Chapter 8: Starfall

As March 7th took Dan Heng and my newly minted employees on a tour around the Residence Hall, I sat down in the peace and quiet of the office after Dan Heng had forced the catfight participants to clean up the melted ice, bullet holes, and scorch marks just outside. It was fortunate the GSC President spared no expense when it came to having repair materials on hand, as the abundance of patches and commercial cleaning solutions meant I was able to fix the carnage March and the rest of PS68 left in their wake within a few minutes. As I rested, I began looking over the stack of letters and paperwork on my desk that both myself and Kayoko had gone over. Besides the one from Abydos High School, all of them did not require my immediate attention, and were mostly simple inquiries that could be handled by my new secretary on another day.

It was rather fortunate that Problem Solver 68 walked into my lap when I did, and even more fortunate that March and Arona didn't put out the official notice of recruitment; the chaos that would have resulted from every hotheaded student and delinquent trying to get into SCHALE was something I didn't need. After explaining SCHALE's current lack of financials to Kayoko, she immediately got to work and assigned the rest of PS68 to their current roles: Haruka was assigned to sanitation staff, which, be yond general janitorial duties, meant she was primarily assigned to the gym. She also pulled double duty of ensuring each facility had their automated systems maintained and running. According to Kayoko, Haruka was an unrivaled search and retrieval specialist, as well as being a natural clean freak. Mutsuki, being a demolitions expert, was placed in charge of manning the shooting range, as well as resupplying both it and the hangar's munitions when they ran low. Finally, Aru was placed in charge of the theater room and would be responsible for deciding what movies to show as well as keeping stock of concessions. Knowing it was by far the least glamourous position, Kayoko also gave her a "Head of Expansion" title, which meant she would be responsible for coming up with a plan to use the wide empty space on the first floor, which currently was just a deserted lobby. It was rather impressive how much Kayoko had gotten done within the first hour of her onboarding, and it seemed I was two for two when it came to choosing capable seconds-in-command after her and Rosa.

I was also rather pleasantly surprised how well the other members of PS68 took the news of Kayoko's sudden promotion up the political ranks of Kivotos, tossing her up and down in the air in the vein of a typical sports celebration like Kayoko had scored the championship winning goal. I suspected deep down; each member knew just how much potential their friend really had and were more than happy to see the fruits of her labor finally pay off. It helped that Kayoko still promised to spend time performing company duties as Chief of Staff if possible, and her position basically guaranteed that SCHALE would look the other way whenever PS68 got up to their extralegal antics. Either way, I no longer had to worry about recruitment, as while the SCHALE Tower still wasn't operating at full capacity, we had enough people to have all current moneymaking public facilities up and running as soon as tomorrow. There was one more thing though...

"What about your office?" I asked Kayoko earlier. "Won't the landlord evict you again if you don't pay the rent?"

"No one else wants that space but Aru," Kayoko replied nonchalantly. "I'm pretty certain the landlord only bothers evicting us because he doesn't want to deal with squatter's rights laws if he didn't. He has better properties to worry about, and we can still do our usual things in the Residence Hall dorms. I'll just make sure they're discreet about it."

The only agenda left in the day was Abydos, and with only a few hours before sunset, I had to act quickly if I wanted to make some headway into it. Time was critical, as my ability to help would be extremely limited once Wardance preparations rolled around, leaving me with a little under two weeks to solve whatever crisis was plaguing them and potentially the entirety of Kivotos. Kayoko had advised she expected the Abydos students to attempt to retake the school as soon as possible, and she and the rest of PS68 had helped the Helmet Gangsters muscle in on the building just the day before. If it was any consolation for myself, the mail truck with the letter didn't arrive until earlier today, so there was little I could have done to prevent the illegitimate takeover.

"Arona, could you give me the rundown on Abydos' current situation?"

"Just a second, Sensei," Arona began, pausing to load all the information she was processing. "You mentioned seeing a desert on your flight? Abydos is that desert."

"That doesn't sound so bad. Jarilo-VI is a desert too, just a frozen one. It's where I started making a name for myself as a Trailblazer. Abydos being where I make a name for myself as Sensei is pretty fitting."

"That's the spirit," Arona replied happily with a slight giggle. "Anyway, I'll give you the short of it. Abydos is one of the largest regions as well as the longest running academy in Kivotos. Back in their glory days, they were one of the most powerful schools, to put it lightly. But desertification set in, and most of the land dried up. People fled the district en masse, and while there's still quite a few residents and businesses, it's a shadow of what it used to be. The GSC's registry only shows five students still enrolled in Abydos."

"Five students against a gang so large they could bring over a hundred for a raid on a single building," I mused. "No wonder they were overrun."

"That's not all," Arona interrupted. "Remember how Kayoko said Kaiser were the ones who hired PS68 to help take over the school? I checked the property maps, and besides some residential buildings and the only remaining satellite campus not covered in sand, Kaiser owns pretty much all of Abydos. If they managed to get to the school building, you could forget about the Abydos District. It would be the Kaiser District once that happens."

