Hello everyone, I just want to say I hope you all had a pleasant Christmas and a Happy New Year, most importantly welcome to chapter 9 of blood archive.
Before we get to the actual chapter, I just want to say a few things specifically about the chapter itself.
You may notice that the length of the Chapter is much shorter than most of my other ones, the reason for this short length is primarily because I was originally planning for this chapter to be much longer specifically with the plan to cover the entirety of the main battle between problem solver 68 and the abydos High School.
However, once I finished writing the segment that eventually became this chapter as you see it now, I realised that that wouldn't work for what I was going for considering that I also wanted to try and cover the stuff surrounding the hunter and Arona and the escapades within the Hunter's dream.
As such, after much deliberation I decided that I would simply leave that as its own independent chapter which will be chapter 10 and leave this segment which was originally going to be the first half of what I originally planned for chapter 9.
Anyway that's enough rambling for now, without any further ado I present to you chapter 9 of blood archive.
The day started much like any other for the abydos students, With the five members of the task force exchanged greetings of each other, before quickly proceeding with their usual morning meeting, which ultimately resulted in nothing productive actually being done much to certain glasses wearing elf's dismay.
'Seriously! Why can't any of these meetings actually be productive?'
Ayane sighed loudly as she idly tapped away at her tablet, going about her usual morning routine of checking the surveillance network she had in place courtesy of her drones. Most of the time up checking the surveillance network resulted in nothing out of the ordinary, of course that had changed recently with the introduction of the helmet gang.
As such, the glasses wearing elf girl immediately spotted the unusual amount of foot traffic heading towards the school, which she wouldn't have usually found strange. But considering their recent trouble with the helmet gang, Ayane decided to look into it more, specifically by redirecting one of her drones which was hovering near the location of the unusual foot traffic to have a closer look.
Squinting her eyes slightly. Ayane couldn't help but feel incredibly uneasy as the data from her drone was finally displayed on her tablet.
Currently, a large amount of foot traffic was heading towards the school building at a relatively high speed, in fact as the glasses wearing girl sharpened her eyes even further, she was reminded of her and her friends first encounter with a helmet gang, when they unexpectedly attacked their school out of nowhere.
Yet despite the potential for this to be nothing more than a false alarm, Ayane wasn't going to be caught off guard twice as she quickly stood up from the desk, making all of her friends look at her and surprised as she opened her mouth to speak.
"Everyone... I have a large group of individuals moving towards the campus" Ayane pause for a moment. Making sure all of her friends were paying attention, which as indicated by the serious look that crossed all of their faces, they must definitely were.
"It might just be nothing... But considering what's happened in the past-" Ayane found herself abruptly silenced by Hoshino who quickly jumped up from the desk, a serious look in her bi-coloured eyes.
"You're right Ayane, it might be nothing... But it's better to be safe and sorry" Hoshino accompanied her words by quickly retrieving her shotgun, which was lying on the table in front of her and giving the bolt a quick pull, which chamber of fresh round and showed her willingness to fight.
Shiroko, Serika and Nonomi all quickly followed Hoshino's example, retrieving their weapons and rising from their seats with determined looks on their faces, if it was another assault by the helmet gang who had decided to come back for more, then they would fight because after all they had beaten the once, and they could do it again.
Ayane was momentarily surprised by her friend's reactions, before a determined smile quickly made its way onto her face as well. However, as she quickly picked up her own pistol from the table and placed it in its holster at her side, she suddenly thought of something the made her face take on a look of surprise.
"Wait! Sensei hasn't arrived yet. He was supposed to be here for the morning meeting?" Ayane's words took everyone off guard as looks of realisation cross their faces as well.
They had forgotten, but the glasses wearing girl was right. Sensei was supposed to be here for the morning like he had promised, yet he had seemingly not shown up yet.
"Ayane is right, that is a bit strange how he hasn't shown up yet" Nonomi put a finger to her chin as she spoke, her eyes turning towards the door which up until this point had remained shut. It was almost like she was expecting sensei to walk through any second now, but it never happened, which only made her feel a bit sad.
However, she wasn't the only one who looked a bit dejected by this, as Shiroko also turned her gaze towards the clubroom door, her eyes filled with hope but also sadness when sensei did not materialise before her eyes. In fact, it hurt her, especially because he had promised her that he would come.
Hoshino didn't say a word, choosing to keep her expression neutral when in a reality she was honestly quite glad he had showing up, because while she now didn't outright hate him any more and somewhat tolerated his presence.
