In the end, after a unanimous vote, the punishment for Hoshino's great blunder was decided as follows.
"Wait a minute! I never agreed to this!" Hoshino protested loudly.
Ayane gave her a puzzled look, watching as Hoshino raised both hands in objection.
"Since when does the offender get to vote?"
"Sensei, I'm not an offender! Even if I made a teensy little mistake, I'm still the president of the Foreclosure Task Force, aren't I?"
Hoshino slipped her shoes back on, stood tall in the center of the activity room, placed her left hand solemnly on her flat chest, extended her right arm dramatically, and declared with passion, "I believe I am entitled to vote!"
Ayane went silent for a moment, then nodded seriously and turned to the others.
"All right then. Let's take a vote on whether Hoshino-senpai has the right to participate in this vote."
Hoshino blinked, realizing too late that something was very wrong.
"…Eh?"
The result was unfortunate: zero votes in her favor.
Hoshino collapsed against me, clutching at my sleeve and wailing like a child.
"Uhee.... This is democracy! The wicked, wicked democracy! What happened to my glorious dictatorship! The Foreclosure Task Force used to be my harem, didn't it? How did it turn into this?!"
Serika tugged at Hoshino's arm, glaring furiously. "The Task Force was never that kind of place to begin with! Just accept your fate already, Hoshino-senpai!"
"Sensei, save me! I'm going to die!"
"Argh, what is this even supposed to be!"
Serika snapped, exasperated. "All you have to do is clean the entire school! We're even helping you! At least act like a proper senpai for once!"
And so, the punishment that was finally agreed upon could hardly be called a punishment at all.
A few days earlier, while Ayane and the others were searching for property records, they discovered that the school archives were covered in years of dust and grime.
After that, they found several other facilities in similar condition, and so it was decided that a full-scale cleaning operation across the entire campus.
For Hoshino, having this count as punishment was an act of tremendous mercy.
"Uhee, my precious afternoon nap time is gone…"
She let out a long, pitiful wail before being dragged away from my side.
May fortune be with her.
I have to admit, I envy the students' stamina and ability to recover. After the intense exertion of yesterday, I woke up this morning feeling sore from head to toe.
During my divine name awakening, I'd felt an overwhelming surge of POWER. Energy and focus amplified far beyond human limits. Perhaps that's how the students always feel.
It was intoxicating. Everything seemed possible. But maintaining that state consumes pyroxene or perhaps, more accurately, my life itself.
I don't know how much time I have left, but I know how much I've already lost.
During the ritual, forging my divine name consumed nearly two years of my lifespan. Accounting for the pyroxene needed to maintain the state and invoke its power, I've already lost track of over a thousand sunrises and sunsets that I'll never see again.
Even when I noticed a few gray strands among my black hair in the mirror this morning, it still didn't feel real.
There was no sorrow, only a quiet sense of relief.
I survived. Hoshino survived. I managed to save her, and Abydos. And even reached the perfect ending.
Compared to that, this small sacrifice means nothing.
I suppose I'm still an optimist.
Everyone in Abydos has been considerate of my condition. I had planned to join the cleaning efforts to help out and, I admit, to enjoy seeing the girls sweating and covered in dust after a day of hard work.
Unfortunately, they insisted I stay somewhere clean and let them handle it themselves. A shame, really.
So I ended up resting alone in the Foreclosure Task Force committee room.
And by "resting," I mean catching up on the pile of administrative work I'd neglected while saving Hoshino. Not because I'm a workaholic, but because I didn't want Rin or Aoi to get angry with me.
They'd helped me so much already, and even if I can't repay them yet, I should at least show some diligence.
As for Kaya from the General Student Council, who also contributed during the crisis.... well, she gained quite a bit from it herself. Besides, I already promised to take her out somewhere fun later. That should be thanks enough.
Then there's the Trinity Tea Party, the Gehenna Prefect Team, and Problem Solver 68…
Honestly, the debts I owe them trouble me far more than the lifespan I've lost.
Oh, and the Engineering Department too. I promised to lend them the White Wolf for research after everything was over, but now it's completely destroyed. I still have no idea how to break that news to them.
I spent the entire morning working through these problems, one after another.
By lunchtime, I decided to treat myself and used a helicopter for transport.
Mainly because the minefield around the school still wasn't cleared.
Aru and her Problem Solver 68 team were the ones who'd buried the mines in the first place, and now they were also the ones in charge of removing them. Thankfully, Kayoko had meticulously recorded the exact location of every single mine, otherwise, the job would've been far more dangerous.
That said…
Judging by the few explosions I'd heard earlier this morning, things clearly weren't going perfectly.
One advantage of Abydos's vast emptiness is that there's plenty of open space for a helicopter to land.
A few hundred meters from my destination, I found a good spot and continued on foot. Before long, I saw it. A freshly built roadside stall, already serving a few customers.
"Hey, Captain Shiba, good afternoon."
I greeted the man-shiba-inu hard at work behind the counter. "Back in business already? Shouldn't you still be resting after your hospital stay?"
"Oh, Sensei! Haha, it's nothing. I've been lying around long enough; I can't stand being idle. And besides, my suspension just ended too."
Captain Shiba grinned, his round black eyes glancing slyly to the side.
"Besides, someone left a mysterious backpack full of cash in my shop. After that, how could I possibly take more time off? I've got to work hard to repay such generous customers."
Clearly, the dude had already figured out who that "someone" was.
"You're absolutely right," I replied, turning to the side. To the table where a familiar group had already noticed me. One of them waved enthusiastically, and I couldn't help but smile. "Then I'll have your signature ramen, please."
"Got it!"
After placing my order, I walked over to the table where Problem Solver 68 was seated.
There was Mutsuki, as bright and excitable as ever; Haruka, shy and nervous; Kayoko, cool and composed; and...
I reached out and patted Aru's frizzy, afro-looking hair.
"What on earth happened to your head?"
"Uuuu…"
Aru's eyes filled with tears, and she refused to answer.