sleepy justice

Stooping over and peering down, Dimara’s dark hair would make a sharp contrast to the lights around them, and after a few more moments she leans down particularly close to the boy. Before it’s apparent what she’s doing, rough hands were already digging their way underneath of Hozumi and grasping onto him.

“Nnngah!” a light grunt escapes the digger’s lips with the exhertion to lift the prosecutor from his slumber. She didn’t seem to register his consciousness, draping him right over her shoulder and stumbling for a moment from the sudden imbalance…. The smell coming off of the girl’s clothes from this range wasn’t exactly fragrant.

Before he can try again, or do anything else for that matter, Dimara is... ah, doing what, exactly...? Suddenly, his field of vision shifts as he’s hefted into the air, letting out a wheezing gasp when he lands on the digger’s shoulders. Instead of protesting at the indignity of it, which he most likely would have if the circumstances were a great deal different (though, in that case, he probably wouldn’t have been in this situation to begin with). 

His body remains mostly limp, his forehead resting against her back... until he breathes in, and starts coughing in a way that certainly doesn’t do his raw throat any favors. He hates to be rude, but the smell, at the range he was at... he’s sorry, he’ll apologize when his voice is back, but it wasn’t something he could exactly help at the moment...

It was nice to know that Malice didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the domes, even if it was only for a little while. The talent show, on the other hand? Rei was just planning to sort of ignore the fact that that was a thing and hope no one else brought it up with her. She wasn’t planning on doing anything. For reasons.

In the meantime, she was more than happy to familiarize herself with the arcade. Even today, she’d gone to Dome Kavka with every intention of spending another eight hours straight at a minimum slapping her initials all over the high score screens of some of the older arcade games, but had thought better of it at the last minute and veered off course to the swimming pool. It had been a while since she’d last gone swimming, and the pool was there, and…

Once she’d changed both her outfit and her locker passcode, it was time for a pool party of – two, apparently. She’d been beaten there by exactly one (1) unit of lawyer nerd, floating lazily along the lazy river meant for lazy-butts. A plan was formed instantly. She might feel bad about it later, but she was totally going to cannonball right next to him.

With only a second’s warning with a giddy scream of “INCOMING!!!” she totally cannonballed into the water right next to him. The splash was nearly a meter in radius, and none were spared from the soaking that ensued.

She surfaced a moment later, completely drenched and looking quite pleased with herself. In her experience, it had always been the best course of action to enter a pool all at once, preferably right after pushing someone else in first. The water, thankfully, felt like an average pool and not what she would expect the temperature to be at the bottom of an ocean.

...or not.

He’s not sure how long he’s been out when the shout startles him awake, and one eye opens part way, looking around in confusion before the water hits him. With both eyes now open wide, he yelps and jerks in reaction to the sudden coolness of the water, and the action sends him toppling over into the water, the inflatable donut (this particular one is plain, because of course it is; Hozumi has no time for silly things patterned after food) comically flying clear out of the lazy river.

“Mmpphpmh...!” He burbles underneath the water, flailing until he finally surfaces, gasping as he gets to his feet. The water definitely isn’t in any danger of keeping him under; it’s maybe four or five feet at most, though the current is a big strong. But the current he’s standing against isn’t his prime concern right now. “R-Rei-san?” he coughs, brow furrowing. So SHE was the one who’d...? “Rei-san... what did you...?” 

What is HE doing? Certainly HE should be the one asking that qu--wait. Wait. Oh. “Water... clever...” He takes a moment to push his sopping wet hair back out of his face. “I’m... I was resting... in the lazy river... as you saw...” He almost wants to be angry, but it’s just not there. Perhaps he’s already used up all his anger. He is a little annoyed, though, at any rate. 

The quiet strumming stopped, leaving the room silent. Aiichiro took a deep, deliberate inhale of smoke, and then blew a series of smoke rings forward into the air, and they broke against the glass wall. And looking at Hozumi, Aiichiro barely turned his head, peering up at him from the corner of his eye, for he couldn’t possibly be bothered to do anything more.