"That makes sense," as I began to connect the pieces together. "They're after the school building because Abydos won't sell." I then realized my conclusion had a few holes in it. Not exactly a shining example of logic there. "But wouldn't forcing all the legitimate students out just mean the gang moves in as squatters? It wouldn't change the fact the students are the legitimate owners of the building, and still won't sell."

"I'm not too sure of the situation myself, Sensei. The GSC database doesn't seem to have much on Abydos as a whole, which is strange. You'd think this would be something they'd keep an eye on. We won't know until we make contact with the students themselves."

I had a feeling that would be the case, and the arrival of yet another seemingly impossible crisis for me to intervene in was at this point a weekly occurrence for me. I pulled my phone out and dialed the number for Ayane, taking the first steps towards working the Galactic Baseballer's usual magic once again.

Life was looking up for Komakaze Rabu. The once down on her luck delinquent who got no respect had become a fearsome outlaw whispered on the lips of every Valkyrie beat cop from Trinity to Millennium. Acting as the interim lieutenant of the Kata-Kata Helmet Gang, she led her temporary crew in a successful bid to take control of Abydos High School's current main campus, doing so on behalf of an anonymous and very wealthy benefactor. It was a sure way for the Splash Helmet Gang's leader to boost the prestige of herself and her Helmet Gang branch and would serve as yet another rung on the ladder for her rise to the top of the underworld food chain.

The takeover itself was laughably easy, as the school had already been stripped of its fighting force when most of the student body abandoned ship, leaving only five of them against her own fighting force of a hundred strong gangsters, and the benefactor even employed a bunch of mercs just to be sure. Sure, they managed to take out a few dozen as well as somehow escape the siege undetected, but a win was a win, and Rabu's grin resembling that of a shark's didn't hide her joy as the new kingpin of Abydos' high school. The client even let them use the school building indefinitely, no strings attached, as long as they managed to hold it until the end of today. It was nice to have someone backing them who almost certainly would not break the outlaw code through an unexpected betrayal.

Rabu climbed up onto the rooftop along with assigned lookouts and sat blissfully on the sand-stained air ducts above, letting her long red hair which flowed down to her knees blow in the cool night wind of the desert. She lifted the visor on her Altyn helmet as specks of sand clung to her dark hooded jacket and boots and stained her long grey pleated skirt.

With about an hour to go before the deadline passed and thus another feather in Rabu's bulletproof cap, the lookouts on the roof spotted a pure white helicopter flying dangerously low to the school building. It was probable the Abydos students were mounting a counterattack, even if they previously had to abandon their posts due to a lack of supplies. As it weaved and dodged through the surplus rockets previously used in the siege, it came to a stop a short distance above the roof Rabu had planted herself on and lowered the ramp. Rabu smiled as she took the opportunity to aim another rocket at the now vulnerable chopper and fire.

"Abydos," boomed a deep, husky voice. "Prepare for Stelle-fall!"

What happened next in less than a second was the rocket was promptly stomped on by the dark shoes belonging to the newly minted legend of Kivotos, reflecting the rocket towards the floor as it failed to reach the minimum arming distance. It then met Rabu's face at high velocity, the explosion throwing her back as if she had just been hit by a freight train, and immediately afterwards Rabu's mouth had a taste of Stelle's shoe as the infamous Galactic Educator dove in freefall at her. The one-two combination sent her flying backwards off the rooftop before crashing onto the surface with a hard thud.

As Rabu's consciousness faded, the only thing on her mind was that she was glad to have worn the trusty symbol of the Helmet Gangsters for safety, even if it did little to soften the blow of having been so soundly and stylishly defeated.

"Well, that was a rather dramatic entrance," Dan Heng commented, looking over the edge of the roof at the defeated Helmet Gangster. Bullets whizzed by him as he calmly retreated from the edge. I had sprung from my Sam-worthy explosive landing to grab the next nearest lookout and take them hostage, stealing their pistol and emptying it one-handed at their buddy close by, inching my way forwards as I did so. While I had never seen Kafka do it personally, it was a move I had copied from her, finally finding some practical use in the gun-obsessed culture of Kivotos. Heavens forbid Boothill finds his way here, if nothing else but so Aru would not find a new idol of worship. As the third delinquent reeled, I threw my human shield at my victim, knocking them both out from the impact. March stood on the helicopter ramp, quickly sniping the remaining lookouts on the rooftop with her bow, before jumping off as the helicopter disappeared from view and into the city skyline.

"Stelle-fall... starfall. Seriously?" March remarked, clearly not a fan of my improvised one-liner. "I don't know what's more embarrassing, the fact you said it, or the fact you ever came up with it."

"We don't have time to be arguing about this," Dan Heng snapped. "We've got less than an hour until midnight. The students can't wait."

March grumbled and muttered something inaudible.

