Perusing the various stalls lining the street, I internally thanked the fact that I always had some sort of respirator, as a few meters back, I could've sworn that I saw a barrel marked with numerous hazard symbols... with its lid cracked open.

Shaking my head, I kept walking, my rifle stowed but close at hand for any surprises. Black markets being shady as they are, an open, yet skeptical mind was a requirement. Flanking my side is Shiina, who, to my surprise, asked if she could join me. Initially, I wanted to turn her away and have her hang out with the Task Force, but those puppy eyes of hers were pretty persuasive.

Anywho, her presence was also a sort of back-up. Instead of having the Task Force come in and attract attention, or even scare away any potential sources of info just to back me up, Shiina would be a good substitute.

I feel a tug on my sleeve. "So, what are we looking for, Sensei?"

Right, she wasn't here for the meeting yesterday.

After the failed raid from Problem Solver 68, Shiina came in just a couple hours later with a few boxes filled with her belongings. So you'd be able to imagine the surprise on her face when she came face to face with a bunch of unconscious mercenaries laying about as we rifled through their pockets.

Following that, the girls set her up with a room and gave her the briefest of rundowns, leading us up to now.

"Information, preferably on Kaiser." I looked down towards her as we walked. "Anything on their presence here, and anything dirty we can get on them."

She tilts her head. "Dirty?"

"Yup, Kaiser isn't looking to play fair, so why should we?"

She contemplates my words before nodding, presumably coming to her own level of understanding.

As we walked, I took the opportunity to eyeball the various stands. What they had in stock? Well, it's just like back at home. Firearms of questionable quality laid on top of tarps filled the grounds, with various makes ranging from the lowliest of sidearms, to hefty machine guns, to even shoulder-fired guided missile systems. All of which having their serial numbers conveniently filed off.

How they got here? Best to not be asking questions like that.

Surprisingly, armaments and equipment aren't unlike the selections back home, better even. And the traders? Well, suffice it to say that they're a damn stark contrast to the grizzled ones back home. Still with their own degree of skepticism, but buy a few items here and there? They'll act like your closest friend.

Money problems aside, I'd best scope out who would consider my items for trade.

Firearms and explosives seemed to be the bread and butter of the underground market, since carrying a gun or a hefty amount of ordnance was basically a requirement in Kivotos. As cheap and plentiful they are here, it meant nothing if I didn't have a cent to my name.

Barring that, one would find nearly anything under the sun here. From odds and ends, to weapons, to furniture, to even dubious looking chemicals housed in even sketchier containers, and everything in between, stall owners would call out and hassle patrons to take a gander. Us included.

"Didn't think I'd meet the Sensei-" The stall owner raised his arm and panned across the market. "Here of all places." He says with an evil grin.

I nod in his direction. "Well, y'know, just getting the lay of the land. Maybe meet a few friends."

He raises a brow. "Friends, eh?" Gesturing towards his wares, he looks up and gives me another grin. "Maybe if a few items were to, I don't know, be purchased by chance, maybe someone could introduce a few of these friends."

I grimaced, my mask thankfully obscuring my features. Being broke was starting to become extremely annoying, and shooting him wouldn't do me much good. Eyeing the goods, many of the items were mere knick-knacks, stuff you'd display on a desk or coffee table. That, and fairly dated guns.

Dated as in World War Two dated.

"Fancy some classics?" He pointed at the various weapons. "They may look old, and they are, but looks can be deceiving."

Holding up a PPSH-41, he held its trademark drum in his offhand. "This beauty here can spit out lead at around one-thousand rounds per minute, and with seventy-one rounds of 7.62x25-" He nods at the submachine gun. "She may be old, but boy can she bite."

I cross my arms. "I'm not exactly in the market for... historical pieces."

He sets down the submachine gun. "Pray tell then, what are you in the market for?"

Scanning the rest of the stalls, I lean over, lowering my voice to a whisper. "Information."

He nods. "The good stuff then." He then raised his hand, rubbing together his index finger and thumb. "Never comes cheap, but I can vouch for its authenticity."

I look over my shoulder to make sure no one's looking before taking a certain quarter-sized bag out of my pocket, quickly tossing it into an empty artisan bowl.

Raising a brow, he tilted his head down to see what I had just tossed before going wide-eyed, pocketing the baggie just as fast as I had tossed it.

He coughs into his hand. "W-well, didn't know Sensei here was quite the high-roller."

I shrug. "Looks can be quite deceiving."

Truth be told, I wanted to test the waters, using a sufficiently sized dose of marijuana as a baseline. Given his reaction, narcotics must be a valued product.

Wonder what something like cocaine will get me.

"Then, Sensei, what can I get for ya?"

No point beating around the bush. "What do you have on Kaiser?"

