(YM)
Christmas was never like Christmas to me. Who doesn't love the delightful chaos of last-minute shoppers fighting over the last overpriced trash? The endless loop of nauseatingly cheerful songs and the forced gatherings with relatives you barely know - Pure bliss, really. Yep, nothing quite like Christmas to warm the depths of your heart with pure, unadulterated dread. Disgustingly soft feelings and the same talks about family or relationships were enough to turn me away from it, yet I was cursed with a whole other problem - It was her birthday.
Back in our hometown for the holidays was just the sappy sort of thing a cheap romcom would set up. A 2 hour train ride from Tokyo to Chiba let my mind wander. Just fantastic. Staring at all the familiar buildings covered in lights would be nostalgic for the glass hearted homesick, but I was caught up on something else. As stupid as it was, I kept thinking about how this was the first year Mukuro would be back home. Things with us hadn't returned to how they were before she disappeared. How could they? 3 years as a child soldier would definitely screw with your head. Maybe now she'd stand up to her evil twin, heh. You know, it's funny. As a kid, I always thought she was the coolest of the sisters, although I probably just liked that a girl was into something violent. Ironic, I know. Last year was a disaster without her. Junko started a scene with that Oscar-worthy fake crying after her mom casually mentioned how we went to different schools. Funny since we were at least in the same town back then. I never knew how these birthdays would go. If Junko would invite a lot of people or just me was as consistent as anything else in her life.
Getting to my stop, I had to take a breath. There was never a solid way to prepare for this no matter what I got told. I wasn't some amazing predictor like the rejects in my life. The unpredictability was exciting for some, yet I'd much rather stick to what I know and actually have a good time, thank you. I step out of my train in a crowd of other annoying holiday travelers to see them both there at the station. The twins in matching sweaters with a huge, sparkling sign. 'Merry Christmas, Yasuke!!' written in big glittery characters. I could tell who controlled the design on that thing. A middle schooler would make something with more class. Walking over to them, I couldn't stop myself from smiling. It was like my group of childhood friends were reuniting after years. Guess I was getting grossly sentimental just because I hadn't seen Mukuro much since she came back, and here she was smiling with a big green sweater on.
"You guys didn't need to make a sign. Were you trying to blind me with all that glitter?" I said to Junko with a grin. During her time off, she was sure to have all those charms and accessories to go with her outfit, even if it was just a regular red sweater. Without warning, she hugged me tightly. Both the presents I held made it difficult to hug back even if I wanted to curse the world with PDA. "You didn't like our sign? We worked so hard on it and everything!" She spoke in a sing-songy voice as she continued to squeeze my life force out. "We? Looks more like your handiwork than hers." I took another look at it. Yeah, definitely all Junko's idea. "Well, I did do the writing." Mukuro added as she held it. The silver glitter got all over her gloves, gloves she wore the last time I saw her. "Oh, so that's why I can actually read it." Junko nudged me as she let go. Eyeing both of the bags I brought with an innocently curious look in her eye.
"Junko's handwriting is way prettier than mine, haha." Mukuro replied in a way that reminded me how she didn't get my sarcasm most of the time. Especially if it was directed towards her sister, she had to think on if I was being serious or not. I debated on adding another comment, but figured it wouldn't go well. "...Yeah, well. What's the plan? Since it's your first birthday back home, is there anything special we're doing?" I watched both of them, yet mainly focused on Mukuro. As pathetic as it was, I desperately wanted to get her to talk to me again. In grade school, we'd talk about a lot of things. How accurate video games were to what she read about the military, different types of weapons, how cool it was that my dad was a veteran, and, of course, about her batshit family. When Junko wasn't around, Mukuro would talk to me like a human being. When Junko was around, she kept quiet. Understandable since the bottled blonde had always been the loudest. I wanted to make sure she was included, although the dynamic has changed so much in her absence and I knew it would be unrealistic to expect her to stay the same.