“I guess I could just quit cold turkey,” he muttered flatly, “Would’ja prefer that? Withdrawal’s a pretty ugly thing, but I guess if it’s for the sake o’ your delicate li’l nose, I can think about it.”

Okay, so much for being supportive and leaderly. Granted, if someone else had asked him this, he might have been a little nicer. He reverently sat his guitar down and stood up at his own leisure. He stretched, his joints audibly popping, and at last, cigarette still between his teeth, he faced Hozumi, looming over him.

Despite his aversion to the reasoning behind the sound, he couldn’t deny that the notes resonating from the guitar’s strings were pleasant. Perhaps, if he weren’t blinded by rage, he simply could have stood there and listened. But alas, his objectivity is a bit rusty as of late, but with everything going on, well... Ah, yes. Hilarious. He simply sighs at the smoke rings, taking another sip of coffee as he bites back the urge to ask if he’s going to enter that talent into the show as well.

“There’s no need... to be... contrary, Koibuchi. I’m not... going to lecture you. I understand that’s... a battle I would... would not win. I’m not asking... you to do that... only for you... to extinguish it... while I’m in the room... please...” He ends his sentence with a light cough, as if punctuating it on accident.

This time, the drink Hozumi takes from his cup is larger, though he slowly lowers the cup from his lips at about the same time Aiichiro sets the guitar down. He notices, even as the much taller boy turns to face him, that the cigarette is still lit. He’s... not sure if he expected anything otherwise, though.

[♫♫♫]

In his bandaged hands was his guitar, idly being played. His fingers ran up and down the neck, striking frets in time with the pick in his other hand, playing scale, arpeggios, and abstract melodies. He’d probably prep a song for the show, but hadn’t decided which yet.

Great, lovely, absolutely amazing. 

Hozumi needs to be alone right now, and that’s what brings him to the viewing platform. He’d normally be in the aquarium, of course, but unfortunately, someone had already decided to hang out there. So the viewing platform is his next stop. “H--” he begins, before seeing Aiichiro’s form in the room and freezing. Or, more accurately, the smell of smoke is what stops him in his tracks, and his face scrunches up in disgust. He coughs and sputters, waving an arm about to try and clear the air around him. “Koibuchi?” he questions, voice still scratchy from not just the smoke, but also the throttling he’d received before. It was... well... mostly gone, but this wasn’t exactly helping.

What she says causes him to huff softly, and he sits back up, looking almost impossibly tired; the steam sure is doing a number on him. “Nonetheless, I... regret it. I would not... have hurt you intentionally... I assure you.” Perhaps it meant nothing to her, in her world of violence as a daily occurrence, but the fact that he had managed to hit her bothered him, more than one might think. He grits his teeth slightly as she mentions justice and the courts system back in the real world, but drops it, for now. More important things to discuss. “Minell may have... been a murderer, yes, but... he did not deserve that... that travesty of a trial. Not to mention... Kuromatsu-san himself. They... just did not... seem to care. Almost as if... because we were not... in the outside world... they could get away with... well... anything. Including murder... in Minell’s case.” 

He goes to continue but stops, something she said striking him more than perhaps she expected. “What’s it like out there?” she’d posited, and... well, that’s something that none of them can answer, is it? But really... what is going on up there? What shape is the world in that an entire class of Hope’s Peak Academy students, the most prestigious school in Japan, could go missing, and no one say a word about it? And why didn’t they remember? 

He watches silently as Kozue moves enough that her hair, piled into a makeshift bun on the top of her head, topples back down into her face, and maybe, perhaps, in another time, when they weren’t trapped at the bottom of the sea and beginning to die off, he would’ve found it amusing. Maybe something approaching cute. But for now he merely regards it blearily. 

“I... understand that, I... I think. Perhaps it’s not... necessarily... the correct emotion... to feel... but I do not think... that one could be... blamed for feeling... that way. Especially... in these circumstances. The fact that they’re... used to it? It... seems that way... the fact that they’re used... to this... already... is bad. What happens... when it inevitably happens again? This isn’t... like real life. As a prosecutor...” He expects her to scoff here. “... one cannot allow themselves... to be affected personally... by their cases. Obviously. But this... is different... Perhaps in the trial itself... it would be advantageous to... put feelings aside, but... what of now? What does it mean?” He doesn’t know. He’s not sure if she does either.