"Let's not waste any more time," I declared, before turning to look down at the school grounds, and the large group of Helmet Gangsters standing in formation around the building, waiting for us to make the first move. Dan Heng responded by descending down the rooftop stairwell, and they immediately ran into the school to prepare a defense, shouting at each other along the way.

"What? Sensei? We're being attacked by Sensei?"

"Get those proximity mines set up, hurry!"

"Since when did the GSC ever care about Abydos anyway?"

"Who's that tall guy? He's so dreamy..."

As I followed Dan Heng's lead, the first sign of the Helmet Gang's presence was clear; somehow this otherwise unremarkable staircase was littered with spent bullet casings and food wrappers. They seemed to be everywhere, and the three of us took care not to slip on them.

"Arona," I began, remembering how Silver Wolf saved the Sanctum Tower's basement from becoming a pile of rubble. "We've got about a hundred enemies lying around every corner on two floors, and I overheard them saying something about mines. Could you disable them all for me?"

A second or two passed as Arona worked her magic, humming a familiar tune that was also one which Kafka was rather fond of. Considering Kivotos seems to have had limited contact with the outside universe from Rin's comment, it seemed that my mind wasn't the only one Silver Wolf had messed with. "All done, Sensei!"

The next problem was that we didn't have the time nor the manpower to secure all the entrances, but that wasn't a factor as rather than digging in to surround the building and stall for time, all of them had rushed in to pack it with as much numbers as possible. For taking out an outnumbered force with numbers, the latter also using similar tactics and fighting styles, it was a good enough strategy. Unfortunately for them, both Dan Heng and I were skilled and quick close-quarters fighters, and even while vastly weakened and having a demotivated mental state, I was still able to keep up with Wakamo despite holding back to preserve my stamina, who was a local legend feared by all in Kivotos. We were also backed up by March, who was able to provide ranged support and shielding, and as Haruka could attest, wasn't a slouch up close either despite her lack of martial skills. Being pressed for time was the only thing going against us, but it seemed the delinquents didn't know the true reason for the time limit that Ayane had informed me about, as they unknowingly gave up their trump card against our assault. Then again, neither did I, as I didn't bother to ask for elaboration.

The three of us nodded at each other at the only door leading out of the stairwell, and as March readied her bow to lob a series of ice bombs the moment I breached the door. I held up my hand, using it to count down to 3 for the group, and one mighty kick sent the worn and fragile door clean off its hinges. It flattened a delinquent standing immediately opposite to it, presumably waiting to ambush us, while March's ice bomb arrow flew over my head, scattering in the tight spaces and freezing most of the enemies in sight, causing the rest to panic and run. Dan Heng and I rushed over to clean up the enemies that weren't deeply frozen as well as ones that had ran to avoid the arctic thunder, zipping through the corridors like Lost Trotters trying to escape my grasp, thoroughly educating my students on the consequences of home invasion. I relished in the feeling as, for the first time in a while, the full-frontal force of the Nameless had reunited for something that wasn't a galaxy-ending threat like Sunday's fusion with the Harmonious Choir to produce a newborn false Aeon. Instead, they were simple street toughs, and teenage ones at that, far below the sort of entities we were used to chewing through as if they were cannon fodder. Even then, I was sure Hook could have taken them, to say nothing of them meeting Svarog's cold steel fists if they ever tried messing with Clara.

Cutting a swath through the annex building in what seemed like seconds, we entered what seemed to be a large assembly hall. It was then the lights across the school cut out and left us with the pitch darkness of the desert night sky. Random conveniently chest-high objects littered the open floor, as various Helmet Gangsters laid in wait for us in what was an apparent ambush point. I was prepared to go in, but my companions had retreated to the entryway outside the assembly hall, causing me to do the same.

"You idiot!" hissed a voice hiding in the distance. "Turn your flashlight off. They'll see us!"

"What does it matter?" replied the aspiring criminal who had just been reprimanded. "That chick with the ice bombs will get us anyway!"

"They don't have guns, genius! They have to come close!"

As this was going on, March voiced her complaints in a loud whisper. "Ugh, I can't see a thing! Who do they think they are, taking away my chance to shine?"

"What's the big deal?" I whispered back. "Can't you just see where their halos are?"

"Halos?" March replied, confused. "What halos?"

I was flabbergasted. "The, uh, glowing circles above their heads? You can see them perfectly in the dark. I was pretty sure they're a constant part of their power."

"No idea what you're talking about," she replied, before continuing her complaining. "When you were talking about halos to Himeko, I thought you were talking about the ones in the sky!"

I ignored it as I turned to Dan Heng, who also had his head tilted, equally as confused. "Like March, I can't see them either. Perhaps it's an ability that's unique to you."