"The plan was to go home and just spend time there. Mukuro got to choose the cake flavor. That's special enough!" Junko answered for her. A playful pout as she turned to start walking. Her hand tried to get wrapped up with mine, even though the present got in the way. She put it in her other hand with a little smirk. "What flavor?" I asked to keep the conversation positive. That would be the trick to making this go as smooth as possible instead of whatever disaster Junko wanted. "Chocolate with strawberries." Mukuro answered in a soft voice like she thought I was judging her. "That's the best one. I knew you had better taste than that freak." She smiled at me with an unsure face - probably trying to figure out why I was being so nice to her. How out of character it was for me both now and in the past.
"You're both ganging up on me..." Junko watched our reactions to each other carefully before coming up with that line. She probably already knew what I was doing. "Oh, obviously, because clearly we have nothing better to do than conspire against you as soon as we all meet up. Did you get dumber in the last few days or something?" I said with no hesitation. It was too easy. It was how we usually talked. "...Please, don't be mean to her." Mukuro spoke that in a more confident voice. Oh, right. She wouldn't like that. Ugh, this was gonna be a long night.
--
Walking back to their house never took long. My past neighborhood was only a 15 minute walk from that station and 25 away from our old elementary school. I specifically remember how I would pass by their house on the way to school everyday as a little kid. Originally, I didn't want to walk with some girls a year younger than me since little me found it embarrassing, but convenience got me to snap out of it. That was how all this started. Sometimes, I would think about how different my life would be if the Ikusaba family didn't happen to move there. Oh, those lovely thoughts only popped up when Junko was on a roll with her cruelty. You know, like those times she ditched me out of sheer boredom. Then she'd waltz back in like nothing happened, or maybe toss out a half-baked apology, and there I'd be, swooning the moment she turned on the charm. Absolutely draining. When my mind went to those places, I would question if this relationship was worth it.
Coming back home and walking this familiar path with both girls proved to myself once and for all; I belonged here. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else. Not even 4 houses down to visit Dad and the relatives in town I barely knew. Junko still held my hand. I would pull away if the warmth didn't make me feel human again. It was crazy how easily I forgot that human contact actually helped the loud guilty thoughts. Mukuro walked on my other side, her uncertainty of me hopefully faded with each step back home. "Ooh, and we have the house to ourselves tonight!" Junko interrupted her own conversation about the lack of snow this year. "...I don't know how you convinced Mom to go out with Dad for Christmas." Mukuro said as she shook her head in disbelief. Wow, I didn't think they could stand to be in the same room for longer than a few hours. Guess true love really does conquer or however the saying went.
Before Mukuro's disappearance, their parents didn't fight much that I knew of. They seemed to be better off than my parents when Mom was still around. Then after she went missing, they started blaming each other and got divorced. Common for the circumstances. Mrs. Ikusaba went back to Ms. Enoshima, and Junko wanted her mom's last name. She said it was because she didn't like her dad as much, but I knew she just wanted to make things more difficult for them. Each time anyone tried to ask her why she and her sister have different last names, she came up with a different story. She admitted that in our last phone call. "It wasn't hard. Just had to tell them that they need to stop hating each other now that you're back home and they agreed. After that, it was a cake walk!" I guess it wouldn't be too difficult with that plus how they celebrated the holidays on the 24th. I had no room to think about them now. Junko grinned through each word in a way that reminded me I shouldn't relax too much. She must've planned something 'despair-inducing'. Shit! I had to deter it somehow, even if it barely worked or was only a distraction. I had to try.
"That'll be a miracle if they get back together. But hey, they both like me so they have something in common. Who could blame them though?" I playfully posed confidently with a dumb little smile. Humor would work on Junko sometimes, just never knew when would be successful. Good thing Mukuro was here to burst out laughing - letting her guard slip as she saw it. "Do that pose again." She lightly requested between giggles. I do so. Another eruption of laughter with Junko joined in as soon as I put the face back on. Hearing that familiarly endearing chuckling again officially made up my mind. This HAD to be a good night. Would it work if I killed Junko's boredom with kindness? It hadn't before. Believe me, I tried. It never ended well, but it might be decent for a single night, right? Here's to hoping…
We reached their front door as soon as the thought passed. I knew what to do. At least as much as I ever do with Junko. A quick change out of our shoes let me
take a look around. Before I got too comfortable, I had to make sure nothing crazy was set up. She was right - no parents. No one but the 3 of us. All the lights turned out except one over the table where the cake stood centered. Would be weird if I didn't already know how Ms. Enoshima in particular was about the lights. She would always do what she could to save money. Even if that meant living in darkness… Literally. "The cake has a spotlight. Apparently, it's the real star here." I joked as soon as I figured I eyed enough of the place without looking suspicious.
