Leon Kuwata ambled into the rec room on the second floor and strolled right past the back of the chair where Mukuro Ikasaba was seated, reading her magazine. He paused by the pool table, turning his head back and forth as he lazily eyed the room's options.

He was attempting to act like he had just casually wandered into the area, but his "acting" didn't fool Mukuro. She could tell that Leon came here for a very specific reason. Based on the fact that he was trying to hide the purposefulness of his visit, Mukuro was able to quickly reduce his motivations to a select few options.

Regardless, she kept her eyes on her Soldier of Fortune, a pencil at the ready. She liked to take notes in the margins, circle point of particular interest to her, and even copy-edit the articles sometimes. Kuwata's odd behavior was of no concern to her… unless he came here to-

"Heeeeey, Ikusaba," Leon said faux-casually, moving towards her chair. "How's it hanging?"

God DAMN it, Mukuro thought. "Kuwata," she said by way of acknowledgement. She didn't bother to look at him.

Without prompting, Leon launched into what sounded like a sales pitch. " I was wondering if you could help me out," he said. "You see, I'd reeeeaaally like Enoshima-chan to-"

"Don't," Mukuro said tersely.

Leon blinked a couple of times. He rapidly glanced around the rec room, making sure there was no way she was speaking to anyone else.

There was no one else there.

"Don't what?" Leon finally asked.

Mukuro sighed and placed her magazine into her lap while gently tossing her pencil onto the coffee table in front of her. She turned her head, locking eyes with Kuwata. "You were going to ask me for advice on how to approach Junko and ask her out," she explained to him. "Ergo, I am giving you my advice."

Leon stared at her in disbelief for a moment.

"Yeah, well, I just figured you two seem pretty tight, so you'd-"

"DON'T," Mukuro repeated. Her voice was even firmer this time, and her eyes never wavered from Leon's.

"Jesus... You don't gotta be such a bitch about it," Leon said. His voice sounded genuinely angry and offended, but his face betrayed how utterly cowed he was by Mukuro's intimidating presence.

Leon reached his hand behind his head, rubbing his hair nervously. He was looking increasingly uncomfortable, a fact which satisfied Mukuro just fine. She continued to stare at him as he broke off from her gaze, shifting his eyeline towards the ceiling.

After a time that felt interminable (but actually lasted about 20 seconds), Mukuro finally ended her stare, picked up her magazine, and resumed reading.

Kuwata seemed to get the message, and he began to head towards the door.

Upon reaching the doorway, he stopped and turned around, looking back at his classmate. She did nothing to acknowledge the fact that hadn't left until he spoke again.

"Tell me this: Are you two a thing, oooorrrrr… "

Mukuro slammed her magazine back onto her lap. This time, she wasn't hiding her irritation. Despite glaring daggers at Leon, she spoke with surprising softness when she told him, "No, Kuwata. We are not 'a thing.'"

Leon gave no indication that he was thrown off by her hostility this time. Perhaps he was just startled before, and he was expecting it this time around. Maybe he was even needling her for some kind of petty revenge. Whatever the reason, he looked completely unperturbed.

He nodded to himself and continued, "It's just… you know, you two are thick as thieves, and it's not like either of you have been dating any guys around here. Between that and how much you seem to hate the idea of me asking Enoshima-chan out, I naturally assumed."

Ugh, Mukuro thought. First Maizano, and now Junk gets the '-chan' honorific. Does he do that to every girl he's trying to flirt with?

He smirked now, leaning against the door frame. "So what's going on with you, then? Do you maybe got yourself an unrequited crush on our Fashionista?"

Mukuro eyes widened. She could feel her blood starting to boil even as she smoothly reached out and retrieved her pencil off of the coffee table. She managed to keep her voice level when she spoke again. "Did you know that there are 37 ways to kill a man with a No. 2 pencil?"

Leon's smirk transformed into a sheepish grin, and he raised his arms in mock surrender. "Yes, sir," he said, mockingly. "Threat understood, sir." He tossed off an exaggerated salute at the end — exactly the sort of uncreative mockery she'd seen countless times before.

Mukuro rolled her eyes so far back into her head that she thought her pupils could practically fall out. Irritating as he was, this one obviously wasn't backing down as easily as she'd hoped.