I stopped, puzzled, as I was pretty sure Wakamo had been able to see Rin through the light of her halo, and that the delinquents in the Sanctum Tower raid hesitated to shoot me when they saw I didn't have one. The simplest explanation was that they didn't; the fact I was to them a monstrously tall outsider was proof enough I was an outsider to Kivotos, and Wakamo likely just had decent vision in the dark. This wouldn't really explain why Silver Wolf was so well-informed about them and able to give me a rundown of its properties, including visual appearances. It wouldn't be a stretch for her to either naturally be able or give herself something that lets her see them, and then implant me with the same ability when she made her modifications while I was asleep. If anything, her knowing how it looks was just more confirmation halos are a real thing and not just an artifact of Silver Wolf's messing with my brain, though it also meant she absolutely had me dancing on puppet strings in my time here, be it present or future. She really has been hanging around that Masked Fool too much.

As I realized the massive advantage this gave me and that the Helmet Gangsters had accidentally given me the freest win of my educating career, a massive smirk crept on my face as I took out my bat and prepared to lunge through the entryway at top speed. After the absolute disaster that was the Sanctum Tower incident where I barely pulled out a win through the skin of my teeth, no thanks to having been unconscious for an entire day and Silver Wolf leading me into an ambush for kicks, I was excited to power trip my way through some low level goons; to the point it overrode my initial excitement of having the full Nameless frontline at my disposal. Before I could leap out though, March put a hand on my shoulder and shot me a quizzical raised eyebrow.

"You're just gonna go in there without any backup?" she chided.

"I don't need any," I confidently boasted, my smugness reaching its peak. "I'll take care of this one by myself. Trust me."

She removed her hand and sighed as she instantly gave up on convincing me. "If Cocolia putting a spear through your stomach won't humble you, then nothing will." She quietly skulked into the assembly hall as the two of us followed her, the thugs none the wiser. March then took out a Space Anchor and set it up by the stairwell in the corner, as she prepared to teleport back to the Express, likely eager to head to bed immediately after staying up so late. "Come on, Dan Heng. We can't stop Stelle when she's like this."

"Right behind you," he said, turning around and following her. "Abydos are going to need help cleaning up the mess afterwards."

With that, March activated the Space Anchor and the two teleported back to the Express. I immediately spied on the nearest Helmet Gangster and prepared to leap at her as if I was a Searing Prowler that had spotted its target. Having my teammates at my side after so long was great, but getting to avenge my ego on the goons who had given me trouble on my first day as Sensei? It was like winning the Humongous Prize at the Golden Capsule Machine twice in a row.

""It's educating time!" I shouted out, my voice reverbing in the open space, instantly drawing their attention and alerting them to the fact I had entered the room.

Panicked bursts of gunfire were sprayed at me as I effortlessly dodged it and pounced on my first victim.

The night air of Abydos was still, and not a sound could be heard in the dead desert landscape save for the crunch of sand and gravel under her shoes. The girl walked along the sidewalk, her long pink hair tied in a loose ponytail, it and the cowlick on her head blowing gently in the breeze. Her white dress shirt had seen better days, as it had become ripped and torn from the amount of stress she had been putting on it in the last 24 hours. Her grey pleated skirt and navy-blue shoes hadn't been washed in days, and the long socks she wore had been stained with sand. A bulletproof vest protected her chest from the elements, as a handgun and various ammo pouches were perched onto its holsters and pockets. A black and worn riot shield hung off her back, the words "IRON HORUS" and a white triangle clearly visible from a distance. Her heterochromatic blue and orange eyes were heavy with exhaustion, but she kept walking.

Her destination was not far. She passed by an empty and dilapidated shopping plaza sat, with many of its neon signs either having been damaged or simply no longer working. Checking her looted ammo once more, the girl pulled back the slide on her shotgun, exposing the loaded buckshot shell before letting it spring back in place. Usually, the girl had an ironclad grip on her emotions, effortlessly putting on an air of laidback nonchalance that was reminiscent of a senile old man. But today was different. Takanashi Hoshino had suffered setback after setback in the past day alone. First, she and her juniors were forced to abandon their school as they finally ran out of supplies and were left defenseless against a horde that outnumbered them twenty-to-one. Things quickly went downhill from there, as her friend and emotional bedrock Izayoi Nonomi had suddenly disappeared and stopped taking any calls while the remaining three members of the Foreclosure Task Force scrounged up whatever they could for a last-ditch counterattack that was certain to fail. Hoshino knew that whatever drastic measures Nonomi felt she had to take could only lead to disaster, a thought she hid from the others. Hoshino herself gave the transparently false excuse of having other business to attend to as she tried contacting the man in the black suit, accepting his deal of servitude in exchange for wiping away half of Abydos' debt. But although the outsider set a time and place of their meeting, when she had finally arrived to Kaiser PMC's branch office, the man was mysteriously absent, either having had something else come up or using his absence to taunt Hoshino one more time. It didn't matter to the FTF's chairwoman, as she stealthily helped herself to Kaiser's ammo and equipment and made her exit through the front door undisturbed. One last attempt to contact and search for Nonomi failed, and Hoshino resigned herself to a final gambit: infiltrate Abydos High alone and break the occupation by herself. After years of hiding her true power, Hoshino was prepared to unleash it one more time, and potentially for the last time.

