Azure Archive (BlazBlue x Blue Archive)

[Omniwhatever]

Crimes of him in that world don't matter in this one.

Click to shrink...

They may not and Hazama knows it, but not gonna stop him from having a laugh to himself about it since he knows Ragna's history quite well. Including the thing Ragna might not wanna talk about that much.

I hope there would be comedic moments for them too to balance out the sadistic features they originally had

Click to shrink...

A lot of that is gag reel stuff. Hazama comedic value, at least for me, mainly came from the sheer charisma he had fucking with everyone, how hilariously condescending and over the top he was. In Blazblue tradition, I have given a thought about maybe doing a one off gag reel like thing and roll with the absurdity, it'd actually fit pretty well with BA's tone, but if I do it'd probably be something like an end of volume thing since I don't wanna get bogged down doing side content so much it stalls the main story. But might see stuff like that down the road at some point as I have given some thought to it and how over the top Blazblue's gag reel stories get and half the time Kivotos may as well be an extended gag reel Ragna is living through.

Except Hazama's crippling allergy to cats. That's very canon and he's going to hate all the cat girls BA has. If just being around Tao is enough to make him screw off, Abydos will always be safe while Serika keeps breathing.

 

[Lovnag]

Heeeeey it's Hazzy and Relius, let's go.

Except Hazama's crippling allergy to cats.

Click to shrink...

Man I still remember the catnip shampoo gag reel. It was so awesome.

 

[Omniwhatever]

Spoiler: AUTHOR'S NOTES

I'M NOT DEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD. I am really, really sorry to everyone for such a delay in updates after being left on such a cliff hanger. I wasn't intending to leave things like that but had to deal with two big personal emergencies across the past 3 months that caused a lot of problems. But, I'M BACK. Still may be a little slower for a bit. Was actually going to originally make this one really long chapter after the long and unplanned hiatus, but another little thing came up that's put a damper on my time to write for another week or two despite being close to done and originally planned to have it all finished this weekend. So since this had a good place for a break 6k+ words in decided to just split the chapter for an update now and should have another in a week or two.

Hope to not keep people waiting so long in the future! Missed my story's 1 year anniversary by exactly 2 months because of it all!

On that note of anniversaries, I got some artwork done by this great person for it that's now in the first post of the thread. The full resolution is a ridiculous over 9000x14000 so resized to not clog up everyone's screens so it's kind of small here . To see the full res, without the added logo, till it's put up on Pixiv since all the delays made that forgotten till now, can view it here.

---

Volume 1 Chapter 1: Building Tensions (XI)​

The day had already begun, and Ayane knew it was going to be a long one. Out of concern for Serika's well being, Ayane had thought to send her a message late last night, just to confirm they'd gotten home safely. To the 1st​ year's relief, her friend was fine, but had run into some trouble. Ayane had wanted to know, but Serika had mentioned she'd explain it at school today since she was too tired for a long story, which the young elf could respect. And so, Ayane had arrived at the school slightly earlier than typical on the weekend, basking in the hot, clear morning sky and sun of Abydos. She might've normally slept in just a little, it was a bad weekend habit of her's when the situation permitted, but there was too much going on to be sleeping around.

As she approached the school gate, the sounds of Ragna practicing came to Ayane's ears once more. It was a little bit of an adjustment to get used to the man becoming a regular part of the school, Ayane wasn't going to complain. His presence was always reassuring to the 1st​ year, a reminder her optimism asking for help wasn't wasted.

"I wonder how much we could get for this."

"Who in the world would we even sell this too?"

… Was that Serika and Shiroko? What were they doing here this early? Selling something? Had they found something valuable?

With growing excitement, Ayane quickened her pace to reach the front gate of the school. "Did you fi-"

The girl froze dead in her tracks, jaw hanging open as she saw a tank with a flak gun mounted onto it in the middle of the courtyard, Serika and Shiroko both inspecting various parts of it.

"W-W-Where in the world did THAT come from!?"

The attention of her classmates was drawn from the tank over toward Ayane. "Nn, Morning, Ayane. We stole this from the Kata-Kata Helmet Gang after the attack last night."

