Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As per usual, the thing that drew Shuichi out of his restless sleep was the signature chime that came before the morning announcement. It was something he had grown accustomed to over the course of the killing game, and while he was afraid to know what that meant long-term, it worked for him now and that was all that mattered.

What was not normal was waking up in an entirely different room, tied to a chair with absolutely zero recollection of when and how he got here. 

That woke him up extremely quickly. He snapped to attention, immediately wincing as his neck ached from the soreness of hanging his head. He’d try and massage the crinks out of the back of his neck, but he found that he could move neither of his arms. One was bound to his side with the rope restraining his upper body to the back of the chair, though his legs were free and so was his left arm. However, his left hand was useless, because there was something around his wrist preventing him from pulling his arm any further than a few inches without resistance.

For good measure, he tried tugging his hand free, and– 

“Owch! Hey, quit that, will you?”

“K-Kokichi?” Shuichi exclaimed in shock, straining his neck to try and see over his shoulder. And sure enough, directly behind him in a situation very similar to his, was Kokichi Ouma. “What the–”

“I already did the whole where am I and what happened gaping-in-terror routine, so if we could move past that, that’d be great,” Kokichi quipped, sounding entirely too calm for Shuichi’s liking. 

Bitterness welled up in Shuichi’s throat as he focused his eyes forward again, glaring ahead at the door at the very end of the room. He didn’t have time to deal with Kokichi’s… everything right now. There was a problem at hand and Shuichi would have difficulty solving it if he allowed Kokichi to play his mind games with him. 

First, he should figure out where he was. He might not be able to pin down his exact location, but he could at least examine the room and see what clues he could pick up from there. The initial thing he noticed was that the chair he was sitting in was a little unnaturally close to the ground. His knees were pushed upwards slightly, and if he had to guess, he'd be able to reach the ground if he really tried. There was a second chair directly behind him, which was where Kokichi was seated, much to his misfortune. 

The two of them were sat back-to-back in the center of an entirely empty gray, rectangular room. There was a big screen on one of the longer walls to his left, and directly across from him was a closed door that was a similar gray color to the walls. The room was illuminated only by a single light above them, which upon further look, also seemed to serve as some sort of vent. The room was a little chilly but not by much, so he wasn’t sure why a vent would be here.

As for himself, Shuichi was tied to his chair via ropes, his entire chest, midsection and right arm all being constricted closely by those binds. However, his left arm was free, and he could now see that he was handcuffed to who he recognized as Kokichi. While his legs were free, he doubted he’d be able to stand even if he convinced Kokichi to cooperate, seeing as ropes were connected directly to the chair he was in.

That was basically all there was to observe from their current situation, and with his thoughts now in order, he was easily able to recognize that he still didn’t have the faintest clue as to what was happening.

With no other options, Shuichi reluctantly turned his attention to the only person he could ask. “Kokichi, how long have you been awake?” 

“I’ve been awake the whole time!” Kokichi chipperly replied. “I watched as our abductor whacked you over the head and tied us to this chair.”

“Wh–”

“Buuut that’s a lie! It’s only been a few minutes, and I adjust really fast. In fact, people at my old school used to called me Adjusting Ouma.”

Why did it have to be him? Shuichi thought despairingly at whatever gods he had recently infuriated. Did solving the truth around Miu’s case really incite this much heavenly rage? Was this his celestial punishment for condemning such a kind, gentle person to death?

Okay, even Shuichi could admit that was a tiny bit dramatic. But he would have preferred to be tied to a chair with literally anyone else other than this guy. The wounds of the fourth class trial were still fresh on his heart, and to be put into a situation where his only source of support was Kokichi…? This was going to be a difficult day, he could tell that much.

Assuming Kokichi had woken up a little bit before he had, he could also assume that Kokichi didn’t have much of an idea about their current situation. 

“Is there anything across from you?” Shuichi asked, decidedly ignoring his lies. “I’m facing some sort of door, but it’s way out of reach.”

