Chapter Text
It was easy at first. Rock, Uno, and Nico took it well. They too were well travelled, wise in the ways of the world, Nico wasn't even surprised.
"If this were an anime, it'd be a common headcannon I'm sure. You remind me a lot of this other character from an older show. It was really popular in its prime- enough to be considered a classic!"
They'd begun to watch that show, even though that character didn't show up for a while. It was funny, a little absurd, but funny.
They got permission for a group sleepover- with Seitorou supervising- and it went of relatively well for the first few hours. The group talked and laughed and generally had a good time. Usually it wasn't a big deal when Seitorou had to crash their group events, since he was practically part of the group himself by this point. He was around way more often than Hajime with the wedding, and over the few months everyone had more or less accepted him into their midst.
Which left an issue.
He was still technically a guard, and until now everyone had respected that he had certain limitations on what could go on. Even if he wasn't, he was still very much a rules guy, and doing dangerous things made him scared and the group wouldn't ever force him to do something that made him uncomfortable.
And that's all fine and good until something like this happens- something everyone knew they could trust Seitorou with as a friend, but not necessarily as a guard. He couldn't keep secrets for them, not like this anyway. To some extent what happened in cell 13 stayed there: games of truth or dare, Rock's old stories from his gang days, that sort of thing. But if someone slipped up about Tsukumo, there was a good chance Seitorou would be required to say something.
So when Seitorou noticed that everyone was uncomfortable, he stopped mid conversation.
"Guys what's wrong?"
"N-nothing!" Uno blurted awkwardly.
Seitorou's shoulders dropped as he scanned the room, "something's obviously wrong. Come on guys, you know I'm not gonna get mad."
"Yeah. We know. It's not about you- as a person." Nico babbled, "we totally trust you as our friend because you're an angel but you have to think about your work and this we can't tell you because reasons!"
"Well... is anyone in danger? Can you tell me that?"
"No. Yes? Kind of." Jyugo replied, "not danger danger but we're just kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place where neither option seems good."
Seitorou's eyes grew misty, eyebrows furrowed, "well I can't help if you don't tell me! What are the options at least?"
"Either someone's likely to suffer some mental trauma, or lose their entire support system and their only friends."
There was a long moment of silence where Seitorou thought to himself.
"And if you tell me who it is and why, I'll have to say something to my superiors, and somehow that will separate the group. Which no one wants. But if you don't go through with it, whoever it is won't be getting the help they need?"
"Exactly." Jyugo said with a nod.
"I think I get the picture. Kind of. You know what, I'll look into it and see exactly how stuck the situation is. We might not be in as bad of a position as it sounds."
Nico sighed, "I hope you're right Sei."
It hurt a lot to see those kids so worried. This was supposed to be a happy new beginning for the whole prison, and instead the kids were worried about losing someone close to them.
It wasn't a good time, but he had to bring it up to the Warden.
--
"And the whole time Tsukumo never spoke. Everyone was vague about it, talking about how whoever it was would end up being separated from the group. I mean, I think it's kind of obvious what's going on but I don't want to tell you my theory because they trusted me with that info and-"
"I understand Seitorou. I had a conversation with Tsukumo myself and it all seems to match up.