A/N: I do not own any of these characters or intellectual properties. Also note there will be spoilers ahead for both Blue Archive and Raildex content.
A/N 2: The idea of last chapter's IF Episode came from the the idea of the what if came from me thinking "What if Touma forgot about any girl named Misaki" instead of just specifically Shokuhou Misaki. And it's a non-canon omake, just for the record.
A/N 3: Thanks for all the comments and support so far by the way!
Volume 0 Chapter 1 Episode 4
That Which Was Hidden.
The_Heart+Chest.
Part 1:
"Damn it!"
In the distance, one could consider that Schale's building was almost indistinguishable from the other structures that neighboured it, as they all shared a similar exterior design to one another. However, it very much stood out from the rest, as the tower aspect of the building went up to the clouds making it so that one couldn't miss it. Furthermore, the building was much larger in comparison, occupying more space for its premises. But the biggest indicator that it was the Schale building to Touma was the fact that he saw the automatic sliding door close from afar, meaning the terrorist fox girl had already entered the building.
"Tch!"
Throughout his sprint to reach the tower, he had been thinking back on his experience so far in Kivotos in regards to its inhabitants. Since learning that students in Kivotos had a boost in physical capabilities thanks to their halos, though he wasn't sure what else they entailed; he had to expect that they would be much more able-bodied than a random Level 0 delinquent you could find on the streets of Academy City.
The thugs that were native to Kivotos that he had initially fought against seemed to have no kind of training at all besides handling firearms, which he was thankful for. This meant that in a true one-on-one, if he managed to land a punch with Imagine Breaker, then it would knock the living daylights out of them without much resistance so long as he could prevent them from shooting at him through whatever means he had at his disposal in the moment.
But Wakamo on the other hand was on a different level. The fox girl was already showing how fast she was on her feet by arriving at the Schale building well before he had; as even during combat, Touma had picked up that she was very, very skilled and powerful from the get go. There was no doubt that she at least had formal training of some kind with the way she handled herself, which was something that he could not say was the same for himself. He wasn't even sure he could have beaten her if she hadn't been taking it easy on him.
If he had to make a comparison, fighting a Kivotos thug was like fighting the average magic cabal member, while fighting against Wakamo was akin to fighting a Saint like Silvia, Brunhild Eiktobel, Kanzaki Kaori or William Orwell in comparison. The same connotation could apply to the Level 0 and the Level 5 espers of Academy City as there was no easy way to fight them head on unless he had the element of surprise and even then that wasn't guaranteed to work. He had to be cautious-
SLAM!
"Ugghh…" He groaned, as the sensor had failed to recognize him in time to open the doors as he ran face first into the reinforced glass. He thought it would open in time but his horrendous luck said otherwise. Pushing himself off of it, he rubbed his nose and face with his left hand to soothe the pain.
"Uwooghh! I need to find the stairs to the basement now before it's too late!" The moment the doors opened, he slipped right through the gap like an eel as his eyes darted around to look for any signs of an emergency stairwell or elevator in the dimly lit building. He was preferably hoping for the former as the last time he took an elevator, which was the other week, he got stuck in it with bags load of groceries to cook dinner for that night for an hour, and during that time Index tried to eat the food raw which resulted in a game of keep away. By the time he was out, he had several bite marks across his head.
It was a good thing that it didn't take more than a few seconds to find the emergency stairwell. Dashing towards it, he yanked the door open and jumped down to the landing while his body was guided by the handrail. The flights of stairs went by in a breeze, as he opened the door, being greeted by an empty hallway as he picked up some noise on his left.
As he headed into the hallway, he could tell that it was the end of the road, he saw the guardrail and thus planned to make the jump to the floor below once he did make it.
"You're not getting aw-"
Unfortunately, even though he was wearing Velcro shoes, he forgot that his now-nonexistent shoelaces were not the only aspect of a shoe that could fail him. The sole of the shoe slipped off entirely, having already clinged onto dear life when Touma had pulled off his little bike stunt not so long ago, and had finally given up on its wearer.
As such, the spiky-haired boy could only scream as he tried to brace himself for what was to come.
Part 2:
"Where is it?! Where's that stupid thing?" Wakamo muttered as she tried to search the basement for whatever was important that the stupid blonde midget told her to destroy or retrieve. All she said was that something important was there, but she didn't know what. She should've really blown this place up by now-
Thump thump thump!
Her ears perked at hearing the sound of footsteps from the floor above. As she turned her head, she was about to pull out her rifle but…
"Uwaagghhh!" She swore she saw something fly off the man's shoe. Hitting the wall, she finally realized what it was.
Twack.
'Ah, that's the sole.' Her eyes widened as the scene played out in slow motion, as the man hit the floor, rolling to the side until it fell off the steps of the stairwell.
Thud.
"Argh!"
Thud.
"Ack!"
Thud.
"Gah!"
Thud.
"Oof!"
Thud.
"Urk!"
Thud.
Eventually, the body landed on the cold floor of the basement. The man just lied there, as Wakamo pondered if he was dead, but the fact that his body was twitching and his chest heaved up and down meant he was still amongst the living.
"...my… body… my back… ow…" The spiky-haired man groaned and whimpered as he laid on his back. She walked towards him, her heels clacking behind her, though he didn't seem to pick up on that fact.
"Such… misfortune…"
In Wakamo's mind, she could only ask: was this a joke of some manner? She stared at the man as her arm went slack. From intimidating to pathetic, she was forced to wonder if this was the same preaching man who managed to keep up with her not so long ago, who held such passion and fire in his eyes to confront her.
"Ngh… huh?"
