Trapped Behind Words: InuOkko

Chapter 25: Women

The look on Toge's face was difficult to ignore. Had the meeting not gone well? If it hadn't, why wasn't he saying anything? The man hadn't mentioned a word about seeing the engineer, and it had almost been a week. Gojo had offered to drive Yuta and his supposed "newfound friend" Yuji to the group meeting, but the pair refused.

The goal was to maintain as little contact as possible, then after the second meeting, they would appear publicly as friends. Yuji's hair was blond, a starkly different color from the pink Yuta had initially seen him with. Of course, the most noticeable thing was the look in his eyes when he approached the spiky-haired Fushiguro in the meeting room.

There they all were; Yuji had mentioned it was typical for the second meeting to be a bit more variable than any other. Then again, Yuji didn't claim to know all that much about the situation with the time replays. He knew the rules, at least some of them, but didn't know everything. That was, if Yuta were to trust him completely.

"Sorry I'm late," a female voice called into the room.

As she entered, it seemed like several people recognized her. Her hair was dark, and her eyes hung heavy on her face as if she had seen more than she cared to. What was Ms. Shoko doing at the meeting?

Yuta darted his eyes to Toge first, who seemed just as surprised with a slackened jaw. Then Yuta moved his sight to Yuji who shook his head with a gentle shrug. However, the man with the stuffed panda toy greeted Ms. Shoko like an old friend, and Maki gave her a silent nod.

"It's been a while, I know. Where's ol' snowball?" Shoko asked.

"Ms. Shoko? You came to this group?" Yuta couldn't stop his voice from speaking up.

She gave him a smile with only her lips, "Yeah, Satoru is an old friend. We used to run in the same circles."

The advice Yuji had given ran through the back of Yuta's mind as the woman spoke. This meeting was more than a group of people getting together with a similar issue. There were serious powerhouses amongst them–some chose to live in the shadows only coming to the surface when there was something of value. It was a lion's den, and the only way out was to become a lion.

Yuta couldn't show any obvious concern. If she was part of Gojo's faction, then she would surely notice. Ieiri Shoko was supposed to be a lowly bartender at Miguel's restaurant. The place wasn't fancy, so the idea that Gojo had entered the establishment in his life would be unbelievable at best.

"Oh, Shoko," Gojo said as he entered the room with a frown. "Long time no see."

As Gojo Satoru spoke, Yuta felt his icy blue gaze slice through the room. Ieiri Shoko was not associated with Gojo. Yuta shifted his sight back to Toge who had relaxed his eyes; either he knew who Shoko was or he was pretending to.

"Is that how you greet your best friend? Jeez, I need a smoke and the meeting hasn't even started," Shoko smiled sincerely.

"I just didn't know how to react. That's all. Well, since everyone should be here by now, maybe we should start with a question," Gojo moved to one of three open seats.

Shoko positioned herself next to Fushiguro and the redhead that had come to see Yuta before, while Gojo sat between an empty chair and a scruffier old man. The redhead, Kugisaki, was her name, was expressionless. She was a good actor compared to Yuji who seemed on the edge of his seat with excitement sitting on the other side of Fushiguro.

"Let's start with Shoko, since you were one of the first members. If you were going to paint your house, what color would you choose?" Gojo smirked, as if he had full control over the room.