Chapter Text
The sound of a train was traumatizing enough to wake him up immediately, ringing right to the primal pits of his brain from memories of T-09-86 and managing that.
The scent of blood, coppery and fresh, didn't help either.
"It was all my fault." The words were quiet, pained and distant. Someone dying. He'd heard that sort of voice so many times.
"My decisions, and everything they caused." And there was a personal, familiar pain. One he hadn't grasped at first. but as things had gone on… He'd realized quite what that was. The pain of consequence, command, and failure.
"It had to come to this for me to finally realize that you were right all along…" It was a woman across from him, taller than she felt, a thick streak of blood down her left side from a wound over the heart. Bright blue hair streaked with pink, and a uniform white enough to be part of the Hana without the starry blue accoutrements throughout. She had her hands crossed in her lap, and a thin, tight press on her lips, looking down at his legs.
"So forgive me for being so bold, but I must ask for your help." She continued to speak, even as it made her reddening wound fresher and fresher. He'd seen wounds like that. This woman wasn't walking out of this place. "Sensei."
"You'll forget these words, but it won't matter. Even without your memories, you'll probably make the same decision in the same situation. Therefore, I believe what matters most are the choices we make, not the experiences we have."
…
That hurt.
This girl looked far too young to have been made to understand what he'd forced himself through, but that was so very true to what he'd done. To what he'd done to the people he'd called friends.
"There are choices only you can make. I've spoken of responsibility before. I didn't truly understand it then, but now I do. Adulthood, responsibility, obligation… and the choices you make that extend beyond those ideals. I even understand their implications." Oh, was he responsible. Responsible for building hell and throwing himself in as a sinner, along with everyone else. He hadn't grasped it at the time, but he did now. Too late. Too late for everyone. Too late for Benjamin, for everyone.
A pained, hot breath took his attention away from his thoughts, back to the slowly weakening plea of the woman before him, given with literally heart-felt emotion. "Therefore, Sensei… You're the only one I can trust. Only you can free us from this twisted, distorted fate, and find the choices that will lead us to a new reality. So, Sensei. Please." A request from a dying, bleeding woman, given with words this time. With the scent of hot, fresh blood in the air, staining his nose, thoughts and lungs. A crimson martyr of her own will, asking him for a duty. Something in his soul tingled. "I have witnessed every sacrifice in the name of a better future. I remember them all. I will not forget you." He promised, looking the multicolored girl in the eye. "And… If you meet a woman with hair a similar color to your own: Tell her I'm sorry, and good job." There was a small nod, the last of her energy, and her eyes shuttered for a truly final time. They would never open. But he would remember what he had been told, as the train reached its destination, and-
"-sei! Sensei! Ayin-Sensei!" A rather serious looking woman looked down at him from where he was now lying on a couch. "You fell asleep after I asked you to wait here. I even had some trouble waking you up… I didn't expect you to be so sound asleep."
She had a rather severe mien, long black hair and a similar white coat with starry-blue highlights, like the woman he'd promised to remember. The same group, then, uniforms were the same from Rat to CEO.
They said who you were. This woman was also clearly decently wealthy, going by the gun on her hip. Some kind of ear augments, too. Glasses were… odd.
"You must have been having a dream. Anyway, gather yourself and focus." She said firmly, as he swung awake, garbed in his old research coat. It was clean and pristine, somehow, despite being a labcoat and thus in a state of perpetually stained with something. Like the first day at the outskirts laboratory. "Let me explain the current situation again."
He was going to shut up and listen because he'd made a promise after ascending into the Light, and this was. Not what he'd expected to find in the Light, to say the least. Still, at heart, he was a scientist, and strange women in strange outfits wasn't something he grasped yet.
"My name is Nanagami Rin, and I'm a General Student Council officer from Kivotos, the academy city." That alone was major information: High ranker, as expected by the firearm and quite well-cared-for suit, and an… academy city?
Another city?
…It cannot be as bad as his previous one. Surely, the disease of the mind wasn't going to be here too, right?
"And you're a teacher that we have summoned here… or so it would seem." Her lips curled in an expression he couldn't read, doubt coloring her words in an ill-hidden tone. Was she trying to hide it and doing so badly, or trying to make him see what's going on? "Pardon my uncertainty, but I only say that because I still don't fully understand how you got here." Nope, full on doubt. "I understand that this must be very confusing for you. My apologies. However, I would like you to follow me for now."
He nodded slightly, as he began to follow along.
"There's something I require your help with." She began, as they moved along the outside of a tall building, windows looking down at a city which certainly was down- that was a cloud that just passed by. This was a very tall building.
"Are your colleagues unable to assist?" He asked, staying at her side instead of behind her. Don't look too in charge, don't look subordinate, look like an equal, as he moved by two shorter girls in the same outfit, but with less stars on it. Presumably, stars were rank, going by how they moved aside.
"It's a grave matter about the fate of the city. While you are core to it, they are working to assist as they are able. The head of Defense is especially stressed, considering the situation." She opened a door onto a balcony, glass panes moving aside with a soft whisper of well-cleaned silicates. Maybe they were reinforced? Nobody in a building this big would be poor enough to use normal glass. "Welcome to Kivotos, land of a thousand academies, Sensei. This is where you'll be working from now on. It's bound to be very different from the place you call home."
"Good." He said, simply.
That was all he could say about that.
He didn't want to imagine a world where something worse than the City he'd broken his entire friend circle and himself to try and fix, and then had it falter at the end due to his own mistakes.
