Ah, great. This was gonna be one of those days, huh.
Thus was the first waking thought of Junpei Iori, seemingly an expert on all subjects related to sleep yet fully incapable of fathoming the concept of 'waking' that was to follow. Fortunately, this wouldn't be a problem today.
"Damn, my eye hurts like hell," he groaned, dragging the arm not pinned under him over his face. Looks like when he hit the sack last night, one of his eyelids got pulled open a little, and the eye had all night to dry out. Now he could barely keep it open without pain searing it. No going back to sleep with this thing.
Man, I got stuff to do today, he thought. Important stuff. He pushed himself out of bed and checked the time. Five in the freaking morning. Junpei left his room and wandered groggily over to Iwatodai Dorm's nearest bathroom.
He stared at himself in the mirror. How do you even treat a dried-out eye? Water? Nah, he probably couldn't even keep his eye open long enough to put it there. Regardless, he splashed water over his face a few times (no point going back to sleep, so he might as well stay up and complain about it) and left the bathroom. He made his way to the lounge, thinking about flopping onto one of the couches, but he stopped when he noticed someone standing down the hall.
"Woah, mornin', Minako-chaaaaaahn..." he yawned at the figure.
Minako gave a start– she'd been facing away at the time– and turned around, rather quickly for someone at five in the morning.
"Oh, Junpei-kun, good morning," she chirped back in her usual way. "Since when are you the early bird?"
Junpei rubbed his face again. "Somethin' woke me up. Dude, there any birds that sleep in? I wanna be one of them."
"Awww, want me to go cook up a few worms?"
It took Junpei a moment to realize it was a bird joke, but he figured it out and nodded. As Minako headed down to the kitchen, Junpei noticed a few scuffs on the floor where she'd been standing; not really because they stood out, but because he was looking for something to be interested in. He glanced at her with his good eye as she settled in behind the counter. Come to think, why is she up?
But he decided he was too tired to ask or care, so Minako continued cheerily with preparing food. As time passed, more people showed up in the lounge; first Mitsuru, who understandably raised an eyebrow at Iori's unusual presence at this hour; then Aigis appeared, not having donned her day cover yet (it's just the dorm, she'll be fine); Fuuka, Akihiko and Yukari followed each other in quick succession; Ken showed up a little later, and Shinjiro appeared at his own leisure. Junpei knew he would've been last... but as it was, he was already awake. And as he chowed on the eggs Minako had made for him, he was busy making sure everybody who passed through knew why.
Mitsuru had brushed it off, seeming harried, and strolled right out the door. Aigis said she didn't store this kind of info, but she'd search it up. Fuuka had run out, saying something about catching Mitsuru and how sorry she was she couldn't stop to help Junpei. Akihiko looked like he was about to help– but instead, he told Junpei to man up about it. Yukari predictably refused to help ("It's your fault you sleep like a slob, you know"). Ken mentioned it'd happened to him before, but he just went the day with his eye closed and let it heal. And finally, Shinjiro walked past Junpei, completely ignoring him... until he paused at the door, sighed, and turned back, heading out of Junpei's sight. Next thing he knew, Shinjiro had found some medical supplies from who-knows-where, and was almost atop him.
"Woah–"
"Hold still, dumbass."
"Hey, it looks like you're gonna strangle him," Yukari called from the other couch, actually sounding slightly concerned. Minako giggled.
"If he doesn't stop moving, I guess that's an option."
He moved to peel the eye open against its will. Junpei's other eye widened, but apart from that he finally decided holding still was the best option. He realized it was his time to show how man he was, make Akihiko-senpai proud–
Then the eyedrop hit.
"Junpei, what on earth–"
"Don't ask," Junpei said plainly, his right eye still closed. Chidori did not need to know what adventures he'd been through that morning.
"But your eye's red."
"Hey, I'm not here to whine about my life to you, Chidori. I don't wanna bore ya."
"The lids are twitching."
"Guess my eye's disappointed it doesn't get to see you!"
Chidori did not find that amusing.
"You do realize we're in a hospital, correct? I can call a nurse for you."
"Nah, this is just, y'know..." Junpei searched for the right explanation. "Somethin' I gotta man up and deal with. Akihiko-senpai would say something like 'I'll overcome this trial and develop an iron will!' Can't lose to him, right?"
"If you're referring to Sanada, I may not know him as well as you do, but I can tell he's the kind of boy you'd call 'meat-headed'."
"Heh, I guess so. You know, he'd–"
"So forget him. Have your eye checked."
"Why are we still talking about my eye?! It's fine!"
"It's not."
"W-well, it's not fine, but the point is, I'll be fine."
A pause.
"Why are you so worried about it?"
"Hm?" Chidori tilted her head in her why-are-you-being-so-bothersome way... but she wasn't looking at him anymore. She was staring straight forward, her eyes quizzical.