He grimaces. "Those lowlife leeches?" He spits at the ground. "Hell, if that's all you wanted to know, I would've told you for free."

I rolled my eyes and gestured for him to continue.

"Well, I'm guessin' you want something on their operations here, huh?"

I nod. "Preferably on who's supplying the local gangs."

"You wouldn't see them handing out hardware themselves, that's for sure."

"Middleman then?"

"You know it." He shakes his head. "Can't tell you any specifics, like a name or whatever, but Kaiser has 'em on payroll. So far, any dealings have been low level, small arms, grenades, nothing too fancy. But in your case? I'm assuming it to be the biggest pain in the ass."

"Ain't that the truth."

"I've also caught wind that they started buyin' out mercs, I'm guessing that you took care of 'em?"

I nod. "Problem Solver 68 and their girls."

He clicks his tongue. "Looks like y'all painted a larger target on yourselves, I'd tread carefully from now on."

I pat my RPK, causing him to raise his hands defensively.

"Hey, I know better than to threaten a Sensei, but even I know you got your limits." He looks around the market for something or someone. "I'm sure you know already, but there's a reason why no one 'round these parts aren't too keen on messing with Kaiser." He leans in closer, his eyes laser focused on mine. "Anyone who tried got ruined harder than the Abydos district itself."

I cross my arms. "And that brings me here."

He stares into my eyes for a few seconds before sighing. "Well... if it's you?" He shrugs. "You might just do it."

He digs into his pocket before producing a heavily weathered thumb drive. "This-" He waves the storage device. "Is all my findings I could dig up on Kaiser. Nothing too damning on their part, had to keep things down low so they wouldn't find me."

"But, were it to come out, it would deal a decent blow to the corp." He nods at the drive. "Decent enough blow to them here, at least."

I eyed the small device. "Then why's it still in your hands? Why not use it?"

He shrugs. "Like I said, it's only enough to hurt 'em a good amount. I use it and they'll recover soon enough, then stomp me out of existence."

He shakes his head. "Too risky. But for you? You might just be able to start it and finish it."

I raise a brow. "And you're just going to give it to me?"

Slowly extending it my direction, he reels it back fast before shaking his head. "For a price, yes. Still gotta make a living."

I chuckle briefly before producing a small glass vial.

"This-" I shake the vial. "For the drive. Deal?"

He points at the glass container. "And that is?"

I closely inspect the medicine. "This here is a specially made medicine from back home, rare and expensive. Anabiotics, it's called."

Interest positively piqued, he inquired further. "Anabiotics..." He pondered the name. "What does it do?"

"Long story short, it's a strong sedative, synthesized from an extremely potent toxin. Last I heard, it completely shuts down the body's nervous system." I turn back to him. "Interested?"

He stares at me as if I grew a second head.

"Believe me or not, this stuff's worth more than all your wares combined. If you're not interested, I got some other stuff that might catch your interest."

"You're telling me you've something better than that?"

I shrug. "Maybe not better, but definitely a lot more digestible."

He gestures for me to go on.

"What do you know about 'Pure Colombian Blow'?"

"Huh?"

I nod along. "Y'know, that 'nose candy'."

"...What?"

"That 'booger sugar'."

He looks at me in disgust. "W-what are you talking about?"

I huff. "Coca-ina."

"Still don't know what you're referring to."

I give up. "Cocaine."

His jaw drops as he stared at me wide-eyed. Returning to reality after a split-second, he pulls me to the side as he scans the area for any prying eyes.

"Are you crazy!?" He says loudly, though in a whisper.

"Hey, you didn't catch it the first four times."

"That's because no one calls it that!" He hissed.

I slap away his hand. "Anyways, it's either the 'snow' or the Anabiotics, pick your poison."

"...How'd you even get your hands on the stuff? Apart from the miniscule amounts we get from outside Kivotos, next to no one knows how to make it."

I toss the small baggie before catching it. "Trade secret, gotta make a living, as they say."

He rolls his eyes. "Touche." Tossing the drive in my direction, I catch it before sliding the baggie onto the table, the merchant quickly pocketing the substance.

"Pleasure doin' business, Sensei."

Walking off, Shiina took a second to come back down to reality before jogging to my side.

"Uh... Sensei?" She asked, a tinge of concern in her voice.

I nod her way. "What's up?"

"Er, what was all that?"

I tilt my head to look at her. "I don't know what you're talking about."

She points behind her. "All that..." Her eyes narrowed. "And what were those... things, you gave him?"

I wave a finger. "Just some adult things, nothing you have to worry about." She's about to refute me before I tossed the drive into the air and caught it. "This'll probably give us an edge over Kaiser."

If it weren't for my gas mask, an evil grin would be on full display. Thankfully, that wasn't the case, so Shiina just shrugged, not willing to push it further.

