An Adult's Responsibility Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

"When they called it a desert, I'm glad I took them seriously." I sighed as I leaned back into the meagre shade provided by the road barriers, taking a swig of my water bottle.

I believe it's time to face facts. I am lost as hell. Abydos was a surprisingly huge district, and the directions to the High School were severely outdated, due to all the sand changing the streets. I pulled at my shirt, fanning myself as I considered how to handle this situation.

I had enough provisions thanks to the Chest, and my personal protection was sorted thanks to the Taurus G3 Tactical I had strapped under my left arm, but after a few hours of wondering the district I was no closer to locating the School that had requested my help. I looked up to the sun and confirmed it's direction by looking up the time on the Chest.

"The station is to the South-West of the district, so if I move South and then..." There was still plenty of daylight left, so I was not giving up, but returning to a landmark I could use to navigate was important.

I was interrupted by the sound of a bike stopping next to me and a feminine, soft voice asking, "Are you okay?"

I looked up, being greeted by a silver haired wolf girl, looking down on me with piercing light blue eyes. An image super imposed itself over her, a much older looking version of the same girl crying as she aims a gun down at me... I blinked and the image was gone. I was left very confused, that's not how mirages worked, was it?

"Ah." I started, realising I hadn't replied to her yet, "Yes thank you. I was just taking a rest. If it's not a bother, could you direct me to Abydos College?"

"You want to go to the College?" She asked, her head tilting slightly.

"Yes, I was asked by the treasurer to come, Ayane I think it was?"

"Nn, Ayane is right. I'm a student there, I can take you."

"Oh, You're an Abydos student? Sounds like I got lucky meeting you here. Must be fate huh?"

"Nn." She replied, "Must be." She hid her face into her scarf, looking away from me as I stood and threw my coat over my shoulder.

"Sorry for making you walk back."

"N-no." She shook her head, "It's not a problem."

"I'm glad to hear that. My name is Carl Albrecht. What's yours?" I introduced myself, holding a hand out towards her.

"Nn. Sunaookami Shiroko." She replied, shaking my hand firmly and starting to walk down the road, "Follow me."

So I did. As we walked, Shiroko's bike between us, the girl pointed out several landmarks and streets, navigating the sand covered pathways with an impressive ease. I asked several questions about Abydos College as well, which received glowing responses. It seemed even with the dire straights that they found themselves in, Shiroko still was very happy and proud to be a member of this Academy.

That spoke well of whoever was their Student Council President. It was odd, the information about the school was very sparse in the GSC's databases. In fact, I did not even know how many students called the Academy home. It's almost as if this place had been forgotten by the rest of Kivotos.

Eventually we arrived at the gates of the Academy, obviously in a state of barely combated disrepair. Sand had built up everywhere, much like all the buildings that I had seen in this district so far, although as she led me inside the signs of care taking became more and more apparent. Swept hallways, lovingly repaired window frames, oiled doors, all things pointing to a great deal of effort being expended to keep the school running.

Leading me to a specific clubroom, I could hear the sounds of talking behind the door. Whatever the clubroom used to be, I noticed someone had taped over the sign with a piece of paper that had written on it 'Abydos Foreclosure Task Force'. Shiroko with the practised air of habit, merely opened the door and walked in nonchalantly.

"I'm back." Was her calm announcement.

Inside the room, four other girls were strewn around a central table. A bespectacled elf holding a pad with a stylus stood next to a whiteboard, a tall blond was flitting around the other side of the room operating a kettle and a surly-looking cat girl was sat at the table, in an overly polite posture. Sitting slumped over the head of the table was a small girl with long, pink hair who appeared to be sleeping on her arms. I noticed however, her halo was still lit, meaning that she was awake.

"Welcome back Shiroko!" The elf replied happily, before taking note of me coming in after the wolf.

"Ara?" The blond covered her mouth, "Did you kidnap someone again Shiroko?"

I realised that the sand and sun had not been kind to my outfit, my white shirt was stained and dirty from sweat and sand, giving me a rather dishevelled look. Understanding that, there was only one course of action to take here.

"Yes she did. Said something about ransoming me?" They all looked shocked at that, while Shiroko looked back at me in mute surprise before she caught on.

