Blue Archive story · Volume 1: Foreclosure Task Force, Chapter 2, Episode 5
Vol. 1 Ch. 2 Ep. 5: Everyone Has a Story 2
1 scenes, 163 lines
1. Part 1
163 lines
Does that include the Shiba Seki ramen shop?
Yes. The building already belongs to the Kaiser Corporation. The eviction order was issued some time ago...
So, Master decided to close the shop... He said it was bound to happen eventually.
...
...!
What?!
No... Not the ramen shop...
Not only that, but the main building of Abydos, along with the surrounding desert and wilderness...
...and even the buildings that nature has not reclaimed yet, almost everything already belongs to them.
The only areas that they don't have control over are the main building of the school and parts of the surrounding area...
B-But, how is this possible? How could the land in the academy district have been traded away?
Who would do such a thing?
It must have been the Abydos Student Council.
...!
The Student Council has voting rights on school assets. Only the Student Council would be authorized to do this.
She's right. The transaction was led by Abydos' previous Student Council.
But...the Abydos Student Council has been gone for two years...
Yes. No further deals have come to light since the Student Council disappeared.
I see. Two years ago...
What have they done? Those idiot Student Council members!
How could they sell the school's land to the Kaiser Corporation?!
The school belongs to the students! Why would they do something like this?!
...
This is huge, and we had no idea it had even happened...
The district belongs to the school. That's common knowledge, so we were only concerned about the school's debt, not the school's assets.
If only I had known sooner...
Even if you had known, there's nothing you could have done.
This happened before you entered the school, before the Foreclosure Task Force had even been formed.
Hoshino... Did you know anything about this?
Oh, right! You used to be part of the Abydos Student Council, didn't you?
Oh, really? Is that true?
Yes. In fact...she was vice president of the last Student Council...
Oh, well, that's true, but I never met the upperclassmen from two years ago.
By the time I joined the Student Council, all of the former members had already resigned.
The number of enrolled students was single-digits, there were no faculty members, and classes had been suspended for a long time.
The Student Council room was like an empty warehouse, and none of the previous members had left any documents. It was a time when the school building was moved several times to avoid the desertification.
The last Student Council was only the new student president and me.
The president was an idiot with the lowest grades in school and accepted the position blindly, and I was an ill-tempered first-year.
Ugh... Everything was a mess.
The student with the lowest grades was the student body president? What kind of a Student Council is that?
Grades don't indicate whether someone is suited for a job, Serika.
Your grades aren't that great either...
I-I know that! Why are you bringing up my grades all of a sudden? I'm just saying!
No, she's right. We may have called it a Student Council, but we were so incompetent.
I ended up joining the Student Council by accident... Hmm, I was pretty aimless back then.
I had no idea what I was doing... I was a total idiot.
...
Hoshino...
Hoshino, you shouldn't blame yourself.
In fact, after the Student Council was disbanded, it was only thanks to you that the Foreclosure Task Force was established in Abydos.
Huh?
You may be lazy, but you're always the first to take initiative when it really matters.
Yeah. When Serika went missing, you were the first to ask Sensei for help.
Is that right? I don't remember...
"Yes, it's true."
Oh. Really?!
Well, you may be a no-hoper, but you're also someone I can respect.
I'm not sure if that's a compliment...
Wh-What is this? What's come over you, Shiroko?! Hearing you say that makes me feel so embarrassed!
...Well, I just wanted to say it.
E-Eh?
...
Why do you think the former Student Council sold the land to Kaiser?
Obviously, they were in cahoots with Kaiser.
No... I don't think so.
Oh, I didn't know those upperclassmen very well, but I'm sure they worked hard for the benefit of the school.
Perhaps they did it to pay off the debt...
The debt...
Yes. That's what I think too. Even back then, the school's debt was enormous.
But since it was sold at such a low price, forget the principal. They couldn't even keep up with the increasing interest...
So they kept selling land...
What? That's so weird...
"They manipulated them into giving up the land."
Huh? What do you mean, Sensei?
"Abydos was caught in a dirty trap."
H-Huh?
It was Kaiser that lent the money to Abydos.
...!
That means...
Kaiser Loans lent the school more money than they could ever repay, forcing them to sell the land to keep up with the rising interest.
Yes. At first, they must have told them to sell the useless lands in the wasteland and desert...
The land had already been ruined, so anyone would have been tempted by such an offer...
But because they sold it at such a low price, the debt never decreased, and they kept handing over more and more land...
And so the Abydos district slowly became the property of Kaiser...
Yes. That must be how it happened.
Then, the reason they lent that money to Abydos in the first place...was so they could take the land.
It's a trap they've been preparing for a long time. Maybe even decades...
It was all a massive conspiracy...
I can't believe it! They played right into the hands of those Kaiser bastards!
The Student Council was so stupid! How could they fall into their trap so easily?!
"No, you've got it all wrong."
Sensei?
"The ones who tricked them are the villains. Don't blame the victims."
...
...
I-I know that! I've bought sketchy stuff like germanium bracelets! I know better than anyone that the con artists are the bad guys!
But...
I still feel so angry... Why?
Why would they do something so cruel to Abydos? We were already struggling...
Serika...
"..."
...
...
When people are suffering, they become desperate.
Huh?
And desperate people...will do anything to alleviate their suffering.
Just quoting someone else. That's all there is to it, Serika.
The school's debt...the situation in Abydos, and the clues we found with Sensei...
It's all coming together.
After the Student Council disappeared, the Kaiser Corporation had no way to purchase more land...
This school was the last piece they didn't own, so they hired gangs to harass us!
In the end, what the Kaiser Corporation wanted wasn't money...but land!
But...why do they want the land?
The Abydos district is nothing but wilderness and sand-blasted ruins...
I-I know... I haven't the slightest clue what could be gained by taking that...
"I might have some insight there."
...Sensei?
Give them the information you got from Hina.
...Sensei of Schale.
Both Pandemonium and the Tea Party have yet to receive this information.
But I thought you should know.
I think the Kaiser Corporation is up to something in the abandoned desert of Abydos.
In the abandoned desert...
Kaiser is...
Up to something?
Wh-Why would the Gehenna head prefect...?
Why would she tell you that, Sensei?
Come on! What is there to think about?
The Abydos Desert is in our district! Why don't we just go check it out?
If you're so curious about what's out there, then let's go and see for ourselves!
...Hmm.
...Wow, Serika. You actually had a good idea for once. You've grown so much. I'm so proud of you.
What is this feeling? Is this what it's like to be supported?
"Then, we should leave right now."
"Let's go to the Abydos Desert."
Okay!
...Sensei.
Do you have a moment before we leave?
...I have something I need to talk to you about.
Follow Shiroko.
Take the piece of paper from Shiroko.
...I found it in Hoshino's bag.
"Letter of resignation... Takanashi Hoshino, Foreclosure Task Force?"
(nod)
It's a letter of resignation from the Foreclosure Task Force.
I didn't tell anyone about this...but I'm sure Hoshino knows I went through her bag.
"Why did you go through her bag?"
...She's never been away as long as she was when the Prefect Team attacked yesterday.
I just couldn't understand why she would do that, so I went through her bag and found this.
...I'm sorry. I deserve to be scolded. I know that something's not a crime just because I don't understand it.
"I'll scold you later."
"Keep it a secret for now."
Okay. Hoshino... I think she's hiding something from us.
Okay. Hoshino... I think she's hiding something from us.
...