That didn't mean that she trusted him at all, she had simply had too many bad experiences with adults to ever trust one ever again.
"You guys, for crying out loud, he's probably busy or something! I mean he is the sensei of SCHALE so he's probably just got a lot of work which made it so he couldn't come today" Serika said with a slightly annoyed huff, while she was a little bit sad that sensei had not come today, she was under no illusion that he was most likely just busy off doing something else.
Ayane, Shiroko and Nonomi all turned to look at Serika, the expressions on their faces being once of surprised understanding, because while it didn't erase the fact that they were a bit sad that sensei hadn't shown up today for whatever reason.
Serika words made perfect sense to them, after all, sensei was most likely off helping another school or student with some problem considering that was his entire job as the sensei of SCHALE.
Ayane suddenly looked her down at her tablet, her eyes widening considerably when she noticed the data that was being fed to it via her drone, which was monitoring the suspicious group of individuals.
Yet, before she could open her mouth to say anything, Hoshino suddenly interrupted her, a determined expression replacing her usual dopey and sleepy one.
"We should get moving, we can talk about this later when we have the time" Hoshino followed her words by quickly retrieving the Iron Horus which was resting nearby, and placing it over her shoulder, making sure it's tightly secure.
This served as the rallying call which made everyone else do the same quickly making sure all of their weapons were loaded and ready, as they all stood up from their respective seats. Flicking the safety catch on her shotgun to the fire position, Hoshino turned to Ayane, an expecting look on her face as she spoke.
"Ayane, where exactly are they right now" Hoshino waited for the response as Ayane, quickly, looked down at the tablet in her hands and vigorously tapped away at it for a moment before a satisfied expression appeared on her face.
"They are currently 15 km east of here, and they're currently passing through one of the old industrial districts. If we leave now we should be able to catch them as they exit" Ayane said with a confident expression on her face, as the rest of her friends all nodded in agreement.
"Well looks like it's time for another impromptu day out" Hoshino said with a slightly mischievous sounding tone to her voice, all of her friends quickly agreeing with her with their own expressions of anticipation and determination as the group quickly exited the clubroom.
…...
"Everyone stay low, they should be coming any second now" A quiet and subdued voice spoke from within the Rubble of a half collapsed building that had once been a small warehouse of some prescription.
"Got it / right" Four more voices quickly responded to the first, each of the voices owners making sure their respective weapons were ready and loaded as they kept themselves out of sight.
Ayane from her hiding spot kept a vigilant eye on the road, occasionally only breaking site from it to look down at her tablet so that she could monitor the group of mysterious individuals that were approaching their position.
Yet as she quickly glanced down at her tablet, Ayane suddenly felt somebody place a hand on her shoulder making her jump slightly as she turned to see who it was, only to feel immediately relieved when she saw that it was none other than Hoshino, a determined look in her multicoloured eyes.
"So, what are we up against, Ayane?" Hoshino quickly knelt down next to Ayane, her gaze quickly turning to the outside environment as she kept her shotgun and Ballistic shield at the ready.
Ayane looked at Hoshino for a second, before quickly turning her eyes down to the tablet in her hands as she tapped away at it, retrieving the necessary data that she needed, before turning her gaze back up to Hoshino and relaying it to her.
"There are 24 unknown individuals, and they seem to be armed" Ayane said matter-of-factly, Hoshino turned her eyes to look at the glasses wearing elf.
"Any kind of heavy weapons or artillery?" Hoshino asked with a slightly concerned look in her eyes, while she wasn't really concerned about their odds, especially considering her junior student's recent performance.
That didn't change the fact that she did feel somewhat worried about everyone else's safety, if this mysterious group was bringing with them some kind of heavy weaponry or heaven forbid an armoured vehicle of some kind.
Ayane quickly looked back at the tablet in her hands and tapped away at, while Hoshino waited with a slightly apprehensive expression on her face. Fortunately, after a moment of tapping away at the device, Ayane gave an answer that made Hoshino let out a sigh of relief.
"I don't see any kinds of heavy weaponry or armoured vehicles with them" As the words left her
mouth, both Ayane and Hoshino suddenly heard something, more precisely, it was the sound of multiple footsteps approaching their position.
Quickly turning their gazes outwards, both abydos students saw a group of students approaching. The largest portion of them were all dressed identically, with them wearing strange looking almost construction style overalls complete with gloves and a hard hat on their heads.
However, what caught Ayane, Hoshino, Shiroko, Serika and Nonomi's collective attention was the group of four students at the head of the larger group of identically dressed thugs.