It didn't take him long to return to his senses however. Finally realizing that there was someone else in the room, he weakly raised his head up to look at her.
"Oh, um… hi." He smiled awkwardly and nervously. There wasn't a hint of fight left in him, looking more like a kicked puppy, pathetically cute. Didn't stop her from stabbing her bayonet right beside his head.
"Gaah!" He screamed. Her masked face loomed over his, his body pressed against the weight of her knee.
"...why is an adult like you working under the GSC?" She kept her guard up, interrogating him and waiting for any sudden movements. She didn't know why she didn't just shoot him or stab him outright, perhaps it was because her heart was going off like gunfire but…
"Huh? Adult working under the GSC?" He blinked, looking genuinely confused by her question, or perhaps he was confused she was asking him a question rather than harming him further. Thus, she reiterated it for him.
"Don't play dumb. You-" She noticed the ear piece he was wearing was gone, no doubt it was lost during their brief bout. "-were wearing a standard issue comms device from those pesky bureaucrats. They don't hand those out haphazardly unless you work for them. "
"...pffttt! Hahaha!" He burst out into laughter. Not one of joy or ridicule. Rather, it seemed like it was one of sadness and self-pity. "Sorry, sorry, I'm not laughing at you, it's just that this Kamijou-san doesn't even have a job to begin with. Even if I was told I'm now some kind of advisor for a club in this building when I woke up today, truth be told, I'm still not sold on it."
She blinked at his bitter proclamation and the information that was fed to her, she was going to stab him but she was just befuddled at his answer. He didn't have a job before today, he somehow found work in this building unwillingly, and his name, or surname was Kamijou.
"So let me make this one thing clear: I'm not working under the GSC. I'm not working for the GSC. I'm just helping Rin out because she asked me to, and she gave me one to keep in touch with her."
"Help? For what reason do you help that pencil pusher for? What do you have to gain from all of this? Wealth? Fame? Power?"
"...don't paint me as something I'm not. And besides, if there's one thing that's obvious, it's that you have something to gain from all of this, and have something against the GSC. Whether it's justified or not, it doesn't matter, in the end the way you went about it was wrong." Now that got under her skin, though it was more annoying Kamijou didn't give her an answer.
"Answer the question." She glared at him, brows furrowing behind the black mesh that covered the eye sockets of her mask.
"I don't need a rhyme or reason to help someone. I may be a normal guy, one who doesn't want anything to do with this nonsense if I can, but I can't just sit around waiting for an answer to fall on my head. Whether it be you, Rin or someone else entirely, I won't sit by idly and see people suffer right in front of me so long as I can stand up and fight."
Her heart stopped dead in its tracks as she clung onto his every word until he finished talking. And then it roared like a band had kickstarted a concert at full blast in her chest. That gaze of determination, the same one he held when she first laid eyes on him, had returned in full force. He wholeheartedly believed himself in such things, as if he spoke it was a normal thing to do. While the idea of helping someone out in a time of need was considered normal, acting it out was something else entirely. There was always a reason to help someone out, and it was always for their own benefit… And yet…
"..." She tried to open her mouth to retort, however the sash of cloth that kept her mask on her face came undone, to which it fell upon the man's face.
"Gah!" Kamijou yelped in shock as it landed on the dorsum of his face, sliding off to the side. She could only freeze in place, as he gazed at her, just as she gazed at him.
"...wow." Her ears picked up the near silent remark from him, but that was all it took for her mind to go blank.
"...!" Her face flushed and mouth quivered, she couldn't even let out a squeal as she swiftly picked up her mask and hastily tied it back on, retrieving her bayonet as she scrambled to get out.
It was silly to think that love could bloom on the battlefield. To find love at first sight… and yet…
As she scaled the emergency stairs, she could only curse in realization: that the enigma known as Kamijou had wormed his way into her heart and mind. For whether it was his seemingly honest and determined proclamation of altruism or the slight complement of her beauty, Wakamo could only think how the last thing she saw in that room before everything turned into a blur was of his awkward and nervous smile that hid no ill intent.
Part 3:
"Ha…" Touma could only sigh in exasperation once the door to the stairwell in the hallway closed, leaving him alone in the basement now.
While he was shocked by how beautiful the girl was underneath her mask despite the purple bruise that was caused by his punch, it was still weird in how she just up and left without harming him without another word. He tried to be honest to her as much as possible and comply with her demands, as she didn't seem to have any killing intent towards him for the most part. Plus he didn't want to damage anything in the room that could be important as such he took the path of least resistance for once. He didn't have a game plan afterwards to be honest and thus was glad it ended the way it did without any further altercation.
But still, what was his luck really? Nothing made sense at all, and he was frankly tired of all the high-octane action he had gone through this entire day. If anything Touma really just wanted to go back home right about now, and return to his normal, everyday life in Academy City. But he still needed to help Rin before figuring out a way to get home…
As he tried to pick himself up, he groaned in pain.
Ding!
"Ouch ouch ouch… ugh… damn it…" The boy complained to nobody in particular, as the sound of the elevator's bell rang from the hallway. Hurried footsteps clicked and clacked out loud as Rin made her way to the scene, stopping as she cushioned her collision with the balustrade.
"Kamijou-sensei, are you alright?!" She raised her voice in concern as she scanned the area, her eyes darting rapidly to see if the threat of the fox terrorist was lurking in the shadows.
"Y-yeah… I think so. Ow."
"Where did Wakamo go? Did she…" She was worried as she hurriedly descended the stairs towards the injured boy, checking him up and down for any major injuries.
"No, nothing like that."