Even so, every soldier knows that when the primary method of attack fails, you switch to an alternate approach. As such, she prepared to launch a secondary method of attack

Clearing her throat, Mukuro Ikusaba looked Leon Kuwata in the eyes once more. She turned her whole body in the chair, finally facing him completely. Then she tried to widen her eyes slightly so as to shift out of "glare" mode, and she even attempted to soften her voice a little. Only a little. It was a new approach, sure, but that doesn't mean she wanted to pull her punches.

"Look," she began, "Junko and I were close long before we got to Hope's Peak."

Leon's brow raised in mild surprise as he folded his arms. "Didn't know that," he admitted.

"In that time," Mukuro continued, "I've dealt with plenty of guys who thought they were good enough for her. Every other man who meets Junko thinks they can handle her, and let me assure you: all of them have failed."

"Failed how, exactly?" Leon inquired, raising one eyebrow.

Mukuro let a tiny smile creep across her lips before she answered with one word — "Spectacularly."

Leon stepped out of the doorway and back into the rec room. With his arms still folded, he leaned against the wall next to the door. "No details, then?"

Momentarily thinking back on the inglorious, bloody history of Junko's would-be suitors, Mukuro chose to employ honesty. "I don't believe your constitution could handle the details."

Leon nodded only once, seemingly satisfied yet unphased. "Even so… comparing me to these other guys?" His broad smile returned as he threw his arms outward. "Come on, now! Who do you think I look like? What do you take me for?"

Mukuro looked him up and down for a few seconds as he held his asinine pose. In a deadpan voice, she answered, "I'd say you most closely resemble a Patchwork Rex rat."

The young man's eyes went wide with shock, his smile fell sharply, and he jerked his head backwards, recoiling. Then, after a couple more seconds of that horrific look, his scowl transformed back into a smile… and he laughed. A long, hearty laugh.

Mukuro studied him with silent befuddlement as he wrapped up his belly laugh with a concluding chuckle, then returned to his earlier grin. "Okay," he told her. "First of all: OUCH. Super-harsh. But secondly, that was actually pretty funny. Didn't know you had it in you."

"Mmm. I'm full of surprises," Mukuro monotoned.

"That's not what I was trying to get at, though," he continued. "I'm saying that I'm a Hope's Peak student, same as her and you. We're all the elite-est of the elite, here! Surely you know that if anyone's gonna be up to Enoshima-chan's standards, it's gonna be someone like me."

"Actually," Mukuro said as she raised an eyebrow, "How DID someone like you wind up at Hope's Peak?"

Leon rolled his eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Uhhh, I'm the Ultimate Baseball Star?"

"According to...?" Mukuro pressed.

"Kizakura-sensei, of course!" Leon said proudly.

Ah, the drunkard, Mukuro thought. That explains it.

"Anyway," Mukuro continued, "Could someone from Hope's Peak be up to Junko's standards? I suppose. Possibly. But someone like YOU? Inconceivable."

Leon put his hands on his hips, and his already huge grin seemed to grow even larger. "I don't think that word means what you-"

"PLEASE spare me the pop-culture references," Mukuro said, cutting him off. "I can already feel my grey matter leaking through my ears."

Maintaining the massive smile, Leon shook his head in disbelief. "You're KILLIN' me here, soldier! You're KILLIN' me!"

Mukuro could only assess his glee with utter disbelief. Holy shit, she thought. Is this moron actually ENJOYING this conversation?

"Okay, okay," Leon inevitably continued. "So is this your attitude towards everyone who's interested in your little bestie, or do you just have it out for me personally?"

"Nearly everyone," Mukuro conceded. "Although I admit to finding you particularly repugnant."

He narrowed his eyes and finally let his smile fade. "And why's that?" he asked.

Fine then, Mukuro thought. If he wants to push the issue, I'll tell him what I think.

Her voice was low, yet she spoke more strongly and quickly than Leon knew she was capable of as she said, "Because you're utterly disrespectful to anything and anyone in your life. You don't respect your own talents, you don't respect most of your classmates, and you definitely don't respect Junko. You don't give a damn about your baseball skills even though they're the only reason you even got to attend Hope's Peak. Let's not pretend you are invested in Junko's happiness or what she wants. Why do you want to go out with her? Is it because you got to know her and gained respect for her? Is it because you share her dreams and goals? Of course not. It's because you want a piece of arm candy that'll earn you more attention from the public. It's because you want to hook up with someone that's hot. You only care about how YOU look to your peers and the media, you... you fucking narcissist."