"Hey! Didn't we meet those guys at Shiba Seki ramen?" Nonomi suddenly jumped up in surprise, yet thankfully the group of delinquents and familiar Gehenna students didn't seem to hear them as they continued to march through the desert sands.
"It sure looks like it to me. I guess a bunch of Gehenna students showing up out of the blue wasn't a coincidence after all" Hoshino didn't even try to hide her growing angry as her expression noticeably hardened.
However, she wasn't the only one, as Serika and Shiroko's expressions also turned into angry and furious ones respectively.
"T-Those dirty snakes!" Serika practically snarled the words as she quickly stood up from her spot, rifle in hand and ready to take her anger out on the two timing gehenna students. But before she could aim and open fire, somebody quickly put a hand on top of her rifle, forcefully pointing it downwards.
"Hang on a sec Serika, why don't we go out there and ask them to explain themselves before we dish out any punishment" Serika turned her frustrated gaze to the person who had just stopped her, only to see that it was none other than Hoshino, a look of well restrained anger visible on her usual dopey and sleepy face.
Serika was about to argue, instead wanting to simply just shoot the delinquent and the gehenna students until they simply stopped moving. But she suddenly realised exactly what Hoshino was implying, as after a moment she nodded.
Turning to the rest of her fellow students, Hoshino, saw all of them quickly nob in agreement with her idea, while a surprise attack would have been a better option considering it would allow them to get the jump on the delinquents and gehenna students.
They all wanted to know exactly why the gehenna students had taken advantage of their generosity in such a brazen manner.
With everyone in agreement, all five abydos students quickly stepped out from the broken down warehouse they were using as cover, the conversation between the gehenna students and the delinquent now becoming audible to them as they closer to the group who was unaware of their approach.
"So, are you guys ready?" Aru asked with a confident smile, her ego boosted by the fact that she was leading a large group of delinquents and her fellow problem solver 68 members into a potentially upcoming battle.
The leader of the delinquents, who was only distinguished from the rest by the fact that she wore a Yellow armband on her upper arm, a tired sounding sigh as she responded.
Internally, she couldn't help but remarked to herself.
"If this dork wasn't paying so well, my girls and I wouldn't be here"
"Of course we're ready, like I said when you gave us the cash, will do anything you want no questions asked except over time" The leader of the identically dressed delinquents said with a bored tone, her words getting a round of agreed nobs from her compatriots.
Despite managing to catch the clear board sounding tone in the delinquent leader's voice, Aru pretended not to notice as she let out a quiet chuckle to herself.
However, as her and her fellow problem solver 68 members and the delinquent group continued to walk, Aru suddenly came to a complete stop, which made everyone else stop as a familiar voice washed over her.
"Hey you!"
Aru, Kayoko, Mutsuki and Haruka, all turned to the source of the familiar voice, only to have their eyes widen in shock when they saw none other than the five abydos students, standing there with their weapons in hand and very angered and infuriated expressions on their faces.
"I can't believe you guys! After I gave you all of that extra ramen completely for free and this is how you repay me! You absolutely ungrateful shitheads!" Serika didn't even try to hide the rage in her voice as her dilated pupils filled with an absolutely murderous gaze, that made all members of problem solver 68 and the gang that they had hired momentarily step back.
"Now now Serika, a junior like yourself should not be using language like that" Hoshino quickly put a hand on the irritated cat girl's shoulder, trying to calm her down.
However, despite this and trying and somewhat failing to keep her facial expression relatively neutral. Internally, she was absolutely livid to the point where she didn't know how much longer she could actually keep her anger in check.
Aru didn't respond to the harsh words, her face remaining somewhat neutral, yet internally she was panicking slightly, because while learning that the friendly students she had had lunch with were the very same ones that she had to attack and take their school from them had certainly been a blow, actually facing them down now with that knowledge made her feel somewhat guilty.
Yet as Aru opened her mouth to respond, Mutsuki suddenly spoke her words being accompanied by a mysterious giggle and facial expression.
"Kufufu~ I really did appreciate that, but it doesn't matter now. It's just business, so nothing personal, cutie" Mutsuki ended her words by blowing a mocking kiss towards Serika.
Which almost made the cat girl in question lose any sense of reason and do something incredibly violent with her bare hands, if it wasn't for Hoshino stopping her.
"Mutsuki is right. It's regrettable but businesses business. We have to uphold our end of the contract" Kayoko said with her usual bored expression, while she did feel a little bit bad about attacking the very students that had shown her and her friends' generosity.
