Mitsuru hoped very much that she was being paranoid. After she and Fuuka had seen what Junpei clearly hadn't wanted them to notice, she had been sure something wasn't right. His excuse of the injuries covering him that day being caused by Shadows didn't make much sense to her. She had been present with him the night he referred to and hadn't seen him get knocked down very much. They were all getting quite skillful. Not only that, if she remembered correctly Yukari had gotten injured the most that night, even needing to be revived once, and she had nothing like the marks Junpei was carrying later. Considering her penchant for short skirts, everyone would have seen. No, they simply hadn't taken that much damage that night. Also, it was true that Junpei had gotten a lot more mature since Chidori died, but Mitsuru was still pretty sure he wouldn't have just silently borne all that pain when it happened, or afterwards...Junpei liked to complain. It was strange to her that he never had.
So, guardedly, Mitsuru kept an eye on him. It was a rather welcome distraction right now, with the pain of her father's death and the suicide battle they all faced soon. She soon began to notice little things that didn't fit into what she knew, or used to know.
For one, Junpei and Akihiko seemed to be sharing some kind of secret. Mitsuru was all too painfully aware, of course, that Akihiko occasionally went along with Junpei's suggestions, no matter how stupid they were. It really had hurt her to punish them all so harshly at the Hot Springs, but she had only done it out of a sense of duty. But the two of them had never seemed to be particularly close before now...not as close as Junpei was to Minato...or had been to Ryoji, she thought a little sadly. Perhaps that was all it was...Akhiko was a lot like her, he was the "Papa Bear" to her "Mama Bear" for their little outfit. Together the two of them did their best to support and guide the younger members of SEES. He might just be taking Junpei under his wing out of a desire to make the losses of Chidori and Ryoji easier for the younger boy to bear. Junpei in turn might help Akihiko with his pain over Shinji. Somehow though, that didn't quite fit in with how they had started acting.
Another strange thing was that Junpei had started studying. He had always hated studying, and Mitsuru found it hard to believe that he was going to start now that he knew he wouldn't live to graduate. But these nights, more often than not, he would go up to his room to study long before the others went up to bed. Before that the only other person who would go up so early was Akihiko, to train. Now the two of them were often absent. Sometimes she would see them as she was going up the stairs to her floor. They would be sitting there in the 2nd floor lounge, so still that she wasn't sure if they were talking or not. But they didn't look to be studying, either.
Finally, there was the hat. Junpei had actually gone to school without his hat one day. That night as she was entering Tartarus Mistsuru had seen Akihiko handing it to him out of the corner of her eye and had caught the barest sliver of a conversation: "I found it. It rolled under the--" but the two of them split up to take their normal positions as soon as they noticed her.
Something was different. But she never learned anything more than that until one evening when they were all sitting around the main lobby as usual. Akihiko was stitching up his boxing gloves again, the repairs seemed endless. Junpei had just finished his noodles. He got up and stretched, then smiled at Minato. "Call me if you're going to Tartarus later, man." Then he went up to his room. Akihiko waited exactly twenty minutes (Mitsuru glanced at the clock so she knew) and then quietly got up and left too. She let her eyes flicker over everyone to see if they had noticed anything. Apparently, no one had. Well enough, she wasn't likely to cause any suspicion, either. She told Fuuka to let her know if they were going tonight too and went upstairs. She paused for a second on the boy's floor and surveyed the silent hall and empty lounge. Then she set her jaw and made her way up to the 4rth floor control room.
Once inside, she locked the door. As she sat down at the panel though she felt her resolve wavering. This was wrong, of course. She had hated it enough when they had to observe Minato to determine if he had the Potential. And now, what did she expect to find by violating their privacy? Did she honestly believe that Akihiko was hurting Junpei and Junpei was letting him? That's really what she had been afraid of when she had seen those bruises, wasn't it? Those bruises in all the same places Akihiko targeted when he fought Shadows, that looked so similar to the ones he and Shinji used to give each other when they quarreled. It was too incredible. But...they had to have come from somewhere. Fully expecting to feel foolish (and relieved) when she switched on the screen and saw Junpei studying and Akihiko training, Mitsuru swallowed and pulled up the two rooms on her monitor.
Akihiko's room was empty, she could tell at a glance. She absently flicked Junpei's room to full screen view. Then she froze...and stiffened. They weren't studying...then, were they fighting after all? No...she reddened deeply and her jaw dropped. Not fighting either.
Mitsuru sat motionless for a long time, forgetting to even breathe. When had this started? Surely it was against dorm rules! She gulped and tried to look away, and failed. Akihiko had his face in Junpei's lap now, fingers sunk into his thighs; Junpei clawed desperately at his sweater until Akihiko muttered something and shrugged out of it. She watched Junpei kick at Akihiko's slacks until those were gone too; she saw Akihiko force Junpei's legs up and move to him unmistakably, back arched, shoulders tensed, so that she had to recognize the meaning of it even if she had never seen it before. Bottom lip trembling, she forced herself to look at Junpei to make sure he wasn't being hurt. His expression told her everything she needed to know, and she switched the monitor off just as he pulled Akihiko down onto him.
Hands clenched into fists, fists shaking, she thought about how to handle this. She should...should...EXECUTE them! Especially Akihiko, as the responsible one this was a shameful way to act. Taking advantage of someone younger...or at the very least, not being able to tell them no. Truly shameful! Why, she would never...with Minato...
Mitsuru paused and, if possible, blushed deeper. Then she slowly switched on the monitor again. They were saying things to each other now, too low to hear, and kissing...kissing while they did that. And they were both...happy... It would be nice to be that happy, with everything right now being so hopeless. It would be nice.
Finally, she told herself she would talk to Minato. As she turned everything off and left the room, she didn't notice the new urgency in her step.
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
Sometime later, Junpei was awakened by some kind of strange cry. He looked around, panicked, then saw it was past Dark Hour. So...Minato hadn't wanted to go fight tonight, apparently... He sat up carefully so as not to wake Akihiko and listened harder. Gradually his tense expression became one of surprise and finally, of guilt. He was, no doubt about it, listening to Minato and Mitsuru get it on. He hastily burrowed under the covers in an effort not to hear more, and ended up waking Senpai after all. Fortunately, that didn't turn out to be the problem he feared it would be. Akihiko mumbled something sleepily about Junpei having too much energy and a moment later he was too distracted to hear anything.
In the morning, no one ended up being Executed.