“It’s... terrifying... the thought of dying... and I... I suppose there is merit... to trying to avoid that, but... not like this.” He falls silent, listening to her question with an increasingly worried expression on his face, his brow furrowing. “That’s...” He sighs. “It’s wrong, still, of course... the murderer would... need to be punished... though... preferably not in the way... Minell was... that was barbaric... and I cannot condone that... but... It would be similar... to someone having murdered Futoshi Matsunaga... though in our case... not as bad, thankfully... I... I suppose it would be... perhaps... a relief. To know he... couldn’t do anything like what he did... again. But at the same... same time... I...” Another sigh. “I’m not... entirely sure, Shizuka...”

She remained mostly underwater for a few seconds, taking in his bathingsuit – if it could even be considered that – and his body language before sitting back up, tucking her knees to her chest on the tub’s seat, and breaking eye contact to duck her head and look at the water. “Wait, no, before you do, I want to say something too. I don’t want to fight right now, I’m too tired and if I think about the trial or the way the others acted I’ll do something stupid and– God I… I know when I’m angry I say a lot of shit that I don’t mean, do a lot of shit I shouldn’t do. Not that that excuses my actions or anything, I don’t get a free pass for being an utterly horrible person just because I was stressed. We were all stressed, I, ah, fuck, I’m not doing this right… let me restart?”

Sighing, Kozue wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her chin on them, peeking back up at Hozumi but through damp bangs which had fallen into her face. At least this position, as submissive as it was, hid the majority of bruises Benjiro had left on her body—though she could still see her own marks in his face, something she winced at.  “I went and hurt you and called you a monster for judging me without knowing me, but, shit, I’m a giant hypocrite because I went and did the same thing back to you. If that’s not the pot calling the kettle black I don’t know what is. I’m not very good at… this kind of thing, but I said a lot of shit I shouldn’t have and hurt you and while I don’t expect you to accept this, I’m sorry. If you want to just punch me in the face a few times to call it even, I completely absolutely deserve that.” And leaning back slightly to rest her back against the rim of the tub she closed her eyes and bit her lip to brace for such an inevitable punch.

It seems that his presence has startled her as well, or at least taken her off guard, which... isn’t exactly what he’d expected? Then again, the trial had shown him that his expectations don’t really mean anything here. Even after speaking to her, he remains tense, particularly when she’d half-risen out of the water, as if to come after him once again... or to run away. He can’t quite read her well enough to tell, but once he talks, she appears to calm down... or, rather, she allows herself to sink back into the hot water, at least. And speaking of...

Before he can piece together the words for an apology, he decides to get into the tub in full, since it seems like she isn’t going to attack him now, hopefully. No, he’s not stalling on this apology by climbing into the hot tub, he knows exactly what he’s going to say... sort of. Making small, pained noises deep in his throat, he starts easing his bruised and battered body beneath the water. His eyes are screwed shut, teeth gritted against the pain, but almost as soon as he immerses himself beneath the water, he lets out the breath he hadn’t realize he’d been holding. This... feels quite nice... Sure, he isn’t quite sure at the moment how he’ll get back out of the tub, but that’s a problem for future Hozumi. Besides, maybe the water and the heat will help enough to not make it a living hell to move.

But before he can finally speak up, she talks over him, and while it does hit a small nerve, he nods nonetheless. “Go... ahead...” he murmurs, sinking a bit lower into the water. If he’s not careful, he’ll almost certainly fall asleep here. While that doesn’t sound too bad, besides the possibility of drowning, he does have a duty to listen to what Kozue has to say. And listen he does, his tired hazel eyes keeping an eye on her the entire time. A nod is his only response to her possibly hypothetical question--of course he’s going to listen. Listening to the other side is something he does a lot, after all. 