She knew better than anyone that, with the kind of lifestyle that her and her friends lived by, didn't exactly give them the luxuries of having positive relations with pretty much anyone.
Shiroko suddenly stepped forward, making everyone incredibly tense as after a moment of silence she spoke with a hard-set expression.
"So, you guys are fixers, then" Shiroko said with a knowing looking in her eyes, while she was not herself a criminal, one of her main hobbies was researching various different kinds of criminals and what exactly they did.
All the members of problem solver 68 didn't respond to the question, simply choosing to look between each other unsure what to say, nevertheless eventually none other than Nonomi responded, a disapproving look on her face.
"What kind of job is that for girls your age?! Shouldn't you be working normal part-time jobs, instead of causing trouble like this" Nonomi true to her nature as the mother of the group, couldn't help but lecture these mysterious students on their choice of employment.
Aru's face suddenly took on a slightly offended expression, not appreciating the fact that this girl who knew nothing about her and her business was referring to it as nothing more than a regular part-time job. As such, after quickly collecting herself, the leader of Problem Solver 68 responded.
"It's not a part-time job! This is a real, respectable business! With titles and everything! Aru despite trying to, couldn't stop the excitement from creeping into her voice, as she dramatically paused for a moment before continuing.
"And I am the boss!"
Aru quickly threw her arm into the air, emphasising her words via the action and trying to make herself look more impressive than she actually was, very much to the annoyance of her hired Goons and the Confusion of the Abydos students.
However, before any of the confused abydos students could respond, Aru suddenly brought her arm down and began pointing towards her fellow problem solver 68 members, listing off their titles is she went.
"Mutsuki is our chief of staff" Mutsuki simply giggled mischievously finding the entire situation completely ridiculous, which only made it more funny for her especially considering that Aru was making herself look like a giant dork again instead of the cool, suave and sophisticated criminal that she was trying to portray herself as.
"And Kayoko, here is the department head" Aru excitedly patted Kayoko on the back, making the black and white haired girl jump in surprise, and making a slightly embarrassed looking expression appear on her usually blank and indifferent face.
"Aru, that title isn't nearly as impressive as you make it out to be" Katoko expressed with an exasperated expression on her face, at this point she simply wanted the entire ordeal to be over.
But before anyone could say anything else, Shiroko suddenly stepped forward, her rifle in hand as she spoke her demands.
"So, who hired you? Or are you not willing to tell us that?" Shiroko abruptly paused, a thoughtful expression replacing the angry one on her face for a moment, before a mischievous and almost murderous glint filled her eyes.
"Actually... I think getting that information out of you by force could be preferable" The wolf girl's words were accompanied by her quickly releasing the safety catch on her rifle, which let out a satisfying and malicious sounding click as it chamber a fresh new round.
This action was quickly repeated by the rest of the Abydos students, each one of them reading their respective weapons as they stared down the group of delinquents and problem solver 68.
Aru who was feeling somewhat intimidated by the gesture, didn't let it show as she quickly let out a boisterous and almost boastful sounding laugh, speedily bringing up her own rifle and releasing the safety.
Which has fellow problem solver 68 members also did with their respective weapons and her hired Goons as well.
"You can try little wolf, but we don't spill our trade secrets" Aru stood her ground, feeling that the odds were in their favour because they outnumbered the abydos students almost 10 to 1.
There was a tense moment of silence as Shiroko stayed down the barrel of Aru's PSG-1 sniper rifle, and before she could react Aru suddenly pulled the trigger, the muzzle blast from the gun momentarily blinding Shiroko and making her flinch as the bullet race towards her at supersonic speed.
However, thankfully somebody was quicker to react than she was. With that being none other than Hoshino, who quickly threw herself in front of the bullet with the iron Horus, using the now fully deployed ballistic shield to protect her junior classmate from the bullet.
"Everyone, go!"
Shiroko, Serika, Nonomi and Ayane quickly did as commanded, all of them instantly breaking up and scattering before the group of delinquents and problem solver 68 could react, Hoshino nevertheless didn't move from her spot, standing defiantly as all the identically dressed to delinquents quickly raised their weapons and fired.
Hoshino however wasn't bothered by this as she quickly planted the Iron Horus into the ground, the large spikes that kept the shield together quickly shooting into the ground and giving it enough support to weather the hail of bullets that was now being thrown at it.
Waiting for the right moment, Hoshino kept her shotgun ready as the hail of bullets suddenly ceased, which was just the thing she was waiting for, as she very rapidly jumped out from behind it and fired.