“Just a wall on my end,” Kokichi replied with a small hum. “It’s really gray and boring to look at, and I hate boring things! Do you think we can switch places, Shuichi?”

Shuichi’s face involuntarily scrunched up as he glanced back at Kokichi. “I don’t think we’re able to…”

“If we try hard enough, we can,” Kokichi insisted. “If we jump around enough, we can flip the chairs around and I can look at the door. Also, I’m gonna burn up like a vampire if this light shines any brighter.”

The light was really bright, Shuichi would give him that. The fluorescent hum of the vent-light was the only thing supplying any sort of background ambience right now, though Shuichi couldn’t say if that was a good or a bad thing right now. Then again, it probably wasn’t important.

“Do you have anything on you that could help us get out?” Shuichi asked instead. “My pockets are empty.”

“I don’t have anything on me either. My e-Handbook is gone, too,” said Kokichi. “Gah! They even stole my wallet!”

“Y-You… had a wallet?” he questioned dubiously. He quickly realized though, correcting himself with a hurried, “wait, no. That was a lie, wasn’t it?”

“Darn, ya got me!” Kokichi snickered, seeming to be taking this whole situation astoundingly well. “I’ve never owned a wallet in my life! Except for my Steam wallet, of course, but that’s probably a little harder to pickpocket.”

“What is… nevermind.” Shuichi sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to get any direct answers out of him. He had to stay focused and try to figure out a way out of this mess.

It was then that the screen on the wall abruptly switched to static, lighting up the entire room and making him jump in surprise. 

Then, Monokuma appeared, wine glass in hand. And really, Shuichi should have known that this was the bear’s doing from the minute he opened his eyes.

“Glad to see you two are finally awake!” Monokuma’s chipper voice rang out from overhead. Did the vent-light also serve as a speaker? What on earth? “I gave you two a bit ‘cause I had to explain the motive to your friends in the Ultimate Academy, but now I finally get to explain it to you!”

“Motive?” Shuichi echoed, his heart sinking low in his chest.

“And don’t bother with questions, I can’t hear you at all,” Monokuma continued. “The two of you must be real confused, so let me explain. As you’ve probably assumed, this is indeed the fifth motive, and boy is it an intense one! A lot goes into this motive so listen carefully, ‘cause I’m only saying it once. Due to a randomized wheel, you two have been selected as the candidates for the Death Puzzle motive. Every day, you’ll have to endure and complete one to two puzzles which will rely on teamwork, trust and extreme thinking. Failure to complete these puzzles will result in death for not only you two, but all of your classmates outside as well, so please tread cautiously! All of your lives are riding on you!”

While Shuichi was in suspended disbelief, Kokichi merely sighed. “Oooof course. Put the least trustworthy guy with the most trustworthy. This pairing was one hundred percent intentional.”

“Of course, this is a killing motive, so there is a way to free you from these puzzles!” said Monokuma. “One of your classmates on the outside has to kill a fellow student. It all boils down to putting yourself on the line to rescue others. But that part isn’t important to you two! What you should be thinking about now is your first puzzle, which I have so-cleverly named the Cuff Puzzle! As you’ve probably noticed, you’re both tied to a chair and handcuffed together. But not to worry! There is a way to escape! Every puzzle I’ve prepared is beatable so long as you work together, so there are no unfair tricks to worry about. 

“Since this is the first puzzle, I made it a pretty easy one. All you have to do is find a key, remove the handcuffs, and then you can free yourself from the chairs and proceed to the next room, which is mandatory for completing the puzzle. But don’t think you can dawdle, because if neither of you are in the room within ten minutes, toxic fumes will fill the air and you will both slowly choke to death as your lungs fail. It’s up to you, really!”

Shuichi’s head snapped upwards, horror threatening to suffocate him. That was why there was a vent above them– it was to kill them if they took too long.