She stared at him. Damn, he'd slipped up. "Then it will be easy for you to adjust in time. You were chosen by the General Student Council President, Sophia. We can leave the rest of the details for later."
Sophia?
Interesting name.
A bell rang, and Rin turned around, a sour look on her face. Whoever she was looking at, she didn't like very much.
Blue hair, twintails, and two guns. This woman must be incredibly rich.
"There you are, Acting President!" The woman snapped at Rin. "We've been waiting! Get the real president in here already!" Her gaze turned, eyes a deep blue as they peered at him curiously. "And who's that adult with you?"
"I am Ayin, and I am Sensei." He bowed slightly to her, making her blink in confusion. Before she responded, another, flagrantly augmented, woman spoke up. Nobody had a body like that naturally, that was a corporate princess par excellence. The wings were one thing, that could be a Fixer even with how massive they are(why were they so big?) but the rest? Obvious corporate princess, nobody else had the money to spend on augmenting for looks.
"I've been waiting to see you, Chief Officer." They said, rifle at rest(Was she some kind of- no, it would be absurd to think the Thumb was here, this was a different place). Were the wings stiff, or decorative? What was a corporate princess doing here?
Actually, the third person here had a gun too, a small and somewhat off looking pistol. And deep orange eyes, too, with a hint of yellow under her glasses. The same ear augments as Rin. "I'm here to meet with the General Student Council President. The head prefect has terms she would like to discuss." Head Prefect? Prefect was a term used by some Zwei subsections, for leaders of enforcement, so… Okay, major corporate princess, unknown rich woman, and a negotiator for a head of law enforcement. Alright, that was a triad here, that was for sure.
Rin looked rather displeased, even if she was hiding it again. Which probably meant he was better at reading her than she was at hiding it. "This timing is rather inconvenient." That was. Blunt, for someone in a high position. Did she outrank them that much? "Hello, guests that represent neighboring academies student councils, disciplinary boards, and those who otherwise have too much time on their hands." Yes, she did in fact outrank them that much, that was a very fake smile. "I am well aware why you… important representatives have come here today."
He listened rather harder, standing at her side and one step back. Allied, but not deeply so. A gathering of Association leaders, roughly?
"You're here to blame us for the fuss happening in the city, am I right?" Ah, this would be that dire situation that he was called here for. That was going to be a subject of study later.
"If you're well aware, then do something! You represent the General Student Council!" The twintailed one snapped again. Snappish girl. Pushy.
"She is the acting president. The actual one is indisposed." He pointed out, drawing all of their attention.
"This would explain the disorganized state that has resulted in a Student under the Federal Corrections Bureau escaping." That was the one with the ear augments, looking pointedly at Rin. Another just… walked into the meeting?
That one carried the air of a Fixer, pail hair and one wing on her head. Was she a subordinate of the corporate princess? Bodyguard, maybe? Everyone here had guns, so they were all reasonably important. The Head-
-He was going to cut that line of thought off, that might be a bad metric now.
"There has been a sharp increase in the number of thugs attacking our Students on their way to school. Public safety is not being properly enforced." …And with how matter-of-fact the one-winged lady delivered it, that was definitely reminding him of the Thumb again. Especially as the one with BIG wings(were wing sizes rank for them?) spoke after, continuing the verbal shoving.
"Illegal distribution of tanks, choppers, and other controlled weapons has increased by over 2000%. At this rate, ordinary school life in Kivotos will be a thing of the past."
Rin looked more than a bit frustrated, as the twintails followed. "When will the President be back? I demand to speak with her, as soon as possible!"
"This is not at all possible, and we don't know where she is." Rin answered bluntly. "You are not receiving an audience with her, at all."
"So the rumors were entirely true." The corporate princess muttered.
"Allow me to cut to the chase. The General Student Council has no authority because the top administrator of Sanctum Tower has gone missing. We had been searching for a way to bypass the need for verification, all to no avail… until recently." And THAT was a classical leading statement.
"So you found a way, then." The princess said, keeping a hawkish gaze locked on Rin.
"Yes. Sensei here is the answer to our problems." Rin declared.
…He'd saved one City, or tried to. This time would be better, given he actually knew what went wrong last time.
They were all staring at him now. "This person?" The corporate princess asked, and before he could respond, the twintails spoke up in disbelief.
"Hold up. Who is this person, actually, and why are they here? I thought they were General Student Council, but now I look closer, they've got none of the blue. What are they doing in the first place?"
"They don't seem to be from Kivotos." The corporate princess's wings flapped slightly, gaze not moving from his face. He met it, and she flinched first. Don't let them see you sweat.
"This is Ayin Sensei. They will be teaching in Kivotos, and were directly selected by the President." Rin announced.
The scrutiny grew more intense. Whoever he'd met there, dying in that train?
These girls had known and respected her immensely, to the point that just Rin's words were enough to raise their guards.
"Hang on. The missing president chose them? Things are making less sense!" The twintails complained.
Was nobody here going to introduce themselves?
You know what, time to force that, thinking of them as "Ear augmented" "Corporate princess" and "Twintails" was not working.
He cleared his throat, to buy time, and to look around. Okay.
First thing: Everyone was armed. Not just the luminaries, but the random paperwork clerks running around had guns. That was a sign back in the place of great wealth, but here, nobody was even commenting or glancing it, as normal as wearing clothes. Guns were… likely normalized, at least in this area. He didn't see any melee weapons, either, though everyone moved with an effortless grace that suggested augments.