"Nn." She nodded, "Easy."

"Shiroko! You can't just kidnap random people!" The elf waved her arms, composure breaking.

The pink haired girl opened an eye while everyone gave their surprised reactions to that, staring at me with a serious yellow eye before closing it again when she noticed I was looking at her. Something about her told me that she was the most dangerous one in the room.

She opened both eyes and yawned, stretching both her hands into the air and revealing that her other eye was blue, "Uheeeeeeeee, now now. Lets all calm down. I'm sure Shiroko is just joking. Right, Shiroko-chan?"

"Nn." The quiet girl nodded again, "Joke."

"Oh thank goodness." The elf breathed out, hand over her chest.

"That was mean of you Shiroko-chan! And you for making her play along… uhm…?" The blond started gently scolding Shiroko, before turning on me and stopping as she remembered no-one knew who I was.

"Sorry, sorry." I chuckled, raising my hands, "Just having a laugh. My name is Carl Albrecht, the Sensei of SCHALE."

That brought on another surprised reaction from them, the cat girl immediately jumping up, "Sensei?!? Why are you here? We don't have anything prepared…!"

"Please, please." I reassured them, "Relax. I don't mean to intrude. I'm here because SCHALE received a request for help from an Okusora Ayane?"

"Ah!" The elf straitened up at that, "That's me."

The cat girl's head snapped back to Ayane, "Ayane?! You sent a help request to SCHALE? Why didn't you say anything?"

Ayane was flustered as she responded, "I didn't think anyone would actually respond! After all the GSC has been ignoring us…"

She took a breath and regained her composure, "Thank you for responding to our request, Albrecht-Sensei. Allow me to introduce us, as I said I am Okusora Ayane, the treasurer of the Abydos Foreclosure Task Force. Our Chairwoman is Takanashi Hoshino."

She indicated the pink haired girl, who was resting her elbows on the table, cradling her chin as she stared lazily at me. Ayane swiftly moved to the next member, the excitable cat girl, "This is Kuromi Serika, our Secretary."

"Thank you for coming, I guess." Serika pouted and looked away, crossing her arms and collapsing back into her chair.

"You've already met our field captain, Sunaookami Shiroko. Our last member is Izayoi Nonomi." Ayame rounded off the introductions by indicating Shiroko and the tall blonde.

"Pleased to meet you Sensei!" Was the happy response from Nonomi, whereas Shiroko merely nodded with a quiet "Nn."

"It's good to meet you girls." I responded, smiling warmly at the room, "To be honest, I am flying a bit blind here. The General Student Council did not seem to have a lot of information on what is going on here, in fact they have no record of a 'Foreclosure Task Force' at all."

"What?!" Serika was incredulous, "But we've been here forever, what the hell do you mean…!"

"Hey, hey." I held my hand up, "I'm just telling you what I know so far. I wanted to find out out what is causing such a desperate situation that was described in Ayane's letter, so I thought it would be better to get brought up to speed by you all first-hand."

Ayane was nibbling on the end of her stylus in thought, "You say that they have no records of the Task Force? That could explain why all our requisition requests…"

"Yes. That's why I wanted to get to the bottom of this. Your letter mentioned a Gang that has been harassing you?"

"Yes, the Kata Kata Helmet Gang. They've been attacking us relentlessly for months." Ayane replied seriously.

"Ugh those jerks." Serika groaned, "We can barely go a few days without them trying something. At this rate…"

"Now now." Nonomi swept from the kettle to my right side, gently grabbing my arm and guiding me to a seat, "Now that Sensei is here we can take our time bringing him up to speed. I'm sure once he hears what's been going on he will be happy to help us out."

As she placed a cup of warm tea in front of me, I sent a smile towards her, "I will certainly do my best. You are all my students after all, help will always be given to you whenever you ask for it."

Serika scoffed, whereas from the corner of my gaze I noticed Hoshino's eyes narrowing at my statement.

"Mah, that's reassuring for this old man to hear." The pink haired girl grinned, "How convenient that…"

BOOM

The room shook, an explosion sounding off outside, causing Serika to shout out, "What the hell?!"

"It's the Kata Kata Helmet Gang!" Ayane alerted, looking at her pad, "They're attacking!"

