When Rin's face emerged, he steeled himself.

"Sensei. I would like to apo--"

"Shut up."

She flinched. And then, she was silent.

"You're going to explain everything when this is done, understood?"

She slowly, silently nodded. Kize squinted, having the sense that she might not want to. Her silence... It was clear she was still hiding something.

Or she was ashamed.

"... Rin."

"It's better if you talk to them instead."

"No."

She shrunk.

"As the President of the GSC, it's upon your responsibility and accountability for letting things spiral like this. So you will explain it later, understood?"

"....."

"Rin--"

"I will... I'm sorry..."

"Don't be sorry." A beat passed. "Be better."

He watched as she exhaled, shrinking further into her chair. Kize, on his end, took a deep breath, his expression softening only slightly. He leaned back against the chair, the weight of his words now clinging to him.

Stern as he was, he reminded himself that these were students. And Rin was overworked already enough as it is.

His fists, clenched against the Shittim Chest, relaxed slightly. His shoulders slumped to his side, before he spoke again.

"I'm sorry for unloading all that on you."

Another flinch. Rin slowly looked back up to Kize.

"You're trying. I see your intent, and I understand it. And the very least, you tried to contact me before things got worse."

"....." Another stun into silence. Who was this? Was this really the Ghost-Sensei she was so familiar with?

What happened in just two days of his disappearance? How did all this even happened?

"W... Who are you?" Rin managed out.

"Irrelevant. Let's get to work," Kize immediately replied. "What is the status of the train?"

Rin's eyes widened, before nodding.

"20 minutes ago, there was an announcement made by the Stranger within Gehenna about the train passengers being held hostage. We believe Miharu and FOX Platoon are still in there with the suspicious cargo."

"What about the train itself?"

"Recent information reveals it's reinforced. Shutters are formed so nothing gets in or out. It's been cordoned by Valkyrie and members of the Prefect Team. Seems like even they're investigating on the Stranger as well."

"... Who's the Stranger?"

Rin looked directly to him.

"Haruto Kuzaka."

A beat passed.

Kize's perplexed expression came to be.

"Who?"

Rin seemed taken aback. She thought he knew. With how the Stranger seemed adept in breaking the man, she really, truly anticipated that he would at least know who that man was.

But he didn't. A one-sided bitter rivalry instigated to a man who never bothered him.

Or did he really forgot?

"According to Miharu's anecdotes, he was close to her. Went to the same teaching center as both of you. Even taught in the same high school you both taught."

"..." Vague memories emerged. A man with dark blue hair.

A start.

"Miharu assumed that this all began because of her. Because she rejected him, and perhaps projected that failure to you."

"... For four years, this is what it led up to..."

Haruto Kuzaka. A man know knows of his past because he had seen it all firsthand. A man who followed Miharu. A man whose passion wasn't in teaching, but on a single woman.

He remembered an odd memory.

One involving a discussion between him and another colleague.

'Haruto's a little off, don't you think?'

'What made you say that?'

He remembered asking that question.

'His teaching... Isn't great. Lotta hands off. Some students even complain that he's lazy.'

'Everyone has different methods. Haruto's probably works better in the context of a class that already knows what they're being taught with.'

'Yeah, but he's two weeks behind schedule. And apparently, this isn't even the first time this happened.'

'How so?'

'The teaching center he went to? He literally teetered the line of passing. That's not a good sign.'

'Huh.'

'And besides, he's... Kinda arrogant. He talks big, think he's the hot stuff and... You know how narcissism is.'

'Does he demand respect or something?'

'Yeah?! Have you seen him teach?'

'... No.'

'That's why I'm suggesting that the principal look into it...'

'... Why are you looking at me like that?'

'Hey. You're the principal's favorite. I'm sure he listens to you.'

"......" He almost let a swear word leave his lips. So he was really that terrible from the start, after all.

What a bastard.

No. Don't get too hung up on personal grievances.

"Sensei?" Rin's voice brought him back. He must've blanked out.