"Maybe you can have some after the presents." Junko said as soon as she popped off one of her ridiculously high heeled boots. Again. Didn't see the point in wearing those when she had to walk a total of 30 minutes and only went out to get me. "Maybe, huh?" I waited for them to get their shoes off. The best part about wearing sandals was not having any struggle. "I don't know if I can let you have any since you come to MY house wearing THESE in DECEMBER!!" She playfully held one up with a frown. As a fashionista/ model/ gyaru, I knew she'd say something about them. She did every winter. "I noticed them earlier. You're brave coming around her in those." Mukuro added as she got up to gather something. I was sure to watch her, just in case they teamed up, but luckily she was just getting plates. "What can I say, they're comfortable. Hell of a lot more comfortable than those death traps you call boots. Don't bother calling me for help when you break your ankles one day." I watched as Junko successfully popped off the other. "It's called fashion. Do you even know what that is?" She asked facetiously. "Oh, is that what we're calling it now?"
Mukuro set plates and forks at the table as she shook her head again. This time with a warming smile I didn't expect, yet definitely welcomed. "You guys haven't changed a bit. Still bickering like little kids." She sat at the table, facing us instead of the cake. Patiently waiting for us to join. I placed both presents on the table as I sat across from her. Suddenly second guessing if my gift giving talent would fail this birthday. "I know. I'm consistent like that. Can't say the same for everyone here." I glanced over at Junko, although that could apply to either of them. "Can't believe you're bullying my poor sister on her birthday." Junko got up from her battle with huge shoes to join our conversation and purposely misinterpret me. She turned to Mukuro before continuing. "See how mean he is?"
Mukuro didn't say anything for a second. In the past, she would either try to get us to stop or act like a spectator when anyone tried to get her to join in on our banter. Now it was like she wasn't sure how to act. Admittedly, I was surprised at how normal she seemed to be; All things considered. She laughed already, which was more than I've gotten in the past 8 months since her return to Japan. "...No present for him then?" Well, it was an attempt at some comeback, I'll give her that, I guess. "Oh! I need to get it. Hold on. Don't flirt too much while I'm gone!" Junko announced as she darted to her room. A bedroom that's changed colors more times than I can remember. At a glance, I could see that it was gray now. Last year, it was red. The year before, it was blue, then pink, then black. I couldn't remember all it was after that.
Then I was alone with Mukuro. My mind still couldn't believe she came back after 3 years. I had so many questions she surely heard before. 'What happened? Why did you join that military group? Why were they willing to train a child in combat? How did you come back home? Did you choose to? Why didn't you tell anyone? Were you actually kidnapped? Were you hurt? What did you see? Have you killed people? Why do you have to wear gloves all the time?' I knew she wouldn't want to hear any of it. That made it so much harder to talk to her. "It's crazy. I've been in Tokyo for less than a year, and coming back already feels nostalgic. Must be even stranger for you, huh?" I interrupted the awkward silence. Her surprise was obvious. Guess she thought I would stay quiet while we waited. "Oh, absolutely. It's been amazing running into old faces and seeing how they've changed. Heh, it's weird. Somehow, a part of me expected everything to stay the same. I don't know why."
I understood that. When she was missing, I realistically believed she was dead or something worse. Everyone did. Still, I wanted to believe she would pop back up and everything would go back to before without any effort. We could go back to being like siblings. Then she actually did pop back up. Something that made all that realistic thinking and healing turn back into confusion. "Sorry. You probably don't want to hear about that." She quickly followed up. Her uncertainty of me surfacing again. "I don't ask questions I don't want the answers to." I said it blankly. My first instinct. She nodded, clearly fixing to go back to another awkward silence. Guess I should use another skill of mine - blunt honesty. "Hey, I get it, you don't know me that well anymore. I'm sure a lot went down you don't want to talk about. Who could blame you? Why not welcome this cynical asshole back in, huh? You can talk to me about whatever. What's the worst that could happen, another missing person?" I tried to joke with that last line, although it could've made things worse. Being so nice was difficult, I couldn't beat myself up too much since I was actually trying.