Hoshino stopped in front of the school building, which despite the darkness, seemed to have had an obvious battle fought on its grounds, with spent shell casings littering the courtyard, and a particular red-headed gangster unconscious and covered in soot. The Abydos Student Council vice president recognized her as one of the gang lieutenants who partook in the assault on the school. There was no one else in sight, and as Hoshino looted her belongings of usable ammo and credits, shots rang out from the inside, but none of them were directed at her. The muzzle flash of gunfire lit up one of the rooms on the second floor, before they quickly fell silent, and the gunfire spread to another room. As Hoshino prepared to dash inside, a tall, shadowed figure came by the broken window, lifting a Helmet Gangster by the neck as the victim squirmed in its grasp and whimpered pathetically, having been completely overcome by fear. The delinquent was dropped as she screamed an undignified high-pitched shriek, before hitting the floor on her back and falling unconscious some distance from Hoshino.

"Have a nice fall," the figure wisecracked in deadpan, before disappearing back into the shadows.

Hoshino had to admit she derived plenty of satisfaction from seeing one of the thugs who had been harassing herself and her friends for months finally being put in their place. However, the fact it was practically a one-sided slaughter was something the student council chairwoman only found amusing for the reason that it was the same level of tastelessness and unnecessary roughness that her junior Sunaookami Shiroko liked to indulge in, stupid statements said completely seriously included. One thing was for sure though, whoever was re-invading the school was definitely not her beloved juniors. Shiroko was talented, but she didn't grow 20 centimeters overnight.

Hoshino quickly leapt up, using the various scaffoldings to climb her way up into the broken second story window in a manner of seconds. By the time she did, the figure was gone, having left the room Hoshino was in more reminiscent of a morgue rather than a classroom. Unconscious bodies and scattered guns lay across the floor. The chairwoman was impressed, as whoever was responsible had made short work of the gang and seemed to be the reason why the takeover had collapsed.

"What a mess," Hoshino remarked, kicking a bullet casing out the window and listening to it bounce on the ground. As Hoshino was lost in thought and pondered the mysterious individual's identity, a voice echoed from down the hallway blubbering something incoherent, which was swiftly cut off by a barrage of gunfire and erratic shouting from the other delinquents, becoming clearer as she rushed towards the source and witnessed the carnage that ensued.

"No, no, no! Someone get the power on NOW!"

"Where did she go? Where did those other two go? She's behind me, isn't she?"

"I'm so sorry! I thought you were a joke! Please don't hurt me!"

Hoshino had better night vision than most, so she was able to make out a tall adult woman quickly darting between the backs of the delinquents, not even bothering with stealth as she beat each of them into submission with her baseball bat. The sounds of the scuffle would always draw the attention of the others in the room, but by the time they had turned around and fired at the source, the predator was already long gone, having moved onto other prey. To Hoshino, the bat-wielding woman looked exactly like the infamous Galactic Educator.

Hoshino frowned. As far as she knew, Sensei too had abandoned them to their fates. It was probably unrealistic to expect a response to a letter sent out only three days ago, but Abydos had no other choice. The fact she had appeared now was almost insulting. The FTF had better things to do than to be the subject of that woman's antics. Still though, Hoshino was going to take anything she could get, especially as Kaiser would probably try something if the Abydos students were no longer occupying the school by the end of today.

The scene unfolded like something out of a horror movie, with Sensei's shadowy form and the sounds of the thugs' shouting unfolding as if it was perfectly directed and acted by a film crew on set. The thugs shouted insults to try to psych themselves up, which did nothing but give away their position; not that their stalker needed it when she clearly had vastly superior night vision over them.

"I'll find you and I'll shove that bat right up your-blarf!"

"You think I'm gonna fall for the 'throw a rock where you want me to look' trick, Sensei? I'm insulted!"

"Shut up and get ready to shoot!"

As the last few delinquents in the room fired wildly in desperation, the woman quickly zipped over: grabbing the first and using them as a human shield, before snatching their submachine gun and wildly firing one-handed at the remaining two at close range. Each of them were riddled with bullets as they instantly went down unconscious, before the hostage was shoved away and kicked in the back of the right knee, forcing them to the floor. The infamous baseballer then came over and put her final victim down with a single, precisely directed swing at the head, moving on to the next room while seemingly oblivious to Hoshino's presence.

As Hoshino had witnessed, the Helmet Gang's morale was completely obliterated. Most were already unconscious, while the rest had completely fallen apart and were hiding, panicking, or staying as close as possible to one another to put up a last stand. The woman, however, was unfazed and seemed to be having the time of her life, as despite her neutral tone of voice, she was pleased with and talking to herself. "Still 30 to go. Who's next?"

Deciding she could simply catch up by following the trail of carnage Sensei left in her wake, Hoshino began scouring the unconscious bodies of the delinquents for ammo and credits, having adopted her junior's unscrupulous morality in this instance.

