Chapter 6: Trailblazer's Midnight Rodeo

The night was accompanied by a gentle, chilly breeze as the myriad of lights in the skyline painted a scene of the beauty of the ingenuity and innovation present in the megacity that was Kivotos. The Sanctum Tower loomed high in the distance, an ever-present reminder of the GSC's power and authority. The sky was stained by a scattering of stars, their light dimly illuminating the cityscape below, their rays accentuated by the reflective glow of the river. Large halo-like rings were littered just below the sea of stars, giving the otherwise homely cityscape a seemingly celestial atmosphere. From the highest level of the SCHALE tower, the view was truly something to behold, as I cycled the bolt to chamber a round and adjusted the calibrations on the computerized scope of my sniper rifle and checked my earpiece to ensure I had communications with my trusty pocket secretary.

"Sensei," Arona began. "Are you sure this is a good idea? You could get practice just by using the firing range. This is kind of extreme, you know."

"We have to get the job done," I firmly replied, my eyes never wavering from my target, which at the moment did not currently exist due to Arona not having found any suspicious activities or ongoing crimes within a suitable distance from myself. "Do you see anything from the city surveillance or satellite imaging systems?"

Arona hesitated. "Not at the moment, Sensei. There haven't been any major disturbances for the past 14 hours, and even the petty crimes have been pretty sparse. You should know, Sensei, that trained snipers looking for a specific target at a specific location sometimes must wait hours before getting a shot. You're just hoping random crimes happen, right after your presence dropped the crime rate no less."

"Then I have plenty of time," I insisted. "Besides, the best snipers can shoot accurately and with extreme precision even from several kilometers away, and there's no telling what sort of weapon my enemies might have." Or so I thought, and I wasn't convincing myself with that. I was just regurgitating the excuse Silver Wolf gives me when she picks up all the best loot in our gaming sessions. I'm pretty sure she only cares about the fact that despite all the advances civilizations across the universe have made, no one has ever figured out how to balance sniper rifles in a multiplayer shooter.

I could hear Arona audibly rolling her eyes, as she too didn't buy the lie I was feeding myself. "Even the best SRT snipers have some trouble with targets once you get past one kilometer in distance. Not that SRT exists anymore..."

The computerized scope was a bulky but rather versatile piece of hardware, as it included an infrared rangefinder, digitized scope reticle, and thermal vision; however, by far the most useful tool I had at my disposable was the directional microphone, letting me pick out individual conversations even from this distance. The downside was its sensitivity and how even the background noise of traffic would deafen the audio, but if it was a relatively isolated area then I would be able to eavesdrop as if I was a few feet away. It was also viable as an improvised sonar system, as I could pinpoint the locations of objects and people based on the sounds they made.

"So," Arona asked, her voice betraying a mix of concern and childish boredom. "What are we actually doing right now? I don't mean to question your leadership, but I can't help but feel like you're not entirely sure about this whole 'waiting for crimes to occur' strategy."

"Simple," I confidently explained. "As the Galactic Educator, I'm responsible for educating those who seek out my universal guidance and punish those who would threaten the peace and tranquility of the populace. And educate them on the futility of their wrongdoing with force."

"Uh-huh, sure," was Arona's unconvinced and apathetic reply. "Getting caught fare dodging is a part of that too?"

"Hey, why is everyone giving me lip for it and not March?" I whined to what was basically Silver Wolf's daughter indignantly. "She was fare dodging too."

"She isn't Sensei like you are. You're supposed to be a good influence for the students," Arona replied, before pausing for a few seconds. "But I get your point. The whole incident made Miss March pretty popular on social media! There's hardly a soul who doesn't know the haloless kung fu girl that works as SCHALE's social media manager now. It should be great for those calendar sales!" I have no idea how March's flailing managed to win over the hearts of minds of Kivotos' netizens so quickly, even if she is the kind of girl who exudes an unspoken charisma through her "special" mentality. March was by no means dumb, but she was quite spacey and extremely illogical.

"See, Arona, it's not about what actually happened," I shifted gears and put my teaching skills to the test, lecturing Arona would the finer points of managing your social reputation. "It's about how they perceive it. If you have the confidence and conviction to do what you did, the narrative will write itself."