"The what?! Stole!?" Throwing open the school gate to rush up toward the two, Ayane shouted, trying to parse the numerous mental images that conjured up. She knew there was a possibility of something happening, it was what caused her to message Serika, but Ayane couldn't have possibly expected artillery being part of it! Not only that, everyone managed to grab it in near perfect condition!? Something like this had to be worth a lot of money!

"Hey," Ragna's sharp voice interjected from behind the tank, his body coming into view from around the side soon after. "that makes it sound like we're the ones who did something wrong. I told you, no way in hell we were gonna just leave it there."

"Can somebody please explain what happened last night?!" Ayane's gaze darted between everyone present, and briefly over to Hoshino napping under the sun on the school roof, in desperate search of some kind of answer.

There truly was never a dull day at Abydos…

---

All things considered, things were going pretty well for Ragna. He'd managed to avoid Serika getting kidnapped and come out way ahead with nabbing the tank and some combat vests. That'd definitely be useful getting some more evidence and go toward lightening the debt a bit on Abydos. The man had no idea how much any of that was worth, but the tank at least had to be worth something. The girls could figure it.

Getting shot at by the girls also hurt a hell of a lot less than he remembered too. Must've been somebody he had yet to meet again who hurt a damn lot that left a strong impression to make him worried as he was on his first day.

Whatever, that was all stuff to sort later. Time had moved to late morning and to yet another quick meeting for Abydos after catching up Ayane and Nonomi on last night's events. With Ayane having had a little time to do some research and look over the recovered gun, she really was pretty handy with machines, alongside the message Ragna had gotten from Rin earlier, there were a couple of things to talk about with everyone now in the Foreclosure Task Force club room.

"I did some research on the tank you managed to get last night." Ayane began in a lecturing tone, commanding the attention of the room with a stern face.

"Think we'll be able to get a lot for it?" Shiroko abruptly interjected, ears flicking up hopefully.

The 1st​ year let out a sharp exhale, recomposing herself after a second. "No, Shiroko-senpai. I don't think we even could sell the tank as is. That model is illegal within Kivotos. I'll have to dig a little more for all the details, but whoever's been supplying the Helmet Gang is connected enough to get contraband like this to them."

"Should we even keep that thing here then?" Serika spoke up, looking uncertain.

In a world where tanks were only slightly rarer than cars, one could buy explosives and rockets right next to a bag of chips, and even helicopters weren't uncommon, Ragna wasn't sure why the line was drawn at a flak gun. However, from what he remembered of the first go around apparently it wasn't so much the flak gun in general being illegal but more so this variant had some mods which made it pack a lot more punch and were outlawed.

"I think we're waaaaaaaay past worrying about that, Serika." With a shrug of his shoulders, Ragna added. "Don't exactly see Valkyrie or the GSC rushing in to help, so what they don't know won't hurt em. Besides, if you're not gonna keep it, I'm sure you can sell at least part of it if you rip out whatever's illegal. Worst case, I cut the thing into scrap metal for that vendor the school's working with to get something out of it."

"That's something to consider once this is all over, but for now it's evidence in this case, so there shouldn't be a problem. There's a lot we can do with a solid lead like this." Ayane answered confidently.

Nonomi raised her hand to draw focus, a determined look on her face. "Like if we analyze the distribution channels for those, we can find out who they answer to!"

"Bingo." Ayane nodded with an approving smile toward Nonomi. "Considering this, I doubt it could be something like another school and it's more likely to be a larger organization that already has some degree of criminal involvement, which would fit with what sensei was saying…"

The room fell tensely quiet, the unspoken implication hanging thickly in the air like an oppressive cloud.

Hoshino let out an exaggerated yawn, resting her cheek in her palm. "Let's just proceed with a little caution and see where this leads before getting too worried about. No use getting bent out of shape over the unknown. We might find out a lot before this is over. We should be happy we got a good lead now."

"Hoshino's right." Ragna said, leaning against the glass door over the bookshelves beside the whiteboard. Last thing he needed was everyone getting stressed when he knew it'd be fine in the end. "Told you guys we'd get something and we did, so let's just follow that."

