Aoba's Student Council

“Come in,” from behind the door, a gentle, almost feminine voice came out. Without any resistance, Zain opened the door.

Inside was a rather plain office with a giant bookshelf, sofa, and tea table to the right, though the former didn’t really hold any books in its traditional sense – rather, a series of tablets and flash drives that corresponded with every kind of document available. To the left was a flat-screen monitor going from the door to the corner of the room, in such length that had it not been for a line of tiles neatly placed below, he would have mistaken that the monitor was the entire wall.

On the other end of the room lay a small desk, and sitting there was a certain red-haired young man holding onto his head as if suffering from a chronic headache, while his other hand frantically flicked over a tablet as if searching for something.

However, that didn’t stop him from having the etiquette to loop up at Zain and lightly nodded to say hello:

“Welcome, Zain, to Aoba’s Student Council Office. How can I help you?”

“Are you always the only one here?” Zain purposely steered the conversation in a different direction.

“Oh, this?” Looking around him, Yusei let out a light smile. “Of course not; there are others as well. However, the Vice President and Secretary are a tad busy with some other matter, so for now, I’m the only one here.”

“Other matter?” Zain asked, letting himself be shown as interested. “What kind of matter, may I ask?”

“No, no, it shouldn’t be a matter that concerns other students, don’t worry,” Yusei quickly waved his hand to deny any suspicion, before returning to his original point. “But enough about me. What seems to trouble you?”

“Oh, it’s nothing, really. I meant to come here to ask about the school in general, but seeing that both you and the other members of the Council are busy, I don’t think something as trivial as that should take your time…”

“Nonsense!” Yusei once again disproved the claim while enthusiastically gesturing towards the sofa to his side. “The Student Council’s job is to assist fellow students in any way they can, so you’re welcome to voice anything that might give you a hard time! Please, have a seat, and I’ll answer everything I can!”

“… Sure, if you insist,” Zain, though weirded out by the overly excited attitude, accepted the invitation. Yusei, meanwhile, stood up from his chair and made his way to the cupboard opposite the bookshelf and sofa.

“Coffee or tea?” Yusei took out two packages from the cupboard and showed them to Zain.

“Warm milk, if you can.”

“Milk?” A light chuckle came from the red-haired young man. “Never thought you’d have a sweet tooth. There’s only condensed milk to go with coffee, though, so you’ll have to wait a bit while I boil the water.”

“Well, I got time.”

After the small kettle by the side sounded and a cup of warm milk showed up on Zain’s side of the table, Yusei poured himself a cup of tea and continued:

“All right, now what do you want to ask me about?”

“Not much, really,” answered Zain. “But can you tell me a bit about Aoba’s management and staff?”

“Why the sudden interest?”

“I’m just curious, that’s all,” Zain shrugged.

“Well… I guess I can answer what I know,” nodded Yusei. “Not to brag, but Aoba is actually quite lenient in terms of rules and regulations, so the teachers don’t really play much of a role in our management. The Student Council, in particular, has as much, or even more power as any other teacher in Aoba, second only to the principal herself.”

“Do tell.”

“In general, teachers and Student Council members will have access to the school’s schedule and students’ results. If there’s anyone that has a suggestion or opinion about something, they can go to the Student Council, and we’d make it straight to the principal without the need for a middleman.”

“I see…” Zain nodded in understanding, before slowly laying out his bait. “What about the more… personal information? The students’ grades and test results, for example?”

“What? Are you afraid others will know your score from before?” Yusei couldn’t help but chuckle at the question.

“Eh… something like that,” Zain followed with an awkward smile of his own, scratching his head in embarrassment. It was all an act, of course, for him to confirm his suspicion.

“Don’t you worry about it,” Yusei answered. “Though we do have access to all of your information, neither the Student Council nor staff would reveal it to anyone else in the school. That, you have my word.”

“… Thanks,” nodded Zain, seemingly satisfied with the answer he received. “Can I ask you something else?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Do you know about the teacher in charge of Dimensional Science? I signed up for that, but he didn’t show up for my first class, so I wanted to know ahead of time.”

“Dimensional Science?” Yusei raised his eyebrows in surprise. “You’re interested in that sort of thing?”

“Eh… more like my friend does, and I signed up with him. It’s an optional class, after all.”

“Ah, that short boy with the black hair, right?” Yusei nodded as if figuring out the answer. “Yeah, he looks like the type. Well, for your answer…”

A sudden pause came from the red-haired individual, causing Zain to lightly squint in doubt. Was it something so hard to say that even Yusei, someone clearly too friendly to refuse anything, would hesitate about?

It was not. But the matter at hand was more complicated than he thought.

“… I don’t know anything. Sorry.”

“You… don’t know?” Zain couldn’t expect that kind of answer coming from Aoba’s Student Council President.

“Let me explain. The Dimensional Science teacher is known for being extremely eccentric. You’ve heard the rumors, right?”

“Not really, but I’ve heard that there are rumors about him.”

“Well, they have a basis, I’ll tell you that much. Normally, every staff member in Aoba has to register their basic information – things like name, age, civilian ID, you know. But somehow, that guy could enter our school while providing none of that info. Literally zero, so much that people even wondered if there was a Dimensional Science teacher in the first place.”

“But he’s also the Advisor to the NLS club in Aoba, right?”

“NLS? ... Ah, right, you have the right to know this too, since your career path is NLS, after all,” Yusei let out a sigh. “Well… on paper, he is. Or rather, was.”

“Right. I’ve heard it as well. Why did the school close the club anyway?”

“No idea either,” Yusei shrugged. “He was the one who formed that club in the first place, and he was also the one who disbanded it. But the strange thing is, the principal just… went through with his decision, even if everyone else – the staff and Student Council alike – opposed to the idea.”

“I see… but if he was the Advisor, then shouldn’t people have seen him?”

“Seen him? Yeah, everyone has seen him. But he never told anyone his full name, only his last name, Sato, so even if we had seen his face, the guy was mostly still a mystery.”

“What does he look like, then?”

“What does he look like…” Yusei paused for a while once more, before finally settling with an unsure face. “To be honest, it’s hard putting into words. You might not believe me, but I, or anyone else for that matter, don’t have any particularly strong impression about his face.”

“… What?” Zain could hardly believe his ears. Had Yusei not shown a completely serious face while talking, he would have thought the Student Council President was messing with him.

“It’s weird, I know,” sighed Yusei. “But that’s the truth. I guess… you can say that he’s just like an NPC in a game: he has basically no distinctive feature on him, so much that if it weren’t for the lab coat he’s always wearing, none of us would even notice him in a room.”

“I… see…” Zain could only utter those words before the claim. However, before he could say anything else, from his pocket, Yusei’s phone rang.

“Hello?” The red-haired man picked up the phone. “… What? The old warehouse? Okay, I’ll be there.”

“Sorry, Zain,” letting out an awkward smile, Yusei waved goodbye while making his way out of the room. “But something urgent came up, and I’ll have to go now. We’ll talk another time!”

“Okay. See you later, Yusei.” Zain gave out a quick nod in return as the Student Council President hurriedly made his way out of the office.

Stretching his body to relax himself, Zain mumbled:

“Now, onto the main reason why I’m here…”