He does notice some of the bruises that pattern her body, but elects to say nothing about it; that would be rude, not to mention unhelpful for the current situation. He can assume that they’re from whatever or whoever did that to her hand, though. As she finishes, he takes inventory mentally, preparing himself for his own monologue, but... “What...? You... no, I’m... not going to... hit you... It seems... that I accidentally... did so during our... fight.” The word sounds dull and unhappy in his mouth. “And for that, I... would like to apologize... among... other things. But... I do...” He pauses for just a moment, eyes closed. “I accept your... apology, Shizuka. Tempers were... running high, I... I mean, after all, we’d... just lost a classmate. And had to... mmnn...” The trial... “I do not blame you... for not wanting to... discuss... the trial... It was...” A shaky breath. “A mockery of justice.”

He pauses again, wondering if she still thinks he’s going to hit her. Instead, he gently fingers the sore spots on his face on his cheek and on his chin, wondering if they’ll bruise. “But... nonetheless... my own conduct during our... confrontation... was abominable. If we had... been in a court of... law, I surely... would have been held... in contempt... of course... and deserved it. My words were... unnecessary... and uncalled for. Though... I did say I... accepted your apology... though, as you said... that does not make... everything alright. But...” He sighs, kneading at his throat. As he’s talked, his voice has gotten scratchier and rougher, perhaps from nearly being strangled. You never know.

Rocking her head back and leaning against the lip of the tub, she sighed noisily. Well, she’d made a sorry ass of herself in the past couple days alone and this one especially. Now calm, she had more than a few things to apologize to people for—but only some. Her thumb brushed across the bleeding lip again. She might have deserved this, but it was worth a few hits she didn’t have to say sorry for. That asshole. Pot meet kettle.

Maybe she could just… close her eyes for a few minutes. If anyone did come in, they might not even see her unless they picked to sit in the tub as well with how steamy the room was and how low she rested in the water. Someone had just died, who knew what would happen next. Hopefully nothing eventful for a good while, but she knew better than to curse herself with bad luck. Better, then, to ready herself for the inevitability of more problems– after this bath. 

It’s only after he’s the first one out of the trial room, hurrying uncharacteristically quickly through the halls in order to get back to his room... the room he had shared with one Michi Kuromatsu... that he realizes that he hurts. Physically, he supposed that the adrenaline from the fight and the trial itself would wear off eventually, but... mentally, comes as a bit of a surprise to him. He arrives at his room, wheezing softly, and shuts the door behind him. He turns around and freezes, yet another unwelcome surprise in this day he just wants to end. 

Michi’s things are gone, replaced with possessions that he doesn’t recognize. ... A new roommate, then. Thankful for past him’s wherewithal, he chugs the rest of a water bottle he’d left near the bed, before gently laying on his bed and checking his ID card. ...Ah. Saga, then, the calligrapher. A bit... rough, as Hozumi remembered him, but... there were worse people he could be rooming with, he guessed. While he has it out, the maps section catches his eye, and he quirks his eyebrows, opening it up... to discover and entirely new area, a new dome. Like much of what had transpired that morning, he isn’t sure what to make of this, either. 

But something in the new area does catch his eye: a spa. He’s... well, he’s sort of obviously never been to one. Never had the time, or the money, or both. But... hmm... sure, there wasn’t anyone in there to do anything, necessarily, but... there would be heat, yes? And... ugh... maybe that would do his poor body some good. There’s... hot tubs, that should help, hopefully... But a swimsuit... It takes him a good few minutes to force himself back up into a sitting position on the bed; his abdomen hurts a hell of a lot more than he thought it did, and moving about is painful, to say the least. The next few minutes after that are spent rooting around in his closet. He... doesn’t think he owns a bathing suit, but he’s apparently proven wrong when he pulls out something red and white that he doesn’t remember owning. Apparently Malice, or Halie, had been “kind”/kind enough to lend him one. How... thoughtful.

With it and a towel in his arms, he heads off before he can run into Benjiro, going at a much slower speed this time. The new dome is... certainly nice, yes, but... was it worth the price they paid to open it? ...He thinks not. In fact, he’s actively been putting off thinking about the trial and everything surrounding it at all... because he is already fully aware he isn’t going to like what he comes back with, whatever it ends up being. After all, what is justice to a bunch of kids apparently thirsty for blood? ...He doesn’t answer that.

