Their latest addition to the team is typical teenage boy material and quite different from him. Iori clearly has little motivation to think outside of the now, surfing on the sensations of the present with aloofness. He's a boon in combat, although a tad reckless from what Mitsuru keeps mentioning, but he tackles Tartarus like he handles his video games: he gets back up and gets to work. That, at least, Akihiko can respect.
To hear from Takeba, Junpei's always up to no good; he sleeps in class, he pervs on girls, and loafs around instead of applying some brain cells to schoolwork. From the huffs and sighs of despair he keeps catching from Mitsuru, he is, quite simply, a slob that put any room he decides to exist in into disarray.
Minato is his calm partner in crime, dampening his worst habits with a few one-eyed glares when it crosses the line. Minako, on the other hand, simply encourages him to be himself and that is baffling.
She's definitely far from irresponsible or scatterbrained like he is. From the comings and goings she has all over school and the dorm she seems to have quite a schedule, yet she seems content to spend quite a bit of time glued to Junpei, doing nothing truly productive except hang out and laugh out loud, often.
That fact or the possible implications it might imply doesn't really dawn on him until a certain day in May, and it leaves him uncomfortable.
Minako and Iori are just coming back to the dorm, skipping through the doorway with fanfare, from some time at Chagall Cafe. Akihiko is sitting at the table, math books sprawled in a methodical method around his homework, fully set on wrapping it up as quickly as he can when their commotion takes his mind away from the science of calculus with a bang.
"Dude! You should totally give that game a try!"
"Is it on PC? I don't have a console like you, hopefully it gets ported!"
Shoes clapping, they pass near him, just going to the kitchen. Junpei attempts to tickle her on the way to the fridge where she is trying, without success and chuckling, to grab a water bottle.
Akihiko rubs his neck, irritated, and turns absently to the source of the noise. He never meant anything specific by his gesture because it's not really about them; he's simply exasperated at having nothing else to do legally except study, but he catches them in an angry stare.
Junpei has his arm on her hip, while she stands very close to him, cheeks red and hair in disarray from their frolics. She pauses and blushes, adverting her gaze from him quickly as if something occurred to her suddenly. He sees her red eyes open wide a split second, and can't help but wonder if he was grimacing in a strange way. He clamps his expression down, mortified.
"Sorry senpai, we didn't want to interrupt your studying. C'mon Junpei, we should go upstairs!"
She almost runs towards the stairs, but the boy adjusts his cap, looks at Akihiko with a calculated gaze and smirks mockingly, seemingly satisfied with some inner answer he just comes to.
"Wait for me Mina-tan! And… don't forget what I told you earlier, you should totally go for it."
Junpei laughs to himself and follows her with a few long-legged strides, not looking back. Akihiko runs a hand over his face, it sometimes feel like there are events around him that somehow implicate him, yet he's not quite a participant, and things keep getting confusing.
Breathing out noisily, he blinks a few times, trying to drown out of the imprinted image of the two juniors, so very close and their cheeks flushed. It feels somehow disturbing to think about, but he can't figure out why. Fingers twitching on his pencil, he tries to get back to his work, but the heart isn't into it.
Yet again relegated to the sidelines, despite, this time, numerous protests and an almost attempt to follow the juniors at the last minute, Akihiko slumps in the command room chair. There's another one of these huge shadows tonight near the monorail and for the second time, he's sitting in this stupid chair hissing in pain instead of punching something.
Mitsuru made her point very clear by jabbing two pointy fingernails exactly at the right spot in his ribs to cause them to throb and he's stuck here huffing by himself, hoping he can dial down his frustrations before the field team came back. He taps his foot, restless, this is not a good day. Ikutsuki is absorbed in some files nearby and leaves him to sulk by himself, not like they cab really do anything from here except wait for news.
At least Minako is still in charge, she has this covered, and he has full confidence in her leadership capabilities. She left the dorm head high and eyes bright, the very picture of determination made flesh, her brother in tow equally stoic despite being woken up by the command room alert. Time and again, the twin duo has conquered all the challenges of Tartarus, the bickering of Iori and Takeba, and all the surprises that come their way with tremendous confidence.
I wonder if I even want to take charge of field operations once I can fight again.
Perhaps Akihiko can simply focus on catching up to the juniors, because he might have fallen a tad behind after so much time in recovery. If he doesn't have to focus on strategy and team balancing, he can muster all his energy on getting stronger instead.
As Mitsuru explained it, both Minako and her brother can change personas like they're trying on new pairs of shoes, adapting to any situation like a glove. It certainly came as a surprise because it's completely unheard of, but it can be a tremendous advantage in the field to cover any and all weak points of the team no matter its composition.
Minato made his team reputation by being a vicious attacker, while his sister meshed spells and support around her teammates like a concerned parent. That sort of role requires constant protection to be efficient, and while her brother might keep an eye on things, he could keep a more consistent point attack role if he has some backup in defense.
Yes, that he can do. Akihiko has a good awareness of combat he can leverage and excellent mobility. Defense or offense, the work needs to get done.
Akihiko jolts out of his thoughts when Mitsuru contacts them to inform the chairman of their success. Once Ikutsuki leaves the room to go grab a drink, she goes into more details with him about the chain of events that brought them victory, including the near collision of the monorail and the insubordination of Junpei in the field.
That… will not do.
Iori has a childish streak of entitlement that needs to be quelled, and it's just preposterous to disobey your leader in the field, especially on an important operation such as this. Akihiko gets up and dusts his pants before he cracks his knuckles; Iori and him are about to have a very good conversation about loyalty.