"Sure, I'll pretend to believe you, Sensei," Arona chirped smugly, clearly having already been influenced by March. "Oh, looks like we're finally getting something. A couple of thugs have broken into a private warehouse, and they've already stolen several valuables and weapons. 850 meters northwest, 315 degrees."

I lined up my sights to the target, zooming in on the distant building. I was confident the distance was nothing I couldn't handle, and the digital scope was able to assist with factors such as the pull of gravity and the air resistance due to its digitized reticule denoting compensations for wind speed and distance. The dark finish of the rifle seemed to absorb all light in its surroundings like a black hole, with only the faintest of reflections from the moon's glow and the city lights giving off a subtle gleam. As the thugs loaded everything into a large truck and prepared to take off, my internal inquiries about whether they even had a driver's license were interrupted by an observation I had made the moment I stepped onto the roof, which Arona began to confirm.

"It's still not too late just to get practice at the firing range, or just let Miss March handle long distances with her bow," she began. "The wind is changing by the minute, even with my computational power, I can't keep up with the shifts to give you an accurate readout. You'll have to feel it on your own."

I grimaced as I remembered how Silver Wolf would often berate me for my incompetence with sniper rifles, and our taste of victory or defeat would depend on whether I got unlucky loot drops of nothing but sniper rifles, which was an absolute pain. It was bad enough that my accuracy was always the victim of the randomness that was the game's physics engine, it was worse when my magical ability to miss easy shots ended with my corpse being emoted on and the opponents mic spamming an Ast Rickley song through the proximity voice chat. The aforementioned humiliation in games would pale in comparison to the blow of my ego if, with all the firearms and resources available to me from SCHALE, March was still my superior when it came to long range combat while using a bow. Arona's innocent suggestion fired up the internal competition and ego battle routine I had with March, though even with my somewhat unfounded confidence, I knew the hands were most likely going to come up pink.

"They're leaving the warehouse, Sensei," Arona instructed in a manner not dissimilar to the NPCs in a Tour of Duty game. "Good time to take a shot, preferably at the driver."

The chill of the wind and the cool of the night did nothing to dissuade my focus, as I took a deep breath and began counting down in a slow rhythm. The truck's engine roared to life, and the exhaust pipes spat out a cloud of noxious fumes that were illuminated by the thermal imaging on the scope. As it traveled in a straight line towards the connecting bridge that connected the warehouse to civilization, the truck's path became as straight as an arrow, while the opportunity presented was as irresistible as the call of a Lordly Trashcan. I took appropriate measurements, steadied my shot, and fired, all within the span of half a second. Unfortunately, it was half a second too long, as the wind had shifted by then. Through my focus, I watched in what seemed to be agonizing slow motion as the bullet veered too hard and dropped too low, missing the driver completely, and hitting the front left tire. The truck seemed to defy gravity as it flipped over and went right through the barriers, plummeting into the river below. The commotion almost immediately drew the attention of a nearby Valkyrie patrol car, who turned on their sirens to investigate, its wails piercing my eardrums as the directional mic amplified its high-pitched noise by cosmic magnitudes. The entire scene played out like a slow-motion movie, and I couldn't help but marvel at the fact that I was actually a very competent shooter, if only the laws of physics did not conspire to put my showboating to rest.

"You hit the vehicle, Sensei," Arona congratulated me, sounding rather confused. We watched as the student thugs broke the surface and treaded water, quickly shouting a variety of insults at each other for the botched job. Some of the thugs suspected the others of being part of being undercover Valkyrie as they paddled closer to one another to engage in a rather embarrassing slap fight, neither side doing anything more than removing each other's masks in the process. "Well, I'm sure they'll be fine. I just wish you didn't go for something so... destructive." Arona clearly thought I meant to crash the truck, and my pride at the moment was currently a higher priority than correcting her about my nonexistent indifference to collateral damage, the type of indifference that described her creator more than it did me.

"That took too long. I want to get more practice in," I fibbed.

"Oh, alright," Arona went along with it unquestioningly. "It might be a while until something else happens, I'm getting pretty sleepy. Could you tell me a story?"