"But… then what happened to you? Did something happen once you confronted Wakamo?" The bespectacled girl asked the spiky-haired boy. While he had two confrontations with the terrorist fox, only the first encounter led to combat while the second went down a weird path of interrogation that he didn't think was all too important honestly. As such he gave the truth to her.
"Oh, um. Eh… not really, I just… I fell down the stairs." He chuckled awkwardly in response… which was not the answer Rin was expecting. At all.
"You… fell down the stairs?" She questioned him, apprehension marred her visage.
"Yes." And his confirmation only caused her expression to retract into a stoic one.
"..." The look in Rin's eyes spoke words despite her stoic facade. It was that of judgement to which it screamed "There is no way you dived deep into danger and only got this beat up this badly because you fell down some stairs.". But everything was true for the most part.
"...sigh, regardless, my apologies for only arriving here now, though, while I should scold you for such reckless actions and while I am glad that the culprit is nowhere near the building, there are more pressing matters on hand..." Rin scoured around, looking for something.
"Found it," she whispered, as she turned back to look at the younger boy. "Here is what the General Student Council president left behind."
And in her hands was a white tablet, no, a smart tablet of all things, or that's what Touma thought it was. He was too poor to be acquainted with such technology.
"Thankfully, there isn't a scratch on it," she let out a small sigh of relief as she handed it over to him. "Please, take it."
"A smart tablet?" The spiky-haired boy asked, to which Rin nodded.
"Yes, despite its appearance, this is what the General Student Council President has left for you: the Shittim Chest."
"Shittim? You mean like wood from shittah trees? Or was it acacia?" He raised an eyebrow at the name given to the object.
"...I… am surprised you are versed in such things," Rin blinked at his sudden comment.
"Oh, someone I know told me that in the past. But it is a tablet right?" He looked at the object with some weariness, it felt cool to touch in his hands so it definitely wasn't made of wood. He had to hand it to Index's biblical knowledge that she prattled on about from time to time, coming in handy like this making him not look like a total idiot… Well not that he really remembered most of it, but one of her more recent ramblings was when she discovered that one franchise of films from overseas about a treasure hunter and blasted his ear with trivia about the thing when he made a dismissive comment about the religious artifact related to the plot.
"Indeed, but while it may seem like a normal tablet, its origins remain a mystery," she sighed. "Its manufacturer, OS, system structure, and components are completely foreign and unknown to me."
He nodded and gave the tablet a swift glance. Looking at the Shittim Chest in his right hand, even if it was a mysterious object of unknown origins, Imagine Breaker did not seem to work on it. No sound of shattering glass had come from contact with it, but even then he didn't want to push his luck any further and mentally consigned himself to interact with it with his left hand.
"The General Student Council President left the Shittim Chest in your hands. She said… or rather wrote down that you would be able to take control of the tower with it." He was the one who blinked in confusion now.
'So this is the verification that she was talking about earlier,' he thought to himself, gulping in trepidation.
"None of the other members know how to activate it. Perhaps you may be able to figure it out, Sensei, but if not…" She held her tongue, shaking her head. But it was clear as day as to what she would have said: any other option but success would mean the tide of chaos and destruction that swept Kivotos in the present would drown the city without fail.
"..." Everything was resting on him… he was sweating bullets on the inside, and even starting to feel a bead of sweat roll down his head.
"...my job here is done. I shall let you take the lead," she spoke though, he could tell she was starting to hold her breath in suspense. "I'll step away so as not to interfere."
"Right." Touma fiddled with it, touching the buttons around it until his fingers reached the button on the bottom of the display screen. Pressing it, the tablet's screen was brought to life as a blue background with a giant white "S" in the middle was displayed.
"...!" He could hear Rin gasp in shock, or rather, breathed sharply. No doubt surprised that it worked when the spiky-haired boy tried it whereas any other attempts had failed. But Touma turned his attention back to the tablet, taking note that there was some garbled English text too. Regardless it didn't take much time for it to load a message prompt.
[Connecting to the Shittim Chest…]
[Please enter the system password.]
"...wait, password?"
"...wait Kamijou-sensei, you mean to say you don't know the password? Did the President not tell you beforehand?"
"No. I… I don't even know who…"
He trailed off, yet in his mind, static noise filled his thoughts. While he felt like he knew the words on the English screen, he just wrote it off as him being exposed to too much English during his studying for his Finals. He tried thinking of anything else that could bridge the gap. Something. Anything.
-"...no, no I'm not."-
…huh? Wait a second. When he was searching his wallet earlier, he remembered he saw a slip of paper that was in there… he ignored it assuming that it was just a bill or note he forgot to put away…
'But I made sure to dump out anything else I put inside my wallet besides my cards and cash when I got back home the other day.'
He dug into his wallet, and upon opening and digging it out and opening the note to find…
'We thirst for the seven wailings. We bear the koan of Jericho.'
There it was. The static noise in his head became clearer. It was pretty much the same words as the one on the screen already. Switching the language for the onscreen keyboard to English, he typed in the phrase, hoping it would work.
[Password accepted. User identified as [Kamijou Touma]. Confirmed.]
[Welcome to the Shittim Chest, Kamijou-sensei.]
[Converting to operating system ARONA for biological authentication and generation of verification certificate.]
He was about to tell his companion that it worked, but in the blink of an eye, he found himself standing in a strange classroom. The blue floor was flooded with a light layer of water, as while he stood in front of a row of desks and chairs, to his right the wall was destroyed, showing a pile of messily stacked desks. Or perhaps it was the peak of a mountain of desks, he did not know as the endless horizon of blue sea and white clouds in the sky skewed with his depth perception.