Thumb drive in hand, I continued to peruse the goods in the other stands. After obtaining the storage device, I asked Arona if she could access the files through my PDA. Docking the drive into it, Arona dug in deep, inspecting the files and whatever else was on it. Half surprisingly, the merchant held up his end of the deal, with the drive holding fairly damnable evidence of illegal backroom deals, gun-running, and most notably, the backing of Abydos's gangs via proxy.

Damnable indeed, but not enough to kick them to the curb. If I played my cards just right, maybe get some authorities involved, and just maybe, it'll be enough to take out their operations here. Though, clearing the debt is going to be the highest priority here.

Scanning the rest of the stalls, taking care to not run into any passerby's, I make the call to head back. While I would love to see what else I could get with what narcotics I have on hand, getting this info back to the Task Force is top priority. Wading my way through the crowd, I make it to the opening of an alleyway before nearly being knocked onto my ass.

For a bunch of schoolgirls, their small frames and statures sure do hide a lot of strength.

"You alright there?" I ask, steadying the student as I held their shoulders.

The blonde-haired student blinked a few times in my directions before stepping back and bowing. "S-sorry about that mister- eh? Sensei!?." Craning her head around, she searched for something or someone before stammering in my direction.

"I, uh, um-!" Her voice hitched as she struggled to come up with a response.

"Woah there girlie." I say, attempting to calm her down. "You okay? Being chased or something?" I joke as I pat her shoulder.

Shiina then tugged on my sleeve. "Sensei! Look!"

Lo and behold, three very recognizable helmeted students turned the corner before pointing in our direction. Very audibly, the blonde-haired student squeaked in surprise as the gang walked in our direction. I sighed before pushing the distressed student behind me.

"Need something?" I asked, one hand gripped around the handle of my RPK as it hung from my sling, safety flicked off.

Stopping just a few meters away, the trio looked at each other before locking onto Shiina and I, as well as the student behind me.

"Hold up, that's Sensei." One points out.

Another rolls their head before playfully punching them in the shoulder. "Yeah, I have eyes."

One of them steps up before pointing at the student in question. "Yeah, we were just trying to return something to her, and she just ran off." She turns towards her buddies, who nod in unison.

Yeah, I'm not buying that, slowly with my free hand, I reached into a pouch that contained my grenades, slowly pulling a pin off of one of them.

Tilting my head enough to catch a glimpse of the student behind me, I nod towards her. "You know any of these girls, blondie?"

She chokes on her saliva before coughing a few times. "N-no! They were chasing me while yelling something about a ransom!"

I turn back towards the three thugs, whose hands were slowly snaking their ways towards their guns. In a swift motion, I tossed myself into Shiina and the blonde-haired student, knocking them both into the alleyway while simultaneously throwing the un-pinned grenade in their direction, causing the gang to hit the deck as we fell into the alley. Grabbing the blonde-haired student by the backpack, I tossed her behind a trash can before grabbing Shiina and taking cover behind another.

Not keen on wasting any more ammo after yesterday's events, I opted to use the copious amount of frag grenades we had in stock back at Abydos.

I tapped my vest, prompting Arona to wake up. "Sensei?" She asked, though muffled.

Tossing another frag behind me, I tilted my head towards my vest. "Think you could call the girls over for me? Looks like I won't be able to keep them out of this anymore."

"On it!"

The explosion reporting a few seconds later, I locked onto our plus one. Luckily, she's not as shy as she lets on, her L85A2 in her arms ready to rock.

I nod approvingly in her direction before readying my rifle in turn and locking onto both of the girls. "Ready to move?"

She freezes up before turning to me and relaxing a little. "Y-yes!"

Shiina nods. "Ready!"

"On my mark then."

They both nod, with the blonde hugging her rifle closer, and Shiina raising herself out of a crouch.

Seeing them ready to run, I interlock five grenades together before pulling the pin on one, making sure to keep the spoon closed. Looking up, I nod in their direction.

"MARK!"

Blondie gulps before bolting, with Shiina in tow, down the alleyway as I tossed the grenade bundle towards the gang. A hefty amount of ordnance, I admit, but when grenades are figuratively a dime-a-dozen, you use 'em or lose 'em.

Hightailing it as well, we make it out of the alley, finding ourselves in a sparsely populated part of the district, a long strip of road with abandoned stores lining the sides. Then a large explosion reported, the shockwave vibrating the ground beneath us.

I watch the large dust cloud disperse with a grin before turning towards the blonde-haired student. "So... why don't we have a little talk?"

She freezes up again before stowing her rifle. "Er... yes?"

I eye her up and down, her bright white uniform and... chicken backpack? being a stark contrast in comparison to the bleak and utilitarian nature of the ruined Abydos district. Doubly so in the black market.

I cross my arms. "What brings you here of all places?"

