The week after the creation of the oasis was an incredibly busy week for Hoshino and the rest of the Foreclosure Task Force. One of Kaiser Corporation's sub-companies, Kaiser Construction, saw the resurgence of the once dried-up oasis and wanted to buy it from Abydos with an amount that would have reduced the school's current debt by more than half.

Hoshino quickly tore up the contract before kicking out the representative by force. When Shiroko later asked why she did so, Hoshino answered, "Uhehe~ This old timer was just being sentimental."

While this vague answer left Shiroko unsatisfied, she relented as she noticed that Hoshino's mood had greatly improved.

The offer from Kaiser elicited some curiosity from Ayane. With the help of Serika, they went over some old documents of the school regarding property ownership. This led to the discovery that the majority of Abydos District's lands have been sold by the old council to Kaiser Construction. Very few remained under the school's control.

This was all brought up during the next group meeting with Sensei.

"Thankfully the oasis area wasn't sold," Ayane said with a sigh of relief. "Abydos was famous for its oasis in the past, so we would be able to use its resurgence to gain some revenue from tourism.

"It's indeed a miracle, like Hoshino said," Serika replied with a smile.

"Uhehe…" Hoshino said with a smile as she scratched her cheek, while she glanced at Sensei who made an awkward laugh.

"W-Well, it's pretty bad that those lands were sold in the first place, but now we can just buy those back," Sensei said.

"That's right! "Nonomi replied.. "We should prioritize the lands directly adjacent to the campus and the oasis.

"Nn. I'll go and prepare the money," Shiroko said as she pulled out her mask, only to be stopped by everyone else.

"Shiroko, we've talked about this!" Ayane exclaimed. "We'll earn the money via tourism!"

…

…

…

The rest of the week was chaos, filled with delinquents and criminals from the nearby Black Market that SRT Academy eventually sent RABBIT Squad at SCHALE's behest due to Sensei being preoccupied by other matters after that meeting. They were mainly there to capture the criminals.

What was surprising however was that they also ended up assisting with the peacekeeping as they were ordered by their seniors to continue their training in the harsh desert environment due to the constant threat of the huge metallic snake in the desert, which had become more active recently, and thus an immediate threat to Kivotos that needed to be kept in check if it cannot be dealt with permanently.

At least that was the official reason she was given when Kurumi, a senior from SRT and member of the famous FOX Squad went to meet her alone.

"And the unofficial reason?" Hoshino narrowed her eyes as she stared at the girl who returned her stare. Eventually, it was Kurumi who buckled first as her calm face faltered.

"Okay okay! I'll tell you! Geez, you really live up to your reputation." Kurumi raised her hands in defeat. "It's on a need-to-know basis so I wasn't sure whether I should inform you at first, considering your earlier demeanor around your juniors. Guess you aren't the Acting President of Abydos for nothing."

Kurumi revealed that the GSC President had been interested in Abydos District for a while, and had mentioned wanting to investigate the desert district, but was unable to allocate enough manpower to actually go and investigate it.

"She had never actually ordered us to do it, mind you," Kurumi said, "but Yukino was curious as to what it was that was attracting the missing President, but she had all but forgotten about it. Then Sensei's request came in and she was reminded about it."

"So it was just out of curiosity," Hoshino summarized. "Why didn't the entire FOX Squad come here then?"

"We entertained that notion, but SRT is in a bit of a bind right now and as such, our movements as seniors are limited since we need to manage the academy in the President's absence."

Hoshino had vaguely recalled hearing rumors about SRT's imminent shutdown, though she didn't pay much heed to it due to her own school's situation taking up much of her attention.

"I guess I could empathize," Hoshino said as she relaxed. "Hope our schools end up alright."

"Same here," Kurumi said with a smile.

They exchanged a few more words to formalize RABBIT Squad's long term deployment in Abydos and chatted for a few more minutes talking about various other things, like their juniors or Sensei's cooking.

Eventually, Kurumi had to excuse herself.

"Please take care of my juniors," she said.

"Don't worry, they'll be fine~"

…

…

…

Currently, the Foreclosure Task Force and RABBIT Squad were fighting another group of delinquents. Hoshino just broke through the group's final line and blasted them with a shotgun to their faces, quickly knocking some of them out. Shiroko was cleaning up some of the other delinquents out of Hoshino's reach with her drone and rifle, while explosions were heard on the other side of the street, likely from RABBIT Squad.

Eventually, the situation had settled down with tons of unconscious delinquents and a few robots.

