It was a fact that SCHALE, or rather Sensei, was given authority to act independent of the GSC to better accomplish the role that the GSC President left for the club to do. What it was, Aoi was unsure, as was the rest of the GSC.
What did not escape her and the other members of the GSC Administration Board was the fact that SCHALE's existence had an overlap with the existing SRT Special Academy with regards to both organizations' authority to bypass the red tape that was in place when conducting official business in another district.
With that said, more than half of the various department heads wanted to maintain SRT's existence while waiting for the GSC President to return, though some have reasoned that with SCHALE's existence, the academy would become redundant. A plan was formulated to place SRT under the Defense Office's jurisdiction by Chief Kaya to be implemented once the chaos regarding the GSC President's disappearance was addressed.
But on the day when the plan to vote for the proposal was implemented, SCHALE's newly appointed Sensei happened to be in attendance and presented his own plan for the school.
Aside from Rin, Ayumu, and Momoka, who had many opportunities to work with Sensei during his first week, the proposal came as a surprise to the majority in the Administration Board as it hadn't been long since Sensei officially assumed the position. Chief of Defense Kaya in particular vehemently opposed SCHALE's meddling with this issue, citing that Sensei did not have a clear understanding of SRT's situation due the recency of their appointment.
When the time came for Sensei to face the Administration Board in a meeting, he was prepared as he reasoned that he was making use of SCHALE's authority to recruit a student from any school, which included SRT Special Academy, to better achieve its objective.
"From a practical standpoint, it would be a waste to let a school of highly trained student operatives rot," Sensei said while under the scrutiny of all the chiefs. "It would be more beneficial if both SCHALE and SRT were able to work together as admittedly SCHALE."
Sensei further elaborated that SRT's biggest issue at the moment was that without the GSC President's backing, they were unable to conduct their regular missions. SCHALE on the other hand, while being a newly formed federal club, can lend its support for SRT. Sensei also stressed the fact that this arrangement was a temporary one so SRT would be able to continue its operations until the school was able to reorganize itself under the leadership of Shichido Yukino, after which it could be revisited to see if changes were needed.
It was a solid plan as SCHALE does have authority equivalent to that of the GSC President while it was acting under the directive left by her. While this quelled much of the dissent on the board, as the issue on who would take responsibility for the school was resolved, a few were still skeptical about Sensei's intentions. The Chief of Finance Aoi was one of them. She was not against the plan itself, but she wanted to see for herself what kind of person the GSC President entrusted with the position of SCHALE's Sensei.
However—
"This issue would have been resolved even without your involvement. That, and you have yet to prove yourself. So why bother with this complicated issue?" Aoi asked. It was clear that Sensei was a pragmatic person, but she had to make sure that he didn't have any ulterior motive. While the fact that Sensei was chosen by the GSC President would have been enough to vouch for his character, Aoi still wanted to see for herself just what kind of person he was.
"Before I answer that, I have to admit that I don't know why the GSC President chose me to be Sensei of an entire city," Sensei said as he scratched the back of his head. "Surely she could have chosen someone who was more proficient to be a teacher, as my expertise is more on the field rather than the office…And yet she still chose me. Now as to why I decided to step in this issue—"
His words that day shaped Aoi's perception of him.
"I saw that they needed help, so I decided to help them. That's all."
…
…
…
In the end, with Chief Rin mentioning that Sensei had complete control over Sanctum Tower before immediately turning it over to the GSC, everyone that he was not the kind of person who would abuse his authority, his proposal to have SRT tentatively continue its normal operations under SCHALE's authority.
Over the next few weeks, Sensei had worked hard to polish the plan for SRT to slowly become an independent school under the leadership of FOX Squad's Shichido Yukino. Aoi's initial impression of Sensei of being a pragmatic, but ultimately kind person merely solidified as she worked alongside him to finalize the budget allocation for the school.
With how much Sensei valued practically, it came entirely from nowhere when Chief Administrative Officer and Acting President Rin called Aoi to her office regarding SCHALE's proposal for funding to open up a restaurant as a way to earn steady revenue.
Aoi was flabbergasted at the plan. While restaurants can be a lucrative business, it also had a high percentage of failure, with 60% closing within the first year, and 80% failing within five years. This meant to ensure its success, Sensei would have to spend a significant amount of time managing it.
With Sensei having a busy enough schedule as it is, adding restaurant management is only going to put more pressure on him, so it was clear that this plan was highly impractical, which was uncharacteristic of Sensei.
And yet, this plan had the backing of Millennium's infamous Demon Treasurer of Seminar herself.
"I actually raised those concerns to him too," Rin said as she slowly shook her head. "Do you know what he told me?"
"What did he tell you?"
"To quote: 'I always did find cooking to be enjoyable, especially when cooking for others. I don't see how this would be any different. I should thank Yuuka for this.'"
Aoi was rendered speechless. The fact that he was actually happy to get more work on top of his already busy schedule prevented Aoi from speaking for some time. Eventually, she realized that Rin bringing this up to her meant that she approved of the plan.
"You know what the problem with this plan is, so why did you approve it?" Aoi asked in confusion.
In response, Chief Rin put a lunchbox on her table.
"It'd be easier to show you instead," Rin said with a complicated smile as she opened it. "Sensei made this."
The aroma of the food permeated the entire room, causing Aoi's stomach to growl much to her embarrassment. Upon closer inspection, she saw that the food in the bento was neatly arranged to be appealing to the eyes.
Receiving the chopsticks she was offered, Aoi took a small piece of meat and placed it in her mouth.
Aoi's eyes widened as the flavor spread throughout her tongue. It felt as if she was floating above the clouds as she savored the food she ate.
When Aoi returned to her senses, she found that the once full box was now empty, along with Chief Rin who was glaring at her.
"Chief Aoi," Rin said slowly. "How was it?"
"I…I'm so sorry I…don't know what got into me," Aoi said as she quickly bowed her head in a fluster.
"It's…understandable." Rin sighed as she put the empty lunchbox away before placing another, slightly bigger lunchbox on the table. "Ayumu, Momoka, and I had a similar reaction when we first ate Sensei's cooking, so I had Sensei prepare a second one just in case."
"To answer your question, what I have to say is that Sensei's cooking is…sublime," Aoi said. "I am admittedly not the most versed when it comes to cooking, but even I could tell that the food was top-notch."
"Now that you've tasted his cooking, what do you think of the proposal?"
"If he can create dishes of this quality, then the restaurant proposal would be…" Aoi trailed off as she made some quick calculations. "Yes, this plan is feasible as long as Sensei shows up to personally cook in the restaurant from time to time. But he would need employees to manage the restaurant while he's away."
"Can you work on a budget plan as soon as possible?"
Aoi nodded as started leaving the office. Though she couldn't help but take one last glance as she smelled the aroma of the food coming from the new lunchbox.
"This is mine, Chief Aoi," Rin said protectively. "If you want one of your own, visit Sensei's office. He'd be more than happy to cook for you."
"...Please excuse me," Aoi said after clearing her throat.
While it was true that Aoi wanted to try more of Sensei's cooking, she had enough sense to not want to disturb him when he was already busy.
However—
It should be fine if I was on official business, Aoi's thought as she quickly made her way back to her office.