Shiba Seki Ramen
"Five Shiba Ramens, extra large, as ordered. Please enjoy!" The dog announced as he placed the bowls in front of the girls.
"Eat up girls, you earned it." Sensei called out to his students. "After today, you girls earned it."
Shiroko didn't need a second command as she dove into her ramen, shoving noodles into her mouth at breakneck pace. Serika and Ayane ate graciously while Hoshino and Nonomi ate at a slower pace. Nonomi looked at the older man's place, without a bowl.
"Sensei, are you going to eat?"
The man nodded, "Don't worry, I've got my own bowl on the way."
"That he does," Shiba walked up, another bowl in his hands. "One lightly oiled soba."
"Thank you Shiba." Sensei thanked the dog. "You're always willing to accommodate my requests."
"Ahh this is nothing. After all, for folks like us, we do need to take precautions."
Shiroko raised her brow. "Precautions, Sensei?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Serika frowned.
"It's not like you're on a diet, Sensei?" Nonomi asked in curiosity.
Hoshino sighed, "Jeeze, these kids really don't get it do they?"
Sensei's eyes darkened. "It's nothing to be proud of, to be honest."
Shiba chuckled awkwardly. "It's something that's…hard to admit."
"What's hard to admit, Sensei?" Shiroko's ears twitched in interest.
The older man groaned. "I…I have high cholesterol. I need to watch my salt intake. I can't eat regular Tonkatsu Ramen regularly. Too much salt. Otherwise my blood pressure skyrockets."
The room went awkwardly silent as Sensei's gaze lowered. "Yeah, yeah, I'm the super cool and awesome Sensei and all, but my greatest weakness…is sodium."
"Ahh, sorry Sensei." Shiroko's ears drooped. "I shouldn't…have brought it up."
"Yeah, sorry Sensei." Ayane apologized. "I…hadn't considered that."
"Yeah yeah, spare me the sympathies." Sensei rolled his eyes. "You girls are young and healthy and don't need to worry too much about what you put in your bodies in comparison to an ancient fossil like myself. Now let me enjoy this soba in peace."
An awkward silence descended upon the room as the group returned to eating their noodles.
Upon seeing the Gehenna students enter the ramen bar, Sensei raised his brow.
While it wasn't entirely unheard of, non Abydos students were extremely rare in the area, especially after the collapse of the main Abydos campus. The students gathered into a booth.
"A single Shiba Ramen please." The shy girl with dark hair requested.
The dog nodded, "I see, and for you, miss?"
The tallest girl with brown hair shook her head. "What I mean good sir, is one Shiba Ramen for all of us to share."
The dog frowned, "Are you sure? Yes, we serve large servings, but I doubt a single bowl can feed all four of you."
"Ahh well," The tall girl stammered, "You see-"
"A single bowl is all we can afford." The silver haired girl next to her explained matter of factly. "We apologize, but we will share the single bowl if that's fine with you."
"Of course." Shiba nodded, "We're not the type to turn away paying customers. One Shiba ramen-"
"-Make that four ramen, Shiba." A gruff voice interrupted him.
The girls turned to see a blue haired man standing beside their table. "They'll have four Shiba ramens, extra large sized. On me."
The dog looked up at the teacher and gave a smile. "Roger that, four extra large Shiba ramens, on the house."
Sensei rolled his eyes. "Please Shiba, allow me to cover these students. You don't need to go into the red for this."
"How can a ramen master turn away such eager souls, Sensei? You may have your duty to your students, but I have my own duty to my ramen." The dog replied curtly.
As the four girls stared at the quickly arriving massive ramen bowls, Sensei smiled. It didn't matter if these girls weren't Abydos students, nor if they weren't students he was assisting directly. They were students of Kivotos, and as the new Sensei of Schale, they too were now his responsibility.
With much gratitude, the girls began devouring their ramen in delight. Except for one girl that was, a certain silver haired girl's eyes had widened upon seeing the older man and her body had gone rigid.
As both Abydos and Gehenna students filed out of the ramen bar, Sensei watched the Gehenna girls walk back into the city, a slight frown creased his face.
"Makes you wonder why they're in Abydos of all places, doesn't it?" Hoshino muttered aloud to the teacher.
"I've got an inkling, but for now, we should focus on Abydos itself." Sensei clarified. "Take the girls back to the academy. Make sure everyone gets back safely. I'll investigate the Gehenna students."
Hoshino gave him a curious look but nodded, "Roger that Sensei. Take care and stay safe. Let's go girls."
The blue haired man watched the Abydos Task Force leave in the opposite direction before speaking aloud. "You can come on out."
