Have You Seen this Student Council President?

“Have you seen this boy?” Benzou had gotten to work quickly, entering each store and asking one of the employees if they had seen Ryuo by showing them a picture of him on the phone. Unfortunately he had received the same response each and every time. Which was a shaking of the head to indicate ‘no’ while apologizing that they hadn’t.

His efforts were also stymied by the slow responses some people would give him when he asked. As he had a hardened harsh look to his face that would indicate to many that he would bring trouble if angered. While his method of simply walking up to a person and shoving his phone to their face with Ryuo’s picture was partly to blame, his appearance didn’t aid in the perception either.

So many of the people would simply stare at him in fear, as if he’d cause them harm should they answer in a manner he didn’t like. He cursed the body he was born in as another person failed to give him a lead.

If only Meguru didn’t suggest changing their roles for this mission. He had a point about speed, but failed to understand the lack of people skills Benzou had when it came to gathering information in such a casual location.

He sat down on a bench in the mall as he pondered his next move. All of the stores he had asked around didn’t yield him anything new. So the mall, which was the main attraction to this shopping district, was the next best place to explore to search out his missing president.

The problem was it was a big space. So covering it as only one person likely meant low odds of him finding them, even if they actually were here in the first place.

“What’s wrong with you? Is this too challenging for a loaf like you to figure out?” His train-of-thought was broken by the voice of a mocking girl. Specifically it was Sumiwa of Capa who stood before him, a soft drink cup in hand. “I guess one of you had to look around here, but I don’t think someone with your fashion sense is the best for the job.”

“At least I’m considering our circumstances.” He stood up, towering over the small girl by simply taking one step towards her. “I should be the one surprised. You believe your friend to be taken hostage, yet you seem to be acting as if this were just another day.”

“It is when I get to make fun of you Monta freaks.” She laughed, then took a sip from her drink. “Besides, who cares if I’m relaxed or stressing my brain out. It’s not like that’ll make finding Jurie any faster.” Sumiwa then proceeded to take his spot on the bench as she continued her assault of words on him. “Like, I bet you haven’t even found anyone who’s seen them around this mall.”

“So what have you been doing then? Just messing around while your friend is in trouble?”

“Trying to steal my ideas, huh?” She finished her drink and tossed it in the nearby trash can as she stood up once more. “Should’ve figured you Monta dorks have to rip us off too.” Sumiwa shrugged her shoulders as if this was inevitable. “But it’s simple, I’ll show you how things get done, the Capa way.”

“This should be interesting.” He said as he followed her. Normally he would never give a Capa the time of day, but this situation proved to be nontraditional. As while he didn’t think she had anything to actually help him, there was the off chance it worked. And if so, that would also lead him to his missing president. Not that he’d ever admit she helped him in this case.

Sumiwa approached one of the store owners with her phone and stuck it in their face. She asked them the same question he had spent likely an hour earlier. Of course he was not surprised when the response was just like the ones he received before. “Wow, you sure are breaking the mold.” He spoke mockingly.

“Just give me one second.” She proceeded to mess around with her phone for a while as Benzou and the store owner stood staring at her, confused as to what she could be doing on her phone. “Okay, what about this?”

She revealed her phone once more. This time it was a picture of Jurie, but now edited to have an oversize sun hat and massive sunglasses over her face. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think she was making fun of her friend.

“Oh, yeah I did see her on the way to my store a little bit ago.” This time, she was able to get a positive response from someone.

“See? I bet all you’ve been showing people were just your lame student council president’s face.” Sumiwa turned her face with a smug expression to look back at Benzou. “I saw her earlier with such a ridiculous getup. Obviously that’s what everyone else is going to see.”

“Interesting.” He replied, able to admit defeat. “You were unable to get a photo of her. So you somehow edited one of your own pictures to give people an idea of what she would look like.” The wonders of technology never ceased to amaze and concern him all at the same time.

“And now thanks to me, we’re going to find her.” She didn’t attempt to sound humble in response. “So do you know where she went?” Sumiwa returned her attention to the store owner now that they were on the trail.

“That’s easy. She’s sitting right there.” They pointed right to the center of the food court. Where the girl who fit the description sat alone. To Benzou, he’d have no idea on her identity based on her disguise. And Sumiwa only recognized her because she had already seen her earlier today wearing this.

“Wow, there you are!” She spoke loudly, waving to her friend. However she didn’t get the response she wished as Jurie stood up and immediately walked quickly away from them. “Huh? What are you doing?” The pair attempted to run after her, but the mall was busy and filled with too much foot traffic for them to navigate quickly through.

Benzou was too big, so he would run into the numerous shoppers often. Being the polite boy he was, he would immediately stop to bow and apologize before attempting to run once more. Only to repeat the process again after taking two steps. Meanwhile Sumiwa was too small to push past the crowd. She was unable to make progress as she yelled out Jurie’s name.

“We lost her.” He said once they were able to get into a clearing. Benzou looked back and forth, but failed to find a trace of her.

“Well, we gotta keep going.” Sumiwa tried to head towards the direction she believed her friend to move towards. However he grabbed her shirt, preventing the girl from moving.

“It’ll be no use without an idea on where she went. We’ll only be back to square one if we go the wrong way.” He turned his back towards the food court. Specifically eyeing the table where they had seen her sitting before. “Follow me. I need to check something out.”

“You really want to go where she just left?” She glared at him. “Newsflash, we both know she’s not there anymore and she’s definitely not coming back anytime soon.”

“Sometimes you need to take a step back before taking two forward.” He spoke, leaving her behind. Without any other options, Sumiwa begrudgingly followed him as they check out the table.

It looked like what one would expect from a food court table that had one of its patrons making an unexpected exit without cleaning it up. However it was easy to note that this wasn’t a meal for one. “Jurie would never eat this much. You know, she’s trying to watch her weight.”

“You women are always so vain with your appearance.” He commented, which earned a bit of her ire. Before she was able to give him a piece of his mind, Benzou spoke again after looking at the food. “Don’t you think this combination is strange?”

While they didn’t expect there to be a mirror of food sitting across the two empty chairs. It wasn’t what most would expect to see here in a Japanese food court. On the side where they were certain Jurie had been sitting was the typical beef udon with some bubble tea to wash it down.

However in front of it was wood fired sicilian-style pizza. One topped with plenty of pepperoni, Italian sausage, and mushrooms.

“Ew, yuck.” She stuck her tongue out now that she realized the meal sitting before her. “What kind of person would pig out on something like that?”

“I know of exactly one.” He replied. “Ryuo.” The answer was far from one she’d expect. “It’s actually his favorite food.”

“I knew you Montas were weird, but this is just on another level.”

“He’s pretty unique when it comes to tastes. But that’s also why I know for certain that he was here too.” But they only saw her sitting alone. So that left the question on where he was now. “What’s going on here?”