Leon's face had turned pale by this point. He felt certain that no one at Hope's Peak had ever heard Mukuro Ikasaba speak this much, and he had somehow managed to unleash her full force.

Furthermore, she wasn't finished. "The worst part of it is that she wasn't even your first choice. Everybody in the school knows you had your eyes on Maizano-san from the second we got here. You're only pursuing Junko now because Maizano-san is off dating… " Mukuro paused to take a breath, finishing quietly with "...because she's off dating Naegi-kun."

Mukuro felt flustered and suddenly, surprisingly exhausted. She turned in her chair to once again face the coffee table in the center of the room, and she picked the Soldier of Fortune up off of her lap.

"Any man would be lucky to even stand next to Junko," she continued without looking at Kuwata. "She deserves the best. You… you don't even rank." Her eyes stayed locked straight ahead of her, and her voice got quieter. "You're a lost cause, Kuwata. I have no patience for lost causes."

Mukuro yanked her magazine open roughly, forcing herself to re-focus on its text. Leon Kuwata stayed slumped against the wall of the rec room, looking pale and crestfallen. For a few seconds, it even appeared as though he might cry.

His eyes moved sideways, however, and the color returned to his face gradually. He nodded a little to himself. "So… then… " he said with growing realization, "One more question before I go?"

"Fine," Mukuro muttered.

Leon looked at her askance and asked, "Why do YOU always hang out with Enoshima?"

Mukuro turned her head slightly back towards him. What the hell is he getting at? she wondered. She couldn't help but smile as she said sincerely, "Because I think the world of her, naturally."

Leon's mouth became a thin line. He stuffed his hands in his pockets. "I figured," he said.

She shook her head in response, furrowing her brow. "And just what do you-"

"Outta everyone here, Enoshima is only close with you, " he said, cutting her off. "And you? You clearly worship her and dive at her feet." He smiled sadly, shrugging. "That says it right there, eh? And you call ME the narcissist?"

Mukuro felt her upper lip starting to curl in anger, but she managed to hold it back. "Fuck off," she muttered quietly, turning her face back towards her magazine.

Leon turned towards the doorway of the rec room and began to obediently head out. "Fuckin' off now boss," he replied.

However, he stopped in the doorway once more. "Last word?" he asked. He didn't bother to look back. "Not a question this time."

"What," Mukuro answered. It wasn't a question. She, too, did not look at him when she spoke.

Leon Kuwata paused before he spoke. "If you hate lost causes so much? Lose that torch you're carrying for Naegi."

Mukuro felt her face flush. She dared not look at Kuwata, but the magazine in her hands began to shake. HOW, she thought to herself. HOW could this fool have-

"You don't hide it well," Leon said. The amusement in his voice was evident. "Can't even say the dude's name without choking on it."

Mukuro shut her eyes tightly, dropping the magazine back to her lap once more. Oh god damn it, he's right, she thought. What would Junko think if she knew? Oh god… does she already know?

As he finally stepped into the hallway and disappeared, Mukuro heard Leon give her one parting shot from out of sight: "Seeya around, Ikusaba-chan."

Mukuro's eyes jolted open again.

Did he just-?

He DID!

She jumped up from the chair and planted her feet on the floor.

"YOU DON'T GET TO CALL ME THAT!" she screamed after him. "I'M NOT YOUR FUCKING '-CHAN,' YOU…" She stopped, swallowing hard. "You fucking… COCKROACH!"

Slumping back into the chair, Mukuro Ikusaba dropped her magazine to the floor and threw her head backwards, slamming it onto the back cushion.

Hate him so much, she thought. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate.

How did I let him get to me like that?

I've NEVER exploded like that. At least not since I was a kid.

The bastard pushed all the right buttons.

At least Junko is gonna LOVE my despair over this.

"Hey, Ikusaba-san?" asked a familiar voice.

Mukuro's eyes bulged out in horror. She didn't truly WANT to avert her eyes from the ceiling, but she still turned her head to confirm...

Yup. Makoto Naegi was peering around the doorway with a quizzical expression on his face.

Of course, she thought. As if my night couldn't get any worse.