An Adult's Responsibility Chapter 15:

Chapter 15:

“Sensei?” The questioning tone made me look up from my list, spotting the sight of a smiling blonde elf girl, “Long time no see.”

“Chinatsu.” I recognised her, “It has been a long time. How have you been?”

“Busy.” The response was accompanied by a tired smile, “There is always something that needs to be attended to in Gehenna. It’s been a madhouse.”

“My condolences. I know the feeling.” I commiserated, “Are you here on official business?”

“Oh no, I just got a day off, so I decided to visit the D.U. to get some personal shopping done. It allows me to clear my mind.” She shrugged.

I smiled, “In that case, allow me to join you. I was also doing some shopping, so we can do it together. I want to hear what you’ve been up to.”

“Oh wow.” She blushed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, “I saw online that you helped students with their shopping, but I didn’t want to ask in case you were busy.”

“Nonsense, I always have time for my students.” I waved it off, thankful for her concern nonetheless, “I’m taking a break to get some of my own shopping done, so you won’t be inconveniencing me in any way.”

She gave me a doubtful look, but sighed, “If you’re sure.”

I smiled, “Perfect! What’s the first thing on your list?”

With that, we started to plan a path through the shopping district that would take us through the stores we needed to visit. To be honest, I did have a lot to do, not just SCHALE paperwork but also sorting through the files we recovered from the Stygian Bank. However, I knew myself well enough to know when I would benefit from taking a break, obsession usually leads to a narrowing of focus and the chance of missing things you would not if you were fresh.

So really, this was exactly what I needed to reset.

We walked through the shopping district, comparing prices and helping each other look for items. I insisted on carrying the bags, separate ones for each of us. Chinatsu argued, but eventually agreed under protest when it became clear I was not budging on the issue.

It was mostly peaceful, only occasionally being interrupted by a student who wanted some advice or wanted to thank me for helping on a test that they had. Each time, the small grin Chinatsu was sporting seemed to grow slightly wider, but she merely brushed me off when I asked her about it.

“By the way, Sensei.” She mused as she leaned over the aisle, forcing me to look away as her skirt started to ride up, “I heard you helped the Justice Task Force a while back.”

I shrugged out of habit, “They requested it, allowing me to operate within Trinity.”

“With Hasumi being the Vice President, I see how she could have organised that.” Chinatsu mused, before picking out the product she was looking for, “Have you been contacted by the Executive Officer in regard to operating in Gehenna in the future?”

“Amau Ako, was it?” I hummed, remembering her name and title from my research, “No, I have not heard anything from her. No one in Gehenna has reached out to SCHALE in an official capacity as of yet.”

At my words, Chinatsu snapped her gaze towards me, eyes wide, “Really? Nothing? Are you sure?”

“I have a very good sorting system for my mail.” I replied, knowing that Arona could hear me compliment her, “I am sure that if I received any mail like that it would have been given the highest priority. In fact, wait a second…”

I put the bags down on a table in order to pull out the Chest, scrolling to my mail app and searching for Ako’s username, before showing the empty results to Chinatsu.

“That doesn’t make any sense…” She murmured despite the evidence being presented to her, “Did she simply not get my message? I know she’s been busy but…”

“I’m new in Kivotos, Chinatsu.” I reassured her, “If she doesn’t feel comfortable reaching out yet, I will just have to try harder to prove that I am trustworthy until she is.”

Chinatsu chewed the inside of her cheek at that, before shaking her head, “But that’s unfair to you, Sensei. I’ll send her another message, in fact I’ll go speak to her personally about this! We could really use the help.”

“Well, I wish you luck. If you are successful, I will be glad to help you as much as I can.” I grinned, thankful that she has so much faith in me.

“Just as you are glad to help everyone else, right?” She asked, before elaborating on what she meant with a smile, “I saw online how you’ve been doing all sorts of things, going out of your way for so many students. I thought they were just making up stories because it seemed like a popular thing to talk about, but now I’m not so sure.”

“I’m a teacher. I should always give help when a student asks for it.” I replied, a warm feeling in my chest, “That’s why I became one.”

“That’s really admirable, Sensei.” Her smile faded, her brow furrowing slightly in worry, “But, please, take this advice from a medic. Don’t push yourself too hard okay? Make sure that you aren’t spread too thin.”

“Thank you for your concern, Chinatsu. Don’t worry, I know my limits.” I reassured her, getting a bright smile in return.

That warm was feeling gone, however. It never felt good to lie.

---RERERE---

She took a breath. Held it in for three seconds. Then let it out slowly.