Wherever he was, he was definitely not in the basement anymore, and he was not holding the Shittim Chest in his hands… Was he teleported somehow? Did he enter some kind of artificial or hidden phase of sorts? Did a Magic God make it? Or was it the Shittim Chest that did so, its power similar to World Rejector perhaps? But then, was it himself or his consciousness that got sent to this place? He did not know, but what he did know was that there was a little girl who was sleeping on a desk, unaware of the questions that plagued his mind.
"Zzz…"
"Zzz…"
"Zzz…"
"...Castella cake... Banana milk...goes better than strawberry milk…"
"Zzz…"
"Heehee... There's so much left…" The blue girl mumbled into her arms as she laid her head on it upon the desk.
"..." The sight of the sheer disparity of the situation the worried Touma was facing and the situation the sleeping girl was facing had allowed him to break him out of his thoughts. He walked towards her and poked her cheek with his left hand. Was any of this real? Or was it all a deeply elaborate dream at this point? He did not know…
"...I still have more to eat…"
But he did know that this girl was somehow related to the Shittim Chest. He poked at her arm with his left hand.
"Mmm… Not now… but…"
He decided to tap it this time.
"Heehee."
Still no luck, she was stuck in dreamland.
"Hey, wake up." Thus, he grabbed her arm gently and shook it and spoke in a soft tone.
"Yawn… what's going… on?" She said, nuzzling her face into the sleeves of her blue uniform. She tried to go back to sleep but she slid out of her chair and fell onto her butt, fully jolting her awake.
"Huh?! Wha...?!" She shook her head, looking around, as she finally looked up, hastily grabbing the desk to stand up and point at him.
"Ah, you!? If you're here in this space, does that mean you're-"
Bzztt!
— "■■■■■■■■" —
Upon seeing her face, upon hearing her voice, a phantom image overlaid onto his vision, and yet it was filled with static just like the buzzing in his head. He blinked, as he could only nod at the girl.
"What? So I was right? Then what time is it?!" There was something that felt off with her, or perhaps it was him. He could not tell, she felt genuine in her reaction and yet he felt that there was something that felt off. She felt familiar, and yet not. And the way she acted despite seeming unfamiliar to him, was one that was filled with familiarity of some kind.
"Wait wait wait… Calm down..." She paced herself as she took a deep breath in. He had noticed that her blue halo had morphed as it reformed and changed its color to green.
"Um, so... Oh, that's right! I forgot to introduce myself!"
"My name is Arona!" The girl, now known as Arona, spoke as she placed a hand on her chest. "I'm the system manager that lives inside the Shittim Chest and I serve as its main OS. Think of me as your trusty secretary-"
Bzztt!
— "■■■■■■■■" —
There it was again. He could hear and see Arona say the words and yet it was filled with static. What was going on?
"...it's nice to meet you too, Arona." He nodded in kind, as she smiled back.
"Yeah! It's nice to meet you too! I'm so glad to finally meet you! I've been waiting a long time!"
He raised an eyebrow and chuckled at her words.
"Weren't you just sleeping?" Touma asked, tilting his head with a playful grin.
"Well, uh...I guess I might have dozed off there," Arona turned her head to look to the side as she spoke those words, before turning it back to face him."But regardless, I've been waiting for your arrival for a while!"
"And while my physical form is still small, and my voice could use a serious upgrade… I know I can still prove to be useful to you!" She said as she pumped her arm like a bodybuilder, placing her other arm onto it to prove her strength. He found the gesture quite cute honestly.
"Well in that case-"
"Oh, yeah! Let's complete your biological authentication." She said as she interrupted him, speaking in a sing-song tone. He blinked at her words on the other hand.
"For what?" He asked her, and now Arona was the one who was blinking.
"Oh um...this is a little embarrassing, but it's all part of the protocol. Would you mind standing a little closer?" He walked closer towards her as he now stood in front of her. She raised her hand and stuck out her index finger, a small little camera icon manifested in the space, or perhaps it was something like a see-through screen. "Okay. Now, place your fingertip against mine."
"Alright…" He complied, putting his left index finger on it. As he did, he waited for a bit while Arona chuckled.
"Heehee. It's kind of like we're making a promise or something, isn't it?" Arona said, smiling at him.
"Eh? Does it?" Touma asked, questioning such a thing.
"It does! After all, I'm the one that has to scan every fingerprint that is left on the screen. But don't worry! I have eyes like a hawk, you know!" She nodded, as she let out some more noises shortly afterwards. It took a bit of time but…
"All done! I'm surprised you're left-handed though!" She said, as both their two hands retreated to their sides and Arona took a step back.
"Huh? I'm right handed actually."
Arona blinked in confusion, her mouth agape.
"...wait what?! Then why didn't you use your right hand?!"
"I didn't think it would matter…"
"...hic… but it does to me!" She was starting to tear up.
"W-wait don't cry-"
"You meanie! It's supposed to be like a promise! The first fingerprint I've ever scanned wasn't the right one! It'll take time to rescan it now! I know I don't have that sort of high-tech feature to instantly scan-" She paused for a second, catching herself for saying that last bit. "I mean, I don't need it anyways, my eyes will do just fine but-"
"J-just listen to me Arona, alright? Right now, things are pretty bad outside in Kivotos, and I need your help," Touma interrupted her, firmly grabbing her shoulder with his left hand with a gentle squeeze. Arona broke out of her tangent, realizing that there were more important matters on hand as she stared at him. "A lot of people are getting hurt outside and it's plain chaos on the streets, and I want it to stop. So I'm going to need you to restore access to the Sanctum Tower's facilities, can you do that for me?"
