Haruna scratched his cheek as he looked at the desolate ruins of Abydos Desert. The once suburban area was now covered in sand, submerging half the area.

At the very least, some houses were constructed long after, and even a railroad was stable enough to take them this far.

Due to the heat, he ditched his cardigan. Nonomi glanced at him, then his arms, before deciding to do the same. She tied it around her waist  with a grin as he chuckled.

Shiroko and Serika ditched their blazers back at the club room along with Shiroko's scarf.

The crew was all ready to set out to find whatever the Kaiser Corporation was doing in the desert.

"There are usually broken drones, security robots, and automata prowling around, so it's a pretty dangerous place..." Ayane sounded far more relieved than they'd like.

After all, she was in the comfort of the school with air conditioning.

"I've been to sandy city streets, but never out this far before..." Nonomi looked out the remnants of rooftops nervously.

"It's been awhile since I was last here." Hoshino giggled.

"You've been here before?" Shiroko muttered in dismay. The heat was getting to her quick.

"I came out a few times as part of my work for the Student Council. If you go a little farther from here, you'll find the oasis where the Abydos Desert Festival was held!"

"Oasis?!" Serika was all for the idea.

"Well... it's probably all dried up by now. They say that it was once bigger than most lakes and deep enough for boating." Hoshino recalled. "Never seen it myself."

Shiroko tugged on Haruna's sleeve. "I've heard of the festival. It was the greatest in Abydos, and would attract tons of people."

Haruna flicked his wrist and summoned a bottle of water for her.

"That's right! People from other schools also came to the festival. But, that was before the desert moved in." Hoshino agreed.

Serika and Nonomi immediately shuffled to Haruna's side with hopeful stares.

With a wry smile, he tossed the two water bottles to appease their thirst. At this rate, he'd have to make more orders for refreshments on the CrossArc.

"I can't believe people would celebrate in a desert..." Serika commented, quickly chugging her water soon after.

"Well, it probably looked a lot nicer before all the dust and sand." Hoshino shrugged.

"Shouldn't be too long til we reach the area Hina mentioned." Haruna announced.

"You... call her Hina?" Shiroko asked with a thin frown.

He shrugged and rubbed his nape. "Uh... what else would I call her?"

"Gehenna Head Prefect." Shiroko replied with a deeper frown. Haruna noticed her ears begin to droop, so he nodded his head.

"R-Right, Head Prefect, sorry." Haruna nervously chuckled.

"He's a teacher, Shiroko, I don't think she falls under that label for him." Serika teased.

Shiroko rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Serika giggled and nudged her shoulder, causing Shiroko's ears to twitch.

"I just don't want him getting close with the enemy." Shiroko muttered.

"But she's the one who ended the conflic—" Nonomi stopped and gulped seeing Shiroko leer at her. "Call her Head Prefect, Sensei."

Haruna closed his eyes and sighed, but nodded his head.

•

Hoshino brushed away some sand with her foot and looked at the scrap metal in the ground. "Broken drones and automata..."

"Whoever's been through here is leaving less trouble for us." Haruna mumbled, holding a piece of sheet metal.

He made it disappear in a burst of pixels and looked around at all the other damaged parts.

"Wait! I'm picking something up straight ahead!" Ayane shouted, stopping everyone in their tracks. "A huge town? No, a factory... a garrison? Whatever it is, it's massive and fully-manned. It's hard to tell with all the dust and sand."

"Woah, are you sure?" Hoshino stepped back and away from the scraps in the sand as the others readied their weapons.

"You're just not close enough to see it. Keep going!" Ayane urged.

The group continued to pace forward before the sand finally revealed the lot before them. To call it a single garrison was an understatement.

"Barbed wire and facilities that look like they go on for kilometers..." Shiroko observed.

"Is it an oil rig? What the heck is this?" Nonomi wondered.

"This definitely wasn't here before..." Hoshino muttered in disbelief.

Haruna suddenly saw a glint through the sand along the walls boarding the facility. "Get down!"

With a flick of his wrist, a line of a barricades appeared in front of everyone as they ducked down, blocking an array of bullets fired from above.

"Woah, what the?!" Serika peeked out and saw Automaton soldiers aiming down at them from the wall.

"Intruders!", "Capture them! Don't let them get away!" They shouted.