Second thing: Everyone had a halo above their head. Some form of popular augment, very clearly, and one he didn't know, either. Some of the EGO gear took the form of a halo, but this seemed to be personalized to everyone. Was that art or something else? It was definitely popular, and that meant it was useful. Very few things propagated at high ranks without a purpose.
Third thing: They were all girls, and rather pretty ones at that. None of them were especially blemished, burned, scarred, or anything else. Either beauty augmetics were popular here, or something was up. The all girls… That he had NO IDEA on. Usually that meant something… maybe the halo augments were very strong, but also female-exclusive? Usually that meant much more soul-oriented augmentation than usual, missing half the market was quite unusual.
Actually, he had no idea how the market worked here, so what did he know?
Everyone was waiting for him, and he only had so much time, but things were different here.
"Good morning, my name is Ayin, and I will be your Sensei, as assigned by the wishes of the General Student Council President." He smiled at them gently, doing his best to present himself as harmless. He was not the head of a Wing here, he was a man claiming a title on no evidence but "I say so". Manners were more important than force.
The twintails stopped like he'd told her to eat a can of bear brand beer, as a blush covered her cheeks. "R-right. It's good to meet you Sensei, I'm Millennium Science School's treasurer, Hayase Yuuka. Apologies!" She bowed hurriedly, and he waved it off gently.
"It's nice to meet you. Why are you here?"
"Well, I-" She began, only for Rin to cut her off.
"You're here to serve as the advisor for a club that was formed by the General Student Council President. The Federal Investigation Club: Schale. This isn't your average club, more like a type of extrajudicial organization. Since it's a federal club, you'll be allowed to register students from any of the academies in Kivotos."
…He could just command any individual from major organizations?
Okay that was some authority he had here. The President was clearly revered if just this claim was enough. Rin's eyes shuttered, a expression of annoyance crossing her mouth as she handed over some papers. "How the president was able to create an organization with this much power, I have no idea." He took a copy.
…This authority was absurd. He could just yell at individuals and they'd join up?
This had to be soft power, not hard. He had federal funding, a building it looked like, authority to recruit whoever he wanted, legal immunity, and a host of other powers that were practically putting him as a member of A Corp.
He'd extracted the list of rights Arbiters had from Garion, and it amounted to "We have rights, and you do not."
"The Schale club room is about 30 kilometers from here. The building is currently empty, but we had to put something in the basement at the president's request." She sounded like she was talking about storing ugly paintings that their boss loved and handed out as gifts, instead of whatever was there. "It's my job to take you there. Momoka, I need a helicopter."
At the voice command, a hologram of a woman with…
…That was a hairdo. That was a giant fluffy hairdo of. Something, with a coat slipping off her shoulders and some brilliant sapphire- was she eating? Was that bag labeled pollock roe chips?
What on earth was a pollock?
She popped one in her mouth, munched, and then spoke. "The Schale club room? That's over in the outskirts. Things are kind of crazy over there right now…"
"What do you mean, crazy?" Rin asked.
"A suspended student escaped from the Corrections Bureau, and is wreaking havoc. It's a battlefield over there." Momoka reported, then ate another chip.
Seriously, what was a pollock, he was racking his brain to no answer.
"What." Rin stared at the hologram, who proceeded to eat another chip.
"Yeah, they rallied all the thugs in the area and beat up the ones who didn't wanna. Want revenge on the General Student Council, so they're wrecking the place, and they even brought a tank!" Chip, munch, chew, look Rin in the eye. "Oh, and they're going for the Schale building, because they know we control it. So if there's something valuable in there, they're gonna smash it."
Rin's expression said it all. The look of him after a day where every damn thing had breached and they had to reset, right now.
"Oh well, city's already a dump. Don't worry, won't make that much of a difference-" A bell rang in the background of the call. "Oh, food's here! Bye!"
The call cut off.
Rin looked about ready to explode.
"You." He pointed at the corporate princess. "We have no time. Name, abilities, anything unique, go, now. You and your ally." His finger flicked to the one-winged angel.
She snapped up to position. More like the Thumb than he'd thought. "Long range sniper, I am able to fly, high accuracy. I am able to focus my Mystic to engage hard targets as well, with some time for it. I am Hasumi Hanekawa, Vice President of the Justice Task Force, from Trinity. Suzumi here is a midrange combatant from the Vigilante Group who specializes in high speed, flashbangs, and her assault rifle. We should be able to work together."
He nodded, then turned his finger to the woman with ear augmetics.
"Chinatsu, Prefect Team medic. I can fix up injuries reasonably fast, and I can hold my own in a gunfight. Otherwise, I'm resilient to poisons and know how to work together to handle crisis situations." She snapped out, understanding what was going on.
Another turn, to Yuuka. "I-I'm very durable, I've got two guns, I can calculate pi to 70 digits in my head, and I'm quick at dodging! I'm the treasurer of Seminar, Millennium's Student Council!" She insisted.
"And I am staying here to not get involved in gunfights." Rin crossed her arms. "The helicopter is on the roof, through that elevator door, top floor." She pointed at a silvered set of doors… no, steel, not silver. Reinforced, good sense in a major headquarters for when you got attacked. "They know where to go."
"Very well then." He swung his coat about him as best as he could, and moved. "Let's be off."
They followed him, and he mentally let out a breath. Still could seem like he was in charge.
Time to go get into a fight after a flight.
Also learn what this helicopter thing was, because that was new.
A helicopter, Ayin concluded, was a box that caused you to vomit out of its side while being very loud and very fast.
