Haruna was standing on an overpass with Hasumi and Abydos beside him, excluding Ayane, who stayed back to be recon and support.

"You're now on the Kata-Kata Helmet Gang's turf. I'm getting a trace of their signal within a 15 kilometer radius. They must know you're there, so don't let you're guard down." Ayane relayed.

Down the street, a much larger unit than the one that raided the school was approaching. However, the girl's were more than ready with Haruna's supplies and ammo at their disposal— so they locked and loaded their guns, before leaping off and into the fray.

Haruna stayed back this time and allowed for a clean sweep of the Helmet Gang's forces, seeing as he wasn't necessarily required. He simply gave ammo and distributed supplies when needed.

They made quick work of the force and soon forced them to retreat, and Hasumi fired her Bullet Gale down the street after them, diminishing their troops further.

It was a crippling blow, and sure to leave the Helmet Gang questioning whether they'd mess with Abydos again.

"They left behind their ammo caches, and even the supplies in their hideout! This was a major success!" Ayane cheered.

Haruna smiled as the girls returned to him, and yawned a bit. It was late afternoon, but he had got up rather early he realized.

"They'll think twice before attacking us again." Shiroko commented, adjusting the cycling glove on her left hand.

"Great job, everyone. You too, Sensei." Hoshino praised, looking as tired as, if not more than him.

"Let's head back." Haruna stretched, making him nearly stagger on his feet. Hasumi luckily held him steady as he recovered the spent energy.

"Would you like me to carry you, Sensei?" She asked, but he quickly shook his head.

"No, no, I wouldn't make you do that. I can make it back." Haruna smiled, and took one step before nearly passing out.

•

Haruna was knocked out in a chair as Hasumi stood as his representative in the Foreclosure Task Force Club room.

The girls were amused by his nap, unknowing he was off only three hours of sleep. However, they needed to inform Schale of their actual problem.

"Basically, our school owes quite a lot of money to a loan company. It's a challenge, but not exactly an uncommon problem either. The real issue is... it's over 900 million yen—"

Hoshino was cut short by Haruna waking up with a loud, dramatic gasp.

He began coughing, clearing his throat, before staring at the five in disbelief.

"H... How in the world does anyone nearly owe anyone a billion yen?!" Haruna asked in disbelief.

"It's 962,350,000 yen, to be exact." Ayane replied with a pout. "That's the amount that Abydos... No. The Foreclosure Task Force has taken upon itself to pay back.

The loan company will foreclosure on the school and shutter it permanently if we don't pay them. But the odds of paying a debt that large are practically zero. That's why most students left town." Ayane explained.

"Except us, that is." Shiroko said to state the obvious.

"The debt is the reason for everything that's wrong in Abydos..." Ayane said solemnly.

"Then I'll do what I can. Be it pay it all off, or scare the hell out of some loan sharks. It's my responsibility to see this through, no matter the costs..." Haruna closed his eyes and crossed his arms.

"Pun intended." He added, making Serika groan.

"Thank you, Haruna-Sensei. It means a lot to us, knowing we have someone as trustworthy as you to help us." Ayane said with a smile, trying her best not ti tear up, as the others all shared their gratitude with smiles of affection.

"Look at you being so noble, Sensei. Thanks." Hoshino smirked, but he chuckled and reminded them.

"This... is my job after all." Haruna rubbed his nape as they all shook their head.

~•~

The Next Day...

Hasumi and Haruna woke up with energy after getting the night to themselves yesterday, so they were quick to make their way to Abydos, via Hasumi's Flight offer.

「Haruna denied many times, only to cave in under her persistence」

After stopping by Sora's shop— to get snacks of course— Haruna and Hasumi were walking through the Abydos district, unbothered by the sector bare of people.

It didn't take long for Haruna to arrive at the destination he discussed with Ayane the day before.