"Wow, Sensei. I almost feel sorry for them."

Arona's assessment of the situation came right after I mopped up what should have been the last group of delinquents. My power trip through the school was a short lived one, as I still had about ten or so minutes before the hour struck midnight as I sent the second-to-last occupying thug on the express to Dreamland.

"I don't," I replied. "Occupying the Sanctum Tower and ambushing me is one thing, but taking over someone else's school is another. Can't stand home invaders."

"You do realize they're just a bunch of kids, right?" Arona retorted. "It's not like you to act like this towards them."

I shrugged. "I still held back; you know. It'd be more cruel if I didn't try to scare them straight. I don't like seeing them throw their futures away to be run-of-the-mill bandits."

Arona chuckled, apparently not believing a word I said. I took some offense to it, as I was completely sincere in my reasoning. "Well, if you're looking for more people to scold, you're not going to find any here. You got all but one of them, including the ones you left unconscious in the annex building, as well as on the ground floor here. The last one locked herself in the security room, towards the library building."

I quickly dashed over there and ended up face-to-face with a steel door more reminiscent of a that of a blast room's than a security office. I could probably force it open with a focused Stardust Ace swing, but considering how badly the thugs trashed the school to the point where it was easier to count the unbroken windows, I didn't want to cause even more unnecessary collateral damage.

"Shouldn't this door automatically open when there's a power outage?" I asked.

Arona groaned. "I know what you're thinking, and no. This is not 'Five Evenings at Sir Frederick's Tavern.' Doors like that stay closed during an outage because there's a manual lever inside that forces it back open. And besides, this uses a keyhole and doorknob anyway."

I knocked on the door, and a delinquent that was doing an unconvincing job staying hidden responded, as her muffled voice came through the other end of the door. "There's no one here. Go away!"

I grabbed my phone and opened my music app, turning up the speakers while I selected the appropriate song.

"Sensei, are you seriously going to reenact the power outage scene from that?" Arona questioned.

I grinned as I let the music box rendition of one of Kafka's favorite tracks play... only to discover I had selected the wrong music.

"Mend your pace, sway to the beat!" Robin's heavenly, uplifting singing voice was usually welcome, but in this moment, it was completely out of place and killed the mood. Heavenly and uplifting was the exact opposite of the impression I wanted to leave, if I wanted the delinquent to crap her pants before I went in for the knockout blow. "Hands up! Embrace who you wanna be!"

I could practically feel Arona bopping happily to the beat within the Simulated Classroom as embarrassment over my mistake welled internally. "Hey, this is pretty good! Now I know why my knowledge banks described Robin so favorably!"

The thug from inside had seemingly doubled over into hysterics. "Gahahaha! You like this cheesy crap, Sensei? That's hilarious! THIS is who everyone was so scared of? Bwahahahahaha!"

I stood there paralyzed for a bit at my critical error as the song continued. "Feel the fire deep within, you're the key to where my trust begins!"

Gripping my bat tightly, I prepared to charge my Stardust Ace to obliterate the door before a pink-haloed student I didn't notice had snuck up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. "So, this is what the youngsters listen to nowadays," she spoke playfully while yawning. "Let me get the door for you, whippersnapper." The Abydos student unlocked the door using a key, and I immediately charged in and began bashing the thug repeatedly, her laughing replaced by yelps of pain with each hit before she finally fell unconscious, where I continued to hit her a few more times for good measure; all to the tune of an extremely inappropriate soundtrack.

"Welcome to my world! Renew your definition. World so high, let me show! And hear my declaration: 'No more ties!'"

As I finished my extreme melee retaliation on my heckler, I shut off "Sway to My Beat in Cosmos" before any further damage could be done to my street cred.

Hoshino had somehow completely cleaned up after me, as just about every enemy I had encountered and left defeated where they stood had been tossed into a neat pile outside, as about as neat of a pile as a mass grave of unconscious thugs could be anyway. This also unfortunately meant that, as far as I could tell, Hoshino got to their valuables long before I did. I made a habit of looting the enemies I had defeated in my expeditions for materials and credits, since I could easily store all of it in my dematerialized inventory. Unfortunately, it looked like I would have to continue to make do with the amount preloaded onto the gift card Yuuka had given me before my sniper duel with the maids; granted, the Abydos students needed it a lot more than I did.

After restoring power and opening the school gates back up, I began tossing each of them off the campus and onto the street as Hoshino had previously instructed. It was the least I could do after taking care of a job she had clearly meant to complete by herself. As I quickly chucked each unconscious gangster out into the cold concrete like slabs of beef, I slowly began going over my initial impression of Hoshino. The file the GSC and thus SCHALE by extension had on her was by no means detailed, and made no mention of her combat prowess, notable achievements, or personality. It was something that, unfortunately, I'd have to fill in the gaps myself further down the road.

