Ragna had been both looking forward to and dreading the upcoming meeting. On the one hand, it'd be a chance to start pointing fingers toward the person behind all of it and get everyone onboard to do something about it. Things would be so much easier than the first time if he could get some proof before trying to deal with the Kaiser presence, learned that the hard way when he may've jumped the gun a little originally and caused a hell of a headache sorting it even if he was right. On the other hand, trying to actually prove it to Abydos at this point sounded like a bad time. Some of the girls were already a bit skeptical at best about his knowledge, and damn did he hate lying to everyone but he wanted to try and avoid telling them about a potential time loop till he had more information on it. They had enough on their shoulders for the moment. But he didn't have any real evidence right now nor an immediate idea on how to get good supporting evidence when that information had come from either other people or directly from ripping it out of Kaiser's base after he trashed it. He was starting to regret going after them so early last time with how many headaches it'd caused both immediately and long after the fact.

Hrm… Actually, that was a thought. Maybe he could make some time to hit Gehenna later and see if he could talk anything out of Hina as a lead. She already knew the information and seemed reasonable from what he could recall. Maybe he could do something with SRT and help the closure problem if he played things right concerning Kaiser too…

Well, those were thoughts for another time as it was time for the meeting in the same club room as always. Ragna had taken a spot to the side of Ayane and nearby a large whiteboard with some notes scribbled on it.

"Alright. Since everyone's present, let's begin this emergency meeting of the Abydos Foreclosure Task Force." Ayane spoke up, her voice formal yet still possessing a lightness to it. But as she continued, though still smiling, her words took on a subtle edge. "I'll remind everyone that Ragna-sensei in in attendance today, so I would hope for more decorum than usual between that and the subject matter…"

Man, Ragna really wasn't one for all these formalities, but he also knew how off the rails the Foreclosure Task Force could get if allowed to be caught up in their own momentum. So maybe it was for the best to just leave his personal gripes be.

A few acknowledging answers came from the rest, save for Serika giving an annoyed huff. "Come on. You say that like we've never taken it seriously before…"

He didn't wanna hear that from the girl who, without fail, brought in a scam every goddamn meeting.

"I know that this is ahead of schedule and everyone has their own work to keep up with, so let's jump right into the current order of business. The attacks on our school and who is behind them. We don't have much evidence to go on right now that could give us an idea of who is responsible, but we have to start somewhere, even if it's just crossing off possible suspects or a lead to investigate later." Ayane paused briefly, allowing her words to properly sink into the assembled group. "Does anyone have any ideas and would like to present them?"

"I got one." Ragna abruptly interjected and took a step forward in the same instant Ayane finished, drawing all eyes to him. No sense wasting time.

Ayane, and the rest of the girls, peered at him curious. "You have the floor, sensei. Who do you think it is?"

"I think it's the Kaiser Corporation." Ragna declared with a casual bluntness, hand on his hip.

The rest of the girls looked at Ragna like he'd sprouted a second head, except for Hoshino. With a hand resting against her palm propped up on the table, her sleepy, eyes half open expression suddenly vanished for a tenseness that lasted only a moment.

"What?" Serika looked almost offended by the statement. "Why would you even think that, that doesn't make any sense!"

Ayane raised her hand slightly to draw attention, keeping her voice diplomatic. "Sensei… We didn't tell you this yesterday, but Kaiser Loans is who we pay our debt to."

"Yeah! So why would they do something dumb like attack our school!? If we were to lose to those thugs harassing us, then they'll never get any money back." Serika crossed her arms, goddammit Ragna wished he could still do that, in an annoyed huff.

"And what if that's what they want?" Ragna fired back with an edge, raising his arm to the side and rolling his hand dismissively a few times for emphasis.

Hoshino let out a light yawn, straightening her posture and speaking casually. "That sounds like a pretty bad business strategy, you know."

"Nn, a company that big could take the loss though. But why would they want to?" Shiroko said with a pensive frown and curious twitch of her wolf ears.

Ragna turned his head to Ayane. "Hey, how long's it supposed to be till you pay back everything at the current rate? Don't need exact numbers, just a ballpark."

"Eh, um, well…" Ayane remained silent for a moment, a finger raised and slightly moving like she were recalling something. "After the last repayment, between the interest rate and how much we're able to pay per month... It was over 300 years…"

"And that's exactly my point." Ragna declared, gesturing back toward the rest of the girls. "You owe almost a billion yen. That's gonna take more years than everyone in here has been alive put together. I'm sure they never expected anyone to be crazy enough to actually try and pay it off and got sick of waiting. And if you can't pay money, then they can take what they're owed. One way or the other. I think you all know what that'd mean." Ragna let the implications hang, slowly looking around the room but at nothing in particular to beat the point in.

Nonomi frowned. "They'd foreclose the building and we'd lose our school if that happened."

"Arg, that still doesn't make any sense!" Serika interjected with an angry scowl. "What would they even want with a place like Abydos if not the money? Kaiser's the biggest company in Kivotos and not like there's anything super valuable here, if there was we'd already have paid off the debt! Even if they get this tiny spot and some of the other land, not like they'd even get much from it!"

… Oh, Ragna sure as hell wished he could've thought of a good excuse to shut that down, add that to his to do list for getting information. If only Serika knew how much Kaiser already owned. Well, he could still work with this.

"Think about the bigger picture, Serika." Ragna said with a groan, ignoring the glare it got him from the cat eared girl. "If you all got driven away or captured by somebody like the helmet gang, who the hell's supposed to even bother setting up a replacement school? If you can't pay the debt, then you don't have any damn money to do that even if that wasn't a problem. If you're gone, then there's nobody to stop them from doing more shady shit out here. They can start making moves into the district legally without needing to try covering it up if they want."

Hoshino tapped her fingers on the table a few times. "I don't know, sensei. That's a pretty hefty thing to say with how little we know. Sounds like a bunch of extra steps for nothing since Kaiser wouldn't need the debt to give a reason to chase us off even if it was them." Hoshino's voice ended with a hint of lightness. And if Ragna didn't know the girl well, he might've not though too much behind her statement. But know Hoshino he did and he could tell that scrutinizing look in her eyes was giving what he said more credit than her words did.

"I know organizations like this back where I come from and I did my research on the company, Hoshino." Ragna answered immediately, gesturing with his hand. He had done some beyond the issue of the warheads, but the man was also relying on what he knew in the original timeline. "Kaiser's the biggest company in this damn place and has their hands everywhere. If it exists, they have a branch for it. Banking, charity, manufacturing, military… The sheer size and resources mean they get away with all sorts of crap and they've always had a reputation for being shady on a good day. They've done more illegal things than this already. Don't know if any of you heard about it, but a bit back they got busted for making thermobaric warheads. Stuff that could flatten everything in a few kilometers. Corruption and coverup on that was goddamn huge."

"Oh!" Nonomi abruptly spoke up. "I don't remember all the details, but I think I heard a news report like that a while ago. Wasn't there something about the Office of Defense being involved too?"

Ragna nodded. "Yeah, something like that, but not important right now. Point is there's plenty of other shady crap anything Kasier related gets up to and you could write a book about it. Few times they've actually been caught it's always some bullshit of trying to pin it on some rogue executive of the company. Sometimes it works, but they've started getting a lot more scrutiny because of how many times somebody high in power just happens to be a corrupt asshole trying to keep a good public image. Being behind the attacks on the school would be completely up the alley of a company like that. Those bastards constantly push the law as far as they can and act like it's an obstacle at best."