"I don't know who these guys are, but if they're here to welcome us, we ought to respond in kind!" Hoshino clenched her shotgun tighter.

~•~

"Damn... they've got numbers out the woodworks..." Serika commented between pants.

"They're real adamant about keeping whatever's going on here under wraps." Shiroko was tugging on Haruna's collar for another water bottle, but he was distracted by a massive insignia on the building they were in front of.

"Kaiser PMC. These guys just do it all, huh?" Haruna mumbled.

"PMC? They have a private military?" Nonomi also began tugging on him for a refreshment.

"These guys are mercenaries too? It never ends with these losers!" Serika shouted in annoyance.

"They're nothing like the helmet gang. These guys were organized like an actual army." Ayane grimaced.

Nonomi and Shiroko suddenly nudged Haruna hard enough for him to stagger forward and catch his attention. He squinted his eyes and tossed the two high grade energy drinks so they'd leave that alone for a while.

The two awed at the quality and wasted no time scarfing them down.

He tossed another two to Serika and Hoshino as Nonomi wiped her lip of the drink.

"There were rumors about a company recruiting dropouts, expelled students, and troublemakers into a private army. Maybe this is it..." Nonomi recalled.

"We can't let that slide." Shiroko exclaimed—

But an alarm began to blare across the facilities, making everyone flinch.

"Looks like they won't let us slide either. You guys ready?" Haruna asked with a smirk.

Before they could respond, the thump of wind from propellers made everyone glance up and see helicopters hovering overhead. Along side that, small tremors could be heard and rumbling could be felt from all around.

"Helicopters and tanks. We've really pissed them off now." Shiroko smiled.

"There's a huge army approaching! They're trying to surround you!" Ayane announced. "Tanks, armored vehicles and even helicopters confirmed... They're pulling out all the stops!"

•

Haruna sprinted across the sand behind the Foreclosure Task Force. Constantly throwing smoke grenades all around them to disorient the helicopters and tanks.

Armored cars would race beside them, but a quick stun grenade would force them to retreat since Nonomi would litter their vehicles with bullets.

"There's no end to this..." Hoshino whined.

Haruna hoped the army didn't account for heat signatures, cause that would spell their end.

"We're almost out, right, Ayane?" Haruna questioned.

Static hummed in his ear, but her faint voice could be heard. "Y-Yes, Sensei! C—munications are unstable— urry and retreat—"

"Shit..." Haruna and the others burst out of the smoke to see that the foot soldiers had flanked them. Surrounded on all sides, they could only stand back to back against the PMC.

"We're screwed." Shiroko muttered.

From one of the armored vehicles, automaton soldiers escorted a much taller and bulkier automaton dressed in a pastor's robe with a suit underneath.

"I was wondering who the intruders could be. Abydos..." It's voice was deep and stout, commanding authority with ease.

"Looks like a bigwig showed up..." Serika muttered.

"I didn't think you would come here. Well, it doesn't matter either way. You've damaged a business by illegally breaking onto its private property. I could leverage this transgression to double the debt your school owes, but that wouldn't change much of anything, would it?"

Suddenly, its attention was drawn to Hoshino.

"Hmmm... Are you the Student Council president that Gematria was after? Oh, no, you're the vice president. I see." It held its hand to its chin with a calculative leer. "I have an interesting idea."

"Who the hell are you?" Haruna barked.

"Chief Executive Director of Kaiser Corporation. The man whom you all owe your debt to. Your creditor."

"Not for long." Haruna replied.

"Is that so? Let me make this clear. This is the legal place of operations of Kaiser PMC, and you are trespassing on private property. In regard to the Abydos district, it's true we purchased it. Every step of that transaction was legitimate. We have the ledgers and records to prove it."

"I bet you do. Doesn't make it any less exploitative."

"I find it highly distasteful that you're acting as if we're committing a crime. Do you want to know why we bought your land?" The Director asked.

Haruna rolled his eyes. "Enlighten me."

"We're looking for a treasure that's supposed to be buried somewhere in Abydos."

"That's gotta be a bold-faced lie!" Serika shouted.

"How does that explain all the PMC soldiers? Are they not here to claim our land by force?" Shiroko questioned with a glare.

