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What had happened in the club between him and Doctor Akechi was, of course, strictly between them and the more that Nobutomo thought about it the more that it made sense. The strange leather straps that he’d wear underneath his clothing, the chains, the overall secrecy that he conducted himself with after hours, although he didn’t seem in the least bit ashamed about it and nor did he have any reason to be. They’d both enjoyed it and they’d both wanted it and neither of them had been harmed, Akechi had climbed on top of him and –
Okay, Nobutomo sternly told himself, enough. He was currently supervising tryouts and couldn’t afford to be distracted, not when he was expected by the Headmaster to put together a top-tier team for this academic year. And yet ever since that night a handful of days ago all he had been able to see was Doctor Akechi Mitsuhide, everywhere, and in everything. The white curtains over the office windows the empty chains that usually held the mats swinging through the air, clinking softly against one another. Damn it damn it damn it.
He made a few notes on his clipboard as one of the returning students executed a particularly good pin – outstanding technique, as could be expected from someone who had studied under him for so long. Second or third year, perhaps, his mind was a mess and he doubted that he could even spell his own name right if prompted, with how scrambled his brain was.
Akechi.
“Yes?”
Nobutomo nearly leapt eight feet into the air at the soft voice that had come from just inches behind him, and he spun sharply to find –
Speak of the devil, he thought, looking with dread into Akechi’s silver-green eyes. He was wearing that smirk – was he ever not? Nobutomo couldn’t quite recall ever seeing him with any other expression, now that he’d thought of it. Had he spoken his name out loud? How much had he said? None of those questions actually made it out of his mind, however, and instead he stood there, as stunned as a rather large rabbit while Mitsuhide laughed demurely.
“No need to frighten yourself, Coach Nobutomo – I’m simply here as a safety precaution, you see.”
Oh.
Nobutomo suddenly felt extremely ashamed for not having thought of this earlier – of course. It was like this every year, after all, he would linger in the corner in the event that something went horribly awry. Doctor Akechi was a very reputable physician, after all, and all that had flown right out of his ear the second he’d seen him because all he could think about was that night when he had, for some godforsaken reason, followed him.
Mitsuhide seemed to be going on as if nothing had happened, as if this was completely normal, but perhaps it was, for him at least. For Nobutomo, however, it was an entirely different beast. He couldn’t ever recall having been in such unfamiliar waters in years, and it was unnerving – but Nobutomo was not one to be deterred easily, whatever that was supposed to mean. He never had been. And this would be no different.