From the alleyway behind him, the silver haired member of the notorious Problem Solver 68 emerged.
"Teacher Ao, h-hello…" Kayoko managed to greet the man. "It-it's been some time."
"So I was right." Sensei replied, not even turning to face the girl. "I thought I had seen you before. You were part of the intelligence and covert operations team, if I remember correctly."
Kayoko nodded, "Hai, Okinata Kayoto, intelligence team private. I had taken CQC classes under you as a first year." She grimaced, "At least, until I transferred out. I'm…I'm sorry."
"You've got nothing to be ashamed of, kid."
"But I do!" She protested. "I abandoned my peers, my fellow operatives when they needed me most. Instead of standing by my school, I fled and ran to Gehenna."
"Everyone fled when Yume died, Okinata." Sensei shook his head. "The entire disciplinary force disbanded, the intelligence committee soon afterwards. There was nothing left for you in Abydos. No one would fault you for finding a new school."
"But that doesn't make it right." Kayoko shook her head. "Even if everyone did it, that doesn't make it right. If I had stayed, I could have-"
"-what are you currently doing now, Okinata?" The gruff voice interrupted her.
"A-what?"
"What are you doing now? You don't seem to be alone these days."
"I'm…part of a team of student mercenaries. We take on various odd jobs for various clientele." Kayoko explained.
"And how are they treating you?"
"They're a bunch of morons Teacher Ao. Mutsuki pranks everyone with her explosives. Haruka's got such low esteem that she'd rather blow up a building than tell herself that it wasn't her fault. And Aru keeps dragging us into stupid missions and tries to maintain her tough girl persona that only keeps getting us into trouble. I keep having to fix their problems and bail them out of trouble and it drives me crazy."
Sensei turned around and faced the girl. "Then I think you did the right thing."
The girl narrowed her eyes, 'What's that supposed to mean?"
He gestured to his own mouth. "You smile when you talk about your teammates. You really do care and value them and they make you happy as well. That tells me that you have found a squad that cares for you and you care about them."
"I do?" Kayoko muttered aloud as her hand went to her mouth. "I guess so? I mean, if I wasn't around to bail them out, they'd never amount to anything and yet, I can't imagine being without them."
"And thus, I don't think you need to regret your transfer to Gehenna. You've found friends and a team that you can support." Sensei walked over and put his hand on the girl's shoulder. "So cheer up kid."
Kayoko grumbled as she released herself from his grip. "I'm not a kid anymore. And you don't even know why I'm even here."
"I mean, I'm guessing you girls were hired to harass the Abydos academy, right?"
"Right on the nail Teacher Ao." The silver haired girl shrugged. "That's bad for you guys."
"What do you think?"
The girl frowned. "I told Aru that going alone would be a slaughter for us. So she hired an entire army of mercenaries to overwhelm you with numbers. Spent our entire budget on it." She mumbled the last part.
"Noted. And how do you feel about it now?"
Kayoko shrugged. "A job is a job. Tomorrow we'll face off and we're going to get slaughtered because you're leading the defense."
"You're underestimating yourselves. With you as their strategist, I'm sure that you'll put up a decent fight."
"You're not denying that we're going to get slaughtered."
"Of course you are." Sensei chuckled, "I'm not letting Abydos fall, no matter who's attacking it."
During the PS68 Attack
Kayoko frowned as she took cover behind a half destroyed piece of cinderblock, a stream of bullets flying by overhead. Sure, she knew they were going to get their asses handed to them, but this was embarrassingly bad.
She turned to one of their hired thugs and glared. "Hey, I thought we hired more of you. Where's the rest of your crew?"
The thug in question shook her head. "That's what I wanted to know. Saki said she was going to run a little late, but it's been twenty minutes and she still hasn't shown up."
"Well, find out where they are." The silver haired girl snarled. "We're getting slaughtered out there."
She winced as a grenade detonated mere feet from their position. The thug nodded, pulling out her phone, "Saki, where the hell are you? We're getting slaughtered out here and if I find out that you stopped to get coffee-"
"-then you can kiss your sorry ass goodbye." The voice on the phone shouted before the answering machine ended.
The girl holding the phone looked down at the fallen thug. "So your name was Saki. Well, I guess we got the right thugs then." She adjusted her headset mic. "Fox 3, all tangos down. All tangos down."
"Roger that Fox 3, exfil out of the area and rendezvous at the point Epsilon."
Picking up her riot shield, Kurumi nodded and exited the alleyway, leaving the unconscious bodies of a dozen thugs strewn about the narrow road. "Jeez, Sensei better be on the right track about who's backing these attacks."