"Hello, this is Problem Solver 68, Rikuhachima Aru speaking... What? An entire ptoon of the Kata Kata helmet gang was defeated so you resorted to hire us?" The horned pink, haired girl from Tendou's first visit to the desert asked the caller, before the mysterious voice from the tter gave more details about her next job. "I see... I see... It will be done."

  "So, boss? What's our move?" Asked a monochromatic haired girl wearing a bck hoodie with the words "Born To Kill" etched below a white symbol.

  "Tomorrow is a Saturday. We can hire a group of part-timers for assistance in this job, Section Chief Kayoko."

  "Are you sure, Aru-Chan? We're low on budget as it is." Teased a silver haired girl with long side ponytail tied by a bck flower scrunchie, her demeanor painting her as a bratty youth.

  "I thought I told you to call me boss, Chief-of-staff Mutsuki! I mean, we already have Haruka tailing a student, so we already knew the location of where we strike. This Abydos High School."

  "I still think it's not a completely good idea to let her go alone."

  "If it is to cheer her up for her success, I guess there is no other choice, right Aru-Chan?"

  Elsewhere at an alleyway, the purple haired girl wearing an admiral coat and navy hat whom they referred to as Haruka clutched her shotgun close to her body, as she watched Kabuto dealing with a couple of surgeon mask wearing delinquents who attempted to ambush Haruka for her money.

  "W-We'll remember this!" The robot that hired the delinquents shouted, as he turned tail and tried to run, only for Kabuto to appear in front of him again in a fsh.

  "He... switched pces?" Haruka asked to herself.

  "RIDER KICK"

  Haruka's eyes gzed even more when she sees Kabuto delivering a 180 degree standing roundhouse kick, destroying the robot adult which explodes the moment the kick connects to his monitor shaped head. An awestruck grin formed on Haruka's lips, as she begins to take deep breaths, which became more intense when Kabuto raised his arm, his index finger pointing to the skies above.

  "U-Umm... Thank you very much." Haruka said as she slowly stepped forward to thank Kabuto.

  However Kabuto didn't respond, instead, he spped the right hip side of his belt buckle before vanishing from Haruka's sight in a fsh. Haruka knelt down in awe as the act Kabuto made is akin to what Aru would refer to as an Outw's Exit, in which said outw would not say a word after finishing a job, and rides off into the sunset.

  "S-Still... was it really necessary for trash like me to be saved like that?"

  The next day, due to it being in the weekend, Serika started her part-time job early at the ramen shop, coming in at 9 AM.

  "Master, I'm--"

  Serika froze the moment she sees a familiar face sitting on the stool of the ramen bar, but what also caught her attention is the towering foam crates on one of the tables near the entrance.

  "Nn, You're just in time."

  "Shiroko-Senpai? What are these?"

  "No idea. But the master had to pay the deliveryman with your monthly paycheck."

  "Why? Aren't these supplies for the shop?" Serika asked as she lifted one of the crates, and put them down on another table to examine the delivery bel on the lid of the crate.

  Her eyes blinked once as she processed the words written on the bel, "Cash on delivery?" before they gnced down to who the addressed recipient is, "Kuromi Serika." After muttering out the name over and over without any voice, she widened her eyes in realization and shouted "IT'S ADDRESSED TO ME!?" to Shiroko, who simply nodded slowly.

  The door opens, and a cheery "Good morning!" is shouted from a ram-horned girl with fluffy beige colored hair, wearing a Gehenna themed student uniform. "Shishidou Izumi's the name! Is this the Shibaseki Ramen Shop?"

  "Well, the sign is in the front, so..." Serika replied with a little tinge of sarcasm.

  "I was told to come here and retrieve the Matsuwa!"

  "Matsuwa?" Both Serika and Shiroko's ears perked up, Serika in confusion while Shiroko in excitement as she recalled the Matsuwa Mackerel used to cook Saba Misoni a couple of days ago.

  Upon realizing what Izumi meant, Serika quickly unboxed one of the foam crates to reveal that indeed, ying side-by side with the mountainous pieces of ice, are a couple of Matsuwa Mackerel, the quality so good that it basically gave off a shine. Immediately after, Serika sunk down to her knees after piecing it all together: Someone had ordered these crates of Matsuwa Mackerel under her name, which led to Master Shiba paying the entire order with Serika's monthly worth of pay, and what is worse is that these mackerel are not in the shop's menu, so they cannot be used here.