With his mind forcibly on other things, he makes his way into the men’s locker room, which is still thankfully empty. Hozumi changes slowly, still impeded by the beating he’d received only hours before. Folding his clothes neatly into a locker and bearing its number to memory, he finally heads into the spa proper.

It feels... quite nice, after everything he’s already been through this morning. What he would like is to sleep, but... After seeing someone literally torn in half, and seeing people react to it in ways he couldn’t have imagined... he thinks sleep will be an even longer time than normal in coming. He heads over to one of the hot tubs, and, with quiet, pained grunts, gets down into a squat in preparation to climb into one, before freezing.

Already sitting in the tub, directly across from him, is Kozue Shizuka. But then, he isn’t as surprised as he could be, just a numb sort of acceptance. Why wouldn’t she be here. Of course. Of course. His first instinct, after a sharp inhale of breath, is to just get up and leave the spa entirely. It could wait. But... he’s already hunkered down, and... it’s going to take a lot to get back up into a standing position, he can tell that already. Instead, he gently lowers himself onto his rear, and hesitantly sticks his legs into the water. Speaking of things he doesn’t want to think of...

In the next moment she pulled herself on top of him and straddled his stomach, pinning him to the bed with sheer weight alone and grabbing one end of his scarf to try and choke him with. “You!” She aimed a punch for his stupid, stubborn chin.  “Are!” One on his cheek. Hitting him in the face hurt her as damn much as him on the hard bones in his skull but she wanted to leave marks that would remind him of her every time he saw his reflection. “A hypocrite!! If you can punch me verbally, I’ll show you what it feels like right back!” And she brought her bandaged fist back down to grasp the other end of his scarf, dragging both back sharply. “You don’t know anything about me! You don’t fucking know anything about me! Who the hell do you think you fucking are! Who gave you the goddamn right to judge any of us! Who gave you the right to judge me? Punch back!”

She was breathing as heavily as if she’d been running, pupils dilated so much that the green irises of her eyes were almost invisible. And all that control… gone. So much for years of training; the best it could do would be stop her from killing him. Barely.

Obviously, standing there, completely vulnerable, was the wrong thing to do, and though in retrospect he would realize that quite plainly, at the time, well... Fighting was not something he was used to, at all, and him freezing up does make sense, even if it’s something he ends up kicking himself for later. But for now, he has no need to harm himself metaphorically, because Kozue is doing it quite literally, right now.

His stomach hurts, god, and now they’re squaring off again, Kozue in a crouch similar to what she had done before tackling him the first time. What does he do? What does he do? What does he--? Thankfully... or maybe, not so much, given what happens next... she makes the decision for him. But not before screaming at him, to fight back, to do something. Fight back? Oh, she wishes, he isn’t going to stoop to her lev--

All his thoughts are pushed clear out of his head when she spears him into the bed, getting an even more guttural sound out of him this time, not to mention what of his breath he had managed to recover. At least this time what he hits his head off is a pillow, even if he doesn’t realize that it isn’t his own. She had... tackled him onto Michi’s bed. Amazing. He doesn’t have time to react to this thought, because it doesn’t even occur to him, but before he can really react to anything, she has one end of his scarf in hand, though it’s not enough to choke him too much, though he does cough and wheeze, more likely in part to the damage to his ribs and abdomen. Despite everything, he doesn’t even see the punches coming, with him letting out gross, pained noises each time he’s hit, and right now, he isn’t even thinking about how it’s almost certainly going to bruise, or at least leave some sort of mark. His mind is white static, absolutely blank with fury and, primarily, panic. 

Against himself, he does end up lashing out, though instead of the calculated assault that Kozue had done, it’s more like blind panic, anything to get her off of him, and to his surprise, though it doesn’t register at the moment, he does manage to hit her, once, in the mouth, splitting her lip down the middle, blood welling up almost immediately. But it does absolutely nothing to stop her, nor calm her rage, because that’s when she grabs the other end of his scarf and oh god no--

Maybe she couldn’t win a verbal battle, but there was one she could.

