An Adult's Responsibility Chapter 12:

Chapter 12:

“You know Sensei,” Niko spoke, a complicated expression on her face, “If you want us to trust you, suggesting our first mission together to be helping you rob a bank is a bit…?”

Otogi cackled at that while I could only shrug, “I know it isn’t a good look, but the Stygian bank is well known to be involved in criminal dealing and besides, this is the perfect way to show you all how things would be different should you accept my offer.”

“How so, Sensei?” Yukino, by contrast, was all business with eyes that were narrowed in concentration, “I assume you are referring to a difference in operating procedures?”

“Exactly.” I smiled at the girl, who nodded in acknowledgment, “As an Academy, SRT acted as a supplement to Valkyrie, if they required a more thorough plan or heavy hitters in order to make an arrest. However, SCHALE, by contrast, is an extra-judicial organisation that will frequently have to gather information personally or act on incomplete intel. Essentially, I have the ability and the duty to ignore procedure if I have the belief that it would lead to a proper resolution of the issue.”

“I see.” Niko narrowed her eyes in thought, “So this is why you were researching the Black Market. Your target isn’t the Bank, it’s Kaiser.”

The others’ ears perked up at that, while I sighed, “I can’t hide anything from you, I guess. Yes, I was hoping to gather intel on the Bank’s affiliation with Kaiser, hopefully finding something that will allow me to interfere in the extortion that the latter is performing on Abydos.”

“Due to their debt.” Otogi spoke, getting a wide-eyed look from Niko and Kurumi, in response to which she shrugged, “What? I pay attention to the daily briefings.”

“Well if that is the case and you are doing this to help Abydos with their debt situation… Does that mean that you will use the funds in the bank to pay off the loans?” Yukino asked, “That’s why you got involved, in the first place, right? It’s the quickest solution to the issue.”

“It is.” I nodded, causing her eyes to narrow before my next words caused them to fly open, “Which is why I won’t allow them to use it for that.”

“Why not?” Kurumi asked, tilting her head, “If you are helping them with their debt issue and want to pick a fight with Kaiser, wouldn’t that be shooting two birds with one bullet?”

“Because it is the quickest solution.” Niko spoke, eyes softening as she looked at her squad mate, “If I’m right, then that’s the reason Sensei won’t let them take it. If you teach someone that they can take a shortcut to fix their issues, especially by breaking the law, then where does that end? Nowhere good. Am I right, Sensei?”

“Exactly, Niko.” I nodded to her, “It’s a constant issue in a job like this. If you bust a criminal gang and they have a ton of cash, surely it’s fine if you take it, right? After all, you can put it to much better use than the ones you are taking it from. But, if that becomes a habit…”

“Then you don’t act for the right reasons. Instead of going after the ones you should, you start going after the ones that will make you the most money.” Niko nodded, finishing my thought.

“Well then. If we aren’t going to go after the money, then what are we going to be looking for inside the bank?” Kurumi huffed, crossing her arms as she asked her question.

“Nothing. The Abydos girls will handle that part, they need to be the ones to do this, with their own hands.” Kurumi huffed again in frustration at that, but brightened up with my next words, “The issue will be the Black Market Guards. As soon as Stygian is targeted, they will swarm the area. So, what I wanted to ask from you is to conduct several raids on illegal weapons caches and destroy the stockpiles that have been gathered there.”

I handed over a USB to Niko, who plugged it into her laptop and started to go through the intel I had prepared.

“So you want us to run a distraction?” Yukino confirmed, “What are the tactical plans and rules of engagement?”

“As for the plans, I have included some suggestions in the Intel packet that Niko is going over right now, however I trust you to change them to fit you as required. Even if you want to ignore them entirely.” Otogi let out a breath at that, while Kurumi straight up asked.

“Why would you do that? Shouldn’t you be telling us what to do? That’s what you want, no?”

I shook my head at that, indicating with a hand towards Yukino, “You have a leader, one that you trust to make all the decisions on the ground. I would never want to change that. Besides, I don’t want you all to feel like my subordinates, or as if you have to report to me as if I was a higher ranked officer. I am your teacher first and foremost.”

“Thank you for the vote of confidence, Sensei.” A blushing Yukino responded, “However, as nice as that was to hear, you are our superior officer. That wouldn’t change even if we rejected your offer to join you at SCHALE. The only one who can supersede your authority is the GSC president herself.”