Focus.

"You still can't contact them?"

"Can't. Must be a jamming rig somewhere... Hold on, I'm sending you the audio the Stranger sent out to Gehenna. It's synthesized, so hopefully the Shittim Chest can decrypt it and find where it originated."

"IP decryption."

"Exactly."

Kize watched as her eyes moved away from the tablet, her hands deftly clicking on something at her computer before dragging something on the screen.

"New reports coming in. Prefect Team has brought some tools to cut through the walls. Whether they can cut through it all or not is a different question."

"Hm."

A notification. He checked it.

An audio file. All he needed was a brief listen, before the AIs immediately went to work.

Instantly, the IP address showed itself.

"This is... A little too easy. This could mean..." Arona trailed off.

It's a trap.

"......"

No way in hell is he going there alone.

But bring any student with him, and Rio's incident could repeat again.

The variable of the halo breaker bullets meant that students with guns and halos mean nothing when they visibly get hurt the most by it.

"... What are you thinking, Sensei?" Rin asked.

"Found his location. But the chances of him having ownership of the halo breaker bullets aren't zero."

"..."

Both were thinking of the same thing.

The same thing that happened to Rio could now happen to anyone in Gehenna. And that was the underlying danger behind it.

A sudden call logo appeared on his screen.

'Aru'.

"......."

He picked up the call.

"Hello, Sensei~! Did you hear over the announcement, by any chance?" Aru's voice called out cheerfully through it all. Kize visibly seemed like he would have preferred to hear anything else but that.

"What a villain, isn't he? A man so maliciously evil to do the things he do, it's almost comedic!"

"Aru, stop it," Kayoko's voice crackled through after, before she seemed to take over the call.

"Sensei. We need to know where you are. We're going to help you."

"For our pay grade!" Cheered out a Mutsuki in the background.

Kize reminded himself immediately that he did allow PS68 to be a part of SCHALE's budgetary concern.

Which basically meant that they're getting paid just for existing.

"You're against the will of a single man that will bypass your protection. Are you really willing to risk it?"

"Any money is good money especially yours, Sensei!" Aru called out. A beat passed. He saw Rin slowly face palming. Truthfully, Kize would have done the same right here and now.

"Well, it's that, truthfully. But honestly, we're doing it because we wanna help you, Sensei."

"... Did you heard what I just said?"

"We did. And we elected to ignore it."

".........."

He breathed in. Then out. He pressed on the mute button, effectively silencing himself in their conversation.

"Sensei?" Aru questioned.

"Arona, Plana. Send the coordinates of the closest building to the IP address to them. Ensure they're not close to said building."

"Okay!"

"Understood."

"Sensei, you can't just hang us up like that! You're a worse villai-- oh wait a notification....... Ohhhh. So meet you there then?"

Kize unmuted soon after.

"Yes."

"Alright! To the coordinates!!"

"Leader, remember the last time you piloted a helicopter?" Kayoko's question pierced through.

"..... Anyway--"

"Don't ignore the question--" the call was cut short. Someone hung up the call.

"Sensei," Arona peeked from the corner of the Shittim Chest. She smiled at him, proud of what he's currently going through.

For once, he's moving forward.

"Arona, Plana. Give the GSC authority to track my location live."

"Sensei?" Rin questioned.

"You'll need it. With Haruto, everything's a liability."

"Okay!" Arona chirped.

"Sensei, are you sure this is a good idea?" Rin asked, a hint of concern in her tone. It was uncommon to hear that out of her.

"If it isn't, I'm taking half your paperwork."

"... Sensei, this isn't a joke."

"I'm not joking."

"Sensei."

"I'm not joking."

"........"

It was annoying that he took that same tone twice.

"Fine."

And right on time. The train slowly came to a stop, the doors heaving open. Kize noticed immediately at the other side of the station. That very bullet train, its windows closed shut by shutters. He wasn't sure if he even heard anything from them.

All he knew was that FOX Platoon and Miharu were in there and was fighting against time.