She knew it sounded insane to most people, to complain about having less work to do, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that the reason behind this recent free time was not at all good news.

President Rio had become incredibly secretive and paranoid, not that she had been overtly sociable even at the best of times. Still, she had never cut the rest of Seminar out like this before, not letting them assist her with whatever project had commanded so much attention lately. Noa had decided to investigate what was happening for herself, Koyuki had gleefully taken advantage of her newfound free time and Yuuka…

Well, Yuuka found another way to keep herself busy.

“Sensei!” She greeted the man who was encircled by stacks of paper at his desk, “Is this a bad time?”

He looked up, reading glasses glinting in the light as he did.

“Oh, Yuuka. It’s good to see you! No, this isn’t a bad time, I’ve just taken on some extra work that has been battling me.” He gave her a warm smile, making her chest flutter weirdly before she ignored it.

“Oh, well then can I help with it?” She asked happily, while at the same time inwardly admiring that despite being swamped with such a huge backlog, he still took on other obviously necessary tasks.

“Sorry Yuuka.” He shook his head softly, “The new stuff is going over a lot of sensitive information. If you want to help, would you mind double checking the Budget requests for this week? I finished them, but I might have made a mistake somewhere.”

“Of course Sensei!” She shook off the momentary disappointment from being denied before happily making her way over to the finished budget reports.

She understood, of course, why he had to deny her. As Treasurer, she knew that some information had to be kept as protected as possible. It didn’t even have to be due to anything nefarious! After all, she doubted that President Rio wanted it to get out how much of her personal funds she used on underwear, for example.

Some things are better kept private.

As she settled in and started to run the numbers in front of her, she sighed happily. She always thought better when her mind was busy, when she was immersed in the world of numbers. It’s why she had been going a little stir crazy with Rio’s new behaviour, why she was so grateful for Sensei allowing her to help him like this.

It was hardly needed, she knew. After all, there were barely any mistakes in his calculations, merely a matter of notation due to his obvious unfamiliarity with Chinese numerology. She didn’t know why the GSC required all financial reports to be done in that specific format, but it was hardly the weirdest thing she had heard of.

Honestly, it slightly worried her how well put together their new Sensei appeared. He was obviously tactically competent, as shown when they retook this very building together, which was the most important quality to have in Kivotos. More than that though, he was good with paperwork, fiscally responsible, and incredibly helpful to everyone who needed it.

Just look at what was happening now! He obviously knew that his calculations were correct, but he gave her something to do just because she asked. It still bothered her as she went through the budget, how little he spent on personal matters despite being expressly allowed to, but for flaws that was a relatively minor one.

Looking up, she noticed that he had returned to the papers around him, brow furrowed in thought as he compared two different sheets to one another.

Unusually, she felt compelled to fill the space with some conversation, thankfully looking at him like that, she had the perfect topic, “Sensei? Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

“Not at all, Yuuka.” He replied quickly, looking at her with an easy smile, “What is it?”

“You are wearing glasses, but I’ve seen you without them a lot too. May I ask about that?” She enquired, slightly worried he might not want to talk about it if it was a sore point for him.

“Ah, I see.” He mused, stroking his beard lightly as he thought, “It’s only for reading that I need them, and only for long periods of time. If it’s normal day-to-day or for a short period of time then I can manage just fine without them. That will probably change when I get older, though.”

“Oh, I see.” She replied, inwardly victorious at being correct, “There were actually a few theories going around about them.”

“Oh, really? Which one was the most popular?” He questioned, a mischievous grin prompting her to answer.

“Probably that you used contacts normally but took them out when at SCHALE.” She answered unthinkingly.

“How very practical. Moving on, do you spend a lot of time looking into rumours about me, Yuuka?” He delivered the strike.

She immediately blushed, knowing that she had been caught, “Of course I did. I need to ensure that you aren’t a threat to Millennium, after all.”

“Hmm.” He hummed doubtfully, “Alright. I’ll leave it at that, then.”

She blew out a sigh of relief, before quickly changing the topic.

They spent longer than she meant to when she first decided to come to SCHALE together like that, each working on their respective paperwork and lightly conversing.

She even managed to get started on his other reports without him noticing, whatever he was working on obviously distracting him. Still, she was glad for it, as it allowed her to help him out in a real, tangible way.

Whatever it was, it was obviously worrying him a great deal, so allowing him more time to get it out of the way was the best thing she could do to help.

As she walked home that afternoon, she must admit that she was incredibly curious about what could be that important, but she was proud with herself for not attempting to sneak a peek at what he was working on.