"...yes." She nodded. "I think I can do that. No, I can do that for you! A lot must have been going on, hasn't it?"
"Yeah…" He wanted to ask her about the GSC President, but knew that any more distractions would get in the way with Arona's work. "Thanks, Arona. Do you mind sending me back? I'm not sure how to do so myself."
"Sure! And after that, I'll restore the access permissions to Sanctum Tower!" She spoke and nodded in confirmation, as Touma found himself back in the basement the moment he blinked. Rin was staring at him still, as he stood in the same spot as he was before.
"Just give me a minute!" He could hear her voice come from the tablet, as the light flickered on and off in the room for several seconds. It wasn't long after that the room came fully online.
"Sanctum Tower admin permissions acquired," Arona's voice spoke out, as the girl popped up onto the screen in front of the blue background with a satisfied smile. "We've successfully regained Sanctum Tower, Sensei! The tower is now under my control. That means all of Kivotos is in the palm of your hand!"
"That's great to hear… I think?" He nodded, but tilted his head at the last statement. Meanwhile, Rin raised her eyebrows, as if she was watching a crazy man speaking. "Can you transfer it to Rin then?"
"I… can transfer control of Sanctum Tower to the General Student Council with your approval," Arona blinked and nodded slowly, though it almost sounded like she was going to say something else when she spoke of the General Student Council. "But...are you sure that's what you want to do? You would be giving total control to the General Student Council then."
"Rin's pretty trustworthy, and having all this power doesn't fit with a normal person like me. So go ahead, I'm sure it'll be fine Arona."
"All right, then! Control of Sanctum Tower will now be transferred to the General Student Council!" And with that, Touma turned his head towards Rin, as she looked on in utter confusion.
"Looks like everything's set… Rin? Something wrong?"
She just blinked. Before shaking her head.
"I… yes, I mean no. Nothing is wrong but…. Just who were you talking to? Who is this Arona?"
"Hm? Can you not hear her?" Touma raised an eyebrow to that revelation.
"...my apologies, but no. I do not hear her."
"Well, that's… weird? Apparently, she's the OS of the Shittim Chest. But we can worry about that later, right now, the Sanctum Tower is now under the GSC's hands. Can you confirm that?"
"...Understood," Rin nodded and touched her earpiece, turning around to speak to whoever it was on the other end. A while later, she released it and turned back to him.
"Control of Sanctum Tower was just confirmed."
"Phew… that's good to hear." The spiky-haired boy sighed in relief, placing a hand on his chest for his exhausted heart.
"This will allow us to manage the city as well as we could before the President's disappearance," Rin sighed as well, she closed her eyes for a brief moment before opening them again. "Well done, Kamijou-sensei. I want to thank you on behalf of the entire General Student Council for preventing Kivotos from falling into utter chaos."
"I already told you that you don't need to be so formal with me Rin, I'm just a student like you. And really, it was nothing, all I did was show up and get my fingerprint scanned and give you access to what you need to do your job. If it wasn't for you or everybody else, this Kamijou-san would've still been sleeping in that train or be riddled with bullets.
You guys did all the heavy lifting." He chuckled and sighed, shaking his head.
"...regardless, what you did was commendable despite the reckless action you took to travel faster." She smiled with a fake smile, but it turned into one that was filled with warmth. "Truly, knowing the risk that you took and accepting such absurd circumstances, I thank you for your assistance from the bottom of my heart."
He felt his heart skip a beat, as he nodded. Laughing nervously at the praise and the warm smile he received from Rin.
"And you needn't worry about the suspended students and thugs that attacked before. They will be tracked down and punished before long. I will see to it that they do." Her face went back into work mode, though it relaxed a bit as she paused for a second, closing her eyes. "...My duty was only to see that you received and activated the Shittim Chest, so my job here is done…"
"...but there is one more thing we should do for good measure." Her eyes opened, as she looked at him, beckoning him to follow along. "Could you please follow me? I'd like to properly introduce you to the Federal Investigation Club: Schale."
Part 4:
Ding!
The pair took the elevator, as they came to a stop at a glass door with black handles. To the side, there was a plate of Schale's logo. Meanwhile on the glass door, a paper note was taped onto it that said "Vacant Room" and "Scheduled to start soon".
"This is Schale's main lobby-"
"...shouldn't it be on the first floor if it's a lobby?"
"...I asked the President the same question, and she refused to consider this area being anything but the main lobby." Touma could feel the disdain radiate from the girl as it seemed that Rin had bickered with the GSC President on that matter.
"Regardless, it's been empty for a while… but now it finally has an owner."
"It does?"
"Yes. And you can consider this to be the Schale club room," she opened the door and pushed it open, as the two stepped into the large white office. There were cabinets and racks in the back and on the long work desks, there was a row of computer monitors that were powered off… and a gun rack too. Of course there would be a gun rack, why wouldn't there be a gun rack in a city filled with guns? "After all, this is where you'll be working starting now."
"...huh? Wait a second you don't mean-"
"Yes, you are the owner of Schale's building and facilities now. That is the other thing that the President has left in your hands, and something that we cannot revoke, even if I were to take the position as the next GSC President."
"But…" She shook her head, raising a hand to let him know that she would do her best to explain further.
"...you don't have to work, as while Schale may have authority, it does not have any particular goals at the moment from what I've gathered. The GSC is also mandated to provide a monthly budget to Schale, so you don't have to worry so much about funds so long as you don't go overboard with it…"
"And what happens when I leave? I still have a life back home in Academy City, so I can't exactly stay here forever." The spiky-haired boy once again asked the bespectacled girl that question. While he did accept that he would be stuck here for a while, he still wanted to go back home.