"Well... I was looking around for a certain piece of merch." She then frowns. "And it can probably only be found in markets like this..."

I smirk. "So even students are willing to get their hands a little dirty, huh?"

She blushes and stammers in my direction. "W-well, I wouldn't expect Sensei to be here either!"

"That's that and this is this." I shake my head. "Anywho, did you find what you were looking for?"

Her face scrunches up. "Kinda... I almost got it before I got called out by those girls." She shakes her head. "I guess black market police aren't all too trustworthy."

"This black market has a police force?" Shiina asks.

She nods. "Yes, but they're not really here to protect customers... they mostly look out for the shops and the goods."

"Sounds about right." I add.

"T-then, what are you looking for, Sensei?"

"Oh, y'know, just doing a little window shopping."

She tilts her head. "Window... shopping?"

I catch a few dozen footsteps enter earshot, causing me to ready my rifle in their direction. This sudden jump to action caught them both off guard as they fumbled to ready their own.

Then I realized who the people behind the footsteps were.

I exhale in relief. "At ease blondie, Shiina, that's just the Task Force."

"O-oh?" She sounds before putting her rifle down. "Also, I'm not blondie! I'm Hifumi, Ajitani Hifumi."

I nod in her direction. "Hifumi, then."

"We got your message, Sensei!" Ayane exclaims as her drone hovers close above her, laptop in hand. "Though as cryptic as it is."

Cryptic? Oh, probably Arona's doing.

Shiroko steps up, rifle at low ready. "Where's the enemy?"

The girls all scan the area, with not a soul to be seen or heard.

I cough. "Guess I was a bit too hasty on calling you guys over."

Hoshino yawns before rubbing her eyes. "Aiyaa~, Sensei, you're going to give these old bones a heart attack one of these days."

"Oh? And who's this? Your new friend?" Nonomi asks, reaching out to shake Hifumi's hand.

I cross my arms. "I guess you could say that, this here is Ajitani Hifumi."

"Nice to meet you, Hifumi-chan!"

"Ah ha ha..." Hifumi awkwardly laughs, uncomfortable at the outgoing student.

Shiroko raises a brow in my direction. "So you really did go through with the plan then, huh Sensei?"

"Plan?" I question.

"Back when we were planning how to tackle the debt, Hoshino brought up that plan of hers."

I turn towards their president, who's acting unaware whilst whistling.

I shake my head. "No, Shiroko, we are not kidnapping Hifumi."

"H-huh!?" The student in question sounds.

Hoshino shrugs. "Can't say it's the worst idea. So, what do ya think? How about leaving Trinity and enrolling here at Abydos?"

"Eh?"

She grabs her hand and turns towards the district before waving her arm grandly. "We have a lot of cool stuff around."

"H-huh?"

Serika blows a raspberry. "Like what, sand?"

"I'll, uh, no thanks."

Ayane clears her throat loudly. "Anyways!" The drone, as well as her, turn in my direction. "If you called us here, apart from repelling a potential threat, that means you found something, Sensei?"

I nod. "That I did." Digging into my pocket, I take out the thumb drive I got. "This here has some major dirt on Kaiser."

They blink a few times at me before returning to reality.

"R-really?" Serika asked, slack jawed.

"Mmm hmm." I hummed as I plugged it into my PDA, handing it over to the girls to peruse.

They take a few minutes to eye the dirty laundry, their faces lighting up with various emotions and reactions, mostly displaying some sort of anger or disgust, or a mixture of both. Finally handing back the PDA, I unplug the drive and pocket it.

"So we have some fairly damnable evidence, now we need to find the right place to project that power."

Serika balled her hand into a fist. "We can finally take it to those Kaiser bastards!"

I placed a hand on her shoulder, placating the angered cat. "Easy there, sure we have the ammo, but we don't exactly have the gun to use it."

She raises a brow in my direction.

"What I'm getting at is that, while we may have the evidence, without a proper means to use it over Kaiser, we'd only be hurting them instead of properly stomping them out of here for good."

She huffs, but ultimately relents.

We sit around and mull over my findings for a few minutes. Taking this chance, Shiroko pulled out a brown paper bag from her schoolbag. Walking over, she presented the bag towards her classmates, who eagerly reached in and pulled out some pastry looking thing.

"Want some taiyaki?" Shiroko asked, presenting the bag towards Hifumi.

"Oooh, yes please!" She says, gleefully taking the, what I'm able to identify as, a fish shaped pastry.

"Sensei?"

I eye the bag, steam coming off the still hot pastries.

"Sure, why not." I say with a shrug.

She smiles as I deglove a hand and reach into the bag, extracting a single fish. Undoing my mask, I sat myself at the curb. I take a bite, and half surprisingly, it's sweet, the paste inside warm and not half bad. Nodding at the pastry, I look up to see the girls staring at me like back at the restaurant.

