Ultimate Amiss XI
"Be a good machine."
Izuru was pushing himself up from the bed before he could even really think that particular line of action through. Thankfully, the blade on his neck moved up with him. Along with girl, she was 'stepping' back on her knees, before slipping from the bed to land on the floor.
"What do you mean she's looking through photos?"
Mukuro took a step back, body swaying in place as if she were about to fall over. "Junko mentioned you saying something weird in the infirmary. That it reminded her of someone else. That's why she's going through old photos looking for you." She became still once more after she was done talking, grip tightening on the handle of her blade. For a moment it seemed she would drop it, but she wasn't handling it with ease like before. The veins on her hands were standing out; her grip was too tight.
Maybe they really were sisters. The both of them wore a mask, but it seemed Junko had plenty more at her disposal. Of course, he could be jumping the gun. Mukuro could end up being just as manipulative as Junko, but he was getting the sense that that wasn't the case.
At least she was no longer holding a blade to his throat. Izuru raised a hand to rub at his neck for a moment, checking that the scars weren't too deep. He would need to cover it so his professors didn't notice them and question him about how he obtained them. Or take a test to check his mental health.
"What was it that I said?" He had to know, to be given more of a hint so he could finally put all of this behind him and actually concentrate on his studies. Throughout all of which he had never read about a person being effected by some supposed memory this much, unless they had amnesia. But he had gone and looked through his own medical records earlier and he had never been afflicted with memory loss. Or anything that could have caused it. So this - recognizing someone - was normal; or it would be when he found the answers he needed.
Mukuro actually bit her lip, confirming in his mind that she had been wearing a mask earlier. The sort he would expect of a merciless skilled mercenary, but this girl... "She didn't specify and I didn't ask. Junko just mentioned that it was the nuisance that was bothering her."
Bothering her? She was bothering him. And... did she really call him a nuisance? Had he introduced himself to her? Or did she call him that even with the knowledge of his name? Izuru sighed. It was much too late to be thinking about all of this now. He couldn't even accurately remember all the details of that day at the moment. In the morning he surely would, but... This was quickly becoming a waste of time.
"You sure you can't give me something more? How far was she looking back? Just a few years or more?"
"I don't know. She was looking at a wide range of photos, mostly of public shoots where fans or passerbys could be seen. There was another pile she had already gone though, at least partially. But she clearly didn't find you in them and when I left she still hadn't made any progress." Mukuro paused, grip relaxing around the blade now, eyes narrowing at him once again. "Which is why I will not say it again. Leave Junko alone and stop watching her."
Izuru didn't particularly see a reason to repeat himself either, but if she had that mask up again he needed to find a way to knock it back down. "You admitted that Junko thought she might have known me because of something I said in the infirmary. Even if in passing at one of her shoots or something I still want to know where I recognize her from. If you help me with that I won't bother Junko. I just want the evidence and then I'll drop the issue. This has been bothering me a lot longer than it has Junko, and if she is interested in figuring out who I am now then it would be to her benefit as well."
Her lips had drifted down into a frown, but she wasn't glaring. "You don't really expect Junko to remember every idiot that shouts at her shoots."
Izuru resisted the urge to point out that she had just called Junko's fans idiots or even make a comment of her jab at him. He didn't particularly care what she thought about him. As long as she would help him in this endeavor; and she wasn't saying no. "She was looking at two different sets of photographs, right? And I'm sure she has even more. I'm not asking for her photographs since it could have been years ago that I met her in the first place. But there has to be something else of hers that could have the information I want."
"Yes, that would be correct. But Junko doesn't keep things like journals-"
That second of hesitation was all he needed. "No journals, but something else that would have more detail than a photo?"
Mukuro took another step back, bringing the blade up to her chest, sheathing it to cradle in her hands a moment later. "There are a series of letters I received from her while I was away doing business. They stretch far back enough that if she did encounter you, you're probably in them. Someone with your talents of annoyance would have been mentioned even once. If you had said something particularly out of the ordinary."
"Would it be okay if I took a look through them myself? You can pick out the ones that couldn't possibly have any mention of me."
"I can bring all of them over tomorrow night. If you really are just looking for when you met Junko and are going to leave her alone, then you're not using the excuse of being in one of the letters I didn't show you." Smart girl, and his preferred outcome for this situation.
Even if he hadn't cared for how it had started. This was preferable to having his throat slit open completely. "Good. Just don't wake me up in the same manner again."