And this time he wasn't going to start a fight with Kaiser before that happened. He had to trust his students could be resourceful enough to figure that out.

Thankfully, the calming words worked and the atmosphere relaxed, everyone's expressions rising slightly.

"Well, I guess I'll get to wo-"

"Hold on," Ragna abruptly cut off Ayane, raising his hand to command attention. "I got one more thing to bring up."

Shiroko tilted her head curiously. "Nn, did you think of something else again, sensei?"

"Nah." Ragna waved his hand dismissively alongside a matching shake of his head. "Gonna be heading back for a day since I got some important shit to talk about the GSC with tomorrow morning and takes a bit to get from here to Sanctum Tower or back. Leaving early tomorrow and should be back late afternoon or so. Got a few things to get ready before then so I'll be taking off after this meeting. Might be able to get something done for Abydos while I'm at all this."

Ayane's lips pursed into a pensive frown. "Are you sure about that after what just happened, sensei? Now might be the best time to start investigating and if this is the kind of scale to expect from future attacks, we're going to need to be extra careful. I think it'd be more reassuring to have you around. And... What do you mean by something for us?"

"It'll be fine." The man answered with casual words and a shrug of his shoulders. Ragna was really starting to appreciate the confidence his knowledge of the future gave his plans, as ordinarily he'd have agreed with Ayane and stayed put. "I won't be gone for even 12 hours. Should be back before the evening and given how you all said things have gone, I bet we'll have at least 2, maybe 3, days before another attack. Maybe more if they're still trying to figure things out after the last few attempts went like shit. Besides, while I'm taking care of that, gonna see if I can talk talk about getting the whole 'unofficial club' problem out of the way."

And maybe he could get more information about the missing GSC President from the organization. That issue was on the backburner till the current crisis resolved, but didn't mean Ragna couldn't be frustrated about his lack of progress on figuring out the time loops.

The room fell silent at the man's words. Several pairs of eyes widening in realization.

"… Nonomi, you did tell everyone what we talked about a few days ago, right?" Ragna flatly stated as he met everyone's gaze.

"I did~." With a smile returning to her face and positive cheer in her voice, Nonomi answered. "But, I didn't think you'd do something about it this soon. That'd be great if you could bring it up!"

Serika let out a frustrated groan, crossing her arms. "The whole thing still doesn't make any sense, we're the only students left in the whole school and we're handling the debt! Why bother including our information if we're still 'unofficial'!?"

"Politics and bureaucracy are bullshit, that's why, Serika." Ragna answered with a scowl. He didn't even want to imagine how bad trying to navigate this stuff would've been without experience from the future. There was absolutely no way he would've figured out any of these details and how to navigate them so soon without it. Ragna liked to think he was fairly smart, even if no genius, but anyone could sure as shit appear way brighter than they actually were by simply knowing a lot and how to apply the knowledge decently.

The man continued, casually gesturing toward Hoshino, who looked at the rest of the room now focusing on her with one eye closed and meeting Ragna's gaze with her own piercing one. "So long as the vice president over there is still here, everything's fine since she can sign off on it. But better to sort that now in case anything happens and makes less of a headache for the rest of you trying to deal with things. I don't expect this to get solved in a day but I might as well get it moving while I'm taking care of everything else."

Hoshino let out a long sigh, slowly waving her hands in front of her defensively. "Aw, you say that as if ojisan's suddenly gonna skip town to leave everyone high and dry like a beached whale."

"Not saying you will. Just be easier to avoid any issues later if it comes up." Ragna answered. If things went well enough, there wouldn't even be a certain issue down the road, but like hell was he leaving it up to chance if he could help it.

Hoshino stretched her arms before leaning forward onto the table, staring directly at Ragna. Knowing Hoshino's opinion of him, the man would've gone as far to say the posture was aggressive. And if that wasn't enough, her slightly lower voice said plenty, burying the true emotions beneath an air of casualness. "That's true, but sensei... What's so important you have to leave right now and can't just call them? SCHALE sounds like they got special treatment with a direct line instead of all the boring channels and paperwork everyone else has~."

