"Thank you for your patronage!"

The door to the Cafe closed as the students who recently purchased and ate had left. The owner of the establishment, a bipedal Dogman, more specifically a Shina Inu, was more than happy that his business was flourishing as usual.

He always enjoyed seeing the refreshed expressions of those who enjoyed his coffee and his treats, knowing that they needed that for whatever rough day they have ahead. An honest business is a pleasant one, or so he believed at the end of the day.

He turned to the rest of his cafe floor, seeing students of all ages and walks of life chatting and eating whatever it is they ordered with speed, seeing as it's almost time for most schools to open and start their days. He always gave slight discounts in the morning hours, both to help the students, and obviously bring them here instead of other places.

What? Good heart or no, business is a bloody endeavor, and he'll be damned if he lets others walk over his kindness!

"Children, better hurry your food! You all have about half an hour!"

He got several different affirmations, even a few times where they did the whole work of raising their hands and saluting. It was hilarious seeing how the different schools taught their students, but in the end, they were being taught, and that's what mattered.

Ding~

"Hm?" He turned to the door, hearing it open as another person walked in. "Hello Cus..."

...

He couldn't help but to silence himself.

The person who entered was far different than most, not wearing a uniform of any school he knew, or hell, he might just be getting too use to students being his only customers and is looking at a normal person. The woman had long blonde hair, wearing a pair of glasses that hid whatever kind of eyes she had behind them well.

Not to mention, this woman had a Halo.

"Is this place open for a time longer?" That confirmed it, her voice was far too deep to be that of a student's.

She had a smooth yet powerful cadence, one that you'd expect from a person belonging to the military than anywhere else. Didn't help that she was dressed in all black, with an overcoat hugging her body to give that secretive look even more evidence.

"O-Of course, I still have a few seats open." He smiled and hid his nervousness, cause he won't be the first to mention the most striking part of this woman.

She was a giant! Her head was well above anyone else's in the shop alone!

"Ah, thank you then." She nodded to him and left to find a seat, most of the chatters having quieted once this intimidating person walked in.

She took a seat in the back corner, seeing as no one actually sat there since it's the farthest from the front, convenience and all that for leaving and getting their food. Eventually, the students started leaving as they finished and paid to get to class, soon leaving the cafe empty save for the Shiba and the still unknown woman.

With no one else around, he decided to lax up a bit, taking two cakes and a cup of coffee with him to her table. She looked up from her phone, looking to him and, barely visible behind the glasses, her bright blue eyes were clearly locked onto his diminutive stature.

"Are you fine if I take my break with a chat?"

"Ah, go right ahead. I'm guessing that cake is for me?"

He nodded and slid the cake to her, keeping one for himself as he sat across. "Sorry to say, but it's rare to see anyone not wearing a uniform here. What brings you around?"

She put down her phone and took a piece out of the cake, taking a bite and clearly lighting up from it. "Wow, this is good...to answer your question, I got a job to come here, pays pretty good so I decided to take it."

"To...come here?"

She noticed how his ears dropped, and she chuckled while waving her hand. "No no, not to your shop. To this region in general, specifically the nearby SCHALE club.

"SCHALE? The place where that Sensei guy works?"

"The very same." She pulled out a flask from her coat, somewhat shocking the Shiba as he smelled the liquor from there.

She took a sip before shaking it off, a somewhat eased smile on her face now. "Ahh~...that's actually a good combo there. What's the recipe for this cake?"

"You want to know?"

"I do, but I understand if you won't give it seeing as it's yours."

"No no, it's always nice to share things like this. Firstly you ne—"

SLAM!!

The Shiba jumped in his seat, looking towards the front where he saw the door kicked wide open, and a student walking in wearing a mask over her mouth, loosely concealing her identity. What made it worse was the white X on her mask, easily showing what she was intending to do on her visit here.

"O-Oh no..."

The delinquent girl walked in and brandished her Pistol, looking around and finally seeing the two in the back before taking aim. "Oi! Stand and put your hands up!"

The Shiba quickly complied and got out of his seat, putting his hands up as he feared for his life. The woman though, she remained seated, still eating her cake.

"Hey! Are you deaf?! I said stand up!"

Yet still, she didn't stand. The delinquent growled before walking over, scaring the Shiba as she came much closer and faced the woman's front, pointing the gun well within eyeshot.

"Stand up shit for brains!"

Finally, the woman did something, and as she chewed on a piece of cake...she put up a finger, telling her to wait before she swallowed the piece. "Bit rude to interrupt someone enjoying a delicious cake, isn't it?"

"You think I care?!" She moved the gun closer, finger resting on the trigger. "Stand the fuck up before I shoot you here and now!"

The woman sighed, grabbing her plate as she stood up. The girl with the handgun did back up as she stood, but the look in her eyes changed after she saw the massive height of this woman.