"Sensei, you might hit someone." Chinatsu pointed out, after having jabbed him with something to help out that made him feel queasy instead of learning that yes, he could in fact vomit out bile even on an empty stomach.
"Where are we-urk- over?" He asked, in lieu of trying to do much, while the rest of the girls looked at him in sympathy. It was… nice.
"Just arriving, Sensei." The pilot reported, one of the white-suited girls. He hadn't caught her name, considering this machine appeared to be geared to make you green. A fluttering hum rang as they touched down, a thud as he very quickly stepped out. The rest followed behind-
A bullet whizzed by his head, spanging off the helicopter, as a girl racked a rifle on the road below, already filled with potholes. Without a moment's notice, Hasumi took aim, and the woman was shot in the head, knocked to the ground without a hole in her skull.
"Good shooting. Unconcious, but not dead." He praised, getting a strange look.
"Obviously? I'm not a monster, Sensei, I might look off, but I'm not like that." Hasumi huffed.
"My apologies." Okay then, killing was unusual despite everyone having guns? That was very odd. "I'm not from around here, so I had to ask. Very well, let's get down." The road was full of burning cars, and two grooves right down the middle, ripped-up tracks from tracks. A gaggle of various helmeted girls with a myriad of worn but functional firearms were there, making him wince a little bit. Yes, everyone had guns, and he currently had a labcoat.
Some days, he wished the Gods of the City weren't apathetic and cruel.
…Maybe there was a god of this city, and maybe they wouldn't be so cruel.
A turned-off tablet in a basement rocked with a sneeze.
He'd commanded a lot of fights, and he could see explosions in the near distance. Time to see if being a Manager helped you command a gunfight.
The opener was another thunderous crack from Hasumi's rifle, slamming one helmeted girl into another like a pool ball as they both toppled over. "Delinquent down." She reported, racking the bolt as Suzumi ran forwards towards a small knot on the right side.
"Yuuka, down the center, be loud and distracting." He commanded. "Chinatsu, fix up Suzumi, she's-" A blast rang out. "About to get hit by a grenade." He finished, the odd woman moving with a surprising rapidity for her bulk.
Suzumi mostly just looked scratched up, which was different from what happened when you usually hit a person with an explosive.
That usually looked like the King of Greed broke out and ran someone over. Splatter. Or when a Green Ordeal hit a clerk.
When most things hit clerks, really. "Hasumi, aim for the ones with grenades, they're the main threat. The rest don't seem to do much." He'd put himself behind an engine block, and they seemed to be shooting at the people with guns first, so best to avoid snagging one. He'd gotten to this height on research, not combat, and a habit of hiring people who were good at it.
He missed Kali.
Everyone was durable, was something he quickly noted. Everyone had halos as well, and he'd bet a lot of money on that being connected, though no proof yet. Grenades were damage and clothes shredding, shotgun blasts were stumbles, and handguns were basically distractions as the group moved forwards at his command. After that grenade strike on Suzumi, not much more than flying slugs came their way, and those did very little.
It was very different from how fighting had worked before, a confused melee of as many people as possible, but he could already see the difference. Range became key for every weapon, each one wildly different, and needing to be split up and manage carefully.
He could also see the massive bus-sized brick of metal with a very large gun rumbling forwards, and a cackling woman on top of it with… Well, that was definitely a Fixer, nobody else dressed like that. Especially fiddling with a mask on top of a mobile weapon platform of some sort.
Might be remote controlled, might be-
Might be pointing at him okay time to move out of the way of that right now nothing with a barrel that big was safe.
"Suzumi! Grab me and run!" He shouted.
The explosion behind him was worth the shoulder-tackle and definitely bruised ribs, as he was slammed into the ground a good thirty feet away.
Hasumi's first shot makes you wonder if miracles are real, as it slips through a tiny viewing hole in the front of the giant armored brick currently blasting at you, while the fox-woman atop it watches through an impassive mask. She's holding an antique-looking rifle, painted red and very very worn. It's also got a massive-
Huh.
The Fox of Calamity is the first person you've seen with a melee weapon.
…Best to hope that red color on her outfit is NOT foreshadowing of the past.
This… "Suzumi, that's a tank, yes?" You ask, in a blast crater from the tank's rampage, and the white-haired girl flicks a gaze over to you in-between poking holes in its front by firing her rifle at it. It is the gaze of 'did you actually ask me that?"
"Yes, Sensei." She said, ducking under a hail of machine-gun fire. It was hammering Yuuka, which had the treasurer duck into cover for Chinatsu, dodging under a shell from that absurdly overtuned gun. Who made guns that big? "What are your orders?"
"What did Hasumi hit with that shot?" The lady had hopped up in a flap of feathers to a nearby roof, and was poking and attempting to hit that slit again, which was making the Fox of Calamity look at her and giggle in a mildly unnerving fashion.
…or going by how everyone else reacted, an extremely unnerving fashion.
He may have gotten used to creepy things after his job.
"The driver, Sensei, it can't move."
"Can you get a flashbang into the insides of it?"
"Sensei, the concussive force in there will…" Her face clears. "Oh."
"Echo, rattle, and disable, yes. Take them out." He stood up. "You! Fox of Calamity! What do you want, and why are you doing this?"
Wakamo stared at the man who had just shouted one of the oddest questions she'd gotten on a rampage at her.
Usually people asked "PLEASE STOP" and "MY ARM" and "RUN"… actually the last wasn't a question, as she racked her rifle. The sound was a lovely thing, as she took aim at Hasumi Hanekawa. Birds existed to be prey.