  "Uwaa~ They're shiny! Also a wise grandma once said: If you're going to eat it anyway, then eat the best one first."

  "That way of speaking, could you be... Tendou-Sensei's--" Serika is about to finish her question, but was interrupted.

  "Gourmet student!"

  The reply is enough to shut Serika down, her finger resting on her forehead as she processed the information. As it turns out, SCHALE's cafeteria ran out of mackerel, and in order to recruit the Gourmet Research Society into their ranks, Tendou purposefully ordered it's members to go get the mackerel crates which were dropped off in 4 separate locations, to show that they would be willing to do anything for SCHALE's food supply. Shibaseki ramen is the st location to be marked on Izumi's map, and she brought the tower of crates over to a commandeered military truck outside. On the back of the truck are more Matsuwa mackerel crates, as well as a blue haired student with goat horns, who had her mouth taped shut and body bound by ropes that has a paper stuck onto it that reads "Obligatory Fuuka".

  "My month's money..."

  Both Hoshino and Nonomi bursted out ughing after they heard the entire story from Shiroko, and Ayane tried her best to hold her ughter while Serika herself felt her face redden in anger, embarrassment, up to the point she became livid just like what happened after Shiroko stole her meal. Tendou himself also came by since he is scheduled to attend the meet that was pnned by Ayane, this time in his usual white jacket and denim jeans, his hat and sungsses on the other hand were pced on top of the meeting table.

  "Idiot Sensei! Why did you use my name on the delivery order!?"

  "So you can come to the meet without having to work part-time today. You forgot that we have an emergency meeting."

  "S-Still... Ahh, whatever!"

  The FTF and Tendou gathered around in the clubroom, as Ayane starts the meet which discusses about the future of the FTF and Abydos. However during this, she referred to her clubmates complete with their school years, which irked Serika as they never had a formal meeting before, however because of Tendou being here, they might as well have to. Regardless however, everyone agreed that Abydos needs to pay off the debt owed to Kaiser Loans, and with this, Serika was asked for her suggestion first as she is the treasurer of the club.

  "As the treasurer of the Foreclosure Task Force, I want to talk about our school's current financial situation, which is on the verge of bankruptcy. So far we have been finishing bounty contracts and have done part time jobs, but these are still obviously not enough. Ergo, we need to get a lot of money at once!"

  "Enlighten me how." Tendou asked.

  "Fufu, with this!" Serika then revealed a flier advertising a product named a Germanium Bracelet.

  "Rejected." Tendou said again.

  "Eh, why!?"

  "It's a scam. You don't wear bracelets out of materials that aren't verified yet, and suddenly get rich because they are advertised as such." Hoshino expined.

  "Grandmother said this: A truly famous store does not put out advertisements."

  Wanting to up Tendou over, Serika then tried to defend her dignity by raising her own finger upwards, imitating him.

  "Grandfather* said this:"

  (*The way Serika said Grandfather here is not fully done. It's Ojii-San, however she said it too quickly that it became Oji-San.)

  "Uhe~ You're referencing this Oji-San here? I'm blushing~"

  "You shut up-- RAAAHHHH!!! I even bought two of these bracelets myself..." Serika sat down in defeat.

  "Serika-Chan is so gullible, it's cute!" Nonomi chuckled.

  Still holding in her ughter, Ayane then gnced over to Hoshino. "With that out of the way, are there any suggestions from you, Third-Year Hoshino-Senpai?"

  Hoshino then expined that other than money, Abydos cked students and they need to enroll more to join their ranks.

  "...And the way to quickly go about this, is to hijack school buses and force the students inside to join!"

  "Interesting. So who's our target? Trinity? Gehenna? Or is it Millenium?"

  "DENIED, DENIED! Even if we do succeed in hijacking the buses, those students can still fight back."

  "Ayane's right, Hoshino."

  "Uhe~ Not you too, Sensei..."

  Having no other choice, Shiroko then raised her hand.

  "Any suggestions? Second-Year Shiroko-Senpai?"

  "We rob a bank."

  "What!?"

  "It's a surefire pn, and we have the perfect target, the First Central Bank downtown."

  Shiroko then revealed that she had already pnned all that she needed for a bank heist, starting from the guards' patrol routes, vault location, security camera blind spots, and even the bank's armored transport's route. She took out 5 knitted out ski masks from her schoolbag, each with a different color, and had a number attached to them, from 1 to 5. Even worse is that Nonomi outright loved the mask as she commented that she looked like a luchador (a masked wrestler), and Hoshino asks Serika out of all people that life is all about risking big to win big.

