Haruna violently slammed his foot into the bank's front doors with his cardigan off and sleeves rolled up. A midnight blue motorcycle helmet reflected the glare of the lights over his visor.

The employees and citizens alike all stared in absolute boredom and annoyance at the loud appearance, until he summoned Rin's pistol and fire two rounds into the ceiling.

"Y'all know what this is."

Across the bank, Aru was in utter shock and delight seeing Haruna again, ignoring that he was robbing the very bank she was visiting for a loan.

Problem Solver 68's jaws dropped seeing the guards bodies littered along the ground as the masked Foreclosure Task Force walked in.

「Hifumi and Hasumi wore paper bags instead, with Hasumi covering her uniform with Haruna's cardigan」

"Everyone down! Toss your weapons aside and hands where we can see them—" Shiroko was interrupted by Nonomi shouting, "OR ELSE!" with surprising amounts of vigor.

"Th-This is a stick up...! So... stay down if you don't want to get hurt!" Hifumi screamed in a panic.

The teller in front of Aru tried to ring the alarm, but only static echoed out of the speakers.

"Yeah, none of that. Security's been handled." Haruna smirked as he strut into the bank.

As he strut across the bank, his companions followed making Problem Solver 68 absolutely astonished that the girls would still use their uniforms to rob the bank, but it seems the civilians were just that gullible.

"I can't believe they're sticking this place up..." Kayoko mumbled, crouching down behind the lounge couch they were previously on.

"What are you doing, Aru...?" Mutsuki glanced over and saw Aru trembling in delight. They were living her ideals out right before her, inspiring her in her momental life crisis.

"You," Shiroko pointed to the teller beside Aru making them all flinch. "The cash truck that just rolled up. Take this bag and fill it up." Her orders were accompanied by a duffel bag being tossed on to the counter.

"O-Of Course! Cash, bonds, gold— WHATEVER YOU WANT!" The cyborg scurried away with tears running down his digital face.

"Shiroko, make sure he only gets the transport logs..." Haruna requested as he arrived beside her.

Shiroko made hast and flew toward the guy in a blur, poking his back with the barrel of her gun as they led her to the garages.

Haruna rolled his eyes, before glancing down at Aru, who was gazing up at him with hearts in her eyes. The expression on her face alone made Haruna know she knew what was up, so he rose his finger to his visor and flicked it up a bit.

With a wink, he flicked it back down and placed his finger over where his mouth would be.

Aru swooned and nearly fell over in ecstasy, but Kayoko and Mutsuki dragged her away while glaring at Haruna.

Shiroko came back with the duffle bag, and only the duffle bag, making Haruna concerned. "Guy leaked, so I left him to his business. Eagle has landed."

"Heh, then lets book it." Haruna and Shiroko waved their comrades over as they walked to the exit, making them all round up and follow.

"See ya!" Haruna shouted, being the last out of the door he salute to the civilians and dashed away.

"D-Don't let them get away! Seal off the roads! Contact the Market Guards! Something!" A Bank Examiner screamed at his coworkers.

Aru was holding her hand over her heart as she fantasized about this moment over and over, starting to drool on Kayoko. She was immediately pushed off and knocked out of her self-induced trance.

"I NEED HIM!"

~•~

Haruna and Shiroko were going over the transport logs back at Abydos. Haruna was growing frustrated just seeing the evidence before him.

"Our interest payment went straight into the hands of our assailants. You've been funding your own demise..." Haruna closed his eyes. "The Helmet gang is under Kaiser's orders..."

"That doesn't add up. They won't be paid if the school goes bankrupt..." Nonomi hummed as everyone sat around the table of the clubroom.

"This goes way beyond simple bank schemes. The only way this makes sense is if Kaiser Corporation's HQ is involved..."

"We just have to find the correlation. This level of manipulation is infuriating." Haruna scoffed and stood up, ruffling his hair.

"We've all done a lot today, so let's reconvene tomorrow. Great work, everyone. Hifumi, let's get you home."

Haruna walked away with Hasumi, Hifumi giving her appreciation and gratitude for the fun she had despite the chaos. She quickly followed after them and walked with the two.

~•~

Haruna nibbled on a pork bun quietly from his seat on a bench. Beside him, Hasumi finished her own with a thin smile.

Their early morning breakfast at Shiba Seki was to take his mind off the initial frustration of yesterday's revelation. There wasn't much more he could do on his end without getting out in the field with Abydos.

"You think these are a bit too salty?" Haruna asked.

Hasumi rose a brow in confusion. "They're quite fine to me—"

The two were suddenly engulfed in a blast of fire from an explosion throughout the entire block. Shiba Seki's entire building was leveled, slowly beginning to crumble down as it lost its support.

