Leave a message after the tone...

[purposive]

This is Inaho Kaizuka. I am not here to take your call, please leave a message.

[Beep!]

Comments

[ Text ]

[uttertrash]

[ Of course Kuroo has gone out of his way to chat up the guy since their first meeting, if only to find out a little bit more about him or his weird ideas about traitors in their midst or something. Not that it’s all that far-fetched—stay here long enough and you begin to develop a sense of paranoia of your own. In Kuroo’s case, he’s redirecting most of those fears into everyone around him.

The more unidentifiable students seem to be trickling back into the classrooms and club rooms, but after the ordeal with that dog thing, well… ]

hey kaizuka
haven’t seen you around lately
you ok?

[ Text ]

[purposive]

[The other had become a class constant when he was there. Inaho looks down at his phone and taps at a few keys with his good hand.]

Yeah. I'm okay.

[If the other expected more friendly greetings from Inaho then he had a lot to learn still.]

[uttertrash]

[ That's three more words than he was expecting from the guy, actually. ]

good
you coming out of that rock youre hiding under soon?

[purposive]

I'm not hiding.

[He's just not coming to class. He's trying to relax and heal thank you very much.]

[uttertrash]

yeah sure you just happen to be out of sight for a while

[ Would be nice if you told your new self-imposed pal your whereabouts every once in a while… ]

is everything REALLY ok?

[purposive]

I'm dealing with the consequences of my actions.

[That's a first for Inaho really. He had always somehow always escaped having to do that back home due to circumstances.]

[uttertrash]

[ …Who even talks like that? Too formal, yo. ]

look, that dog thing fucked us all really bad
whatever it is probably isnt your fault

[ He knows what it's like to be possessed by weird ghosts—which he's assuming is what happened to Inaho somehow. ]

[purposive]

[He doesn't respond for a long time. Then finally, finally there is a response.]

Will you bring me a ruler and some bandages?

[The other could at least do that much even if he made him leave after.]

[uttertrash]

[ …FINALLY, you asshole ]

sure
maybe i can find a better splint than that though [ assuming that that's what the ruler is for… ]

so how bad is it?
i can get some other first aid stuff too

Text

[purposive]

I have a broken wrist and some bruises and abrasions.

[uttertrash]

thats not too bad i guess [ It really could have been worse… ]
i'll get you a splint and other stuff so just sit tight
where are you anyway?

[purposive]

[He should see the other people. But of course Inaho would never say anything like that, but he thinks something along the lines of, I could have killed and would have killed Slaine had he not broken my wrist.]

By the pool.

[uttertrash]

[ At least, for the moment, he’s blissfully unaware of what’s going on between him and Slaine—which is really more than he needs to know, granted. So all he does is text him: ]

I’ll be there soon

[ —before dropping by the pool with the needed supplies. The place brings about a certain kind of nostalgia, since he’d had to bring some of his own teammates here earlier on. Maybe Inaho had to be dunked into the pool, too. Did that mean he’d been caught by the monster too? How had he changed then?

Kuroo mentally shrugs those speculations off, before announcing his presence as he approached the other: ]

Yo. Don’t even think about jumping in there.

[purposive]

It would be hard to maneuver with a broken wrist. I won't be jumping in there any time soon.

[Hie sits next to the pool, waiting quietly for the other to arrive, when he does he looks up over towards Kuroo. He raises a hand briefly and then settles back down looking at the water quietly.]

[uttertrash]

…Good. [ For lack of anything better to say. ]

You had to get tossed in there too, didn’t you? [ he says that offhandedly as he squats next to Inaho and begins rummaging in his first aid kit. ]

[purposive]

[He doesn't answer right away. But eventually he does answer.]

Yes.

[If not he probably would have ended up killing someone.]

[uttertrash]

You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. [ And Inaho most likely won't. He sighs. ]

Can you give me your wrist? I got a proper splint here we could use.

[purposive]

[He offers his wrist after a moment of hesitation. He normally wouldn't ask for help, but trying to do a splint by himself is counterproductive.]

I thought what I was doing was logical. I hurt several people.

[Desk legs are good weapons.]

[uttertrash]

[ They would have made good splints too, if Inaho had done any worse. ]

This place has a way of making you think that, yeah. [ He recalls whatever-it-is that possessed him to climb the cherry tree back then. No point in blaming anyone for something they can't help. ]

[purposive]

I almost killed them.

[He says it, and while the other does what he does to splint his wrist, he looks at the water.]

There is a difference between myself and the others around me.

[uttertrash]

[ That…actually shuts him for a while, which is just as well since he's still attending to that wrist of his. ]

Yeah. You said you were some kinda soldier, right? [ That really does explain a lot to him, anyway. ]

[purposive]

[Once the other seems to be at a stopping point, he pulls his arm reflexively back against his abdomen, turning to look at Kuroo as he shrugs slightly.]

We were all trained to deal with the inevitable invasion of Earth by Vers. When they finally did we were conscripted into the UFE and stationed aboard a battleship known as the Deucalion.

[uttertrash]

[ … ]

Only about half of those made sense to me. [ Work on your people skills some more, Inaho, omfg ]

But I get it. Whatever it is, it's pretty big, so you're trained in all sorts of things, right?

[purposive]

Only certain things. Self defense, weapons training, piloting, and first aid.

[He stares at Kuroo for a second before his gaze shifts back to the water and he goes silent.]

Most people don't have to understand it. It's a different world after all, one that has been at war with the Vers empire for a long time. I've never thought about what a life without a threat of war would be like.

[uttertrash]

…

Is it any worse than being in here? [ After all, there's no war here, and Kuroo knows that, as a civilian living in a peaceful era, he really has no frame of reference for these kinds of things. ]