Tap tap.
Before Mine could speak again, I knocked my knuckles against the table.
"Let me explain."
Thank goodness I was here. Otherwise, with the personalities of these girls, all making the atmosphere this tense in front of the person they secretly admired, I had no idea how this meeting could possibly continue.
This was also a flaw in Trinity's political structure that had existed since the academy's founding. Now that the authority of the Tea Party was being heavily questioned, it was being displayed in full.
"In any case, Millennium's Himari is currently leading the investigation into Decagrammaton."
After speaking, I paused slightly and shook my head.
"But progress has been extremely slow."
It could even be said to be almost nonexistent.
Although Prophets of the Decagrammaton had already begun appearing across Kivotos decades ago, these entities had always been elusive. The destruction they caused was not even comparable to certain particularly unruly delinquent students, so they had never truly drawn serious attention from the major academies.
Even Millennium, where the SPTF club belonged, only officially launched investigations after Hub was converted into Hod.
Theoretically speaking, the institution that had once researched the Prophets most deeply was a certain academy whose worsening desertification had led local enterprises to attempt constructing a railway crossing the desert in hopes of reviving the autonomous district. In the process, they came into irreconcilable conflict with one of the Prophets and suffered heavily because of it. Through repeated battles, they had been forced to compile related data and intelligence.
Abydos High School, the Nephthys Group, and Binah.
Unfortunately, during Abydos's campus relocation several years ago, most of its records were lost. As for the Nephthys Group, after suffering massive losses from the desert-crossing railway project, it implemented a series of absurdly irrational strategies and eventually neared bankruptcy, suspending local operations and leaving Abydos altogether. Naturally, they no longer had dealings with Binah.
Objectively speaking, however, information still existed.
The Foreclosure Task Force girls were currently leading the Prefect Team and the volunteer support group Problem Solver 68 to Abydos's old campus site in hopes of digging something up.
Nonomi, whose family circumstances in present-day Abydos could practically be described as standing above the rest, also seemed to have some sort of connection with the Nephthys Group and promised she would help inquire.
As for the Kaiser Corporation, which currently had the most conflicts with Binah... according to reports, a self-proclaimed beautiful girl hacker who accidentally breached Kaiser PMC's database had, almost prophetically, selflessly provided all the related data to Himari nearly a month ago despite supposedly having nothing to do with the matter.
Aside from the most conspicuous Prophet, Binah, searches for the other Prophets with recorded sightings were also being carried out in full force.
But without exception, after only three days, results had been minimal across the board.
"According to current speculation, assuming the Decagrammaton's conversion of the Prophets proceeds according to the order of the Sephirot from top to bottom, this operation by the Decagrammaton may be connected to the Ninth Prophet, 'Yesod,' or perhaps the final Prophet, 'Malkuth.'"
I continued:
"Of course, this is only speculation, and there is no need to fixate on it for now. The important point remains the same conclusion reached during our initial meeting. The Decagrammaton and Gematria, the organization behind Arius, most likely shared similar goals, formed a cooperative relationship, and jointly created the current situation."
"The Decagrammaton and Gematria are way too evil!"
Arona indignantly interrupted.
For some reason, perhaps because she had been affected by the tense atmosphere, she had rarely slacked off these past few days and appeared unusually active.
"So long as we locate traces of either side..."
I continued,
"There is hope of resolving this incident."
"At least there are still confirmed sightings regarding the Prophets."
Nagisa hesitated before saying,
"But regarding the Gematria Sensei mentioned... even with Trinity, Gehenna, and Millennium working together, we still have not found even the slightest trace proving that organization ever existed."
It could only be said that Gematria's secrecy and mysterious movements far surpassed even the Decagrammaton, which made them especially dangerous.
"If that is the case, then the breakthrough with the highest chance of success right now lies in locating the Arius Satellite School."
I asked again,
"Has Trinity obtained any valuable information from the captured Arius students so far?"
According to Azusa's explanation, because of the cyclical changes in Trinity's underground catacombs, they received newly encrypted maps before every mission.
If it were Arius students captured during the Eden Treaty incident, perhaps they could provide routes that would allow successful entry into the Arius Satellite School.
Nagisa shook her head.
"No. It seems that because Azusa betrayed them, Arius strengthened confidentiality measures in this regard. Even squad captains participating in operations no longer have permission to view the maps."
That was truly bad news.
Sakurako nodded.
"In other words, we can only begin with students who possess authority high enough to know the routes."
Mine thought for a moment and asked,
"For example?"
"For example, Arius Squad's leader who orchestrated this attack, Joumae Saori. If it's her, then she surely knows the routes thoroughly."
After briefly considering it, Mine seemed to realize something.
"...I see. If she was the one commanding the attack..."
...After this matter ended, I really needed to have a proper talk with Mine. If she wanted to attend meetings again, she should at least do some preparation beforehand.
Though perhaps this was simply some little trick of hers meant to draw my attention.
"In any case, accelerate the search."
I said,
"Saori used the bank card registered under my name, the one I had previously asked Valkyrie to help freeze and monitor. The location was within Trinity territory."
"Wait. Why would Saori's bank card be registered under Sensei's name?"
Mine, who had not attended the previous meetings, asked again. But before I could answer, she suddenly came to a realization herself.
"So she had already approached and made use of Sensei beforehand."
When other students learned that I knew Saori, their reactions had mostly been similar to hers. Thankfully, there had been no melodramatic developments where people suspected I had colluded with Arius, which saved me some trouble.
The reason had originally simply been because Saori lacked a legal identity within Kivotos, so I helped arrange it for her.
I truly had not expected it would become useful like this, nor that Saori would actually foolishly go withdraw money.
Besides making me find it somewhat amusing, it also conveyed another important piece of information.
"They're almost completely out of supplies and ammunition."
Otherwise, they would never have risked exposing themselves by appearing in broad daylight.
"I've already informed the operational teams."
I said,
"Let's capture all of them in one go."
However, Sakurako suddenly spoke.
"Sensei, though aside from Arius Squad, there is still another student who should also know the routes, correct?"
I raised a brow.
"Who?"
The next moment, a name that was not particularly unexpected came from Sakurako's mouth.
"Misono Mika."