“On paper, yes.” My smile turned wry at this, “That’s not how things function in reality. The Student Council Presidents of each school are in their positions because the student body of their Academy trusts them. The students have decided to place their belief in them, like you all have placed your belief in Yukino. Trying to circumvent or get around that is a bad idea. Rather than subordinate and superior, I would prefer for you to just treat me as your Teacher. I will always help you should you ask for it, but I want to see you standing on your own two feet.”

“I see.” Yukino didn’t seem how to respond to that, fidgeting with her hands awkwardly.

“I, for one, can dig that. So Sensei, any special request for us if we decide to take the job?” Otogi came to the rescue, calling out from her position on the couch behind me.

I let out a laugh, before turning to the lounging fox girl, “Not much, just make sure to take out as many drones and vehicles they send after you as possible. Any equipment you wreck is stuff we all won’t have to deal with in the future. SCHALE’s armoury will be open for you to gear up, so go as wild as you want. If things get too hot, please pull back, I don’t you getting hurt for this.”

“Are you kidding?” Kurumi asked, almost vibrating in place as she suddenly leaned into my personal space, staring up at me, “You want us to be as destructive as possible?”

“Yes.” I unconsciously raised a hand and rubbed her head, causing her to lean into the touch, “The Black Market is full of illegal weapons and criminals. Anything they lose won’t be able to be used to commit crimes in the future.”

As my sentence finished, her eyes snapped open and she swiped my hand off of her head, glaring at me as she did so.

“Do we have to tell you whether we are in right now?” Yukino asked, before Kurumi could voice her frustrations.

“No.” I responded, “Take the rest of the time until the operation to decide. If I don’t hear from you, I will assume you aren’t interested.”

I left them soon after, knowing that they will need time to discuss the proposition amongst themselves.

---RERERE---

The Stygian heist would take place later this afternoon, meaning that I had some time to kill. I could spend it doing paperwork, or I could spend it getting ready with the Abydos FTF.

The choice was obvious.

Still, while I was on the train out to the desert, I decided to hedge my bets. Using the Chest, I scrolled through my contacts for a specific name and upon finding it, initiated a call.

“Sensei?” The tired voice of Rin sounded out through the speaker, “Is there an issue?”

“No, at least not yet. I just thought I should call you to discuss a hypothetical situation, just in case.” I spoke, trusting her to pick up on the signs.

There was a saying, that it was better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission, but doing that too brazenly was a good way to make enemies or draw hostility. Of course, there was a risk she would try and stop me, but I don’t believe that she could gather a force capable of doing so in time.

“A hypothetical situation? Did I hear you correctly?” Rin asked, her voice becoming annoyed, “So not something that is even certain to happen?”

“That’s right.” I nodded, “Purely hypothetical, definitely not something that I’ve already planned.”

There was a beat of silence on the other end of the call, before she spoke again, her tone carefully measured, “I see. I think I understand. So, what is this ‘purely hypothetical’ scenario?”

“Well, if I had to launch a high profile raid on a criminal enterprise, one that is sure to stir up a hornets nest and draw guards away from their usual posts, I was curious on how the GSC would react.” I explained, being deliberately vague.

“Hmm. A criminal enterprise that is large enough to have it’s own guards and owns enough area to have them be able to pulled away? Well, speaking theoretically, if you appraised us of the operation ahead of time I could see us using Valkyrie to take advantage of the break in the coverage to execute some operations that have already been planned in the area. After all, SCHALE is authorised to take these sorts of actions.” She caught on quickly, immediately deducing the target, “What sort of time would you plan to act?”

“Hmm, I’m thinking sometime in the afternoon. Hitting during the shift change between the day guard and the night guard would make the most sense. Of course, that’s if I was planning something like this.”

“Of course. An interesting thought experiment.” She responded, getting the message, before I heard her shuffle some papers, “I suddenly have something that came up. Thank you for discussing this with me Sensei, stay safe out in Abydos.”

“Thanks Rinny.” I smiled, hearing her choke out a squawk at the nickname, “Don’t overwork yourself too much.”

I ended the call before she could respond. There, now even if FOX decided to not show we would have some cover for our extraction.