•

Haruna was seated between Hasumi and Nonomi at a large table inside a ramen & steak-house. Everyone from the Foreclosure Task Force was around them, excluding Serika, who was on the clock and awaiting their orders.

Haruna was completely unbothered on the outside when he heard the fully clothed Shiba Inu talk, even beyond, that stand.

On the inside, he was contemplating whether that was the craziest thing he'd seen yet. Apparently, the guy owned the place, so he'd put his money on the fact that it was.

Nonomi and Hoshino were teasing Serika about working, her uniform and the like, while Haruna was just eating silently with Hasumi and Shiroko. Ayane was trying to be the remediation between the teasing, but couldn't find the effort to put a stop to it.

Haruna was curious as to why they met here again, so he just enjoyed his meal— sometimes asking for some of Hasumi and Shiroko's— which they didn't seem to mind.

It can as all sunshine and smiles until Hoshino mentioned Haruna paying the tab— making him nearly choke on his ramen.

After debating how she expected him to do that, Arona accidentally revealed he had a rather hefty balance after the scuffle yesterday.

Haruna begrudgingly paid the tab with a scowl on his face, receiving Hoshino's smirk and a pat on the back as they left, waving to Serika.

•

"Thank you for treating us, Sensei!" Nonomi pat Haruna on the back as they walked out.

"Thanks." Shiroko added with a nod.

"Can you busybodies move along..." Serika complained, nudging Sensei out of the doorway.

"See you tomorrow, Serika!" Ayane waved as they finally made their way down the street.

"Yeah, yeah. Next time don't force Sensei to pay. That was nearly 20,000 yen..." Serika returned to the store after the comment, and Haruna sighed as he followed after the others.

Haruna and Hasumi parted with the group to head back to Schale, making him assume they just wanted to hang out a bit, which he didn't mind.

"How'd you like the food?" Haruna asked Hasumi.

"I feel I should be asking you that. You had more of my food than I did." Hasumi chuckled at the question.

"Heh, I guess. I enjoyed it. I'd have to say though. Whatever Shiroko was having, was definitely my favorite." Haruna shrugged closing his eyes in bliss.

Hasumi saw his happy expression, the carefree attitude spreading to her as she strut alongside him back to Schale.

~•~

Haruna was sleeping in his office, after importing supplies to Schale's warehouse using his Crafting System. The storage units needed to be sorted and labeled, so it took up a lot of his night to get the documents of the sudden inventory ready.

Haruna was leant back in his chair, a small blanket on his body as he snored the night away.

Well, technically, the morning. It was 5 am.

"Sensei!" Arona shouted, only making him groan. "Ugh... I didn't wanna use the actual ring tone—" Arona played a loud ring from his wrist watch, making him scream and swat around, falling out of the chair in shock.

Haruna stood up and pulled out Rin's pistol, aiming around in fear, making Arona stifle a laugh.

"Wha... What the hell?" He questioned, letting the pistol disappear.

"You have several concerning messages from the Foreclosure Task Force. They seem to have discovered an emergency. Would you like me to wake Hasumi?" Arona asked.

"Y... yeah. But not like that. Let me know when she's been informed. I need to get ready. Tell them we'll be there in 20." Haruna yawned and rushed out of his office to freshen up.

~•~

"I was able to log in to the General Student Council's central communication network. All I could find is the location of Serika's phone before it went offline." Haruna began, slumped against a chair beside Hasumi.

She wasn't anywhere near as awake as him, leaned against him in light daze.

"It's in a neighborhood that was noted to have just recently been deserted." He added.

"Woah, you were able to get into their network? You're the real deal..." Ayame gulped in awe.

"I... pulled some strings," Haruna nervously smirked.

「After 20 minutes of begging, Rin allowed him to use their Central Communication Network.」

"This neighborhood is desolate..." Nonomi noticed. "It's like an abandoned wasteland. There's no one there to enforce safety, so there's a lot of outlaws skulking about." Shiroko agreed.