"And that's not all." Seeing Hoshino was about to speak again, Ragna forcefully interjected before she could say anything. "Whoever's doing this both has a good reason to want to stay hidden, money to throw around hiring thugs, and is good at covering their tracks. That last one can take a lot of time, money, and experience. You remember what the Helmet Gang said yesterday, right? They wouldn't go through all that trouble to hide themselves if there wouldn't be a big problem getting discovered, like somebody high up in a company pretending to be normalwith the resources to hire all those girls. Wouldn't have a reason to give a shit if they were already criminals like that and would make more sense to use everything on their own guys instead of another faction fighting as a proxy. So doesn't make sense for it to be any other gangs here."

The room went silent and Ragna could see the contemplative faces of the Task Force mulling over his words, uncertainty and interest in their expressions. Ragna knew he had some decent points to cast suspicion toward the company, but he still lacked some kind of solid smoking gun proving it beyond reasonable doubt. But that'd be fine if he could get the girls at least considering the possibility and investigating it more.

"That's still very circumstantial…" Ayane muttered, looking perturbed by the possibility regardless. "But if Kaiser were involved, that would make our situation significantly more dire."

Serika let out an annoyed groan, frowning aggressively. "That's still hard to believe. Hoshino-senpai has a point it'd be a lot for nothing."

"Got any better ideas?" Ragna huffed, matching the energy of her tone. "We don't have much evidence yet, but gotta start checking out any leads. Might as well throw out ideas and I think there's enough to look at Kaiser more."

Hoshino lazily turned her head to the side with a casual hum, eyes closed in thought. Her expression was contemplative, yet it wasn't overly heavy either. "Well, that's one thing, but you sound already convinced it's them."

"And what if I am?"

Hoshino's expression turned light, almost teasing. "Well, we should think about other ideas before getting too focused on one, could be something less serious. Tunnel vision's bad for an adult, sensei~."

"Shouldn't dismiss an idea just because you don't like what it implies either." Ragna answered back without blinking.

Hoshino's eyes narrowed.

The point itself normally wouldn't be bad, but Ragna knew he was right and that Hoshino tried to shoulder as many burdens, knowledge or otherwise, so that she could to keep things easier for the others. Come to think of it, in the first timeline Hoshino mentioned some interactions and offers from Kaiser in the past, hadn't she? Trying to keep things light again huh… With how little evidence they had, hopefully she wouldn't take the wrong conclusions from that. Maybe he'd have to talk with her again later just in case. Last thing he needed was Hoshino running off on her own again with how well that'd gone in the first timeline.

"Whaaaaaaaaat about another organization?" Nonomi suddenly interjected, lightly tapping her hands on the table a few times to draw attention. "Kivotos is a big place~. Some other companies have been caught trying to hide illegal activities. I heard about somebody who was once running a cram school trying to brainwash students into being their own workforce."

Ragna's face went flat as his voice. "That's one of the dumbest ideas I've heard come out of this place. Who even tries that?"

"A captive workforce can't run away~." Hoshino lightly chimed in, the hostility in her eyes gone like a switch had been flipped.

Of course the one who had the idea of kidnapping to get more students in his first time with Abydos wouldn't see a problem. At least that hadn't been a serious idea.

Maybe.

"Nn, Hoshino-senpai does have a point…"

Ragna's palm slammed right into his forehead. Oh, hell no. Not Shiroko too. "None of you better start getting ideas from that."

"Ahem!" Ayane loudly interjected, a restrained glare in her eyes that quickly wilted once everyone's eyes were on her. "Can we try to avoid straying too far off topic?"

At least he could count on somebody to be another voice of reason besides him.

"Alright, so suppose it's another group trying to chase you off and take the school themselves, sure, fine. That'd only cause problems for them." Ragna declared confidently. Maybe he needed a little different approach for the moment. "If you can't pay up, then Kaiser has the right to take whatever lying around to make up the debt. Which they can't do if somebody else decided to trash the place and take it themselves. Sure, maybe Kaiser writes it off, but with all the crap they've done in the past that was already illegal I don't think they'd take it lying down without trying to get revenge for messing with their business. Not unless it's somebody big enough to not be worth it. Know anyone else who'd have a lot of resources and an interest in Abydos that'd fit the description?"

Once more, the class went silent for a moment as everyone contemplated possible options. Notably, Ragna could see Nonomi fidgeting more than usual in her chair. Yeah… Her rich family could definitely fit that description, but yet again Ragna wasn't going to pull the pin on that grenade any time soon. He already had enough to try explaining. Hopefully, she wouldn't bring it up.

"Could it be another school?" Shiroko was the first to speak up. Her expression was rather neutral, but the slight flick of her animal ears betrayed the sudden burst of inspiration and curiosity that'd stuck her.

Hoshino stretched her shoulders in an exaggerated motion. "Mhm, the Abydos district doesn't have a lot of natural resources. It'd take a huge investment to build the district back up in its current state. Trying to manage a big project like that would be pretty hard if the main school wasn't already close to us. But who knows, maybe some school's as determined as we are to and wants to expand. It wouldn't do them much good with the desertification, but hasn't stopped us from trying~. Even if it's not the best land with every resource needing careful management, finding a huge patch of land to build on isn't easy in Kivotos. Even with how much is buried in sand, the Abydos district is one of the larger areas of Kivotos."

"It'd be cheaper to drive off whoever's already there than try to buy some land elsewhere. Whatever money's spent on supplying the Helmet Gang would be nothing compared to that." Shiroko commented, briefly glancing over to the rack where the rest of the girls had stored their weapons to free up hands for the meeting.

Ragna huffed, shaking his head. "I'm not convinced it's another school. Makes sense for you guys when this is your home, most schools are already huge as hell." The man was certain that Hoshino herself didn't even believe that possibility, but with how against the idea of it being Kaiser she was, or at least was outwardly, she was probably trying to bring up another remotely likely possibility as a distraction. He was gonna need some better evidence than this. If things went at all like last time, then maybe he could get some of that tomorrow though...

"Unfortunately, it sounds like we don't have anything concrete to go off of either way." Ayane said, her shoulders slumping in defeat. "But given everything, I think that sensei's right we're likely dealing with a bigger group with the resources to fund the Helmet Gang's attacks and cover their tracks."

Pausing, the girl picked up a marker and began writing a few notes on the white board, recapping some points that had been discussed in the form of two distinct categories for a large organization like Kaiser or another school. "Does anyone have any more specific ideas or names?"

"Those aren't exactly narrow categories…" Serika grumbled, putting her elbows on the table and chin in her palm.

Nonomi clapped her hands together a few times, putting on a reassuring smile and tone. "It might not be much, but at least we have a place to start~. That's better than being completely in the dark. The real question is what do we start investigating then?"

"I got an idea." Raising his hand lightly to command attention, Ragna spoke loudly. "Bet the bastard behind this knows we suspect them now, or will soon since we confronted the helmet brats about it. Not only that, but everyone's been resupplied so a simple attack again would be a dumb idea. I bet they'll step up the attacks to something bigger and we'll see another one pretty soon. Might be our chance to get some clues out of it."