"Oh my." Nonomi covered her mouth, looking towards me in concern, "With Sensei here and us running so low on ammo…"

"Well, it's a good thing this old man made sure you could all fight hand to hand, huh?" Hoshino said, giving a confident smile to the rest of the students.

"Still, we should plan how to maximise the supplies we have left. Shiroko, you set up…"

I coughed into my hand, interrupting Ayane, "Girls, The Kata Kata Gang is well known even outside of Abydos. SCHALE is permitted to authorize operations to take them down. Do you have an armoury?"

"Yes Sensei." Ayane replied, confused, "Why do you ask?"

"Well I was going to wait until I understood the situation a bit more…" I reached into my suit pocket from where I was still carrying it in my hand, bringing out the Chest, "But, I brought you all some of the supplies you requested."

They all looked at each other confused, before Hoshino said, "Well, we need to swing by the Armoury anyway."

Calling it a fight would be generous. With the supplies I brought from the Chest, enough to cover the last two requisition requests filed by the FTF, the Kata Kata were smashed apart easily. They expected a run down, harried club on it's last legs, not the fully rearmed and resupplied force that greeted them.

The FTF certainly had a range of fighters. Serika and Shiroko mostly used rifles, with occasional grenades. Hoshino was a front liner, using a shotgun and a heavy duty riot shield, emblazoned with the word 'Iron Horus'. Nonomi, meanwhile, mostly stayed in the back and laid down immense suppressive fire with her portable minigun.

Rather then taking command of the defence, I merely observed. The FTF was very well established, used to moving and working together as a team. There were several mistakes in their formations and cover of each other, but they were fairly small and easily fixed. One of the biggest causes of mistakes I noticed is Hoshino acting as the vanguard, always making sure to draw as much fire towards her as possible.

From the readouts on the Chest, no matter how concentrated the fire was, her Mystic barely took any damage. It seemed like she was playing to her strength, her extreme durability, but often her eagerness to interpose herself between the enemy and her clubmates closed off firing lines for Serika, Shiroko and Nonomi.

Again, not a major issue, considering that the other girls reacted quickly whenever it happened, efficiently taking down the enemies that they still had a clear line on, but still something I would need to bring up with them if I ever held lessons at Abydos.

As I finished noting down my observations from the fight, the clubroom door opened to admit the victorious four, with Nonomi in the lead, "Wow, it's been a while since we could cut loose like that! We finally managed to take down the Kata Kata Gang!"

"Yeah, that Chest thing of yours is pretty handy, Sensei." Hoshino followed after her, collapsing into her place at the head of the table, "Sleepy~~~! This old man is going to have a nap."

"Nn. Thank you Sensei." Shiroko merely nodded, stoic as always.

"Good work out there, you all." I smiled, "No thanks necessary, I just gave you the supplies you should have been receiving all this time. Speaking of, where is your Student Council? I need to speak with them and get the documentation properly sorted out so this doesn't happen again."

"Uhm…" Ayane suddenly looked unsure, fidgeting and looking around the room, "That is… They… We…"

"There is no Student Council." Came the answer from Hoshino, who didn't even open her eyes as she spoke, "You're looking at all the students left in Abydos."

"Just you five?" I was surprised.

"Yes." Ayane deflated, "Everyone else left… because of the…"

She took a deep breath, "They all left because of the debt."

They then proceeded to explain their situation to me. Due to the desertification of the area, the Abydos Student Council had to take on increasing amounts of debt to attempt to fight back the slow natural disaster. By the time they realised how deep they had sunk, it was already too late and they were barely even able to service the interest. Bleeding students due to both the worsening conditions and increasing debt, eventually all that was left of Abydos' student body was the students in front of me.

"I see." I stroked my beard, "What does the debt stand at right now?"

"Let me see…" Ayane manipulated her pad, before coming back with the figure, "The debt is currently nine hundred and sixty-two million, three hundred and fifty thousand Yen."

"Nine hundred million?!" That surprised me. That sum was almost as much as two-thirds SCHALE's total annual budget.

Considering SCHALE's job as being an impartial security and judicial arm for the entirety of Kivotos… The fact that a single Academy had accrued that much debt by itself was concerning.