"Right. We found that Helmet Gang members lived in those areas while researching risk factors surrounding the school." Ayane added.

"They must've kidnapped her while she was on her way home." Hoshino concluded. "Likely still bitter after our last battle. They probably took Serika as a hostage to retaliate." Shiroko agreed once more.

"We have to go save her!" Nonomi said with vigor.

"I agree," Shiroko nodded, "There's no time to waste," Hoshino nodded back.

"Ambushing in the A.M... why not." Haruna stood up, guiding Hasumi to her feet.

"Let's get Serika back." He rolled his neck with a glare.

•

"Ugh..." Serika groaned as she came to.

Her vision was impaired, from what she could tell was a lack of light. And the headache ringing through her brain made her mind slow.

She tried to feel around to get a grasp of where she was, but all she felt was the cool sensation of steel.

Sitting up, she didn't hear anything but the rustling of her clothes. That was until, the truck she was in hit a small pothole.

Losing her balance, she fell over and realized she was in a vehicle, making her hurry to her feet despite the risk of falling.

"I've got to see where they're taking me." She rushed to the back of the truck, and saw that a sliver of light was coming from the bottom of the door.

She was able to peek down and pry it open enough, but the sight of sand and an old railroad made her gasp.

"This... is the outskirts of Abydos. I'll never get signal, even if I do escape." Serika looked down in despair as the truck started to cross over some tracks, causing her to fall.

Serika heard the truck slowly stop, and began to cry, thinking that this was the end for her.

Wiping her tears as she sobbed, she just faintly heard a cry of anger from outside the truck, before an explosion shook the truck, rocking it a bit.

"Wha-What the heck was that?!" Serika shouted in disbelief.

Serika had realized the explosion had nearly took the back doors of its hinges, so she rushed to push them off, and jumped out of the truck.

Serika looked around, but had to cover her eyes from sudden sunlight. She ducked behind the truck and peeked out as her eyes adjusted, only to see Shiroko and Haruna tearing through the Helmet Gang's forces.

She watched Haruna summon Hoshino's shotgun, slamming the barrel into a poor thug's chin, before spinning around and batting them away with a yell, showing more vigor and emotion than he'd ever shown before.

"I've located Serika!" Ayane announced, relaying the information to the Foreclosure Task Force.

Shiroko looked around and caught sight of her, sending a nod to Haruna as he summoned Shiroko's assault rifle.

"I have eyes on her! Repeat: visual on Serika! She's crying!" Shiroko announced, rushing over and helping her to her feet.

"What?! Our Serika was crying? I had no idea she cared so much!" Hoshino teased in the midst of combat— however that didn't mean she was distracted— seeing as she landed a point blank blast on someone approaching her left flank.

"Even when you're saving me, you guys are so annoying! I was not crying!" Serika whined, running behind Haruna and Hoshino with Shiroko as her escort.

As serious and stoic as ever, "False! I can confirm that there were tears in your eyes just moments ago!" Shiroko exposed.

An array of bullets tore through the thugs forces as Haruna fled back behind cover, the fire property of Nonomi.

"Don't cry, Serika! We're here now, and we promise to dry those tear-soaked cheeks of yours!" Nonomi consoled her, but, it didn't work.

"Damn it! Could you be any more grating?! I said I wasn't crying, so shut up already!" Serika shouted, wailing around in a tantrum.

"Thank god you're okay. I would've been sick if anything happened to you under my supervision." Haruna sighed in relief, giving a comforting smile.

Serika flinched in embarrassment, flustered here those words come from him.

"Y-You..." Serika was at a lose for words. He had only just met her.

"Now then... Lets show them what the hell happens when you fuck with us." Haruna stood up, ignorant to the bullets firing at him.

"We'll flush them out." Haruna leaned his head to the side, dodging Hasumi's Gale Bullet, leading to it rupturing the frontlines, giving them the opening they need.