"My my, what do I want? Destruction, of course! Flames, chaos, and anarchy, for revenge for putting me into jail!" She cheered, slamming the bird-woman in the chest with a round and having it mostly deflected.
Some women had too much chest, because there was more there than she had.
The scream of pain was wonderful music, however, as she looked more closely, flickering her Mystic to focus-
Light.
Pure light, burning bright and brilliant, pure like the moonlight on a riverbed. Glimmering, shining, splendid, wrapped in the shape of a man.
The tank blew up underneath her as the ammunition cooked off, and somewhere distantly, Wakamo was aware of the crew flying into building with loud thuds and louder swearing.
It was mostly a minor distraction now, though.
"…Oh, but I may have found a reason to be here."
"So… what got you put behind bars, then?" He asked, letting Wakamo fire and wincing as Hasumi was knocked flat on her back by a round that shot through about four feet of concrete. That rifle was something magical. Literally, even, going by the crimson bolts it fired. "Certainly, people do not just randomly walk into prisons and shut the doors behind them, unless they are very much mad. You do not strike me as that sort." He had done that to himself, but he was very much a madman, he knew THAT.
"…because I was wronged." She hissed through pinched lips, crouching and fingers flexing in distracted thought. "They wronged me and I will get back at them, and then they won but no longer. Sensei, I will break as much as it takes to get back at the GSC."
Gunfire flashed towards her, which she took like it was a heavy rain, fluttering clothes and not even tearing them, unlike the team that was notably a touch ragged. Chinatsu was spraying something greenish on Hasumi, even as a second shot slammed into the bird-woman's right wing, leaving a cloud of feathers and a visible bare patch on them. "You blasted hairball!" Hasumi shouted, only for the fox to cackle loudly and fire more rounds overhead, forcing her to the ground.
Okay, don't mess with the wings. Important. He kept standing up, as Wakamo idly kicked a chunk of burning tank over, streams of lead surrounding her from Yuuka and Suzumi to precisely no concern.
…It distinctly reminded him of a high-grade Fixer dealing with lower-ranking ones. Where it wasn't even close to fair or sane, simply death.
And death didn't happen here, going by how law enforcement reacted to killing people like he'd accused her of something illegal.
The Zwei killed several hundred people a day in Lobotomy Corp's District alone, and that was just the ones recorded!
"And how?" He asked, and Wakamo turned, a rifle shot bouncing off her head to nothing more than a few strands of hair. Yes, this was like watching a Grade One fight a bunch of Grade Fives. "How were you wronged, that means you should break so much? This is a road, you know? Roads are not known for their political affiliations."
The mask stared at him, as she halted. "…Are you trying to-" She stopped. "…because there can be no more restraints on me. No more lies, no more falsehoods, no more deception and trickery from foul mouths with fouler words hiding poison behind smiles."
The words hissed, bubbled and brewed. Sharp, angry, hateful.
…It felt wrong here, despite how he'd heard such anger so many times before.
"Then how does this fix that?" He pointed out, gently. "What does just breaking people's houses do, to make them not lie to you? People don't lie to you because they fear you, they just beg for mercy. That's only truth if you can't stand any other truth. Do you just want that truth to be told to you?"
The girls turned to stare.
What, was he glowing?
The Fox of Calamity carefully unloaded her rifle, put it on the ground, and put her hands behind her head. "I surrender." She announced. "Into the care of Sensei."
…Had his title already gone that fast?
He'd joked rumors could go FTL, but it had never been proven.
Yet she'd stated it with absolute certainty.
He'd have to investigate that later. "Hasumi, do you have cuffs on you?"
The bird-girl groaned as she sat back up, patting at the empty patch on her wing and huffing. Made sense, she was gorgeous, and those wings CANNOT have been cheap. "I think so, give me a few minutes."
"Sensei puts them on." The lady said, voice rather calm.
It was completely different from before, and Hasumi looked at him.
"I'll do it if you show me how, I've never operated handcuffs."
Once that was figured out, she trundled behind him like an obedient duckling. She didn't even seem to mind as they moved towards a great tower in the sky, high above the clouds too.
Did people here just like building very tall towers?
Was that a local prediliction?
"Why is it so tall?"
There was a pause from everyone.
"…I have no idea?" Hasumi tried, staring upwards. "Suzumi?"
"Nothing, ma'am." The white-haired one-winged girl shrugged. Definitely a subordinate. Maybe the Vigilante Crew was a subdivision of the Justice Task Force? "I never really thought about it."
"Nothing." Chinatsu shook her head. "Though if you want to protect something in a tower, why would you hide it in the basement instead of at the top?"
That's.
A very good point.
The front doors opened to a place that was…
Quiet.
Disturbingly quiet.
"That's a grave, not a building." Wakamo said firmly. "Nobody lived here."
"I'm inclined to agree with the criminal. Who did the maintenance? It's spotless, but it looks empty." Yuuka peered around, fondling both of her guns as lights trailed along their barrels. "…Are you sure this is the right place?"
"I have no idea, so let's go check the basement. Keep a tight watch on corners, I have no idea what this place has in the basement. Wakamo, please don't blow anything up."
"No promises are made, Sensei~"
Despite that paranoia, there was nothing there, in any form. No automated defenses, no biological killing machines, no rogue automatons, no malfunctioning cloning bays, no rogue Abnormalities… nothing.
Was this really an important location left unstaffed?