Haruna's eyes widened as he gasped for air. He glanced up and saw that his halo had appeared upon what seemed like instinct to him being in danger.

He was flung into the building across Shiba Seki, his body planted into the cabinet of an abandoned hotel lobby.

He looked around in a daze and saw Hasumi throwing a couch and entire wall off of herself as stood up.

"H-Hasumi... look for... survivors!" Haruna wheezed out.

Hasumi dart her eyes over and saw his charred body fall against the lobby desk with a crash. She staggered over in shock, but knew what came first.

She complied and blew away any excess rubble with her wings. She flew out of the hotel as Haruna slumped off the desk with a weak groan.

He sat up against it with a wince and looked down at the damage to his body.

His cardigan was reduced to scraps of cotton, his shirts sleeves were now short and ashy, his sweats hadn't suffered much.

His arms were burned to at least the second degree from his proximity to the explosion and his halo's lackluster reaction time.

It hurt to move, and was beginning to hurt to breathe.

But he still had to.

He jumped to his feet, stumbling against the desk and praying that he could still save people. Breaking into a desperate sprint, Haruna left the rumbling hotel lobby just before the ceiling of it collapsed on itself.

He didn't bother to turn around.

His eyes were locked on the perpetrators...

Haruna and Aru locked eyes.

The two covered in soot and ash, but only one was hurt. The grin on her face was wiped away seeing him that state. The very source of her inspiration was affected by her mistake.

"You... How could you...?" He muttered with widened eyes.

"I... No, I didn't... I didn't mean—"

Haruna's heart sunk seeing Shiba Seki's entire building reduced to rubble. The despair in his eyes made Aru's heart ache, slowly holding out her hand in guilt.

"I won't let you abuse my kindness again."

Aru shuddered seeing the glare he aimed at her. The bubbling rage in his eyes was beginning to reach resentment. Before he could summon a weapon, Kayako shot him in the hip and chest, sending him barreling down the street.

"Didn't expect this to be how things went down. We can take out Abydos' backbone with ease now." She muttered.

"Yeah, this'll be too easy while the goth chick is saving the civilians." Mutsuki added with a grin.

Aru grimaced at the thought, but it was their job. They'd be paid handsomely for it. She needed the money. She'd do anything for money. It was simply the circumstances.

Shaking her head, Aru drew her rifle. "Right. We're hard-boiled Outlaws!"

Kayako spotted Haruna stumbling forward through the smoke and aimed her pistol.

Firing three rounds, she was shocked to see him dodged each one by only leaning away. Mutsuki scoffed and began firing her machine gun with a laugh.

Haruna snapped his fingers as the dozens of bullets barreled towards him. Blue holograms of bullets suddenly appeared around him in a circle, far more numerous than any gun could hold.

With a pluck in their general direction, he rained hell upon them.

The three jumped in shock at the volley of bullets that flew through the smoke. All of Mutsuki's fire had been negated and retaliated, forcing them to dash away and behind cover.

"Sensei!" Serika called. Abydos' Foreclosure Task Force had arrived with the exclusion of Hoshino and Ayane.

Seeing the state he was in shook them, albeit briefly.

"What happened...?" Nonomi asked softly.

"Problem Solver." He muttered quietly.

"Those... Those jerks! After everything you've done for them?!" Serika grit her teeth and drew her assault rifle.

"Master Shiba and his staff have been safely evacuated thanks to Hasumi. Master Shiba has sustained superficial wounds, so he'll be treated at a nearby shelter!" Ayane informed.

"Good. Means we've got all the room to pay them back tenfold." Shiroko replied. "Load us up, Sensei."

Haruna snapped his fingers and summoned ammo types for each of them that began to coil around their waists.

"Do you finally see the kind of person I am? Are you finally getting the picture, Abydos?!" Aru shouted with a grin.

Haruna grit his teeth and gestured the girls forward. "Handle this before I do."

Upon his order, the girls rushed forward in full sprint. Nonomi slid to a stop in the middle of the road and unleashed bullets into their cover with a grunt.

The fire tore straight into the concrete and broke bits and pieces at a rate Problem Solver didn't want to deal with.

Mutsuki summoned her cases of mines and slid them out towards Abydos' direction. Before the cases could be opened, a foot suddenly stomped on one.

Haruna kicked it over to the case to his left while Shiroko shot the third, causing two explosions that narrowed everyone's vision.

A few seconds trickled by as Problem Solver kept their guard up from their cover. Haruka suddenly yelped from behind them, causing them all to jerk their heads back.