“A few additional things to add before I start the timer is that theoretically, you can leave your teammate behind,” Monokuma said with a small shrug of its almost non-existent shoulders. “So long as either of you are alive, your classmates will be safe. But please do note that the puzzles are designed for two people, so leaving your teammate behind will make future puzzles difficult if not impossible. The puzzles will progressively become more difficult as time goes on, so try not to get too comfortable in this single difficulty. That’s pretty much all there is to say! I’ll leave you to it, but remember, you’ve only got ten minutes! Good luck!”

With that ominous note, Monokuma disappeared from the screen, which now displayed a big, red 10:00, which slowly began ticking down. Shuichi’s initial instinct was to start freaking the absolute fuck out, but panicking wasn’t going to get anything done. Staying calm and level-headed was crucial in a situation like this. 

Taking in slow, deep breaths proved to be difficult with the rope constraints weighing down his chest, though. But his body seemed to appreciate the sentiment, because his speeding heart rate slowed by just a little. 

“Ten minutes is a lot,” Kokichi commented. “I’ve escaped death traps like this in less than two.”

“When have you been in a death trap prior to this?” Shuichi demanded incredulously.

“I’m the leader of a secret, evil organization, Shuichi. People have it out for me,” Kokichi said with utmost seriousness.

With a sigh of frustration, Shuichi tore his eyes away from the timer and looked down at his binds. Ten minutes may seem like a lot right now, but what mattered was that there was a time limit at all. As soon as those numbers hit zero, it was all over, and not only would they die, but so would everyone else. 

“Can we agree for now to work together?” Shuichi dared to ask. “At the very least, for the sake of survival.”

“Mmmmmm…” Kokichi slowly hummed, “..mmm’okay. I can’t promise anything though! I might goof off… you sure about trusting me?”

“I don’t trust you at all,” Shuichi corrected him flatly. “But in this situation… it’s the only option I have. Are you sure you don’t have anything on you?”

“Completely positive,” said Kokichi. “Nothing’s in my bandana, and nothing’s in my pockets. Oh! Do you think the key is behind one of our eyes like that one movie?”

Shuichi hadn’t been allowed to watch many horror movies growing up, so he had absolutely no idea what Kokichi was talking about. He was sure that something like that wasn’t the case though– Monokuma did say this one would be easy. 

“Um… no.” Shuichi paused as another thought crossed his mind, and he frowned down at their linked hands. “Actually, how are we supposed to free ourselves? The only hands we have are these ones. How can we unlock the cuffs like this?”

“I can do that,” Kokichi announced in what he assumed was supposed to be some sort of reassurance. “The lock is on the underside of these cuffs, so if I get the key, I can definitely free us.”

That sounded like a good thing, but… “Is that a lie?” 

Kokichi gasped. “Have I ever lied to you, Shuichi?”

“...you do all the time.”

“I can’t believe you’re spreading false propaganda about me!” Kokichi immediately burst into definitely fake tears, which instinctively made him falter. “Slander is a crime, ya’know! I’ll take you to court once I’m done getting sued by Keeboy!”

“Can we focus?” Shuichi snapped. Usually he’d have a fraction more patience for Kokichi’s antics, but he was very stressed and the impending doom of the timer slowly ticking down was not helping in the slightest. “Do you see anything that we could use as a key?"

“Nope,” Kokichi reported almost immediately, popping the “p”. “I’m assuming there’s nothing on your side, either?”

“Nothing,” he sighed. “What else can we do, um… ah! Our legs are free, so check under the chairs. The key might be under there.”

With that realization, Shuichi carefully pawed around the floor with the tips of his shoes, and based on the small shuffle of clothes he heard, he assumed that Kokichi was doing the same as well. 

Relief hit him like a truck when he felt his foot come down on something on the floor. 

“I think I found it,” Shuichi announced with a heavy exhale. “I can probably pick it up, just… give me a second.”

“With your toes?” Kokichi unexpectedly asked him, sounding so genuinely disappointed that Shuichi almost laughed. Almost. It was more of a hysterical laugh than anything, because why was he not taking this seriously? 

