Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Next Stop is: Kivotos
And Always Remember to Touch On Your Card At The Start Of Your Journey

It was all my fault.

These things, and everything they culminated in.

It had to come to this for me to realize…

They were right all along.

I know it is shameless of me…

But as one to another,
I must ask for your help.

Those choices you made…

Now knowing what they led to, I wonder if you’ll be able to choose a different path?

No.

I know you definitely will be able to change that dark fate.

That is the responsibility I’m entrusting you with.

With that reason...

Return to this world once more.

“Mmm… Banana milk… Better than Strawberry Milk…”

Splash.

“Not now… I still have more to eat…”

Sploosh. Splish. Sploosh. Splish. Sploosh. Splish. Sploosh. Splish.

“Please… I can’t possibly eat more…”

Arona’s eyes fluttered open, her eyes floating across the classroom to the sound of continuous splashing as she slowly peered out the window...

“A-Ah!?”

Arona peered out the window at the flooded horizon of the virtual world. In the distance, a small black-clothed figure was splashing around frantically.

With a sigh, the AI silently reached out a hand, picking up the figure with a strange, firm force and forcibly dragging her back into the flooded classroom before unceremoniously depositing her soaked form onto the floor.

“You shouldn’t go out there! It’s nothing but hundreds of kilometers of virtual sea!”

“Exactly, I can swim for hours without fear of drowning.” the silver-haired woman hacked up water, seeming oddly proud of herself, “It’s certainly convenient the water appears to be breathable.”

Arona sighed, passing her a towel, “The Shittim Chest isn’t a swimming pool! It’s meant to be a tool to assist… Sensei?”

“Oh. That would be me.” the woman quickly accepted the towel, drying herself off before digging into her bag and taking a sip from her water bottle, “Hello.”

“Um… How did you… get in?”

“Beats me. I just took up that tablet and then I was here. I figured I was stuck here forever so after setting up a base camp I decided to try to see if I could swim back to Kivotos from here.” Sensei explained, pointing over to a pile of desks that had been assembled into a makeshift shelter, complete with a miniature campfire burning merrily away atop it, “Of course, I then remembered I couldn’t swim but I couldn’t drown anyway, so I decided to start training by swimming laps around the classroom.”

Arona stared incredulously.

“By the way, do you have any fishing rods? I haven’t seen any Iwak out there yet but I think I haven’t dove deep enough-”

“Sensei…” Arona took a deep breath, “There’s a door.”

“Nn?”

“You can just walk out the door over there. You’re not trapped here forever.”

“Oh.” Sensei stared silently, “...I see.”

“Well… In any case… How did you get here…?”

Approximately 2 Hours Ago...

“Um… I’m the new Sensei.” the haloed woman explained, clearing her throat somewhat awkwardly, “A...Apparently.”

Rin stared, bewildered, at the tall woman before her.

“That… A fellow student, a Sensei? No, that doesn’t make any… No, I suppose that it would, since only another one of us would have the uniquely special perspective of happenings in Kivotos… But…”

“I wish I knew what the missing GSC President was thinking myself.” the silver-haired woman shook her head, her canine ears pressing down hard on the top of her head, “But… Nn, I can’t be Sensei! Not after everything I… Everything…”

A cracked tablet, the warmth of the handgun still in her hands.

“...We’ll have time to worry about this later. For the time being… The Sanctum Tower…”

“It is…? Nn. I see...” she snapped into a sharp salute, “I’ll go get it. The others in the lobby should be willing to help, right?”

“You catch on fast.”

The woman nodded once more with a quick final, “Nn.”

The bullets ricocheted off her body. Sensei glanced down quickly, noting her new coat was somehow unscathed from the shots.

Nice. She never had an article of clothing this fancy and durable before.

That being said.

“As soon as we reach the sanctum, I’m changing out of this suit.” she grumbled to Yuuka as the two ducked behind a car to reload, “I can’t fight well like this.”

“You seem to be handling yourself pretty well to begin with though. You must be a pretty experienced student.”

She remembered the shock on her face as she burst through the storm of gunfire, swinging up her weapon as the light of explosions ripped apart her opponents, before-

“S-Sensei!?”

Sensei blinked, realizing she had pulled a grenade out and was hooking a finger around the pin.

“Ah. Right. Sorry. It’s just… I think I remember something like this happening before.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I’ll explain later.” Sensei tossed the grenade out, ducking as the explosion threw aside several screaming opponents.

“I think there’s a non zero chance I might have traveled back in time.”

Yuuka blinked as the two of them took shelter from the roar of the tank outside of the bombed out convenience store, “Back in… time?”

“Nn. I remember hearing about these events years ago.” Sensei peered up from the mess of scattered material on the floor, “It was all over Kivotube. The Sanctum Tower was under attack by one of the Seven Prisoners. Then a group, led by… Sensei… arrived and liberated it.”

“Sensei… But you’re Sensei.”

“And there was none before me… That’s the thing that’s troubling me.” Sensei paused, bringing up her cracked phone, flipping through it, “I don’t see any mention of a past Sensei here at all, let alone an attack on the Sanctum Tower prior to this one. It’s like all this is happening for the first time.”

“…I think I would have noticed if this happened before.” Yuuka muttered, peering out over the counter before ducking back down with a yelp as bullets flew through and embedded themselves in the wall behind the two, “I would doubt the whole time travel angle, but the circumstances of your arrival out of nowhere...”

“Exactly. Not to mention, the fact you’re still alive when in ‘my time’, you…” Sensei hesitated, having pulled open a bottle of gasoline, “…Ah! Abydos! I need to get to Abydos as soon as I can to change fate…!”

“Abydos? The desert… You’re from there, I presume?”

“Nn. I should return. The others would be concerned if I was gone for so long… If the others are even still there…” she shook her head, downing the rest of the energy drink bottle before filling it with gas, stuffing a soaked rag into the top and lighting it, “Good questions for later. Hup!”

The plastic bottle bounced off the top of the tank before tumbling into the crew hatch on top.

Several loud screams followed, followed by a sudden eruption of flame from the vehicle.

Yuuka’s jaw fell open, Sensei nodding proudly.

“Isn’t that a bit too much!?”

“Probably.”

“Wakamo’s in there. Let me deal with her alone.”

“A-Are you sure? Maybe you’d want to take-” Rin began to ask, only for Yuuka to nod confidently by Sensei’s side.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I’m reasonably confident she won’t harm a Sensei.” the silver-haired woman proudly puffed out her chest before strolling into Sanctum Tower.

Several minutes later, a massive explosion erupted from within, blowing out a window on the top floor, followed by two girls tumbling out, slamming into the streets before the tower.

They promptly rose to their feet, running and slapping each other rapidly with their rifles. Sensei was screaming incoherently about how Wakamo was, quote, ‘a fake and a fraud’.

Concerningly, she seemed to be also giving her pointers on breaking and entering.

“At least wait until the building is populated before you start robbing it! The staff have a better idea of where all the loot is so it’s faster than searching alone!”

“You know nothing about finesse, darling! I’m an agent of chaos! Your overthought burglaries don’t even come close to the things I can achieve!”

“It’s called pulling a heist!” Sensei exploded, “At least do it optimally!”

With that roar, Sensei swung her rifle around, knocking Wakamo back into the building through a window with an oddly baseball-bat like sound before lunging after her with a bark.

Rin let out a sigh, face-palming.

The two girls lay atop the completely destroyed floor of the SCHALE lobby, bullet holed furniture lying silent around them as they gasped for breath.

Two hours of continuous fighting had not done them much good.

“...Good talk, Sensei.” Wakamo finally croaked out, pulling off her mask to breathe easier, “I think I… I think I have a slightly better idea of what you’re… into…”

“Nn.” Sensei responded, herself also gasping for air, “I’ll keep in touch…”

“H...Hai.”

“Nn.”

The two exchanged Momotalk contacts, before Wakamo silently and bashfully slipped quickly out the back door.

“...But then suddenly I found myself getting pulled out of the water and then I was here." Sensei took another breath, pausing, scooping up some water from the floor in her hands, drinking it, then continuing, "Then you asked me to explain what was happening. So I said-”

“I… I think I get the idea.” Arona’s head was starting to spin, “And you come from… the future, you say?”

“A dark one, yes. Where all has fallen and there is none but terror and despair.” She seemed troubled by this, but shook her head, “It appears I have been sent back to this time to avert that future.”

She paused.

“Which to be honest is awfully ironic considering where I came from.” she finished, before glancing down at the energy bar in her hands and taking a bite, “Mmn. Thanks for the food.”

“You have been explaining everything to me for the past hour. You’d get really hungry if you didn’t eat. I really didn’t need to know all that at once, you know.” Arona shook her head, “I’ve reactivated the Sanctum Tower and redistributed power while we were talking by the way. We have access permissions to all of Kivotos now, and management has been provided to the GSC.”

“And let me guess…”

“Yes, I put in a backdoor for us. Way ahead of you.” Arona shrugged, “I’m used to it. Everyone keeps telling me to do that. You’d think it was part of the original story all along but…”

“Nn. It’s useful, but I have yet to see it actually get used in any of those stories.” Sensei calmly pulled out some sports tape, wrapping it over the cracks in the fourth wall, “If that’s everything, I must take my leave. Abydos awaits.”

“O-Oh, wait! Before you go, can you place your finger against mine? I almost forgot, we need to confirm your identity.”

Sensei blinked, looking up at the pointer finger held before her, before silently nodding. She pulled off a glove, raising her own finger and holding it against Arona’s.

“It’s like making a promise, isn’t it?”

“...Perhaps so. Maybe it’s something like… I promise to keep everyone safe… or something standard like that.”

“I know you will. There has to be a reason you were sent back. There has to-”

Arona’s eyes widened silently, and she blinked.

“Uh oh.”

“...What?”

“Sensei. Your fingerprints and scans… match that of a registered student. If you’re registered to this device… Then she will be too.”

“That’s fine. I know who I am. A student of Abydos, in the academy city Kivotos. I bear this burden so-”

“No! You don’t get it! What I mean to say is…”

Earlier.

This was… new.

The icy wasteland, the chill of the handgun in her hands. The warmth of the dying fire she had curled around. It was as distant as a fading dream now.

Now, she sat alone in the train as it traveled through central Kivotos. Alone.

The woman blinked, looking around confused.

Wasn't there a dead body sitting across from her...? Wasn’t this place… razed to the ground?

Yet, it looked as bustling as it was before…

The woman stretched slightly, before realizing what she was wearing. Her black flowing dress poked out from under a smart grey business suit. Pinned onto the front lapel of the jacket was…

“Oh. Oh no.” she uncharacteristically snatched up the name tag, studying it quickly, sniffing it, then slapping her face in an attempt to wake up from this nightmare.

And yet… The reality before her didn’t change.

“T-This can’t be happening. I’m not- I can’t be-!?” the soon-to-be Sensei gaped.

Sunookami Shiroko slowed down, her jaw slowly falling open.

Next to her, on a modified black mountain bike, the taller woman slowed similarly, mirroring her actions. Reaching up, she lowered her shades, revealing an identical pair of mismatched blue eyes, similarly widened in shock.

Even her halo, cracked apart as it was, had the same shape.

But her nametag… her outfit…!?

Their mouths slowly fell open, gears rotating in their heads.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” both Shiroko spoke at the same time.

OMAKE - Volume S: Where All Shirokos Collide

“Shiroko! Attack!”

“Yes, it was I who killed Sensei!”

“But I killed Sensei!”

“As long as you exist in this world, I am your future!”

“No, I am!”

“Iwak.”

“Not so fast! I am here too!”

“Wait, where did- Sensei!?”

The Shirokos awkwardly stood, staring at each other.

“Um… I’ll go first.” Sensei Shiroko – not the other Sensei Shiroko – explained, “I’m Shiroko who went back in time to fix the future and became Sensei.”

“So therefore, I must be your future self.” the other Sensei Shiroko rubbed her chin, doodling on a whiteboard, “And that means that my Shiroko over there must be the future version of your Shiroko.”

“Good. We got that sorted out.”

“Nn. Yes. Things would have gotten messy.”

Past Shiroko But Small pointed, “I’m concerned about why there’s two more small ones over there wearing a swimsuit and biking gear.”

“Iwak.” the fifth Shiroko held up a pufferfish, the sixth giving an awkward wave.

“We really need to start getting nametags.”

“Nn.”

“Nn.”

“Nn.”

“Nn.”

“Nn.”