I roll my eyes. "Yes yes, even this grizzled old man enjoys sweet stuff."

Hifumi talks between her bite. "You down't look that old."

I shake my head. "Well, if you lived where I did, you'd age twice as fast."

She gives me a confused look.

"So, what brought you here to this part of Kivotos, Hifumi?" Hoshino asks, taking the final bite of her pastry.

Serika nods after swallowing. "Yeah, you're a long way home from Trinity."

The Trinity student shuffles before scarfing down the rest of her food. "W-well, I came here to track down an extremely rare piece of merch."

Hoshino raises a brow. "And that brings you to this place?"

"Very suspicious!" Nonomi states.

"I mean, I guess so, but I'm here for this." She brings out her phone and shows us a picture of-

"You're telling me you came all this way for some Peroro merch?" Serika asks in disbelief.

"It's not just some Peroro merch!" Hifumi defended indignantly. "This is the limited edition plushie of Peroro-sama!" She swung her arm around, continuing to display her beloved plushie to us all.

I don my gas mask before getting to my feet. "Okay, so this piece of merch holds this much value that you'd go so far as to scour a black market?"

She nods vigorously. "Only around a hundred of the plushies were ever made, making it a must have for collectors!" She turns towards Serika. "Only ones I've ever seen have been sold in black markets, and usually at extremely high prices."

"How extreme are these prices?" I ask.

She grimaces. "Almost my entire tuition fees for the school year."

Hoshino whistles at the price drop. "Even Trinity girls can have it rough too."

Hifumi gives a weak smile. "It's... it's not too bad."

Down the road, I catch a matte-black truck drive by, emblazoned on its side is "Kaiser Loans" for all to see.

"Ah shit." I exclaim as I jog to see if I could grab the plates.

"Sensei?" Shiroko called, jogging to my side.

I stop and turn around. "Ayane! Can you get a drone to follow that truck? That might've been one of Kaiser's!"

She goes wide-eyed at the statement before taking up her laptop. A few moments pass as she typed away before the trademark high-pitched whizz of her drone flew by, heading off in the direction of the truck.

I turned towards the rest of the girls who're now watching us in curiosity.

"Time to move ladies, looks like we might have a hit!"

Within that instant, the girls got their equipment ready, with Hifumi off to the side totally confused at what's going on.

"You comin'?" Hoshino asked, shotgun ready in her arms.

"Uh...?"

Too late to give a proper answer, Shiroko walked up and took her hand, dragging her along.

"...The Stygian Bank?" Hifumi questioned. "Why're we here?"

The Task Force turned her way, with Ayane stepping up first. "This is where the truck stopped, but I don't get it..."

"Hmm?" Hoshino hummed.

Ayane continued. "This truck is the exact same one that dropped by Abydos to collect this morning, from the make and model, down to the license plate... what's it doing here?"

"Do you know anything about this bank, Hifumi?" I asked.

She nods. "From what I've heard, this bank is where a lot of the money the black market gets is funneled into, cleaned, then used for whatever they want."

I whistled. "And no one's tried to stop them?"

She shakes her head. "Nope, they just have that much power that even the GSC hasn't tried anything."

The statement causes the Task Force to frown, which catches her off guard.

"I-if I can ask, what are we doing here? And why are you guys so focused on Kaiser Loans?"

Shiroko grows stern. "We have a bit of a history with them."

"They're likely responsible for the attacks on the school." I answer.

"O-oh?" She sounds.

Someone taps my shoulder, and after craning my head around, I find it to be Ayane.

"Look." She points a finger towards the truck.

Several bank guards walked up to the truck and opened up the back before heading in. On their way out, they could be seen hefting out large stacks of bills and offloading them onto a trolley.

I watched in curiosity, whereas the rest watched in a mixture of anger and hatred.

"No way!" Serika yelled out as she got to her feet.

I reached out and pulled her back. "Hey! You're gonna get us caught!" I held her shoulders and turned her my way. "What's up?"

She was seething. "That." She pointed towards the truck. "That's our payment from today!"

I then put two and two together. "Oh fuck."

From what Hifumi told us, it's not hard to see that the money the Task Force coughed up, and their prior payments were likely being used to fund whatever Kaiser wanted. And that included the attacks on the school.

"That...!" Serika choked on her words. "They've been using the money we give them to fund their attacks on us!"

The girls took in that info grimly, with Nonomi and Ayane downcast. Hoshino, on the other hand was ready to tear some people a new one.

Serika tore herself out of my hands and readied her rifle. Before she could storm off towards the bank, I pulled her back once more.

"S-Sensei!" She cried. "Don't stop me! Those Kaiser bastards are gonna pay!"

"Serika!" I yelled sternly, giving her pause.