Mukuro thought for a split second. "Sorry. Things changed so much and everyone seemed to move on… I don't know what to do." She was right. I couldn't begin to imagine how different things were for her. I didn't want to. Although it could be paranoia, her behavior made me wonder if Junko was telling her lies about me or if it really was all about adjusting. What a stupidly simple plan to hurt people. Her ideas of fun were typically health hazards, not gossip like any other vapid teenager. Speaking of the insane sadomasochist, where was she? A second of searching stretched into a moment, then a minute, until we began to question what she was even doing in there. Great. A sign of her planned bullshit. I got up to check on her and told Mukuro we can continue this later, only to see Junko with a huge box in hand. A goofy smile grew onto her as soon as I laid my eyes on that terribly wrapped box. An attempt with 3 different wrapping papers - none that went together - and a bow a breath away from falling off.
"Did you, uh, wrap that yourself?" I stared at the handiwork. Questioning how she could screw it up so bad. "I did~ Cute, right?" She sat the box down beside mine. An overly excited glint in her eye as she saw my reaction to its tackiness. "Maybe if you're half blind, you could find it so ugly it's cute." I looked over at Mukuro. She was staring at the box, just as confused as me. Thank God. Didn't want her to get mad at my sarcasm right after an attempt at reconciliation. Junko hurriedly sat next to her sister. That huge grin lighting up her face as she flailed in excitement. I wanted to believe she was happy her terrible gift wrapping skills were causing such despair, but I wasn't letting my guard down yet. "Ooh, do you guys wanna do this like we used to? Youngest to oldest?" Junko asked with an almost childlike innocence. When Mukuro was gone, we usually did it by the ladies first rule, although the result would've been the same. "You okay with going second, Mukuro?" I called her by her first name. Something that might've been too much for now. Before I could apologize or ask about it, again being as nice as I possibly could, her face lit up more animatedly than before. "You didn't have to." She sounded so polite compared to her twin who was about to rip up the tissue paper poking out of the gift bag. One that she correctly guessed was hers.
"Oh, don't worry. I didn't. This is just re-gifted from last year." Finally, a comeback got her! She didn't get mad at the humor in that one. A good sign. "Yay! Alright, my turn! My turn!" Junko impatiently opened her present, despite Mukuro not giving an official ok. A teddy bear with a huge bow like she often wore. "Aww, look at her~ She looks like me. Oh, the bow matches mine perfectly!" Yeah, I know I was the best boyfriend ever. She kept showing it off with a dorky smile on. I always had a knack for picking out gifts. My mom said it was a rare thing for boys and I'd make some girl really happy one day. I wondered if she had any idea I'd get with such a powdercake.
Holding the bear up in front of her sister's face, Junko spoke in an over the top goofy voice for it. "Your turn, freckles. Go on." Now Mukuro's gift I wasn't so sure about. Seemed like the idea of a gift at all was enough for her though. With a genuine thankfulness, she opened the tissue paper with much more patience than the other. A pair of gloves. Bit of an obvious choice actually, but her eyes lighting up showed how she loved them anyway. "These are perfect! Thank you, Yasuke." She said while looking at me directly for the first time in years. That alone set up this night for success until she had a split second of regret in her face.
Before I could give any sort of 'you're welcome' or concern, Junko continued to talk through the bear. A sign she really loved it. "Hug! Hug! Hug! Hug! Here, I'll join you." She wrapped all of us, including the teddy, in one of her signature tight hugs without hearing any input from us. As awkward as it was to be forced into this and having the table's corner dig into my gut, I took the opportunity to embrace both of them without embarrassing myself. "Both my favorite people are getting along so well. You suckers are gonna make me cry. This is the best birthday ever!" My heart melted ever so slightly at Junko's sentiments before realizing I had to open my own gift soon. What would she have in there? Something sweet or downright disturbing was anyone's guess. Surprisingly, she hasn't used any Christmas or birthday presents for her issue in a long time. Figured she got bored of how easy it was. Thank God.