“Iwak.”

Shiroko Terror, Shiroko, Other Shiroko Terror, Other Other Shiroko Terror, Biking Shiroko and Iwak Shiroko would eventually all agree this entire fight was stupid and leave to rob a bank. The Shiroko Gang would become known as the most fearsome bank robbers in all of Kivotos. Eventually they would have to fight another Shiroko Gang from another universe, known as the Shiroko Terror Gang before absorbing them into their group. But then yet another Shiroko gang appeared, and another, and another until Kivotos had a percentage of the population comprised entirely of alternate versions of Shiroko-

Yurizono Seia sat up screaming in a cold sweat, before clutching at her chest, glancing around her room.

“No more cheese for me.” she muttered quickly, before lying back down in bed.

Chapter Text

Expedited Delivery In Six Days GUARANTEED
Or Your Money Back

D-6

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” both Shiroko spoke at the same time.

“Why do you look like me?” both of them sounded at the same time.

“Nn!” they both- you get the idea.

“Stop copying me.” You know, that kind of thing.

“This is starting to get on my nerves.” me too.

The two Shiroko glared at each other, before…

“I smell like stinky tofu and bean sprouts.”

“…”

“No, wait, that’s silly. Why would you say that?” The bigger Shiroko suddenly spoke, “Bean sprouts don’t even smell like anything.”

“Nn. I mean you said it, not me.”

“But you said it.”

“Yes, but I’m clearly you so therefore…”

“Argh!” Arona let out a frustrated cry, “Will you two just figure this out already!”

“Sorry, sorry.” Sensei explained, “Um… Hi, me. I’m Sensei.”

“No you’re not, you’re me.”

“Yes, but I’m also Sensei.”

Shiroko picked up her water bottle, sniffed the lid, then warily took a sip. She was certainly not expecting this turn of events this early in the morning, “I suppose we did have a bet about Sensei resembling me.”

“...I’m sorry that you’ve lost that bet.”

“The universe continues to amaze me…” the smaller Shiroko leaned in, inspecting her future self closely, “...So. Are you me from the future or something?”

Flames. Gunfire. Debris, scattered all around as far as the eye could see. She didn’t know it was possible for Abydos to be even more desolate than it was already, and yet-

“Nn. It’s a… bad future.” Sensei bluntly replied with a nod, “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Nn.” Shiroko stepped back, noticing the thousand-mile stare the larger wolf-girl had, “Sorry, then… That’s not going to happen here, is it?”

“I think that’s why I’m here. Maybe because now I know those bad things are going to happen, I can stop them.” Sensei shrugged, before digging into her backpack, “Oh, by the way, I came to see you for a reason...”

She produced a tablet from her bag.

“Arona, do you think she can hear you?”

“I mean, in theory, only Sensei can hear me unless I let them and you’re Sensei but she’s…”

“I can hear her.” Shiroko blankly replied.

“...Awfully blunt, isn’t she?”

“Nn. She is.”

“Nn. I am.”

“Uh… Well, I’m Arona! Shiroko, I’m the AI assistant within the Shittim Chest.” the AI appeared on the screen, “We’re pretty much here to just give you that heads up.”

“That, and apparently nobody outside of us two are allowed to know she exists.” Sensei paused, “Normally it would be just me, but I was worried that since you were also me, you would-”

“Nn. I see.” Shiroko rubbed her chin, “So, is that everything?”

“...The rest of the Foreclosure Task Force. Are they still alive? And what of the school?” Sensei sounded slightly more desperate.

Shiroko’s eyes widened in realization as Sensei spoke, “Oh!”

“Serika, be a dear and get the door would’ja?”

“It’s not like Shiroko to be this late… Could the helmet gang have returned?”

Ayane peered out the window, pushing aside the letter she was writing briefly, “It’s Shiroko… and… Shiroko?”

“You’re dressed in all black, right?”

“I suppose I am…”

“So hence, Kuroko.” Shiroko folded her arms, “It’ll make things less confusing.”

“That just makes me sound like some kind of evil twin.” Sensei whined, “Why can’t I call you… Weak Shiroko?”

“B-Because I’m not weak!” the smaller wolf punched the larger one’s side slightly, “You really want to play that game… Fat Shiroko?”

“Smallroko.”

“Bigroko.”

“Anubis, Consumer of Energy Drinks.”

“Shiroko Terror.”

“…Shortroko.”

“...That’s meant to be an insult?”

The doors before them swung open. Shiroko promptly stepped in front of Sensei, quickly speaking, “Turns out this is my sister from far away, Kuroko Sunookami. She’s Sensei now and will be helping us save Abydos, nn!”

“...You little…” the newly named Kuroko growled, took a deep breath, before sighing, “Nnn… Fine, yes. I’m Kuroko. Hello.”

Serika stared, her jaw completely wide open. Her eyes darted to Shiroko, then Sensei, then back to Shiroko, several times, before she finally spoke.

“I’m sorry, is that your future self or something?”

Sensei turned to face Shiroko, “We can’t be that obvious, right?”

“Nn?” Shiroko shrugged.

“Nn.” Kuroko shook her head.

“Oh. Wonderful. Brilliant. Now there’s two of them.” Serika groaned.

“Hoshino, this is Kuroko, she’s my-”

Kuroko suddenly dashed forwards, wrapping her arms around the pinkette, who woke up suddenly from the rapid grip.

“A-Are you okay?! Your mystic, it’s not… Okay, okay… Good.” Kuroko took a deep breath, setting the girl back down, “Good. You’re okay…”

“Uh… Hold on a moment, how did you know about-” Hoshino looked up into the eyes of the woman, before her own mismatched eyes dilated, “...Oh. Oh. I see. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but… I guess it makes just enough…?”

“I… I just had a feeling, you might say.” she looked aside, her words obscuring their true meaning to all but two others present, before wrapping her arms tighter around the girl, “Hoshino… You’re really alive…”

“...Well. I certainly wasn’t expecting this when I saw who the new Sensei was.” the girl muttered, before letting out a small smile, “But… Thanks for lookin’ out for this ol’ timer anyway.”

“Y-Yes! H-Hopefully, this time we can… avoid things getting to that.”

“This tim- Wait, you mean you…” Hoshino gripped her head, shaking slightly, “...Bit of a tall ask, innit? But we’ll figure somethin’ out.”

“Yes. Because especially now… I have a plan to save the school!”

Ayane finally woke up from her shock at seeing a second, larger copy of her friends storm into the room and forcibly cuddle the last of the Abydos council, responding swiftly, “No. Absolutely not.”

“You didn’t let me finis-”

“Sensei.” she spoke calmly, “Does this plan involve breaking into a bank?”

“No, listen, I actually did it once! I know the layout and everything incredibly well. If we break in, we’ll be able to quickly and efficiently-”

“No.”

“But I-”

“Sensei, no.”

Sensei let out a sigh, before sitting down on a nearby chair, her ears pressed against her head, “...I’m sorry, Ayane.”

“There might be something to that plan, though.” Shiroko pointed out, “She’s… umm… She knows a lot…”

“I’m from the future.” Kuroko tore off that bandaid immediately.

“...Right, yes. She’s from a little bit in the future. We can use that knowledge to our advantage to aid Abydos.”

“I never said we successfully defended Abydos.”

Silence.

“...Every one of you in this room, minus Shiroko – who became me – died or otherwise went missing.” Kuroko spoke gravely, “If we follow exactly what I went through, we would most likely end up that same way.”

Ayane was about to interject, to say how ridiculous this all sounded, but when she saw the haunted look in the larger wolf girl’s eyes…

No, that future… That was definitely real.

“But that doesn’t mean your knowledge is totally useless!” Nonomi piped up, “We can just use it as a guide for what not to do, right?”

“Exactly!” Kuroko jolted, shaking off her brief period of despair, “Which is why I propose we rob the bank early-”

“No. I don’t care how you justify it, we are not robbing a bank!” Ayane threw up her arms, “I don’t care even if you’re from the future or something! There is no way you’ll ever be able to convince me that-”

D-5

“It’s time.” Shiroko and Kuroko whispered at the same time, watching as the Kaiser Loans truck pulled away from the bank.

“Nn. There is no other way.”

Hifumi looked over concerned at the two wolves, “Uh…? No, I’m pretty sure we could get the truck’s transport rou-”

“There is no other way.” Shiroko repeated gravely, for it was too late; she had already put on a balaclava.

“Indeed. We must go straight to the source.” Kuroko agreed, pulling on her own identical balaclava, except in black.

“...You’ve got to be kidding me.” Ayane deadpanned.

“Eh, go with the flow. All the whippersnappers seem to be doin’ it.” Hoshino pulled on her own balaclava.

“Hifumi, here, use this~!” Nonomi cheerfully held up a spare paper takoyaki bag, poking out some eye-holes in it.

“Yeah. One of us.” Kuroko grinned under the mask.

“One of us. One of us.” Shiroko continued the chant quietly, her future self and Nonomi joining in after a few moments.

“One of us! One of us!”

The Trinity student opened her mouth to protest, but upon seeing Sensei and the smaller Sensei positively quivering in excitement, she ultimately gave in.

“If it’s any consolation, this bank is technically in the wrong, so morally what we’re doing is correct…” Serika pointed out as she pulled on the paper bag over the Trinity student’s head with a huff. In the background, Sensei and Shiroko both let out a calm ‘yay’ and high-fived.

“...I just wanted to get Peroro merch…” Hifumi sniffled.

“PUT ‘EM UP! THIS IS A ROBBERY!” the woman in the black balaclava yelled, holding her gun up to the cashier, “You! Start filling up these bags! You! Don’t think about calling the cops if you want to see your children again! And you with the stylophone! Play us in!”

Mitsukiyo, inexplicably standing in the corner of the room holding an equally unexplained stylophone shrugged, tapping on the instrument.

_{A4 C5 D#5 E5
G#4 A4 C5 D5 C5 D#5 D#5 E5}

_{G5 F#5 F5 D#5 D5 C5 B4 A#4
B4 C5 D5 D#5 E5}

LETSGO

<Blue Archive OST 7 - Unwelcome School – Mitsukiyo>

“DO EVERYTHING I SAY OR YOUR BALLS ARE HISTORY!” a second, smaller student in a Blue Mask screamed out in a younger version of the same voice.

“W-What do you mean by balls?” the girl wearing a paper bag over her head who had been christened ‘Faust’ for the purposes of this illegal activity nervously asked as she held up a Peroro-themed bag, wads of cash getting shoved in alongside countless other peroro merchandise.

“I HAVE NO IDEA!” Blue Mask screamed, choke-slamming a guard into a wall before shooting out a security camera.

Firing her gun wildly into the air, Black Mask proceeded to jump the counter, spinning the weapon about and using it to bludgeon a guard. His comrade attempted to fire on her, only for the robber to launch herself at the Artificial Construct’s legs. Reaching down onto her lower leg, she swung out a small serrated blade. The edge of the knife gleamed, blue flames erupting forth from it briefly.

Like a hot knife through butter, she slashed off the robot’s legs, launching herself forwards into a roll into the hallway leading to the vault.

“S-Sound the alarm! We’re being robbed!”

“She’s not getting past us!” a group of camo-colored androids sprinted out, gripping their usual rifles, “Take her out!”

Azure tongues of fire burst forth from the intruder once more, turning her into a flash of light as she darted down the corridor, flashing between each of the androids. She rolled to a stop on the other end, kneeling on the ground.

The robots stared, slowly turning around as the thief rose to her feet… and wiggled her fingers, revealing the clinking grenade pins dangling off each digit.

Through the flame and debris, she ventured deeper, tossing the pins carelessly over her shoulder.

“Hinata Zero, come in.” she lifted a radio to her ear, “I’ve breached the inside of the bank, and am heading for the staff offices.”

“S-Staff offices?!” the elf-eared girl blinked, “Why would you go there?”

“This place has some… interesting paperwork we need to recover. Birkin Two will be heading for the vault to… negotiate a full refund, let’s say.”

“...Sens-”

“Courier Six.” the black masked wolf smugly corrected her codename.

“...Courier Six, isn’t stealing back the money like this illegal?”

“Nn. So is everything these guys are doing. Lesser of two evils.”

“Look, Six. I know you like to play fast and loose with the law- given how we first found Shir… Birkin Two, I understand why you’d do this entirely.” Ayane took a deep breath, “But what’s stopping Kaiser from just…”

“Which is exactly why I’m stealing the paperwork from them too.” she casually tossed a grenade into a nearby room as she strode past, not looking back as flames and scattered robot debris flew forth, “Call it… Insurance.”