"Great work out there!" Ayane said from the comms. "Most of the enemies have retreated, and the remaining ones have been captured by RABBIT Squad, albeit they faced some difficulties at first."

They saw the first year SRT students returning, with their leader Miyako guiding the captured delinquents and criminals on the military vehicle so they could be turned over to the Correction Bureau. They look battered and worn out compared to the relatively unsullied members of the Foreclosure Task Force.

Serika was assisting Miyako with her task, while Miyu was currently applying first aid to Saki, who had the worst of it, by the side of the vehicle. Moe was showing Shiroko some of the RABBIT Squad's gear. Mostly explosives.

"Could this blast a vault door open?" Shiroko asked.

"You bet it could! And so much more!" Moe was ecstatic while talking about explosives.

"T-This wasn't in the books! What kind of idiot would run into the line of fire instead of taking cover, much less a group of them…?!"" Saki complained close to them while holding a cold compress, causing Miyu to shriek a little. "S-Sorry."

"N-No, I'm just a little surprised. Now please d-don't move," Miyu said as she continued to apply disinfectant on the scratches.

Saki said, still complaining but this time making sure she wouldn't interfere with what Miyu was doing.

"Probably the type that knows they could take you on or an incredibly reckless idiot." Moe replied.

"Nn. Or both like Sensei," Shiroko added.

"Ah." Saki thought back to her past encounters with Sensei. What came to mind was the one time he joined them for training. He did everything that was specifically recommended to NOT do during a fight in an effort to throw them off their focus. And it worked.

"He would, wouldn't he?" Saki said with a groan. "I still don't understand how he did everything he did back then."

"It's because he was banking on you hesitating." Saki and Miyu looked at Hoshino as she joined the conversation. "Sensei is incredibly cunning in a fight, and will most likely use every dirty trick in the book to get the upper hand. If it meant exploiting a student's aversion to shooting someone without a halo even if they knew he wouldn't get hurt, then he would."

"Even this old timer was thrown off when he did that to me for the first time…" Hoshino had the most amused smile as she muttered under her breath.

Unfortunately for her, Shiroko was nearby and heard her words with her heightened hearing.

"You and Sensei fought? When did this happen, Hoshino?" Shiroko asked. "Details. Now."

"Uwaaah~! Shiroko's eyes are so scary right now…" Hoshino took a step back, intending to retreat when she bumped into someone. When she looked up, she found Nonomi standing there with a smile on her face.

"Sorry Hoshino~!" Nonomi said as she kept the older girl in place. "I'm also interested in hearing about what seems to be a secret date with Sensei!"

"A date with Sensei, you say?" Everyone from RABBIT Squad turned in their direction upon hearing Nonomi's words. Even Miyako, who was supposed to be guarding the prisoners, moved closer to listen in. Serika sighed in exasperation, but her cat ears were directed towards Hoshino's direction.

"It was really nothing, I swear!" Hoshino quickly waved her hands. "I just ran into Sensei one day. While we were talking, I brought up how I wanted to see how well I'd do against him, and since then I've been meeting him in SCHALE so we can train together, that's all!"

Hoshino neglected to mention the fact that most of their meetings happened at night due to Sensei's busy schedule.

"That sounds like a date to me," Shiroko said.

"Uhehe~…Of course it's not," Hoshino said. "Besides, you all also meet Sensei by yourselves once in a while, right?"

"Well, there were a few times…" Nonomi mentioned offhandedly. "But still, if those meetings were scheduled, he would have brought some food with him."

"No wonder Hoshino is more energetic recently," Ayane said from the drone.

"Meeting weekly with Sensei to train with him, then eating his food afterward while getting to know each other better…" Moe said. "Yeah, sounds like a date to me!"

"I see…Hoshino has been trying to get closer to Sensei and monopolize his cooking without any of us knowing…" Shiroko said. "I need to visit SCHALE more too."

…

…

…

In the end, Hoshino was unable to convince everyone that she was only meeting Sensei for training. Even after she got back to her room she was still receiving a message or two about this from the group chat created for the Foreclosure Task Force and RABBIT Squad to better communicate with each other.

"I keep telling them that those weren't dates…" Hoshino awkwardly giggled as she texted Sensei about winning some tickets to an aquarium tour while laying on the bed.

'Okay, see you there', Sensei's text read.

Hoshino smiled as she lowered her phone while hugging her whale pillow.

"This is what a date is!" Hoshino exclaimed with a huge smile before she froze as she realized what she just did. Hoshino's face turned red.

She was unable to go to sleep for a while after that.