A grin appeared on my face as I continued scanning the ground below for more random encounters to partake in. "This is how I first joined the Astral Express..."

I recounted the story of my first memories since having lost what I possessed before; I had vague memories of being on board the space station with Kafka, but everything I know from that timeframe was either from having investigated it on my own or having been told it by other people. Ultimately, it wasn't an important part of the story. After regaining consciousness, I met the Crew as well as several HSS personnel as we fended off the Antimatter Legion's attack before coming face to face with the mighty Doomsday Beast.

"Yup, that matches up with what was in my knowledge base!" Arona confirmed excitedly. "But it's always more exciting to hear it told to me. There are some things that didn't match up though..."

"Like what?" I asked rhetorically.

"Well, according to my knowledge base, there was no legendary weapon wielded by the Galactic Baseballer. It wasn't placed in a stone only the worthy could pull the bat out of. It states that when Miss March found you unconscious, she gave you the bat as an improvised weapon, and it had just been lying on the floor outside the room you were in." Arona explained, and I felt a pang of embarrassment as Silver Wolf had presumably busted me on having told another one of my tall tales.

"Uhm, that's because..." I started, being forced to lie and make up a reason. "I didn't think it was important for the story?" I could almost see the disappointment radiating from within the Simulated Classroom. "Well, maybe the legends are wrong, and there wasn't a legendary weapon wielded by the Galactic Baseballer."

"That would be the most logical conclusion," Arona agreed snidely, before her mood shifted back to an excited child anticipating the end of the tale. "So, what happened next?"

"As I was just saying, Dan Heng, March 7th, and Miss Himeko all engaged in single combat with the Doomsday Beast. It was a massive monster: as long as five train cars, as tall as a tower! I stood my ground and took the bat with the determination of a hundred suns and swung the bat with the strength of a million stars. With the Crew's combined might, the monster was struck down. But that wasn't the end..."

"It wasn't?" Arona went along with the story, captivated by my prodigal storytelling skills worthy of my resume as a legendary director.

"In its death throes, out of spite and fanatically fulfilling its devotion to the Path of Destruction, the Beast unleashed a massive laser and aimed it right at March 7th! I bravely sacrificed myself for the silly girl, standing in its path and taking it head on! But, as I was on the brink of death, the Antimatter Legion's own Aeon, Nanook, intervened. THEY cast THEIR gaze on me, blessing me with the Will of Destruction. The laser's power surged through my veins, the power to destroy worlds, the urge to consume all. I had saved March, but at what cost?"

I paused to take a drink I had bought from one of the vending machines nearby, after Yuuka had left me a gift card with 10,000 credits for my personal spending before she departed back to Millennium. The lemon flavor of the sweet drink reminded me a bit of SoulGlad, and as I had become accustomed to speed running meals during expeditions, I downed the entire half liter bottle at a considerably rapid pace. I set it aside, remembering the old film stereotypes of soldiers who use empty bottles to relieve themselves. Hopefully, I wouldn't have to put the question of whether I was more accurate with a rifle to the test later.

"But as all hope seemed lost, Mr. Yang appeared out of nowhere saved the day! It turned out my body had been implanted with a Stellaron, a sentient object known as the Cancer of All Worlds! He sealed its power inside my body, and from there I went on to join the Crew of the Astral Express. From there, we had many adventures as the legend of the Galactic Baseballer spread across the cosmos! But that is a story for another time."

I had gone out of my way to avoid mentioning Silver Wolf at all either directly or indirectly, as the mere thought of Arona finding out the truth of her creator conflicted heavily with my urge to protect and nurture kids like her, AI or not. I was engrossed in being able to speak openly to the only person from Kivotos other than Rin, from who was sworn to secrecy about my origins, as much as Arona was captivated by what was presumably a display of my qualifications as a movie director. Before we both knew it, half an hour had passed under the relatively peaceful night sky of Kivotos, the warehouse heisters having been put into a Valkyrie station wagon long before.

The wind shifted yet again, and I quickly focused my attention on the directional microphone within the scope, hoping for a distraction from what was essentially the universe's way of giving me a good old fashioned stink eye. As I did so, I could hear Arona ponder the other details about my story. "Hmm... Pathstriders... Mystics... could it be?" I noted the reaction was similar to the one Himeko had when I told her the story of how I first arrived on Kivotos. It could be a good idea to have her and Arona trade notes.