  "TO HELL IT IS! DENIED!"

  "Serika's right! We can't possibly resort to being criminals! Right, Sensei!?"

  "Grandmother said this: People who steal things lost something even more important." Tendou quoted, to which Serika actually nodded in agreement at his grandmother's quote for once.

  "Ah! Me! It's my turn!" Nonomi raised her hand.

  "Please, second-year Nonomi-Senpai. No more frauds or crimes, alright?"

  "Of course. This time, it's neither a crime nor a fraud, but a legal and effective way! Let's become school idols!" With Nonomi's suggestion, Ayane's hope shattered again.

  The mention of becoming an idol hits Tendou, as he knew of a woman who had been mimicked by a worm, also worked as an opera singer. The life of that caliber is bound to be filled with private issues that would eventually lead to self-destruction most of the time, and because of that woman's true identity as a worm, she had to be killed by another one of Tendou's rivals.

  "Denied. It won't end well, even if you got a lot of money at the start."

  "Eh? Why, Sensei? I even came up with a pose as well as a name... The Masked Mizugi Gang!"

  "ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" Serika asked.

  "Grandmother said this: One that drowns in oneself will eventually fall to darkness. The life of an idol requires a lot of focus on not just the fans, but also oneself. And the difficulty of such would be enough to plunge you into a dark time. Now, with all that's said, we aren't getting anywhere with our suggestions."

  "Then come on and hijack school buses with this Oji-San, Sensei~ Your armor can help out a lot."

  "Nn. Robbery instead."

  "Please give it a thought one more time, Tendou-Sensei~ You can be the manager of our idol group instead, right Ayane?"

  "You four..."

  In a fsh, the entire table is flipped over, and once everything fell apart to the floor below, a livid Ayane is revealed behind the colpsed table. She then continued on by rummaging more objects from their positions in a fit of rage as she continued on her berserk.

  "Ayane-Chan is on berserk mode! Take cover, everyone!" Nonomi shouted.

  "Sensei--" Serika and Shiroko looked to where Tendou once stood, only to see him not there. Instead they heard the sounds of a motorcycle engine being revved up, before speeding away.

  "He'll probably be at the ramen shop..." Hoshino stared bnkly at the speeding motorcycle outside.

  "ALL YOU FOUR EVER DO IS FOOL AROUND! Robbing banks, pyramid schemes… IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE SOME KIND OF JOKE?!"

  An hour ter, at the Shibaseki Ramen Shop...

  Ayane facepalmed at her seat, still embarrassed that she lost her cool in front of Tendou and having to waste an hour of chewing out her clubmates.

  "Everything's going to be alright, OK? I'm sorry. How about if I treat you for a bowl of ramen to make up for earlier?"

  "Umu... I'm... not angry..."

  "That's it. Hush now. There's a good girl,” Nonomi tried to cheer her up.

  “Now you're cheering me up like I'm a child!?!” Ayane said, sitting up straight as her anger began to resurface. “Ugh… What am I supposed to do when Tendou-Sensei comes again?” She covered her face with both hands in embarrassment.

  "There is no worrying over that. I am here." Tendou said, handing Ayane the bowl of ramen that he cooked personally for her.

  "S-Sensei! Oh, I forgot, you're helping out Master Shiba for old time's sake..."

  "Eat up. Grandmother said this: No matter what condiment, what ingredient... there is something greater: the love of the person cooking."

  "E-eh?" Ayane's blush of embarrassment then turned into something else the moment she heard Tendou's words just now.

  Nobody noticed Shiroko balling her fists, her face hiding away something dark beneath.

  "Stop ignoring me already, all of you!" Serika shouted, as she was trying to spark a conversation herself for the past minute but to no avail.

  "By the way, this one's on the house. I made this with my own broth, and I got Master Shiba's permission as well for it."

  "T-Thank you, Sensei..."

  Ayane then peacefully ate her meal, as the door to the shop is then opened slightly, revealing a girl with scruffy purple hair wearing a purple navy hat. The girl looked around the interior of the shop, until she sees Tendou, but the thing that caught her attention the most is the belt that he is wearing. Even though the buckle is covered by his apron, Haruka can still see the oddly shaped hip button on the belt.

  "Oh... U-Umm..."

  Tendou raised a brow, as he remembered this girl from st night who he happened to run into during his trip back to SCHALE, Haruka. However due to him being te at the time, he had to go back quickly before Wakamo chews him out for coming home too te. Approaching the girl, Tendou bent his head a bit downwards, and asked. "Welcome to Shibaseki Ramen. How may I help you?"

