"All right, now that we've got a name, what's going to be our first move?" Sully wondered, which made all heads turn to me. Even though it was nerve-wracking to have all eyes on me and to be the one making the decisions (while I was usually the one who hung back and let others decide things) I jumped on the occasion to voice my thought I had since I decided to set up the whole concept of the Shepherds.
"I was thinking that we could keep tabs Gangrel and find a weakness of his… or a secret he has. That way, we could expose or possibly use it against him and thus make him out to be a worse choice than Chrom."
Frederick nodded, "That sounds like a good idea. Though, I don't think all of us should go – we wouldn't want him to spot us easily. Perhaps only the more swift and silent of us." Frederick's suggestion made sense, so I scanned my options: Vaike was much too loud to have him tail Gangrel, but he could be useful for watching out for him since he had a lot of classes with Gangrel. Frederick would be a good choice for tailing – he was both conscious of his presence and he was very critical and would easily find insignificant details that most of us wouldn't pick up on. Sumia, well not to be rude, but she might trip and give herself away – though she was quick to sense if something's amiss; she'd be good for scanning from afar and still be able to pick up anything we might miss. Sully was a little on the bold side and wouldn't like it if I just made her hang out in the back so she'd go with Frederick. Stahl was competent to go by himself so perhaps I'd pair him up with Donnel to give him an extra pair of eyes. As for Virion… he was a bit aloof, if you wanted to know the truth; he'd probably be good for keeping a close eye from a distance. As for myself, it'd probably be best if I didn't watch him – since I was Chrom's Presidential Advisor, Gangrel would probably be more liable to notice if I began watching him. I could only hope he wouldn't catch the others.
When I suggested this plan of attack so to speak, no one had any qualms with it so it was easily decided, "Perfect; so starting tomorrow we shall get into position – those tailing Gangrel and the Plegians will begin their watch on each break: In the morning, lunch and in the afternoon. Those keeping tabs will be watching him in class. We'll meet here every day after class if we are available and discuss our findings. For now, this meeting is over. See you then!"
With that, we went our separate ways, but with the same goal in mind. A fiery determination coursed through my veins: One way or another, I was going to find out Gangrel's weakness and use it to help Chrom; nothing was going to stop me!
Though that determination quickly waned on the first day after we decided to tail Gangrel. Everyone admitted that they couldn't find a single thing that they could call a weakness. My hopes were shot: There were about seven people watching Gangrel and not one of them could find a single thing? I pushed those thoughts aside for the time being, there was no way we could give up just now… it was only the first day. Of course Gangrel wouldn't let anything slip. We just had to be more diligent in our watch. But it happened again the second day of keeping tabs on Gangrel: Nothing. Well, Vaike suggested that his weakness was ham sandwiches because that was all he ate every day. Yet, still, nothing. I stubbornly didn't want to give up still because even though the odds were increasingly outweighing us, I wanted to see if the third day was the charm. Though, on the third day, everyone came up empty-handed.
"Nothing? Are you absolutely sure you couldn't find anything?" I wondered when we came together on the third day. I didn't mean to sound so rude and demanding, but that was the way it came out of my mouth. Everyone present bowed their heads in disappointment.
"That da** Gangrel just covers his tracks closely, is all. We'll get 'im if we keep tryin'." Sully said hopefully.
"He does indeed. He can't have a clean record with the parents he was rumored to have. Perhaps we could search the school files for his information?" Frederick suggested. I had to admit, that idea was probably going to get us closer to finding out his weakness than tailing behind him when he was already cleaning up the mess he might have made before we came.
"That'll get us in trouble!" Sumia protested.
"Then you'd have us give up on Chrom?!" Frederick fired back, angry. From under his harsh eye, tears began to form in Sumia's eyes.
"Frederick, I understand your anger but there's no need to be mean to Sumia. If anyone wants to help Chrom, it's Sumia." I mediated calmly. This was beginning to get out of hand: Everyone was getting frustrated with our lack of luck on the Gangrel front; myself included. I almost wanted to shout at Frederick to calm down, but reminded myself that there was no need to start a potential fight over this.