What I saw as this was occurring was a rather odd sight, as four students in maid outfits were currently standing guard at an alley not too far away from the SCHALE Tower. I couldn't make out their features besides their heights, but the directional microphone picked up a bit of their conversation. Three of them were of similar height, while the shortest and angriest one seemed to be their leader.

"Hey, Arona, you think you could try to scan the four students in maid dresses in that alley? 600 meters southeast, 150 degrees."

"On it. What did you say they were wearing?" Arona's voice sounded more distant and distracted as she began processing the information that was coming to her.

"Maid dresses," I replied. "Can't make out their features with the thermal scope, but I can still make out their costume."

"Maid dresses?" Arona repeated, clearly confused. "That's really weird, especially at this time of night."

"You know anything about them?" I asked, curious as to why they were dressed in maid outfits in the first place.

"Let's see if I can get a good angle from this feed... and done! Scan identifies them as Murokasa Akane, Kakudate Karin, Ichinose Asuna, and Mikamo Neru. All belonging to the Cleaning & Clearing club at Millennium Science School."

I forced down an amused chuckle as I instantly realized the name for the blatant double meaning that it was. Assassins were often referred to as "cleaners" while their victims were "cleared" from existence. A fitting name for the club, I would say.

"You know, I can't help but feel that you're just using me as a glorified GPS," Arona teased.

"Not true. You're a lot more useful than a glorified GPS." I said matter of factly, not denying the fact that I was in a way, using her as a glorified GPS.

Arona's proud tone gave me the impression she was standing on a desk showboating with her hands on her hips. "Arona isn't just a super secretary, but a super hacker too. I can do a little more than just find convenient victims of your sniper practice."

"Go on," I responded while not really paying attention and trying to make out what the wannabe ninjas in maid costumes were saying.

"When you got caught fare dodging by Highlander? I could have just hacked the terminal to give you a valid fare. Arona isn't the best OS in Kivotos for nothing!"

I whistled, genuinely impressed, but at the same time I wondered why I didn't think of using her that way sooner. Silver Wolf was a reality-bending hacker after all, it doesn't surprise me her own creation had similar abilities. "Think you could boost the hardware on my phone? It would be nice to have a directional mic on demand."

"I will, but only if you visit and bring me cake." I almost felt like introducing my rebellious secretary to Rosa so she could whip her back into line.

"Maybe some other time. So, what's the story with these maid girls, and what's with the getup? I've got a feeling this isn't a school cosplay."

Arona cleared her throat, which is something I didn't think AIs had to do. Perhaps it was just a force of habit for her. "From what I've gathered on social media, they are known for cleaning up the messes at Millennium Science School or places that hire them, and I mean both actual messes and dealing with any threats. They seem to work with Seminar directly, so they could be compared to the Black Ops characters from that Tour of Duty game you play."

"Aren't they supposed to officially be a maid club? How did a bunch of ninja maids become so famous if they're supposed to be secretive?" I was rather perplexed by Kivotos' standards of secrecy.

"How does no one know you're from space from you call yourself the Galactic Educator?" Arona retorted. "They're just especially bad at hiding their identity. Besides, they're legendary for a reason, so I'm excited to see them work!"

I silently had to concede Arona had a fair point, as the club's title may as well have been the phrase "Secret Agent Maids" while my own was quite literally "Space Teacher". I guess nobody will take you telling the truth seriously if you tell the truth in a truly cringeworthy way. Arona really was taking after March too fast and too well though.

"Any idea what they're doing now?"

"Well, Sensei, since you asked so nicely..." Arona teased, and I could just feel her mischievous grin. "They're not doing anything interesting right now, and from the looks of it, they're waiting."

I focused my scope on them as they began having a conversation. I could still only make out their heat signatures, but the directional mic was having much better luck picking up their discussion now.

"...Tee-hee! She's so cute in this picture!" a cheerful, bubbly voice exclaimed.

"Hmm, yes, indeed. It's a shame someone this cute could be scum that threatens the safety of Millennium," mused a second motherly voice.

