ALT-FLAG 2A: Vox Populi I

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Back at the faculty lounge, Suzaku thumbed over the rest of his paperwork. It was just his first day as a teacher, but he had already conducted a pop quiz in English. Well, it was from Class 3-D, the group under Kodama's care as homeroom teacher, so it comes as no surprise.

"Alright, time to do some checking on these papers," he uttered as he picked up one of the answer sheets. So far he's quite satisfied by the way the student applied Kodama's teachings. Although he had expected superbly high grades from the class, the first one only netted an 85 out of 100 points; plausibly great by normal standards, but not exactly of the same caliber as to Kodama's standards.

An hour had passed by, and Suzaku had finished half of the papers. So far his impressions on the students' performances were hilariously polarized.

"Was it really the students' fault for this performance, or was it Kodama's?" he asked himself silently, while letting out a light chuckle.

"Anyway, I'll just finish up the rest at home," he said, while placing the unchecked papers in his briefcase. "I don't know if I should be angry or laughing here…"

He then glanced at the folders placed at the right corner of his table - the same ones that Nikaido gave him during their talk at the rooftop. Opening the folder that contained the supposed demon buddy's profile, he called Sylvia.

"Hello, Sylvia? Suzaku speaking. I hope it's not too much on your part, but would you mind helping me out here?"

"I don't know, Suza-kun," said his demon buddy on the other end of the line. "I'm at the mall right now, looking for something fashionable after having finished my grocery duty."

"Better not be overspending again. Anyways, Mind looking into your RSS roster list as to the name 'Elsie'? Her New Hell educational records, known associates, the works."

"Why the piqued interest in another demon?"

"I just met with Rimyuel's human buddy a few hours ago. I'll discuss to you the rest at dinner."

"That means you'll be tackling the info on her human buddy?"

"You could say that. Anyways, hanging up now; I'm going to proceed with the human buddy info gathering."

"Good luck then, Suza-kun. I'll see you home."

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After the phone call, Suzaku started to thumb through Katsuragi's profile. In stark contrast to the test papers that he checked before, his grades were just nothing short of stellar. Almost all of his grades are hitting the highest possible ranks. Well, save for PE and apparently one test that Kodama gave in the summer – the sole 99 out of the rest of the perfect 100 grades.

He turned to the other teachers present in the lounge. "Um, I'm sorry if I was bothering you guys or anything. I'm just curious as to this student named Katsuragi Keima. Can anyone enlighten me about him?"

One of the professors slowly approached him. "Ah, the one they call 'Otamegane', right?"

"Otamegane?"

"Yeah, that is what the high school students call him. He's a brilliant kid when it comes to exams, but a real pain in the neck during regular sessions."

Another teacher added: "The reason he's called that is because of his obsession over dating sims, or galge. He is so addicted to them that he would even use his PFP in the middle of class, without even paying attention to us teachers."

"Kodama-san was the most infuriated among us teachers regarding Katsuragi. He tends to see the kid as one hell of an obstacle to take out, but all his efforts were so far in vain."

"Until that one certain written exam during the summer," said the other teacher, while pointing to a framed test paper in Kodama's desk. "He was jumping in glee when he found that Katsuragi incurred one mistake in that test. So much that he was approving club proposals left and right."

"Yeah, that was actually the only time I've seen Kodama in complete bliss, to be honest."

Meanwhile, deep in Suzaku's inner thoughts…

"Good grief, I was just asking info about this kid, and they go on ranting as if they view him as a problem child or something. Should not have even bothered to ask in the first place…"

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Later that night, back at the apartment…

"So, any luck as to the info gathering regarding the kid, Suza-kun?" asked Sylvia, who was cleaning up the dishes in the sink.

"None so far, Sylvia," he replied while taking a sip of hot chocolate from his mug. "The teachers are not that much of a help to be honest."

"Maybe he really was that much of a geek. I mean come on, dating sims in the middle of class? If that's not obsession, I don't know what is."

"We'll see once we gather more info. Speaking of which, how about the assignment I gave you; any leads?"

"Yeah, I got leads alright…"

Sylvia set up her Hagoromo like a computer screen in front of Suzaku. "There are quite a lot of demons in new hell, but a few in the RSS with the name 'Elsie', and one matching the descriptions you gave me."

The screen then pops out a dossier of an RSS member written in Hellian. With a flick of the wrist, Sylvia had the same translated for Suzaku's convenience.

"Elsea de Lute Irma, normal graduate of the RSS Academy, spent most of her post academy days as a cleaning demon before Dokuro Skull gave her an assignment as an RSS unit in Area 30-2. So far, she had the highest capture rate in proportion to her length of service: 14 recorded 'captures' as of late within the year."

"How about her known associates?"

"Well, she's close friends with Area 32 District Chief Haqua du Lot Herminium, since they graduated from the Academy at the same time, and that she helped her on one Runaway Spirit capture. Apart from that, not much."

"Hmmn…" Suzaku pondered on as to the info. "How about the list of her previous captures?"

"I am still compiling the complete list. Had a bit of a problem regarding the info on two captures."

"Just fill me in on the twelve that you've compiled."

"Okay then." Sylvia then displayed the list of the 12 capture targets recorded into Elsea's dossier.

"Well I'd be…"

"What is it, Suza-kun?"

"Out of the list you've given me, eight of them are in the same school and three of them in the same class as our demon."

With a few taps in the Hagoromo screen, he highlighted the following three names, by order of capture date: Takahara Ayumi, Nakagawa Kanon, and Kosaka Chihiro.

"Something on your mind, Suza-kun?"

"Yeah. But I'll have to tackle this carefully. I am still very short on info, especially regarding the so-called 'looming Level-5 threat' and the involvement of Elsea's human buddy."

"Guess our trip to Maijima just got a lot more interesting…"

"Yeah. Try reviewing that 'last message' you got from Dokuro again. Might give us a clue of some sort…"