Self control was the most important trait for a Treasurer, after all!

---RERERE---

“No Hoshino today?” I asked after I finished greeting the members of the FTF.

“Nn. She called us, said she needed to take care of something personal.” Shiroko explained helpfully.

“Senpai does that occasionally, you get used to it.” Ayane chimed in, getting nods from everyone else.

I mused at that, feeling that the timing meant there was more to it, but decided to wait until I had a clearer picture, “In that case, are you all ready? Today will just be a routine patrol.”

“We’re ready Sensei!” Nonomi grinned at me, exaggeratedly flexing her arms in my direction, “Don’t worry, even without Hoshino-senpai here we’ll protect you!”

“Don’t we always do that anyway?” Serika grumbled, arms crossed in her seat.

“But she so heroically tackled him when she saw that grenade. He might be feeling unsafe in her absence.” Nonomi tilted her head as she spoke, tapping her chin in thought.

“I did that too.” Shiroko was the one to grumble this time, an irritated look on her face.

“So that means there’s no problem then, right Sensei?” The blonde spoke, pointing towards me.

“Haha. Can’t argue with that logic.” I laughed at their antics, “In that case, I’ll be relying on you in case anyone throws any more explosives at us, Shiroko.”

Rather than play along, the wolf girl instead nodded seriously, “Nn. Leave it to me.”

That earned some giggles, the tension over Hoshino’s absence completely diffused. Soon enough, we finished planning out the route of the patrol that we were going to do that day.

As we walked through the sand-swept streets of Abydos, I was asked by the girl who was preforming overwatch for us, “Sensei, have you managed to find anything from the documents that we got from the Bank?”

I answered Ayane, “Well, yes and no. There are several things regarding your debt that were done in an illegal manner, but I need to build a case for it. I need to link it to publicly available information in order to get a court order to get the documents in a legal manner, with which I can then unravel the whole thing. I am working on it, but it’s not going to be a quick process.”

“I understand.” Came the response, that was nonetheless disappointed.

“Don’t worry too much over it. With my authority from SCHALE, I should be able to speed things up a lot. Either way, they will soon feel the pressure, meaning that they will stop trying to mess with you girls so as to not weaken their case.” I tried to reassure her.

“Thank you for working so hard for us, Sensei.” Nonomi spoke, smiling gently as we walked.

“Nn, Sensei will figure it out.” Interjected Shiroko.

Serika, walking to my left, rolled her eyes, “You guys are so quick to trust. I won’t hold my breath.”

“Your support is appreciated, Serika.” I teased, causing her to blush and look away, “Oh, we are close to Shiba Seki. Do you girls want to grab a bite?”

“Yes!” Nonomi clapped her hands together, her minigun kept aloft by a shoulder strap, “I’m famished and Master makes some great ramen!”

“Sounds like a plan then. Sorry to take you back there when you aren’t working.” The last part was directed to the scowling cat girl.

“It’s fine.” She harrumphed, “The food there is good anyway.”

“Well, I’ll be paying, so hopefully that makes up for it.” I spoke, getting a few thankful smiles at that, “Ayane, do you want to come join us?”

“Sure thing Albrecht-sensei, I’m leaving now!” Came the excited response, causing me to chuckle.

We set up a meeting area, a well-known intersection, not having to wait long before the elfin treasurer of the FTF made her appearance. Just as we were about to exchange greetings after spotting her, the first sign of trouble this whole patrol occurred.

The earth rumbled, the sound of an explosion blasting through the air as what sounded like a bomb went off. The FTF reacted quickly, positioning themselves between Ayane and I and the direction the explosion came from, as the girl in question hurriedly dug out her tablet, connecting to the drone that was already in the air from our patrol.

She gasped, “It came from Shiba Seki! The store has been bombed!”

“What the hell is with that timing?!” Serika fumed, before hurriedly taking off in the direction of the store.

“Let’s go with her.” I was quick to order, pulling out my gun and ensuring that the Chest was charged enough to see me through a fight.

Nonomi, Shiroko and Ayane nodded, moving quickly and efficiently through the winding streets, following the back of their friend who turned a corner and came to a stop, a strangled gasp being heard from her as she did so.

We rounded the corner after her and saw what had caused her to pause like she had.

Whatever had exploded in the store, it was violent. Far too much so to be the reasult of an accident from the kitchen. My thoughts were only further confirmed when I examined the scene, finding that there was a lot of smoke and dust but no active fires. This wasn’t a gas explosion, whatever it was was concussive, blowing the entire front of the store apart, but not damaging the structure of the building too much. Of course, it was still ravaged, but it hadn’t collapsed as it would have if a gas main blew.