"Stop screwing around!" barked the short and angry lead. "Our objective is to capture the target and bring them to Seminar for questioning, not to gawk at their stupid dress! Remember, we don't want a repeat of the last incident!"

"But it's a pretty dress," the cheerful voice seemingly pleaded. "Don't you think so too, leader?"

"Hell no! I hate black!" The short and angry leader was clearly not a fan of pink.

"I dunno, black isn't bad, it's a great color on the right person," a calm, stoic voice chimed in. "Besides, your guns both have some black in them."

"Will you SHUT UP!" the leader's voice shouted. "You're worse than a certain someone with their stupid pink hair! And my guns are GOLD, not black!"

I couldn't help but shake my head in disapproval, as I watched the supposedly professional teenage maid spies bicker and gossip amongst each other like, well, a bunch of schoolgirls. If the situation wasn't so serious for them, it would almost be comical. Considering I wasn't them; it was indeed rather comical for me to watch. I was anticipating their reactions when I inevitably found and took out their target before they could even apprehend their quarry. It also would save me quite a bit of work of continuing to wait for random crimes. Maybe I'd even get a compliment from Yuuka for once due to my future heroic service in the name of Millennium Science School's safety. Unfortunately, Arona wasn't as gullible as when I had first initially met her, so she would be likely to see it as the blatant heroism and credit stealing that came as part of my plan. Silver Wolf may have injected a bit of her own personality into the updated knowledge base as well, which had the side effect of slightly hindering the furthering of the Galactic Educator's legend in my pocket secretary's mind.

"They sound like they're having fun," I remarked, hoping that maybe my comment would spark a debate as to the merits of such a lifestyle with Arona to stave off my boredom, but she remained silent, likely captivated by their less-than-ideal professionalism.

After some panting, the lead calmed down and began discussing the plan once more. "Alright. Let's review one more time. Lucky Pink disabled the security systems earlier today, so we should be able to walk into the front door without much trouble. That means no explosives, 03. Me, 01, and 03 will form the entry team as usual. Quick and quiet, catch the target by surprise. The target is noted to be proficient at close quarters combat, but we have guns, and they shouldn't be a match for me." She paused for a second, and I left myself wondering who wouldn't have guns in Kivotos when just about every student I saw walks around openly with one. Maybe the students are just really averse to causing property damage to their dorms? Then again, most if not all the borosin-looking bipedal dogs didn't carry one, and only the robots I saw working security carried guns.

"04, you're the long-range shooter as always, so you'll cover our flank for possible additional hostiles and scout the operation zone. If we engage directly, shoot the target through the window only if they leave us with no other choice. We cannot risk this being investigated and falling back on Millennium, is that clear?"

"Yes, Lead," replied the serious voice, who I assumed to be 04. The others nodded along.

"Very good. Get on that roof and scout the operation zone before we go in."

04 did as commanded, jumping up the emergency fire exit stair ladder in a leap and bound that was worthy of a cartoon plumber. A most impressive vertical jump, though still not quite on Seele's level. She raced up the stairs before pulling out a massive sniper that I assumed was built to take out tanks rather than people as Arona began talking in my ear, and we came to a realization at around similar times. "Sensei, Karin is on the rooftops scouting out whatever C&C are planning to do. Wait, she's looking at-"

I tuned out the rest as I listened in to Karin talking through her comms to her squad members, and she too discovered an awful truth simultaneously, albeit a different one.

"Target building is 600 meters northwest. Wait, change of plans, I see the target on the roof. She's checking the surroundings with her rifle; she's looking right at me-"

Deciding to preemptively start the hostilities, I immediately opened fire and, in my focus, rapidly cycled the bolt and followed up with another shot, not really caring to aim or compensate for recoil. In the span of approximately two seconds, I fired off all remaining five shots in the magazine, each of them spreading out wildly at different targets. Karin had fired a shot at a similar time as me, and the gigantic projectile meant for taking out tanks whizzed just centimeters past my right ear, having been saved by my rapid head movement as I tried to keep up with the recoiling scope. She wouldn't be able to follow up with another shot, as due to my poor aim and compensation for air resistance and distance, the shot meant for her instead hit the barrel of her gun and sent it scattering into the alley below.

