EARLY EVENING OF DAY 2

[photonement]

[Koizumi's walking into the barracks, coming back from the lake, and her lack of camera is super obvious immediately to anyone remotely observant. More than that, it's like there's a weight on her shoulders; though she can't be completely energetic with Kuzuryu, Sasaki, Levi, and even Ishtar dead... she's very happy after this particular thing happened. She's not even worried about getting--

Wait, crap, who the hell is that.]

Otori! Uh... [Act casual. Act casual, Koizumi. She puts both hands on the back of her neck.] Evening!

Comments

[glasshole]

[Laughs.]

If you think that, you may have gotten the wrong impression. No, I don't mind a little work. But of course, I wouldn't want to interfere if you haven't had a chance to run the idea past Miss Shameimaru.

[photonement]

Your stock-monitoring ways say a *little* different. [Actively teasing! Wow, such progress.]

[glasshole]

No, I'm being quite sincere. At any rate, hand-copying documents isn't something I do regularly, but it wouldn't be any trouble.

[photonement]

Awww, but I'm not sure how good it'll look on your resume. If Aya-chan's editor-in-chief and I'm managing editor, then you're only gonna get third place copy editor!

But we don't really put the titles down formally - it doesn't make sense when you have less than a zillion employees - we're pretty equal, just depends who gets the most material in a day - and she's faster at writing anyway, so it's hard to keep up.

[glasshole]

Third place copy editor is more than fine by me. My resume can always use a little diversification.

[There, joking right back.]

[photonement]

[Laughing softly... She misses Togami and Hinata. Achingly, she wonders if Komaeda has wailed on Hinata in their absence.]

How many different internships and such have you had, anyway? Does the Otori conglomerate do any work with cell phones, or did you import yours from Steve Jobs' lockbox?

[glasshole]

Ahaha. We're primarily in hospital management, actually. I'm still a student, so really, all I do is help out my family whenever I can.

In all honesty, I doubt it's very interesting...

[photonement]

Aw, now how am I supposed to handle that? "Oh, yeah, it's super boring?" That'd be kinda rude. But I don't know a whole lot about that stuff, I just took care of my dad, and I had a friend who was a professional nurse, that's about it. So I don't know if I could hold up an intelligent conversation about it either...

[glasshole]

It isn't a test. If you're not interested in the business world, why would I want to involve you in a conversation about it? I don't happen to expect others to hold intelligent conversations about topics they aren't knowledgeable in, and find it a little tedious when they try. As I'm sure you would feel if I attempted to feign knowledge of photography.

[Actually, he is pretty knowledgeable but he doesn't mention that.]

No, I really don't mind if you aren't interested. There's plenty else to discuss.

[photonement]

I could go on about how pathetic it is - like, "Double Lens Reflex" is just the saddest thing I've ever heard. But...

[Feels attack.]

Things have changed a lot. From how they were, the last time we got to really talk.

[glasshole]

Oh? By which you meant Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu?

[photonement]

...Yeah.

[BIG SIGH]

The whole time he was a-alive, I didn't trust him -- I thought he didn't even have our class's best interests in mind, you know? But I was proven totally wrong about that... and how the VIPs are operating in general.

[Deep breath] If we're gonna have more intelligent discussions... you should probably know that I've come to feel sorta the same way about my own class as you do about yours.

[glasshole]

Hmm?

[Unsure how to take her meaning.]

In what way do you mean? You don't suspect them?

[photonement]

[Glancing back to make sure nobody is right next to them or anything, and continuing in a slightly lower voice]

Yeah... I don't. First off, I've always really thought they would have converted him if they were on the team. Since he was so reclusive, Ibuki-chan only had this little bit of time with him in the park. Tanaka and Peko-chan are aloof all the time and wouldn't necessarily need to put on the big displays that they have been. And besides when things got out of hand with Levi, all of us really wanted to use evidence and punish his killers and get out of here alive together.

I know I have no huge effect on what the VIPs do, so I don't want to beat myself up or anything like if I'd done something different Kuzuryuu wouldn't have died, but I guess I regret thinking the worst of him, you know? Just leaves this awful taste in my mouth.

[Looking up at him; steely.] I wanna trust people whenever I can, and see the best in them from now on, and work hard for everyone... even if I have to take risks, I won't lie or run away anymore.