“Sensei… You’ve… changed.”

Endless flame. Gunfire tearing the air around her as she weaved about, crimson filling her vision and painting the halls-

“…I will do anything to stop that future. That is all.” the wolf spoke, “We’ll discuss the ethics later. Courier, going dark.”

“...Roger.”

“This is Yume One…” a sleepy voice sounded, “I’ve secured the extraction method. This is… amazing. You’re something else, kiddo.”

“I’m older than you now though.”

“In my eyes, you’ll always be that lil’ scamp we adopted that day.”

Sensei hesitated for a moment, before going back to work pulling open drawers and rifling through the dozens of folders, “You still think that of me, despite everything…”

The words ‘Despite everything I’ve done?’ died on her tongue… like so many other words left unsaid.

“We’re family. Don’t you forget it, whippersnapper. You clearly went to hell and back for me… So I’ll do the same for you.”

“If only you had an idea how literal that was… Ah.” She pulled out the folder she was searching for; a purple binder that seemed oddly out of place in the sea of blue and yellow within the filing cabinet, “Nn. Perfect.”

“Ya got what you were lookin’ for?”

“This was useless in my time; by the time we actually got to look through it, Sensei was already…” she shook her head, “No, this time will be different. We’re ahead of schedule!”

“Schedule…?”

A crack of a shotgun ripped through the air, several holes getting blasted through the folder.

She glared up. An android wearing a suit, wielding a double barreled shotgun.

“I’m guessing that’s… bad?”

Tucking the folder into a bag, the masked wolf stepped forwards, swinging out her assault rifle.

“C’mon…! COME ON!” the android yelled, pumping his shotgun once again.

Pulling the trigger, the bullets pinged off his form. Lowering her rifle, the thief raised an eyebrow curiously.

‘That normally works.’

“You’ll have to try harder than that! I’m as tough as a bank vault!” the android cackled, “Nobody gets past Manager Bob and his impeccable no-robbery record!”

He was not expecting the masked woman to pull back her sleeve, checking a battered pink Momo Friends-themed watch.

“Nn. This way is faster. Alright.” she finally hummed, looking up from her watch, “I’ll be leaving now.”

Sprinting forwards, she leapt up, leaping off a desk and off the head of the mechanical manager, blue flames flashing away from her form as she suddenly… blinked to a new location.

Like a blue thunderbolt, she flashed through the hallway, occasionally leaping off or firing upon scattered security guards and drones.

“If I recall, at the end of this hallway…”

A random janitor android was not expecting for a masked woman to suddenly skate around the corner, perform a front flip and land atop his cleaning cart, the cart rolling away at speed as detergent and cleaning material spilled out behind it.

Of course, pushcarts of cleaning supplies aren’t very maneuverable, so she soon disembarked her steed, flinging it over her head at another squad who seemingly had the idea to attempt a pincer attack.

Having corrected their previous assumption, the thief made use of the hole in their formation to once more skate through the soap-covered floors, snatching up a fallen mop from the cart and spinning it above her head.

“C’mon, 4:36!” she yelled, confusing her pursuers for a moment.

A single, hapless robot vacuum cleaner rolled out from behind a nearby door.

Spinning, the woman slammed the mop into the machine. It shot backwards, its slide accelerated by the lack of friction on the floor as it pinged off the walls, knocking several guards off their feet.

Affording herself a quick fist-dunk in celebration, the wolf hurled the mop aside, before twisting around and-

THUD.

Faust jolted at the sound of the door behind her suddenly violently thumping. A high pitch whine sounded from behind, before a blue flame bashfully burnt a clean hole through the door, a familiar hand reaching through, fumbling around, before gripping the handle of the door and clicking off the lock.

BAM!

The door flew off its hinges with a kick, the black-masked woman stomping out and swinging out her assault rifle, "You saw nothing, anyway - I GOT THE THING!”

“We got the other stuff on our end!” the blue masked girl replied, holding up two duffel bags of cash, “Leader Faust, give the word!”

“M-Masked S-Swimsuit G-gang… L-Let’s c-case this joint!” Faust exclaimed, shaking so fast she was practically a blur.

“Mm!”

“Mm!”

Sensei decided to correct her on the right heist terminology later.

“NOT SO FAST!” a voice boomed. Moments later, another door across the room blew open, revealing a considerably more armored Manager Bob, now gripping two shotguns with a large four-pod missile launcher strapped over his shoulder, “MY PERMANENT RECORD WILL NOT BE TARNISHED! NOW DIE!”

The entirety of the Masked Swimsuit Gang stared for a moment, before promptly drawing their weapons and taking aim at him, save for Faust and Six.

“Oh, nonono.” the black-masked woman waggled a finger at him, “I kill the bus driver.”

“...The what? What bus driver!?”

“Is that from a movie or something?”

The wall of the bank exploded, a rusted and battered school bus ramming through the side. The scraped off remains of the Abydos logo was barely visible on the side of the vehicle, smoke pouring from the engine at the front of the vehicle.

Barreling through the lobby of the bank, it skidded across the polished floor, ramming into the manager and sending him crumpling to the ground, coming to a stop.

The pistons of the doors creaked and hissed, one of them falling off as they clanked open, revealing a pink-masked student sitting on the driver’s seat, wearing a pair of cracked aviator shades.

“Cool line.” Hoshino drawled, shooting a pair of finger guns.

“…You didn’t come up with one!?” the black masked woman threw up her arms, “I-I restored an entire bus for this whole thing and you couldn’t come up with a good one liner!?”

“Eh, I’m not in the jive with all these newfangled word-cha-ma-callits or whatever, all aboard!” she honked the horn.

“Grrrrhmph...”

Grumbling silently, the larger wolf stepped up into the vehicle, her comrades quickly sprinting in behind her. The abused engine of the vehicle rattled, the rear door of the vehicle falling off, before the vehicle sparked and dragged itself back out into the streets.

“Sens- Six, aren’t you afraid that they’ll follow us?” Serika asked after a few moments as the vehicle weaved down the streets, “We’re in a clearly traceable vehicle that’s falling apart.”

However, to this, Six simply stared off back at the bank behind her without a word, as if in deep contemplation, before pulling on her own pair of shades.

“That was a beautiful heist.”

“Q-Quick, did anyone get the plates of that vehicle!?”

“It happened so fast! Q-Quick, print Bob’s termination form! The sooner we can pin this on him-!”

“They left behind a calling card!” a metallic hand scooped up the small card, the android putting on his reading glasses and studying it, “‘I, Rikuhachima Aru, would like to place a loan and smell like bean sprouts.’...Who the heck is Rikuhachima?”

“Bean sprouts smell?”

“...Unforgivable…”

The two guards slowly turned to face the source of the voice. Standing before them was a wide-eyed purple haired girl in a black uniform and cap, slowly raising a small remote in one hand.

“Y...You would… d-dare accuse t-the Boss for something terrible like this…!” Haruka shook with rage, before flipping the cap off the detonator and clicking it vigorously, “ALL OF YOU CAN GO TO HELL!”

The skies of Abydos darkened as a massive plume of smoke, flame and dust burst from where the Stygian Bank was moments prior.

“A true shame we will never be able to do it again.” Sensei concluded as the rest of the Foreclosure Task Force stared at the rising ball of flame in disbelief.

“Nn.” Shiroko nodded, also wearing a pair of shades, “If we do it again, however, I want to take the vault next time.”

“Nn. We’ll see.” the bus finally left the outskirts of the city, speeding off into the desert sunset, “We’ll see.”

“Rin, I’ve come across some concerning information regarding Abydos!”

“Sensei. I heard there was a violent bank robbery in the region perpetrated by an organization calling itself the Masked Swimsuit Gang. Are you safe?”

“F-Forget that! The gang tried to attack us too! They used a refurbished bus came up to the school building and we were forced to defend ourselves, but in the chaos, we were forced to shoot it down and disable it.”

“...I can deploy some JTF on site if needed. Your safety is our primary conce-”

“Forget my safety, um, everything’s handled! The point is, the Swimsuit Gang wasn’t just after money; they were collecting information on the bank’s creditors for blackmailing the bank. While we were capturing the bus for ourselves after the fact, I discovered some of these documents. They’re a bit bullet-holed, but they seem to imply illegal activity within the bank itself!”

“...Are you certain?”

“They’ve been gouging Abydos’s loan for the past few years on the pretenses of ‘interest’, but the numbers are clearly arbitrary… and increasing. Furthermore, documentation seems to suggest the Kaiser Corporation, the bank’s parent group, is using these funds to hire mercenaries and PMCs to attack Abydos.”

“….Haru- President Ao!? Y-You’re there too!?”

“Awawawawa- W-Wha- No!”

“President Ao? What? This is Arona, my AI assistant.”

“N-No… That voice… it’s definitely GSC President Ao!”

“I-I sound like the missing GSC President?”

“Right, you did say the Shittim Chest had an AI… But hearing that voice again… My apologies. I haven’t gotten much rest for the past few days… You sound like her but… Now that I hear you again, there’s a distinct difference.”

“Is there? I guess… I’ve gone through quite a few voices in my time, or so I’m told. My pronunciation could use some work.”

“I suppose I just miss her. We were… close. It’s just… she’d definitely know what to do here. She always seemed to know better.”

“...If you want, Rin, I may be able to lend a hand at the GSC from time to time. I’m quite capable when it comes to data management and other computerized tasks, as you might imagine.”

“That… would be nice, yes. It’s good to finally hear you, Arona… to hear that voice again, even if it’s just simulated.”

“Likewise.”

“Returning to the task at hand. Given the nature of the situation, I believe we should attempt to fast-track Abydos’s application for the registration of the Foreclosure Task Force as an official Abydos Club… and, by extension, making them the official Student Council of Abydos.”

“…I’ll see what I can do. However, things here aren’t much better.”

“Give me a timeframe. When will Abydos have a council again.”

“...At earliest… Five days. At best. I will commend you for filing the proper documentation on the first day you were able, at least”

“I’m kinda on the clock here. We- They can’t hold out much longer from all these attacks.”

“We can’t risk SCHALE showing favoritism, you must understand. The position you hold- indeed, the fact SCHALE exists in the first place is a matter that needs to be managed carefully. Even if you are from Abydos - in fact, especially because you are - you must still go through all the proper procedures and hoops.”

“Argh, I hate politics… Alright. Arona will send over the soft copies of the documents as soon as she is able. I’ll hand you the hard copies if you open your window real quick.”

“Open my-”

Rin paused, lowering her phone and slowly turning around to see the silver-haired wolf woman dangling outside her office’s window by a window-washing cable, wearing crude homemade abseiling gear and a bike helmet, holding up a briefcase handcuffed to her hand.

“I tried to stop her…”

“Please hurry up and open the window.” Sensei strained, “Climbing with one hand is harder than it looks.”

Shiroko glanced around what was once her living room, now a warzone of sand, plastic tarps, wiring, rusted tools and cables.

“You know, when you said you’d be sleeping on my couch… This wasn’t what I had in mind.”

“Nn. Deal with it. We know you barely use this room anyway.” Kuroko tapped away on a keyboard missing a few keys, the dozens of salvaged, cracked monitors from the abandoned buildings surrounding the house having been jury-rigged into some kind of post-apocalyptic command center, all connected to the Shittim Chest in the center.

“Nn. Fair.” Shiroko pulled up a spare chair, taking a seat behind the larger wolf, “...Is Arona in there?”

“She is… But she’s sleeping.” Kuroko pulled up a window, revealing a simulated virtual classroom, the blue AI assistant muttering something subconsciously about strawberry shortcake as she slumbered, “I’ve been… putting her through a lot of work recently arranging my… affairs.”

“Affairs?”

Kuroko minimized Arona, opening up a calendar app.

Shiroko’s eyes widened. Each day was filled with dozens of entries and notes, all leading up to…

“Five days. In five days… That was when everything went downhill.” Kuroko’s voice wavered, “Every night since was filled with regret... I wondered what we could have done differently... and now, I need to put those pie in the sky dreams into action. So it's come to this. I only have five days left to change the future.”

“That’s… That’s not a lot…” Shiroko studied the timeline.

Mismatched eyes grew wide.

“Hifumi wasn’t supposed to come today.” she blurted out bluntly, pointing at the calendar, “Hifumi’s arrival is two days from now on this timeline you made… no, in the original timeline!”