I stared into her eyes. "Look, I know full well you want to put these guys six feet under."

She nods once. "Then why're you stopping me!?"

I shook her forcefully. "Listen." I growled. "God knows I want to gut them where they stand. But we walk in there like this-" I leaned in closer. "And there won't be a school to return to."

Her breathing hitches at my statement and her ears droop. Releasing my hold on her, she hung her head low.

That's when an idea struck Shiroko's mind.

"Sensei!" She exclaimed as she tugged on my sleeve.

"Yeah?" I replied, turning her way.

She doesn't verbally respond, instead replying with the balaclavas she made the other day. That's when an evil grin took place under my mask.

"Well shit." I turned towards the rest of the girls. "Who's ready to hit the bank?"

Their looks of disbelief soon turned into small smiles.

"Ah ha~, well, I guess it can't be helped~!" Hoshino says, donning her pink balaclava.

Serika laughed off her gloom before donning her own. "Looks like we're really doing this!"

Ayane groaned, reluctantly wearing her's. "Ugh, let's just make it quick, alright?"

"Don't worry, Ayane~!" Nonomi assured her before slipping on her own. "We'll be in and out fast!"

Then they turned towards Hifumi.

"Uh... yes?"

"Well, we can't just leave you out, right?" Hoshino says, nudging her arm.

"I-it's alright, I, uh, I'm fine with not..." She trailed off as the Task Force slowly approached her.

Then there's me.

Unhooking my pack, I dug around its many pockets before producing the steel helmet Shiroko gave to me the other day. Now I need something else to obscure my face, as nearly everyone would be able to recognize my gas mask from a kilometer away.

I clicked my tongue, I do have a disguise, but just thinking about putting it on disgusted me. Pulling out a long overcoat with a ballistic vest sown into it, I stared it down. On its shoulder was a black skull emblazoned on a white shield. Coupled with it was a black balaclava. All of it together would be enough to obscure me, but then another problem reared its ugly head.

I'm the only male human in Kivotos...

Even if I had a surefire disguise, there's nothing that can hide the fact that I'm an adult male human.

A fact that soon became realized later by the girls as they came back from outfitting Hifumi.

...That came in the form of the taiyaki bag Shiroko had a while back, with eyeholes cut out and the number five hastily marker'ed onto the forehead.

Shiroko points at the clothes I'm holding. "You already have a disguise?"

Nonomi giggled. "So you were already ready to rob something!"

This causes Shiroko to look at me with some sort of adoration in her eyes, something that kind of puts me off.

I shake my head. "While I do have something, there's a major problem with me joining in."

They glanced at each other. "...And that would be?" Serika asked for them.

"I'm the only male human throughout Kivotos."

A pin being dropped could be heard through this silence.

"Ah ha~." Hoshino singsonged as she placed a hand to her head. "We totally forgot about that, sorry Sensei."

I shake my head. "Looks like I'll have to sit this one out girls." I say as I looked up towards the rooftops surrounding us.

Then I got an idea of my own.

I knelt down on a knee next to Shiroko and pointed at her rifle. "Think I could borrow your optic for a sec?"

She tilts her head in confusion. "Why?"

I point at the rooftops. "I'm not going to be able to hit the bank directly with you guys, but I can provide overwatch." I lifted my RPK. "Unfortunately, I left any magnified optics in my other pants."

She snorts as she lifted her rifle and unlatched the locks holding her scope down to the picatinny rails. "Be careful with that, Sensei, that's my favorite scope."

I nod. "You know me, being careful is second nature."

Magnified optic in hand, I removed the EOTECH holographic sight attached to the dust cover of my rifle before latching on Shiroko's. An odd look, having a completely white attachment on an otherwise completely black rifle, but beggars can't be choosers.

No time to zero it, so I'll have to adjust on the fly.

"You guys alright with hitting the bank with just you six?" I ask as I turned towards the rest of the girls.

They all give me a nod, save for Hifumi, who is still extremely confused at what the hell is happening.

Locating a nearby ladder towards the rooftops, Ayane handed off to me an earpiece so everyone could stay in contact. Sat on the roof top, I held an angle that gave an unhindered view of the lobby and a few of the teller's desks. Watching through the scope, the girls walked up towards the front door of the bank, hyping themselves up for their first hit.

Then they comm'ed in.

"Do you think we should come up with some fake names so we don't give our identities away?" Nonomi asked.

I raise a brow and nod, she does have a point.

"...I guess so, do we have anything in mind?" Ayane asked.

Nonomi giggles. "Ooh! Good thing I have us covered!"

The excited blonde began handing off names to the girls, with each member receiving it with various degrees of incredulousness.

"Everyone ready? I'm accessing the power grid to shut off the power!" Ayane says into her headset, her comms relaying into everyone's earpiece.

