Abydos Task Force Club Room.
The members gathered at Shalle, where they had covered the vehicles to prevent them from being buried in the sand and had put in stakes.
After a brief introduction, the first joint meeting of Shalle and the Task Force began with Hoshino breaking the ice.
“First of all, Ayane-chan…”
“Yes, Hoshino-senpai.”
“Hmm… I think it’s quite cheeky of you to pull this off behind the senpai’s back…”
As Hoshino stared at Ayane for a while with a blank smile, she leaned back in her chair.
“Well… good things are good, right? Everyone work hard on the meeting and just let me know what happens later~.”
All eyes turned to Hoshino, who had closed her eyes.
Miyako and Saki were in disbelief, wondering if this person was truly the one from the extravagant profile they had checked beforehand.
Mohe and Miyu had no special thoughts.
From the Task Force side…
“Leader, get up!!! This is a really important meeting, isn’t it? At this rate, our school will be buried in the desert sand!”
“Hmm… Serika-chan, it hurts my ears, so can you speak a little softer? And you know what they say, too many cooks spoil the broth, right? So my leaving is just a necessary sacrifice to prevent that… yawn…”
“No, if the most important cook leaves, the ship will end up going nowhere?! The leader is practically our academy’s representative!”
“…Serika-chan, please calm down a bit. Especially since today we’re not just with us. Since we’ve brought representatives from Shalle, we should conduct this meeting a bit more seriously and properly.”
“Ugh… fair point.”
After hearing Ayane’s words, Serika managed to cool her temper and looked at the teacher. Aside from some anonymous sponsor who had subtly offered help, no one had reached out to Abydos. But here was a grown-up who had come rushing after receiving a single letter from Ayane.
If asked whether she trusted this man or not, the answer would be no. If the teacher had come alone, she likely would have charged at him.
Even after listening to the introductions of the students who visited with the teacher, that feeling didn’t change much. SRT was indeed elite among elites…
But it was a special academy under the Student Council that had turned its back on Abydos.
Yet the situation was critical. Abydos was literally in a crisis concerning the existence of the Autonomous District. Thus, Serika wanted to keep an eye on the direction the meeting was heading…
But who would have thought Hoshino, the top senior in Abydos, would take such an attitude in this situation!
Then she heard the teacher’s voice—calm and serene, the kind you want to rely on.
“Hoshino, I have something to ask you. Do you guys resent the Student Council?”
“Oh, it might have looked that way to you, teacher. Well, if we’re talking about whether we have regrets against the council… it might skew toward yes. But this guy has become so tainted by the mundane… he knows enough about the reality. To the council, there was no incentive to handle the issues that powerful academies like the past Abydos couldn’t solve on their own. They probably saw no benefits coming back from it.”
“No, as I always say, there isn’t much difference in age between us and the senpai!”
“Serika-chan, I’ll ask you nicely, please stop…”
“Ah, I got it…”
Eventually, Ayane covered Serika’s mouth, while Miyako, hearing Hoshino’s words, unconsciously spoke up.
“That’s not right… The existence of the Student Council—”
“Isn’t to help specific academies but to mediate disputes and political issues between academies, maintaining order in Kivotos. It’s not wrong to feel regret, but there’s no need to resent.”
“…But there’s no guarantee that this desertification will end in Abydos. Broadly speaking, helping Abydos was definitely for the sake of Kivotos.”
“That became more noticeable only after the situation grew serious, like now. Nobody was worried that the desertification would spread beyond Abydos—50 years, 30, or even just two years ago. People didn’t think such things until just recently when the situation changed dramatically; to say it was ridiculous would be an understatement.”
Miyako couldn’t understand how one could speak so calmly regarding their own issues. But she undeniably realized that Hoshino was right in her claims.
“And regardless, Shalle has come all this way to help, so fundamentally, Shalle is a product of the Student Council President, and in that respect, the teacher’s intentions could also be seen as the Student Council President’s intentions, right?”
“I… understand.”
How would Miyako herself have acted if given a choice to aid Abydos or not? After pondering briefly, she brushed that thought aside.
What was important was that they were here now to help Abydos, and resolving the situation by helping Abydos was their utmost priority—not debating the rightness or wrongness of past selections made by others.
“To get to the main point… the biggest issues currently plaguing Abydos are this sandstorm and the abnormal desertification alongside the monsters of the desert. I’ve hypothesized that the desertification worsens simultaneously with the appearance of desert monsters, but… we still lack certainty regarding this matter.”
“That sounds like simply defeating the monster might improve the situation quite a bit?”
“Well, if we can defeat it… then maybe so. But bear in mind that the first sighting of that monster dates back several decades. Think carefully if there haven’t been any attempts to catch it during that long period.”
“Hehe… then can we try pouring all the weapons we brought first and see what happens?”
“Yeah… not a bad plan. Understanding our forces is important.”
“That’s right… for us three, chasing away that monster was the best we could do, and it was only thanks to Hoshino-senpai’s efforts. Confirming how effective high-caliber equipment is is definitely a necessary step☆.”
The more the meeting progressed, everyone started leaning towards the idea of facing Vina at least once. Given the lack of information, it was their only course of action they could take.
Naturally, this led to Ayane sharing the drone footage recorded during the last battle between the Task Force and Vina. After watching the footage, Saki and Miyako gazed at Hoshino with expressions of awe or shock.
Of course, even amidst the visual obstruction caused by the sand, Vina’s presence was overwhelmingly strong. Hoshino’s feat of climbing onto its body and driving it away surpassed the capabilities of the self-proclaimed elite SRT by great margins.
“…At least one thing is certain.”
“Yeah, I think so too.”
For Saki and Miyako, having watched the footage, their conviction was as follows.
“If simply aiming and shooting at its eyes could drive that monster away, then we needn’t worry about that part now that we have arrived.”
“Right. That’s because we have… the best sniper of SRT with us.”
The presence of Kasumi and Miyu was undoubtedly the strongest countermeasure against Vina.
Miyu being SRT’s top sniper was a fact even the cute sniper of the FOX Squad had reluctantly agreed to after much denial.
“Y-Yeah?”
Miyu, who was playing with pebbles in the corner, startled, and it wasn’t long before the Task Force once again recognized her half-forgotten existence.
As everyone steeled themselves to face Vina, only Hoshino, with her eyes closed on the desk, had a somewhat different thought.
Two years ago, the Abydos Student Council… they were undoubtedly investigating something important. And that foolish upperclassman… Yume must have held onto the key to it.
Hoshino wasn’t ready to voice that painful story in front of them just yet.
*
In D.U., Rion had just collapsed onto her bed after practicing singing until late evening in the newly set up recording studio.
“…So annoying.”
She knew she had to shower and change her clothes, but even those tasks felt bothersome given her life as the Student Council President caught up in being an idol “set” with the angels.
Yet Hina was diligent—so much so that one might question how someone could be so diligent.
Thus, even while verbally expressing annoyance, her body instinctively moved away from the cozy bed and toward the bathroom.
While starting with her teeth brushing, Hina drifted off into thought for a moment.
Two days from now, the day she had been eagerly waiting for would finally arrive—her lover Mika was going to spend a day in Gehenna after a long time.
In alignment with her special day, Hina had resolved herself. After much contemplation, she could no longer put it off.
After all, hadn’t Mika been living in the same house as Kirihouji Nagisa? The two who would share the same bed each night, it was downright naive to think they would just hold hands and sleep peacefully.
Unrelated to the happenings in the desert, the Student Council President’s happiness was approaching.
The devil had silently vowed to corrupt the angel.