  "Sensei, that's my line!" Serika whispered, before she heard ughter coming from her clubmates to which they piped down after Serika gave them an annoyed gre.

  "Uh… Excuse me. How much is the cheapest thing on your menu?"

  "That would be a regur bowl of Shibaseki Ramen, only at 580 yen! It is our signature dish and it's so delicious!" Serika said happily, in her waitress persona.

  "Huh. Who knew that Serika can be proper as a waitress as well."

  "Oh, shush!"

  Haruka then left the shop, and spoke to someone outside. After a few moments she brought in Aru, Kayoko and Mutsuki with her.

  "Heh. We finally found something that costs less than 600 yen." Mutsuki chimed.

  "A yen saved is a yen earned. I knew we'd find one."

  "Y-You were right. I guess you really do know everything, Aru-Sama..." Haruka complimented Aru, much to Kayoko's annoyance as she sighed.

  Kayoko then looked at the students seated at one of the already occupied tables.

  "Those uniforms... That halo-less adult..."

  "There's no mistaking it. They're the Abydos students and the adult is Sensei..." Mutsuki said, before her eyes then gaze over to Tendou's belt. "I want that belt."

  "It's either that or your life."

  "You're no fun~"

  "Sensei?" Haruka asked Mutsuki.

  "Oh, right Haruka. That adult is the SCHALE Sensei that has been all over the news tely."

  "..." Haruka stares at Tendou in response.

  Serika asked if they would like to take a table to sit at, but Mutsuki declined, wanting the one bowl that the group ordered to be a takeout. This led to Haruka causing a scene where she repeatedly stated that she and her group are so poor because of her, and that they should have never came to the shop. However, Tendou then approached the group, and handed over a box of strawberry milk to Haruka.

  "Here, take it. It's on the house."

  "T-Thank you very much..."

  "For an assistant cook, you seem really generous on giving away a box of milk to a stranger." Aru commented, causing Kayoko to facepalm.

  "If you receive a little kindness, give them a rge serving." Tendou quoted.

  "You're a wise fellow, I can dig that!" Aru chuckled.

  The group then headed to their seat, awaiting their bowl of ramen to be cooked. After a brief conversation that revealed their group to be a company with Aru being president, Mutsuki being the Chief of Staff, Kayoko being the Section Chief, and Haruka being an entry-level employee. Their discussion ter became an argument as it is clear that Aru is actually not competent enough in handling expenses, and that she has already blown away most of the group's budget on mercenaries to which Mutsuki then teased Aru that she is a chicken.

  "Who are you calling chicken?! I'm just being careful and covering our bases! Failure is not an option. You all know the Problem Solver 68’s motto: Expect the unexpected!"

  Tendou sighed when he heard such motto. While he was out and about some time in the mid 2010s, there was an online game where the exact same motto is used for an insurance company of that game universe. From this alone, Tendou can already rate Aru as one that doesn't have the right to handle expenses, but at being a leader? That has yet to be proven to him.

  "This is the first time I've heard we got a motto..." Kayoko said, a rge sweatdrop appearing on the back of her head.

  "I'm pretty sure she just made it up right now, copied straight from ‘Grand Theft Manual’” Mutsuki whispered to Kayoko.

  "H-hey, I heard that!"

  Not long afterwards, Serika came out of the kitchen carrying the bowl of ramen. However it isn't the regur ramen that the group has expected, instead it's multiple stacks of ramen with an assortment of toppings. Haruka asked if Serika has got the wrong table, but Serika insisted on giving the group extra ramen, which then reminded Haruka of what Tendou said just now after giving her the box of strawberry milk to drink during the wait. During the mealtime, the Abydos students also begin to hang out with the Gehenna-originated group, and sparked a bit of a friendship much to Kayoko's worry. After both groups finished their meals, they parted ways, with Aru waving her hand at her newfound friends.

  "Looks like she still hasn't put two on two together..." Kayoko said worriedly.

  "Let's tell her ter. I want to see how it goes." Mutsuki grinned.

  "Hey, where's Haruka?" Aru asked, before the other two realized that the purple haired entry-level employee is nowhere in sight.

  Back inside the shop, Haruka told Sensei what her group's purpose in Abydos was, to which Tendou nodded in understanding.

  "I see. Why are you telling me this?"

  "I-It's because..."