Before she’d even finished her abortive sentence she leapt at him, using the defensive crouch Kozue had fallen into to give enough force that she hit him airborne with her shoulder in his gut. Against an experience fighter this move would be dangerous and irresponsible, sacrificing her own stability for an overly aggressive offense.  It flew in the face of her training; she didn’t care. All she cared about was throwing all hundred and something pounds of herself directly at the prosecutor, reverting to the girl she’d been before the military where she punched first and asked questions later. She wanted to make him hurt.

Granted, he isn’t as slow at talking in court; lord knows how long that would drag out trials. But it’s the same basic principle. Lay out everything possible, and you can’t lose. Sure, sometimes he gets a bit... heated. His very first trial, the one of his father, comes to mind. But that isn’t the norm, which is what makes this so weird. And he definitely is angry now, furious, but trying to keep his cool. After all, one of them has to act the adult, and it certainly isn’t the girl with her fists curled, bleeding, in his scarf. Ugh, he’s going to have to wash that, and will it even come out...? ...but that’s a quandary for another time.

He’s frantic, though, still trying to pry at her hands to let him loose, but then... thankfully... she does. It worked. Was it a dirty trick, taking advantage of her training like that? ...Maybe. But is it worth it, to get her out of his face? Absolutely. Once she releases him, he takes a good few steps back into the room, away from her, his own teeth bared in a grimace. “What are you doing, Shizuka?!” he hisses, before letting out a brief bark of laughter. It was almost funny. Almost. “Yes, as did I,” he spits back when she brings up his deceased roommate. Did she think she was the only one who had liked the cartomancer? Did she really think he would stoop so low as to murder someone? The thought made his blood absolutely boil, his arms now uncrossed and his hands at his sides, balled into fists of their own. 

But before he can say one word-- what?! The breath is knocked out of him as Kozue quite literally throws herself at him, catching him directly in the stomach and sending him to the floor, his head bouncing smartly off of the carpet. He’d went down with an oof! and god, oh god, it’s hard to breathe. Even with his breath coming in wheezes, his first instinct is to get her off of him, now. 

“I did this to myself you pompous ass, and I can show you how on your face if you’d damn well like! And ‘serves me right’? What, you think just because you consider me a criminal that I should have been the one showing up on our ID card KIA, do you? Here’s a fucking hint, lawyer, there’s no such thing as good and bad people like you somehow think and sorted me into. Of course this was inevitable! There are, always and only, bad people, and they’re just on different sides. Shove your moral superiority up your asshole, you’re the damn same as me. Ha, serves me right!”

Using his invitation to investigate the room to instead step up to him and grab him by the ends of his scarf, Kozue roughly dragged his head down to the same level as hers and push her face close to his before snarling. Her hand left blood on the fabric but she couldn’t be assed to care. And—god, he had stupid freckles. Of course he did.

“Fuck, like you could stop me if I wanted to do something. You’re pitiful.”

Certainly, her being here was not an ideal situation. Well... them being here at all was definitely not ideal, but if he did have to be at the bottom of the ocean, he would have rather been there with an entire list of people before he’d picked Kozue Shizuka. A criminal. But then, is she really the only one? Satoru Yotsuya’s attempted murder, and his own roommate’s apparent theft, which he admittedly still hasn’t seen proof of beyond the epitaph. Obviously, one of those is more forgivable than the other, but... still. And that isn’t even mentioning the possible secrets the rest of the denizens of the dome are keeping from him...

At one point, Hozumi finds himself crossing his arms as well, unintentionally mirroring the girl across from him. And when she actually responds to his authoritative tone, he actually pauses in his speech, legitimately shocked. His eyebrows raise, and maybe against better judgement, a smirk curls itself on his face. This will be handy to remember, he thinks, stowing the tidbit away in his mental court organizer, where, assuming it wasn’t just a fluke, it will almost certainly come in handy again.

He full well expects her to fire back as soon as, maybe even before, he’s finished speaking, but right before she fires off, he manages to get one last quip in. “You’re... bleeding, Shizuka... Looks like whoever... it was... got you good, hmm...?”

