Blue Archive - Story of Joshua Sensei

Chapter 14 - Desert Excursion

...

The girls, minus Ayane, and I went to the desert of Abydos. Thankfully, it wasn't just a walk, as we were able to ride a still functioning train a good distance. The train tracks only reached to the more abandoned parts of the desert, sadly.

"You've been able to ride the train this far, but you'll have to walk from here." Ayane explains over the comms as we step out of the train. "Past this area is the Abydos Desert. It has always been desert, even before everything fell to ruin. There are usually broken drones, security robots, and automata prowling around, so it's a pretty dangerous place..."

Hmm? Are students the only things I've fought in Kivotos so far? Guess I can't really use my fists too much anymore.

"We're out of options, so everyone, please get your weapons ready. If we want to confirm whether the Head Prefect's intel was correct or not, we have no choice but to go out there ourselves." Ayane explains.

"By the way, Ayane." Serika says. "Isn't it weird that the Gehenna Head Prefect is the one that gave us the info? How does a student from another academy know so much about what's going on in our district?"

"Gehenna must have one hell of an info-gathering group, I suppose." I say.

"I agree. The Prefect Team is known for being very good at gathering info." Ayane reasons. "It's natural that they'd know a lot more than a small academy like ours."

"Hmm? Is that all there is to it?" Hoshino asks, more to herself.

"Perhaps they don't trust Kaiser just like those at Trinity." I theorize.

"Well, we can figure it out when we get there." Hoshino accepts. "We'll just have to see for ourselves. Let's keep going."

And so, we walked...

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Half an hour of walking later, the desert sun blazes down on us. Glad we brought ice water with us. The train is no longer visible. Matter of fact, nothing but desert, rocks and sky are visible now.

"How are you holding up, Sensei?" Nonomi asks. "It's pretty hot out here."

"Just fine. Reminds me of when I lived in the desert for a while. Though I can't say I miss the heat." I say, adjusting my hat. A nice white hat, with a flap to cover my neck rests on my head.

"Still, I've been to the sandy streets, but never out this far before." Nonomi says.

"Yeah. It's been a while since I was last here." The pink haired girl says.

"You've been here before?" Shiroko asks.

"I came out here a few times as part of my work for the Student Council." Hoshino explains. "If you go a little farther from here, you'll find the oasis where the Abydos Desert Festival was held!"

"What? There's an oasis here?" Serika shouts.

"That'd definitely be one hell of an attraction." I say.

"Well. it's all dried up now." Hoshino says sadly. "They say that it was once bigger than most lakes and deep enough for boating. I've never seen it myself, though."

"The Desert Festival... I've heard of it." Shiroko adds. "It was the greatest festival in Abydos, and would attract tons of people."

"That's right." Hoshino confirms, with a smile. "People from other schools also came to the festival. But, that was decades before the desert moved in."

"Festivals... and crowds... in a desert like this?" The cat girl says, disbelieving.

"Well, I heard it used to be a nice place to live." The pink haired girl explains. "There wasn't so much sand or dust back then."