"Sorry. I know how much you hate the sappy stuff, Yasuke." Junko had a sweet tone that was meant to distract me. I could tell. I chose to act like I didn't suspect anything, mainly because I wanted to be wrong. "A rare moment of self-awareness. Maybe there's hope for you yet." She let us go when I replied, clearly excited to see my reaction to whatever was in that tacky box. "Your turn. I know you're gonna love it!~" The sing-songy voice came back to mock me. Great. I knew something absolutely disgusting was coming from a mile away, I just hoped I could prevent it from being too bad. Maybe I still could. Carefully moving the box, I tried to hear for something. A bomb, a bunch of glitter, I didn't know. Just something.
"Come on, open it!"
"I'm just admiring your lovely craftsmanship on this wrap job. How did you make this such an eyesore?"
With a hopefully not too obvious breath, I opened it. No explosion, no glitter to dump out and ruin everything, just a manga volume laying on top of an envelope. I carefully picked it up. Checking for what the problem was by quickly flipping pages, all I could find was the weirdness that she knew I started reading Soul Eater and happened to be on the newest volume. Nothing too out of the ordinary for an analyst, however. "So…?" Junko waited in anticipation for any verbal reaction. I must admit, it was exactly what I wanted and better than I expected. "Your gift giving skills are almost as good as mine, Junko." I replied with a light smile, being sure to use her first name. Relief smoothed out the spike in heart rate. There had to be more, right? Some diabolical plan to stir the pot had to be somewhere. I wasn't naive.
"Yay! I'm glad you liked the first half, anyway." There it was. In every gift she's ever given me, Junko typically had heart filled letters with enough sweetness to rot your teeth. I never opened them along with the present unless we were alone. "...You're not planning to make me read this in front of Mukuro." Was embarrassing me actually her big event for tonight? If that was all it took, I would take it. A lesser evil. Not that I wanted to read it, out loud or otherwise, in front of anyone, but I would take my chances. Either way, I couldn't give in too easily. "Come on. Pleeease?" She asked with those big puppy eyes that she'd give randomly, typically over pointless things like this. "Oh, wow. You resorted to the oldest trick in the book again. Bravo, you've officially hit rock bottom in creativity." She continued staring up at me with those artificially blue eyes. Ugh, I hated her. "Fine, I'll read it. Don't say I don't do anything for you."
As soon as I picked the pink envelope up, I noticed it was heavier than it would usually be. God, this letter better not be a damn novel of humility. I opened it by breaking the heart stickers' seal, thinking of what could possibly be in there. It wasn't a letter at all. Instead it was pictures. A fuck ton of pictures. Horrified, I tried to stay positive as I stared at the first one on top. Hope's Peak in the middle of the night. No students out. Similar to the time when I could sneak him out. Quickly flipping over to the next showed that abandoned building I went to everyday. Where 'Kamukura' would be right now, rotting away like usual. My heart sped up. I didn't say anything as Junko made some happy noises. This couldn't be happening. No, I had to stay calm. There was absolutely no way she could be close to solving the truth of the monstrosities that happened there. There were too many pieces.
I kept flipping through images. A picture of me going in on some random morning. Another of Dr. Iwakura leaving out the back door. Followed by a photo of Junko in the hallway with a cutesy peace sign. Sweat started dripping out my pores. My chest tightened up with each new image. Dr. Tsukino asleep in the kitchen showed that this was before the cameras. It had to be. The next was in the observation room. A mess of papers and chairs only being lit by the window. She took a picture of 'Kamkura' asleep through it. My stomach dropped and I wasn't even done going through these. I kept quiet until I saw everything. A room beside the observation room where we kept the filing cabinet. Pictures of different documents, some explaining his treatment, others with brain scans, and one with his student ID photo from when he was still Hinata.