Her shots were precise, with both of them being headshots, which completely destroyed the helmets of two delinquents and making them collapsed to the ground.
Which only served to rile up the group of delinquents even more, as they finished reloading their weapons, intent on gunning Hoshino down in revenge for the fallen comrades.
Yet, the pink haired abydos student wasn't going to let that happen as she quickly grabbed the Iron Horse and began to run.
"Nonomi!" lay down some covering fire" Hoshino shouted loudly as she took cover behind a piece of conveniently placed rubble, as the delinquents opened up on her with all of their firepower.
Nonomi from her position which happened to be an old husks that was once a delivery truck, quickly sprung into action her minigun coming to life as she responded to her friend's cry for help.
"I'm on it!" Nonomi yelled excitedly as her minigun quickly sprang to life, the sound of its incredibly high fire rate almost drowning out everything else on the battlefield as she began to lay waste to any delinquent she could see.
Yet before she could continue to lay down suppressing fire for both Hoshino and her other classmates, Nonomi suddenly felt a couple bullet whizz past her head, immediately making her pause her onslaught of automatic gunfire, as she frantically looked around trying to locate where the shots had come from.
However, before she could do so, she suddenly felt two bullets hit her in the side of the chest, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to stumble.
"Nonomi!" Hoshino shouted shouted with concerning her voice, when she saw her friend stumble from the bullet hits. Frantically looking for the source of the gunshots, Hoshino finally identified where they had come from. As the owner of the weapon quickly ducked behind cover while putting a fresh magazine into her light machine gun.
"Why don't you make this easy for us, and just hand over the school" Mutsuki followed up her patronising words by quickly firing a few shots in the general direction of the abydos students.
Hoshino who was still hiding behind the piece of rebel that she had taken up as her cover felt enraged by this, she had made many concessions in the past, some of which still haunted her to this day, but she would never ever give up the school that was not just only hers but her senpai's pride and joy.
But before Hoshino could do or say anything, she suddenly heard Nonomi shout violently, her voice barely audible over the sound of a minigun that was once again laying down fire.
"As if we would ever do that!" Nonomi accompanied her words, by quickly turning her minigun to the location that Mutsuki was using as cover. Which was an old rusty dumpster turned on its side, and proceeding to rain a hail of bullets down upon it.
Mutsuki quickly ducked behind the dumpster, letting out a slightly mischievous giggle as the hail of bullets continued to rain down upon her position.
Yet thankfully, after a few moments of this the bullets quickly ceased, giving her the opportunity she was waiting for as she quickly ran out from behind the dumpster, firing a few shots as she went while she relocated to a new position.
"Kayoko! You're up!" Mutsuki suddenly cried into the air, the words quickly catching Nonomi's attention as she became aware of somebody closing in quickly from behind.
Quickly spinning on the spot, Nonomi brought her minigun up as a shield to protect herself as Kayoko aggressively advanced on her. But, instead of shooting immediately, the black and white haired gehenna student suddenly did something completely different as she rapidly delivered a swift and powerful kick, managing to knock the hefty minigun completely out of the way.
But Nonomi recovered quicker than Kayoko expected, a subtly surprised the Look appearing on the girl's usually blank and in different face.
"Take this troublemaker!" Nonomi accompanied her loud words by quickly swinging her minigun through the air, trying to use it as a large and very heavy improvised bat. However, unfortunately Kayoko was ultimately quicker, as she quickly dodged the wild swing and just before Nonomi could try again, quickly delivered several powerful shots from her suppressed pistol.
Nonomi felt the wind be knocked out of her from the pistol rounds hitting her chest, yet she would not go down that easily as with freshly acquired frustration and anger fuelling her, she quickly swung her mini gun around once again.
This time managing to catch the gehenna student completely off guard and deliver a fast and effective hit to Kayoko's chest, the force of which completely stunned the girl, and almost made her topple over and to drop her pistol.
Kayoko let out a series of grunts, trying to force as much air into her lungs as she rapidly put some distance between her and the minigun welding Abydos student, which couldn't have come at a better time, as before Nonomi could gun Kayoko down.
She suddenly came under attack from several other delinquents, all of them firing at her and forcing her to turn her attention away from the black and white haired gehenna student.
Yet as Kayoko quickly took the magazine out of a pistol to check how many bullets she had left before relocating to a new position, she suddenly heard footsteps behind her which were followed by an angry voice.
"Drop the gun, you dirty two-timing snake!" Serika aimed her rifle at Kayoko's back, her finger resting on the trigger, just itching to pull it and unleash a hail of bullets upon the dirty gehenna student who dared to take advantage of her generosity.