Shiroko gave an affirming nod. "Nn, that could work. The Helmet Gang never let up for long and if someone's after the school, they won't give up easily. If they keep coming after us at the same rate then won't be more than a few days at most."

"That's one option, but is it really a good idea pinning our hopes on that, sensei?" Hoshino said with a skeptical look, rhythmically tapping her fingers on the desk like she were bored. "The Helmet Gang didn't have much to tell us so we might not get anything else this time."

Ragna shrugged casually. "Might happen, but we don't have a good place to start and if they were smart enough to not get found out so far, then I'll bet they're not dumb enough to expect the same plan to work. Trying to force their hand and get more involved might give us something to work with. If that doesn't work, then we'll just have to figure out where to start ourselves."

"I don't see too many other options right now." Ayane said with a resigned sigh. "There must be some kind of paper trail we could follow if we only knew where to begin, but right now it'd be like a shot in the dark trying to find anything conclusive with how little we know. I could try doing some more research into any larger entities around or within Abydos in the meantime, alongside Kaiser, but it might take a while without a starting point. I wasn't able to find much of anything yesterday with the short notice."

"Sure, fine." Ragna grumbled, holding back a sarcastic comment about having brought up a specific company. If they were lucky, then something would happen tomorrow anyway which he could use to make things simple and this clearly wasn't going anywhere. "Guess nobody else has any other ideas?"

Serika shook her head with an annoyed frown. "Better than nothing, but doesn't even feel like we're much further than where we started yesterday."

"Don't feel too bad, Serika-chan." Nonomi put a reassuring hand on the other's shoulder with a smile. "We've got to start somewhere and I'm sure we'll get something to go on soon~.

"Well, if that's it then, there's one more thing I wanna mention." Gesturing with his hand to the side, Ragna stated. "Like I said, whoever's behind this will probably try and step up the attacks and try something new, so think everyone should be careful for the next few days till we know what we'll be dealing with."

Serika leaned forward in her chair, glaring at Ragna. "Hey! We can take care of ourselves and don't need to be told that. We're not little kids you know!We only had trouble yesterday because we were almost out of supplies."

… If things went even close to the way they did the first time, Ragna was definitely not letting Serika live that comment down.

"Actually~," Surprisingly, Hoshino spoke up, wagging her finger a few times in Serika's direction. "Ragna-sensei's got the right idea. So far, the plan looks like it was to eventually exhaust us with repeated attacks, then swoop in for an easy win. But that's not going to work anymore, so makes sense to try something else. It'd be best to keep our eyes out for what that is. I'm sure we can handle it, but wouldn't hurt to be a little extra cautious till we know what they'll try."

Serika reclined in her chair, looking defeated. "I guess that's true..."

Oh, sure. When Ragna says it, he gets immediate and dismissive opposition. But when Hoshino says the same goddamn thing, Serika doesn't complain at all. Damn kids...

"Whatever they try, we'll be ready for it." Shiroko declared with a determined look, ears flattening slightly.

Ayane raised up a personal tablet, making a few motions on it that looked like she were taking notes. "Well, if nobody has anything else to say. I think that we can conclude this emergency meeting. Given the short notice, I don't want to take too much of everyone's time for their own work. We'll add this topic to our discussion at the regularly scheduled meeting next week and see if there's been any developments worth talking about and we've had enough time for our own investigations."

"Oh!" Nonomi's hand suddenly shot up with incredible enthusiasm that matched her cheerful face. "Actually, there's one thing I wanted to ask sensei~. I think it'd be good for the atmosphere."

A pit was forming in Ragna's stomach. This was going to suck, wasn't it? "… What?"

"Since we have everyone gathered here already and has school work to do, how about we have a group le-"

"Rejected." Ragna firmly interrupted with a raised voice. Oh, hell no! He wasn't getting dragged into this with all the other crap he'd already dealt with and still had to later. That was a problem for another day!

Nonomi frowning like a kicked puppy still made him feel a little guilty, however.

"Hm?" Hoshino suddenly perked up menacingly, a playful glint in her heterocromatic eyes. "This oji-san was getting tired and ready for a nap, but now I'm curious what kind of lessons an adult holdsv . A teacher's job is to help their students, right se~n~sei~?"

Ragna's hand slammed into the side of his hand, fingers scraping at his head in exasperation while he scowled. That little gremlin! This was revenge for last night, wasn't it? He should've expected this the moment Rin brought up teaching. This was always how Ragna's shitty luck turned out.

At least he had a valid excuse to put this off for now. "No, we're not doing this today. I didn't even have the time to look up what's taught here and prepare. Kind of hard to teach when I don't even know what to do. Sort of had to jump here on short notice with Ayane's urgent letter."

"Ah, if that's the case, then I'd be happy to show you some of the course material we have here to help you prepare, sensei! It's only right after you rushed here for our sake." Ayane spoke up with a 'helpful' smile that was anything but for Ragna.

… Shit, there goes his afternoon. Well, he was gonna have to do this eventually, may as well rip the bandaid off now. At least he could put off actually teaching with this an excuse to prepare.

"Sure… Fine…" Ragna didn't even bother hiding the tone that resembled a man who'd just been sentenced to death. "But no lessons today."

What a turn his life had taken.

Following the concerning emergency meeting, the rest of the day had proceeded rather normally, if still a bit tense. Ragna had gotten a proper tour of the school and started taking a look at some of the course material for Abydos, looking like a man marching to his execution doing so, while everyone else attended to their daily duties of the school. It gave Hoshino the perfect chance to rest for a bit and collect her thoughts, as the meeting had given her a lot to think about.

Ragna had been laser focused on accusing Kaiser from the beginning, he probably even planned it yesterday. By itself it would've been odd, but not unbelievable, with somebody who had arrived in Kivotos barely a week ago knowing so much of the company history, but it wasn't just that. On several topics, Ragna spoke as if he knew the answer already and was just trying to convince everyone else, but it wasn't being outrageously arrogant, it was something more, especially since parts of his story didn't right with Hoshino. "Guessing" the Helmet Gang had a sponsor the second he saw them was intuition that bordered on supernatural, unless he already was aware of it somehow. Yes, Kaiser was a shady company… But they also had an interest in Abydos, more specifically her. And if Ragna was accusing them after knowing about the Helmet Gang…

Well, Hoshino didn't like the potential implications and turning those thoughts over in her head had made the girl's already restless napping even more anxious.

She had some more digging to do and so come the end of the day, as the sun painted the sky from a vibrant blue to warm orange with its setting, Hoshino rushed up to Ragna as he departed from the school, with a wave and friendly mask. "Senseeeeeeeeeeei~, wait up!"

"Hm?" Just past the main gate, Ragna stopped his stride, turning back toward Hoshino. The man lazily raised his hand halfway in response to the girl's greeting. "Oh, hey Hoshino. Thought you'd still be resting."

"These old bones might get a bit creaky, but I can't juuuuu-" Hoshino drew out her words into an exaggerated yawn she took a moment to push away and continue. "-uuust sleep."

"Sure could've fooled me." Ragna commented with a sarcastic deadpan, though his expression was lighter with a smirk. "Didn't think I'd see you coming to me any time soon though. Figure you want to talk about what I said earlier, right?"