“No, not with my toes,” he scoffed as soon as he recovered from the brief shock. “Can you please stop joking around? Please?”

“It was a genuine question!” Kokichi defended himself, before pouting childishly. “Hmph! Usually you’re way more fun than this.”

“I’m trying not to die,” Shuichi retorted sharply, focused on carefully nudging what he hoped was the key into the vicinity of his hand. “Sorry, I’m just… really stressed out– aha!”

His triumph was not short lived as he spotted a small key come into view. With some effort and a whine of protest from his teammate, he managed to scoop the key into his grasp. However, that was just one part of the puzzle, and they had seven minutes left to get through the door. That was probably doable, so long as they got these cuffs off.

Here came the next problem. Shuichi’s current teammate was Kokichi, the same guy who had been directly responsible for two very recent deaths and showed not a sliver of remorse for either victim. Kokichi brimmed with malice that poured from his mouth like a waterfall in the form of cruel laughter and venomous words; a two faced liar who took pleasure in the pain and suffering of others. That was who he had presented himself as, and that awful person was who Monokuma was forcing Shuichi to trust. 

“Heyyy, Shuichi? You got the key, right?” Kokichi’s voice made him jump slightly, and he gripped the key tighter. He didn’t understand how someone could boomerang between personalities so fast– how could someone who made such a twisted expression after Gonta’s execution be this same boy? The one who played games with him in their free time with such a carefree, sweet smile? 

Kokichi was an enigma in itself; a mystery Shuichi had yet to solve. He knew that those with the most evil of intentions often hid behind charming words and feigned kindness, but he was finding it hard to believe that the two sides of Kokichi he had seen were the same. Maki had once told him that he was way too trusting for his own good, but… when push came to shove, what other choice did he have right now? He certainly couldn’t unlock the cuffs with just one hand. And on the off chance that Kokichi hadn’t been lying…

Six minutes and thirty seconds on the timer. Shuichi had to make his decision fast.

“You’ll unlock the cuffs?” Shuichi asked his teammate cautiously.

“Of course,” he replied without hesitation. “I don’t want to die either, ya’know. And if I really have to, I refuse to die sitting in a chair. That’s, like, the lamest way to die.” 

That wasn’t entirely a vote of confidence, but it was the best Shuichi was going to get. So long as they worked under the same mindset of I don’t want to die, he was given hope that teamwork was a possibility. 

“Okay,” Shuichi finally accepted. He strained his arm to get his hand closer to Kokichi’s, carefully pushing the key towards the edge of his fingers for his teammate to grab. “Here.”

“Thaaaank you!” The key was easily taken from his hand, sealing his fate. “This might take a second, so be patient.”

Patient. Right. Shuichi could do that. He wasn’t entirely sure how Kokichi was going to pull this off, but he just had to believe in Kokichi’s powerful will to survive. 

There was about five and a half minutes remaining when the handcuffs clicked, and suddenly Shuichi’s arm was free. He pulled it away immediately and began pulling at his rope binds, which came loose with a few violent tugs. It was a big relief to stand up, and although the handcuffs were still dangling from his own wrist, he didn’t care.

“Man, my legs are sore,” Kokichi complained as he also stood, kicking the ropes to the side. “Alright, let’s get out of here.”

Shuichi nodded in agreement, hurrying to the door. That was a rough five minutes, but according to Monokuma, they’d be safe on the other side of this door–

Click.

The door didn’t budge. Shuichi shook the handle a few times, but it didn’t rotate at all. 

It was locked.

“Wh-What the..!?” Shuichi exclaimed, taking a bewildered step back. “It’s locked?”

“Locked?” Kokichi echoed, moving to try the door for himself. Sure enough, he got the same results. “...that figures. If I had my lock-picking tools I could probably open it, but…”

“He said all of the puzzles were beatable, right?” Shuichi recalled hurriedly. He glanced at the timer– five minutes on the mark. “W-We just have to find a key.”