The Director shook his head. "Hundreds of tanks, hundreds of elite soldiers. Untold tons of black powder and ammo. Do you truly believe we prepared all of this for a school with a measly five students? Surely you jest."

Shiroko grit her teeth seeing the Director gesture to all the facilities around them.

"This is a defensive measure against those who would interrupt our treasure hunt. It isn't meant for you. All it would take to deal with you is..." He suddenly took hold of a phone and opened the line. "It's me. Proceed."

Haruna balled his fists knowing damn well what the man had just done.

"I regret to inform you that your school's credit rating has just taken another hit. We'll be expecting 91 million yen by next month."

"90 million?! You can't be serious!" Serika shouted.

The Director could only chuckle in amusement. "Do you finally understand who holds the rope around your neck? This doesn't even begin to display the iceberg.

We never received a deposit for the 900 million yen you originally borrowed. Please deposit 300 million to Kaiser Loans within the week. You'll have to prove that you can pay off the debt even at this interest rate. Assuming that is even possible."

The girls were silent in despair, unable to find the words to express how they felt. Haruna was boiling with rage but he needed to work within his means.

"I highly suggest you simply give up your academy, drop out, and transfer. The debt was never yours to begin with. This isn't your responsibility." The Director held an almost sincere tone to his words.

"That... That may be true, but there's no way we can do that!" Nonomi replied defiantly.

"It's our school now! We can't just abandon it!" Serika agreed.

"Abydos is our home." Shiroko declared.

The Director shook his head once more. "...Such foolishness."

"We're leaving." Haruna exclaimed.

"What?!" Serika, Shiroko, and Nonomi shouted.

"We lost. We're going home."

The Director hummed. "A wise decision... Sensei. Show them the way out, will you?"

He paced back to the car he was delivered in and left. Haruna could only glare into space as they were led away with firearms trained on them the entire time.

~•~

"What are we going to do, Sensei?" Hoshino asked.

Everyone was sitting at the club table, solemnly looking up to him in hopes he could get them out of the toughest spot they'd ever been in.

The silence grew heavy.

The look on his face...

It only further reminded them how dreadful the situation was. His face was riddled with stress and concern, but mainly doubt.

'I have so much power... but I'm still so helpless. What should I do? What can I do?' Haruna closed his eyes and leant against the table with a scowl.

"Sensei—"

"I don't know..." He muttered. He looked up with a thin frown. "I don't know."

They all dropped their heads and balled their fists. Tears began to build up at the corners of their eyes as the reality set in.

"That doesn't mean I'm going to give up. I'll come up with something, but it's best that we rest after today. It was stressful for us all."

The smile on his face was strained, but they could tell he was trying his hardest to cheer them up. It was enough to keep them going, if only for the night.

Soon after, everyone left.

Haruna was alone in the club room. He was at a complete loss, aside from one last desperate play.

Would it work? Yeah.

But he'd never be able to live with himself. 'I'm just as helpless as I used to be.'

Ignorant to the eyes peering inside the room, he continued to sit in silence as the night went on. The spectator left with a determined stomp in their step.

~•~

"H-Haruna-sensei! You're back!" Aru greeted warmly, but her cheerful demeanor was washed away seeing the blank stare on his face.

She and Kayako were hanging out in his office while Hasumi was pestering Haruka about some mess she made down the hall.

"Hey." Was all he could muster.

"Woah. Never seen you so down. Going got tough?" Kayako asked with a leer.

"Yeah."

"So what are you gonna do?" Kayako asked skeptically.

"Fight." He replied, taking a seat at his desk with a glare.

Aru let out a deep sigh of admiration as Kayako strut over with a smirk. "That sounds more like it. You wanna call in the big guns? We could use the action."

"And the pay!" Mutsuki shouted from the hall.

"Yeah. Need all hands on deck. We've got nothing left to lose but our pride, and I'll be damned if they take that too." He flicked the CrossArc into a phone as Arona appeared beside him.

"You see the Apex Order I filled out?" He asked.

"Yes, Sensei. Is it time? This will reduce our funds to two thirds of its current value."

"I'm sure. We're in for the long haul." Haruna's glare softened as he turned to Aru. "You've got your first job. Be ready tomorrow, okay?"

"O-Of course! We'd never let you down, Sensei! What do we need to do?" She asked with glee.

"What you're good at." Haruna slowly began to smirk.