Vol. 1 Ch. 1 Ep. 10: In Search of a Clue

Oh, good morning, Sensei.

Where am I heading off to so early?

Oh. We have an interest payment on the school's debt due today. There's a lot of prep work involved.

I have to get to school ahead of time to take care of it...and do some planning for how we'll move forward.

Oh, that's right. I also compiled some intel on the students we ran into yesterday. I'd appreciate if you could take a look at it later.

Those girls are in fact students at Gehenna Academy and...

Wow! If it isn't Sensei! Hey there!

What the...?!

How ya doin'? Wow, what a coincidence running into you this morning.

*jump* *squeeze* Hmm? I'm not too heavy, am I? I'm sure you can still breathe, Sensei, so you'll just have to endure it.

Wh-What do you think you're doing? Let go of Sensei this instant!

Hey, quit pulling!

Well, well, well. If it isn't Little Miss Four-Eyes from Abydos. You really like to stick your nose in other people's business, don't you?

You seemed a lot more polite when we ran into each other at the ramen place yesterday. Don't you remember?

That was before you assaulted our school! What are you up to? Why are you trying to be so buddy-buddy all of a sudden?

And my name's not Little Miss Four-Eyes! It's Ayane!

What? It's not like we have anything against you guys.

We told you it was just business. We can play nice when we're not fighting.

A-Are you actually trying to tell me not to take things personally after what you did?!

Why not? It's not like Schale only works for you Abydos kids. Isn't that right, Sensei?

Haha! That's a good one. Fat chance. We have a business to run. Aru has high expectations of us.

Oh, well. Stop by our office anytime you want, Sensei. I bet Aru and the others would be thrilled to have you there.

Well, bye-bye! See you next time, Miss Ayane.

There will be no later! I'll shoot on sight if I catch you in our district again!

Whatever you say.

*sigh*

The nerve on that girl!

A 7,883,250 yen payment on your loan, including variable interest and additional interest, has been confirmed.

Paid in cash. No issues to report.

Thank you once again for doing business with Kaiser Loans. See you next month.

...

...

We've managed to make it another month.

How much longer to go?

The repayment schedule is 309 years. At the rate we're going...

Don't say it! I'm gonna snap if I hear the details!

Just face it. We'll never pay this off in our lifetimes! Why even bother doing the math?!

...

Do you ever wonder why they only accept cash payments? Why would they go out of their way to use armored trucks?

...

I hope you aren't planning to rob them, Shiroko.

Don't worry. I'm not.

That doesn't mean you can daydream about doing it either!

Fine...

Come on, guys. All we can do is focus on what's right in front of us.

Let's go inside.

Let's begin, shall we? We need to go over two issues.

First off is yesterday's assault.

The culprits belong to a club called Problem Solver 68.

They're a notorious group of student delinquents from Gehenna Academy.

They present themselves as a fixer agency, but they're more like errand girls who take on odd jobs.

The club president is a girl named Aru.

She would be the one you ran into that was calling herself the boss.

Aru has three employees beneath her: a chief of staff, a department head, and an entry-level employee.

They really do mean business, huh?

She's an executive at her age? That's so cool! ☆

Again, her title is self-proclaimed. I suspect they're currently operating out of a location close to Abydos, especially since we ran into one of them this morning.

Is what they're doing officially recognized by Gehenna Academy?

I wouldn't think so. I bet they took whatever contract they're under because they felt like it.

So they're in violation of school regulations... Strange. They didn't strike me as all that bad or malicious.

On the contrary. They're known for being troublemakers and causing a lot of headaches at Gehenna as well.

And now they're targeting our school! We need to take this seriously!

Maybe we ought to capture and interrogate them...

For once, I agree. We should take initiative and nip this problem in the bud.

Geez, Ayane. You're acting like this is personal. Is there something you want to tell us about?

Next up, the mastermind behind the Helmet Gang's attack on Serika!

After analyzing the weapons that were recovered from the last battle...I've learned that this model is no longer on the market.

So it's been discontinued?

Then how did they get their hands on it?

The only place you can get those kinds of weapons is in Kivotos' Black Market.

Isn't that place supposed to be really dangerous?

Yes. Dropouts, burnouts on leave, flunkies... The Black Market is a melting pot for delinquents. Not to mention a place where unauthorized clubs do illegal activities.

Like Problem Solver 68?

Indeed. Word on the street is that Problem Solver 68 has been responsible for a couple of incidents at the Black Market already.

There's our link!

I agree. We should be looking for a connection there.

It's obvious what we have to do next. Let's go to the Black Market and take a look around.

You never know what kind of clues we might find there.