Kuroko looked away.

“Then… You knew we’d meet her…”

“She was… integral to the robbery. Without her… I don’t think we could have done it without her.”

“You lured her here.” Shiroko slowly spoke, “That’s the only thing I’d think I’d do… You…”

“Made a fake account. Posted in a Peroro fangroup she was in. Told her to come today.”

“You lied to Hifumi and put her in serious danger.”

“I… I did. B-But, in the end, we really did get her the plush she was looking for- I managed to make the seller get here and-”

Silence.

“...Both of us know we aren’t buying that.” Kuroko slumped, “I did something wrong.”

“Nn, that’s pretty scummy.”

“Coming from me…” she sighed, “…We need to tell her the truth. About all of this.”

“Yes. You should.”

Shiroko’s withering glare didn’t let up.

“Nn. We’re pretty different, you and me.”

“I would never do something like this… to a friend, no less. A friend who you, in this timeline, pretty much gaslit into becoming friends with us.”

A fist clenched, teeth gritting together at those terrible, fading memories.

“To change the future… this is what it will take. If it means becoming a monster… then I’ll-”

“Stop.”

The silver haired woman looked up, her shattered halo dimly drifting about behind her head.

“We both know what it’s like to be alone. We were like that for the longest time – no family, no friends, no home… Not even a backstory.” the silver haired girl stood up, her own halo shining behind her head silhouetting her face, “I get the feeling… You were alone for even longer than that.”

“It was… an isolation of my own creation…”

“Well, not anymore. I won’t stand idly by while you try to change this future on your own.” she held out a hand, “We will stop that tragedy, whatever it is, from happening. Together.”

Kuroko stared at the hand, her own hand…

No, Shiroko’s hand.

She gripped it firmly, rising to her full height.

“Tell me everything. Let me in on this… this mission of yours.” Shiroko placed a hand over her heart, “Just as much as you are the wrench in the works of this timeline, I am too.”

“My leaden heart is… weighed by my sins. Were it laid upon you, I fear that cursed knowledge would see you devoured by despair.”

“But on the opposite side of those scales is a feather. That’s us.” the smaller wolf smirked, looking all the way up, “And as impossible as it may seem…”

That feather will become a wing that shall lift your leaden heart.

Leaving behind despair and soaring to the heavens.

Allow us to be that Feather of Life.

Identical eyes locked for a brief eternity.

“Together, let’s tip the scales.”

“Yuuka, I need you to approve this purchase.” Kuroko explained, hands splayed out.

“Oh? You didn’t seem to be the kind of person who actually… does such things. I would have thought you a ‘buy first, ask questions later’ kind of person.” the voice on the end of the video message replied.

“Abydos… wasn’t exactly a place where we had money to waste exorbitantly. I’ve seen Serika do so firsthand.”

“I’ll look over that invoice now, give me a se-”

Pause.

“...Sensei. Why are you buying over a hundred quadcopters… and missile pods?!”

“Back when I was still studying… I guess you could say that… I made a reasonably cheap missile drone using a quadcopter and some missile pods; exactly the ones in the invoice I sent you."

Yuuka put two and two together.

“So, you want to be able to mobilize a mechanized mob of missile machines.”

“Exactly.”

“...I suppose I should be just a bit lenient in that you decided to consult me before going ahead with this… But Sensei, I really don’t see the reason why you need a hundred of them.”

“At least 50! Can I at least build 50 of them?”

“The budget is meant to go to essentials, Sensei.” Millennium’s Treasurer frowned, "Missile launchers and drones do not count."

“...So 20 then?”

“That's probably the best I'm getting, I guess this means a lot to you... 20 missile launching drones approved for SCHALE use it is.” Yuuka sighed, tapping away at her keyboard, before hesitating at the bottom of the document, “And… You want a chopper motorbike.”

“It is absolutely necessary for-”

“No. Rejected. On all fronts. It’s tacky and ridiculous.” she dramatically deleted that segment of the invoice, “Grow up.”

“Pale Rider and I will be together someday!” Sensei wailed, slamming her face into the desk, “You cannot stop me! I will not be denied, Yuuka Hayase!”

“And why have you even gone and named it already!?”

OMAKE:

You Will Know Our Names! Blue Archive Of Our Own.

“Alright, Masked Swimsuit Gang. Let’s decide on our codenames.” Sensei folded her arms.

“Masked… what?” Serika twitched, as Nonomi hummed, “We aren’t even wearing-”

“It was Nonomi’s idea back when I first did this.” the larger wolf explained, “It was… A spur of the moment choice at the end of our first raid. This time, if we want to shave off a few seconds, we’re going to need to all agree on this before we go in.”

“It does sound like something I’d come up with.” the blonde hummed airily, “How mysterious! Idols by day, elegant, fashionable thieves by night~!”

“T-That doesn’t sound elegant at all!”

Ignoring the angry cat sounds, Sensei dug into her pocket, producing a note, “So anyway, I have created a list of codenames that I’ll be assigning you all. We should all agree on them so that we don’t argue about it later during the heist. In numerical order based on your masks; Hinata Zero, Yume One, Birkin Two, Trailblazer Three, Nelson Four, Faust and finally…”

She pulled on her mask, the number six taped onto the top, “…Courier Six.”

Silence.

“Um… So… I’m kinda confused…” Hifumi quietly piped up, “Ignoring the ‘last time you did this’ part… Don’t… I get a number too?”

“Faust is a good name.”

“But it messes up your naming scheme.”

“The legend of Faust must live on.”

“Where are you even getting these names from?” Shiroko suspiciously raised an eyebrow, “...For some reason… the one you gave me sounds…”

“I… I’m not sure, actually. They kinda just… came to me last night.” her future self frowned, scratching her chin, “They seem… strangely familiar, but aside from Yume One, I don’t recall ever having heard those names before.”

“Well, I appreciate you rememberin’… Well…” Hoshino smiled slightly, “Guess that was a no brainer for me, huh?”

“Isn’t Hinata the name of someone from Trinity?” Ayane tilted her head as she looked over the radio equipment Sensei had produced.

“It is? I didn’t know that.” Sensei tilted her head, “But… It does sound like the name of a great tactical expert, doesn’t it?”

“I… What?”

“Um… Don’t get me wrong, Trailblazer is a… pretty name!” Nonomi hummed, before suddenly shuddering and glancing down, “So why do I feel so uneasy about it? I feel like… It’s a bad omen all of a sudden.”

“I’ll swap with you.” Serika offered, “Honestly, can we just get this over with already? You’re acting kinda strange.”

“Oh! I feel much better now!” Nonomi perked up brightly, “Six-Sensei, can you~”

“Understood. Nelson Three and Trailblazer Four…” the large wolf slumped slightly, but crossed out the names on the list and swapped them around regardless, “Four… Wouldn’t that make it even more unlucky…?”

“She is a black cat.”

“Nn. Makes sense.”

“Nn.”

“Nn.”

“Hey...”

“Um… So… Can I change mine too?” Hifumi quietly asked after a moment.

Both Shiroko and Sensei stared at her, then exchanged glances, before delivering the final verdict.

“Nno.”

“Absolutely not.”

“You were born to wear that name, Faust.”

The Trinity girl let out a soft whine, wondering how her life had come to this.

Chapter Text

Schedule Not Final
Subject To Change

D-4

“Hi, is this Problem Solver 68?”

“We’ll do the crime if you got the dime!” Aru replied through the phone, “What’s up?”

“Let’s get to steel tacks.”

“Brass tacks.”

“What you said, right. Brass… Why do they call it brass tacks?”

“Well… Come to think of it, I don’t know.” the mercenary frowned.

“Nn… Me neither… I’ll let you know later when I find out. But let’s get back to the point. You like money. I like money. We both like money.”

Aru sat up, interested, “You have my attention.”

“I’ll pay you 10 Million Yen in GSC bonds if you don’t raid Abydos as your employer has hired you to d-”

Click!

Aru slammed down the phone, her eyes wide.

“Boss?” Kayoko asked, turning to face the de-facto leader of Problem Solver, “Bad news?”

“They’re onto us!” Aru screeched in a panic, her eyes glazing over.

Listening to the dial tone, the two wolves exchanged a glance.

“It didn’t work.”

“Do you think we didn’t offer enough maybe?”

“Nn. Maybe.”

“Nn.”

“Head Prefect Sorasaki Hina, it is an honor to meet you at last.”

“Sensei Sunookami Shiroko, the pleasure is all mine.”

“Nno, I uh…” The wolf tilted her head, before shrugging it off, “I go by ‘Kuroko’ now, actually. You know, to tell me apart from the other Shiroko.”

“Oh. Well that’s convenient. The reports were getting rather confusing otherwise.” Hina muttered, sitting up, “What is it that brought you here to Gehenna?”

She would have questioned why – and how – Sensei had entered her office by rappelling in from the ceiling, but truthfully, at this time of the day, it was too early to even begin to open that can of worms.

It was Gehenna after all. When it came to things like this, it was best to just roll with it.

“I’m in a bit of a hurry, so I won’t sugarcoat it; your sources seem well informed, so they should have informed you that I have some degree of future knowledge.”

Silence.

“You do?” Hina tentatively spoke.

“Ah, well… Um, long story short, in a few hours, Iori, Chinatsu and Ako are going to perform an unauthorized attack on Abydos in an attempt to…” Sensei frowned, squinting slightly as she tried to remember, “Politics or something.”

“…’Politics or something’. And I am just supposed to take that as a genuine reason to act.”

“Look, I’m not good with politics, okay!? I wasn’t paying attention!” Sensei’s ears flopped down, “I think I recall uhhh… The blue one said she was not happy with SCHALE existing… something about too many variables… um… you were there…”

“No, no, I actually believe you completely. They would do that.”

Silence.

“Just like that?”

“Sensei.”

Silently, the white-haired Head Prefect pointed at her own face. Kuroko could now see her incredibly bloodshot eyes and massive dark bags beneath them.

“…Nn.”

“Yeah.” Hina huffed, “I’ll go head down to Abydos and call them off.”

“Wait, head down to Abydos? Aren’t they-”

She silently pulled open a nearby curtain, revealing a large cargo helicopter with the Prefect Team logo taking off, flying into the skies in the direction of the desert.

Sensei’s jaw slowly fell open, as Hina took a long, long swig from her mug of black coffee.

Wordlessly, she silently passed it over to Sensei after a few more incredulous moments, “Here.”

Sensei nodded, taking the mug up herself and taking a large gulp.

“I don’t envy your position, honestly.”

“Gehenna itself would probably explode if I took a day off, and I am not joking.” Hina sighed, leaning back on the train carriage’s seat, “I have been operating on less than 3 hours of sleep. All this? Caffeine. Lots of caffeine.”

“Nn. Sounds… rough. I’m still not used to how much stuff I need to do, myself.” Kuroko responded, slumping back slightly, “Turns out being Sensei means doing a ton of paperwork and stuff. It’s a lot harder when I barely know what a, um… the… tax declaration is.”

“Really now?”

“It sounds like a good idea on paper, right? Sending someone back in time in order to prevent some big disaster. What they don’t tell you is it ends up with someone who only knows how to fix bikes and rob banks having to do all this paperwork stuff too.” the wolf sighed, “You get what I’m saying?”

“A little, yes. Sometimes, I too feel like this is far too much for me to deal with. Alas, such is the duty of the head prefect.”

“Gehenna do be like that.”

“It ‘do be’ like that, indeed.” Hina pointedly replied.

The train clattered along the rails a bit longer.

“While the reports did note you resembled and shared the same name as Sunookami Shiroko, I would never have imagined it went as far as you being her from an alternate timeline.” Hina wrapped her arms tighter around Sensei’s waist, squinting against the desert sun and flying sand.

The wolf nodded, pedaling across the half-buried road, “You’re awfully accepting of that fact.”

“Well, it is quite obvious after all. You two even have roughly the same halo too.” Hina pointed out, wobbling slightly as the bike came to a stop.

“Nn.” climbing off, Sensei wandered over to a buried building, lifting the fallen door aside and wandering inside.

She emerged moments later, with a torn up bucket hat. Reaching onto her lower leg, she pulled up a knife, squinting at Hina’s head for a few moments.

“What are you doing?”

“One moment…” Kuroko stabbed several holes in the top of the hat, shaking out the last few bits of sand before placing it on the Head Prefect’s head, carefully treading it over her horns, “The sun can get quite intense out here.”