"Then what do you suppose we do? Gangrel's not giving us an edge." Stahl inquired. I hung my head in shame. Some leader I was; I had absolutely no answer to that question. Frustration bundled up inside of me, but I wouldn't dare show it to anyone… I had to act fast before everyone decided to disband the Shepherds we had just formed a few days ago.
"Just… how about just one more day?" I opted out of all the ideas that came to my head. Everyone looked up at me hopelessly, "How about one more day of tailing Gangrel and if we don't find anything again, then we we'll stop. Does that agree with everyone?" I was met with half-nods from some people while others just got up and left the cafeteria without saying anything. I understood their frustration and impatience because I had it too, but one more day of scouting met the needs of everyone: It would give those who wanted to keep going to go and it would give those who wanted to quit just one more day.
Sadly, I was the last one to get up and leave our little meeting spot. I was so determined to expose Gangrel since I thought of our group that we decided to call the Shepherds. Now that it wasn't working like how I wanted it, my mood was significantly dampened. I was a terrible leader and an even worse Presidential Advisor; I had felt like I had failed Chrom.
Looking up at the poster I had designed on the wall near my locker for Chrom, sadness' cold hand wrapped around my heart. If we didn't find out anything about Gangrel, this whole Presidential Campaign was all for naught: All it did was ruin Chrom's reputation. No matter how hard we tried to clear it, nothing was coming up; it seemed that Chrom would forever remain the Blue Haired Bully… and I was powerless to stop it.
Passing by the poster to get to my locker, I was surprised to see a piece of paper sticking out from my locker. With furrowed brows, I looked around to see if anyone was around who might have placed that there. The hallway was completely empty. Carefully, I took it out, just in case and saw writing on one side. Turning over, I whispered what it read to myself:
Meet me in the library tomorrow at 12:15pm. Go into the third cubicle from the window. Come alone.
I stared at the note for the longest time, wondering who wrote this. Was it Chrom? Did he finally want to discuss something in private to me involving the whole scene with Gangrel? Or was it Gangrel himself? Did he notice us tailing him and trace it back to me? My hand that was holding the note shook from worry. Who was it who sent this note?
Still, I told myself to follow these instructions; who knows – the person who sent it may actually end up helping me. I folded the note and placed it carefully inside my kitbag. Even if they ended up being Gangrel who only wanted to dissuade us, I was still going. At this point, I was going to do just about anything to help Chrom.
The next day, I was in such a rush to get to the library as soon as class over it wasn't even funny. I basically tackled anyone who got in my way as I marched on; ever since I read the note, I kept thinking about who it could be, what they wanted to discuss and so forth. I wasn't going to slip this up.
When I went into the library, it was only five after twelve, but I didn't care. I searched around for the third cubicle from the window desperately but found it thanks to the fact that there was only one set of cubicles by the windows. I took a seat and waited impatiently.
"You're awful early." A voice suddenly said in a hushed tone. Startled, I searched around frantically for who said that but there was no one around me, "In front of you." Looking at the cubicle ahead of me, I noticed only the top of a head of a person with black hair poking out from behind the wall. I was about to stand up and take a look to see who was talking to me, but the person hissed, "Don't look! Just listen!"
I quickly sat down, dumbfounded at her reaction, "All right, what did you want to tell me?" I heard a low chuckle from the person's side.
"I have been watching you for some time now. I know your intention is to clear Chrom's name and I also know how… successful you've been." The person said. Even though I couldn't see them properly, I knew now that by their somewhat sarcastic voice that they were female.
"Well, that saves me from filling you in." I whispered back.
"Exactly. So, I'm here to give you some insight about Gangrel." She told me. That certainly caught my attention. I stared at the wall that was barricading my vision from seeing the girl in front of me, but I tried not to let it deter my information gathering. She continued, "Gangrel has manipulated the Student Council President position so he is second only to Walhart when it comes to the dominance of the school. If he becomes Student Council President now, he'd be able to change certain policies, have the power to kick students out of the school and even fire teachers if he really wanted to."
That caused me to frown, wondering how he was able to do something like that, but decided not to ask. Gangrel had a poor reputation before Chrom's was stained; he'd have his resources, "I suppose getting beaten up by Chrom was worth it for him, if that's the case."