He listens to her angry tirade, though he isn’t particularly happy about doing so, growing angrier himself as the words keep spilling slipshod out of her mouth. Almost as soon as she herself finishes, he picks up the slack with uncharacteristic speed, outside of the courtroom at least.

“It seems that... regardless of what you say... you came out the worst... with someone. Who was it, I wonder...? Koibuchi, Saga...? Perhaps you were... the person who killed... Kuromatsu-san. How could I know...? I don’t. Nor do I think that you... necessarily deserve death. I just said that... it wouldn’t surprise me... given the circumstances. That’s all. And--”

“Don’t sound so fucking pleased to see me, shark, or I might misunderstand and think you actually fucking like me. Or are you capable of actually liking anyone other than yourself and your shitty job? Hell, with the way you look calm as shit god knows you don’t even care a boy just fucking died—“ A thought nagged at the back of her mind and stopping mid sentence with a brief glare, Kozue pulled out her ID card to flip to the map quickly. Roomates…

“He was your fucking roommate. He was your fucking ROOMATE?? Holy shit, and here I was hoping you’d be the one that got murdered for being world’s worst person of the year but no, it was the one that was actually decent! What, did you murder him so he couldn’t tell the rest of us the kind of nasty shit you get up to behind closed doors? Come in here to hide the evidence?”

A soft sigh is the only thing that escapes his mouth as Kozue Shizuka, upon seeing him, launches into an expletive filled rant. Ah, yes... this is exactly what he needs and wants right now.

“Please... stop, Shizuka. I hardly... ...think... that this is the time... for this. I do care... about Kuromatsu-san’s... untimely demise. It’s... horrendous, yes, but... After the... stunt that Yotsuya pulled... it was an... inevitability, I fear... And my pessimism... was ultimately the reality...of the situation...”

Hozumi trails off, though, watching as she gets her ID card out and peruses it. What is she...? ...ah. 

“Yes, Kuromatsu-san is... ah... was, my roommate... He-- if you would let me speak.” 

His tone is harsher than before, and his eyes narrow at her even as she continues on her angry (but what’s new?) spiel. 

“Mmmnn... is that so...? Well, if you’d... like the truth, quite frankly... I’m surprised that your own mouth... hasn’t gotten you injured... or worse...” He stops for a moment, raising his eyebrows. “Or perhaps... it has? I suppose... it serves you right... doesn’t it? And no, I did not... murder Kuromatsu-san. That much... should be obvious. If you would like... the truth, I was in here... to check on something... If...” He sighs, a third time, though no such charm in it. “...If you would like... to examine my room... you may. I will not... stop you...”

“I appreciate the concern, Uozumi-san. Thank you for asking.”

Her eyes wandered from his face to the clownfish he was holding, her smile falling and her brow furrowing with concern. Losing sleep seemed to be second nature for him, but given that he was here, looking at stuffed animals, possibly searching for his own companion…Perhaps the threats and attempted murder had shocked him deeper than she would have imagined.

“Are…you alright, Uozumi-san? Truthfully?”

“Touching up...? With... makeup...?”

Well, that was... potentially a dumb question. He groans inwardly. Well, what else did she mean? Sewing, maybe...? That was... an interesting thought. A pity he couldn’t have verbalized it instead. But he asked her a question, and it would be rude to interrupt before she could answer. Even with how tired he is, he notices the change of expression on her face, and that brings a small scowl to his own face. Ah.

Hozumi listens to her, nodding, thankfully not nodding off, and sighs softly. Yes... about as well as he could have hoped for, really... With that motive looming over them, it’s hard to say that any of them were doing well.

“Yes... the motive... it’s... not a good sign, at all... I would be more hopeful, if... if not for the... incident, from before... As it stands... I believe that someone... someone will crack... under the pressure. I believe there will be a murder.” 

He stops, eyes widening at what he’d just said. Oh... no, that’s... not what he meant to say at all. That was an internal monologue, or... meant to be, at least. He hugs the clownfish, as of yet unnamed, more tightly to his chest. Goodness... He goes to speak, but before he can, a large yawn makes its way out of his mouth, delaying him by a good few seconds.