In complete shock, I dropped the stack onto the table after I flipped through them all. A lump in my throat, a pit in my stomach, and my chest tightening to the point I couldn't breathe. My heart pounded fast enough to escape my body, aggressively banging at my ribs. I could hear it through my ears. The only thing keeping me from puking was the lump or maybe a dry mouth. Shaky sweaty hands stayed in place as she laughed a laugh lined with hurt. "Surprised?" She teased between disturbed little giggles I didn't want to believe were from her. I held my breath as I stared at the evidence spread across the table. "H-how?" I put my hands down into my lap so they wouldn't shake and show off how terrified I was. She already knew. She could sense it before I knew I was even feeling it. "I stalked you a bit after you were all upset about your friend and found out your big secret. That place was completely unsupervised, someone worse could've gone in there and hunted down all of you." A taunting tone laced every word as she leaned over the table to get into my face. I didn't even notice they moved the cake during my panic. I couldn't breathe. This was too much. I had to calm down, passing out would make this way worse.
"You lied to me, Yasuke." Junko's voice jumped into an icy weapon directed right at me. Any sign of happiness or teasing dissipated. "You know I hate it when you keep things from me. Why would you do something like that when I try so hard to be here for you even with my modeling?" She stared straight through me. No matter how well I hid it, she could see how panicked every fiber of my being was. How could she find out? Why was she stalking me? Like she was reading my mind, she replied to the questions in my head. "You worried me with your sob story about Hinata. I wanted to check in and see if you were doing better without you brushing me off and this is what I found. I can't believe you." Completely serious. Completely haunting. Her staring daggers into me made it impossible to give any explanation.
"...I had to. I couldn't tell anybody." The contract I signed had those rules. Be quiet. I could use that as an excuse without necessarily lying. We both knew deep down the real reason was because I knew she would use that knowledge to do something terrible. What it was didn't matter, I still knew it would hurt people. "Not even me? The Steering Committee is evil for experimenting on that boy and you're worried about telling your girlfriend? What about the police?" She had a point. A line like that would be fitting from anyone finding out about this. "They're working with the yakuza, sorry for not wanting to risk my damn life, Junko." I tried to match the fire behind her eyes. Contacts or not, her glare could send shivers deep into my soul. The exhaustion in my reply wasn't exaggerated at all. The fight hadn't started yet and I was already exhausted. "You don't trust me to keep a secret? I kept plenty of yours before." Junko crossed her arms while continuing to stare at me. My fire didn't get her to budge at all.
Glancing over at Mukuro, the real humility set in. Reading any sappy love letter would be better than this. Right then and there, when I saw her indifferent look, the urge to run off and die gnawed at me. Indifference was worse somehow. It told me she expected something this horrific to be in that box. My sins were for everyone to judge. "...Can we not do this in front of Mukuro?" I muttered my frustration. In an attempt to hide the hurt, I had to look down. Worthlessness and shame crowded in my head as my mind raced for solutions. How could I possibly get out of this? "I went crying to her when I found out. She deserves a conclusion. We both do." Junko stated matter of factly. I couldn't say anything. The shame over what I had part in beat me down, not the part about keeping it a secret. Maybe that made it worse. I knew she could see me shaking. As much as I tried to hide it and be the overly confident guy I normally was, I couldn't do that when I was in trouble with her, much less when I knew I fucked up. I did something evil. I experimented on someone for the sake of what? Science? Experience? No justification would make it acceptable.
I desperately wanted to explain myself, but there wasn't anything I could say to satisfy myself or Junko. She wanted honesty. I wanted to atone. A moment of heavy silence turned warm when she moved across to sit next to me. Hugging me gently like she was expecting me to fall apart right there in her arms, in front of her sister. I wanted to, oh God, I wanted to sob like a scared child. My face was right above her chest as she played with my hair. Something Mom used to do to soothe me. I didn't have the energy to question how she could possibly know that. "My poor baby. I know you didn't want to do all those terrible things. You had to have a reason." She read my mind again. Turning on that sweet voice melted me into her hands like it had a million times before. I was getting weaker by the moment. No energy to lie. "It doesn't matter now. I'm in too deep." I managed to sound strong without nervousness making me stutter. She continued to comfort me. She could see through any cover I'd put up. Tough or not.
