Archive of Our Own

"It's as I feared..." He was grumbling in his usual cold tone, eyes narrowing as he looked carefully at the data. He quickly walked away from the machine, picking up his copy of Comic PonPon he always read. "Not only do you have an ugly face, you have an ugly mind."

Junko sighed in relief as he began spitting his usual remarks at her. She stuck out her tongue and crossed her arms at him.

"Hey! I'm improving, my brain can't possibly be that ugly, right? And besides, I'm waaaaaaaaaay cuter than you are!" 

Groaning, Yasuke rubbed the bridge of his nose as he scowled. Junko almost began to feel a small hint of pleasure at seeing someone so dear to her experiencing such irritation at her actions, before pushing it down. No, she was getting better, by some miracle, and if she relapsed now, it'd probably be way worse than the last time. Though, that being said (or, well, thought), feeling this hint of joy from Yasuke's displeasure wasn't necessarily going to lead to her relapsing, would it? The last time she'd heard from the research around her mind and condition was that, at her current state, at least, her relapses were caused by experiencing an immense amount of despair in a rapid period of time, so this probably couldn't cause her to relapse.

Her condition was so strange, though. It led to her needing to be kept in a special cell to prevent her from hurting herself or others whilst a special medication was being made, in order to prevent her from being able to predict everything and strip her from the endless boredom that bred her great enjoyment for despair, but even with the medication, that didn't get rid of her lust for despair - it just stripped Junko of her excuse. 

Some random doctor, one Junko didn't know much but had been forced to tell her the leading theories on her condition that one time told her that one of the possibilities had been that, maybe, she experienced a large amount of negative emotions in her formative years, on top of her high intelligence in comparison to those her age at the time, that it led to her developing an enjoyment towards the negativity as a coping mechanism; that the negative experiences outweighed postive experiences to the point that Junko's brain somehow managed to associate despair with dopamine and the reward centres of the brain. 

Though, it wasn't like her childhood was that bad; Her dad only had a one-night stand with their mother, and then didn't give any sort of child benefits - their mother didn't have the name, anyways, so nothing could be done since she couldn't get an abortion, and even then, she couldn't ever find him if she looked around the area or even the entire country, what with their father most likely being a foreigner. Their mother only hit them and called them names, she couldn't be faulted that much, since she didn't want the child, let alone twins, and her parents forced her to. They were only stuck on the streets, and it was their fault for running away, but the twins couldn't be blamed either - their mother wasn't good! Mukuro only ran away to join a mercenary group after they got adopted by a family that took them on holiday, a family that sent Junko back a month later because she was 'bad', and it took another 5 months to get another family. Yasuke only started isolating himself after his mother died to focus on neurology, and that was Junko's own fault since she thought it was a good idea to make him go on a wild goose chase to find out who destroyed her sandcastle, when it was always just her, giving him less time to see his fucking dying mother-

"Are you even paying attention?"

Junko shook her head as she snapped out of her thoughts, looking directly into Yasuke's eyes.

"Nah, just thinking. And besides, you know I wouldn't listen to whatever boring drivel you think I need to know about my perfect mind~!" She shot him a cheeky grin, as he groaned.

"Honestly, I don't know why I bother with you. Whatever. Your brain is fine at the moment. Thats the gist of it, anyways." 

Junko grabbed Yasuke by the waist and squeezed him in one of her once-very-torturous-but-now-

comforting bear hugs.

"Because you wuv mwe!!!" Junko giggled as he started trying to push her off of him, opening his mouth to speak, until the door creaked open, revealing Mukuro.

Mukuro bashfully looked away, as if she had walked in on them doing something worse than just cuddling. As much as Junko loved her sister now, she really did have to stop acting as though this sort of stuff is a big deal.

Yasuke was still trying to push Junko off, as Mukuro finally walked over to them. 

"I just came to pick up Junko to go to the music room. She told me that she'd be done by now." Mukuro frowned. "I didn't interrupt you in the middle of your session, did I?"

Junko shook her head as Yasuke sighed.

"No, we were just finishing. She's fine." Junko finally let go of him, walking to Mukuro's side as he sat down on the bed. "I've had enough of staring at your gross face. Leave me alone."

Mukuro glared at him as Junko grinned, resting her arm on her sister's shoulder, blowing a kiss at Yasuke.