"Something the acting president specifically wanted to talk about in person." Ragna answered with a huff. Yeah, he expected this from Hoshino. Good thing he'd already given some thought of what to say. "I'm guessing you all already know what SRT is. That school's kind of in limbo right now too since the president went missing and nobody else is willing to take charge, some people wanna get rid of it. Promised those girls I'd try to help save their school too. Lot harder to ignore me in person."

"W-Wait, are you saying they're in danger of being shut down too?" Straightening up with a hand over her mouth, Nonomi interjected.

"Not if I have anything to say about it. Politics are a goddamn nightmare." Ragna said with a low grumble, almost a growl. As much as it was the easy route, some problems you couldn't just hit with a big enough stick. "So trying to prevent 2 schools from getting shut down at once here. Figure you girls understand what that looming over you is like and can sympathize. I'll still be coming right back so don't worry about it."

Hoshino's posture relaxed, leaning back more in her chair, eyes still contemplative.

"You've already done a lot for us, sensei. I'm sure whatever you have to do there will work out." A subdued, yet reassuring, smile spreading over her face, Shiroko added.

Ayane made a few quick notes on the tablet in her hand. Her expression was lighter, but the pensive worry was still clear in her frown. "When you put it like that, it makes a bit more sense. I've never gotten any messages back from them, so I hope you'll be able to get their ear. It would certainly make things easier for us long term. But, please, don't take too long. We're clearly dealing with someone powerful and they might see an opportunity with you gone."

"It's just an afternoon. We can take care of ourselves for a day. I think there was a spare round or two with the flak gun. We'll just use that if we need it!"" Serika responded, looking mildly indignant with her arms crossed, yet the fire she'd usually shot back with the last few days tempered with understanding. Her expression even softened slightly as she turned to address Ragna. "But you better not leave us waiting and get back here as fast as you can!"

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to say you'll miss me."

Serika slammed her hands on the table, bolting upright from her chair with a face that was quickly becoming red. "T-That's not what I said!

"C-Calm down, Serika-chan. Our meetings isn't over yet." Ayane stated in a nervous attempt to re-rail the conversation. "If that's all you have to bring up, then there's one more matter I'd like to address."

"Yeah? What is it? Thought we were ready to end things a minute ago." Ragna asked, ignoring the girl glaring at him while slowly taking her seat again.

"We were," Ayane began, not looking up from her tablet. "but if you're going to be gone tomorrow, then I was thinking we could move up our normal meeting about the school's debt to today, if nobody has objections. I don't think anyone here has any work to get to till later so we should have time for some discussion. I know we've already addressed a lot recently with current events, but I'd like you to see how the Foreclosure Task Force normally operates with matters like handling our debt, sensei."

"I'd love it if he stayed~. It'd make us feel like a proper club! Maybe a new perspective will help us find a good idea too~." Nonomi said with a radiant grin, yet there was something hiding in that smile and those words which loudly signaled to Ragna exactly what kind of plan she had in mind.

Shiroko silently nodded her head a few times in agreement.

Serika took a deep sigh, trying to recompose herself. "Well, there was a lead I was going to follow up on later today so I don't have much to present right now... But if nobody else cares, I guess it wouldn't be bad for sensei to see a normal meeting."

"Would you mind staying a little longer then, sensei?" Ayane's optimistic eyes suddenly flicked over to the rest of the group, expression and words turning sharp, briefly taking on that kind of tranquil fury somebody just wanting to 'talk' while holding a weapon had. "I hope that everyone will continue to treat this with some more professionalism while he's here. We've been having a rather good streak so far..."

Ragna barely managed restraining a groan. Right, that happened about this time didn't it? What was it the first time again? There'd been so many of these damn things and ideas tossed around in the many meetings that remembering all the little details was a pain in the ass.

Except for Shiroko obsession with robbery and Nonomi's being idols. Even if not every time, those came up quite often. And Serika brought in some kind of obvious scam where the only question was what did she fall for that time. It was all ridiculous, a perpetual source of exasperation for both himself and Ayane, while half the time nothing productive even got done.