Hoshino nodded, not losing her friendly mask and lightly kicking some of the sand on the ground with one leg back and forth. No sense in trying to hide at least that. "You're sure sharp about this stuff, sensei. It's about what you said with keeping an eye out for any trouble."

"Yeah, what about it?" Ragna asked with a raised eyebrow, leaning his body against the brick wall surrounding the school.

"You've been staying out in the abandoned buildings in the desert, right?" Hoshino said, leaning forward slightly toward the man. "Where have you been camping? I'm guessing it's gotta be somewhere close by, right?"

Perhaps it was being unusually direct, but Ragna clearly already picked up on her suspicions and while she wasn't going to completely give up hiding some of her distrust, she could be more forward than she would've typically gone about something like this. The man had, after all, said he was totally fine with Hoshino watching him till he did something to earn any trust. If she had the go ahead, then Hoshino was going to use that to the fullest. This'd be quicker than trying to hunt down where he was herself and current matters gave her a perfect excuse without arousing too much suspicion. Hoshino would give Ragna a chance and more investigating was simply part of it. How did the saying go again? Trust, but verify? There had to be something more to this.

"It's not too far from here. Go past the first few groups of buildings and it'll be the larger silver one off by itself with only 3 floors not buried." Pointing out toward the desert and away from most of civilization, with barely a glance in the direction, Ragna stated. "What's got you suddenly so worried about that?"

"Hm? Sensei, you're the one who said we should be careful in case they try something new, right? It'd be bad if nobody knows where you are and something were to happen, you know. Keeping a girl waiting all alone in the cold dark for a secret meeting of the night after inviting yourself to it would be bad form, sensei~." Hoshino finished with a light tone of teasing and a playful smile. Important as this was, it didn't mean Hoshino couldn't have a little fun with it when Ragna had been so merciless in his teasing during their first meeting. She still had an act to keep up anyway.

Ragna's expression went flat, hand slamming into his face with a groan and barely covering the exasperated sneer on his lips. "Do you have to phrase it like that?"

"Uhe~, phrase it like what? Most people would be happy to know their cute student was worried about them." Hoshino answered with an obviously fake pout.

Ragna's hand slowly slide down his face, dragging his skin with it to make him look even more annoyed. "Know what, forget I said anything. Guess I did say you could keep an eye on me anyway… If that'll make you relax, then fine stop by whenever you feel like it and see for yourself."

"I'm just doing what you said. Too late to take it back now~." Hoshino added with some more lightness, though internally the frustrations wouldn't fully go away. She hadn't been subtle, sure. However, once more, she felt like an open book to Ragna to where she may as well said she wanted to know where he was because she half suspected he was doing something sneaky and gotten the same results. Was there even a point to trying with him? Well, if he liked being direct, maybe it was worth pushing things a bit further...

"But, sensei. There's one more thing I wanted to ask…" Hoshino's expression and tone fell somewhat, smirk leaving her and eyes narrowing. It wasn't overly serious, but it lacked the same casualness she typical had. "Is there any other reason you think it's the Kaiser Corporation?"

"Yep, that's what I was waiting for." Ragna muttered to himself with resignation. "No, I basically told you why in the club room. I'm still convinced it's them and we won't have to wait long to find out with the kind of company it is. You've been dealing with the debt the longest out of everyone and have the most experience with Kaiser, so you understand what I mean about that piece of shit company, right?"

Hoshino paused, carefully thinking her answer over and expression becoming a pensive frown. By itself, that statement was innocuous enough, but yet again with everything else Ragna could intuit from seemingly thin air, Hoshino couldn't shake the feeling there was… More behind his statement. Did he know about all the times Kaiser, or more specifically that one creepy man in a black suit, bothered her?

It sounded paranoid and brought to mind Ragna's words from yesterday. Maybe a part of her was being a little overly suspicious of the adult and ready to jump on the smallest thing he did. But she couldn't just dismiss the feeling outright, not without knowing the man more. Ragna had said they had experience with entities like Kaiser though, perhaps he was doing the same thing to the company as Hoshino was doing to him?

"Mhm… Kaiser's not the best company, but it's still a lot to jump to at this point." Hoshino finally answered, keeping her voice level. After a brief pause, she continued with some concern lacing her words. "Whoever it is, since you're the one who figured out somebody was behind the Helmet Gang, aren't you worried that might make you a target if you're off by yourself so often?"

Thought part of her reasons for this whole exchange was more digging, that didn't mean some real worry couldn't motivate it. Strong Ragna was, this was potentially a big enemy. Cautious as she felt, that didn't mean Hoshino wished harm on the other without doing something to deserve it.

"Oh, I'm counting on that." Ragna stated without any hesitation or worry, lips curved into a confident smirk.

Hoshino blinked and then sighed, shoulders slumping. "Sensei's being a bad adult, not practicing what he preaches."

"I don't wanna hear the girl patrolling the district every night trying to lecture me about being careful either." Ragna answered flatly, eyes slanted. "I'm experienced with this kind of stuff and know what I can handle. Whenever they do step up the attacks, they're not gonna pull out all the stops immediately. And I'm banking on that giving us a chance to catch Kaiser doing something while it's still at a level that's easy to handle. If I can throw a tank down the street, then I can take care of whatever they do here."

Well, that wasn't the most unreasonable thing. Hoshino could even relate to the idea a bit. The girl was strong and knew it, she'd never lost a direct fight before, so any worry was more about the others. The less attention on them the better.

"But anyway, there's one more thing I wanted to say, Hoshino." Words softening, Ragna continued before Hoshino could think of a response.

Hoshino tilted her head curiously. Ragna had that voice again, that unusually sincere one he used the day before when telling her a little about his past.

"I get we don't have much to go on right now, but don't think about running off doing something stupid on your own because of it, got it?" The man's words were firm, but there was concern under them and in his eye.

"Huh? Where's all the sudden concern coming from?" Hoshino recoiled a little in confusion before she could put her composure back together to something more casual. "Ah, I guess all this old timer's napping makes me look like a bad student, huh~. Or maybe-"

"Hoshino. Cut the crap."

The girl went quiet from Ragna's harsher words, face turning into an annoyed frown.

"You're already going around keeping the district safe without anyone finding out and this is a big threat to the school. I know you can take care of yourself, but if you're gonna do more digging on this yourself, then you don't have to tell me, but don't run off without telling somebody first." Ragna looked directly at Hoshino's eyes all the while he spoke, words stern, yet understanding. He actually looked concerned for her.

Hoshino let out a long sigh, a grumble even, before matching Ragna's gaze with a scrutinizing one and lower voice. "I wasn't going to do anything, sensei. But like you said, I can take care of myself too."

The thought had definitely occurred to her. With how in the dark everyone else was, besides seemingly Ragna, Hoshino had a potential lead to follow up with on Kaiser, but that was her business. If it could get anything to go on compared to how aimless the investigation currently felt, it was important to think of every option, even if not her first choice.

"Yeah, I know you can handle yourself in a fight." Ragna said, finally standing up straight instead of leaning on the wall again. "Still easy to get in over your head if you try to do everything yourself. Got bit in the ass a few times rushing off to deal with something I thought I could handle but couldn't. Just remember what I said, alright?"

Hoshino waved her hands a few times dismissively. The girl tried to lighten her tone, but it was getting harder to keep pretending everything was casual, so best to not drag out the conversation further. "Alright, alright. I'll be careful and think twice about anything, so you don't have to keep worrying about me, sensei."

