Powder and Lead - 4

I barely managed to maintain the smile I had been wearing while talking to Sensei. If I had let any hint of panic show on my face, it would have been difficult to recover. 'I need to think of something to say quickly!' As I was rapidly thinking of various responses to Sensei's question, the geographical location of Abydos suddenly came to mind. "I had some business in the D.U. and was on my way back to Gehenna." The Abydos Autonomous District was located between the D.U. district and the Gehenna Autonomous District. After answering, I immediately continued to prevent Sensei from asking what business I had in the D.U. district. "Speaking of which, where were you headed, Sensei? There's nothing but ruins around here." Of course, I knew that he was on his way to Abydos High School but got lost. However, revealing that I knew before Sensei said anything himself would be enough to arouse suspicion, so I had to hear it directly from Sensei's mouth. "I was on my way to Abydos High School. But I got lost along the way." "Abydos High School? It's quite far from here. Would you like me to take you there?" "Would that be okay? I'd be getting a lot of help." "It's fine. It's a good thing to be able to help someone else." Of course, helping someone is a good thing. But more than anything, if the story went wrong and Sensei refused, I, a student here, would be in trouble. 'For my sake, for the students' sake, for Kivotos' sake, Sensei must exist.' I was once again reminded that Sensei's absence meant my death. "Then, please get on the sidecar here. We'll go straight to Abydos High School." *** The road to Abydos High School was smooth. I followed the map I had seen earlier and headed straight for Abydos High School, and before I knew it, we had reached the front gate. "We've arrived. This is Abydos High School." "Thank you. I was able to arrive comfortably thanks to you." I informed Sensei that we had arrived at Abydos High School. Sensei then got out of the sidecar and thanked me. "Wait! Who's there?!" As soon as Sensei finished his words of thanks, we heard a voice shouting from the school. Soon, two students approached us. One had long black hair tied in twintails, red eyes, and cat ears, and the other had silver hair that came down to her shoulders, blue eyes, wolf ears, and a noticeable sky-blue scarf around her neck. Serika and Shiroko. I turned off the motorcycle's engine and got off. I wasn't holding a gun. "I heard that you've been having trouble with local gangs, so I came to help. Are you students of Abydos?" "Hmm. We are students of Abydos. You look like an adult from the General Student Council......" "I'm the Sensei in charge of Schale. Nice to meet you." Sensei naturally started talking to the wolf-eared girl who had come forward to meet us, Shiroko, and introduced himself. "What?! You're the Sensei of the Federal Investigation Club Schale?! But who's the girl next to you? ......Gehenna?" The one who reacted to Sensei's words was the cat-eared girl, Serika, and judging by her voice, she seemed to be the one who had shouted at us earlier. Serika was surprised by Sensei's introduction, and when she noticed me, she realized I was a student from Gehenna and became wary. "Hello, nice to meet you. My name is Namari Line, a first-year student at Gehenna Academy. I met Sensei along the way and was helping him out." I smiled and politely introduced myself along with the reason why I was with Sensei to ease her guard. "Helping? With what?" "He was lost." At the mention of Sensei being lost, Serika looked at him with a dumbfounded expression, and Sensei responded with an awkward laugh. "......I see. It's been a while since we've had a visitor. ......The others are in the club room. I'll show you the way." "Wh...... Hey! Wait a minute, senpai!" Shiroko seemed happy to have a visitor after a long time, and she smiled faintly before leading Sensei into the school. Serika was flustered by Shiroko's quick action and chased after her, and I followed them into Abydos. *** "Wow~☆ Our request for support has been accepted! That's great, Ayane-chan!" "Yes! Finally... we can get support for ammunition and supplies." When I followed Serika into a classroom, I heard cheers. It seemed that Sensei had already started talking with the students inside. There were two other students inside besides Shiroko and Serika, whom I had just met. One had green eyes, bright hair that came down to her waist, and a prominent figure, and the other had short black hair, red glasses, and pointed ears. Nonomi and Ayane, were also students I knew but didn't know. "Oh? Wow~ what a cute girl. Did you come with Sensei?" "We have a lot of visitors today." I introduced myself to the two of them, just as I had done with Shiroko and Serika earlier. Fortunately, they seemed to welcome me without any resistance, which was a relief. "Ah, I should tell Hoshino-senpai about this...... Huh? Where did Hoshino-senpai go?" "The club president is sleeping in the next room. I'll go get her." As Ayane looked around for her senpai who wasn't present, Serika said she would go get her and left the club room. It didn't take long for Serika to return. "I brought Hoshino-senpai. Senpai, wake up! Time to wake up!" "Mnya...... It's not time to wake up yet." The senpai that Serika brought was small and cute, looking more like a sleepy junior than a senior. She was about the same height as me, but her long pink hair came down to her thighs, and she had heterochromia, with her right eye being yellow and her left eye being blue. Takanashi Hoshino, one of my favorite characters. 