Not moving a muscle, Kayoko quickly weighed her options, but that's when an idea occurred to her as she discreetly reached into her pocket before putting her hands up seemingly surrendering much to Serika's satisfaction.
But as Kayoko's hands raised into the air, Serika suddenly became aware of something that wasn't right, specifically the small metal pin that was looped around one of the gehenna student's fingers.
Serika's eyes suddenly widened in realisation and horror when she identified exactly what that little pin was, and abruptly looking down at her feet, she saw exactly what that little pin went to.
A grenade... a live and very active grenade.
KABOOM!
"Serika!" Hoshino and Shiroko both turned to the source of the explosion, palpable concern evident on their faces as the smoke began to clear.
"I'm F-fine, don't worry about me!" Serika managed to say between coughing as she picked herself up off the floor, while her uniform was now in tatters much to her embarrassment and now had a few cuts and bruises.
Overall, she was fine enough to quickly find cover behind a broken down wall, which also happened to be the same piece of cover that Ayane was using.
"Serika!" Ayane exclaimed when she saw the condition of her friend, immediately putting her pistol and tablet down on the floor as she began to look over her friend's injuries. However, before she could get far doing that, Serika abruptly pushed her away.
"I'm fine Ayane! Keep your eyes on the battlefield!" Serika accompanied her hasty words by quickly jumping out from behind the piece of cover, and shooting at 2 delinquents that were currently repositioning, and took them out with precise headshots.
Despite being concerned for her friend, Ayane quickly picked up her pistol and tablet, keeping the precious device close at hand as she abruptly took a pot shot at a delinquent who happened to have their head above the piece of cover they were using.
And even though she would not consider herself to be a marksman of any kind, especially when compared to some of her friends.
Ayane took an immense amount of satisfaction when she saw the delinquent's white builder type helmet, explode into a shower of white plastic fragments as they went down from the bullet, impacting them square on the forehead.
"Good shot Ayane!" Nonomi exclaimed loudly from her position as she quickly began to lay down another stream of automatic gunfire. Mostly in an attempt to force the delinquents in the cover and allow her friends to reposition freely without needing to worry about getting shot as they were doing so.
Hoshino and Shiroko took advantage of this opportunity as they both look at each other, and then nodded, before jumping out from behind the piece of rubble they had been using as cover and running towards the rest of their friends. All the while shooting any delinquents they could see, that have not been fortunate to take cover in time.
Both Hoshino and Shiroko quickly made it to the broken down wall that Ayane and the somewhat injured Serika had been using as cover, both of them quickly ducking behind it and reuniting with their friends,
And after a moment they were quickly joined by the last of their group, Nonomi, who despite looking a little bit worse for wear with her uniform being noticeably tattered and torn was still definitely in fighting condition.
Hoshino quickly put down the ballistic Shield and her shotgun, and began to check over Nonomi, making sure that none of her injuries were severe, which thankfully they weren't.
Before she turned her attention to the much worse looking Serika, who despite her protest about being fine, was definitely more injured than she was willing to admit.
"Hoshino... I think we need to retreat" Ayane suddenly said out of the blue, her words despite being drowned out by gunfire causing everyone to look at her as if she had just grown a second head.
However before Hoshino could respond, Shiroko quickly beat her to it, a slightly angered look on her face as she addressed exactly what Ayane had to just said.
"We can't just give up like that, Ayane!" Shiroko didn't raise her voice, but the words she said showed that she wasn't happy with the idea of retreating.
"No Shiroko. Ayane is right, we're too exposed here, and we didn't bring enough ammo for this kind of fight" Hoshino accompanied her words by looking around at all of her friends, she could tell that they clearly wanted to keep fighting.
But it was now clear that they were in over the heads with this fight, especially considering that they were running low on ammo and one of their group was already injured, despite the battle only having just started.
As such, after a moment of all the abydos students looking at each other, they all nodded in agreement. They were going to withdraw, but before they could do that they needed some kind of distraction, so that they wouldn't come under continuous fire while retreating.
After each of them had a moment to consider a possible solution, Hoshino spoke first, an idea coming to her mind as she quickly glanced at Ayane.
"Ayane, do you have any combat drones nearby?" Hoshino asked with an expecting look in her eyes.
Ayane for her part was caught off guard by the question, not quite grasping exactly why one of her relatively fragile combat drones would be necessary in a situation like this.
But after a moment the glasses wearing elf girl, quickly picked up her tablet and began to type away at it, checking to see if any of her drones when nearby like Hoshino asked.