I was used to things being a bit more certain, but I could deal with this. Adaptability was important, after all. I reached into my jacket, fingers trailing over the three cylindrical objects strapped to my waist, confirming their presence. I let out some tension with the motion, but the pre-mission jitters were still hitting pretty fierce.

Oh well, nothing I haven’t dealt with before.

I had to be strong, for the girls if no-one else.

---RERERE---

“Hello Sensei!” The bright voice of Nonomi greeted me as I entered the clubroom.

I raised a hand in greeting, looking out over the assembled FTF. Serika was with Shiroko and Ayane, pouring over laid out, hand-drawn plans. Nonomi was was waving at me from her position on a chair, her over hand busy stroking the long hair of Hoshino, who was resting with her face on the curvier girl’s thighs. I found myself doing a double take at the sight.

“Oh, Sensei is here?” Hoshino asked, moving her head to look at my direction before smirking, “What’s wrong Sensei? Jealous? Sorry, but these thighs are my personal pillow.”

“Don’t be like that Hoshino-chan.” Nonomi tutted, tapping her on the top of the head, “there’s more than enough space for both of you.”

I laughed at that, “Thanks for the offer, but no. I’m here to make sure we got ready for this afternoon, but I see you are already doing that.”

“Yes Sensei!” Ayane straightened up proudly, “We’ve been pouring over the route that the truck takes and the floor plan for the bank!”

“How did you get the floor plan?” I questioned, looking at the drawing on the desk.

It was surprisingly close to the building layout I was able to pull from the licencing office of the city. Scarily close, in fact. How did they figure out the room layout for places that weren’t accessible to the public?

“Shiroko drew it!” Ayane indicated the wolf girl, who nodded.

“Nn. I’ve been researching the place before this.” She seemed really proud of herself, completely oblivious as to how alarming her words were.

I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, “I had no idea you were so interested in architecture, Shiroko.”

She blinked, before she looked away, avoiding my gaze, “Right. Architecture.”

…

Oi.

“Anyway, Sensei. Do you have news for us?” Ayane quickly moved on, bringing my attention back to her.

“Yes, well I was bringing over the plans I gathered for the building, but what I see in those drawing is more than close enough.” I dropped it, moving on but making a note to address it later, “On top of that, we will have some back up for the Black Market Guards. With us hitting the Bank, it will allow a lot of other parties to take advantage and hit other targets at the same time.”

“Oh?” Hoshino spoke up, sitting properly in her seat and looking my way, “Who did you manage to bring on to this?”

“Valkyrie will be conducting their planned raids of the area a bit ahead of schedule, by complete coincidence.” I winked at her, getting a huff of amusement in response, “On top of that, there is a team that I am interested in joining with SCHALE who might be participating.”

“Another team?” Serika questioned, breaking her silence, “What’s wrong with us, huh?”

“Nothing. But you aren’t part of SCHALE. You are all part of Abydos, meaning that as much as I have enjoyed working with you all recently, I can’t just call you up for something happening on the other side of Kivotos.”

“You can. We would help.” Shiroko spoke, also looking frustrated.

“That’s not fair to you.” I responded, to little effect.

“Sensei’s right.” Hoshino broke into the conversation, “We have our own problems.”

“It’s just his way of looking out for us, right Sensei?” Nonomi added, winking at me.

“Exactly. It’s not like I’m replacing you, I won’t even be going with them for this op. I’m sticking with you all and besides, they might decide to not even join in. Robbing a bank is a bit sketchy, after all.” That got a few laughs, but Shiroko was noticeably still a bit put out.

“Well, if it’s not a sure thing, then we can meet them if it happens.” Ayane fidgeted slightly, before indicating the map of the desk, “Would you mind listening to the plan we have put together so far, Sensei?”

“Sure.” I smiled, “Do you mind if I make suggestions if I see anything?”

“Please do!” She nodded happily, before readjusting her glasses and launching into a long lecture with brief interjections from Serika and Shiroko.

Their plan was pretty simple, if a bit too procedural, assuming things would go exactly as they thought they would. Still it was workable as a baseline, and dealing with things when they eventually went wrong was a valuable lesson. I would be there to help in either case.

As we were busy refining things and puzzling out the possible obstacles, Arona notified me that I had a message. Pulling out the Chest during an argument between Shiroko and Serika over how many tanks they should be prepared for, I saw the notification from Yukino.

I smiled.

It seems that FOX had decided to get back into the action sooner rather than later.