"Damn it! To think they can do whatever they like on us!" Serika cursed, as she sms her hands onto the meeting table.

  "D-Did we make a mistake in our task earlier? F-f-forgive--"

  "Not you, you self-loathing imp! It's Kaiser!"

  "Serika-Chan, you're scaring Haruka-Chan--" Nonomi tried to defuse the situation.

  "WE HAVE BIGGER MATTERS ON HAND THAN HER WELL BEING!"

  "WILL YOU GIRLS STOP FIGHTING!?"

  Everyone, except for Kabuto froze in silence and shock, as that shouting came from Hoshino, the same Hoshino who was for most of the time, lethargic and zy. They heard a thud outside as well, in which Kayoko went to check, but all she sees is the glimpse of a fluffy fox tail turning around a corner.

  "That is..."

  "Hoshino-Senpai..."

  "If we argue like this all the time, how are we going to get out of this situation!?"

  Nobody answered, as they couldn't find the answer. Not even Kabuto. Afterwards, Hoshino storms out of the clubroom, excusing herself as she wanted "to take a nap". After she went out, Shiroko approached Kabuto, and handed him a piece of paper.

  "This is... Why didn't you tell us earlier about this, Shiroko?"

  "Nn... I thought I would get another lecture from either Hoshino-Senpai or you."

  "You're excused this time. This is a serious matter."

  "What is it, Sensei?" Ayane asked.

  "It's something that only me, Shiroko and Hoshino can know for now. Rest up, get to know each other again." Kabuto said, pointing to the Problem Solvers, before he leaves to follow Hoshino.

  "So... Did I ever tell you the time when me and Aru-Chan..." Mutsuki started off, before Kabuto is far away from hearing distance.

  A few moments ter, Kabuto took the Kabuto Extender, and drove out of the school grounds, looking for Hoshino, as she didn't take a nap at school at this time, which is dusk. After driving around the suburbs in Clock Up mode, he finally finds Hoshino, about to enter her home. Before Kabuto can get off, however, Arona interjected.

  "Did you just cheat using Clock Up, just to find Hoshino?"

  "Time is running out, Arona. We need to settle this before tomorrow ends."

  "By the way, Sensei. I looked into the details of the Zecter technology. What is a Hyper Zecter? What does it do?"

  "Time will tell, Arona."

  After waiting for a moment in front of Hoshino's residence, Kabuto pressed the doorbell, and a short while ter Hoshino came back down, in her pajamas.

  "Uhe~ Sensei, You're a naughty fellow, following this Oji-San all the way home, and catching her in her pajamas."

  "Hoshino. There is something that I wanted to tell you."

  In the living room, Kabuto sat down on the armchair beside Hoshino's, and brought out the piece of paper that Shiroko gave to him earlier, causing Hoshino to widen her eyes in surprise.

  "Where did you get this, Sensei?"

  "Shiroko needs another lecturing."

  "Ah, I see..."

  "Who gave you this resignation letter? Is their purpose reted to the Abydos Student Council in some way?"

  "Well, you see..."

  A couple of hours ter, at an abandoned office building, inside the Chief's office, sat Bck Suit fiddling through the documents on his desk, one of them depicting the blurry photograph of a huge serpentine mechanical serpent digging it's way out of the sands of the Abydos Desert. The cracks on his face dimmed a bit the moment he senses movement outside the office.

  "Come in."

  The door opens, revealing Hoshino, back in uniform albeit unarmed, holding the resignation letter.

  "Horus. Have you considered your choice already?"

  "She is not signing anything, anytime."

  Kabuto stepped into view, kunaigun in hand.

  "Kabuto-Sensei. It is a pleasure to be finally meeting you in person. I have waited a long time for this... And forgive my manners, I haven't introduced myself. Everyone has taken to call me Bck Suit."

  "Cut to the chase." Kabuto said, flipping the kunaigun into axe mode.

  "Do not worry. In actuality, I want to ask for your help, for you see, Abydos is a small school not even worth my time."

  Kabuto raised his right arm higher, silently demanding him to cut to the chase and not discuss Abydos.

  "You see, you are also as mysterious as we do. We're the same."

  "Enlighten me."

  "We are not of Kivotos, but we have different fields in which we belong to. We are Gematria."

  Bck Suit expined that Gematria is an organization that focuses itself on observation, exploration and research, before asking Kabuto one more time if he wanted to help. At this point, Kabuto motioned Hoshino to leave the office.

  "I refuse."

  "Really?"

