Ultimate Amiss VII

His eyes are closed, back pressed to the wall as if he were still asleep. He wants to sleep, especially after his teachers came in days ago and noticed that not only was the grate taken off the window, but it was missing.

They spent a good few hours running around, trying to find it, not once looking up at the vent where he had placed it. Well, clearly the grate wasn't blocking the airflow - not that he was surprised - he had placed it down so someone couldn't see it at a glance. Not that the teachers had thought to look up when they were looking for the grate.

Of course they had asked him after having no luck, but if they couldn't figure out something so simple, so obvious he didn't see why he should help them; and when he hadn't answered them they had spent ten more minutes looking around before leaving. They hadn't come in again, at least when he was around. He was sure one or two of them had looked for the grate while he was in class, but since the grate hadn't shown up on his window again he could only guess that they had failed in their search then to. They hadn't even seemed to notice that he had placed the bolts on the vent. It had to be a dead giveaway when they finally noticed it.

But, he had accepted hours ago that he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep. Partially because of those same teachers wandering outside the hallway. Did they think he had hid the grate out there? Oh well...

Izuru kept his eyes squeezed shut even when he heard a shout from beyond the window, coming from outside. A group of students were out there, playing some sort of game. From the mass of voices he had begun to recognize there were students from Junko's class and Ibuki's class wandering around out there.

He had heard from his room that Ibuki was a sophomore while Junko was a freshman, which made him wonder even more how she could manipulate all those people. She wasn't even their senior and they listened to her every word like she had years of wisdom on any and all matters. Ridiculous, but what was even more ridiculous... was what had been bothering him for a solid hour now, Junko.

Without even looking out the window - just listening to her voice as she played with her friends - he was tempted to look outside. He didn't understand it. To be this bothered by her... he had to have known her before. How he didn't even know her - couldn't remember, but he must have, even if she didn't recognize him either.

Which made even less sense. He had talked with her originally to figure out how he knew her, why he recognized her, but if she truly didn't recognize him then the only possibility was that she reminded him of someone else. That he had gone and bothered her that day for no reason. Or rather it would be... If she could just stay out of his mind.

"Over here!"

"Too slow!"

"Run faster! You have legs built to run! Use them!"

"Pass it!"

"I'm trapped!"

"Pass it now!"

"Kick that ball!"

"Come on, don't let the other team get it!"

"Okay, okay!"

"Ow!"

His eyes snap open and Izuru finds himself turning around, pushing himself up to look through the window at the sound of Junko's shout. It only takes him a second to find her on the field, sprawled out on the ground, one hand wrapped around her ankle.

"Ooo. Ooo. Keep that pose!"

"Quit screwing around Teruteru and get out of the way!"

"Mahiru, may I borrow your camera?"

"What? You better be joking or my foot is connecting with your face!"

"Oh? That sounds delightful. I could see right up your ski-"

"Can you stand?"

"Hey! Don't ignore me!"

"Yeah," Junko said, reaching up to take the red haired girl's outstretched hand.

"They're ignoring me..."

"We should go to the infirmary to have it checked."

"Okay." Junko got to her feet, leaning slightly on the other girl as they started walking off towards the school, presumably to the infirmary. The other students continued to talk among themselves, but he wasn't listening to them as he watched Junko and Mahiru disappear into the school.

Izuru turned from the window when he could no longer see her, getting up from the bed to head towards the door. He only took a second to listen at the door, making sure no one was in the hallway before stepping out, moving down the hallway to the stairs that would lead to the ground floor.

It took him a minute to get out of the building though, with his teachers actually walking around on the ground floor, he had to wait for an opening to slip out of the door. Once he was outside he simply maneuvered himself away from the vantage point of a window or door where his teachers might see him. Not that it took very long for him to reach the main building.

Izuru stopped from turning down the hall leading to the infirmary when he heard Yosuke's voice from within the room. He waited against the wall to hear him leave the room, footsteps heading down the other end of the hallway. Once Izuru was sure he was gone he stepped around the corner, making a beeline to the infirmary door.

When he entered the room his gaze barely slid away from the door before settling on Junko, who was laying down in one of the beds. For the most part she looked fine, but he could still remember her pained yell from minutes ago. "Are you okay?" the words just slipped from the mouth as he walked further into the room.

Junko looked up towards him, no longer looking beyond the curtain to her right. "Huh?" She seemed to regard him for a moment, not saying a word, but that could easily be attributed to how their last conversation went. "Have you been watching me? I swear I could feel someone watching me this past week."

It was true - to an extent - he had been watching her, but not as often as she made it sound. Mostly he ended up listening to her voice when she was outside with her friends or any other students. Not that it mattered at all right now.

Izuru walked to the chair that was next to her bed, sitting down on it without offering a word to her observation. "Did you get hurt?"

Junko's lips pulled down into a frown as she settled back against a pillow. For a moment he thought she wasn't going to answer his question before she spoke, "I'm fine. The school was obligated to check that my injury wasn't serious. If it was I wouldn't be able to do my job."

Her words were clearly meant to be sarcastic, but if she was making comments like that then she couldn't have gotten hurt too bad. The corner of his lip twitched up, unbidden. "You could be more serious after getting hurt. Even if it's just a scrape it could get infected. Besides, is that how you usually talk to all your seniors?"

Junko's mouth began to open, as if she was going to snap at him, but then her mouth closed. Her expression was unreadable, but it was obvious to him that she had just gotten lost in thought, but he couldn't tell if it was from his words or something else.

A girl stepped out from behind the screen then, filling the silence with a more accurate answer to his earlier question, along with an explanation for just why Yosuke had left so quickly, "Apparently there was some emergency that Yosuke needed to go see to. The school nurse is sick today, so I was just grabbing a painkiller and some ice for Junko. She only sprained her ankle, so she'll be fine. If it were worse I would have gone and pulled Mikan out of her class."

Hm. That wasn't too bad then. She would just have to not strain it too much at work and make sure to keep it rested so it would heal. With some luck it would only take a few days, perhaps a week or two before it was better.

"Who are you?" Mahiru asked after setting the ice on Junko's swollen ankle and handing her a little pill. "I haven't seen you around school before."

Before he could answer - or rather do his best to avoid the question, strictly speaking no one was suppose to know about him; it was the main reason why he stayed in the lower levels of that other building - one of his teachers stepped into the infirmary with a rather panicked look on their face. "Izuru," they snapped instantly upon seeing him and he instantly straightened in his chair, turning his gaze onto them. "What are you doing out here? You need to come back with me-"

"Why would he need to do that?" Mahiru interrupted, glaring openly at the teacher. He actually wasn't sure for a moment if she didn't like teachers in general or if she was just using that tone of voice because of how the teacher had spoken just now. "He came to see a friend while they were injured. Even if it's for some class he shouldn't have to leave right away."

The teacher's gaze seemed to snap to Mahiru, then slid to Junko who remained quiet in the bed, before moving back to the redhead. "He has a rare medical condition. It's my job to monitor him to make sure the medicine is keeping the symptoms at bay." The explanation sounded rather scripted to his ears, but that's probably because it was. "Come on, Izuru." They motioned for him with one hand, instead of stepping further into the room towards him.

Were they actually intimidated by Mahiru? That was... almost funny.

Izuru got up after another second had passed, not leaving any parting words in case the teacher got it further in their head to go hunting for either of these girls if - when - he went missing from his room again. "Of course, professor."

Once they were out of the infirmary and in the hall the teacher glanced at him. "Why did you put it in the vent?" Ah, the grate.

"Why did it take you a week to find it?"