"Chrom's sullied name sure was helpful to him, that's for sure. Not to mention that his own Presidential Campaign involves threatening his peers into voting for him."
"What?" I murmured, shocked. If what she was telling me was all true up to now, Gangrel was sinking so low just to get a couple more votes that he'd actually threaten the other students who were still faithful to Chrom to vote for him instead? I couldn't believe my ears. How could we have missed that when we were tailing Gangrel? I supposed that no matter how long we tailed him in school it wouldn't capture what he did out of school.
"You heard me." The girl merely said.
"How do you know all this?" I asked, suddenly suspicious.
"Let's just say that I'm one of the few privy to Gangrel's dirty secrets." The girl told me, but I wasn't about to let that be the only slip into her identity.
"You're a Plegian, aren't you?" I guessed and judging by her silence the answer to that was a yes. My heart rate quickened as a whole bunch of questions raced into my head. I tried my best to filter them out so I could slowly get more information out of her, "What are you doing, betraying Gangrel like this when all he's ever thought of were the Plegians?"
There was another long stretch of quiet, as if she were weighing out how much she could spill to me, then she plainly said, "It's none of your business how I do something. All you have to know is that I'm giving you vital information and how you should be thanking me rather than interrogating me." Her sudden hostile tone made me wary. If I messed up, she might change her mind about giving me information about Gangrel.
"I-I apologize. I was just curious." I admitted, turning red.
"Whatever." She sighed, "Anyway, I've got one last little hint for you before I have to go: Do a little digging around of the history of this school. You'll find something I bet you'll find somewhat useful." With that, the girl, while keeping her face hidden from me got up and left the library. I curiously watched her go; still wondering who she was.
Though I decided to forget who she might be and got up from the cubicle while taking her words and her hint to heart. I figured that since I was in the library, I might as well look up to see if there were any texts on the history of Ylisse High. Approaching the librarian about it, she directed me to this old-looking book that smelled so musty that I was almost afraid to open it.
Ignoring my nagging stomach even though lunch time was almost over, I returned to the cubicle and began reading. The first few pages were just on the creation of the building, who commissioned it and other boring things. Though, when I flipped to the pages where it listed the Principals back in the day, I caught something quite interesting. There was a man that was the Principal of Ylisse High back in 1997, the year that the seniors at our school would have been just born, that had the same look and last name as Chrom. That must have been Chrom's father or at least an uncle of his; which was the part that struck me the most. Chrom never once mentioned that he had a relative that was the Principal of Ylisse High at one point.
Curiosity prompting further inquiry, I closed the book over and made my way over to a free computer. Browsing the internet for more background information on Chrom's relative, I found a website that was particularly insightful. It was a rather biased site due to all the hate it seemed to have on Chrom's relative, but I decided to ignore it.
I murmured the text under my breath as I began to read the page just as a really important line came up in my search, "…the Principal ruined the lives of the Plegians who wanted a proper education: He expelled them just because of their religions. Not to mention that he also made their parents pay a hefty sum to go to school if they begged and pleaded for him to allow their children to go to school. This unfair treatment is why we Plegians began to hate him; and is why his children won't go by without our hate for what he did to us and our families!"
Pausing in my reading, a sudden revelation seemed to hit me just as I read that – Gangrel was a Plegian; so it was no wonder that he would hate on Chrom too for something his relative had done in the past. If that was the case… it's also no wonder that he was willing to threaten his peers for their vote to win against Chrom. Also, if what that Plegian girl told me was true about the Student Council President being only second to Walhart, our Principal, then it was possible that Gangrel could kick us all out of the school: Chrom, Frederick, Sully, Vaike, Lissa… everyone would be forced out of the school because of a grudge the Plegians had against Chrom's family for what happened to them in the past.
Quickly, I got up and was prepared to tell the Shepherds what I had figured out when I glanced at the clock. There was only a little bit of lunch left… there was no way I could gather them up and tell them before lunch was over. So I decided just to head to class with the information right on the tip of my tongue. As soon as we got together after school to share our gatherings, I would announce that I finally had something we could go on.
Finally – things were coming up Owain!