"Okay, bye~! I loooooove you!" Mukuro dragged her out by the wrist.

It had been about two weeks since Junko met Izuru Hinata and his freaky inhuman talent. She managed to find his number by asking around (mostly just harassing Mikan, as he seemed to be related to the guy who Chiaki was friends with, and she wouldn't tell her unless she beat her at a game - which Junko could do, but her analyst ability wasn't active enough to be able to predict those moves to a one hundred percent accuracy and beat her - curse you, you effective pills...) and had been messaging him every hour of every day (oof, maybe don't exaggerate too much, Junko...)!

Today, she was meeting him with Mukuro in the music room. She was hoping to be able to convince him to join the twins in their band, and then that'd be 3 members out of the 4 she wanted. Then, all she'd have to do is find someone who grabbed her attention like Izuru had, though that was annoyingly troublesome, since she only really found Izuru interesting because they had similar struggles. Speaking of which, she'd show Izuru their SEKAI if they were really having problems convincing him, and she could say it was some bullshit fate thing. Actually, maybe that wouldn't be too wise. Actually actually, maybe it'd be better to talk inside the SEKAI so nobody could listen in or interrupt their dealings - unfortunately, Mukuro had to join them, so it wasn't like they had a bodyguard, nor could they get one - that's how they'd end up with someone leaking all of their information, since nobody was as trustworthy a guard as Mukuro.

Junko kicked open the door to the music room grinning and blushing as though she were a school girl with a crush (even though she already had partners who'd probably throttle her if she tried to pursue Izuru (at least without asking them), plus Izuru didn't seem all that interested in her. Anyways, it wasn't like she wanted this to be much more than a business relationship. Well, maybe a friendship at best, but mostly business for the time being. Maybe she'd upgrade his position later on.)), waving her arm at Izuru, before she opened her eyes and realised that he had brought someone with him. Junko's face suddenly went blank.

The girl had long, indigo hair, blue eyes, half moon glasses and wore a uniform that seemed to have been specially fashioned for her - well, Junko had never seen something like it herself before, and it definitely wasn't the Hope's Peak Uniform but modified, like her own. Unless it somehow was and this girl just modified it a bunch to look entirely different.

But that wasn't the point!! She wasn't invited! Junko finally blinked, shaking her head before pointing at the girl.

"What are you doing here?! This is a private meeting-!!" 

The girl smiled awkwardly before walking towards her, grasping Junko's hands in her own.

"You must be Ms.Enoshima, right? I really admire your work! I'm Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer. Honestly, it's shocking we've never met before, since our talents are so similar - you know, cosplaying is fashion, and both take time, care and love for the clothes you make, ah, i'm rambling, aren't I? A plain girl such as myself probably doesn't interest you that much, and to think, I've been thinking of how to try talking to you today - Izuru told me I could c-"

Junko pulled away from Tsumugi, groaning.

"God, just shut up! I don't care. You aren't supposed to be here, and maybe Izuru said you could come for whatever reason, but he was wrong. This is private business. Besides, just listening to you is annoying me. Buzz off."

Junko watched as Tsumugi deflated, before opening her mouth, about to speak. 

"Out!" Junko pointed to the door, though prepared to have to get Mukuro to throw Tsumugi out. Luckily, Tsumugi shut her mouth, before walking out sadly. Junko felt a burst of joy and pleasure in seeing the despair on Tsumugi's face, before sighing. No, she can't think like that. Right? Right.

Izuru stared at the twins as they walked up to him.

"She followed me. I believed her being here would not be an issue, so I let her. I assume I misunderstood the purpose of our meeting?"

Junko clicked her tongue as she let out a frustrated grunt.

"Well, yeah. This is a special private meeting! Just the two of us and Mukuro!"

"...Am I being treated as a third wheel in this situation, or..?"

"Shut up, stinky! Anywho, Izuru, it's like, totally a privacy issue for us to just talk here, ya know?"

Izuru looked around before staring back at Junko once more. "There's nobody else here."

Junko groaned before facepalming. "K, but people could be listening in from outside, like that little rat just now!"

"You really shouldn't say stuff like that..." Mukuro shook her head. Seeing this, Junko huffed and rolled her eyes.