Well, if it was past experience again, that explained a little bit but why was he focusing on her with it all the time? Yeah, she was the kind of person to shoulder what she could to keep the burden light on her fellow students, it was her responsibility as the oldest to not make a careless mistake putting the others in trouble, but aside from that one damn time a while back, she hadn't failed ever since then. So she wouldn't fail. She couldn't fail.

Ragna let out a huff, not looking entirely convinced by her words yet again, but none the less turning around and starting to walk away. "Fine, just watch yourself and get some sleep. I'll see you later tonight, Hoshino."

Hoshino lightly waved back at the man till he was decently far away and she began the journey back to her own home for some rest, a tense frown on her face.

Ordinarily, Hoshino might've laughed off the situation to try and get some peace on her own investigation and Ragna off her back, but with Ragna that just… Didn't work. Every time it was like he could somehow see through the normal facade. Any kind of mask, any kind of act, it may as well not existed. As if he already knew her, Ragna could see exactly her intentions just like he knew somebody was behind the Helmet Gang.

And Hoshino just… Couldn't wrap her head around Ragna being friendly and even actively reaching out to her specifically multiple times with the clear problems, yet still being respectful enough to only do it in private despite his blunt as bricks personality. Especially when he somehow knew her intense suspicions of the adult. Hoshino had her reasons to maintain some outward civility in that Ragna was currently helping Abydos and even if a person didn't like somebody, sometimes the task at hand was bigger than one's personal feelings. But, she couldn't figure out Ragna's angle.

She had said she'd give him a chance, but Hoshino couldn't stop herself constantly wondering why even with that. It couldn't be that he simply cared with no strings attached, right? That idea was even more outlandish than his knowledge, adults didn't do that. What could a person like her do to even deserve that kind of care?

Hoshino shook her head, no she didn't want to get too deep into those thoughts again. She didn't trust him yet, but she was going to at least give him the opportunity to prove if he only deserved a little suspicion vs a lot. A surprise visit to pick him up for the nightly patrols would be a decent chance there, maybe the unexpected drop-in would let her find something.

The sun had long since set over the deserts of Abydos, replacing the brilliant blue skies with a dark one filled by glittering distant stars. It made for a quiet, almost peaceful environment for Ragna as he sat around a campfire after a round of sword practice. He was once again joined by Arona, who had still not ditched her camping clothes, sitting beside him.

But nothing could be relaxing for the man with the sour tumble his thoughts were in.

"Senseeeeeeeeeei, if you keep frowning like that your face is going to look even more grumpy all the time!" Arona said with a drawn out whine.

"Hey!" Ragna lightly pushed at the girl's shoulder. "I don't look mad all the time, dammit!"

Arona promptly and childishly mirrored the gesture with far less success at moving Ragna so much as a centimeter. "Do too! Otogi-san said so at SRT!"

"And I'll say what I did then, it's not my fault my right eye doesn't work!" Ragna shouted back, definitely not helping his point glaring at Arona. Realizing that after a second, the man let out a guttural sigh and leaned his head into his palm, arm propped up on his knee. "Oh, forget it, not in the mood right now."

Hugging her knees to herself, Arona's expression fell to a concerned frown. "Something wrong, sensei? You seem like something's bothering you compared to yesterday."

Ragna, once more let out a deep sigh, this time slower and more tired. Well, if he was gonna be glued to the hip with Arona, might as well get it off his chest. "Yeah, guess you could say that. Know it's probably for the best right now, but sure feel like shit lying to everyone when I have to keep pulling answers out of my ass."

Half the time he tried to get answers to things in his own adventures, he was the one given cryptic bullshit instead of getting to the point. Now, here he was being the person giving cryptic bullshit out, funny how life worked. At least he was trying to be more straightforward than he got before...

"Oh…" Arona's words were low as her expression, but it only lasted a second as the light came back to her features with a reassuring smile. "Well, if you already know what's going to happen and who's behind it, then stopping Kaiser this time should be easy!"

"Yeah, once I get something to work with." Ragna grumbled with a scowl. "Might've tried pushing a bit too hard too early when there's jackshit to go on. Should get something solid tomorrow if nothing big changes though. I'd rather get through this without having to burden those girls with all the timeline crap if I can help it, they got enough on their shoulders. Doesn't always go the best when people learn about it."

Arona tilted her head curiously. "You said you'd been through this kind of stuff before, did something happen?"

"Something like that." Ragna straighted up somewhat and leaned backward on a piece of rubble. "You gotta keep something in mind, Arona. I remember when an Intervention happens. Those girls sure don't, so it'd be much worse if they found out."

"Eh? Wait, how is that worse? Wouldn't it better to not remember what happened? You wouldn't have to be always thinking about all the bad things that might've happened and constantly worrying about how to avoid them because it'd be just like any normal day…" Arona's voice trailed off slightly as she finished, some of her usual energy lacking, but she quickly fixed that with a shake of her head, trying to return back to her usual energy. "I know you've had a lot on your mind because of it too!"

Ragna shook his head, a heavy weight in his eye while looking at Arona and lecturing in a firm voice. "That's the problem. Let me put it like this. Imagine you find out the world can repeat itself while you forget everything between resets. Everything you do, all the people you know, all the accomplishments you make good or bad. You'll be stuck constantly repeating that without even realizing it. Imagine those girls found a way to pay off the debt by some miracle, what they're struggling every day to do, and can finally have a normal school life for it doesn't matter, because they could go right back to the beginning and being into debt and repeat that exact thing 10, 100, or 1000 times. Oh, sure, they'll forget if another loop happens… But think about how they'd feel this time. That's a special kind of existential hell."

Arona recoiled back with wide, distressed eyes and her halo appearing like it was glitching with parts phasing in and out of existence. "T-That's a really negative way to look at it, sensei! And if it only happens once, then it won't be a big problem!"

Ragna let out a scoff, slightly mixed with a dark, low chuckle while looking at the crackling fire. "Hey, relax. That's not how I look at things, so don't expect me to start spouting about everything being meaningless. We're aware of it and so we can do something about it. But that's the situation nearly my whole world was in. And some people took it a lot worse than I did when finding that out."

Arona relaxed, shifting herself closer to Ragna with a curious, yet worried, glint.

"To make a really long story short, knew a woman called Nine. Her head was already kind of messed up for another reason by the time she found out the truth, so might not have reacted so bad if she was in her right mind but, well, when she figured out she'd been fighting through the same war to save the world a ton of times and things went back to square one every time, she got the idea in her head to destroy and remake everything to change it." Ragna lectured with a heavy voice, eye clouded with memories. The fire wasn't helping matters. The warm glow took on an almost nostalgic warmth to it with the topic. She always did use a lot of fire magic. His relationship with Nine had definitely been… Difficult and rarely did they get along, but he would've preferred if he hadn't had to kill the woman that was Jubei's wife and Celica's sister to stop her.

An awkward silence hung in the air. Arona always seemed to lose some of her usual energy when discussing the time loop issue. It wasn't exactly the lightest after all.

"So," Ragna raised a hand to finally break the silence. "I don't think anyone would suddenly go crazy or anything, but point is that it's a lot to have weighing you down on top of everything. Rather try to figure shit out before I tell them if I can help it so there's less to freak out over. It's a lot not keeping or keeping your memories of all this."