"There's one drone nearby, about 500 m south of here... But what exactly are we going to need it for Hoshino, one combat drone isn't going to last very long against all of those delinquents" Ayane turn her eyes to Hoshino, her gaze full of nervousness and confusion that exactly what Hoshino was planning on doing.
However, Hoshino didn't immediately reply, a thoughtful look crossing her face as she adopted a thinking pose with her hand on her chin. Yet this did not last long as she quickly turned her eyes upwards, and clapped her hands together, making everyone turn to look at her.
"All right, here's what we're going to do. We are going to use Ayane's drone as a distraction so we can get out of here" Hoshino said in a matter of fact and straightforward manner, making it very obvious on what she was planning.
Shiroko, Serika and Nonomi all nodded in agreement with Hoshino's idea, realizing that it was their only real way of getting out of the situation.
Meanwhile, Ayane didn't reciprocate the same willingness to go along with the plan, a concerned and panic look on her face when she realized that Hoshino wanted her to sacrifice one of her handmade drones just so they can get out of here.
But before Ayane could verbally proclaim her desire to not lose one of her precious drones, Hoshino held up her hand, stopping the glasses wearing girl from speaking as she spoke instead.
"Ayane I know what you're going to say, but it's the only option we have. If we try to retreat without some kind of distraction they'll pick us off one by one" Hoshino paused for a moment, seeing the look in Ayane's that told that she was arguing with herself.
Because while Ayane clearly didn't want to lose one of her drones, she also understood that Hoshino was right, if they try to retreat now without some kind of distraction to take the delinquent's attention off them, then they would be sitting ducks and guaranteed to be picked off.
As such, after a moment of Ayane battling with herself, she eventually let out a dejected sigh. Even though she didn't like it, at the end of the day her friend's health, safety and their continued battle for the school was more important than some piece of technology that could be replaced.
"All right... I'll redirect the Drone to our position and set it into Attack Mode" Ayane accompanied her words by quickly typing away at her tablet although, her fingers did hesitate for just a single second before she clicked the final button. Putting the drone into attack mode and causing it to begin to race towards their position.
Hoshino smiled at this, putting a hand on her friend shoulder to reassure her that it would be alright.
"It's all right Ayane, I'll help you replace it later" Hoshino and Ayane locked eyes for just a moment, before the elf girl let out another sigh.
"I'm going to hold you to that, you know" Ayane set with a blunt tone which only made Hoshino laugh, however, as bullets continue to impact and ricochet off the wall they were using as cover.
All five abydos students and the delinquents that were shooting at them, suddenly became aware of a new sound filled the air, that being the repetitive wiring of drone rotor blades.
"Alright, wait for my signal" Hoshino abruptly said, her body tensing up as she took her hand off her friend shoulder and quickly picked up both the Iron Horus and her shotgun.
All of her friends repeated this action, readying themselves and their weapons to make a break for it.
The delinquents on the other hand stopped firing and they slow advance towards the bunkered down abydos students, instead choosing to look up into the sky at the small object that was making the wiring noise and was racing towards them at high speed.
Aru after being a bit puzzled at why everyone had stopped firing looked up into the sky as well, a confused and dumbfounded look appearing on her face as she tilted her head to the side, not quite understanding what the rapidly approaching object was.
"What is that?" Aru asked curiously, watching as the small objects began to grow larger and larger and the noise that accompanied continued to grow louder.
"I don't know, it kind of looks like a..." Kayoko paused her words, squinting her eyes so she could try and identify exactly what the object was that was approaching them.
But it was only then that her eyes widened in shock, when she realised exactly what do the rapidly approaching object actually was. Even so, she wasn't the one to say out loud what it was.
"It's a drone!?" Haruka said with surprise and concern as the drone continue to race closer towards them, it's weapons which were mounted on either side of the small flying device now easily visible to everyone as they realised exactly what was about to happen.
"Huh?" Aru quickly looked between Haruka and the flying drone, a completely baffled and franticlook replacing her confidence expression as she absorb the information, only realising too late on what exactly was about to happen.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Aru, Kayoko, Mutsuki and Haruka, as well as the delinquents they had hired for this operation all suddenly came under attack from the drone, which opened up with its automatic machine guns making everyone quickly scatter in surprise and shock.
However, this wasn't the only thing that happened as at the same time that the drone opened up with its machine guns, something else unexpected happened. That being a voice that rang out across the battlefield, which was accompanied by footsteps and more automatic fire.
"Everyone! Make a break for it!"
