Gatekept

Azutoyo spent the rest of the school day buddying up with Meguru. Things appeared to be going smoothly for him, so he attempted to make his first move towards the end of the day.

“You’re heading to the student council room? Mind if I tag along?” He asked. The boy knew this would be where all the important secret information of the Montas would be in. So it would be a major win if he were able to gain access to such an area.

“Sorry, but you can’t.” Meguru denied him. “Why would I just let you in? You’re not a member of the student council, even if you are Ryuo’s servant.”

“So there’s no way for you to allow me in?” Azutoyo sighed, shaking his head. Did he really just spent an entire day buttering someone like him up just for it all to be pointless?

“It’s ultimately not up to me.” He answered. “Last time I checked, you weren’t elected to any positions by the students, so it would be fair. I guess Ryuo might let you in, since he has the authority.” For a moment, he got a bit excited. Considering his position with that boy, it should be easy. “Though I think considering you are someone close to him, that probably means he’d really keep you out.”

“What?” The following words knocked out all the wind from his sails. “Why not?”

“Well, Ryuo is the type of person to notice when things might reflect poorly on him.” Meguru explained. “Since people know you’re one of his servants. He’ll probably say something like, ‘it would be suspicious if I allowed you of all people in and not anyone else’.”

“Of course…” This sounded to him that nepotism was working against him.

Meanwhile back at Capa academy, Yumoko found herself with an opportunity she wasn’t even trying to get. This being the fact she was invited to join the student council in their club room. She didn’t even ask to come on and if it weren’t for her role as a spy, she probably would’ve declined the offer from Sumiwa.

“So this is where you all do your work.” She commented on the rather large room adorn with numerous motivational posters. Immediately she took the time to take in the sights, trying to see if they had any important documents laying around. “I have to say, you leave it in quite the mess.”

“I mean, it’s not like anyone here cares.” Said Tenmaro as he sat back on the couch. “Though I hear you’re pretty good at cleaning if you care to-”

“Dude, she’s at school right now.” Niiya quickly put a stop to his suggestion as she smacked him on the back of his head. “She probably works hard enough as it is without you being a jerk.”

“What’s that all about?” Yumoko asked her newfound ‘friend’ on the behavior of what should be the top of this school’s student body.

“Don’t worry about them, they’re always bickering.” Sumiwa answered as she laughed. This sight being a common occurrence for her. “Anyway, sorry Jurie’s not here right now. I’m sure you probably want to see her because you’re more used to her than anyone else here.”

“Actually, maybe you all can tell me more things about here since she’s not here with us?” Yumoko took this as a prime opportunity to gather information. She figured these Capas to be the gossiping type. So she might be able to get some good secrets from them.

“What’s there to say? She’s only the most beautiful president a guy can ask for.” Said Tenmaro, whose statement only earned him more ire from Niiya.

“Can you stop being such a creep about it?” She said before making her own statement. “Anyway, she’s very reliable. I’m sure that everything she has to do around here isn’t all that different than when you’re working.”

“That’s nice to hear.” She pretended to appreciate their words, but internally was disappointed none of them wanted to say anything embarrassing about their leader. It seemed the pattern she noticed from Sumiwa held true about how much respect they held for her.

She also took note of Tenmaro. Not out of any interest in him, but just from the way he talked. Yumoko knew this school wasn’t the type to have students that took themselves seriously, but should she really believe this was their vice president? The respect for him by his constituents seemed low compared to Jurie. Not to mention she disliked the way he spoke about girls.

“Sorry I’m late everybody.” Jurie quickly barged in through the doors as she rushed inside. “Just had to talk to the principal about the upcoming town fair. You know, just all the boring stuff.”

“It’s just going to be the same old, same old.” Tenmaro spoke dismissively about it, as if it were not important. However, what he referred to would give many concern if they weren’t a part of both schools.

This fair had been a tradition for many years, but was usually held in two locations. One on the side of the Capas and the other with the Montas. However the business that ran this fair had fallen onto tough times, so it was not possible to run at two locations at the same time.

Fortunately the neutral zone had grown over the years and now could hold such an event. Unfortunately this meant that this year could prove to be disastrous with members of both schools attending. “Look, I’m not worried about our students. We’re not going to just pick fights out of nowhere. And those Montas talk tough, but they’re not going to do anything that might put dirt under their nails.”

“Well I don’t want to take any chances.” She responded. “It’s coming up in a couple weeks and I want to be able to have fun too you know.”

“Aww, you work so hard all the time.” Sumiwa gave her a pat on the back, though the tone of her words nearly sounded mocking. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get to play plenty hard when that day comes. I’ve already worked out all the ticket sales out in my head.”

The others also shared their words of encouragement to her. Though unknown to them she was talking about spending time with Ryuo on that day. A date at a fair sounded incredibly fun, but obviously there was a ton of risk involved.

However the pair already had an idea in mind on how to work that out. She suggested they go the route seen in plenty of romcom manga where the leads start off not liking each other. Where they’d pretend to run into each other, exchange some mean words for show, but continue to hang out at each attraction out of pride to spend time with each other.

Back with Azutoyo, he found his efforts thwarted as he sat alone after school waiting on one of the benches. He did try again to enter the student council room by asking Ryuo, but was met with the exact response he was told he’d receive by Meguru.

With some time off today from his regular servant duties to get acclimated to his new school life. The boy pondered his position on what he could do in order to get closer. It seemed Ryuo did keep his cards close to his chest, which was expected seeing as he was dealing with the leader of the Montas.

But he knew there had to be a chink in the armor somewhere. Everyone had a weak spot and knowing where it was meant having control over that person, as he had learned during his time living alone. The only question was what was the weak spot on Ryuo?

Using what he could figure from snobby people like the Montas, Azutoyo snapped his fingers when he came to what he considered to be a good idea. This being to become such a good servant to the boy, that he’d eventually let his guard down and let him into his inner circle. That would be when he’d make his move.

He took out his phone and began to research on what made a personal servant so respected by their master. After he turned on the safety filter upon getting some rather inappropriate results, Azutoyo stumbled upon a small forum that seemed to be specifically related to those working with Montas.

He thought this was perfect as he read through some of the posts. Using the enemies own advice against them seemed poetic as he chuckled on some of the details these servants talked about their masters. Considering how some of the tidbits seemed to be information that should be kept secret, where these users only felt comfortable sharing due to the anonymous nature of the site, he knew he was on the right track.

Knowing for certain this was the right direction, Azutoyo created an account of his own to chat with these people. The first thing he did was make a thread introducing himself and asking for advice on what someone his age should be doing to improve and move up on the career path. It didn’t take long for him to get a response.

“I’m also a young student working like you.” The message read. “Let’s chat privately.”