It was not a matter of skimping responsibility. It was a matter of having an unreasonable responsibility being dumped onto him without a moment's notice. Without any time to prepare, the boy had been whisked away from his home. His normal, daily life that he cherished dearly was ripped from him and now he stood in a land unfamiliar to him, being asked to accept such wild demands without much choice. And Rin fully understood that from how her face grimaced. She could understand his plight. If he was an adult who was making such a demand, then there would be no doubt that she would have refuted him with disdain. But Kamijou Touma was not an adult, he was a high school boy who had friends, family and a life elsewhere to tend to.
"...in that case, I request that you choose a suitable candidate you have in mind to take the position of Sensei then. And for transportation back to your hometown… As I have spoken before, I will try my best to work on that once I have the time to do so. It won't be easy for me to accomplish that task right now seeing the current state of Kivotos, and how the aftermath will leave me busy, but I assure you that I will try my best to assist you in that regard. You have my word." She closed her eyes and sighed. Opening them, her eyes softened and were filled with sympathy as she nodded.
"...thank you, Rin. I'm sorry-"
"No, it's fine. I do not blame you for reacting the way you do. In fact, I would have expected you to outright refute the job entirely." She offered a small smile, to which he could only nod in return.
"...alright."
"Now back onto the topic of discussion, even though you don't have a specific job to do… you can freely enter any of the academy districts in Kivotos. From there, you can register any of the students you find as club members, among other things."
He blinked and nodded along to her explanation, still not used to hearing that he had such power to strong-arm people to register into Schale like that. They had better things to do, like go to their actual school clubs or do homework, as he would understand the plight they would have if they were forced to help him while they were busy as a fellow student himself. Internally, he decided he would avoid doing so, maybe he could hire some part-timers or something like that, but even then he wasn't sure how he could earn money so not like he would hire anybody any time soon.
"It's fascinating, isn't it? It may be called an investigation club, but the President never specified what it would be investigating or what its purpose you have higher authority on several matters compared to the General Student Council. In that sense, you have quite a lot of freedom, don't you think so as well?" She tilted her head, he was about to answer but she shook her head.
"...As much as I wish you could ask the president for further details, the fact of the matter is she remains missing." Rin's tone became more formal, more muted. Out of respect, he remained silent, letting her continue to talk as he noticed that her mood had shifted into a somber one. It was very hard to notice, but he could tell. The way her eyes drooped and looked down, becoming unfocused for a split second, while her gloved hand that rested on the table had slightly begun to grip the table's surface. "We're using everything at our disposal to look for her, but that leaves us short-handed at dealing with the other problems around Kivotos."
"The General Student Council is being flooded with civil complaints as we speak. Requests for support materials, environmental aid, make-up work for failing students, requests to save clubs, and so on…" She let go of the table, pushing herself away to move towards the printer, as she took out her phone, and touched it a couple of times, before the printer started to spit out sheets filled with words of ink. "Perhaps Schale can be the one to look into these requests, and of course compensation will be given to you by the requesters or the GSC personally. Since it looks like you have plenty of time now…"
Ah, now he understood how he would earn his keep. The moment that it finished, she took the piping-hot, printed pages and placed them onto the desk near the glass wall.
"Please review them when you have time." And like that, he had been suckered into doing work that was not exactly his, but seeing that Rin had much work to do and the GSC too… it was likely that they would be unable to do anything in time to help the aforementioned parties. And thus would have to extend an arm from keeping their workforce from collapsing. "We'll be counting on you."
"Sigh… such misfortune." He groaned as Rin comforted him with a pat on the shoulder. He put the Shittim Chest onto the desk as well, and followed Rin to the elevator. As it made its short ascent, he was the one that ended up breaking the silence.
"...and Rin?"
"Yes?"
"...I hope you find your friend."
"...thank you, Touma-kun… And I wish you the best of luck with your new position. Please, let me know if you need anything."
It wouldn't be long before Rin departed in the GSC-issued helicopter, waving goodbye before he went back down to the first floor, Rin told him that the girls who he had accompanied were still there. But as he took the elevator back down once more…
His mind fell back to Arona, the mysterious A.I. inside the Shittim Chest. And then onto the mysterious missing GSC President that left all this behind for him. He recognized when things weren't normal, when the abnormal was the norm the effects of his right hand would come into play. And the fact that he had those weird things happen to him when it came to Arona and the GSC President… that his head started to create static and buzz…
Ding!
Part 5:
Morizuki Suzumi didn't speak much, if at all. But that didn't mean she was an emotionless brick without passion or interests contrary to what rumors those troublemakers had spread about her. She just had a better poker face than most people, and at the current moment, she felt uneasy about the whole situation, as no they had not encountered the Fox of Calamity on their way to the Schale building or exiting it, unless they were too late and had already planted the bombs.
As she guarded the entrance with the rest of them, she could only truly rest easy as the Sensei of Schale walked through the doors. She had seen that he was quite adept at combat, and with how he had dispatched those thugs quite easily, Suzumi wondered if she could ask him for pointers but that wasn't the main issue.
"You idiot! What were you thinking about not listening to my warnings!?" Yuuka shouted as she walked up towards him. Not once but twice he had put himself in mortal danger, and thus the purple-haired Treasurer from Seminar got onto his case. She mentally noted how weird it felt being the only person who was of non-importance in the of Geo-political scene of the Three Great Academies, again.
"Sorry, sorry! Look, I'm sorry Hayase, but everything's fine now! The GSC has everything under control now and the Sanctum Tower is under their control." Touma raised his hands up defensively to the shorter girl, as she paused and sighed, taking a step back and calling someone, or several people.
