In the clubroom of the Abydos Foreclosure Task Force.
After covering their vehicles with tarps and staking them down to prevent them from being buried in the sand, the members of SCHALE and the entire Foreclosure Task Force gathered in one place.
After brief introductions, what could be described as the first joint meeting between SCHALE and the Foreclosure Task Force began with Hoshino kicking things off.
"First of all, Ayane-chan..."
"Yes, Hoshino-sunbae."
"Hmm... I think it was quite naughty of you to plan something like this behind your sunbae's back, but..."
Hoshino, who had been staring at Ayane for a while, gave a dopey smile and leaned back in her chair.
"Well... all's well that ends well, I guess. You all have a good meeting, and just let me know how it goes later~."
All eyes focused on Hoshino as she closed her eyes.
Miyako and Saki were dumbfounded, wondering if this person was truly the same one with the brilliant profile they had reviewed beforehand.
Moe and Miyu had no particular thoughts.
As for the Foreclosure Task Force...
"President, wake up!!! This is a super important meeting, isn't it? At this rate, our school is going to be buried in the desert sand!"
"Nnngh... Serika-chan. My ears are ringing, so please speak a little softer. Besides, you know the saying, 'too many boatmen will row the boat up a mountain'? So me sitting this one out is to prevent that... an unavoidable sacrifice... *yaaaawn*..." (TN: A Korean proverb equivalent to "Too many cooks spoil the broth.")
"No, if the most important boatman is missing, the boat won't even get to where it's supposed to go! You're practically the representative of our school, President!"
"...Serika-chan, please calm down a little. Especially today, since it's not just us here. We've invited the people from SCHALE, so it would be better to conduct a more serious and proper meeting than usual."
"Ugh... I guess you're right."
Calming down at Ayane's words, Serika looked at Sensei. Other than a certain anonymous benefactor who had been subtly helping them, no one had ever offered a hand to Abydos. Yet here was an adult who had come running immediately after receiving a single letter from Ayane.
If asked whether she trusted him, the answer was no. If Sensei had come alone, she might have stubbornly resisted.
Even after hearing the introductions of the students who came with Sensei, her thoughts hadn't changed much. SRT was, by name and in reality, the elite of the elite, but... weren't they a special academy under the GSC, the very organization that had ignored Abydos?
But the situation was what it was. Abydos was in a crisis where the very existence of its autonomous district was at stake. So, Serika intended to first observe the direction of the meeting, but...
To think that Hoshino, the most senior student in Abydos, would have such an attitude even in this situation!
It was then that Serika heard Sensei's voice. It was a calm and placid voice, a steady tone that made one want to rely on him.
"Hoshino, I have a question for you. Do you all resent the General Student Council?"
"Oh, maybe it looked that way to you, Sensei. Well, if you ask whether we have regrets about the GSC... we're probably closer to the 'have' side. But this old man seems to have been thoroughly stained by the ways of the world... I know the reality of things well enough. From the GSC's perspective, there was no reason for them to step in and handle a problem that an academy as powerful as the old Abydos couldn't solve. They would have gained nothing from it."
"No, I say this every time, but you and I are not that far apart in age, Sunbae!"
"Serika-chan, I'm begging you. Please stop..."
"F-Fine..."
In the end, Ayane had to shut Serika up. Meanwhile, Miyako, hearing Hoshino's words, found herself speaking up without thinking.
"That's not right... The reason the General Student Council exists is—"
"Not to help specific academies, but to mediate disputes and political issues between them, and to maintain order in Kivotos. It's not necessarily wrong, so it's hard to call it 'not right'... so while it's impossible not to feel regretful, we don't go as far as to resent them."
"...But there is no guarantee that this desertification will end with Abydos. From a broader perspective, helping Abydos would have certainly been for the good of Kivotos."
"That's something that only became apparent after the situation became as serious as it is now. 50 years ago, 30 years ago, 10 years ago... even just two years ago, no one worried that the desertification would spread beyond Abydos. From this old man's perspective, I think it's actually funnier to say that only after seeing how drastically things have changed recently."