It was making him nervous what must have happened. Sure, you had fallen major areas, that happened, but usually they were abandoned for a reason!
And that meant force.
No force showed up, and that meant the problem couldn't be met with firepower and strange women with halos who had the firepower. Instead, it was just a trip to the basement as his nerves steadily frayed.
He was more comfortable being shot at than being in a major Wing area, effectively, without anything wrong!
You didn't build a place this big just for no reason. This "Schale Tower" was somewhere important, hooked into a lot of places. No defenses, no barricades, no signs of ruin, just.
Hollow and empty.
Why couldn't it have been a warzone like outside, warzones made sense!
Even opening the basement…
Oh good!
A magical floating rock with strange inscriptions on it, that was much more comforting than that walk.
He understood magical floating rocks the size of a man with strange inscriptions. "Hasumi, call Rin, we've secured the objective."
If magical floating rocks weren't the objective, he'd be very surprised.
Ayin stared at the tablet offered to him.
"That's the dire responsibility and need?" He said, looking at what Rin had procured from a corner. "Not that?"
He pointed at the magical floating rocks.
"No, that's not very important." Rin said, completely certain in her words. "Please, unlock this. Only you can, Sensei."
"And this is…" He prompted, not inclined to touch presumably magical tablets of great power without some safety equipment.
"What the President left you. The Shittim Chest." Rin stated, still holding it out. 'It may seem like a normal tablet, but its origins are a mystery. Its manufacturer, OS, system structure and components are completely unknown." Oh, it's a Singularity.
Why was this place so empty if it had THAT in it?
Rin, unaware of his inner thoughts, continued on. "The President left the Shittim Chest to you. She said that you'll be able to take control of the Sanctum Tower with it. None of the other Student Council members know how to activate it. Perhaps you may be able to figure it out, Sensei, but if not…"
"You informed me it was dire circumstances. What dire circumstances, before I fiddle with a unknown Singularity?" That was the kind of thing that led to a death where your entire profile was burned for the sake of memetic hazard protection.
"The power, water, and sanitation to the academy city." Rin didn't blink, looking him in the eye. "All of it."
…Ah.
Yes, he knew quite well how important power was, and while he was not so educated on water and sanitation, he knew enough that this was a massive body count racking up minute by minute.
And that was by the standards of where he came from.
Here, where law enforcement balked at killing someone?
Yes, that was a dire circumstance.
"My job here is done." She said, as he took it from her. "I'll step away so as not to interfere."
He looked down at it.
There was a voice with a tint of coppery red in it, in the back of his head, a blurred and twisted vision of something strange and different that couldn't happen.
He thumbed a button, and it lit up, asking for a password.
"We thirst for the seven wailings. We bear the koan of Jericho." The words were old and new, entered in a brilliant red. Red felt wrong.
"Password accepted. User identified as Ayin. Confirmed."
Why did this know his name? He'd not told it that, he'd only told a dying woman and a few others.
"Welcome to the Shittim Chest, Ayin-Sensei. Converting to operating system ARONA for biological authentication and generation of verification certificate."
There's a little girl sleeping at a desk in a strange classroom. It looked… normalish. Aside from the side wall knocked out to overlook an endless sea, under cloudy blue skies, with a pile of broken desks nearby.
…Her hair had a streak of pink in it.
…Had the President made the same mistake he did, and made an AI in the image of herself, instead of someone they cared deeply for?
A breeze blew by him, was it windy in-
It smelled like a lake.
Either there was a leak in here, or… He tapped the floor.
Okay, so he was inside the Singularity with a small strange AI girl who looked like a very small version of Sophia.
This was not the strangest thing he'd had to handle even before his self-imposed torment.
She snorted. "Castella cake… banana milk… goes better than strawberry milk…" And talked in her sleep.
He'd made an AI who complained at you and taught you how to drink champagne. He had no right to judge Sophia over this.
…How did you wake a child up properly? He'd never actually done that, Carmen had handled Lisa and Enoch before they'd become Sephirah, and after that, no sleep was involved.
This was not a problem he'd expected to run into today but that was every problem he'd ran into today. Strange behaving fox-fixer, law enforcement that thought killing was an insult, sucked inside of a Singularity, and worst of all, spent time on a train. He'd bargained with W Corp enough to know to NEVER take a Warp Train.
He'd shake her. That might do it.
She felt tiny in his hands, but certainly real. Maybe this was another dimension, or a dimensional pocket?
She sat up and yawned, so he quickly backed off, uncomfortable with doing anything more. "What's going… on?" She blinked sleepily, peering at him with an air of confusion. "Uh… huh? S-Sensei?" That was TWO people now who'd looked at him and just called him Sensei. He had to look information on what it was now, it definitely wasn't just "teacher" going by that. A strange fox fixer was one thing, but a Singularity doing it? That was important. "If you're here, does that mean you're Ayin Sensei?"
"That's me. And you are?" He kept his voice calm. If he'd learned one thing from the cycles of managing his employees, it was once the person in charge panicked, everyone panicked.
This was not helpful because the small blue creature picked up an umbrella and started running in circles. 'Oh no, oh no, I'm right! I'm right, what time is it?!" She wibbled, before stopping and forcing herself to breathe. "Right. Calm down. Caaalm." Several deep breaths forced itself out of her small mouth. "Okay. I'm Arona!" She said, trying to look him in the eye and having trouble considering she was barely even four feet tall. "I'm the system manager that lives inside the Shittim Chest! I serve as its main OS. Think of me as your trusty secretary, Sensei!"