  Haruka pointed to the belt that Tendou is wearing under the apron.

  "I see. Looks like there is no hiding it. Now go with your group."

  "Eh? A-a-are you sure? D-don't you think--"

  "Believe me. Everything will be fine."

  Haruka then left the shop, telling Aru that she borrowed the restroom before giving a tip to Tendou, not realizing that the 'tip' is actually her telling Tendou that the group is pnning to invade the school annex the next day. This of course worried Kayoko even more while Mutsuki held back her ughter. And after they went back to where they set up shop for the night, Kayoko revealed to Aru who the Abydos students are, to which a loud, echoing shout is heard throughout the night air.

  "Not good, not good!"

  The invasion, as expected, did not go out well at all. Thanks to Haruka giving Tendou the heads-up, he has pced booby-traps all over the streets leading to the high school annex building, ranging from proximity mines that he hid underneath traffic cones and behind concrete barricades, to outright life threatening ones such as shock traps. However due to the haloes the mercenaries have, like all other students, they were merely incapacitated temporarily. It took them 15 minutes before finally seeing the school building, which is predictably defended, as Nonomi rained down suppressing fire from the roof while Shiroko and Serika fired and advanced on the approaching mercenaries that got inside the front yard. Hoshino on the other hand had just brought down Mutsuki, by swatting away an incoming fshbang which the tter threw at her using her shotgun, before finally subduing Mutsuki when she is still stunned by her own fshbang, which is something she regretted to bring.

  Aru kept on trying to get a perfect opportunity to take down Nonomi and let the mercenaries advance, however due to Shiroko's merciless advances, Aru has no choice but to relocate every so often. Not even a moment ter, in her vision, she sees an unseen force knocking out the mercenaries around her.

  "W-what is that!?"

  "I-It's Sensei!" Kayoko replied.

  "He's... Where!?"

  Kayoko closed her eyes, as she held her H&K P30 handgun with both hands, before she finally sensed where Kabuto is, and shouted "There you are!"

  With a well pced shot, a bullet hits Kabuto in the helmet, stunning him momentarily.

  "CLOCK OVER"

  "Tch... Not bad."

  "Sensei, you should know that some students here aren't like the people from wherever you came from. Some of us can sense lifeforms even at your speed." Kayoko said as she pointed her pistol towards Kabuto.

  "Interesting. So there is more to this world than just students overpowering each other with guns."

  The two began to shoot at each other, Kabuto's kunaigun projectiles hitting Kayoko's bullets, stopping each other in their trails.

  "Aru, what are you doing, help the others!" Kayoko shouted, as she kept on shooting.

  Kayoko then ran towards Kabuto while rapidly emptying her magazine, before pouncing on him. The two then fought in hand-to-hand, in which Kayoko tried to nd hits and kicks at the armored adult, but all of her attacks are countered, but so is Kabuto's. The two are evenly matched, and at one point Kayoko did a leg sweep which Kabuto dodged by hopping in the air before she took a nearby rebar and attempted to hit him with it. However, Kabuto countered by using the kunai mode of his kunaigun. Sparks begin to emanate as the bde scrapes against the blunt rebar.

  "Y-You two, p-p-please stop!" Haruka's voice is heard.

  "We won't!" Both Kabuto and Kayoko replied.

  The sound of the Abydos school bell is heard a second ter, and the mercenaries begin to pack up and leave Aru's group as it turns out, they had a time limit. The Abydos students then surrounded Aru's group, cornering Aru and Mutsuki who finally regained consciousness, while Shiroko pressed the barrel of her rifle against Haruka's head.

  "Lay a finger on Sensei and then she's gone." Shiroko threatened.

  "...Fine."

  "Shiroko. Put your rifle down." Kabuto ordered as he deformed back into Tendou.

  "Nn."

  "Haruka, are you hurt?!" Kayoko asked as she approached her comrade.

  "I-I-I'm sorry! I-I-I shouldn't have told S-Sensei that we are going t-to attack his s-s-tudents! I-I f-feel like trash even more!"

  "Haruka. Chin up."

  To Haruka and Kayoko's surprise, Tendou pces a hand on both of their shoulders.

  "If there is anything that you want, let me know."

  "A-A-Alright! T-Thank you very much, Sensei!"

  Aru then ordered her group to retreat, but in reality she ran away. As for Tendou and the FTF, they head back into the school building to discuss about who Aru's group were. Little did they know that the battles from before will be incomparable with the ones they have to face in the future, something which Tendou already knew.