Aru from her position which was a piece of rubble she was using as cover, watched as the abydos students quickly sprinted from behind the piece of cover they had been using. All of them running as a group and firing together as they began to retreat into the distance.
And it was only now that Aru realise exactly what they have been planning, which made her curse under her breath, as the drone which was high in the sky continued to lay down suppressing fire while the abydos students retreated into the distance.
"Dammit, just when it looked like this job is going to be easy!" Aru said with a frustrated tone and her voice as more bullets impacted against the piece of rubble she was using as cover.
"Alright! Enough of this!" Aru quickly jumped out from behind cover and without even properly aiming her sniper rifle and only using one hand, shot at the drone. Her bullets finding their target without much issue, and causing the drone to explode into a shower of electrical scrap and sparks.
With the Threat of the drone now taken care of, the remaining delinquents and the rest of problem solver 68 came out from their hiding places, looking at the pieces of the destroyed drone that scattered the desert Sands.
Kayoko came up alongside Aru, noticing the clearly aggravated expression on the usually happy and go lucky girl's face. And it was now that Kayoko was reminded, that despite Aru's goofy and somewhat childish nature, she could be a force to be reckoned with when she put her mind to it.
"T-That was amazing, Aru!" Haruka said with awe and astonishment in her voice, clutching her shotgun close to her chest, as she came to stand next to Aru, who to her looked absolutely amazing and heroic to Haruka.
Aru turned her attention to her sycophantic friend, the angry expression on her face quickly melting away, and was replaced with her somewhat goofy false calm and suave look.
"I suppose this job won't be as easy as I thought... But no matter, we have them on the run now and there's only one place they'll go" Aru puffed out her chest as she spoke, trying to make herself look as calm collected and boss like as possible.
Which surprisingly worked, as the leader of the delinquent came up to her with an expression of concern and frustration on her face.
"What is it?" Aru asked, not even bothering to turn her gaze to look at the delinquent leader as she continued to look in the direction that the Abydos students had run off in.
"Five of my girls are out cold and another two are injured... You said this would be an easy job!" The delinquent leader answered with clear frustration in her voice.
Aru didn't respond to it, simply continuing to look in the same direction before she eventually let out a groan and finally turned to look at the delinquent leader.
"Indeed, I did underestimate those brats... But it should be of no concern now, they are injured and on the run, so they'll be easy pickings" Aru finished her words by motioning for her fellow problem solver 68 members to follow her, which after a moment of indecision they all started doing, yet before she got far she quickly stopped and turned on the spot.
"Leave some of your girls to take care of the injured and bring the rest of them with us" Aru said with a confident tone as she motioned for the delinquent leader and the rest of the gathered delinquents to follow her.
The delinquent leader look like she wanted to argue, but she stopped herself as she let out a frustrated sounding sigh, as she motioned for some of her fellow delinquents to follow her while the rest of them stayed to take care of their injured and incapacitated comrades.
"If you hadn't paid so well, I would have told you to get screwed" the delinquent leader didn't even try to hide the frustration in her voice as she and her fellow delinquents picked up their weapons and began to follow.
Despite feeling somewhat offended, Aru didn't let it show as she quickly turned on the spot and began to walk forward, weapon in hand, as everyone followed behind her.
"The thrill of the hunt is not about the kill, but it's about the challenge and the reward at the end." Aru said as a mischievous and somewhat wicked smile on her face, to her ears she sounded just like a true movie villain. But to Mutsuki and Kayoko she sounded more like a nerd pretending to be a cool and stylish villain.
"She really quoted the movie we watched last night... And got it wrong?" Kayoko followed her words by letting out an embarrassed sounding groan, bringing a hand up to her head as she couldn't help but feel second-hand embarrassment for Aru.
Mutsuki simply laughed as she walked alongside everyone, a noticeable and somewhat playful bounce in her step as she talked.
"Kufufu~ that's Aru girl for you!" Mutsuki's giggling words were quickly silenced by none other than Aru, who was somewhat embarrassed and annoyed at her friends gossiping about her like this.
"C-Cut the chatter, all of you! I told you that when we're on the job, we need to stay professional!" Aru didn't even try to hide the frustration and embarrassment in her voice, as everyone continue to walk through the desert sand, their target being none other than the abydos students and their precious school.
Well that's the end of another chapter.
I don't have much to say other than I hope you enjoyed, and if you did make sure to favourite and follow the story.
And if you even feel inclined enough maybe leave a review to tell me what you think.
Anyway until next time have a good day / night everyone and I will catch you next time.