And yet… It wasn't causing as much of a pounding in his skull as he expected. The more Ragna thought of it, he was almost nostalgic over anything else, sort of like how he'd felt looking forward to the meet up at Shiba Seki. There was so much serious shit happening recently he'd hardly had time to actually just relax and get to befriend the girls again. It'd be good to have some normalcy, well what qualified as it in Kivotos, and letting dumb kids be dumb kids without worrying about a shadow conspiracy for just a short time.

"Alright, I'll stick around then. Might as well get this over with."

That still didn't mean he had to love all of it.

---

Well, the meeting had gone about as Nonomi expected, but she always had fun with how lively the regular ones were. Everyone always had such fun ideas on how to pay off the debt, namely the 8 million yen a month that barely covered the monthly interest. Shiroko attempted to bring up bank robbery and she'd picked a different bank than the one Ragna lectured her on, only to get shutdown so fast Nonomi almost felt bad with how cute the color coordinated masks were. Serika getting saved, for once, from a scam she planned on attending a seminar for later in the afternoon, but there'd certainly be another one within days at most. Hoshino suggesting the best way to repopulate the school was kidnapping a bus of other students. And, of course, Nonomi herself had tried to push for forming an idol group, but unfortunately she hadn't managed to get Ragna's support to tip the tide on that one. What a shame the man couldn't understand the genius of her plan and how much fun it'd be! Maybe it was because she'd not gotten the extra day to find the perfect pose for the Mizugi Girl Gang she wanted to spend the evening on. That must've been it.

Oh, well. There'd be more chances to win everyone over once she ironed out the details!

It was all quite the welcome break in tension after all the emergency meetings had such a shadow hanging over them from recent revelations, especially that still lingering doubt about who it was at the back of her head… It was good to forget that for a little, even if it'd ended in Ayane almost exploding into a shouting lecture. But Ragna had averted that by interjecting the second her furious hands touched the table, as if he knew a blowup was coming. She wouldn't complain about not having to reset the table, for once!

Nothing had been accomplished in the end though and everyone had dispersed to take care of the daily tasks of school life in Abydos, but not before trying to cheer up Ayane a little as everyone else departed. That hadn't gone well, so Nonomi had stuck around for longer than usual to try making it up to the girl, with some sliiiiiightly better results before she'd eventually taken off to attend to her own chores and let Ayane do more investigating.

Nonomi hummed to herself as she strolled through the second floor of Abydos, some of her footsteps muffled by the patches of sand, a thing she really had to take care of. However, that was for later since she had to get a broom and check the front gate as that sometimes needed to get cleaned out twice a day with all the sand that blew in.

"Yeah, guess that's about what I should've expected. So, we're back to that huh?"

Nonomi froze as she heard Ragna's voice once she reached the stairs. Who was he talking to? He sounded a touch more exasperated than usual. Pondering the source of the trouble in the ensuring silence prevented Nonomi from trying to jump in immediately. Would it be better if she left and tried to talk later? If it wasn't that serious, the girl would've felt bad eavesdropping but would've hated to leave to leave anyone important to Abydos hanging if some conflict resolution was needed.

"Hoshino, if you're that distrustful of me, then I know it doesn't matter what I say now, so I'll be back tomorrow and see what kind of news I can bring to Abydos after dealing with the General Student Council, actions'll speak louder than words." Ragna's voice rapidly grew more distant with every word he said, till Nonomi barely heard the last few he let out, almost like it were from outside the building. "Don't do anything stupid by yourself while I'm gone."

"S-Sensei, if you wanna be that direct, l-let's talk about this later...! Ah..."

What in the world? She knew Hoshino had some suspicions about the new teacher, Nonomi herself still found a little bit 'strange' about him and saw the little hints from Hoshino she felt similar, but Ragna knew it too? Did he pick up on it just like he had somehow known Nonomi was a little skeptical? Oh, not good, really not good. Nonomi knew better than anyone that Hoshino had some deep rooted problems, but she didn't expect it to lead to something like this! No wonder Nonomi often got a sense of uneasy tension in the air around her senpai and Ragna. Somebody had to address this before it became an even bigger problem!

"Hold on a minute, sensei, Hoshino-senpai!" Nonomi called out, footsteps rapidly echoing in the empty halls as she rushed down the stairs. But to her dismay, Nonomi found only Hoshino, looking at her like a deer in headlights. Ragna was nowhere to be seen, having already left the small campus impressively quick.