Regardless, I had an innate ability to immediately feel out someone's level of ability the moment I laid eyes on them, as if I was the protagonist of a RPG who could see the levels of the people around them. It was a major reason I didn't fully believe Firefly's initial cover story of being an employee for The Family, and the conga line of monster corpses on our way to her hideout confirmed she was more dangerous than I had initially surmised, though my imagination ultimately ended up being lacking compared to the reality of the situation. Hoshino wasn't quite as skilled as Firefly when it came to disguising her true strength, as when she had snuck up on me, my instincts immediately recognized the overwhelming potential she possessed. There was no detective work required on my part, and there was no Masked Fool beating it into my head that I should be suspicious of her. I wasn't sure of the specifics, but I hazarded a guess that she was around Yanqing's level, making her by far the most powerful being I had encountered in Kivotos so far. Hoshino was someone to keep an eye on, and it was rather apparent she didn't trust me as well.

A suspicious, black unmarked van could be seen down the road just as I had tossed the last delinquent out onto the street; the stack of bodies resembling a pile of dirt more than it did a pile of thugs. As it got closer, I could hear the driver honking the horn and shouting profanities, before drifting inside the school gates and coming to a stop. The robot driver, obviously irate, came out and stomped towards me, shouting angrily. "What do you think you're doing? You trying to get me to crash?"

I answered him with a non-committal, vague response as I tried to feel out who he was. Hoshino said it'd be Kaiser and she'd be out to meet with him soon, but something about it just didn't feel right.

"I'm just trying to do my job, sir. Don't see what's the big deal."

He scowled, clearly not satisfied with the answer. "Don't screw with me, brat. You think you're the Eighth Prisoner just because you hit a growth spurt. Anyway, I don't see those stupid girls here, and it's one minute past the due date. Finally, I can stop doing this damn route. Unloading all that cash constantly wasn't good for my back."

I began poking at him to try to squeeze as much info as I can. "Why were those girls paying you so much cash, anyway? You running some contraband and not giving us a cut?"

The robot fell for my emotional provocation. "You don't even have a helmet, and you call yourself a Helmet Gangster! Stupid low IQ dropout! Give Kaiser an excuse to wipe your idiot group off the map! Our cars have working air conditioning!"

"Kaiser?!" I faked surprise and outrage. "Corpos can't buy out a school legit, so they send us to devalue it on the market?"

"Yeah, well, you know now, so you better start quaking in your boots!" The robot's attitude was starting to remind me of Skott's, but even more pathetic. At least the IPC were an active and all-consuming threat I had to be mindful of, even as I worked alongside them from time to time. Kaiser was definitely not a galactic conglomerate, so I was less than impressed by the boasting; this was amplified by the fact I had taken on the IPC in the Aurum Alley and won. "Why am I even bothering to argue this with you cretins? You seriously think they put the school on sale? Those girls couldn't pay back the debt, so the school is good as ours! Now get out of here before we evict you too!"

Wait, debt? That's the reason for all of this? I resisted the urge to facepalm as I realized I could have avoided this if I just asked Ayane for details. Instead, I immediately hung up on her to rush to the helipad. The debt thing was obvious in hindsight. I think Kafka would call a development like this "a dramatic irony" if she was here to see it.

Hoshino had once again seemingly appeared out of nowhere, pushing a fully loaded cart that was stacked near her height of nothing but pallets of cash. I wondered how the Abydos students managed to hide it in a place where the Helmet Gangsters wouldn't look. "What's all this ruckus on my lawn? You trying to keep an old man up?"

The robot's face display showed his eyes widening as a drop of sweat was animated in the pixelated form. "Y-You? Wait, I thought..."

"She kicked our asses," I immediately interrupted, and shrugged. "Sorry. She even took my helmet."

Hoshino lowered and scratched her head as she slowly let out a sleepy chuckle, though I could tell her eyes were following our every movement. "Hehe, that's right. I told her friends to stay off my lawn, but they just wouldn't listen. Sorry for the late payment."

The robot placed the palette of cash on the van's scale, which gave out a reading. "A 7,883,250 yen payment on your loan, including variable interest, has been confirmed." So, the credits of Kivotos were called "yen" all this time? I could have sworn I heard other people call it credits too. Maybe it's an interchangeable term. "However, we are still missing 78,833 yen in late payment fees."

Hoshino then took the loot she had pilfered from all those helmet gangsters and slapped it onto the palette. "Relax. Why are kids so impatient nowadays? Here, not a single credit short." Hoshino using the word "credits" as well. I really wasn't going insane after all.

True to Hoshino's word, the scale's display updated to show the final amount of 7,962,083 yen. "It... seems everything is in order. Alright then. See you... next month." Confused and defeated, the robot closed the back of the van and immediately sped off, leaving a trail of dust from his wheels as he did.

I shut the school gates, and Hoshino turned to me as we engaged in conversation. "Pretty smooth, Sensei. Didn't think you were a good actor."