"I mean," Junpei began, wondering if he'd said something wrong, "it's you we're talking about. You're the one who found out her hand was bleeding and said 'oh, that's weird'. You aren't the kinda person who cares about injuries, so..."
"Forget it."
"Huh?"
"Forget it." Chidori turned to look at Junpei again, and her eyes had changed. She was... sorry? Maybe that wasn't quite it. "I never asked you about your eye, Junpei."
"Uh–"
"Forget it," Chidori repeated.
After a moment, Junpei decided not to piss her off.
"Alright. So, back to what I wanted to talk about..."
And he grabbed the bag he'd left by the door, and put it on Chidori's bedside for her to open herself. A fresh supply of pencils. Some decent ones, actually, not the "trash" (as Chidori bluntly put it) you'd find at schools or other places where the type didn't matter. He had to shell out a little extra, but the results were worth it. Chidori was very pleased, even if she didn't smile. By the time she had begun testing the first one on her sketchbook, she'd forgotten all about the conversation they'd had just now... Nah. She didn't just forget stuff. Junpei knew there was something he'd said that she was still thinking about, but...
He sat back, watching Chidori mark the paper purposefully. Minako would know. If she didn't, she'd figure it out with a little guesswork, or coax an answer out of Chidori using those methods of hers. She was good at that.
...Would Chidori even open up to Minako? As far as he could even remember, they'd only met once, and hadn't spoken directly. And he'd been tied up.
Might as well ask, right?
"Hey, Chidori. What do you think of... my friends? Y'know, other than Mitsuru-san and Akihiko-san."
Chidori glanced over for about a second.
"I only vaguely remember them. I haven't seen them since that night."
"R-right."
More silence.
"I could, uh, introduce you to 'em. I'm sure at least some of them would like to meet–"
"I don't care about them."
Chidori, you're on a roll today.
"I– I see."
The sound of graphite.
"But you care about me?"
The sound of graphite.
Junpei figured this was the right time for him to shut up and let her sketch.
"Did Iori heal?"
"He already left to see Chidori. Shinjiro-senpai fixed his eye up about an hour ago. You know, he's a really nice guy," Minako said, glancing at Shinjiro to enjoy the glare he gave her.
"I only did it because he wouldn't shut up. He was saying he'd been up since five because of it."
Mitsuru's brow furrowed. "Did no one else want to help him? Something as simple as eyedrops should have been in the cupboard."
"Yep," replied both Minako and Shinjiro. Mitsuru blinked.
"You knew, then? So why not help him?"
Minako shrugged.
"'Cuz he was being a baby about it."
Yukari stifled a laugh, Mitsuru crossed her arms, and Shinjiro gave an exasperated sigh. "I oughta get a salary for this shit."
"Well, time for me to head out, I guess." Junpei stood up, stretched his legs. Chidori lifted her head from her sketchbook. "See ya 'round, Chidorita. Enjoy those pencils."
She continued to stare at him.
"Goodbye, Junpei."
And he headed for the door... only to stop.
"So... about that eye..." he began. He could feel Chidori's glare burning a hole in the back his head, but he knew what he was doing.
"There I was, jumped by a bad crowd... The lovely ladies I was with could only watch in terror as the big, tough king of thugs pinned me to the ground, ready to make sure I never got back up. I struggled with all my might to throw him off me, but he got a good one in on my eye before I pushed myself free, and jumped to my feet! It was just me and him, mano a mano, staring each other down..."
Chidori had leaned forward in her bed.
"What did you do, Junpei?"
Junpei smirked at himself.
"Ran like hell."
If he hadn't paused for effect before leaving, he would have missed her next question.
"Tell me something, Junpei. Which one of your group was the real leader?"
A particularly heavy wave of rain hammered the window of the poorly-lit lounge, and a particularly long breath escaped Junpei's lungs. Mitsuru had been carted off by someone from her group earlier, Ken went to bed early, Akihiko was probably in his room beating the shit out of his punching bag, Minako was bedridden, and who even knew where Aigis or Shinjiro went. The only people still around this late were Yukari and Junpei... and Koromaru, poor dog, staring longingly at the storm-tossed window.
"You should probably do what Senpai asked you to before you get tired," Yukari mused, fiddling with her phone.
"I could just pretend to forget about it and let Minako check it when she wakes up, but then Mitsuru-senpai's gonna be on my ass..." He heaved a sigh as he put down his ramen and stood up. "Might as well. Nothin' else to do around here right now."
"Well, I'm busy, so have fun." Junpei glared at Yukari, who was deliberately staring at her phone. Actually, she didn't look busy at all. She looked really bored, as a matter of fact.
...She better not touch his noodles while he's gone. No forgiveness. He left the lounge, and headed for the meeting room. Yep, since poor Minako was down sick, Mitsuru had asked him to check on the computer in her place, and no amount of protest could convince her to push the job on someone else.