Shots two and three missed completely, the second shot impacting the wall below Karin, while the third seemed to have disappeared into the void, as if it had been despawned due to my abysmal marksmanship.

Shot four, through some miracle of physics defying plot armor, had through sheer luck been aimed directly on point to where one of the maids were standing in the alley. At this point, I had been cycling and firing as fast as I could without putting precision first, simply just aiming vaguely in the general direction of Karin. At the last second, the bullet seemed to rapidly sidestep the maid and hit the short lead, 00, who had been standing right beside her. Quite lucky for 00's subordinate, but not so much for 00 herself. The impact sent 00 to the floor in a pratfall as she voiced an unfittingly adult slew of obscenities.

Shot five knocked over a trashcan that had been randomly placed on the fire escape stairs. It tumbled over and landed facedown directly on 00, who now had her arms constricted by the Lordly Placed Trashcan and her uniform stained with thrown out food debris.

"04, are you okay?" a concerned, motherly voice asked.

"I'm fine, the shot was deflected by my weapon. Looks like the target noticed us and is firing back," Karin replied.

"Shit! We've been made! Don't just stand there, get this thing off me!"

"Ooh, too bad! Looks like we were unlucky today!" chirped the cheerful voice, seemingly uncaring that their mission to kidnap me silently was a complete failure.

I quickly switched the empty mag for a fresh, spare one, but by the time I had looked back up through the scope, Karin had already disappeared into the alley below.

"It would be disadvantageous for us to continue when our cover is blown, and the target has an extreme height advantage on us currently. We should abort the mission."

"04 is correct, we shouldn't take unnecessary risks here. We should flee before Valkyrie intervenes," agreed the motherly voice.

"Fine, but I'm still going to kick her ass someday!" declared the short and angry leader, still not managing to wriggle her arms free of the trash can.

One of the other not-so-secret agents went over and pulled the trashcan off her. "Oh wow, you're covered in banana peels! You might be even cuter like this! Maybe we should change our uniforms to have fruit designs!"

"I don't want to hear it, 01! Rio is going to turn our asses into grass! What shithead purposefully drops a trashcan on someone AFTER shooting them? That bitch is a monster!"

"She doesn't look like a monster in the picture," 01 countered. "Then again, neither do you!"

"I swear to God, 01..."

01 then turned towards the Tower and started waving. I doubt she knew that I could hear her, she just seemed to be the extremely carefree sort. "Sensei! It was nice to meet you! I pre-ordered your calendar! Come visit us at Millennium sometime!"

"Are you shitting me, 01? What part of 'secret agent' do you not understand? What if they can hear us? And stop encouraging the enemy!" An increasingly irate 00 was then dragged out of the alley as the ninja maids disappeared into the night, with one of them stopping to retrieve Karin's dropped rifle.

"Feeds show they got into a nearby taxicab. That's the end of that," a baffled Arona informed me. "Nice job though, Sensei. It was smart of you to shoot the rifle out of her hands. Not many can claim to have foiled a C&C attack. The Galactic Educator's reputation has leveled up!"

Despite, or maybe because of Arona's blind faith in me, I was beginning to feel I wasn't cut out for this sniping thing. I don't know how March makes it seem so effortless with a bow. So far, all my successes have been through dumb luck and conveniently placed obstacles.

"Yup, all according to plan," I droned absently. Arona let out a pleased giggle, seemingly oblivious to my internal turmoil.

I took a few minutes to reflect on what I had done. The events had occurred too fast for me to process them all at the time, but now, after I had calmed down and had some time to think, I had come to realize that the reason Yuuka was able to storm into SCHALE Tower to begin with was because this Lucky Pink had somehow disabled the security systems.

"Arona, could you take a look at the Tower's security systems? Looks like an outside hacker disabled it for the intended assault from those maids."

"Hmm, let's see," Arona got to work before reporting back a few seconds later. "Looks like the admin password was set to a widely used phrase. Whoever set this password does not like students from Gehenna. I changed it to something else. It'll be saved to your notes."