"You weren't half-bad yourself," I returned the compliment. "So, what's this all about, anyway? The gangsters and the money."

Hoshino sighed as we entered the dark school, before we found a nearby staircase and stayed seated. "It's like the collector said: we're in debt to Kaiser. We can talk about the details more tomorrow. I just don't have the energy I used to! Mind giving me a back massage?"

I chuckled. "I just took out a hundred gangsters by myself. I'm pretty wiped as well."

"Oh alright, spoilsport. The young don't have respect for the old these days. I'm going to our club room to get some sleep, it's one of the few rooms with windows still intact. You should head back."

I sighted the blob of bodies in the distance beginning to move as some of the gangsters finally woke up, and began waddling away from the school building, clearly eager to forget about the events that transpired today. "Sure. I'll get something from the annex building before I do, if that's OK."

"Oh, that floating blue thing was yours. What does it do?"

"It lets me keep an eye on you," I quickly improvised.

"Ha!" Hoshino chortled. "I'm flattered you think I'm so young, Sensei. Could you meet us first thing in the morning tomorrow in the clubroom? There's a lot we have to go over."

"Sure thing. Good night, Hoshino."

"Good night, Sensei." She gave me a slap on the back as I got up to move out.

A dark room was lit by the ominous red glow of the various machinery and pipes running across the ceiling. In the center of it was a circular machine resembling a futuristic tanning bed. Tied to the machine was a man in a black suit, with matching tie, gloves, and shined shoes. His skin shined with a glossy black finish, while his face was filled with bright white cracks and deformations that appeared to be a right eye and mouth. Thick, dark smoke emanated from his forehead. His captor was man of similar size in a large black cloak, hunched over as he observed his hostage; his stringy short white hair and large dark oval face filled consisting of six eyes in various positions not too dissimilar to that of a fairy tale's antagonist. The man in the black suit soon stirred awake, not showing any surprise in his predicament.

"Basement Dweller," the captive began, his distorted yet human voice echoing in the room. "What is the meaning of this?"

Basement Dweller laughed, as his ethereal-sounding speech reverberated across the chamber. "You think too small, Black Suit. The strongest Mystic is not just some test subject to be experimented on for the sake of your inferior research. She is the one who will bring the entirety of Kivotos under her thumb, and then we will take the stars ourselves!"

"The girl has shown no interest in our organization whatsoever," Black Suit responded. "All she cares about is the debt. You have done nothing but snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."

"See, that is where you and I cannot see eye to eye. You, like that pathetic Punk Lord who found and then abandoned us, care only about your own goals. But I have my sights set on the grand strategy that will be not just the conquest of Kivotos, but the galaxy it inhabits. Word reached me from your pawns that she defeated the entirety of the Abydos occupation by herself. Such... power, and only a fraction of her potential. There is much knowledge we can gain, should we test her mettle against forces beyond."

Black Suit began to laugh. "A defeat that would not have happened if you did not interfere. What good is knowledge that comes at the cost of those who can use it?"

"Oh, I will breed her potential through countless and endless suffering. A little bird came to my own pawns, and the bird decided to reclaim her rightful heir to the throne that is her legacy. Kaiser is not the only piece on the chessboard, Black Suit." Basement Dweller pulls out a contract and shows it to Black Suit, which was signed by someone named Kuchinashi Yume. "Saint Nepthys has their hands in Abydos too."

"Interesting..." Black Suit paused, before continuing. "And that is why you've interrupted a mutually beneficial outcome for all of Gematria? For the sake of your grand strategy?"

"Oh, Gematria is a thing of the past. I no longer need you, or the others for that matter. For you see, I have earned THEIR gaze, something the rest of Gematria has failed to achieve. It is inconvertible proof that my victory in this game is a foregone conclusion. Even the IPC will be made to kneel. Until then, I advise you to sit back as the noose tightens around your neck, Black Suit."

Basement Dweller turned to leave, before being interrupted by Black Suit as he mused on his memories.

"The Punk Lord... she was right about you."

"And how so, Black Suit?"

"In her own words: 'Basement Dweller is a noob.'"

With that, Basement Dweller roared as he leapt on his hostage and viciously clawed at Black Suit, before calming down and turning to leave once again. "This is MY campaign! That accursed hacker, nor you, will get in my way!"

As the door shut behind him, Black Suit let out a soft chuckle as he slipped a small remote out of his sleeve, before using his foot to step on its button. "So, Nous has abandoned us then. Very well..."

The man coughed, before continuing.

"Arise, Decagrammaton."

Author's Notes:

Unfortunately, this will be the last chapter in a long time, as I can no longer work on the fic regularly due to becoming busier with my studies, as well as working to pay for expenses. Before I ended regular updates though, I wanted to finish this chapter so the story would be at a good place to pick up once I could work on the fic enough to get out an update, since a lot happens in here: mainly the introduction of V1C3 plot points and having them happen at the same time as the previous V1 chapters. Again, thanks for your all your support.