"Yeah, but it's our problem." Serika, who had been quiet up until now, crossed her arms, "You don't need to worry about it. We shouldn't have even told you."

"It's not like it's a secret." Hoshino shrugged, "Still, that's the long and the short of it, Sensei. Still feel like helping?"

"Of course I do." I replied, seeming to surprise the group, "You're all my students. Knowing that you're struggling with a problem like this… I couldn't live with myself if I did nothing."

"Nn." Shiroko nodded, "I knew Sensei would help."

"Oya, what's this, does Shiroko-chan have a crush?" Nonomi teased the wolf girl, who looked away from us quickly.

Before she could respond however, there was an angry shout, "Are you insane?! You're an outsider, why would you want to help us with something this serious?!"

Serika then whirled on the surprised students, "And you all! How can you trust him so easily? What if this is a trap? I can't stand to watch this!"

The cat girl picked up her bag and rifle, walking briskly out of the room. Nonomi also rose, gathering her things, "I'll go speak to her. Thank you for your help again, Sensei!"

The door closed after the two, leaving an awkward silence that was filled by a quiet voice, "Sorry about that Sensei."

I waved off Ayane's apology, "No, don't worry. I understand. More importantly, the situation here in much more serious then I thought. Let me think about how I can help…"

I tapped the table rythmically, thinking through the problem in my head before coming up with a basic plan, "First, we need to fix your supply situation. This club is unsanctioned and unofficial, so we'll need to fix that first. Using SCHALE's authority, I can authorize and legitimize the Foreclosure Task Force, which should allow you to use the requisition system again."

"That would be a big help!" Ayane seemed happy at that, but I wasn't done.

"There is a problem with that, of course. You would need to pay for the supplies you requisition from the GSC. However, Abydos has been reported as being used as a hideout by a lot of different gangs and troublemakers, as well as criminal elements. That's part of what I wanted to discuss with your Student Council. SCHALE has received several assignments to clear out those groups."

"And you need the okay from our Student Council to operate in the area?" Ayane was following along.

"Correct. But, instead, how about this? I will deputise and requisition the Foreclosure Task Force to carry out all the SCHALE assignments in the Abydos area. You may requisition, for free, all the supplies you need in order to carry out these missions from SCHALE. I promise I won't get mad if you ask for a bit more than you really need." I winked, letting them know that was the whole point of this set up.

"Additionally, as thanks for letting SCHALE operate in the Abydos area, I will pay out a commission fee for every operation that is completed towards Abydos High School. The students of the school can decide how to use this commission fee however they wish."

"That sounds…!" Ayane was excited, but she was cut off by Hoshino lifting up her head and interjecting.

"Uhe… awfully nice of you Sensei. It makes this old man wonder, what do you get out of this?" She was smiling, but there was steel in her drowsy gaze.

"Paperwork." At the uncomprehending looks, I explained, "All the assignments that have been generated from Abydos has been piling up paperwork on my desk. Considering that the leader of the operation also needs to fill out the after action reports and I am not going to be personally leading the operations here…"

"Oho, you're going to make your cute students fill out the reports instead? How crafty, Sensei." Hoshino chuckled, "Is that all you want?"

"Yes." I nodded, smiling in a reassuring way to both Ayane and Hoshino, "I truly do want to help you girls. Staying with this school, struggling to pay back such a massive debt… that was very brave of you all. You deserve this. I only wish I could help more, but I doubt you would accept that."

There was silence, Ayane blushing and looking down, smiling at the praise. Meanwhile Hoshino was staring at me, a slight blush on her face as well but clearly thinking over the offer.

"I trust Sensei." Shiroko's soft voice came from besides me, "We should let him help."

I think we should accept as well, Hoshino-senpai." Ayane agreed.

Hoshino deflated, "Uhe, that's that, I suppose. Sure, this old man will gladly accept your support, Sensei."

She suddenly sent me a cheeky grin, "Take care of your cute students, okay?"

"Of course I will!" I put a hand on my chest, offended, "What kind of teacher do you take me for?"

There was a stunned silence, before she burst out laughing, bringing a fond grin to the other two's faces.

"An odd one, for sure!" Was what the pink haired girl managed to say between her giggles.