Shirogane crept in furtively, without a word, as he found his place--a comfortably lonely spot in the corner where he could see but not be seen and keep his back against the wall. He could have been happy to see the chairwoman, under normal circumstances, however her presence only made the meeting harder to sit through due to the heavy burden of his shame. He would seek her forgiveness after he had made amends, although he was not sure why her forgiveness was so important to him. There was some relief being here in this depressing atmosphere, knowing that, whether they were judging him or not, his peers were at least sharing the same sense of responsibility. Still, the way Yoro handled everything so matter-of-fact--Shiro was still troubled by their leader's response to the news of his friend's kidnapping--that frightened him. His punishment could be to be whipped within an inch of his life and Shirogane was certain Yoromatsu could handle it as just another point on the agenda. Furthermore, Youhei's comment struck a chord, How much of that unhealthy pessimism is on account of myself? Besides Ikeda, I was the one leading our recruits...and I... How much of the situation were the others aware of? Ikeda and pony-boy (Akira honestly couldn't remember his name--if he had ever learned it to begin with--and the boy's real name was at risk of being replaced with Rainbow Dash at this point) had witnessed his collapse, but what about Youhei and Yoro? And whatever happened to that wild man? Did I temporarily go insane and just imagine him? What part of my psyche did that crawl out of...? Wasn't I protecting Ikeda at the time? Stellar performance right there... His mental breakdown had come almost immediately after that and trying to remember anymore very really made his head physically hurt. Wow, a repressed memory that I'm aware of. That can't be good. In the middle of their talk, Shirogane found himself somewhat amused by his own psychosis. It was a so-depressing-it-hurts kind of dark humor, but still amusing nonetheless. He was too aware of his place in things to make the mistake of laughing out loud at a time like this, however. Mentally shaking himself, he tried to focus on their discussion. Youhei's got a good point... Of course, Shirogane was smart enough that the first time he saw that Tartarus replaced the school building during the Dark Hour he wondered what happened to it the rest of the time. Same coin, two different sides. Why was he not surprised it took Youhei this long to figure it out? He bit his lip. There was that damned smugness even at a time like this. Maybe he deserved that whipping, or at least a punch in the face.