"Thanks. Millennium is Yuuka's academy, so I'd like to get some answers out of her. Why would Millennium view me as a threat?" I pondered.

"We can worry about that later," Arona interrupted. "There's a situation going on about 1.5 kilometers from here. That's a considerable distance, so up to you if you want to interfere."

"What's the situation?" I asked.

"Wakamo robbed a Kaiser Convenience store and is now being pursued by Valkyrie," Arona stated rather flatly. "Your choice who you decide to help if you do step in."

I paused for a second to confirm I didn't misunderstand Arona as the wind began to die down, then shook my head. Wakamo was the one that started the whole situation, and besides, I didn't think she was in such desperate need that someone of her infamy and caliber would be sticking up a place that sold instant noodles and cheap soda. It was hardly the image of the hard-boiled anarchist that she had presented herself to be. If SCHALE wasn't in such poor financial straits, at least in terms of immediately available capital, I could probably just outright employ her. It'd likely be publicly frowned upon, but I don't think there's anything in the rules that says SCHALE can't employ criminals either.

"Nope, I'm staying put," I affirmed. "Let her handle her own problems. I couldn't make a shot at that distance anyway."

"That's what I was thinking," Arona confirmed. "She's friends with you at the moment, so it would be smart to let it stay that way."

My phone buzzed as I received a text message, and a quick check showed it was from March.

-Displaying recent conversation history-

March 7th: Hey, Stelle, we're about to head to sleep. Are you still in Kivotos?

Stelle: Some secret agent maids just tried to kidnap me. Their sniper almost took my head off with an anti-tank rifle.

March 7th: Wow. You sure are popular. What, does Kivotos have some sort of sanitation secret police they send after people who dig through trash cans?

Stelle: Apparently, I'm a threat to Millennium.

March 7th: Hey, isn't that Yuuka's academy? All things considered; she does seem to like you.

Stelle: Yeah, that's the weird part.

March 7th: I don't think she'd intentionally have you hurt. Maybe the school is acting against her will?

March 7th: Or maybe Yuuka can split herself into different people, and they each represent her different feelings?

Stelle: March, that's not possible. Either way, I won't find out standing here.

March 7th: Well, come back soon. Unless you want Pom-Pom raising a fuss again.

Stelle: Heading back now.

Stelle: [Pom-Pom praying sticker]

-There are no more messages-

Arona's face took up my phone's screen as I closed the messaging app. Her eyebrows were doing an exaggerated waggle, and she had the expression of someone who had just caught two consenting adults doing business in a broom closet. "Girl back home misses you?"

I couldn't help but plaster the expression of raw disappointment that I wore when I had exposed Sampo as the artifact thief, which I imagine was made even more photogenic by the wind picking up and blowing my long hair to the side. "Arona, where are you learning these things?"

Arona stuck her tongue out. "Tee-hee. I've learned a lot, Sensei. Now I know why Miss March was always so interested in watching you, and I'm starting to understand the appeal."

"Arona, we don't always sleep in the same bed. How did you become like March when you've only known her for two days? And stop making that expression, it's not cute, it's creepy. You look like an old pervert."

"You're not denying it," Arona pointed out as my look of disappointment was replaced by an expression of resignation. I'd be damned if I tried to explain to Arona this is just how the two of us expressed our close relationship with one another, making me look like I was in denial, and I'd also be damned if I didn't and indirectly resigned in the argument.

"I guess not. I'm done with this. Being a sniper is harder than I thought. I'm just going to let March handle it as usual from now on."

Arona's smug, rapid eyebrow waggling seemed to break the sound barrier as I went back inside, tossing away the empty lemon drink bottle as I did so. Accepting March as my superior in long-ranged combat despite her massive technological disadvantage, I put away the sniper rifle in shame and defeat and teleported back onto the Express, hoping sleep would rebuild my ego in time for the next day.

Author's Notes:

This will be the only chapter for this month, as I've suddenly become too busy to keep working on this fic on a regular basis. As a result, I decided to take a gag I had planned as part of a larger chapter and expand it into its own full-length chapter, while using it to focus on Arona and Stelle's interactions as they had none in Chapter 5. It is a joy to see how well received and engaging to readers this fic has been. I hope to continue working on it regularly soon.