I turn towards her and give her a thumbs up.

The Task Force, minus Ayane and plus Hifumi stacked up at the front door, waiting on the go ahead from Ayane after she shut down power to the bank, assumedly cutting lights and any alarms. Opting to sit on the roof top with me, she typed away on her laptop.

Aligning my crosshair on the head of one of the automaton guards inside, I held my breath and waited for the green light.

Then everything went dark.

"Power's off, go go go!" Ayane exclaimed.

I let a round rip, the bullet shattering the window and piercing the guard's head, sending sparks and metal fragments flying.

Following the order, Shiroko kicked down the front doors and fired a burst into the ceiling.

"Everyone on the ground!" She yelled, her commands bleeding into her comms, followed by screams and cries of the citizenry.

Then the rest of the girls funneled in.

"Show me some hands! I wanna see some hands!"

I snort, she's getting way too into it.

As the girls pushed deeper into the bank, barking orders to the civilians inside to stay down and out of their way, they met resistance in the form of the remaining bank guards. While not engaging in a firefight yet, the guards demanded that we drop our guns.

"As if!" Shiina retorted, shoving the barrel in the face of one of the guards, who gave up real quick.

Ayane shook her head. "The backup generators should be online soon guys!"

True to her words, the bank then lit back up, the lights revealing everyone's positions.

Swinging my rifle around, I line up my crosshairs onto my new targets, whose heads soon popped as I let a few more rounds loose.

"Thanks Sensei!" Hoshino pops in as she hopped over the teller's desk, shoving the barrel of her shotgun in the direction of a few tellers.

With the guards neutralized, the girl's rounded up the civilians... that also included a few familiar faces.

'Are they actually robbing the bank!?' Aru internally fangirling over the heisters.

Her eyes were filled with awe. 'That is SO hard-boiled!'

Next to her, a certain white-haired student facepalmed at her boss.

As the other girls restrained the disarmed guards and civvies, Shiroko and Hoshino had their guns trained on the tellers, scaring them shitless as they frantically filled up the duffle bags with cash.

"Faster." Shiroko demanded, shoving the barrel of her rifle into the teller's back.

"Ack! I-I'm bagging as fast as I c-can!" The robot stammered, on the verge of breaking down.

"Your transport logs too." Hoshino chimed in.

"H-huh?" The teller sounded, craning his head around.

Not verbally responding, Hoshino simply took a step closer and pulled on the charging handle of her shotgun, racking a shell while simultaneously ejecting another.

"Hi-hieeek!" He began working faster, shoving a whole bunch of documents into the bag.

Presenting the stuffed bag towards the girls, he remained on his knees before begging.

"H-here! That's e-everything! Now please let us go!"

With Shiroko and Hoshino glancing at each other, the white wolf hefted the bag over her shoulder before hightailing it towards the doors. A few seconds later, Hoshino followed suit, another bag filled to the brim over her shoulder.

"How about you, Faust?" Hoshino grinned towards Hifumi, who's trembling up a storm behind her paper bag disguise.

"H-huh!? M-me!?"

Shiroko nudged her towards the teller's desk. "You haven't grabbed your share yet."

"Wha-!"

Pushing her towards the teller's desk, Shiroko began demanding that they fill up their leader's bag... which just so happens to be her Peroro backpack.

With her cut fulfilled, they retreated towards the entrance.

I turned towards Ayane with an amused look. "Looks like we got what we need, time to head out."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "So it would seem."

Regrouping with the girls, we hightailed it in the direction of the school. Navigating our way through the stalls, we faced pockets of resistance from the black market police, who all too quickly caught wind of the heist.

Pinned under a hail of gunfire, we took to the alleyways to try and lose the police.

"Looks like they don't play around!" I yell over the rounds flying by us.

Hifumi grunts in affirmation. "Black market police are usually armed with the best equipment money can buy!"

A missile explodes behind us, sending debris and asphalt into the air.

"No fucking kidding!"

Ayane glanced over her shoulder before going wide-eyed. "They have helicopters!"

With a lull in gunfire, sure enough, the sounds of blades cutting through the air could be heard, with a spotlight illuminating us from above.

"Oh shit." I muttered as I turned towards Nonomi. "Suppressing fire on that heli, NOW!"

She nods before hefting her minigun, the barrels spinning up before letting loose a hail of gunfire, shredding the cockpit of the attack helicopter.

"Fuck yeah!" I cheered in the direction of the blonde, rather, Christina.

As the helicopter barreled towards the black market police, those not caught within the crash continued their pursuit, advancing whilst firing their rifles.

Caught off guard as we stared in awe at the explosion, we were ultimately caught in the gunfire.

Luckily, Hoshino was a step ahead, her shield covering the Task Force against the brunt of the bullets. Not so much on my part, unfortunately, as a few rounds hit true, impacting my vest and knocking the wind out of me.

