Ren woke up the next day with a ferocious mix of excitement and nerves.
'I have no idea if where Takeuchi Tamura wants to take me… its possible hes leading me to the fourth secret student!'
He didn't know much about Tamura to be honest. While some members of the student council were just very elusive, he didn't look much into him because whenever he thought of him he remembered how he was with Naoto when they first met. And if he was friends with Naoto that was all he needed to know to stay away.
Not that he didn't try to investigate, back when he did his initial sweep of the various Alpha students, but he found nothing interesting there, only that he was extremely social, and chose to move on to other more suspicious targets.
But with things being more complicated with Naoto and him long deducing the real scumbags of the student body, Ren figured a reexamination wasn't so farfetched.
Though usually that didn't mean hanging out with them. Usually it was by watching them from afar… but since he offered first, it won't look like he's getting into trouble, so Masanori won't scold him.
Ren properly did his tie and grabbed his bag to get ready for school.
In his bag he remembered something, and slowly, he pulled out the inhibitor.
'Right, so this is called an inhibitor. I still don't know how to use it but at least I got a sense for what it does.'
He had a pretty good idea. Surely, if it's used as a restraint of some kind, then it would make sense it's supposed to be used on someone else, like some kind of handcuff. There was also the idea of him using it… but it didn't make sense to Ren to handcuff yourself when there was bigger monsters to stop.
'Hm, so if I can figure out how to use it… it might be possible to stop his mind control!'
If he did that then, he might finally be able to confront Naoto to know for sure if he was on his side, or using his mind control powers to manipulate him into thinking he could. The exact notion of how he was going to get it on him was a different story. Maybe he had to wear it?
He glanced over at the hanging ties he still couldn't figure out and left his
room.
CRASH!
A loud shattering was heard from the common room. Ren rushed over. Broken glass covered the floor, a broken window blowing a strong breeze.
Teru stood in the room burning all over.
"This is enough! Sakechi, bring Masaru-kun; I want our reinforcements ready!"
Sakechi nodded. "Understood."
With a growing scowl, Teru spole gravely over the wreckage. "I know. At this point, its war!"
'Reinforcements? Good on them for finally fighting back against the school, but what about his policy on defense from before?'
Still, Ren started to get excited, like there might finally be some more people willing to fight with him.
"Wait wait, hold on a minute!"
But then, Idoru then pushed through the crowd angrily.
"What are you thinking!? What happened to not antagonizing them directly?!"
'That's what I just said,' Ren silently sighed. 'It's the guy I got kidnapped with by the delinquents a while ago.'
Teru glared at Idoru. Despite this, his cadence was welcoming and rather friendly.
"Idoru-kun, I want your help especially. There's a line between defusing conflict and taking this level of offense! Everyone's taken their sides, it's time we strengthen ours!"
Idoru rolled his eyes. "...yeah. but, don't you think you're being a bit much? It's just another scare tactic. Lighten up before you scare the dorm..."
Teru's eyes looked around the room of whispering students and had enough, barking at them to leave, including Murokawa who was supposed to be the dorm leader.
Ren pushed down out of sight as students fled, watching with distaste.
'Geez. If you're proclaiming war on the Alphas then you should enlist the army, not make them leave! It's like he thinks he can win with the like, ten people against the entire Alpha dorm.'
Teru grumbled. "Look, I know I set the precedent, but…"
Sakechi adjusted his glasses. "Before we discuss, we still have unwelcome company."
Ren flinched. 'He can't mean me this time, right? How would he know I'm here?'
Idoru scoffed. "If it's who I think it is, forget him. He hates Alphas as much as Teru-kun."
Ren got more nervous and leaned further away. 'N-No way, that could mean anyone, right?'
Teru just shook his head. "Now's not the time anyway. We'll make a final verdict later after school."
Teru left, but paused just long enough to glare right at Ren.
'Ah yep. It was me. Maybe I'm not so good at this stealth thing then I thought...'
Idoru sighed. "You know as long as no one is actually hurt, they'll torment us as long as they like until they get what they want anyway."
Sakechi just coldly walked past.
"Crazy," Idoru scowled. "Stupid. I knew it…"
Ren watched for a little longer before he got up and went to class, letting Idoru be alone.
Class went as usual, aside from the hectic feel of the school as cram season had gone in full swing. After class Ren wasted no time and went to the place he had answered Tamura yesterday: the basketball court.
Tamura waved as Ren approached, cheery and friendly like usual.
"Heya, Takeshita-kun! You like Basketball too, I wonder?"
Ren glanced around. None of the students seem to pay attention to them, despite them being a large gathering of Alphas.
'If they don't find us suspicious then maybe he's a regular? I just want to gauge how friendly he is with other Alphas like how Naoto is. Then maybe I'll know if he's any good…'
Tap tap.
The small tapping noise made Ren focus back on Tamura, and he was surprised to find him holding up a small notepad, one hand tapping the leather bound surface and the other holding a pen.
"Huh?" Ren stared up blankly. "What's this?"
"Ah…" Tamura smiled weakly. "My appointment book?"
"...Eh. What?"