“Um… Thanks.” Hina hesitated, adjusting the hat, before turning about and looking over the massive desert, “...This place… It’s hard to believe anything can survive out here, much less thrive among all the ruins.”

“Even I am not entirely sure why Kaiser wants this place so badly.”

“Now that… is a question I may be able to answer for you.”

“Nn?”

“So they aren’t behind the desertification?”

“While it has been immensely useful for their endeavors as you have explained to me, it seems more like the corporation is merely taking advantage of the situation. We’ve uncovered large scale Kaiser bases in the desert of Abydos.”

“As have I… well, back in my time, anyway. Do you have any idea what exactly they’re after?”

“Unfortunately…”

“I see. Well, from what I understood of the papers I read…” Sensei swerved around a broken down car, “Abydos High remained one of the last pieces of land they could purchase. And with the lack of the Student Council, there was no way they could purchase more. So, they tried a different tactic.”

“I have no strong feelings regarding this plight, either way.”

“Friendly reminder your girls are probably currently tearing the place apart.”

“...Beyond that, I simply have no strong feelings regarding Abydos. It’s outside my jurisdiction, after all.”

The bike came to a stop once more.

“I know it’s heartless for me to say, but-”

“It’s not that. We have company.” Sensei’s eyes widened, as she tore her rifle from her back, “Head Prefect, find cover!”

A nearby broken down truck’s door cracked open, a girl wearing a riot helmet with a visor leapt forth, a shotgun raised, “You’ll pay for taking out my girls!”

Sensei ducked back, the shots getting burnt away in a burst of blue flame. She brought up her rifle, swinging it down and slamming it on the girl’s head.

“You think you can just roll in, take us out and leave like that?! All while wearing that cheap excuse of a helmet, no less!”

“What? My bike helmet? I don’t even wear it that often!” the wolf woman rolled back, pulling a grenade off her belt and tossing it forwards. The blast kicked up sand, as the helmeted girl quickly flicked her head, clanking down her visor as she reloaded her shotgun.

A blue flash burst from the sand, snarling, rifle raised.

The bullets bounced off the attacker’s helmet as she closed the distance, spinning up her shotgun.

“I really don’t have time for this!”

“Then I’ll finish you off quick!”

The two clashed over and over again, bullets and kicks flying as Hina ducked behind a nearby shattered wall for cover. Reaching back, she pulled her usual machine gun out and took aim.

The helmeted girl growled as she tumbled back from a particularly forceful ram from the black assault rifle’s butt, landing against a large half-buried cooler box.

“Wait a minute…” Sensei paused, narrowing her eyes slightly, “...I know you.”

“I have nothing to say to you.” the girl spat, “My employer wants you dead!”

“Rabu from the Helmet Gang!”

Silence.

“W-Wait, how do you know my name?!” Rabu’s eyes went wide under her visor.

“Komakaze Rabu, right?” Sensei crouched down, looking over the girl. She wore a Kaiser PMC flak vest over a presumably stolen Trinity uniform, a black jacket covering her shoulders.

“A-Answer the question! How do you-!?”

“Back then, I only got your name… Uhh… That’s it.”

“Back when!? We’ve never met before!” Rabu looked increasingly confused by Sensei’s words, quickly glancing to the side where her shotgun had fallen.

A black boot stomped down on the weapon. Her eyes went up… and up…

Sorasaki Hina stood, her eyes gleaming dangerously.

“...eep.”

“I know I heard your name before… but where…” Sensei frowned, “Back then… It’s on the tip of my tongue… But where…”

“Sensei. Her body armor.” Hina pointed out, “It’s branded as part of the Kaiser PMC.”

“Wait, Sensei?!”

“So they’re already performing operations out here?!” her eyes widened as she dug out the Shittim Chest, tapping rapidly on it, “No… Their frontline is…!”

The Helmet Gang officer shifted nervously, “S-Since when were you Sensei!? W-We attacked you a week ago! A-And come to think of it, how did you get so tall all of a sudden!? And w-what’s with that dress and suit!?”

“Will you just shut up for a moment!?” Kuroko snapped, raising her rifle in preparation to slam the butt into her once more, only to be stopped by Hina’s gloved hand wrapping around it.

“Sensei, at best, we should bring her into custody for questioning for the moment.”

“W-What?! I-I ain’t gonna be a prisoner of wa-” the red haired girl trailed off, realizing that she was glaring down not just that silver wolf who had, time and time again, taken out many of her allies (and was somehow now also the ‘Sensei’ the news wouldn’t shut up about), but the Head Prefect of Gehenna.

With a sigh, she held up her hands, “...Mind the helmet, okay?”

“We’re taking heavy casualties!”

“Sensei has appeared at the rear! Attempting captu- ARGH!”

“Nn. Now I have a machine gun. Yippie Kay Yay.”

“That’s not how the quote go- GYAH!”

Ako frowned, studying the map from within one of the many Gehenna armored cars laying siege to the school building. They had landed from north of the main academy building while the south was pressing an attack. When the time was right, she would push in along with her reinforcement forces from the north to fully surround the building while the defending force was holding the rear.

However, the rear force was getting decimated rapidly by the Foreclosure Task Force, as they so called themselves. If this kept up, they would soon be able to emerge from the south end of the building and circle around to attack the north.

“Our best option right now is to deploy additional reinforcements to the south. The west side of the building is blocked by debris according to the drone images, so we can deploy sparse forces there while having the main bulk of the secondary reinforcement squads enter from the east. In the meantime, we can press up from the front and-”

“That won’t work.” Chinatsu leaned in, “We should infiltrate the building itself while they’re engaged and capture it. Doing so will serve as good leverage to capture our main goal here.”

“You heard the reports! Sensei has appeared at the rear and is fighting on the front lines!” Iori exclaimed, “Ako’s right! We should bolster the rear guard and move to capture her as soon as possible!”

“Hmm… Given the large number of reinforcements these plans require, I think that the best option for now would be tryin’ your hand at takin’ the main building after all.” Hoshino mused, rubbing her chin, “While you have a numerical advantage, you should attempt both infiltration and a head on assault in order to better divide their attention.”

“Exactly.” Chinatsu nodded, “Doing so would be the fastest way to Sensei, which, as you have expressed prior, was our main goal of this operation.”

“’Course, that’s just my humble opinion. Think it over for a bit. I’m no tactician, after all.” Hoshino finished, tossing a tear gas grenade down, slamming the hatch atop the vehicle shut, “Also hold this for me, will ya?”

The side door of the vehicle practically fell open, Ako stumbling out and raising her sidearm, taking aim through her tears, “Y-You… You!”

The pinkette merely spread out her arms, stepping down hard on the sand below her.

The sand surrounding them began to shake, a dust storm swelling. Through the swirling sand and her blurred vision, Ako could begin to spot over half a dozen glowing red lights filling the air, a high-pitched whine sounding from behind the girl as she stepped forwards.

And then the screams started.

One by one, the vehicles around her started exploding, their operators getting thrown free from the blasts. Blue streaks of light screamed through the air, impacting the armor and covering them in flames.

“W-What is that!?”

“It’s flying!”

“T-Too fast! T-They’re moving too fast for us to get a bea- GUWARGH!”

“They have reinforcements too!?”

“I-Is that the Fox of Calamity?!”

“SENSEI! I WILL NOT BE DENIED! I-”

A particularly violent explosion.

“-can see you’re busy and will be coming back later!”

Ako was thrown to the sand by a powerful force behind her, scrambling for her gun amidst the tears, sand and smoke that filled the air.

The silhouetted form stepped forwards slowly, reaching onto her back.

“I was joking, of course. Even if you did attempt to capture the building, you would have been merely entering our waiting jaws.” Hoshino raised her shotgun, emerging from the haze.

“…What is this…?” Ako somehow choked out, shakily gripping her weapon.

“We were going to go easy on you. However, the moment you chose to attack the Abydos building…” An unusual glimmering light from a different direction, a different voice speaking forth, “You committed an unforgivable sin.”

“I…! S-Sensei…!? But you were at the back of…!?”

A greenish blue light. The click of a handgun. The chill of the barrel pressed up against the side of her head.

“Get. Off. Our Turf. NOW.” a new, unfamiliar voice snarled, right into Ako’s ear.

When she spun to try firing on the attacker, there was nobody there.

“Hey! Are you listening to me!? Don’t you try running from us!” Sensei’s voice roared through the haze once more, “Surrender!"

Shaking, Ako’s hand went to her radio.

“Phew… That was a close ‘un.” Hoshino wiped sweat from her head, watching what remained of the Prefect Team’s forces pull away, “You gotta tell me what that button did sometime. I have a feelin’ I’m gonna be using it more often.”

“In due time. It was only functioning at 50% efficiency… Once complete…” Sensei frowned, “Nobody will take Abydos. Nobody.”

“… So has been proven…” Hina muttered, gripping an iced coffee but never taking her eyes off Hoshino, “Thankfully, we managed to arrive before they could deploy the heavy mechanized forces…”

Shiroko let out a sigh, wrapping another bandage over her side, “They really can’t tell the difference between us… Nn, what a bother…”

“In any case… I’ll see to it the Prefect Team doesn’t return to this area without proper authorization.” the white haired girl continued somewhat off-handedly, her eyes studying Hoshino slowly from top to bottom, the irises growing wider by the second, her wings slowly beginning to flap behind her back with increasing speed.

Hoshino’s eyes flicked over to Hina lazily, “Uhe, ya like what you’re seein’, Miss Head Prefect?”

“U-Umm…!” the Head Prefect jolted, looking away quickly as her wings clamped protectively around her, “It’s… Um… I… It’s not like that! T-That’s not what I’m thinking at all!”

“I kid, I kid… I think all of us could use a break after alla this, anyway. How ‘bout we treat you to some ramen for lunch? It’s Abydos’s specialty!”

“I… I would be honored to… I mean – um!” she quickly cleared her throat, fanning her face, “Yes, that sounds quite good at the moment, but I simply must return to Gehenna as soon as possible. The longer I am away, the higher chance events like this may end up transpiring elsewhere.”

“Ah, Gehenna do be like that… Youngins these days, so hardworkin’…” Hoshino winked, shooting a finger gun, “Still, you did real good today, as much as ya could. Don’t blame yourself for this, y’hear?”

“I… Thank you. I was hoping you wouldn’t blame, uh, me, for this failure… to… to…”

“I gotta respect someone who has to deal with wackos like ‘em on the daily. Tell you what, if you ever have a problem, feel free to take it up with Ol’ Takanashi, okay? I’ll keep an ear open for you.”

“I…!” Hina’s eyes grew wide, before she suddenly clutched her chest, flopping over backwards with a curious high pitched whine.

“She’s bleeding!”

“Was she shot in the nose earlier!?”

“W-What’s the protocol for getting shot in the nose!?”

“Uh.” Hoshino looked down at her finger-gun as Shiroko and Sensei ran over to the Head Prefect’s fallen form, “Oops…?”

D-3

“Aru. Call them off. You can still get a refund now, before you’ll have to pay more.”

“S-Sensei!? How did you-?!” the horned girl began, her eyes wide as she looked across her bedroom.

Quickly composing herself, she placed a hand on her chest, “M-My my! I-I mean, h-how forward of you, surrendering before our superior might!”

“Aru. I literally have seen the future. You need to trust me on this. If you don’t attack us now, then you’ll be saving yourself a lot of money. Trust me. I’m saying this for your own good.” Sensei got up from the windowsill, walking over and placing a hand on her shoulder, “Look at me. Does this look like the face of someone who’s surrendering or running away?”

Aru frowned, studying the woman’s face.

On first impression, she looked… fairly normal. She was not really the best at reading facial expressions, after all, and… hm.

“Um…” she squinted further, before fumbling around her bedside table and picking up a pair of glasses, putting them on.

…

“Oh my stars, you’re not playing are you.”

“As the boss, it is in your best interest to make choices that are financially sound for your organization. In that other timeline, you ended up getting evicted from your rental office because of the costs of the operation – you didn’t even accomplish your goal.” Kuroko explained clearly, her deadpan expression never changing, “I’m giving you a chance to change things. Call your employer, tell them the deal’s off.”

“...But… Sensei… I…”

“What?”

“...They just reached Abydos five minutes ago.”

Sensei stared silently, before walking across the room and picking up a nearby pillow. Slamming it into her face, she simply started screaming as loudly as her lungs would allow, blue flames bursting from her body as she did.

A double barreled shotgun cracked loudly through the air.