Haruna had clipped her legs and snatched her arm. He knocked her wrist to disarm her of her shotgun, before lightly kicking her butt to send her to her knees.

The harmless distraction caused Kayako to get kicked in the chin and sent rolling away from her cover. She popped up and raced behind a car, dodging bullets from Serika.

Serika grit her teeth and leapt over the car, but Kayako had suddenly grabbed her shoulders and slammed her into the ground.

With her pinned and stunned, Kayako landed two bullets to her stomach before being kicked into the car from Serika.

Serika spun to her feet and jabbed the stock of assault rifle into her chest. Kayako coughed before being shred with bullets from the opening.

With a sharp wince, Serika was suddenly paralyzed in fear from Kayako's leer. Kayako kicked her back and tried to shoot her again but Serika rolled aside and clipped her legs.

Haruna held Haruka under his arm with a glare, looking around for Aru in the smoke.

He suddenly leant away from a sniper round fired at his shoulder and side-eyed the girl, causing her to flinch.

Luckily for her, Shiroko became her problem first.

She circled around through the smoke and fired with precision. Aru clicked her tongue at the undesirable match up and spun around her sniper rifle to block as many bullets as she could.

Only getting grazed by a few, she suddenly spun on her heel and aimed down her sights in a crouch.

"I'll make this quick."

Trying to fire her explosive bullet at Shiroko, it was suddenly deflected by Hasumi's Gale bullet, causing a flurry of wind and fire to dispel the smoke in the surrounding area.

Everyone shielded themselves from the ash and smog as it blew away.

Before anyone could even use the sight gifted to them, grenades landed and crashed down around them all with a boisterous boom. Nearly six struck around them, forcing all of them to scramble away at the potential common enemy.

"Those are 50 millimeter mortar shells! They seemed to be aimed at Problem Solver, but I can't say for certain." Ayane announced.

"Tch. Mortar shells...?" Shiroko reloaded from the ammo floating around her.

"Unit affiliation confirmed..." Ayane began to sound nervous. "It's the Gehenna Prefect Team! A single medium-sized brigade!"

Haruna peered down at Haruka, who was wriggling in his arm defiantly. "They're here for Problem Solver..."

"Shit! Boss, Mutsuki, we gotta grab Haruka and get out of here!" Kayako cursed.

"You're not going anywhere."

Kayako saw a blue glint from the corner of her eye before an array of holographic barricades rained down and blocked the path behind them.

Haruna's eyes twitched in strain as he flicked more ammo to the Foreclosure Task Force.

In same moment, a mortar struck between Mutsuki and Kayako, sending them flying into debris and knocking them unconscious.

Seeing the two out of commission brought out a satisfied chuckle from Iori of the Prefect Team.

"Good. Squads one and two, move in." She ordered.

"What about them." Chinatsu gestured to Abydos, unaware of Haruna's presence.

"Huh? Anyone else who interferes with the execution of official duties is an enemy." Iori sharply replied.

"Procedure dictates that we state our intentions first..." Chinatsu muttered.

"State what? What for?" Iori shrugged her off. "It's tiring enough already, going after all these loser delinquents from our academy. Why waste the time or effort? Just wipe them out if they put up a fuss."

Chinatsu could only pinch the bridge of her nose with a long sigh.

—

"Those geeks are trying to steal our guys? Right now? Fat chance!" Serika shouted, her pupils sharpening into slits.

"But dealing with the Prefect Team isn't like dealing with some small-time crooks like Problem Solver—"

"Hey!" Aru shouted.

"They're the official academy armed forces!" Nonomi voiced with concern.

"And you're Abydos' armed forces. We're gonna teach them why." Haruna pat Nonomi's back.

The three glanced back at him and saw him look the maddest they'd ever seen him. Aside from his wounds, the sheer stress and pain in his eyes was being directed at everyone else.

"But this might escalate into a political conflict if we're not careful..." Nonomi commented.

"It got political the moment they bombed your territory." Haruna replied with crossed arms. He glanced around before realizing they were missing someone. "Where's Hoshino?"

"I don't know. She's never been out of contact for this long before..." Ayane answered.

"Regardless, with Sensei here, we've got this." Shiroko stepped up beside him with a smirk.

"...She's right. Sensei's right too! The Prefect Team escalated this into a political conflict the moment they commenced tactical operations in our district." Ayane was on board too.

—

"They really wanna do this the hard way? Even though it's only four against our entire brigade?" Iori sounded more disappointed than flabbergasted.

"Not a problem for me. We don't back down from a fight. All units, prepare for combat!"

"Wait, Iori, I think I've spotted..." Chinatsu suddenly grew quiet. "Oh no..."