"Argh, FUCK!" I hissed as I tossed myself behind her shield.

"Sensei!?" All the girls exclaimed as they looked at me in grave concern.

I feel some blood come up as I cough. "I-I'm good." I fish my hand around behind my vest to check if any rounds pierced through. "Nothing pierced." I say as I exhaled in relief, the action sending a violent lance of pain through my chest.

They grimaced in my direction before a new volley impacted the shield, redirecting our attention.

"I'll- ugh, fuck that hurts- patch myself up later, we got more pressing matters." I say as I unpacked grenades from my rig.

I started handing them out. "Use 'em or lose 'em!"

Following our retreat, we covered our escape with the frag grenades I had brought, shredding infantry and immobilizing any vehicles they had. To make sure that we made a clean getaway, I fashioned a few into tripwires, which worked surprisingly well to slow them down, as we could hear the explosions report long after we had left.

"*Huff* *Huff* Are they still following us?" Serika asked as she panted.

I glanced around, straining my ears to hear anything that sounded remotely like police. "Doesn't seem like it, I think we're good."

Assumedly a sufficient distance away from all the action, we sat in a dark alleyway to catch our breaths and take stock of the situation.

Two duffle bags and a 'Peroro' backpack absolutely filled to the brim with cash. I dunno about the exact values, but with that many bills and in such large denominations? I'd say we made off with a pretty penny.

"So, now what?" Serika asked as she removed her balaclava.

Ayane followed suit. "Now we follow the escape route I planned out, hopefully it stays true after that little... mishap." She glanced at our hit. "Then there's the issue of this."

"The money?" I asked. "Why would we have any problems with the money?"

Hoshino pursed her lips. "That's the problem there, Sensei."

I give her a look. "Hold up, we got what we needed, right? We hit the bank for the cash, did we not?"

She shook her head slowly. "...We hit the bank for this." She dug into one of the duffle bags, pulling out a stack of documents.

My eyes narrowed. "Don't tell me we aren't going to use all this cash."

"We..." Serika began, her eyes filled with worry. "We aren't?"

Shiroko raised a brow. "It would be a shame to not use all this, it's their money, after all."

"No." Ayane put her foot down. "We didn't form the Foreclosure Task Force to use dirty money to restore Abydos."

"Bull-fucking-shit."

The temperature dropped a few degrees as I stepped in, the girls now taken aback, stared at me with fear-stricken eyes.

"You all fought tooth and nail to one day, put one over these fuckers-" I jabbed a finger at the bags. "And we have the means!" I shook my head. "They were the ones who did the dirty work. Not you."

Ayane gives me a pleading look.

I groaned. "Please don't grow a conscious over this now." I picked up a strap of one of the bags. "You have the money to take out all, if not, most of your debt."

"Even if you couldn't use the cash on the debt, these could fund things a whole world better than those asshats could ever come up with!"

Hoshino scratched her head, frustration setting in. "I don't know how you did things in the Zone, Sensei, but the moment we use this... blood money, we cross a line we'd hope to have never set foot near."

I sighed heavily.

On one hand, I get it. Once the genie's out of the bottle, there's no chance of getting it back in. Ergo, once that line's crossed, it'll open up the option of continuing the behavior.

After all, you did it once already, what's the issue with doing it again?

On the other, this means that a significant portion of their burden will be alleviated. The girls wouldn't have to work so hard to make ends meet. They wouldn't have to make harsh compromises anymore. Supplies, without my intervention, would be able to flow freely.

I removed my mask and wiped a hand over my face. If I knew my students would be this much of a pain in my ass, I'd would've never become a 'Sensei'.

Heh... looks like I'm more easily referring to myself as one.

Placing my hands on my hips, I looked into Hoshino's amber and cerulean eyes. Her gaze was resolute, as if she was going to resist completely should I have brought up using the money once more.

Damn, I hate to admit it, but a goddamn kid has better morals than me.

I threw my hands up, my gas mask accidentally thrown into the air. "Ugh, you win, we're getting rid of the cash!"

Her jaw drops, completely thrown off by my response, with the rest of the girls following the sentiment, though not of the same degree.

"You... what?" The president says, confusion laden on her face.

I walked over and dusted off my gas mask. "Yeah yeah, point and laugh at the morally bankrupt teacher." I donned my mask. "You heard me, we're doing it your way. We get rid of the cash, and we'll hit them using those... whatever those documents are."

The girls go wide-eyed, glancing at each other before adopting bright smiles.

I scratched my head. "I hope you all know you threw away the easy option out of this."

Hoshino smiled my way. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

I grinned. "At least you know what you're getting into." I placed a hand on her head and ruffled her hair. "So, what's the plan president?"