“HEY IDIOTS! STAND DOWN!” a strange eared girl yelled, her ears poking out from under a motorbike helmet with a pair of holes drilled in the top called out, a red-helmeted grunt standing by her side, “DID YOU NOT HEAR ACTING LEADER RED!?”

“T-That’s enough, Ears. I think they got the picture.”

Shiroko lowered her rifle from where she was firing upon a downed helmet gang member, “Do you wish to surrender?”

“We just got a call from our employer. The mission’s off.” Red helmet explained with a shrug, “That being said, we will continue attacking if you do not meet our demands.”

“We will never surrender Abydos.” Serika hissed.

“Nonono, we got that message quite clearly.” Ears explained, “We just want our boss back, please.”

“...Your boss?”

“Rabu! You know? Cool helmet? Has a visor? Red hair?”

“Oh, the prisoner.” Shiroko blinked, “I dunno, she seems quite happy here.”

A pair of hands clamped around her shoulder.

“PLEASE GIVE HER BACK I CAN’T TAKE ANOTHER DAY OF DOING THE PAPERWORK!” Red was on the verge of sobbing, “IT’S ONLY BEEN ONE WHOLE DAY A-A-AND EVERYTHING’S A BIG MESS!”

The eared girl standing by the red helmeted girl’s side slowly stepped forwards, giving her sobbing superior a pat on the back.

“Geez, what’s all that noise?”

Rabu emerged, holding a cloth and a noticeably shinier helmet, dressed in comfy looking pajamas.

“C-CAPTAIN!” Red squealed.

“Oh. You guys. Uhh…” the red haired girl looked side to side, “I… Um… I’m still totally captured, yeah. T-They most likely won’t give me up for at least um…”

She leaned over to Shiroko, “We said six days right?”

“Nn. We’ll provide you a place for six days.”

“...No chance for seven?”

“We’ll start charging you rent then.”

“Hmrgh…” Rabu pulled on her helmet in a huff, “They aren’t surrendering me for six days! B-But everything is fine and th-they say they’ll release me when it’s time so uhhh… Ugh, now I feel terrible for leaving you guys out…”

“Wait, I want to stay here too.” a helmeted girl piped up, “I haven’t had anywhere to stay for weeks.”

“Hey, me too. I’m still waiting for the loan for the new place to go through!”

“Hm…” ‘Ears’ hummed, “I could do with somewhere to stay for six days… It’s not like I’d last much longer on the streets…”

“Guys! Stay focused! We came here to rescue our boss! Just because she’s getting a roof over her head, running water, presumably food, helmet cleaning supplies and a bed doesn’t mean we all should defect from our-” Red paused, “Wait, actually…”

“Nn. 50000 Yen for two nights each. First meal is free. You sleep in the gym on any mats we find.” Shiroko explained, “You will need to aid with maintenance, meal prep, cleanup, and if any of our supplies are stolen we will seek costly reimbursement. Also you’re not allowed to attack us or we kick you all out into the desert.”

“Boss…! I never should have misjudged you! You were actually finding a place for all of us all this time…!” Red’s eyes sparkled under her helmet.

“I… um… I wasn’t, really! They actually did take me prisoner-” Rabu began to speak.

“Hey, where do we sign up?”

“I’ll go let Tamamo know as soon as possible!”

“I happen to be good at cooking. What kind of ingredients do you have?”

Rabu looked at the beaming Shiroko, then at her underlings, then let out a sigh.

“...I’ll go clean up the gym.”

“So we have approximately 15 Helmet Gang members, plus their leader, living in the gym now.” Sensei sighed, her head still in her hands, “...They haven’t tried any… Funny business while they’re living here?”

“Not really, no. And they are paying us, oddly enough.” Shiroko shrugged, emptying a bottle of energy drink before doing up another screw, giving the contraption a quick shake, “This… will aid in the debt – at least a tiny bit.”

“Even so.” Sensei pulled over another box of parts, laying them on the floor, “It’s slow going. I fear we may not have much time left.”

“Nn…” Shiroko cracked open another bottle of energy drink, holding it out, “Here. Want another?”

“No, I’m goo… oo… ood.” Sensei slowly trailed off, slowly turning to notice the small pile of plastic bottles sitting next to the two of them, “Hold on. How many drinks did we bring in?”

“Six.”

“Then why are there nine bottles?”

“...They put more in the carton?” Shiroko rose to her feet, lifting out… a full carton of six drinks from a nearby glowing chamber. Studying the box, she gave it a quick sniff, before glancing back into the chamber.

Another identical six-pack of drinks sat in the chamber.

“This isn’t a fridge.” Shiroko spoke after a few moments.

“Arona, what’s going on? Is this secretly a drink factory?!” Sensei excitedly asked, her eyes shining.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you for the last half an hour! That’s the Crafting Chamber. It takes in Keystones and other related relics and uses them to reconstruct ma- Sensei!?”

It was too late. The larger wolf had already placed an entire completed version of the contraption on the floor into the chamber, tapping on several buttons on a nearby control console.

A few moments passed, and she peered inside. A half-completed version of the machine sat next to it.

“Nn… We’ve been wasting our evenings for nothing.” Kuroko slowly spoke, her bloodshot eyes widening.

“Nn…”

D-2

“You know, we were gonna kidnap the cat at some point.” one of the now un-helmeted girls pointed at Serika as she downed a cup of juice, “So it’s kinda funny that we’re now working with her.”

“Yeah, well, we can’t exactly afford freeloaders around here!” Serika shot back, “We’re short-staffed and low on resources as is!”

“Yeah, yeah, keep your ears on.” The door of the gym swung open, the eared Helmet Gang member entering with a large pile of boxes strapped over her back, “I’ve returned from a supply run, Boss and uh… Temp Boss. There were ammunition and food supplies in unmarked crates at the location as specified.”

“Hmph… It’s good that Sensei has connections for such supplies but…” the cat girl walked over as the girl hefted the boxes onto the floor with a huff, “I feel like I should be… concerned where she’s getting all this stuff from.”

“She didn’t tell you? My guess was it was supplies from the GSC, myself.” the courier removed her helmet, shaking out a short dark brown ponytail, “But the fact these boxes are unmarked… Perhaps they want to avoid showing favoritism?”

“Seems more like these boxes were once marked, but had the identification scraped off.” Rabu approached the box, leaning in closer and running a finger over the conspicuous scratches on the side of the reinforced crate, “I think I can make the symbol out if I try… Lettering? S...R… Oh?

“SRT? So these supplies must be… from SRT. No wonder.” Serika huffed, “They must be surplus from when the academy closed.”

“SRT closed?”

“Yeah, it happened about two days ago. Apparently, their failure to prevent the initial attack on Sanctum Tower by one of the Seven Prisoners, along with some of the upper levels getting damaged by explosives must’ve rubbed some bigwig the wrong way.” Rabu explained to her comrade, “But to think that their surplus supplies were snatched up by SCHALE so quickly…”

“Huh. I wonder if this means SRT is going to become an arm of SCHALE then.” the eared girl mused, “If they can get bullets and food from that place, who’s to say that they can’t get actual manpower? Trained SRT are going to be in high demand by pretty much any faction in Kivotos.”

“Do you think a SRT would really do something like that?” Serika folded her arms.

The two Helmet Gang exchanged glances.

“…No, you’re right… Those SRT are trained to be loyal, aren’t they? There’s no way they’d just sell themselves out to the highest bidder.” the Helmet Commander rubbed her chin, “Still… I kinda feel a little bad for ‘em. Having nowhere to go, with seemingly everyone forgetting about them… And their stuff being sold off… and…”

She trailed off silently, looking around the damaged gymnasium.

“…Maybe ditching Kaiser was a good idea after all.” Ears muttered.

“It was just another job, kid. It’s not our place to question this kind of thing.”

Serika’s ears twitched slightly.

“…Most of you guys… have nowhere else to go, right?”

“H-Hey, what do you mean by that? Look, it’s just that a ton of us happen to slip through the cracks, okay? For there to be an average, there has to be a ton of people below the average.” Rabu gestured widely around, “That’s us. We’re the students who dropped out, went forgotten…”

She hesitated, “…But that totally doesn’t mean that we’re the same or anything, g-got it? It’s a totally different deal with us! Our job is to go in, shoot stuff up, and leave! Anything else is-”

“If we all had somewhere to go back to, we wouldn’t have jumped at the chance for shelter here though, right?”

“...Ears, shut your pie hole.” Rabu looked away, clanking her visor down as her cheeks flushed, “This… This doesn’t change anything! This is just another job.”

“…Just another job.” the ears on the top of the girl’s head flopped down, “...Right, sorry, Boss.”

“Man… now I just feel like the bad guy here…”

“HOLD THE LINE!”

“T-They’re bringing up tanks! How do they have such heavy equipment on the front lines already!?”

Sensei could only watch in horror at the growing cloud of dust on the horizon. A large group of heavy machinery and ground forces were rapidly approaching the building.

No, this was not in the calendar.

Millions of thought ran through her head as she rapidly transported herself, as if in a dream, towards the front gate of the school, fumbling with her rifle.

“S-Sensei, we need you to-?!”

“W-What is she doing!?”

Why were they here so soon!? Why a direct attack on the building itself? Had something fundamentally changed in the timeline?

Gunfire. Warped steel. Crackling flames around her.

A vision that she had hoped would never become reality. Her worst fears.

Her grip shook as she raised her weapon, attempting to take aim.

‘Have the scales tipped in their favor!?’

“T-They’re closing in on the front!”

“P-Prepare the defensive line! W-Why is Sensei just standing there?!”

Had she squandered that advantage?! Was there truly nothing that-!?

A gunshot rang out.

“HELMET GANG! HOLD ‘EM OFF!” Rabu called out, raising her shotgun skywards as the squad of helmeted grunts sprinted out from the shed. Lowering her visor, she followed them forwards.

“W-What’s going on!?” one of the armored Kaiser PMCs questioned, before promptly having her face used as an impromptu springboard by one of the sudden reinforcements.

The blaze of automatic gunfire seemed to awaken Sensei from her haze, and she jolted, stumbling back as bullets pinged off her suit, “A-Ah-! R-Right! A-Abydos! Press the advantage!”

Stepping forwards, light warped around her body as blue flames wrapped over her form.

A single thought shot to the front of her mind.

‘I need to get to their leader!’

Air rippled around her, before the blue flames consumed her entirely. Darkness burst around her, swallowing her...

She stood over the hatch of an armored vehicle, a grenade in her hand. Instinctively, she yanked the hatch open, hurled the explosive within and slammed it shut.

As she leapt away, she plummeted once more into that strange darkness.

A loud THUD and slow plume of smoke followed.

“Their leader is downed! They’ll pull out sooner than later!”

All around the amassed forces, bullets and explosions erupted forth. There was nowhere out of her reach as she fought tooth and nail.

One of the robotic PMCs attempted to swing down a baton on her head, but as soon as it brought down its arm, it swung through nothing but a void that had suddenly opened up in the air.

The butt of an assault rifle slamming through its head was the next thing it processed.

When the haze of combat faded, Sensei realized she had a hand gripped around the front of her younger self’s shirt.

“Nn? What…?”

“The combat’s over.” Hoshino’s voice sounded from behind the silver-haired woman, “They’re in full retreat now.”

Sensei slowly lowered the smaller wolf to the ground lightly, before looking down at her hands, “...A-Already?”

“How did you do it? You were teleporting all over the place!” Serika exclaimed, “Wait, could you have done that this whole time!?”

Kuroko blinked, before focusing her attention on the school gates, picturing herself being transported there.

In a flash of blue light, there she was, a miniature circular portal closing in her wake as she tumbled out. She quickly patted herself down, glancing back at the now gaping Hoshino and Shiroko standing where she previously was.

Slowly, she held up her hand, visualizing once more.

A small portal opened up by Shiroko’s side, and before her hand. Reaching inside, she flicked the smaller wolf’s cheek experimentally.

“...Nn. This is new.” she drew back her hand as the smaller wolf let out a whine, “I… I guess I can do this now…”

“More importantly, what were you doing earlier!? You just froze up!”

...She did, didn’t she?

Only now, with the world having returned to stillness, the smoke of battle only just beginning to drift away on the winds…

Only now could she feel her heart racing. Cold sweat dripping down her face.

At how close she was to losing it all.

It sounds all very noble, doesn’t it?

Romantic even, some might say. Someone who had once believed it might have been better if she vanished completely, now having so many people counting on her.

But why her?!