And time was never on anyone's side but itself.

The call was hung up as he walked to the door, with three figures blocking his path. All girls. One in a typical school outfit of a white shirt and skirt, with tanned skin and white hair, aiming her rifle at him. Another, a blonde girl with glasses carrying a large duffel bag Syringes, gauzes and compression bandages peeked out from it.

And last, but not least, a short girl with long white hair, wearing a purple military uniform. A coat with fur was worn upon her body.

The Prefect Team and their president before his very eyes.

"We thought we closed the station already. We didn't expect a train to arrive here," Hina stated, adjusting her coat, while her eyes never left him.

"Red Winter has a delay in their information. I'll let them know next time," Kize replied.

"Sensei," Chinatsu spoke up, hoisting her duffel bag slightly. "What do you know of the situation?"

"I know the perpetrator."

"Lead us to them," Iori stated, lowering her rifle as she furrowed her eyebrows. "I'm drilling bullets into them."

"No."

"Sensei, it's not about you any longer," Hina proclaimed. "Gehenna, and possibly innocents involved--"

"I've heard enough."

Hina flinched, and Iori was quick to raise her rifle again.

"Speak like that again--"

"Or die? And lose your one chance to save your skin?" Kize scoffed. "Fine then." He walked out of the train and showed them the screen on the Shittim Chest. All three looked at it, and then at Kize.

"Is this where he is?" Chinatsu questioned.

"It's too easy of a trap. He's clearly planning to account reinforcements and act accordingly," Hina discerned correctly.

"Hm. See if he could catch up," Iori boasted.

"Halo breaker bullets."

"..........." Three words that silenced them immediately. Three words, all formed into a dangerous thought.

That kind of technology had existed? And the Stranger made it?

"That shouldn't be possible..."

"And yet, Rio is hospitalized in SCHALE's medical ward."

Kize took a step back. "Now that you know the stakes, are you willing to risk it?"

"..."

Hina slowly approached him. Despite the stoicism of her face, Kize could tell that she was scared by the revelation.

It takes courage, a valor of some kind to face your fears like she did.

"We do. We have Chinatsu for that matter."

As if on cue, Chinatsu's glasses glinted. Whether it was intentional or otherwise, it was better not to question it.

He reminded himself of that moment with Rio. A moment where Rio herself put her body in front of a bullet none of them knew could bypass halos, with the chances of them being able to get out slim.

Here, even if injuries rose, Chinatsu was here. And her duffel bag of syringes more than likely have its use here.

"And you're planning on bringing other prefect team members?" Kize asked.

"Just us. I can see you're trying to minimize casualties, Sensei."

Kize huffed at Hina's response.

"However, I would like you to send those coordinates to Ako."

Ako?

"Hello, Sensei," a voice called out from the palm of Hina's hand, followed by a hologram of a girl with shoulder length blue hair and a headband..

And an outfit he was sure to get him arrested if he was staring, with how much skin was exposed from the sides of her chest.

Almost reminded him of Shun, for some reason.

No, there was a reason. Two even...

There was a cowbell on her neck however. Why was that there?

"Amau Ako. My loyalty lies to my beloved chairwoman, but I can work with you, Sensei."

Kize's eyes turned half lidded, before he lifted the Shittim Chest.

"Ako's contact. Send the location live to her."

Wordlessly, the AIs enacted the plan. Soon enough, Kize clung to the remnants of his bureaucratic self, and began his advance to the inevitable.

——

10 minutes was all it took. It would have taken longer, but the introduction of a tank brought by Pandemonium Society's Iroha, they were able to move through traffic almost effortlessly.

Kize would have preferred something more minimalist. This was too much for him, but it got the job done, he justified.

Their location, however, was anything but chaotic.

Like worlds apart, this was the abandoned area of Gehenna. Just like how Millennium had its own, so did Gehenna, with buildings wrecked to the point of oblivion, their purpose, their beings all only known by those in the past. The sky seemed to accentuate this, as it seemed like it wanted to unload its emotions and cry rain upon the world. Buildings were still strewn, few barely clinging on to dear life.