Arona gently rocked back and forth a few times in her huddled up position, looking at the fire with a contemplative look in her eyes.

"Plus, I've been on the other end of that too. Trust me, it's weird as shit when somebody you never met shows up who knows you better than you know yourself. Can already tell Hoshino's starting to get a bit pissed at me for it." Seeing the girl's somber mood, Ragna said with a slight subject change and wave of his hand.

Sure, he was being a bit forceful with Hoshino, but at the same time it was exactly because of that knowledge Ragna was doing so, even if it might strain things a bit in the short term. He knew Hoshino had some issues to deal with that she kept buried deep and well hidden, even from the rest of Abydos. Though it was gonna take some time and he'd meet resistance, somebody had to help that girl and he was the only one who knew how badly she needed it. He wanted to avoid it coming out as a horrible mistake, like last time, if he could. Hoshino had tried to be a self-sacrificing idiot the first time and sold herself to Kaiser, it'd absolutely be within possibility she'd poke around herself and do something foolish trying to shoulder everything herself when Ragna was pointing fingers this early.

Arona perked up a little, shifting her head back and forth with a nervous chuckle. "Ehehe… I guess I can see how that'd be weird, especially if you also knew you knew the person but just can't remember. But something'll happen tomorrow to give us some real evidence so we can nail the bad guys easy, right?"

"Will get us started at least." Ragna said with a shrug. "Things were a bit different the first time around, so might not go exactly the same. Bastard sent some people to try kidnapping Serika, but also sent thugs after me since I was being a pain in the ass taking out hideouts for the Helmet Gang but wasn't formally with Abydos or anything like now and drifted around the district. That failed, so the dumbass tried calling me through the girl's phones thinking they could pay off and hire me like I was some kind of mercenary he got off on the wrong foot with since I kind of just appeared in this place out of thin air. Waste of my goddamn time, but at least got to hear his voice. That came in handy later at the base way out in the desert they're hiding."

A positive smile quickly spread over Arona's face while she leaned closer toward Ragna like a curious child. "Sounds like you've already got a plan figured out then, sensei!"

"Something like that." Ragna said with a casual wave of his hand. "No idea how much might change compared to last time and throw things off, so keeping everything a little fast and loose. I still got some plans though. Rather not have to go out and deal with Kaiser myself if I can help it, especially before we get enough evidence to prove it. Fallout from that was in a pain in the ass." Sure made for a hell of a first meeting with the GSC though, the President especially.

Arona giggled nervously, sweating a little. "Ehehe… I can imagine…"

"Speaking of-" Ragna retrieved his phone from his pocket, shaking it a few times in Arona's direction. "Call Miyako for me, Arona. Might be a bit early for it, but the girls looked depressed about the school's state and haven't given them up an update on the SRT thing. Might as well give them something to look forward to while we do some digging. They should still be up."

Arona's eyes shifted back and forth between Ragna and the phone. "You're planning to get SRT involved in this?"

"Sure am. SCHALE can recruit any students. Just need to get enough evidence to get moving. Kaiser's good at covering their tracks, so should be easier to get solid proof of the shady shit they're doing from their base directly. Going to need somebody better with stealth than I am since that's never really been my style, not really the Abydos student's either. Know they're not going to be jumping with enthusiasm to ask for another school, but getting SRT to put the final nail in the coffin after we get everything else shouldn't be that bad. The school already got involved with Kaiser onceand it's facing a potential shutdown too, think both sides'll be sympathetic in wanting to help out a bit." Ragna lectured.

"In that case…"

A few seconds later, after some ringing, Miyako's voice came through Ragna's phone. "Hello, sensei?"

"Hey, Miyako. Been working a few things and had some news to tell you about SRT." Ragna greeted with a friendly tone.

"You do? What's the report?" The girl's voice brightened up noticeably.

"Two things, but don't get too excited yet." Ragna said, a light dose of dry sarcasm entering his words. "Firstly, going to be meeting up with Rin next week to talk more about SRT's situation and see what I can do there. No idea if it'll go well, but if it doesn't, I got another idea in mind. Might be a little bit before anything gets moving on this one though."

The sounds of furious taps and slow words came from Miyako's end, was she taking notes or something? "Meeting… Next… Week… Okay. Thank you for the status update, but this sounds a little premature to tell us..."

"Just listen to me before you start judging. That's not the big news I called you for." Ragna shot back with a sarcastic edge before reigning in his voice to something more diplomatic as he proceeded. "Doing some digging around over in the Abydos district. Somebody's funding gangs to attack the school to try driving off the last couple students to get the school closed. Because of who I think is behind it, think it'd be the exact kind of thing SRT is meant for. Part of the problem is that since the president went missing, there's been nobody able or willing to step up and take charge of the school, so everything's been sitting there and wasting away. But if the students were to do something and show SRT's still important dealing with shit like this…"

There was a brief pause, alongside a few more taps, before Miyako spoke, her words slow and contemplative. "… Then that would help prove the school's purpose to anyone trying to shut it down… The idea is sound, but SRT isn't some personal attack force to be used lightly or for personal gain, sensei. Who do you think is responsible that's so important?"

"Kaiser Corporation." Ragna delivered bluntly, letting the accusation hang in the air before he continued. "That other group, FOX Platoon, dealt with them in the past because the company was making illegal weapons. They're a bunch of shady bastards and whoever's behind this would need a hell of a lot of money and experience to fund all this while covering their tracks so well. The school here is facing the potential of being shut down, like SRT, if the students get drive off since there's only a couple left. Think you could both help each other out here. I already know SCHALE can get help from any students, which means that I can let SRT officially move if nobody else is gonna give a damn."

The pause this time, accompanied by a thoughtful hum from Miyako, was a long one as the girl absorbed everything Ragna had said.

"It does make sense, when you put it like that… That's a big accusation to level though, sensei. If you had enough evidence for reasonable suspicion, that would be an operation for SRT." Miyako said, cautious optimism leaking into her words.

"Woah, hey. What's this about an operation?" Saki's muffled, distant voice came from the other end of the line.

"Are we finally going to get to blow something up?" Moe's soon followed.

"Give me a minute, sensei."

With Ragna left hanging, he heard some muffled discussion between the four members of RABBIT Platoon. He could make out a few things among the chatter, namely Miyako providing a few details to recap what Ragna had said.

"Alright, I'm putting you on speaker now, sensei. Please, continue." After a few minutes of being forced to be a bystander, Ragna heard Miyako's clear voice once more.

The man cleared his throat. "Right, where was I? Ah, so anyway I'm still finding enough dirt on them, wanna have enough so Kaiser can't weasel their way out of this no matter what comes out. They've clever and aren't making it easy. I already got a plan, but need a little more before everything can get moving. Gonna get some more evidence here and then think we'll need your school to get the last little bit to nail them, so you can be certain it's the right move. Wouldn't ask you to until then. I'll give you the full details once I got everything together, kind of a long story and it's getting late."

"You sure as hell sound confident on who it is. But you still don't have enough to tell us so we can move out yet?" Ragna could practically hear the skeptical frown on Saki's face.