D-1

“Sensei? What are you doing by my mailbox?”

“O-Oh, I-It’s nothing! T-There’s nothing in there anyway!”

Hoshino narrowed her eyes. Of course there would be nothing in there. She made sure to collect all the mail earlier in the morning anyway.

There was no need to trouble her underclassmen with her problems after all…

“U-Uh… S-Sure.” Sensei straightened up, before letting out a nervous laugh, “C-Carry on… O-Or r-rather, t-try doing something different to what you might normally do… Please.”

When she put it like that, why wouldn’t she be suspicious?

“Sensei, you marked tomorrow as a particularly significant date.” Shiroko entered the makeshift SCHALE office set up in the Abydos campus, “The Scales should be mostly ready, but- Nn?!”

Nothing but dead air, floating dust, and silence met her eyes. A window, hastily thrown open.

A note on the desk.

‘Shiroko. Protect everyone.’

For the longest time, the smaller wolf stared at the note, slowly raising it up before herself and studying the handwriting.

“…I can’t be this hard to work with.” she slumped slightly, turning to find the rest of the Foreclosure Task Force.

The bicycle uselessly dug up sand, digging itself deeper into the desert. Kuroko let out a sigh, climbing off the rusted frame and removing her helmet.

The battered paper map she brought with her fluttered in the wind. Everything was calling for her to draw her tablet.

But if she did so… she’d have to face Arona.

What would she even say to her? How could she face anyone, after the choice she had made?

How could she face anyone on the eve of their demise?

Tossing the damaged bike aside; she had merely pilfered it from one of the ruins, she began her trek on foot. A strong wind blew around her as she walked, each step causing the machine guns and bazookas strapped around her body to clank and shift.

Clank. Shfft. Clank. Shfft. Clank. Shfft.

A lone silhouette, disappearing into the wastes.

A groan that wasn’t her own. A softer patch of ground below.

Life.

Kuroko leapt back, swinging up a rifle. The body lying on the sands slowly turned to face her, before silently looking back skywards once more.

Whoever this was… she wasn’t dressed for the occasion alright. A bulky white jacket. Torn leggings. A damaged black hoodie that seemed a few sizes too small.

Messy brown hair that matched her eyes, a simple black facemask over her face.

She was half-buried by the sand, as was her weapon; a scratched and worn rocket launcher.

The wolf girl lowered her weapon. The way the girl lay there, unblinking, staring up at the skies…

She wasn’t going to be a threat.

“...Leave…”

The voice was weak, muffled by the sand and her mask.

“Don’t waste your time… It’s better I go.” her voice was a whisper in the wind, “...It’s… better for all of us.”

A firm hand gripped her coat.

Kuroko practically tore it off, before jamming one of the machine guns on her body into the sand. Reaching for a second machine gun, then a third, she continued, the barrels of the weapons pointing into the sky.

Hefting the surprisingly heavy jacket, she draped it over the makeshift frame, forming shade.

“I… I told you… leave me…” a cough, followed by a groan, “It’s… It’s all in vain…”

“You don’t get to decide that now.” Kuroko spoke absently in response, “Coming out here, dressed like that… Do you have a death wish or something!?”

An ID card fell from the coat’s pocket as the wind blew by; one adorned with a strange skull-insignia. It landed in the sands behind them, completely forgotten.

Placing her weapons onto the ground, the wolf-girl removed her bag, digging through it before producing a bottle of water.

“Drink.”

“It’s all a waste anyway… I told you… There’s…”

“See if I care. I’ll leave this here until you do.” she finally sat down, studying the strange girl, “You… came out here to…”

“…I thought… if I went as far away as possible from humanity… perhaps I’d finally find rest.”

Sand whipped through the air.

“You and me both…” Kuroko sighed.

For a moment, the two sat. One trying to wrap her head around the foolishness on display before her.

The other trying her best to let the world disappear her.

“So you really do have a death wish.”

No response.

“I do.” she paused, before going silent again. It seemed like she wouldn’t continue to talk at all for the longest time.

After the longest time, she continued anyway, “That doesn’t matter now. Just… leave me alone. Let this sand consume my body.”

Mismatched blue eyes widened.

“I… I can’t allow that.”

She gently gripped the front of the girl’s hoodie, gently adjusting her head. Sure enough, as she did, her faint halo, drifting over her head floated into view; an odd lavender affair, comprised of four-pronged star-shaped shapes forming a loose grid.

“You’re one of my students, after all.”

At those words, the stranger’s eyes seemed to go wide, a crimson glint flashing in them.

“You aren’t. You aren’t her.”

Those words ripped through her… and yet…

“Well… You aren’t wrong. I’ve really screwed up on the ‘taking care of my students’ part, considering I’m… running away and all.”

Reaching around her neck, she pulled off her SCHALE ID card, laying it on the sand by the side of the stranger’s card.

“…So… This is the ‘Sensei of SCHALE’ we were briefed about…”

“Mhm.”

“...You’re… softer than I expected.” a weak hand gripped a lock of her long hair, lightly squeezing it in her bruised hand.

It was only now Kuroko realized that her other arm was…

Well, more accurately, she didn’t have one. Blood stained the jacket where it would have been, bandages wrapped around the stump.

“D-Don’t mind that.”

She must have noticed her stare.

“It’s useless. If your arm causes you to sin, tear it from your body.” she spoke, her gaze seeming incredibly distant, “That arm… was weak. It could not protect. That was its sin. That… was my sin.”

“And that warrants you being laid to rest out here, in the desert, lying on top of a land mine.”

Kuroko brushed aside some sand beside the girl, revealing a metal disc beneath her.

“...How did you…?”

“Experience. Disabling traps like this is a hobby of mine, you could say.” she dug down deeper, reaching onto her leg and unsheathing a knife. Stabbing it into the metal, she gently made an incision into the side of the ordinance, “This type of mine… Seems like it’s similar to a Trinity design.”

“I don’t care. One wrong move, and I’d have accomplished my mission here.” a strange dangerous tone sounded from the girl, “Sensei. Do me a favor. Set it off. It’s for the better.”

Snip.

A soft click, followed by a rattle.

“Nn. I don’t think I will.” Kuroko calmly spoke, pulling a plate, a mess of wires, and a strange steel pipe connected to the mine itself, “Haven’t seen this thing before… Given how you said it was designed to kill us… Must be some kind of anti-halo weapon, isn’t it?”

Silence. The girl simply stared skywards.

“Was it Kaiser? Did they send you to try to kill me?”

The girl shook her head weakly, her vision swimming.

“So, who-”

The glint of a weapon. Sensei’s ears twitched.

She dropped the pipe, a miniature portal opening up below as she did. A bullet streaked through the air, tearing through the explosive mere moments before the void fully enveloped it.

Several hundred meters away, a powerful blast tore a new crater in the desert sand, sending sand flying every which way as the bomb went off.

Looking around, Sensei attempted to find the source of the gunshot. Nothing. The dunes remained as silent as ever.

“…Well. This complicates matters now, doesn’t it?” the lone wolf asked nobody in particular.

After all, it seemed like the one before her had finally fallen totally unconscious from the heat, the bottle by her side having gone untouched.

“Sensei? Where are-”

“Arona. Can you identify this student?”

“U-Um… W-wait, this ID… she’s from Arius!?”

“Is that her home academy’s name? She was using herself as bait to attempt to take me out.” Kuroko dug through the coat, occasionally letting out a ‘tch’ and digging her knife into several blocks of plastic explosive, digging out the detonators implanted within, “She had what seemed to be an improvised anti-halo landmine, I think.”

“Arius wants you dead? No, wait… Arius still exists!?”

“Nn?” an ear flicked up, “Is that a surprise?”

“I can explain the history of Arius and Trinity to you when we get back… B-but… where are we?”

Tucking the last of the explosives into her bag, Kuroko took up the girl’s bazooka, hefting it over her shoulder. She had made sure to remove any weapons the girl could use to harm herself from her body.

Glancing out over the horizon, Kuroko watched the sun dipping further down. A cold wind blew by; the evening had come.

She had effectively wasted the whole day by the unconscious girl’s side, monitoring her pulse and condition, debating if she should call for help.

In the end, she did, on her personal phone; the fallen girl’s own device had no signal, and most of the screen appeared to be shattered and cracked.

“That’s irrelevant now. The others will pick her up soon enough. I just need to get out of here.” Kuroko rose to her feet, draping the girl’s jacket over her body.

“Sensei?! W-where are you going?!” Arona frantically asked from within her backpack.

“S-Somewhere not here.” the wolf explained quickly, even as her voice wavered, “I-I can’t be caught… They c-can hold out… They don’t…!”

“We don’t what?”

Kuroko froze up.

Hoshino, her shotgun raised. The rest of Abydos standing behind her, glaring holes into her.

“...O-Oh… H-How are… A-Aren’t you fast…” Kuroko trailed off, the veritable arsenal of heavy weapons rattling on her body.

“I-Is this it?! You’re just stealing a bunch of weapons and running away!?” Serika demanded.

“N-No, I-!”

“Where did you get all this stuff from!? Didn’t you think for one moment that we could have used some of this?!”

“S-Stop… S-Stop, don’t make this more…!”

Shiroko stepped forwards, gripping her own rifle.

“You’re running from something, aren’t you?”

“I… I…!”

Her own mismatched eyes glared into her.

“I… I DON’T WANT YOU ALL TO DIE!”

Silence.

“T-The last time… T-The last time, Sensei… Took a bullet during the upcoming battle… Putting him into a coma… A-And then…!” she panted.

Gunfire. Flames.

Bloodshed.

Death.

Despair.

Absolute Terror.

“Hoshino went down next… I had to pull the trigger… Serika ran away. I had to pull the plug on Ayane, and Nonomi…” the grenades strapped to her body rattled as she shuddered, “Oh… Anything but that… Not even…!”

Nonomi blinked, looking around awkwardly, “That… bad?”

“N-Not even a billion showers… O-Oh…!” Sensei crumpled onto the ground, “I… I can’t change it… Everything that has happened… It’s going to happen all over again…!”

“...What?”

“...O-Okay. Breathe, Kuro-” Shiroko stopped herself, “Shiroko. Breathe.”

“I-It’s all for nothing… The future is predetermined. I struggled in vain…!”

“Wait… is this why you froze up like that when Kaiser reached our doorstep!?” Ayane’s eyes widened, “Because you thought you failed…?!”

“I thought if we robbed the bank early, we’d be able to affect fate… A-And then, I tried calling Problem Solver to get them to call off their attack, but…!”

“Calm down….” Shiroko held out a hand to the panicking wolf girl, “We’ve been doing all we can.”

“A-And yet… the situation keeps changing! E-Every time we’ve tried to do something to avert fate…” Kuroko choked on her tears, taking a shaky breath, “Aru still attacked! We still had to fend off the Gehenna Prefect Team! A-Aside from the bank, all of the main beats of what led up to his death still-!”

“So you think running away will ensure we survive?” Serika snapped.

The air froze into a chill.

“...Serika, calm down. That may be Sensei, but it’s also Shiroko we’re talking about.” Hoshino stepped forwards, regarding the body on the ground silently, “...This was that girl you mentioned, right?”

Sensei silently nodded.

“Missing an arm, broken leg…” the pinkette ran a hand over her cheek, “And yet, somehow still hydrated and alive.”

The bottle, half-empty, lay on the sand by the side of the body. Forcing the unconscious girl to drink safely was a task in and of itself, but Kuroko figured it out after a while.

“You know… you ran away this afternoon. By now, I figure if you kept moving, you would have been long gone from this place; gone a heck of a lot further than this, in fact.” Hoshino gazed out into the desert silently, “But you stayed here and helped.”

“I… I couldn’t just let her die.”

“I dunno. Dressed like this, it seems like this fool wanted to. These aren’t exactly desert wanderin’ threads.” she tugged at the jacket laid over the girl’s body, “You could say, maybe… it was her destiny to die out here, if ya didn’t interfere.”

“And look at all these bandages…” Ayane noted, leaning in, “She must be incredibly weak physically…”

“Maybe that’s why she was sleeping on top of a landmine to try to kill me, huh?”

The mood immediately dampened.

“I… I don’t know why I even stopped to help her. I… I could have left her there. There was no reason for me to…”

“But it doesn’t change the fact you didn’t. Through some twist of fate, you stumbled on her. You helped her regardless of the circumstances.”

She looked up at Nonomi, who was smiling brightly.

“Isn’t that worth something, Sensei?”