A complicated mix of guilt, pain, regret, fury, and bile rose in his throat at the machine before him declaring that.
"Your trusty secretary."
And this one was even more a child.
Oh that hurt. That hurt a lot to hear and see.
"…Sensei, are you okay?" Arona asked.
"I'm fine, Arona, continue, please." He was going to process that deep desire to run, hide, and vomit later, he'd already thrown up today and he hadn't eaten anything else after, so if he did, he was going to be especially miserable.
"Okay! I've been waiting a long time, Sensei, I'm glad to meet you!" She smiled up at him winningly.
"You were sleeping, weren't you?" He had to point it out, even if his heart wrenched at the pout she put on.
"Well, uh… I guess I might have dozed off there? Ehehehe." She scratched the back of her head, putting on a grin. "My physical form is still small, and my voice could use a serious upgrade… But I know I can still prove to be useful to you!" She blinked, as her halo shifted.
Huh, he didn't know they could change colors or shapes. Fascinating, he'd have to watch for other girls doing that. "Oh, yeah! Let's complete your biological authentication!"
He began to remove his gloves, sighing internally. First vomiting, then blood loss. At least the hair wouldn't be that much of a problem.
"This… is a little embarrassing, but it's all part of the protocol. Would you mind standing a little closer?" Arona asked, and he obliged. Singularities got their privilege.
Then she held up one hand. "Okay! Now, place your fingertip against mine."
Oh.
Right, not everywhere used blood-based gene-locks. "That's it?"
"Um. Yes? Is that wrong?"
He shook his head. "No, no, that's fine." He tapped it and held it there. "So, what kind of security protocol is this?"
"Your fingerprint!" Arona declared proudly.
…he was expecting something a bit more than "Just steal or cut off a hand and slap it on there" for ways that you could bypass the security on a singularity.
Wasn't that a rather easy thing to do?
He held it there for a little bit, as she stared at it. "Let's see… hmm."
A moment later, she smiled brilliantly, halo turning into a heart. "All done!"
"Is that all?" It felt a bit.
Well, lax.
This controlled a entire major organization's power, water, and sanitation, this small blue girl, and the security was a fingerprint?
The ZAYIN EGO gear was under more security than that, and there was a serious question if a generic nightstick was more or less useful than ZAYIN equipment.
Arona pouted again. "You think I didn't do it the way I'm supposed to? That's not true!"
"More… is it just a fingerprint reader? I'm told you control the sanitation, water, and power for the whole city, that's rather important. Is this dimensional pocket space under your control?"
"This… oh, the Shittim Chest? Well, uh. Um. Sort of? Don't worry, I am here!" She waved the umbrella around proudly. "There is no better defense."
He stared at her.
"…You're not convinced, are you?"
Oh no.
She was crying.
How did you deal with small crying children?
He reached down, and ruffled her hair, noting his hand just passed through her halo. Was that normal? He may need to try that on Wakamo, and see what happened. She had a halo too, even if it was a five-petaled crimson flower. Arona sniffled. "Uweeeeghhhh…"
"I'm sorry for doubting you. What can you do, is that umbrella of yours a relic?" Give her a target, a thing to think about that wasn't being sad. Sadness wasn't something to mire yourself in. Otherwise, you drowned, and he'd seen THAT happen.
Giovanni had a miserable fate.
Children were durable, though, because she perked up immediately as soon as he asked.
"Oh, it's a gun!"
Okay.
So suddenly that made a lot more sense. "Ah, and you can shoot it in here?"
"Or out of here! I can also protect you vis a vis probabliisiati-probabliaty- chance manipulation, and deflecting attacks too! It's all encompassing too! I've got a lot of stored power, so it'll take forever to run out. Like, uh…" Her eyes crossed. "…Do you want all the digits or will fifteen billion years work?" She asked hopefully.
Okay.
Yes.
That was a Singularity. "Yes it will, and apologies for doubting you. I'm not aware of all you can do."
"I'll have a list printed later with aaaallll the big numbers!" She smiled proudly, entirely forgetting she had cried earlier. "So, uh… What's happened?"
He filled her in on what little he knew about this situation, and Arona nodded. "So the President is missing, and nobody can control Sanctum Tower. Oooh. That explains a lot! I was wondering how long I'd been out! I can help with that!"
"Thank you, Arona. That would be a big help." He had no idea how long it'd been past enough for important people to come in and complain.
"Sure! Just let me restore the access permission to Sanctum Tower, aaaand-" There was a bing.
Everyone outside jumped as the lights came back on.
Except for Wakamo, who relaxed.
Light brought light.
That was just how things were.
"Sanctum Tower admin permissions granted! It's now totally under my control!" Arona declared proudly. "That means all of Kivotos is in the palm of your hand, Sensei! I can transfer control of Sanctum Tower to the General Student Council whenever you ask."
…Oh.
He was the Head now, wasn't he?
…That couldn't be allowed to stay. He'd been in total control of a world for a very long time in the cycles, and that hadn't gone well at all.
It was a question of how much power to give up. "Arona, could you wait a moment, I'd like to talk to Rin. She's the one who'd know the most about this."
"Okay! Shouldn't be long, Sensei!" She smiled again.
That hurt.
He might have left a little too quickly.
"So?" Rin asked, looking up at the lights, bright and clean and clear shining on the bright and white walls. This place loved white.
"Apparently, I now have total control, instead of you. I don't want to rule this city. What, exactly, is going on with ruling here and how does this work, because I certainly don't want to have absolute power over the electrics grid."