But one building stood still, untouched by the cruelty of time.

Just 500 meters away from Kize's coordinates, was a high school that seemed awfully familiar to him in the distance. A school that was large, painted a mixture of white, red, black, blue and yellow all over that it felt more Gehenna than the ruined buildings.

But to Kize... It was a call to the past.

"Strange," Ako pointed out. "This school doesn't exist in the previous database in Gehenna's abandoned areas."

"Because he's capitalizing on something," Hina discerned, before glancing at Kize. "Someone."

"Suppose they're going for maximum trauma to the mind, aren't they?" Iori pointed out.

"....." Kize huffed out. He was playing petty games. He could tell this won't end well.

"Whatever he's going to do, he's definitely going--"

A gunshot rang from the school. And then, the sound of a shotgun blast, followed by another gunshot. Then, silence.

Kize realized too late.

PS68 went in too early.

"Hina, secure the perimeter."

"Sensei?"

They saw him stand. They realized immediately.

"Sensei, wait--!"

He rushed in, hands on both the Shittim Chest and the thermos to maximize his drag as he burst the door to the school open.

He wasn't sure if he heard the Perfect Team calling him out on his brashness.

He didn't care.

"Sensei!" Called out a voice. Kize looked up.

The PA system.

"Arona--"

"Second floor!"

Without missing a beat, he rushed up the stairs, his breathing uneven. The sound of concrete against military boots rang through the desolate classrooms. His eyes wandered, as the flashes of his past took hold of him.

'Sensei!'

'Hey, Sensei, good to see you!'

'Kize-Sensei!'

Voices that were never from Kivotos called out to him.

'Hey, Katashi!'

A colleague, raising a hand for a high five he would have reciprocated should he had been who he was.

He shook off that illusion.

"Sensei."

He skidded to a stop. His breathing stifled as he looked at the PA.

That wasn't PS68...

It was her.

"Sensei, I'm sorry. For what I did," Misuzu Kobane's voice called out. It was... Her?

She was here?

The source of his nightmares. The source of his pain.

Why was she here?

... What did Haruto do...

It wasn't unusual that the Shittim Chest was even silent, as if taking in this information ever so carefully.

Good...

His legs moved, rushing towards where he should be. Where he must be.

"I did... Something unforgivable to you."

Where was the room.

"I was perhaps too overtaken by my emotions."

Close.

"I don't know if you can hear me anymore."

Jilted. Almost static in intonation. And worse off, it was clearly staccato. And that was when he realized.

The audacity to deep fake his former student's voice.

"But if you do..."

A sign that indicated the PA room was sighted, with Kize immediately sliding open the door. Upon first glance, nothing was out of the ordinary, apart from a speaker device right on the PA system. The weird part was the fact that there were too many chairs and desks, like it was another classroom.

"Then you've fallen into another trap."

"Then you've fallen into another trap."

A dual voice of an AI voiced Misuzu and the Stranger, right behind him.

A sudden pained sensation took over his back, causing to fly right into the PA room.

A pained growl left his lips, followed by the sound of something metallic hitting the floor and something sliding against it. He laid there, Shittim Chest and thermos just some distance away from him.

"Good to see you again, Katashi."

Haruto's voice gripped around him like a vice, a reminder of their encounter in that military base, but ever more closer than before. A scream that called upon his festering scars, as Kize turned to face him.

A man with dark blue hair and jet black eyes with tan skin, staring down upon him in a suit that made him too much of a standout individual to not be recognized. His smug smirk crawled into view, as if his downfall, Kize's, was inevitable.

And it was all coming back to Kize.

"Two months, huh? A lot of things changed, all thanks to me." Haruto chuckled, as he raised a gloved hand, a single bullet glinting under the fluorescent light.

Kize pulled enough strength to struggle to have him stand back up, each attempt a heave into his own breath.

"So... How would like to suffer, Replacement Sensei?"