing everyone so well despite having just arrived in Kivotos wasn't entirely adding up. Beyond Ayane sending an occasional message to the General Student Council for help, Abydos had been almost entirely ignored by the governing body for a while. Them actually going to the effort of including contact information of Abydos students, besides Hoshino who had been enrolled when the school still had a proper student council president and was the only official member of the leadership body left, on official anything was a little strange with the lack of any attention otherwise. At the same time, with how Ragna had so suddenly moved out to help the school where nobody else would and quickly gone to work helping or uncovering secrets with a lucky hunch, Nonomi would've felt bad directly bringing that up since it would've made her sound like she thought Ragna was lying or was more suspicious of him than she actually was by being so blunt.

Ragna let out a deep, guttural sounding sigh. "Should've figured you wouldn't believe that story either."

… Of course all that thought meant nothing when the other was blunt as a wrecking ball and could see right through Nonomi.

"Eh?" Nonomi recoiled back with some surprise and embarrassment. Well, she might as well take the direct approach if Ragna was too. "Well, it's not exactly that, sensei. It's just a little surprising to hear with how neglected the Abydos district has been. The Foreclosure Task Force isn't an official club after all."

Ragna frowned, some sympathy under his annoyed face. "Yeah… Well... It's not like Ayane didn't try to petition for help before and sent some information along with it, right?"

"Hm? Well, that's true. They actually kept that on record and cared enough to leave some notes?" Nonomi tilted her head and tapped her cheek a few times with her index finger. That was surprising to hear, but it did sound plausible. How else would he have known Ayane's message to SCHALE wasn't her first attempt asking for aid?

Ragna nodded, though the frustrated expression didn't leave his face. "Yeah, something like that. I haven't been here long and even I can tell the GSC was tied up managing this place even before the president went missing. I don't care how annoying as shit politics can be, but still wasn't right that they left you all to the wolves without doing a damn thing. Maybe somebody still felt bad about it or they at least thought about doing something eventually and still kept everyone in mind. Maybe the president was hoping I could help deal with it or something, I don't know. I don't have to worry about all the usual bullshit regulations. Well, some of them." Ragna's expression morphed into a scowl with his last sentence. But there also something else there, was it guilt? No, probably sympathy, that made more sense.

"Hmm…" Nonomi hummed to herself while she processed the information. The story did make some sense. Nonomi, of all of Abydos's students, understood how business and government could be a slow process with numerous layers to it. Abydos still wasn't remotely a priority for the General Student Council or else they would've done something earlier, it was practically insulting the lack of aid, but it would explain a few things about Ragna's knowledge. He knew a lot but not everything.

Nonomi's expression rose back to it's usual cheerfulness with a smile. "I guess that makes sense. I was certain the student council had forgotten about us~."

"Yep, guess not. Now, let's hurry up and go get Hoshino so we don't keep everyone waiting." Ragna said, starting to push past Nonomi abruptly.

"Ah, one second, sensei!" Nonomi grabbed Ragna's good arm with a firm tug to bring the man to a stop. "While it's topical, I had one more question."

Ragna pulled his hand away, looking back over his shoulder and only half turning toward Nonomi. "Fine, just make it quick. It's going to take enough time dragging Hoshino to the club room."

"If the General Student Council kept our records, did you see anything that'd indicate they recognized the Foreclosure Task Force?"

Ragna fully turned toward Nonomi, placing a hand on his hip, still scowling. "Nope, sorry. Just had a little description of everyone and how to reach you. Still just an unofficial club."

Nonomi's smile deflated somewhat. "Ah, that's too bad. I guess it was a bit much to hope for. But at least they paid even a little attention to us. That's more than any of us had expected."

"Don't start looking that depressed on me." Ragna said with a wave of his hand, sounding reassuring. "Maybe I can try getting something done about that once this is all over. Got plenty of crap to talk about with the GSC already so might as well throw that onto the pile."

The positive smile returned to Nonomi's face. "Really? That'd be great if you could, Ragna-sensei~! It sure pays to have adults in high places like you."

"We gotta deal with the current headache first." Ragna turned around, holding his hand up casually to his side and gesturing a few times for Nonomi to follow as he stepped down the hall. "So, come on. Let's go get Hoshino already. And if you can tell everyone else what happened here, it'd save me some trouble having to repeat it all again. Sure you're not the only one who thought about this."

"Coming~!" With a bounce in her step, Nonomi trotted after the man. She might as well lighten the mood a little while they headed over to get Hoshino. "Say, sensei."

"What?"

Nonomi stepped slightly ahead of the man with a light lean in her posture while keeping pace. "Since you're a teacher, when things have calmed down a little we'll have to have a real class together with everyone. I've always wondered what it'd be like to have one with a real adult teacher and not just blu-rays or a robot instructor~." Nonomi ended her words with an excited giggle.

Instead of the reaction Nonomi thought she'd get, Ragna stopped dead in his tracks, palm going right to the side of his head and fingers digging into his scalp. The man looked about ready to make internal screaming become external. The exasperated and weary words didn't help either. "Yeah, that's just my goddamn luck… Let's just focus on the current problem and worry about that later. A lot later."

"Hm? Something wrong?" Instead of tilting her head, Nonomi leaned even further with her body to punctuate her confusion.

"Noooooope, nothing you should worry about." Ragna immediately started walking with a more brisk pace after his exaggerated, exasperated words. "Let's hurry up already and get this damn meeting over with already."

Did she say something wrong? Wasn't it normal for a teacher, to, well, teach?

Well… Never mind that for the moment. She'd gotten to know Ragna a little bit and get a better idea of their character. He wasn't quite as rough as he'd given on a first impressions, but she still didn't know him that well. However, it was enough for her to feel more optimistic about the situation Abydos was facing, even if Nonomi couldn't fully shake the feeling there was more to what Ragna was saying.

Either way, she trusted him a bit more now and, hopefully, Ragna would be the aid Abydos needed to make some real progress in their situation. If whoever was behind the attacks on the school could be dealt with, then it'd give everyone much needed breathing room.

She just hoped it wasn't who she thought it was. If that was the case, then…

No, she could wait a little before worrying too much. Maybe Ragna would have more to say at the meeting. There weren't many other groups Nonomi could think of with the resources and interest in Abydos, but maybe she was overlooking something.

Hopefully...