Ragna let out an annoyed grunt. "Look, a lot's happened the past two days and might find a lot of new shit to talk about soon if it keeps going at this rate. Yeah, yeah. I know it's not much to go on right now, but if everything keeps going well I don't think it'll take too long. Thought you all could use something resembling good news with the state of the school. This place is getting harassed and could close down if whoever's behind this wins, so thought about you girls."

"I see…" Miyako murmured, that same cautious, yet hopeful tone in her voice. "Actions speak louder than words. But… Thank you, sensei. RABBIT will standby for further intel then. We have a lot to discuss."

"I-It's more attention t-than we've gotten from anyone else…" Miyu's gloomy voice added.

Ragna grinned to himself. Perfect, things were going well. "Oh, yeah. One more thing though, feel free to tell FOX about this too. They dealt with Kaiser before, so their experience could be useful. If this is as big as I think it is, the more the better."

"I'll discuss it with them after RABBIT has our own talk. Is that all to report?" With some casual friendliness in her voice now, Miyako said.

"That's it, night everyone." Ragna said, hanging up the phone after the four girls gave their own farewells.

Had he not literally known the future, in a manner of speaking, Ragna wouldn't have been as confident in trying to set up so many things in advance like this. But he knew Kaiser would escalate attacks, he knew they had a massive base out in the desert that'd be ripe for getting information, and most importantly he knew ways to get that information. He just needed a little bit more time to make it all fall into place.

"You sound like you thought of everything, sensei! But if you're all done with your planning-" Arona was suddenly cut off by a loud growl of her stomach. The girls cheeks rapidly started turning an embarrassed pink in response.

"How do you even get that hungry? Aren't you supposed to be an AI? That body you're observing isn't even real." Ragna commented with a flat sarcasm.

"I-I still need energy, just like you!" Arona whined with a flail of her arms, red faced. "The Shittim Chest doesn't run just off napping!"

Ragna huffed. "Could've fooled me with how much you enjoy sleeping."

Arona's cheeks puffed out in a pout. "Uuu… Sensei, you meanie! I only slept so much lately because you keep staying up super late! I won't forgive you for this, even if you buy me another piece of cake!"

Ragna let out a low, guttural groan. "Alright, alright. I'm gonna put some food on the camp fire now so you can eat soon. It's the weekend tomorrow, so go ahead and catch up on your sleep. We got a busy day tomorrow, but not till later."

"Jiiiiiii…" Arona continued to stare childishly at the man with a pout.

Ragna hung his head. "Okay, you want food? I'll get you something to go from Shiba Seki Ramen tomorrow since that's one of our stops. Real good place for a meal. Happy?" With how quickly he'd be able to get it to Arona, some of the usual hurdles getting ramen to go wouldn't be an issue.

All the immature complaining instantly vanished from Arona's face, instead replaced by a wide eyed enthusiasm. "Promise?"

"Yes, just stop looking at me like I broke your favorite toy already." Ragna huffed. Yes, okay, sure, food was an easy way to make people shut up and be happy in his experience, and he had offered. But Arona was clearly fishing for something with her tantrum. What the hell was it with him always getting extorted for a free meal?

"Deal!" Arona's smile was so radiant it would've been hard to imagine how sour she looked mere seconds ago, like a switch had been flipped.

Damn kids…

Well, at least he could count on things to really get moving , the man still had a long day. He'd cooked up a meal for himself and Arona, but while she had crashed for the night, Ragna still had to meet up with Hoshino.

"Senseeeeeeeeei~! Are you up there?"

… Or Hoshino could meet up with him? What the hell, he could even sense her presence to go with the voice.

Peering over the roof down several stories, Ragna saw the small pink haired girl near the base of the building, waving up toward him with one hand, shotgun in the other and folded up Iron Horus riot shield strap draped over her shoulder. Not wasting a moment, the man leaped through the window and landed with a dull thud upon the cool desert sand. "Hoshino? The hell you doing here?"

"Hm?" A teasing smile spread over her face. "Did you already forget our earlier conversation? I'm just checking up on you to make sure everything's all fine. This is what you said I could do. I know us old folk don't always have the best memory, but you're pretty forgetful today, sensei~."

Motherfu-

Ragna's face went completely flat as he stared at Hoshino judgmentally. "Hoshino, I swear to god, if that's supposed to be a comment about my hair… There's a bunch of girls younger than me who have white or grey hair! Hell, that includes Shiroko. Why do I keep getting so much shit for it!?"

"It's not that unusual in Kivotos, but you're not from here and isn't it usually a sign of old age outside of here?" Hoshino said, the smile not leaving her face.

Ragna's palm slammed into the side of his head. "This happened when I was younger than your ancient ass. My hair used to be blonde, goddammit."

Hoshino squinted her eyes, staring at Ragna's white head of hair like she were trying to image another color. "Iya~, that's kind of hard to imagine, sensei. What turned it white?"

"Stress." Ragna answered with a guttural deadpan. Yeah, he wasn't about to go into what happened at the church attack again and kill the mood of the conversation. "You come here to look around or just talk my ear off? Didn't think you'd show up on the first night like this."

"Uhe~, I didn't catch sensei doing anything naughty, did I?" Hoshino said with a slight lean forward. Though her words were casual, the girl's stare was scrutinizing and observant.

There were a few meaning being implied there, weren't there...

Ragna rolled his eyes. "What kind of crap do you think I'm even doing out here? You want a tour or something so I can show you there's not anything worth a damn? That's why you're here, right?"

"Huh?" Hoshino recoiled back and blinked a few times, visibly trying to restrain her surprise at the total lack of resistance. "Er, well, if you're inviting me, then I won't say no~."

Making a gesture for Hoshino to follow, Ragna rocketed back up to the roof and turned just in time to see Hoshino land behind him. The shorter girl's eyes immediately started scanning over the area closely, narrowed and like she were looking for anything out of place. But the search only lasted a moment before Hoshino's head turned in confusion.

"The campfire's the only thing you have here?" Hoshino commented almost to herself. Was that pity in her eyes? "Sensei, how do you sleep here when you don't even have a bed? Hard floor always made this ojisan's back hurt."

Ragna scoffed. "Hey, excuse me for not running a 5 star hotel out of an abandoned building. It didn't have one so I didn't feel like going through the trouble of dragging one over. I've had worse places to rest than this and I'm pretty used to having only my coat to sleep with."

Not answering, Hoshino curiously wandered around the concrete roof, further inspecting the area, including some holes which let her see onto the floor below it.

"If you're expecting to find any buried treasure, not gonna find anything but some food in the sand." Ragna commented sarcastically and immediately mentally slapped himself for it. Ah, hell he didn't know Hoshino well enough yet for that comment on her interests to make much sense. Eh, it was at least innocent enough it should slip by without a problem.

With one last scan of the area, Hoshino pivoted on her heel to look back at Ragna. The girl had a confused frown. "Hah… Guess there's really not much to look at here."

Well, at least she was being more honest about her intents now, that was progress.

"What kind of places did you stay this isn't bad though…?" Hoshino said with a curious squint at the man.

"Places where I had to worry about some wild animal deciding I looked like an easy meal, so this is already a huge upgrade." Ragna answered flatly. "If you wanna know, I'll tell you while we're going around Abydos. Got a long night so we better get moving. Might as well fill it with something to talk about."

Hoshino let out a small yawn. "I guess you're right, sensei. We can't waste too much time standing around here."