"Uhhh… I, um… Guess you heard some of that, huh Nonomi-chan?" Hoshino's tone was like that of a young kid caught doing something forbidden. Resigned to their fate, yet still holding onto the delusional hope of somehow being able to talk their way out of it.

Nonomi set her minigun beside the staircase, frowning as she stepped toward Hoshino. "Hoshino-senpai… are you really that suspicious of sensei?"

Knowing she was caught red handed, Hoshino's shoulders slumped into a slouch with a sigh. It was only momentary, however, as Hoshino soon perked up and waved her hand with a dismissive, awkward smile. "W-Well, I thought it's kind of strange how fast he got to figuring everything out for somebody so new to Kivotos. But sensei's still helping us out, especially after last night. We talked about it once before, but Ojisan might've come on just a little too strong this time… But you know what I mean about things being kind of weird, right Nonomi-chan?"

"I do…" Nonomi answered carefully. Hoshino's reasoning sounded innocent enough on the surface, after all Nonomi herself had a feeling the man wasn't being entirely honest, but the girl knew her senpai well and she wasn't being truthful as she could either. With a reaction like Ragna had, Hoshino was way more skeptical than she let on. "But you're worried about a lot more than just things being a little weird, aren't you? I didn't think it was so bad sensei tried confronting you about it too."

"Ah… Guess you heard a lo-" Hoshino abruptly paused, her eyes narrowing curiously. "Eh? He talked to you too?"

"Well, not… Exactly. I tried asking sensei a little more about how he knew Ayane-chan's number and so much about Abydos. I guess he thought I was a lot more cautious of him than I was. Knowing you already talked about it explains that, though, I guess he thought I felt the same way." Nonomi finished her words with an awkward smile.

"Ah, so that's why you told everyone what sensei said earlier…" Hoshino trailed off, letting a tense silence hang in the air.

Almost like a switch had been flipped, Hoshino put on a smile and turned away, starting to head down the hall. "Well, sounds like we just had some co-"

"Hooooooooold it~!" Nonomi wrapped both her arms around Hoshino from behind, pulling the girl half a head shorter than her to her chest, bringing them to an abrupt halt. Speaking, Nonomi kept her words a touch light, yet sincere. "Trying to keep everything to yourself is bad for you. It's not good seeing you and sensei fight."

Hoshino went slack in Nonomi's grip, leaning against her body and placing her hands against Nonomi's own. "Nonomi-chan, you'll get grey hairs worrying about everyone so much."

"If there's something bothering you, you don't have to worry about it by yourself." Nonomi's voice turned stern and her grip firm as Hoshino tried to gingerly remove her hands.

Hoshino lightly tugged at Nonomi's hands, but made no serious attempt to remove them. "Iyaa, that's this ojisan's job though~. Gotta make sure the youngsters aren't getting into any trouble."

"Hoshino-senpai, you're not alone anymore."

Hoshino froze dead mid motion.

Though Nonomi couldn't see her face from behind, that reaction said plenty about how her words had stuck the girl. Nonomi wasn't going to let this go without a fight, and she knew Hoshino knew that.

"Hey, Nonomi-chan…" Hoshino's voice was lower than usual as she leaned against Nonomi. "What exactly did Ragna-sensei say about how he knew how to call Ayane-chan?"

"Hrm? He said some notes were left because of the times she asked for help in the past and that included how to reach her. He thought maybe somebody felt bad about Abydos getting ignored for so long." Nonomi answered, unable to keep the slightly uncertainty out of her voice. It was somewhat of a stretch, given Abydos's history, but it wasn't impossible and perfectly explained how Ragna knew what he did, because how else would he?

Hoshino went quiet, quiet for an uncomfortably long time as if choosing her next actions carefully. The relaxed body leaning against Nonomi's chest started to grow tenser with each second that passed.

"Nonomi-chan… You know we can't trust someone whose story about everything doesn't add up."