She was easily a head taller than her, no, a little more than even that. All the while she stood unfazed and still eating her cake.

"You...what..."

"I'm planning on eating this completely, it's delicious and you should give it a try sometime." She popped another piece into her mouth, ignoring the firearm not to far away from her.

Though her attitude was definitely rubbing the delinquent something fierce, as she smacked the plate from her hands and sent it to the floor, the plate crashing down and splatting the cake. "You think I care?! What are you, retarded?!"

The woman stared at the fallen cake, sighing as she raised her hands up. "Pardon me, it's been a while since I've been to Kivotos. I forgot the customs since it's been so long."

The woman nodded down, trying to gesture to her coat. "Check my pockets, wallet is in there."

"Heh...not as dumb as I thought." The girl quickly reached over to their pockets, and in that moment...she made her mistake.

She took her eyes away from the woman's arms.

Immediately her posture changed, her right arm swung down and pushed the delinquent's arm to the side and got the gun out of her face. The delinquent looked up as she felt the movement, and her arm was already locked in the much taller and clearly stronger woman's grip.

"What the...?!" She tried pulling her arm away. "Let go of me dammit!"

She didn't respond back, but she raised her arm higher and almost lifted the delinquent off the ground, before raising her left arm to strike. With a pop, and a sickening scream of pain, the delinquent's elbow was hyperextended, sending pain down her arm as she dropped her gun.

Said gun was caught by the woman, who flipped it around and aimed it right at the girl. The delinquent held her arm and looked dead at the gun, fear running through her eyes as she stared down her own weapon.

"W-Wait a seco—"

BANG!!

The bullet left the barrel and slammed into the girl's forehead, but unlike what would normally happen, it didn't kill. Halos are strange things, but so long as you have one, you're supernaturally durable, strong, and resilient.

Case in point, the bullet crumpled on the girl's forehead, but the impact alone knocked her clean on her ass and unconscious, the Halo flickering out of existence as she did. The Halo will fade once you fall unconscious, and then, it'll be far easier to be killed as you'll once more be a normal Human.

The woman lowered the gun, ejecting the magazine and pulling the chamber to finally empty the gun before dropping it on the girl. "Well, there goes a perfectly good cake."

She turned to the owner, who looked both relieved and ever so thankful for the stopping of the robber. "You good?"

"Y-Yes...thank you so much for this..."

"She ruined a perfectly good meal, it's the least she deserves." The woman reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet, bringing out some money that she held towards the Shiba.

There was a silence between the two, as he didn't take the money from her hand and only stared.

"...Is something wrong?"

The Shiba chuckled a bit, feeling all the stress leave him form this situation. "Miss, how long have you been out of Kivotos?"

"Uhh...little over a Decade? Why?"

"Well, no one takes paper money anymore."

"...Oh." The woman's cheeks lit up a bit, realizing that she had no way to actually afford anything without a credit chip. "Uhm...shit."

"It's fine. You saved my shop some damages today, so I think letting you off without paying is the least I can do."

"Right...well, thanks." She put her money away, and looked to the girl she took down. "What'll you do with her then?"

"I'll just have a VPA student take her, they're usually too slow to respond anyways, so you really did save me a lot of trouble today."

"Well like I said, thanks for letting that give me a free breakfast meal. Gotta go though, I'll stop by again sometime, after I get a proper card of course."

She nodded to the Shiba and readjusted her glasses, covering her eyes completely again as she turned for the door. Though before she left, she heard the man clear his throat, catching her before she left.

"Sorry, but can I get the name of the person who helped me today? I'm Okiba."

She looked to Okiba, chuckling as she completely forgot to do that herself. "Sure. The name's Ailene Richardson. Be seeing you around Okiba."

With that, she finally left the cafe and to the relatively empty streets. After the classes started, this is what the general area is like, and so, it wasn't much a clutter as she continued her walk to SCHALE.

She pulled her phone out once more and checked the map, fixing herself and finally getting on the right path to her next job location. "Sensei...anonymous name for an unknown man. Hmph, it'll be fun seeing what kinda guy he is..."
—————

Ladies, Gentlemen, and Car Batteries of all ages, I present my proof of concept chapter for this story.

What do I mean? I mean that I won't be making anymore content for this story for now, as I know too little about Blue Archive to make a decent story out of it. Until I do, all you have is this chapter and your own mind to figure things out from here.

Two more things to say though, firstly, here is art of what our Protagonist looks like, and her Halo.

Yes it's AI generated, I am no artist and I couldn't find what I was looking for so this is what I made instead.

Second, if you have any questions about this story or anything else about our girl Ailene, feel free to comment about it and we can chat it over. I love hearing feedback as I get to see your perspective on things, and maybe, whatever you say MIGHT get featured at some point.

Never know eh?

Adios mis amigos