Miyako couldn't understand how she could speak so calmly about their own problems. However, she clearly understood that there was nothing wrong with Hoshino's words.
"And, in any case, SCHALE came to help us like this~ SCHALE is basically the GSC President's creation, so in that sense, couldn't Sensei's will be seen as the GSC President's will?"
"I... understand."
Miyako briefly wondered what she would have done if the choice to help Abydos or not had been given to her. She quickly erased the thought.
What was important was that they were here now to help Abydos, and solving the situation by helping Abydos was the top priority. Not judging the rightness or wrongness of choices others had made in the past.
"Getting to the main point... The two biggest problems facing Abydos right now are this abnormal desertification accompanied by the sandstorm, and the desert monster. We've hypothesized that the desertification temporarily worsens at the same time the desert monster appears... but we don't have any certainty about that yet."
"That... sounds like the situation would get a lot better just by beating that monster, doesn't it?"
"Well, if we *can* beat it... then probably so. But you should know that the first sighting of that monster was decades ago. Think carefully about whether there weren't any attempts to catch it during all that long time."
"Kuhuhu... Then can't we just unload all the weapons we brought first and think about it later?"
"Mm... not a bad idea. It's important to grasp our own forces' strength."
"That's true... With just the three of us, all we could do was drive the monster away, and even that was thanks to Hoshino-sunbae's efforts. I think checking how well high-firepower equipment works is a necessary step☆"
As the meeting progressed, everyone's opinions began to converge in the direction of 'let's fight Binah once and see.' With a lack of information, it was the only course of action they could take.
Naturally, this led to Ayane sharing the drone footage of the previous battle between the Foreclosure Task Force and Binah. After watching the video, Saki and Miyako looked at Hoshino with expressions of admiration, or perhaps shock.
It was understandable. Even with their vision obscured by the sand, Binah's presence was overwhelmingly intense. And Hoshino's feat of single-handedly climbing its body and driving it away had reached a realm far beyond merely 'impressive,' even for SRT, who prided themselves on being the elite of the elite.
"...I think I know one thing for sure."
"Ah, me too."
If there was one thing Saki and Miyako were certain of after watching the video...
"If we can drive that monster away just by accurately firing at its eye area, then we don't need to worry about that part now that we're here."
"Yes. That's because we have... SRT's best sniper."
It was the fact that Kasumizawa Miyu's existence was the most powerful Binah-repellent.
The fact that Miyu was SRT's best sniper was something even the cute sniper of the FOX Platoon had agreed to after several denials and a wounded pride.
"Y-Yes?"
It was only after Miyu, who had been huddled in a corner playing with pebbles, jumped in surprise that the Foreclosure Task Force became aware of her half-forgotten presence once more.
While everyone steeled their resolve to face Binah, only Hoshino, her eyes closed and her head resting on the desk, had slightly different thoughts.
*The Abydos Student Council from two years ago... They were definitely investigating something important. And that foolish sunbae who's gone now... Yume must have held the clue.*
Hoshino was not yet ready to bring up that painful story in front of them.
***
Hina, who had been practicing her singing until late in the evening at the recording studio in the new building Rio had put up in D.U., collapsed onto the bed in her room.
"...What a pain."
She knew she had to wash up and change her clothes first. But even that felt like a chore; such was the life of the Prefect Team Leader who had been roped into being an idol duo by an angel.
But Hina was diligent. So diligent that it made one wonder if it was okay to be that diligent.
That was why, even as her mouth said it was a pain, her body naturally peeled itself off the soft bed and headed for the bathroom.
Hina, starting with brushing her teeth, briefly fell into idle thought.
In two days, the day she had been waiting and waiting for would arrive. The day her lover, Mika, was scheduled to spend the night in Gehenna for the first time in a long while.
For this special day, her birthday, Hina had made a big decision. She had agonized over it, but she didn't want to postpone it any longer.
In the first place, didn't Mika live in the same house as Nagisa? She had never once believed that those two, who surely shared the same bed every night, would innocently just hold hands and sleep.
Unrelated to all the events unfolding in the desert, the Prefect Team Leader's own happiness was approaching.
The devil had, in the end, firmly resolved to corrupt the angel.
***