Post by Darren Blanco II on Feb 15, 2019 21:53:17 GMT -4
Between the stands of the main alley, a young man walked around in a dignified manner,
His various strolls across the school grounds had taught him many things. Their own school had only gone public recently and despite opening at quasi the same time, Yuuei had gotten far more time in the spotlight. They had survived through the kidnapping of one of their students, an attack by their own military and a circus gone mad and were still standing. How they could still be standing despite such displays of incompetence was beyond Ren; under the discipline of Fenghuang High, the students wouldn’t be left to their own devices in a military camp or to walk alone at night where villains could target their highly recognizable faces, given that they were plastered all over the media.
Yet the higher-ups in the government had decided for the school to go public, and he was intelligent enough to know a sixteen-years old’s objection wasn’t going to hold any sway against the word of a senior official. Protesting was more trouble than it was worth. The solution was very simple: make sure to demonstrate the superiority of Fenghuang High by not allowing any of this to sully the reputation of their school.
And in order to do that, the first step was information-gathering, which had been the motivation for his seemingly leisurely strolls around the foreign campus.
UA High was certainly an impressive school from the outside. The tall buildings in the shape of its letters towered over a vast campus adorned with various large-scale training grounds. The staff was resourceful, recycling movie sets for immersion while saving their budget, he had to give them that. Ren took a mental note to submit the proposition at the next Fenghuang teachers-student council reunion. There was no shame in copying your enemies strategies and using them against them, taught Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.
He had inquired what the letters “UA” meant. Apparently, it meant nothing. It was a wordplay on “yuuei”, the reverse of “eiyuu” of “hero” in Japanese. He readjusted his glasses upon hearing the answer. It wasn’t a far cry from their own school, named after the legendary king of all birds of Chinese mythology. Such names were important in this highly-mediatized era where public approval was paramount. He suspected the purpose of these international inter-school competitions was to elicit national pride, in order to get the public emotionally attached to the institution and defend their failures. Fenghuang High wouldn’t need these measures if he could help it, but prudence was the mark of a wise man.
But what caught his eye now was the stall of the school’s reporting club. Interesting, he thought. Having the students participate in their own promotion allowed the school to influence the public narrative around them, but prepared the students for their future highly-mediatized lives. It had been one of the arguments for Fenghuang going public, after all. He walked over to the stand and spoke to the pink-haired girl manning it in perfect Japanese.
“Greetings. My name is Ren Zhenya from Fenghuang High. I am given to understand this is your school’s reporting club, is it? Do you mind telling me about your activities and duties? I wish to compare it to our school’s organization concerning media matters.” That was all the politeness Ren would give a perfect stranger. He had a very low opinion of those he considered unfit for the job, but he made it a point not to judge people before hearing at least one sentence come out of their mouth. It didn’t befit a wise man to make hasty judgments.
Though after that, it was all free game, and Ren’s judgment had rarely failed him after he deemed one to be an idiot.
His various strolls across the school grounds had taught him many things. Their own school had only gone public recently and despite opening at quasi the same time, Yuuei had gotten far more time in the spotlight. They had survived through the kidnapping of one of their students, an attack by their own military and a circus gone mad and were still standing. How they could still be standing despite such displays of incompetence was beyond Ren; under the discipline of Fenghuang High, the students wouldn’t be left to their own devices in a military camp or to walk alone at night where villains could target their highly recognizable faces, given that they were plastered all over the media.
Yet the higher-ups in the government had decided for the school to go public, and he was intelligent enough to know a sixteen-years old’s objection wasn’t going to hold any sway against the word of a senior official. Protesting was more trouble than it was worth. The solution was very simple: make sure to demonstrate the superiority of Fenghuang High by not allowing any of this to sully the reputation of their school.
And in order to do that, the first step was information-gathering, which had been the motivation for his seemingly leisurely strolls around the foreign campus.
UA High was certainly an impressive school from the outside. The tall buildings in the shape of its letters towered over a vast campus adorned with various large-scale training grounds. The staff was resourceful, recycling movie sets for immersion while saving their budget, he had to give them that. Ren took a mental note to submit the proposition at the next Fenghuang teachers-student council reunion. There was no shame in copying your enemies strategies and using them against them, taught Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.
He had inquired what the letters “UA” meant. Apparently, it meant nothing. It was a wordplay on “yuuei”, the reverse of “eiyuu” of “hero” in Japanese. He readjusted his glasses upon hearing the answer. It wasn’t a far cry from their own school, named after the legendary king of all birds of Chinese mythology. Such names were important in this highly-mediatized era where public approval was paramount. He suspected the purpose of these international inter-school competitions was to elicit national pride, in order to get the public emotionally attached to the institution and defend their failures. Fenghuang High wouldn’t need these measures if he could help it, but prudence was the mark of a wise man.
But what caught his eye now was the stall of the school’s reporting club. Interesting, he thought. Having the students participate in their own promotion allowed the school to influence the public narrative around them, but prepared the students for their future highly-mediatized lives. It had been one of the arguments for Fenghuang going public, after all. He walked over to the stand and spoke to the pink-haired girl manning it in perfect Japanese.
“Greetings. My name is Ren Zhenya from Fenghuang High. I am given to understand this is your school’s reporting club, is it? Do you mind telling me about your activities and duties? I wish to compare it to our school’s organization concerning media matters.” That was all the politeness Ren would give a perfect stranger. He had a very low opinion of those he considered unfit for the job, but he made it a point not to judge people before hearing at least one sentence come out of their mouth. It didn’t befit a wise man to make hasty judgments.
Though after that, it was all free game, and Ren’s judgment had rarely failed him after he deemed one to be an idiot.