"Are you alright Kamijou-sensei?" Chinatsu walked towards him, assessing the state of his body. "You look a bit injured, were they sustained… when you confronted Wakamo?"
That caught everybody's attention, as for Chinatsu to suggest such an idea was absurd. Even if he had made contact with the Fox of Calamity, the chances of him coming out unscathed, a person who was not native to Kivotos; would be slim to none. However, from Suzumi's understanding, the medic had seen plenty of battles in the districts of Gehenna and thus was more used to thinking the worst possible outcome had occurred.
"Oh, I just fell down the stairs. That's all." He admitted sheepishly.
And once again, everyone was just stunned, Yuuka had to do a double take despite how she was on a phone call right now. Suzumi was going to ask how, but she noticed there was an imbalance in his posture. Looking down, she realized the entire bottom sole of the left shoe was just gone.
"...was it because of your shoe?" Suzumi spoke out, to which he blinked and turned his head to her.
"Actually yeah," he looked down and scratched his head with his left hand, with a nervous and awkward smile.
"...sigh, please take care of yourself." Chinatsu sighed, as she handed him a bottle of water from her bag, and dropped a pill into his other hand. Touma nodded as he chugged down the water and pain killer. He looked quite thirsty as the water in the bottle disappeared rather quickly.
"Alright, I've confirmed that the General Student Council has regained control of Sanctum Tower." Hayase Yuuka, the treasurer of Millennium spoke to the rest of them as she turned off her phone, as the others looked to her. She looked less wrathful than before, as many burdens had been lifted from their shoulders upon the good news, but it still left other issues to worry about.
"However, there's no word that Wakamo fled this district yet, but I'm sure she'll be found and arrested soon," Hasumi said to the group, as they then turned to her. "We'll have to leave the rest to the people in charge of the clean up."
"Ngh, thanks Hinomiya. And thank you all for helping me and Rin out with this, without you four, none of this would be possible." The spiky-haired man finally finished the bottle of water, nodding his head at Chinatsu for the free aid, as she shook her head. Meanwhile the others blushed and chuckled at the praise... Well, Yuuka only blushed but didn't chuckle, as she tried to look like the compliment didn't make her less upset than before.
"It was the least I could do. And please, call me Chinatsu. I would prefer it if you do."
"Quite so, you can refer to me as Hasumi, Sensei."
"Suzumi is fine." She nodded at the man.
"...I assume you want me to call you by your first name too, Hayase?" Touma asked with a nervous laugh.
"W-why are you singling me out? But it feels weird being called by my last name by you, so it's fine I suppose." Yuuka waved it off as the others chuckled.
"We'll have to say goodbye for now, but I hope you can visit us at Trinity General School soon." Hasumi spoke up, as Suzumi nodded. It would be nice to see him in the near future, as he wasn't an unpleasant person, and thus, fine in her books.
"I'll be reporting what happened here to our head prefect. You're welcome to stop by and visit if your work ever takes you to Gehenna Academy." Chinatsu was next as she nodded at him.
"I'm sure we'll see each other again whenever you come to Millennium Science School. Until then, please don't get into too much trouble." Yuuka was the last of them to say goodbye as the group of four students walked off from Schale's premises being bidden farewell by the newly christened Sensei of Schale.
As he waved them off, Touma re-entered the building, and if any of them had gone back to check on the spiky-haired boy, they would have been greeted by the sound of glass shattering.
Part 6:
"Hm?" In that place, the girl in blue turned around, no longer was she watching the clouds from beyond the horizon, as she warped from the stack of desks having now noticed that there was someone else with her. With a hop in her step, she smiled at him.
"Sensei! Things got a bit hectic, but everything is okay now. Great…" The voice of the blue-haired girl died down, as she could see something… different in the way the spiky-haired boy carried himself. How he looked at her. It was not the look of violence, but one of judgement and annoyance. "Is… there something wrong?"
"...you know everybody is looking for the President of the GSC." He looked down to the ripples in the water.
"Huh?" The girl in blue tilted her head, she did not know what tangent he was going on, was he perhaps ranting to her now that they were all alone without the issue of Kivotos falling into chaos at any moment?
"They keep asking her where she went or why she left. And like them, I have plenty of questions to ask her… But then it hit me."
"Sensei, what are you-"
"What if she never left?"
"...that's…"
"What if she was still in Kivotos, not exactly hiding, but stuck somewhere where she couldn't get out by her own volition."
"So tell me, why is it that you're in here, and not out there…" He raised his head to look at her and narrowed his eyes, as the girl's throat felt like someone had put a lump into it.
"...General Student Council President?"
Between the Lines 2:
In her room, known only to a select number of people, a white-haired girl with long ears hummed a tune from a specific song belonging to the Enka genre. It wasn't long since news of the Sanctum Tower had caught wind to her ears. But she did wonder, how did they manage to do so? Thus, she decided to use skills befitting a genius like her to discover who the culprit was.
"Oh. Oh my. Now who is this peculiar fellow that has arrived? How peculiar." The girl behind the countless array of monitors and technology spoke in a sing-song tone, as she watched the man go back into the building. Winding the footage back, she eventually fell silent as she switched to a different CCTV feed, and then another. Becoming slowly enthralled in the sight of what she saw from the hacked feed of the CCTV, her mouth could only widen in surprise.
The advocate of copyleft watched on, as her hands moved like water, beginning to hack footage from the past 24 hours from the D.U. on a different monitor. She was quite happy her whimsical decision led her to stumble upon this momentous occasion, and what could potentially be the start of a new era in Kivotos.