This was deliberate.

Serika burst forward, her eyes locked onto a crumpled figure, shouting as she did so, “Master Seki!”

We hurried after her, seeing that she had indeed recognised the owner of the store on the ground. He groaned as we approached, Serika worriedly moving to help him up.

“Stop Serika, he could have hurt his spine.” I ordered, my tone causing her to freeze in place, “Master Seki, please stop trying to move, we are here to help. Stay still until we get you to the hospital.”

“Serika…? Sensei…? You’re… here?” He coughed, his body convulsing as he did so, “What happened?”

“That’s what we are here to find out.” I answered him, getting a weak nod.

“Master Seki, did you see anything?” Serika fretted, her hands being wrung together, “Do you-”

She was cut off by more coughing, but this time from further into the debris field, not from Master Seki.

I snapped my gun up, aiming towards the sound as I advanced, a glance to my side showing Shiroko covering me as I did so. She nodded at my gaze, before we stepped past what used to be the store sign and were greeted by a strange sight.

Strewn around the floor, their dresses in various states of disrepair, were Problem Solver Sixty Eight.

The first one to get up was Aru, who was the one we had heard coughing.

“Haruka, what the hell was that…?” She spoke weakly, before blinking at the guns that were pointed at her, the rest of the FTF having followed us to see what had been making the noises.

“Did you do this?” Serika asked, voice low, dangerous.

Aru visibly panicked, eyes flicking back and forth, before a silly grin came to her face as she straightened up, laughing maniacally as she did so.

“Indeed, silly children! Fear me, for I have struck at your very-!” She stopped, wracked with coughs and sickly sounding hacking, whatever she was going for completely ruined.

Serika grit her teeth, growling, “I have no idea why you’re lying, but I’ll find out. We’re taking you in and getting to the bottom of-”

She was cut off by a whistling sound, causing her to look up, confused.

I, however, was familiar with the sound, knowing exactly what it signalled.

“DOWN!” I yelled, tackling Aru to the floor as the FTF followed my orders, hunkering down and finding cover before the shell hit.

“Awawawa, what’s happening?” Aru stammered from below me, a blush igniting her cheeks.

Then the barrage started.

Explosions rang out, the street being pulverised around us as the shells landed, the aim not perfect but close enough to deafen me and rattle my teeth. I covered the girl below me with my body, keeping my head down, so I was unable to see what happened but the Chest did its job, the fire and shrapnel being diverted from hitting me.

The barrage ended as suddenly as it started, causing me to poke my head up from the crater I now found myself in.

“What just happened?” Aru asked, her voice weak.

“We were hit by an artillery strike.” I responded, ignoring her surprised squawk at that, “FTF, sound in!”

I got groans and affirmations from the girls through my earpiece, causing me to sigh in relief.

“Up and at them, we have hostile units closing in.” I ordered, causing them to start digging themselves out of their cover and taking up position.

Indeed, down the street marched what appeared to be well-ordered ranks of students, in matching uniforms and wielding matching weapons.

Serika, ever the hothead, yelled at them, “Hey, what’s the big idea huh? Who gave you the authority to operate in Abydos?”

“I wasn’t aware there was anyone here to even speak to.” Came the dismissive answer, as a dark-skinned girl spoke, her pointed ears twitching as she moved to the front of their formation, a devil’s tail snapping behind her, “Besides, the Prefect Team’s purpose is to arrest trouble makers, wherever they are. Isn’t that right, Aru?”

“Oh no…” Came the wail from behind me, which I ignored.

“You are operating on another school’s territory. I would advise turning around and marching back to Gehenna before this gets ugly.” I spoke to the leader, causing her head to snap towards me.

“Who the hell are you supposed to be?” She questioned, but she was answered by another voice coming from the formation of the Prefect team.

“Sensei?!” Came the shocked exclamation of a familiar girl.

“Chinatsu?!” I called back, catching sight of her as she muscled her way to the front ranks.

“What are you doing… here…?” Her voice trailed off, noticing where I was standing, in a waist-deep crater.

“Chinatsu, you know this joker?” Devil girl questioned while the elfin medic merely buried her head in her hands.

“We called in an artillery strike on SCHALE… We are so screwed…” She muttered, only for the other girl to pale.

“Wait, SCHALE? Sensei? You mean…?” She turned back to me, just in time for me to finally leave the depression that I had dived into.

“I would say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but I would be lying.” I smiled without warmth, “Allow me to introduce myself. Carl Albrecht, Sensei of SCHALE.”