'It's nice to see a character I like in person, but it's ironic that I have to look up slightly to meet her eyes......' Hoshino was also quite short, in the 140cm range, but she was still slightly taller than me. I felt a bit bitter that I, who used to be the height of an average man, was now shorter than Hoshino. "Ahaha...... Now that we're all here, let me introduce myself again, Sensei and Line-san. We are the Abydos Foreclosure Task Force. I'm Ayane, a first-year student in charge of the committee's records and operations..." When all the members of the Foreclosure Task Force were gathered, Ayane began to introduce them one by one. Starting with Serika, who was in the same year as her, then Nonomi and Shiroko, who were second-years, and finally Hoshino, the third-year and president of the Foreclosure Task Force, Ayane thanked Sensei for coming to help them. 'So far, it seems to be going similarly to the original story.' I started to organize my thoughts while casually listening to the conversation between Sensei and the Abydos students. The Abydos Foreclosure Task Force, the only club in Abydos where all five remaining students gathered to revive Abydos High School. Abydos, where other students have transferred or dropped out and left the town, and where most of the citizens of the academy city have also left, leaving them vulnerable to attacks from third-rate deliquents. And Kaiser Corporation, which made Abydos like this, took advantage of Abydos' crisis to impose enormous debts on them and buy their land at a bargain price to fulfill their greed and fill their pockets. 'But the fact that Kaiser Corporation is behind this is something that the Abydos students have to find out for themselves. And it's something they can find out on their own. ......If only the other wealthy academies in Kivotos had helped Abydos out of compassion, things might have been better.' I felt sad that no one had stepped up to help Abydos until it came to this, and that no one moved without putting their greed and interests first. 'Ugh...... What's the point of getting upset over the past......' I realized that I was about to get upset again over strange thoughts, and I scolded myself for repeating the same meaningless thing and started to listen to the conversation between Sensei and the students again. "So, you know. I have a plan." "What?! Hoshino-senpai has a plan?!" "No way......?" While I wasn't listening to the students, Hoshino said she had a plan, and Serika and Ayane reacted as if the impossible had happened. "Geez~ Even I get hurt by that kind of reaction, you know. I do get things done sometimes, you know." "......So, what's the plan?" "The Helmet Gang is going to attack us in a few days. It's a situation that keeps repeating itself. So, we're going to attack and destroy the Helmet Gang's outpost first." "N-Now?" "Yeah. Since Sensei is here, we can solve the supply and other troublesome issues." "That's right. The Helmet Gang's outpost is within 30km from here, and there's still time before the next attack, so it shouldn't be a problem even if we leave right now." "I think it's a good idea. They probably wouldn't expect us to launch a counterattack right now." "Th-That's true, but...... What do you think, Sensei?" Shiroko and Nonomi agreed with Hoshino's plan, and Ayane expressed concern and asked for Sensei's opinion. And Sensei agreed with Hoshino's plan. "Alright, since Sensei also agreed, let's go with the momentum. Hey, the girl from Gehenna." "Yes? Ah, yes. I'm Namari Line, a first-year student from Gehenna. What is it?" I was momentarily flustered by Hoshino's sudden call, but then I remembered that Hoshino and I hadn't introduced ourselves yet, so I introduced myself first and then answered her call. "Yeah, you're Line-chan. Line-chan, do you like fighting?" At Hoshino's question, my smile faded, and my eyes widened. I couldn't easily answer that question, and it was too complicated to think of an answer while maintaining a smile. I had never fought while living here in Kivotos. "Senpai, what are you saying?! Are you trying to involve a student from another academy?!" Serika burst out and protested to Hoshino. But I lowered my head slightly and continued to think. After finishing my thoughts, I smiled again and answered Hoshino's question. But the smile I was wearing now was a slightly different kind of smile than before. "......No, I don't like fighting. I've never done it before. But if it's necessary, I won't run away." After saying this, I closed my eyes slightly, took a light breath, and opened my mouth again. "Will you give me a chance to fight for Abydos?" The smile I was wearing now was a smile of determination.