Ragna turned back and jumped off the roof to the sand below. Shouldn't be too much longer till he could really get events moving, if all went well. He couldn't get too comfortable though, things would eventually start changing significantly, there were things he had to change. But until then, he'd leverage everything he could to his advantage.

"He's planning what?"

It was a late night for Yukino, but not one she was unaccustomed too by this point. A few quiet meeting places had been established in order to contact the Director of Defense at the General Student Council, Shiranui Kaya, who was currently standing before the FOX Platoon member in the form of a translucent hologram which gave her features a general blue tint, though the defining characteristics still stood out. She had the same long white dress all members of the General Student Council wore, with blue and gold highlights in various areas. Her pink hair was done up in a braid crown with longs bangs that went past her shoulders and an ahoge. The girl's halo was a thin circle of light yellow with what looked two small stars at opposite ends. But the most striking things were her eyes. Narrow enough to appear typically closed, they were now opened to reveal a perplexed set of green, with unusual shaped pupils like a goat's.

"That's the report. I find it's premature with how little evidence he has, but Ragna-sensei sounds convinced it's Kaiser and thinks SRT's involvement could help our school's status." Yukino stated matter of factually, keeping her expression flat. She wanted to wait to see Kaya's thoughts. Ragna's plan felt presumption and naive, at least from the little she had heard, but if he was right then it wasn't entirely without merit. SRT hadn't taken any action in some time.

Kaya tapped her white gloved hand to her cheek a few times, pensive frown spread over her features. "How in the world did he figure that out already? They just arrived in Kivotos."

"… You're saying he's correct?" Yukino asked slowly, blinking a few times. The girl was aware Kaya was making some dealings with Kaiser, powerful allies would be needed for her long term goals of leading the General Student Council. But did she know about this and do nothing?

Kaya dismissively waved her hand a few times. "Well, I can't be certain. I don't know the extent of Kaiser's operations in Abydos, but I do know they have a significant presence there and I can't think of anyone else who would be interested. The district was already falling into a sorry state for a long time and would've fallen anyway, but they did ask me to turn a blind eye to help push things along. Not that I would've needed to be asked or been able to do much, even if I wanted to."

"You sound like you already made plans for Abydos a while ago." Yukino asked with a hint of curiosity, body feeling rigid and tense. Something about this didn't… Entirely sit right with her, but Kaya always had a plan for everything and worked far in advance of her current goals. It wasn't like she was questioning the plan, but further intelligence was rarely a bad thing, particularly if it would be something that had to be dealt with soon.

"Of course!" Kaya said with a shameless, smug grin. "The Abydos District has been declining for years, even before my appointment to the General Student Council, and it's been something we could never deal with, but after the president disappeared and we had to commit resources to ensuring the safety of everything else, the district practically became a safe haven for criminals since the school barely exists, let alone has the manpower to properly police itself like other academies. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to have a place like that around as the Chief of Defense? This isn't like a black market, this is one of the biggest districts in Kivotos!"

The girl's tone and face darkened before she continued, a near teeth gritting scowl on her. "A real superhuman could fix the problem, but there's no hope of that on the horizon as things currently stand. But if I had power, I could've forced the General Student Council to act before it got to this point, but we're past that. If the school were to collapse under the current leadership though, that would be seen as a failure for the Acting President… It's unfortunate, but an opportunity presented itself and I'd be a fool to not take it to serve as an example of what not to let happen again. Sometimes, you need to skirt the rules and sacrifices are needed to ensure they won't happen again, but you already know that. Right Yukino?"

Yukino paused. Oh, she knew that quite well. Reality was often unkind and didn't work out perfectly like a story. That had been a harsh lesson she had to face, no matter how much she had believed in that at one point. However, that didn't mean she had to like it, even if she accepted it. If Ragna was right about Kaiser though, then perhaps there was some merit to his plan and less harm would be needed, particularly since at least SRT would be revived when Kaya took power, the same could not be said for Abydos. It was the first time there was any plan beyond Kaya's own...But what reason would she have to place that much faith in a man she barely knew? Perhaps it'd delay her school's fate, but avert it? Kaya had a plan for that, but that annoying nagging in her head wouldn't leave Yukino alone.

"Yes, I'm aware…" The girl answered lowly, hand on her hip, fingers digging into her side.

"But anyway," Kaya's tone dropped as her brows furrowed, finger to her chin. "I haven't had a chance to meet Ragna-sensei yet, but they're certainly bold if they're planning a move like this so soon. It would be in their authority to have SRT act, however. Hrm…" The girl fell quiet, humming to herself for a few seconds in thought.

"Ah!" Kaya's lips suddenly curved into a wide smile. "Actually, this might work out even better than my original plans. We might be able to use this. You said he's scheduled to visit Sanctum Tower sometime next week?"

"Affirmative. No exact date has been set, however."

Kaya's smile turned almost sinister. "If the timing lines up, then I might be able to use that opportunity to meet with him and get a better idea of his character then. Going by what I've heard and planning a move like this so soon, Ragna-sensei's a man of action and that could be useful… But, if it's too much of a risk to work with them, then SCHALE taking such action involving SRT would look like an aggressive use of authority for such a recently formed organization. If something were to happen and go wrong, that'd reflect poorly on the organization when it has yet to prove itself to the public. And since Rin's thrown her hat in with SCHALE, her as well…" Kaya trailed off, tapping her finger to her cheek several times.

"Yukino, tell FOX there's been a chance of plans."

"A change of plans?" Yukino repeated, eyes widening in a rare display of surprise. Were they not going to need to attack Sanctum Tower?

Kaya nodded, still grinning ear to ear. "That's right. I think we'll wait and see what this 'plan' is. If it turns into something we can use, then we'll just roll with that and kill two birds with one stone. If not, then oh well, we just go back to the original operation, no harm putting things off for a short time. It's a win-win situation! I'll need to talk with Kaiser about this and see what else I can learn about what's going on in Abydos and perhaps prepare better, they'll want to know he's on their trail… We'll talk again once we have more information to make a concrete plan. Keep me updated if Ragna-sensei tells you anything else."

"Roger." Yukino curtly replied before disconnecting the call.

Immediately, the girl let out a sigh she didn't know she had been holding in. So FOX might not have to attack Sanctum Tower… She hadn't even considered any other possibility for a while, but something about the thought felt like a weight off her shoulders. Although, now the short term target would potentially be shifting to SCHALE and Ragna, who against all of Yukino's expectations actually… Was working on trying to help SRT? Was there a chance his offer to help wasn't simply hot air or delaying the inevitable?

Yukino shook her head. No, she had to focus on current matters and couldn't get lost in unfounded optimism like she used to. For now, the best course of action was to wait for more information and how the situation developed. She had much to discuss with her squadmates.

Only time would tell what she had to do for the mission to ensure SRT's future.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Whew, we got a real long one here. This is actually the longest chapter of the story so far, 12.6k words. I swear I'm not trying to write 10k+ chapters every time, there's just a lot of groundwork to setup here, you'll all see at some point.

Next chapter, or 2 might depend a little on how I split it up if it's taking a while and ends up long, is gonna have something I've been waiting to get to since I started the story. Look forward to it!

There's also a litte reference to the PS68 manga this chapter, for any eagle eyed readers that've read it.