How to Train Your Cadet (Takeru)

It had been quite a long time since Sumi had heard from Takeru since she had to run off to get to her next class. He was her quickest access to the inner circles of the Cadet process, so keeping him close and on call would be vitally important. With her application submitted, Sumi needed only to wait for her acceptance and keep her grades up. At Takeru's suggestion, Sumi had her brother teach her a few techniques with a foil, but it still didn't feel right in her hands. One hand was idle, and the grip could easily slip out of her grasp. The blade was also too slim to protect herself with should her instincts kick in to defend. But what kind of weapon could she use? A shield, yet a weapon... Oh, there he is!

With all the speed her feet could carry her with, Sumi slipped down the hallway to get closer to Takeru, hoping to catch him with time to spare. Turning up the charm in her voice for the purpose of keeping her on his mind, Sumi tapped him on the shoulder and greeted him with her chipper grin and eager wave of the hand.

Oh no.
He recognized that voice.
He mentally groaned. He knew his past misdeeds had a way of catching up to him.
Of course, he was a cadet now, but...
It was best to take care of this problem now he had, recalling the last time they met.
"Um... about that... can I talk to you in private for a moment?" he said, mentally reigning himself to telling her the truth.
If she was going to hate him for this, he decided to tell her now rather than later.

After all, if the fates had set this up for him, this must have been what it was for.

What was wrong? Sure, he wasn't as excitable the last time they met, but it just felt like Takeru was feeling really down. The attitude behind that 'we need to talk' line indicated that one of them was in trouble. Whatever it was, Sumi would have to take it and work it out as soon as possible. With a confused raise of the eyebrow, Sumi shrugged and indicated to a quiet corner of the hallway far enough from prying ears to hold their conversation.

"Okay, this should be private enough. What's wrong? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, it's... um.." he said, taking a deep breath before coming out with what he was going to say, a regretful and embarrassed look on his face.
"Look, when we first met and I said I was a cadet... I lied. I wasn't one at the time. Stupid of me. I'm sorry for lying to you then." he said, utterly embarrassed.

He wanted to say that he was one now, but then, what would make her think he wasn't lying himself again?

Sumi listened to the breaking news with little shift in her cheerful expression. So he wasn't a Cadet at first? Was there some transfer time between becoming a fully fledged Cadet? He was looking over some official-looking documents, so he somehow got access to him. Besides, he never really did anything to take advantage of her due to his false position as a Cadet. Sumi decided to give him a bit of a stare to test his nerves before relaxing her shoulders as she spoke.

"So... are you a Cadet now? Is that true at least? Yeah, you lied about being a pretty official position, but you didn't try taking advantage of me using it. You just gave me some advice on the process and talked my brother away from this for once. So, as long as you're a Cadet now, it doesn't matter to me. But of course, I need to trust that you are a Cadet now so that there's no more confusion with whatever superiors you have."

Wow.
She took it way better than he thought she would.
"Well, I certainly am a cadet now. Third Class even." he said with a smile.
Though he didn't want to mention that he had mainly gotten that third class by mostly being in attendance for numerous events.
Some of which he wished he could've had a more active hand in, but eh.

Then something hit him.
"Hold on. That means that when... well, if you're accepted, i'll be your superior..." he said.

Sumi's gleaming smile returned when the relief washed over Takeru as the supposedly trust-breaking news was taken in stride. Sumi trusted Takeru was smart enough to not lie to her twice in a row. With that now cleared up, Sumi gave a curious "Oooh" at his declaration of being Third Class. Sumi didn't know the hierarchy of rank for Cadets but assumed Third Class at least took some effort, so better to make him feel better about it. At the realization that he was her superior once she took up the Cadet position, she winked to him about it.

"That's true. You'll be one of my superiors, so you better take good care of me while I'm learning the ropes. Who knows, maybe I'll be your superior one day. So, sir, what's the word on the streets of Cadet Town these days?"

Well, this was going extremely well.

He blushed slightly at her words.

"Y-yeah. I-I'll do my best. But i''m only third class, after all, so I don't know much.... Not that I could probably tell you either way. Neither us have the clearance to know, after all, I think." he said, sounding slightly wistful as he did so. He really wished he could do so, but after that incident, well...
He seriously doubted he would be near classified records again.

Of course, the really juicy stuff was probably classified for a reason, something he really understood.
Mainly because depending on what it was, it could be used for propaganda.

After all, if you're good enough at writing, you can put whatever spin you like on almost anything.

As a writer, he understood things like that.

Shame. It seemed like Takeru wasn't any more informed than a given Cadet would be willing to share. Sounds like she wouldn't be getting any news from the Queen's finest without hearing it herself. Why did the little word 'classified' have to keep so many juicy secrets from her?

"Only third class? Is there anything lower than that, or is that where everyone starts? I'd say you still have some clearance level if you were given access to those files... oh wait, you weren't a Cadet by then. How did you manage to get those files then?

"Ah, whatevs. I don't need everything the royal family has archived. Soon, my job's gonna be to smash demon brains in and stand proud as a hero this city needs. They fill me in on what I need, I handle the grunt work. In that time, you'll probably need to coach me on the usual order of things. Deal?"

He bristled slightly at the third class thing and the file incident.
"Er, can we not talk about that? I'd like to pretend it never happened. You don't start off with a rank either. You have to earn it." he said, sighing.

He really didn't want to reminisce too much on it.

As for what she said next...
"I'm not sure i'm the best coach for the usual order of things, but sure." he said, nodding.

He could respect her desire to be a hero, after all.
It was far better a dream than what he could ever achieve to him, after all.

Oop, bringing up their previous meeting wasn't a good idea. Sumi wasn't sure what happened after she ran off to get to class on time, but from the sound of things, his superiors were right on the trail and had to intervene from him searching the forbidden files. Their talk was starting to take more time than the topics would allow, so better to try wrapping it up. Sumi had things to do later, after all.

"Whatever you say, Takeru. What's done is done, so we can move on. I'm totally stoked to see what's going down, so maybe I'll see yo- hmm? Oh, one sec. Someone's calling."

Sumi rounded the corner to take the call, her voice somewhat audible to Takeru.
"Hello? Yup, I'm Sumi Saito. ...Okay, where are we meeting up? Sorority Hall? Okay, after class it is. See you then, Ms... Maria? Okay, bye Maria!"

"Sorry about that. Looks like I got a meeting later today. I'm glad you came clean on the Cadet thing, so consider it over and done with. I have to get going, though. Anything else you want from me? Perhaps you need my number since you lost the first one?"