Nonomi frowned. She'd been expecting something like this with everything she'd heard. She didn't think it was all bad to be a little skeptical, blind trust was how Serika adorably fell for a new scam on a weekly basis. But there was more to it this time. It came from a place Nonomi couldn't help worrying over.

"I know it's kind of weird, he could pass for somebody who's been here before if I didn't know better, but it's not unbelievable since how else would they be so prepared?"
The girl applied a gentle, comforting squeeze to her grip on Hoshino.

"It's not just that. Doesn't it feel like he already knows what's going on?" Hoshino turned her head enough to let Nonomi see the corner of her orange eye, doubt within it. "He knew somebody hired the Helmet Gang the second he saw them, he already knew his way around Abydos enough to walk through the desert and find the school, and sent Shiroko-chan with Serika-chan, like he knew it was coming… And then, sensei leaves right afterwards..."

A tightness gripped Nonomi's heart as the implications of Hoshino's words sank in. Nonomi strongly hoped she was worrying just a bit much, but this was way worse than she imagined if Hoshino was implying what she thought she was. "Hoshino-senpai..."

Hoshino had… Some deep rooted problems, having gone through loss few people in all of Kivotos had. It'd made it hard when Nonomi first encountered the oldest student in Abydos, when Nonomi herself was fresh out of middle school, but Nonomi had thought that after some time with a few students to help share some of the burden, maybe it would help some of Hoshino's pain. But if she'd kept this to herself and even Ragna somehow saw the distrust of him…

Maybe her senpai wasn't as well off as Nonomi thought.

"Hoshino-senpai, even if sensei isn't being entirely honest, that doesn't mean you have to be this cautious about him." Nonomi kept her tone supportive, yet slightly scolding. "I know it hasn't been long, but he's already done a lot for us to figure out why the school's being attacked and saving Serika-chan from getting kidnapped. It's not bad to be a little careful, but you know somebody isn't bad just because they don't want to talk about something. He'd made it a lot harder for whoever's after Abydos instead of easier."

Hoshino stiffened, like a child caught in the act of misbehaving, before letting herself go limp and hanging her head with a resigned sound. "Uhee… That's cheating, Nonomi-chan."

Nonomi lightly hugged Hoshino closer to her. "Sensei said he'd be back tomorrow and talk to the General Student Council about Abydos's situation. You might feel pretty bad thinking sensei's planning something naughty if he does."

"I guess I don't have any choice but to wait till tomorrow then." Hoshino's tone rose slightly to match Nonomi's, much more like her usual self. Yet it was still there, that shadow of doubt. "All this heavy talking is bad for ojisan's heart. If we're done, I could use a nap to rel-"

"Noooooo you dooooooooon't~." In a playful gesture, Nonomi twirled in place once with Hoshino to stop her from pushing out of Nonomi's grip, lifting the shorter girl off the ground like a lifesized toy till Nonomi set Hoshino back down after a spin. "We still got a few things that need doing around the school and sulking by yourself isn't good either~."

Now wasn't the time to leave Hoshino by herself.

"Ah… I see you're in a persistent mood today." Hoshino sighed, the cheer that'd returned to her voice already starting to deflate again.

Giggling a little, Nonomi finally released her hold on the other, stepping back. The tension wasn't all gone, but at least for now the atmosphere wasn't suffocating, so she could lighten up on Hoshino for now, but some of her returning energy felt overly forced. Maybe it'd help to do something simpler to take Hoshino's mind off her current troubles for even a short time. "You can use me for a pillow when we're done, alright?"

"Uhee~, when you make a tempting offer like that…"

Knowing this was… Definitely going to complicate things and Nonomi was going to have to spend the time Ragna was away from Abydos deciding if she wanted to talk to him about this too, but at least she'd managed to calm things down for now. She couldn't deny Hoshino had a point that at times things felt a little too coincidental, but the man at least had somewhat reasonable explanations for most of his story. Whatever he didn't want to say, Nonomi was at least willing to give them some space. He'd proven himself so far and with his strength would've had ample chance to cause issues if some of his caginess were bad intentions. Hopefully, it'd do Hoshino good to see him return with positive news and now that she had another person to support her.

---

Going through the streets of Abydos in the late afternoon, Ragna had an annoyed scowl on his face, the warmth of the Sun doing little to help his mood.