Tamura sheepishly scratched his back and let out a clearly nervous laugh. "I-I know it's kinda weird! B-But look, my job in the student council is all about keeping schedules and organizing events and my Sensei's been really getting on my back after our end of term reports! I need the work for my scholarly thesis next year anyway on modern etiquette in administration work environments so you don't mind writing your name down so I can keep track? It's for my council duties credits."
"O-Oh, alright?" Ren stuttered, baffled, and accepted the book and pen to write his name.
"Al, thanks a bunch!" Tamura took the book back, looking down at the page. He frowned.
"Uh? No offense, but that's a strange way to write Takeshita Akira, isn't it? These Kanji…"
"E-Eh?!" Ren peered over and realized what he had done. Being so flustered he had written his real name by accident!
Ren fumbled his hands trying to get the notebook back. "I-I'm sorry, I'll just cross it out and write it again!"
Ren immediately felt sorry, if it was important to his scholarship. Never mind he forgot he didn't think the school was real or the curriculum in the first place, or that he was currently suspicious of Tamura in the first place.
But Tamura pulled the notepad out of reach, shrugging it off. "Eh, it's fine. Not like they're gonna check every name for a follow up check or something."
Ren paled. "Y-Yeah, B-But…."
'But if the school checks that and learns that I remember that name they might actually retaliate this time! I have to erase that from his notepad!'
Not even five minutes into the meeting and Ren had screwed up.
Tamura put his notepad away in his jacket pocket and smiled. "Kay, come on and follow me! As long as you're good with it, right?"
Ren nodded, remembering again why he was here in the first place. "Yeah, I'm ready."
…
Masanori spent a good deal of time getting to work. But lately, most of his school and council duties were neglected in favor of the question that now filled his head.
Looking over the mysterious text he undeleted but still didn't reply to, he had one thought to keep in mind.
But in order to not exacerbate a potentially nothing situation, he refrained from any significant action. Confronting Yukihiro or Ryusei during this time would only make himself look paranoid.
'Besides, Yukihiro might have his reasons… or maybe, Takeshita Akira gets caught up in so many little incidents like that, that he's just too lazy to tell me.'
So instead, he went over what little he did keep of Yukihiro's data on Takeshita Akira. Those were the various infirmary trips, his heats and trespassing instances.
So far since the lake incident, he hadn't heard anything significant. Masanori had hoped it was, as self-indulgent as it felt, a sign he had snapped out of it because of him. But knowing his past and his current theory, he pondered if it was only wishful thinking.
He pooled over written reports of the term, student council ones that suspiciously never mentioned him.
'And student records are still inaccessible. Yuki said something about a completely isolated network somewhere…'
Thinking of Yukihiro he tapped the paper, nervous as ever. He stopped. Looking down, he peered closer at the paper. Smeared in the white was an odd texture.
He stood from his seat and ragged around, eventually finding a magnifying glass.
Upon close examination, something became clear.
The black ink of text. Smudged under a paint like smear of white almost like…
Masanori frowned. 'Someone whited out text here? It looks by hand. This is only a copy… someone with the original paper covered up some text before printing, but who?'
Suspicious as it was, it might be nothing. With a sigh he stood up from his desk.
'If I'm going to make any headway, I need a another perspective. Ruota's blocking off the club... Who was that classmate of his again?'
…
Ren walked cautiously with Tamura. The path wasn't so long from the basketball court but Ren fell as if it went on forever. His eyes were kept so glued to Tamura in his nerves that he didnt realize they had gotten there until Tamura stopped.
"Here we are." He said, turning his heels to stand just before the door to pull it open for him.
Ren looked around at the outer school building they arrived at. Wasn't this… the gym? Would the secret council member be inside?
Tamura, who was still holding the door open, began to break a sweat. He wiped his brow. "Uh, aren't you going to enter?"
Renn startled, his nerves rattling. "Oh. Y-Yeah…"
"Great," Tamura said, giving a light chuckle. "Hey, it's fine. You know if it makes you so nervous to be here, you could have brought a friend with you. I know omegas don't usually like to be alone."
'As if. I'm not a baby, I don't need back up,' Ren silently thought. 'And I don't have a lot of those.'
If he didn't he wouldn't bring them here, where the Alphas roam. This is exactly the kind of thing Masanori would stop him from doing. But it was Masanori himself that said once that there was nothing shady about the student council. And Tamura didn't seem to be so bad, even if he currently held a potential issue in his handwriting. Maybe if Tamura was fine, he misjudged Naoto to some degree as well.
So with a deep breath Ren entered the gym.
Right away as the door swung open, someone loudly spoke up.
"Huh? Is that finally Takeuchi?"
Ren froze. On the other side of the room, past the lift sets and barbells, was a back lounge of leather arm chairs where students hung around.
Standing before him… was the leader of the delinquents!
Nagi slammed his hands on the arm chair and guffawed at Ren from across the room.
"It's… you!?"
At that moment Tamura closed the door behind them.
"You guys look like you know each other? Well I guess that makes things easier."
Ren regretted everything. He should have never trusted another member of the student council!