Been there, done that, didn't go well.
Rin looked him in the eye. A faint hint of nervousness, buried under resolve. "I am currently in charge in lieu of the President's return, and as such have the authority to convene councils, negotiate, and exert a limited amount of authority from her office, as well as carry out her last commands. I cannot directly command department heads, however, that was the President's authority. You're certain?"
"That's what the Shittim Chest has informed me of." He tapped it.
Her facade cracked slightly, a tiny flinch.
…Did she fear the Singularity? "I see. And you can return control to the General Student Council, now you have the tool of the President?"
"Correct. I don't want to be your President, I've seen what happens when one man has all the power, and even with the best of intentions, what happens is he will hurt a lot of people doing it. I'm not doing that again." It was something he had been shown, very clearly.
He really had no right to call them his friends, after what he'd done, but he knew no other way to think of them.
"So, what power do you want, then? I'm afraid you have total control, we can't exactly work the Shittim Chest."
…Okay, so while Rin was highly placed, she was a terrible negotiator. You didn't just open with "Yes, you can have anything" that was pointless. Good to know that negotiation skills weren't exactly needed here, though.
"First: Transport that isn't train based."
Rin stared at him, then nodded. "Not at all difficult, SCHALE has a drone bay, and automatic helicopters are cheap enough. I can do that without any complaints, and frankly, it's a reasonable request."
"Second, I'd like an assured meeting with every head-of-school, or other major political group. Not immediately, but I'd like to have them all being met assured. This isn't really a power, more just a request." Keep it soft so the agreement would flow.
"I can at least promise a meeting, but that is up to the schools in the end. We don't have hard authority over them save emergency meetings." Rin shook her head. "Apologies."
"I can accept that. Next… Does my immunity to laws cover access to records, if so, I'd like that to be open to me, I know nothing of this place so I'd like to be sure I don't miss anything." It was a massive ask, but-
"Not at all difficult, save for Trinity and technically Red Winter." Rin made a face like she'd just- Oh he knew that face, that was the face he made talking about White Night and handling that bastard. "Red Winter's records are a catastrophe in and out of the school, due to constant revolution, and access to them is easy, access to all of them means you need to go digging for what vault they-" She cuts herself off. "Apologies. It will be an effort, Sensei. Trinity will be a problem, as most of their records are held by groups not under our authority or permission. And that's where their history is kept. Otherwise, it should not be a trouble with your permissions."
…Fascinating. They genuinely don't care about that, or Rin is far better at this than you think she is! "I'd like a right to conduct arrests, I am aware I'm above the law, but I have a fox over there that I'd like to be able to legally deal with instead of it being technically in Hasumi's jurisdiction. That's a mess. I'd like just authority to clear that."
"Easily granted, I'll schedule a meeting with Kaya to ensure it is properly signed out. That I will insist on." She glares at you.
"Of course, of course. I've handled a lot of paperwork, I'll need a briefer on this land's paperwork. But that should be it. Otherwise… I suppose I'd like to be the emergency backup. If everything collapses, it goes to me." He patted the Shittim Chest, and Rin flinched again. She didn't like this Singularity. "Though I think-"
"-The Shittim Chest ensures that by default, yes." Rin sighed. "You have implicit authority, and I can't actually override it. Formalizing it will be mildly annoying, but frankly, nobody will say much. You can just take that."
"I am afraid I can only promise I won't abuse it." And he had to not abuse it. Another L Corp couldn't be tolerated.
He'd barely survived one, never mind the rest.
"Now. I'd like your meetings minutes, and permissions to go into them, when you hold them. I want to know what's going on in governance, just an automatic messaging system. As well, this list is not final so much as what I can understand I think I need to do my job, but I'd like that to re-evaluate in a month after I know what's going on around here." That was a large but not that large act. Minutes rarely encompassed the truth, and he doubted this Sensei business had that much time in it to handle all of this. Thisness.
"Easily passed over. Is that all?"
"I'd like for working criminals under me to count as on parole, if at all possible." Wakamo visibly perked up. "I believe I will need it."
"Yes, I think you will. I will pencil in a meeting with Valkyrie for that, I'm sure that will go over very well." She's trying to be neutral, but you suspect you may have stepped in a very colloquial it.
"Thank you." Rin says, after you slip in and confirm with Arona that yes, this is acceptable, and you hand power over to the General Student Council. Literally, even. "Now, this entire building is yours, so." She passed over a map. A big, folded map. That's quite a bit of paper. "This is a map of the SCHALE building. I will inform you that officially, you are an investigation club. What to investigate was left open-ended, however, so you have near-on free reign."
"…For what it's worth, I am sorry you have to deal with this." He apologized. "I will try to not overstep."
"It's all I can ask for. Please, don't give me more work." Rin bowed, and excused herself.
Okay. "The rest of you besides Wakamo: Thank you, and dismissed. Wakamo… Follow me, please."
She has her mask on still, but hops a little in place, cuffs clinking along the hems of her sleeves.
That is a very odd outfit, it reminds you of H Corp.
…Maybe there's a Bolus like technology, it would explain Hasumi, Wakamo, and Suzumi nicely.
No idea what pointy ears are for, though-
DAMN.
You didn't ask anyone what a pollock was!
You'll have to do that later, right now, you lead Wakamo to a cell, shut her in, and hope she stays in there. Then, there's a room with a view.
…You also have some firearms.
Considering the volume of gunfire in this place, you'll rely on Arona and hiding, thanks.
Now.
What are you going to do?