  "This is a good chance to get the truth and the mystery, yet you refused it."

  "Because I already had the evidence."

  "...What!? When did you..."

  On Kabuto's left hand, is the document with the photograph of the mechanical serpent. Smming the kunaigun's axe bde onto the desk, Kabuto then expined.

  "Before I entered, I took the document from the desk in clock up mode."

  "Y...You... What do you pursue here in Kivotos?" Bck Suit changes the topic.

  "I do what my path guides me to. To guide these students."

  "...Aside from that? What of the current situation with Horus... whom you knew as Takanashi Hoshino?"

  "She will not resign."

  "And what makes you have the right to give that demand?"

  "Both of us never signed the letter."

  Kabuto then hands him over the resignation letter, and Bck Suit looked to see that the lines above "Sensei" and "Takanashi Hoshino" have no signatures signed above them.

  "I see... This is tricky."

  "As for Abydos--"

  "If you ask for what happened to the district, it is not our fault. The sandstorm that buried the district is a natural occurrence that happens to occur at chance. As a result, people fell into the dilemma of water shortage after the great oasis dried out. Then someone comes in to sell water at an expensive price. It is natural, as those with reseources exploit those without."

  "Those who rule the water, rule Abydos. Is what you meant."

  "You learnt of such terms? Superb. Sensei, please, leave Abydos and your students can live a wonderful campus life with peace of mind."

  "With Kaiser breathing down their necks, as they work to the bone to save their school? I refuse."

  "Why? WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY!?" The cracks on Bck Suit's voice begin to

  "Why... What exactly?"

  "You have the power, to take it all for yourself! Even your given name meant that! So Why!?"

  "I did say, One that rules over everything. However, you didn't take Walking the path of Heaven into account."

  "They are not your family."

  "They are still what I see what they are. Grandmother said this: Children are treasures. The greatest sin in the world is to damage those treasures. No adults till now have taken on the responsibility for their suffering as it is."

  "Responsibility... An adult's responsibility?"

  Kabuto did not reply. His glowing blue visors hiding his gre which Bck Suit can sense.

  "You could have been the ruler of this city, yet you chose your own way of so."

  "I suppose it is time for you to expin why you wanted Hoshino to begin with. Or else... this document will burn."

  "Tch. I'll expin, and on the other end of this deal, we shall not trouble you in the upcoming future."

  Bck Suit then expined that Gematria intended to use Hoshino as a test subject, to extract mystic energy off from her, as a means to study it's properties and such. However, he did not expin further, and ended the talks. Before Kabuto leaves however, he pulled the trigger of the kunaigun, and when Bck Suit looked at where he shot just now, he sees the resignation paper, now having a bullet hole on it.

  "So, Sensei... Do we have a pn?"

  "Tell the others to storm the Kaiser Base again tomorrow at 1 PM. And this time, do not hold back."

  "Eh? What will you do beforehand, Sensei?"

  "You'll see."

  The next afternoon, both the FTF and PS68 arrived at the exterior of the Kaiser PMC base that they invaded the other day.

  "So that's it? We just attack head-on?" Kayoko asked.

  "If that is what Sensei told us to, then what option do we have?" Ayane replied through the comms system.

  "He believed in our strength together. With that said..." Hoshino unfolded IRON HORUS, and begin to march forward.

  "...Nn. We'll fight till he shows us his pn."

  The Hercus Zecter flew into view, and attached itself onto the brace on Shiroko's right wrist.

  "Henshin."

  "HENSHIN"

  "CHANGE BEETLE"

  "I'm still kinda jealous that Shiroko ended up becoming that..." Serika pouted.

  "According to Sensei's logic, actually you can, though." Nonomi recalled.

  "Oh... Right. So if Shiroko-Senpai is to lose that brace and I took it... I can transform too."

  "That applies to Hoshino-Senpai and me too... Especially since we never surrender in defending our home."

  "Uhe~ What if we take turns on who gets the brace and whatchamacallit?"

  "Now that you mention it..."

  "Let's attack the base already!" Aru shouted, already impatient at their bickering.

  "Agreed... We're going to be scorched standing under the desert sun like this!" Mutsuki said, sweat starting to drop down from her forehead.

  "Ayane, please take command."

  "Got it, Hoshino-Senpai. Nonomi-Senpai, and Aru-San, stay in the rear. Shiroko and Hoshino-Senpai, as well as Haruka-Chan take the front. The rest stay in the middle and gain distance from the enemy."

  "Got it!" The groups said in unison, before marching forward.