Next Episode Preview:
"The Shittim Chest, a smart tablet that contains the Artificial Intelligence known as Arona which acts as its Operating System… or so I thought. My head is finally clear. And now, I have some questions to ask her. Next time, "The Blue World Within the Digital Archive — The_GIRL_(Who)_Sought_THE-Unanswerable", when magic and science cross paths, a story is born."
IF Episode 3
A Certain Type.
Rare_In_Demand.
On one particular morning, a certain spiky-haired teacher got unwillingly interviewed by Kronos School of Journalism's infamous News Club after they barged into Schale's club room without warning.
"Coming to you live! Here's the Sensei of Schale, Kamijou Touma-sensei!" Kawaru Shinon, the tanned blonde-haired reporter, introduced today's interviewee, who was unwillingly that is; to the camera for all to see. Many viewers tuned in, as the previous day, the duo from the News Club promised a special interview regarding a very important topic on many people's mind.
"E-eh?! Um aren't you Kawaru-" Touma tried to raise his hands up but Shinon put her hands on her sides as she leaned forward.
"Call me Shinon, no need to be so formal!" She chuckled, as he sighed. The spiky-haired boy closed his eyes as the dark-skinned beauty had a… unique taste in fashion sense so to speak, so he just closed his eyes as he scratched his cheek nervously to avoid looking anywhere he shouldn't be on a live broadcast.
"U-um, Shinon, I didn't agree to an interview though?"
"It doesn't matter! What does matter is your answer!" Her partner in crime, the brown-haired Kazemaki Mai, pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose with a devious smile.
"So tell us Sensei! What kind of girl is your type?" Shinon pushed the mic into his face, as the blonde-haired girl waited in eager anticipation.
"...hm?" Huh? His type? Touma felt like he would get killed for saying a "Dorm manager Onee-san" would be his type, thus he chose the safer option that was much more encompassing. He took a sip from his cold can of black coffee, tilting his head up to let the black liquid ichor flow down his mouth and cool his nerves, before giving his answer.
"...An adult woman, of course." He stared at the ceiling, with a small smile.
Heh, nailed it. He was sure this was the right answer, it wasn't offensive in any manner, and no matter what Kirino said, he didn't want to think about a student-teacher relationship at all, even if he was still a teenager masquerading as an adult teacher. And even then, who would want to get together with someone like him?
Meanwhile, in the confines of the Shanhaijing's Plum Blossom Garden, a certain instructor whose age remained a secret held her mouth agape as she saw the news broadcast live.
"Eh? Huh? O-oh my. Th-that..." The blush that bloomed onto her face for even tuning into such a silly broadcast flushed into an atomic red hue while her hands cupped her cheeks, as a million thoughts ran through her brain. Sunohara Shun was already imagining herself in a red wedding qipao dress, and despite shaking her head and whispering in denial, her hands were already drafting a marriage proposal letter.
Elsewhere, several others were celebrating happily. Roaring in joy, as they too, were vindicated. Although, the number that were doing so could be counted on one hand or so.
Unfortunately for the rest of Kivotos, on that day, they would know what true Terror was. The sky fell, cracked and morphed into an ever-shifting palette of colors, as the weather had been thrown off its patterned course, constantly changing its tune in a matter of seconds. Explosions and earthquakes shook the land, as disaster sirens blared on full blast.
"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HAPPENING?! DAMN IT! SUCH MISFORTUNEEEEE!" Touma screamed as he ran outside Schale's office building, trying to figure out who or what he needed to punch to stop this sudden advent of doomsday events and the culprit that could have caused all this to happen.
A/N 4: I kinda wanted to explain it later in the story, but this IF Episode could fall flat in the case that you're unfamiliar with Blue Archive lore so I'll give a mini explanation about what I meant by Terror. If you want to find out what "Terror" is through reading the main story, then you can feel free to skip this entire section and move on with your day. But TLDR: Touma caused a number of students to go apeshit and triggered their Super Saiyan transformation in this little snippet. Don't take it too seriously though since it's just a crack what if scenario.
So for those unfamiliar to Blue Archive that are reading this, in the setting, students that reside in Kivotos have halos granting them supernatural capabilities, similar to how in Academy City students have Esper abilities.
In a similar vein to how a Level 6 Shift attempts and Magic Gods rituals exist, a little something called "Terrorization" (a fan term, but it still sticks) can occur to our dear students in Kivotos, in which a student undergoes or has undergone the process of becoming a Terror.
Now what is a Terror you may ask?
Well a Terror is basically a student whose become a god. There are two in the story that have been revealed. Since I can't hide spoilers on this site, I'll refrain from saying anymore. Regardless, it's a bit more nuanced than that but for the sake of brevity and me wanting to get into that more in the main story, the shortest way to describe it is that they reach godhood. However in order to do so, there's at the time of writing, only two known ways in-game to achieve it:
1. Through an extra-dimensional entity making a deal with the student and thus corrupting them into one.
2. Through a mix of mental trauma, feeling extreme negative emotions (though mostly despair) and poor mental health causing the student to just snap.
Through this process, Terrors can obtain unworldly strength and powers, although at a major cost and while the process is somewhat revertible once it's already occurred, the end result of whether they're stripped of that Terror status or not is still up in the air as of writing this. So the best way to stop it is when the process of becoming a Terror occurs.
...oh and they can trigger supernatural disaster events as a result of undergoing the process of becoming a Terror. For example, the advent of 2nd Terror caused a supernatural being called The Fury of Set to descend from the skies causing a freak thunderstorm among other things to occur, and if the two made contact, the world would have ended.
That's the best explanation I can offer up at the moment, so I hope I didn't butcher it too badly!