…The ramble suddenly cuts off before Hozumi has to raise an objection. As though the Stern Request had only just processed, Kei straightened up and took a single polite step back, considering the matter fixed forever. “…Y’know, most people don’t actually have a problem with that! It’s just air, I wasn’t even bad-touching or anything!” [♥(ˆ⌣ˆԅ)] “Pshh, whatever you say, though. If you pass out on me I promise I’ll be nice. Zumi-tan.”

After maintaining that fixed pixelated smile for a few seconds, as if to say sie has no problem being difficult and space-invadery whenever sie feels like so any further queries will be met with serious whining, sie shuffles off a few more polite steps to examine the newest selection of plushies. Would it be in bad form to take an armful again.

“This place is pretty cool, ne? I mean, maybe not the whole place, but this one room place. Actually, the one cool place, so long as nothing else is happening. A certain someone covered the whole lounge in corn oil once.”

“A person is reasonable, Kaku-san... if they speak reason. I suppose... perhaps that their... attire may factor into... ... into things, but I do not... believe that the comfort... of the attire... is something... that would factor into it...” 

He goes to continue, perhaps a whole, slow, spaced out tirade on what it means to be reasonable, but Kei interrupts him by knocking on hir head, and he crinkles his nose and closes his eyes, once again, before letting out a long soft sigh. Before he can even think of something to say, the parody artist is off to the races, talking at a very fast clip, and his eyes pop back open in indignation. He opens his mouth to retort, but before he can, sie stops themselves, and Hozumi huffs unhappily.

...Though, he can’t be too unhappy he supposes, now that they’ve honored his request not to be so close. Admittedly, it’s still closer than he would like, but...

“...Thank you, Kaku-san... I... wh-what? I’m sorry?” 

The rest of his words are inarticulate sputters, very unbecoming of someone of his stature. The cutesy emoticon only makes it worse. Abandoning his search for a stuffed animal for now, Hozumi turns and makes his way to a slightly different part of the gift shop, one where he isn’t in danger of being touched, “bad” or otherwise. He does notice that Kei had moved a bit more away, but... too little, too late, really.

“I suppose that one... could call it ‘cool’... And... unfortunately... I doubt that things... will be this silent... for long...”

Beat.

“Good day, Uozumi-san.” She chuckled. “Or should I say good morning? You don’t seem awake enough for the day yet…” Was he ever?

The stuffed animals on the shelves were all fish. No rabbits. No brothers or sisters for her dear sweet Ouji, who was waiting for her back home… But the sea lion was adorable. Thus she took it off the shelf and looked it over, even gave it a hug to determine how warm it was. There were many factors to consider when choosing a friend.

“Hmm… Perhaps you’ll do.” She turned to Hozumi and held out the sea lion. “What do you think, Uozumi-san?”

“H-H... Hayashi-san. It... that does... seem to be... the time of day, yes... or as far as... we can tell, at least...” 

His words are even more stilted and separated than normal, at least at first, with his shock and embarrassment at being caught red-handed. Sure it.. isn’t the biggest deal. It’s not like she caught him... killing someone, for god’s sake, but... His love of stuffed animals is something that had mostly, aside from a few incredibly thoughtful gifts, had stayed behind closed doors. Namely, in his bed, in his house. For someone of his stature to be seen openly getting one was... a bit humiliating, honestly... Though, at least she didn’t seem to be the type to mock him... at least openly...

“Mnn... I... must admit, Hayashi-san... I have not slept yet. My... already unconventional sleep schedule... was not improved by Malice’s... announcement... of a ‘motive’, as it were...” 

He sighs, but it’s followed by a small yawn. He keeps quiet, after that, simply watching her browse the shelf, and eventually settle on what appeared to be a sea lion. An... interesting choice. 

“I... It seems... satisfactory...”

As for himself... 

Moving slowly, still obviously embarrassed by her presence, he steps forward and plucks a stuffed clownfish from the wall of fluff, holding it close. Yes... this will do nicely... His thoughts stray back to his conversation with Rei in the aquarium, before everything had really went to hell. 

Cheeks still flushed, Hozumi looks from the clownfish to Yoko, though the expression on his face is somber.