Maybe Ragna had been too optimistic in his assessment of things 'going well'. Matters with the rest of Abydos were fine and things were starting to fall into place to get some more solid leads toward pointing the finger at Kaiser. Hoshino though… Goddamn was she a handful. He couldn't decide if she was just too paranoid or too smart for her own good. Probably both. Maybe attacking Kaiser early the first time had done a lot more for her opinion of him than he'd given credit for. Or maybe knowing how deep her problems ran made all the little things stand out more that Ragna had missed the first go around.

Ragna had thought he was making some slow, if steady, progress with her since that initial night meeting and coming along with her patrols to further chat. But the stunt he'd pulled last night had set her on edge. He could tell from the tone in her voice when she'd started talking about being 'lucky' how perfectly everything worked out and he'd sent Shiroko with Serika. Leaving right now sure as hell didn't help his case, even he could see that, but he couldn't ignore the girls in SRT and if everything worked out he might avoid a significant headache later in case he couldn't get Hoshino to trust him enough by the end of this.

Once again, he had to do all this roundabout bullshit with the headaches a timeloop caused. It was lucky he felt Nonomi's presence in a floor above, but sure felt shady directly bringing up Hoshino's problems hoping she'd hear it discretely.

Did he feel bad indirectly roping Nonomi into this and hoping she could solve things? Yes.

Did he feel bad pushing Hoshino so much? Also yes.

Could he just pretend like nothing was the matter? Shit no.

Hopefully he didn't end up becoming part of the reason Hoshino did something dumb at this rate. Nonomi was always good at talking to the rest of Abydos so hopefully she could temper Hoshino's concerns a bit since she knew Hoshino's problems and Hoshino knew that too.

With luck, some of this crap could be over with once he got back tomorrow, but having Nonomi around just in case with how rotten his usual luck was put his mind at ease. That meeting itself was not something he was looking forward to, despite its importance. Damn politics...

"Senseeeeeeeeeeei, you've been pretty quiet for a while." Arona's worried words brought Ragna back to the present.

"I'm fine." Ragna said with a deep huff. Nobody was around, so no harm saying a few words to Arona. "Just giving myself a headache trying to plan around everything coming up. Knowing what's coming makes me have to think about it even more."

"It'll be okay! You've managed everything so far so I'm sure the rest will be easy! Hoshino-san will come around eventually." Ever a source of reassurance and optimism, Arona quickly answered so supportively Ragna could imagine the smile on her face. "Are you worried about tomorrow? It's your first 'official' meeting outside crisis time."

Ragna paused, leaning against the side of a building, looking up at the sky slowly beginning to turn orange with the late afternoon. "Yeah, that's a coming pain in my ass too, but I'll deal with that later. Got one more thing to setup before leaving Abydos."

"Hrm? Is it about the next thing Kasier's doing?"

"Yep, you're catching on fast. If things haven't gone off the rails yet, should be hiring Problem Solver 68 next. Never learned exactly when they got hired, but it's only been a day so might not have been called up yet. If I can run into one of them today, maybe I can start things off a little more friendly and have a better chance of getting some information later. Those four usually have a lot of freedom with jobs since they don't take money till it's over and Kaiser's probably making backup plans, so should be fine for a few days." Ragna said, already tossing thoughts through his head on how to handle the upcoming situation.

Probably best if he could find Aru or Kayoko. Those two were more level headed than Mutsuki and Haruka were, even if Aru tended to get a bit swept up in her persona. He didn't wanna risk waiting any longer to set this up if he could help it. He'd been too busy the last few days dealing with the more immediate issues to do this, but now he finally had some time. If he remembered right, Aru's group had gotten hired directly by the PMC Director, so between Ayane researching the tank and talking to the girls things could get moving fast. He didn't expect it to be easy, but well, wasn't going to stop Ragna from trying with the leads he had. Faster this got solved the better because Kaiser was already reacting to things being different. Best to try getting an edge while he could count on mostly knowing what to expect.

Now, to see if he could find one of them around Abydos in the next few hours...

 

[veekie]

Just need to rob Kaiser with an idol group and they'd love you