Tears began to well up in the wolf girl’s eyes.

“Even if there was no reason for you coming to our world, it doesn’t change the fact you did. In that way, you have already changed our destiny.”

Kuroko looked over at Shiroko.

“The future we’re heading for isn’t set in stone, and I believe that it’s thanks to your being here.” Ayane crouched by the side of the wounded, “Perhaps our fate was to disappear, one by one, as it was in your world. But the truth is, this isn’t that world anymore. Not when you’re here, by our side.”

“Maybe… we were wrong to try to predict the future. Enough has changed that doing so would only get in our way. We need to work with what we have here and now.” Shiroko gripped her older self’s arm.

Kuroko’s wide, tear-filled eyes looked into hers, before she pulled her in for a hug, quivering and sobbing as she held the smaller wolf close. Shiroko blinked for a few moments, before gently returning the hug.

“...They really are like sisters, aren’t they?”

“Sometimes, you gotta talk to the realest person you know…” Hoshino wiped a tear from her own eyes, “...She’s grown so much…”

“S-Shut up…” Sensei muffled, her face buried in Shiroko’s shoulder, before releasing her from the hug, “...Alright. Let’s go home, everyone. We need to contact a hospital or something for this one, and I need to figure out what an Arius even is…”

“And tomorrow… is the fight of our lives, if what you said is correct…”

“Yeah. That too.” Sensei wiped away the last of her tears, before rising to her feet, “...I wasn’t planning on leaving you guys high and dry… There was that one last plan I… Shiroko and I had developed.”

“You mean… that?” Shiroko tilted her head, “I guess it’s time to let the cat out of the bag.”

“I was wonderin’ when you’d get around to spilling the beans on what that thing did.” Hoshino folded her arms, “Alright, shoot.”

“Sensei, I swear, if this is robbing the bank aga-”

“Nothing of the sort.” she hesitated, before reaching into her coat and producing her tablet. Tapping on it, she brought up a large, detailled diagram, several schematics around it.

The last of Abydos leaned in, studying the plans.

Even now, it seemed impossible. How could a single feather tilt the scales?

But there remained a single factor that hadn’t been accounted for before.

If the scales themselves were to be manipulated, then perhaps the goal they sought would be perfectly within reach.

In the end, it was not a question of the feather or the heart.

It was all down to the scales themselves, and the one controlling it.

“Remember the Scales of Anubis.”

“This is how we’ll change that destiny.”

Boss.

I’m going back to Millennium. I hope you aren’t upset at me for doing this so suddenly.

But when I saw Abydos continuing to fight, even after everyone had abandoned them, I realized something. If I kept on running away just because I failed my applied algorithms course, I’d never get anywhere. If these guys in this oversized sandpit had the resolve to keep standing even after falling through the cracks like myself, then what the heck am I?

Please, mark me down as a reserve. I may no longer be able to graduate from Millennium as a mechanical engineer as I hoped, but I was noted to potentially be able to complete a degree in Sports Science (Yes, apparently that’s a real field), specifically relating to Track and Field.

I guess you could say I’m no longer running away… by studying running away really fast.

I’m sorry I ditched you guys like this but… I don’t know how I’d be able to face you and tell you this.

I pray you will be able to understand what I’m getting at here. You’ve actually helped me out a ton before, so I didn’t want to leave you high and dry with unanswered questions.

The next time we meet… Maybe it’ll be you in the spectator stands, and myself on a racetrack.

Here’s hoping.

See you someday -- Ears

“...You could have told me that in person, kid…”

“Boss?”

“Ah- Nothing, nothing. Let’s just finish packing up and getting out of here. Our lease is almost up, and the longer we stay here, the more our previous employer’s gonna want us back… and the more we’ll have to pay these guys.”

“...Are we running away too? After all we’ve done?”

“While what we did was a flashy lightshow, it’s also an expensive one; we chewed through half the ammo supplies that were meant to last weeks for them. They’re already pushed to their limit taking care of themselves; our staying here was never going to be permanent.”

“...I understand.”

“Funny how life works… I came in their prisoner, yet here I am, actually giving them money… I guess you could say I was the one who got mugged back there…”

“Hina… has been incapacitated.” Kasumi spoke ominously, spreading out a document, “With this… We are free to do whatever we like for the next 24 hours at best!”

“Nice going, boss!” Megu grinned.

“I didn’t do anything but whatever- We strike Gehenna now! To assert our dominance, we shall build a grand hot spring dead in the center of the central square!”

An icy wind blew over them.

“...Huh? Why is it so cold all of a sudden?”

A dark presence filled their surroundings, an icy chill no hot spring would be able to warm spiking down their spines.

“O-O-On s-second thoughts, l-let’s j-just go perform maintenance on an existing facility!” Kasumi quickly spoke, crumpling up her plans and hastily shoving them into her pocket, “L-Let’s get outta here!”

“O-On it, boss!”

Fuuka let out a frustrated sigh, ready to snap completely. Thanks to a sudden ‘incident’ involving several pounds of high explosive and, more importantly, a truck of ingredients, she had to prepare enough food for the Gehenna lunch rush solely using only the comparatively meager ingredients available in the kitchen.

On her own.

“This is it. This is how Gehenna dies.” she snapped to herself, throwing up her arms, “Unless I come up with something soon, there’s going to be a riot that will make Red Winter look like a birthday party-”

The door to the kitchen swung open, an icy breeze blowing in.

“NOT NOW HARUNA!” She instinctively snapped.

“U-Um? I-I’m sorry.” an unfamiliar voice spoke, “I don’t know who this ‘Haruna’ fellow is… But I’m here to help out!”

Turning around, Fuuka finally saw the stranger; she had aqua blue-green hair framing a bright smile. She wore a white uniform, an apron tied around the front and a concerningly small Gehenna jacket draped over her shoulders. A golden halo flickered like a flame behind her head.

“I’m a new transfer chef who will be helping you out for today.” the stranger bowed, “I happen to know a thing or two about cooking for a ton of people with limited supplies, too!”

“That’s not the problem. The problem is manpower…”

“Then it’s still a good thing I’m here, right? I’ll follow your lead!” the girl opened her eyes as she pumped her fists, irises shining golden, “Let’s get to work!”

“W-We did it… Somehow… We made enough…”

The new chef flopped over on the bench, gasping for breath as she lay facedown, “This… was… a mistake… I want… to die… again.”

“Thanks for your help, though. I’m glad you were here.” Fuuka leaned over with a small smile, “You’ll go far, um-”

She only processed she was talking to an empty apron and blazer lying on the bench next to her after a few seconds.

“W-Wait, what?”

She slowly picked up the clothes, before even more slowly turning to face the bustling lunch rush. The food was… definitely there.

Looking between food and the empty clothes a few more times, Fuuka slowlt dropped the empty uniform onto the ground, stepping back silently and trying her best to internalize all the questions regarding what she had just witnessed.

“This is ridiculous! Head Prefect Sorasaki can’t do this to me!” Ako growled, gripping the new ‘orders’ tightly in one hand, “I knew Sensei would be trouble! I knew it all along! Why didn’t anyone listen to-”

She froze, her eyes wide.

Someone else was sitting behind Hina’s desk. She was Sitting There, filing paperwork and reading over incident reports, neatly sorting them into several piles.

“W-Who the hell are you!? How did you get into the Head Prefect’s office!?” Ako yelled, reaching for her weapon.

The strange golden-eyed Student looked up, slightly surprised at first before calming down.

“Don’t you remember? Hina has authorized me to handle the lower priority reports for today. I think you’d find those instructions on your orders you… appear to be angrily scrunching up there.”

“What!? You’re lying! There’s no way that-”

She paused. There was, indeed, an extra segment on her orders, right after the mandatory counseling, authorizing an individual to take over some of the Head Prefect’s minor duties for the day.

Ako frowned. She was sure that wasn’t there before. She read these things top to bottom. So what was…?

“Ako, you’re clearly exhausted. Calm down. Make yourself a nice cup of…” the girl paused, sniffing a half empty mug before grimacing slightly, “...Coffee and have a sit down before you start work. It’s what Hina does, right?”

“…At the very least, why are you even sitting at the Head Prefect’s desk!?”

“So I’m not supposed to sit here… I’m new here, sorry.” the girl bowed,“Would you happen to know where I’m meant to go?”

“T-There’s proper accounting desks down the hallway! Working at the Head Prefect’s desk is simply not allowed! How could you-”

Ako only processed she was talking to an empty chair a few moments later.

Rubbing her eyes, she looked all around the room. As far as she knew, nobody was ever there at all. Quickly, she drew out her orders once more.

Nope, there was those orders once more, only now with a separate clause requesting she… make herself a cup of coffee?

“...I really do need to get more sleep.” Ako slowly backed out of the office, closing the door behind her.

Hina sat up in bed, panting.

“A… A dream? …Of course it was a dream…” the Head Prefect grunted, “There’s no way I would have ever allowed such an undignified display in front of another academy.”

Pushing aside the blanket, she realized she was still clad in her uniform, but decided to chalk that up to having been so exhausted that she collapsed somewhere while working. As she arose, sand fell free from her body.

“Odd. Should I vacuum?”

She headed over to a mirror to fix up her hair.

And froze.

Stuck upon her horns, a shredded bucket hat, a note attached by a clothespin to the front.

Hina shakily removed the hat, staring at the note.

‘We got you back home as discreetly as we could. As far as everyone knows, you’re still hard at work. Thank you for all your help today. We’ll pay you back somehow. – Kuroko Sunookami.’

“...Uhm… W-Wait…”

‘p.s. Hoshino’s Momotalk is on the back of this note. I don’t know why she insisted on including it but that’s there for you too, I guess.’

‘p.p.s. Please let us know if your nosebleed gets worse.’

The hat fell to the ground, followed by Hina moments later.

Invisible hands gently gripped her shoulders, pulling her up against a wall before draping a blanket over her.

I can’t let my cute underclassman’s new friend end up killing herself from stress so soon, after all!

OMAKE:

KUROKO ARCHIVE
V3C3E9 SPECIAL PREVIEW:
Death, where is thy sting?

“She said you would be the biggest obstacle to our plan. So, there is one last obstacle to take care of.”

BLAM!

PING!

Silence. Sensei stared at the girl before her silently, raising an eyebrow. The masked girl frowned, pulling the trigger several more times as the bullets from the handgun repeatedly bounced off the teacher. With each shot, the wolf girl’s halo wavered slightly.

She kept firing, as Hina slowly emerged from the ruins nearby. The other attackers in the area emerged as well, watching as their squad leader emptied her entire magazine into the wolf.

Sensei, for her part, just stood there, bewildered as bullet after bullet bounced off.

“All is in vain. All is vanity.” the attacking girl spoke, her voice sounding rather shaky. Clearly, she had not expected this to take this long.

“Are you trying to… shoot me to death?”

“Silence! In the name of Paradise, we the Arius Squad, will become the Eden Treaty Organization! Such is our right!” the girl removed her hat, fanning her face as she switched to full auto, blazing clip after clip into Sensei.

Sensei turned to face Hina, who shrugged back at her in return.

“Because...”

The attacker emptied her weapon, tossing it aside and pulling out a chainsaw, slamming the blade against Sensei. This had equally no effect, sparks flying every which way before the chain broke.

“All…”

Tossing the power tool aside, she swung out a dagger, stabbing it into her chest. After a few moments, the blade and handle vanished in a quick burst of blue flames, the wound instantly healing up.

“Is in…!”

Snatching up a rocket launcher from one of her comrades standing nearby, she slammed the barrel into Sensei’s face, pulling the trigger.

“Vain!”

The area filled with light, flame and smoke, the recoil of the point-blank blast sending the would-be assassin sprawling onto her butt. As the smoke cleared, however, Kuroko remained standing in the middle of the crater. She licked her hand, quickly smoothing out her mussed up hair before wiping it off on her dress.

Saori stared incredulously, before suddenly gaining a malicious look and pulling out a familiar looking chopper motorbike in one hand, raising her gun with the other hand.

“Wait, don’t you da-”

BLAM!

Sensei’s eyes went wide, her soul escaping her body.

“No… No…! P-PALE RIDERRRRRRR!!!! YOU BASTARRRD!!!”

She promptly crumpled onto her knees, eyes rolling up as she curled up into the fetal position, sucking on her thumb with a shell-shocked expression on her face.

Saori slapped the side of her face, rapidly shaking her head, “N-No way… That would never work…”