Sakakura Juzo didn't know when he noticed it. He didn't understand what had drawn him to watch over her for him to have been able to see it at all. Maybe it was just easier for him to pick up on that kind of thing that it was for others in the Future Foundation. Maybe he had just been in the right place at the right time.

Then again, considering what it was that he had noticed, it was really the wrong place at the wrong time, wasn't it?

Was it just pity he was feeling? Somehow he doubted that.

Regardless, if there was anything he understood even less than what had drawn him to pay attention to her in the first place, it was what possessed him to finally speak up about it one day. Morbid curiosity, perhaps? Surely it couldn't be anything more.

Kimura Seiko wasn't sure when she had started chewing on the inside of her mask. She probably would have taken to chewing nails if she hadn't already chewed them clean off during a moment when she'd had her mask down. For now, the mask had to suffice — and sufficing it was as she clung to the side of a locker for dear life, hiding in the shadows, whispering to herself between chews. She was certain they wouldn't notice her. They were too busy.

How had they ended up in the Future Foundation too?

What had they done to be deserving of this place?

Why was she here, when...

Letting go of her mask, Seiko held down onto the locker even harder. There they were, shamelessly flirting like they owned the place. Those two traitors...! Already, they'd been here a week, and they were still prancing around like they were on their honeymoon, rather than like they were part of an important organization! It was so...

"You're being pretty damn obvious, you know. C'mere."

Kimura Seiko jumped into the air, nearly screaming when she felt a hand come down onto her shoulder. Her face went white when she realized it was none other than the former Super High School Level Boxer, most assuredly come to punish her for sneaking around and watching the new recruits without any reason-

"Ah, ah ah ah, no, stop, what, what are you... No no no, I didn't, I wasn't..."

Rolling his eyes, Sakakura grabbed the younger woman by the collar and yanked her out of the room, the double doors closing shut behind them without much of a sound at all. The idiot couple in the locker room was none the wiser — or they had never cared from the start.

"Are you trying to get yourself caught? Be less obvious." Sakakura shoved Kimura against a wall once he was sure they were a safe distance away. Shaking his head, the man took a few steps back, jamming his hands into his pockets. "Idiot."

Seiko was at a loss. Was she allowed to leave? Was she being threatened? Why had Sakakura, a terrifying brute of a man unlike her in every way possible, come for her, of all people? It almost sounded like he wasn't disapproving, but that couldn't possibly be the case, because...

"Wh-Wh-What are you saying?" She stumbled over her words. She didn't want to incriminate herself any more than she so obviously already had. She couldn't lose this place, this one thing she still had after she'd lost everything else — even if it now had them in it. "I-I, no, I wasn't doing anything, so..."

Sakakura laughed. No, he snarled. Could someone laugh in a way that was like a snarl? If so, he had just done so, Seiko decided.

"Cut the crap, Kimura. You want a 'treat' for yourself, and you and I both know it. You've been ogling her for days. From the moment we brought the two of them in, in fact."

Sakakura's reasoning took Seiko by surprise. Relief began to fill her veins, and she even smiled behind her mask when she realized that she hadn't been caught in the slightest.

"N-N-No, you see, I can't have sugar." Seiko shook her head, holding up her hands to reassure the large man before her. This was just a simple misunderstanding! What a relief this was! "I-It would be lethal with the m-medicine I'm taking. I-I didn't want her food at all."

As he listened to her response, Juzo's eyes widened. When he realized she was being sincere, he was surprised his eyes hadn't fallen straight out of his head. Truly and genuinely dumbfounded, he smacked his forehead and took a step backwards in surprise.

"I... I didn't mean..." The man sighed. Kids. God. Help him. What the hell was he doing here again? "I didn't mean that literally, Kimura. I meant the girl."

There went the relief.

Her blood went cold. Everything was icy. Panic. Panic panic panic panic panic.

Seiko didn't understand. Why was he doing this? Why was the scary boxer here now that he had this information? How had he noticed what no one else had? Was it blackmail? Was that it?

Aaaah, no, if this was how it was going to be, then this place that had become her salvation was going to... It was going to... Oh no...

"For the love of... Damn it, look! I'm not trying to pry..." Okay, that was bullshit, he'd pride plenty already. He also knew that he, of all people, was being a pretentious. hypocritical son of a bitch right now — but all things taken into consideration, it was because of that that he knew he had his priorities to keep in mind. "If you can work with her and not let your performance slip, then I don't care. Munakata trusts you. So long as you make sure that trust's not misguided, you can do whatever you want during your off time. That's all I wanted to say."

Seiko's tilted her head in confusion as she watched him leave the hallway he had been interrogating her in.

"Munakata...?"

When the next meeting of Future Foundation branch heads came about, Kimura Seiko was especially wary. Paranoia filled her from head to toe. Had Sakakura told anyone? Was her secret out? Was the topic of her dismissal going to be on the agenda?

Needless to say, her eyes were on him the entire time.

Yet his eyes generally stayed in the direction of someone else entirely.

With the meeting's end, the man was still at that person's side.

And with that, Seiko understood what both she and even the man himself had not.

They weren't so different after all.