"Why the hell would I know about computers like this, anyway?" Junpei muttered, staring at the behemoth. After a moment, he slumped down on one of the chairs. Damn, how do they sit in these? They aren't comfortable at all! He put his elbows on his knees and let his head droop, realizing how tired he was.
Beep.
Junpei almost slammed his head on the console as he jerked awake. The monitor had turned itself on, and a little message was blinking:
1 new file has finished processing
Junpei blinked. Well, at least he knew what that meant. He went and clicked on the notification, and a folder popped up with a bunch of files in it. Each one had a date as its name... and they were all videos. What are these?
Then, something started to click in place in Junpei's previously-drowsy mind. Only the most recent one was marked as 'new'... the other ones had already been viewed. What did that mean?
"Has Minako-chan been watching them?" Maybe the dorm's security system was randomly saving useless footage... but if that was it, why wouldn't Minako delete them? What were they videos of, anyway?
Well, there's only one way to find out. Junpei loaded up the newest video.
〉 ... 〉 ... 〉
〉09/13/2009 04:54:12
Beginning playback
As the scene unfolded on Iwatodai Dormitory's lounge, Minako entered the screen. And she had a little baggage with her...
"They shouldn't be able to hear me all the way down here... Okay, which first?" she said excitedly, placing the assorted weaponry on the ground. After a moment's thought, she decided to pick the one closest to her, one of Yukari's bows. She lifted it up and found she couldn't hold it steady like Yukari does.
"M-maybe different people need to hold it in different ways..." she said, turning it a little more horizontally. It looked like that was the trick for her, because she started getting the hang of it... not that she was actually shooting any arrows.
"Now if only I could do some target practice... but that wouldn't be the smartest thing to do here." She put the bow down, and moved on to the foil. After swinging it around a bit (she definitely wasn't as skilled as Mitsuru), she tossed it back to the floor. "Kind of a boring weapon... sorry, Senpai," she added, as if Mitsuru were about to swoop down upon her and bring vengeance on her for the slight against her sport. She had about the same feelings for Koromaru's knives, though she got a kick out of placing one in each hand like some kind of ninja.
"Now, for some real fun."
She lifted the katana, which she'd recognized as one of Junpei's swords of preference. She toyed with it for a while, assuming different dramatic poses– it was a popular weapon for its cool look as well as its versatility, after all– and put it back satisfied. Next came Akihiko's boxing gloves...
"Uh... They're a little too big for me..." Minako put one on, and shook her hand a little. Yeah, they were loose. "Too bad... Ah, well." She pulled her best impression of her senpai, swinging her fists swiftly about. She even tried matching his determined expressions. When she'd had her fun, she moved on to Ken's spear.
"Ooh..." She bounced it a little in her hands. A naginata is really just a spear used for slashing, so it was no wonder she instantly felt at home. After quite a bit of practice with it, she put it to the side, away from the rest.
Next came the axe Shinjiro used... if she could lift it. With a little elbow grease, she was able to heft the weapon into a fighting position... then realized something.
"There's no way I have the strength to swing this thing effectively. What a shame." And she put the axe back down reluctantly. It was worth a try.
With that, she had exhausted her supply of weaponry... save for one. Minako's enthusiasm was almost frightening.
"Best for last," she said breathlessly, turning to the arm cannon. She examined it carefully, appreciating it from every angle. She lifted it, which was no small feat, and cradled it in her arms like some kind of soldier holding a ridiculous rocket launcher.
"Where's... where's the 'on' button, though?" she said, as if this were a problem that needed to be remedied for her. "Oh, don't tell me... They only work for Aigis, huh."
This was the most logical reason, as Aigis could just deliver the 'fire' command directly to the weapon attached to her. With a sigh, she returned the gun to its original resting place, and stepped back.
"So," she said, folding her arms firmly, "out of all the weapons here..."
And she turned to the spear.
"I like you the most!" She picked it up and whirled it around again, enjoying the ease with which she could wield it.
Footsteps.
Minako nearly leapt out of her skin.
"Crap, Mitsuru-senpai must have somewhere to be this morning!" she muttered, glancing around at the incriminating pile of weaponry. She hurriedly moved everything behind the counter, and was about to leave when she jolted to a stop and turned around. The carpet was scuffed from her little adventure... She frantically toed at it, trying to smooth it at least a little–
"Woah, mornin', Minako-chaaaaaahn."
Minako whipped around. It wasn't Mitsuru, as she had expected, but a yawning Junpei who appeared to her.
"Oh, Junpei-kun, good morning," she chirped back in her usual way. "Since when are you the early bird?"
Junpei rubbed at something on his face. "Somethin' woke me up. Dude, there any birds that sleep in? I wanna be one of them."
"Awww, want me to go cook up a few worms?"
Junpei nodded after a moment. As Minako headed down to the kitchen, Junpei moved forward to follow her, but paused. He tilted his head, apparently squinting at the spot on which Minako had stood moments before...
Junpei Iori stared blankly at the screen, wondering why this was the person Chidori wanted to meet.