"It's okay. Even if the world thinks you're some scary mad scientist, I'll be here for you, but the idea of you hurting me without punishment doesn't sit right with me." Huh? "Punishment?" What could that possibly mean? Knowing her, it had to be something disturbing. Something only she would think of. "Don't worry. I won't go to the cops or kill you, hehe. I love you way too much for anything like that… No, you're gonna let me meet that Kamukura guy." She squeezed me tighter when she made her request. One of the most unexpected ones she could've said. "What? Why?" She had no reason to meet him. What could she do with an artificial superhuman with chronic boredom was too terrifying to think about. I couldn't have her influencing him. "One of those documents said he got bored easily. We could actually understand each other. I could use the comfort." Of course she knew about that. I wondered what file would've said anything about their shared problem, yet that didn't matter now.
I had to think of something to say. Anything to change her mind, as pointless as it was. "...Why didn't you see him while you were broken in?" She easily could've. His door needed certain keys to unlock it. All the doctors and the Steering Committee have one, she could've stolen Dr. Tsukino's. A task like that would be nothing to her. "I was pressed for time. Come on, you owe it to me." I had a feeling she planned to have me introduce them. Why? I had no idea. Revenge would be my first guess. She really did hate secrets when they're for the greater good. I didn't say anything. The gears of my mind were too clogged up to think of any good way to solve this. "Aw, are you getting jealous? He's not gonna steal me away. You're way cuter than him." She continued playing with my hair as she pretended. Downplaying every sin she ever committed was the most natural response for someone like her.
I couldn't let her meet him. I just couldn't. "...What if I don't let you? There's cameras all over that place now. They know someone got into the files back in August." A true statement. I knew I could get Tsukino or myself to turn off the cameras again and claim another black out happened. I couldn't pull that trick many more times before the oldies end up figuring it out. There was a chance I actually couldn't do it. "I'm sure you can figure something out. You don't wanna hurt me even more, do you? Then Mukuro would have to hurt you for making me cry again." Junko stopped hugging me. Practically pushing me away before scooting to the other end of the table like she was making a statement. I looked over at Mukuro, who stayed silent this whole time. Her face was completely indifferent. Did the knowledge of what I did disgust her? Would she ever understand or forgive me? She had to kill people while in her military group, would that be morally correct compared to what I did?
With false confidence, I asked my question. Although it was closer to a plea. "You wouldn't do that, would you? You know this is ridiculous." Mukuro knew how her sister's addiction to violence was. Completely useless. I hoped she would help me. How could I be so stupid? She tackled me before I had time to process her movements. Holding my hands behind my back with my stomach down on the ground. "I asked you nicely to be nice to her." She put the side of a bowie knife to my throat. No hesitation. No sign we ever knew each other. No consideration for what I had to say. Only pure military action. I was trapped in every sense of the word. Being tackled by her showed me how strong she really was. I legitimately couldn't move. Any embarrassment of a woman being stronger than me was drowned out by fear. Panic that never truly left screamed at me to escape. It was suffocating me!
Junko looked down into my eyes. A smile crept back onto her face as she rested her head in her hand. Long red nails acted as claws to frame her expected expression - Confidence. "If she has to hurt you, I'll be heartbroken. Be good and make it up to me. We'll keep all your secrets, Hon." I had to get out of this trap. I could feel my lungs struggling for air and my face get cold. My heart went back to the tactic of anxiously screeching. "...Fine, fine! Just give me some time. I need to make sure none of us get caught or we don't freak him out, okay?" I had a point. 'Kamukura' hasn't seen another teenager besides me since before this. Seeing anyone that age, especially someone as batshit as Junko, could overwhelm him. Heh, why was I thinking about that when I was still struggling for air? Mukuro let me go. I took a deep breath as soon as I could. My body needed a minute to realize I wasn't dying. Junko came over to caress me like she wasn't the reason I was hiding my tremble. God, how could I be this weak? "Aww, I knew you would make the right choice."