  Not long after, the base's arm rings, and a ptoon of PMC students storm out of their quarters and onto the entrance gate.

  "We've been ordered to keep you out!"

  "We've heard that yesterday, I guess we'll give you the same treatment as well today. Open fire!" Serika shouted, and the allied group begin to rain fire down upon the PMC students.

  Those who managed to take cover behind some sandbags were eventually taken out by Hercus, Hoshino and Haruka. Both Hoshino and Haruka took them down with close-range bsts with their shotguns which instantly render them unconscious, while Shiroko brutally sshes the students with the kunaigun's axe bde, but not to the point that she permanently shut down the students' halos. Shiroko also shows her flexibility as she switched between the kunaigun for melee and close quarters shooting, and her rifle for distant targets.

  The allied group fired and advanced through the base until they reached the center like the previous day, which, as predicted, caused reinforcements to pour out from the surrounding barracks and quarters, and even as expected, they were a mix of the PMC students and automatons.

  "Fools! You dare bite the hands of those who fed you!?" The Director's voice is heard from the PA system.

  "We changed our minds. Sensei treated us miles better than you doofuses do!" Aru replied, before shooting the PA loudspeakers off.

  "That's it. That's really it. Unleash the Goliaths."

  "But Director, we're not--"

  "I SAID UNLEASH THEM!"

  The Director smashed the operator's head open, before he then opened the garage doors that housed the goliaths he mentioned, which are gigantic battle walkers armed with miniguns on it's arms and a rge main cannon above it's head.

  "Wow! That's huge!" Mutsuki commented.

  "A new machine?" Hoshino asked, holding her shield tightly.

  The Goliath then fired it's main cannon, attempting to bst Hoshino apart, however the IRON HORUS blocks it effortlessly, and Shiroko appears, jumping over Hoshino, and with one clean swipe, sshes off the Goliath's main cannon. Afterwards, Shiroko kicked open the pilot's cockpit window, and shot the pilot steering the Goliath, before hopping off and leaving the gigantic machine to fall to the ground.

  Shiroko then reached for the Hercus Zecter to initiate a Rider Beat, only to be interrupted as an artillery shell hits the fallen Goliath, rendering it un-pilotable anymore due to the damage.

  "I...Is that..." Aru widened her eyes at the sudden artillery bst.

  "I-It was my doing!" A voice shouted from the roof of one of the barracks buildings.

  There stood Hifumi wearing her Faust mask, ordering more artillery strikes onto the base with hand signals.

  "Hifumi--" Serika is about to expose her name, but then was interrupted.

  "It's not Hifumi! I-It's Faust! And what struck you just now is not the Trinity Tea Party's artillery shell! Trinity has n-n-nothing to do with me!"

  "Did Sensei hire you!?" Kayoko asked.

  "A-Aye, he did h-hire me! N-now go, I'll provide covering fire!" Faust ordered, as she then signaled for another artillery rain which obliterated more automatons, and some destroying the garages that stored more Goliath Mechs.

  On the rear gate of the base however, Ayane saw a huge troop movement that is neither Trinity nor Kaiser.

  "M-More reinforcements incoming! I-It's the Prefect Team!"

  "Gehenna...!?" Serika realized who they were.

  A group of the Prefect Troopers marched toward the center, and opened fire on the exposed fnks taken by the remaining PMC students.

  "Iori, Ako, take a ptoon and provide frontline fire support." A male voice, surprisingly, ordered via the comms system that is now linked between the Prefects, the artillery team, as well as the allied assault group.

  Both Iori and Ako, the tter nodding begrudgingly, obeyed, and took one ptoon for each of them, and start to circle around the base to clear out the rest of the barracks and garages.

  "Alpha Ptoon, attack from my front, Bravo Ptoon, cut off their retreat."

  The man ordered, as two ptoons begin to swarm the already outnumbered PMC units. What is the most surprising is the fact that Hina is joining the reinforcements too, fwlessly demolishing anything that stood in her path.

  "Grandmother said this."

  The allied group stopped fighting after they heard the voice on the comms again, as they, Ayane included, had their mouths agape.

  "Fighting is something done from the stomach. Put the energy from your stomach into it!"

  "T-That manner of speech... Don't tell me..."

  And lo and behold, on the Kabuto Extender, sat Kabuto, speeding towards the base, and boosted off the ramp that the Trinity artillery squad built for him, nding right on top of one of the Goliath mechs, bringing it down.

  "S-Sensei... Just how...?" Hoshino asked, both in awe and confusion.

  "What is going on...?"