Kokichi hummed skeptically. “I’m not sure how trustworthy Monokuma is… but alright! Use that detective intuition of yours and let’s get looking!”

There were only so many places a key could hide in this room. Shuichi’s first place to check was the chairs– they turned out to be bolted to the floor, but that was the least of his worries. While Kokichi was poking around the door itself, Shuichi stood on top of one of the chairs, reaching up towards the vent-light. It was a circular hole pushed upwards in the ceiling, and he could see a few inches of space between the ceiling layers. The light itself was behind a panel on that second layer, but if there was a key to the door anywhere, it’d be up here.

While reaching into the exact place where there were probably toxic gas fumes awaiting them wasn't a good idea, he didn’t have much of a choice. Steeling his nerves, he reached up and pushed his fingers into the space as much as he could, feeling around.

“What are you doing?” he heard Kokichi ask him from below. 

“This is the only place we haven’t checked,” Shuichi grunted with effort. His fingers brushed against something that made him flinch. “Gah–! I touched something soft!”

“I wouldn’t think about it too much,” Kokichi advised nonchalantly. “Is there a key up there or what?”

Shuddering, Shuichi continued to feel around, and he finally felt what he had been looking for. Seizing it fiercely, he pulled his hand free and hopped down from the chair, examining what he had grabbed. Indeed, it was a key, which was bigger than the ones they’d used for their handcuffs. And more worryingly, there were three minutes on the clock.

“Great!” Kokichi swiped the key from his hand and raced to the door, jabbing it into the keyhole and twisting it. Shuichi’s knees felt weak with relief as the door swung open with Kokichi’s aggressive shove. 

Without waiting any longer, the two of them practically lunged through the doorway, almost tripping over each other as the door closed behind them and cut off all forms of light in the room. 

“That was… stressful,” Shuichi breathed, clutching his chest tightly. His heart was pounding wildly, the dying adrenaline making it somewhat difficult to breathe. It took them seven whole minutes to get out of what was supposedly the easiest puzzle they were going to be given, though he supposed some of that time was spent because Shuichi had been struggling to put his faith in Kokichi.

And he actually helped, Shuichi only just then processed. He couldn’t see Kokichi in the darkness, but he could hear him breathing.

…no, I can’t get too comfortable. He still led Gonta and Miu to their deaths… I can’t forget that. 

“That was pretty fun!” Kokichi commented in return. “We all need some life-threatening wake-up calls once in a while. What do you think is gonna happen next? Maybe we’ll have to fight our way out of a barn full of corn before we’re crushed to death.”

“What?” Shuichi couldn’t help but ask, raising an eyebrow in the direction of his voice. “Um, I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”

“You never knooow~ ♪”

A heavy sigh escaped his mouth and he ran his hand down his face, already exhausted. Yeah, he might have overestimated how dependable Kokichi was just a little bit.

“So, is this our reward?” Kokichi wondered, followed by the sound of shuffling clothes. “We beat the first puzzle only to be plunged into eternal darkness?”

“Unless this is another puzzle…?” Shuichi shivered. “Monokuma did say we’d have to do one or two puzzles every day…” 

“Back to back?” Kokichi questioned him doubtfully. “I guess that’s not too outrageous when you consider it’s Monokuma we’re dealing with… actually, hey, when did he set all this up anyway?”

“Maybe it’s always been set up,” Shuichi suggested quietly. “It’s a motive, right? They had to have been thought out before-hand… maybe before the killing game even started.” 

“That’s a pretty big jump in extremity. Did the mastermind get lazy or something and just dish out bullshit for us the last four times? Knowing they had crazy stuff like this makes me think the killing game could have been WAY more exciting! Booooriiiiiing!”

Shuichi really, truly, did not know. He also did not want to deal with Kokichi’s grim eccentricities when they were in apparent danger– not even just the two of them. Everyone was in danger. Monokuma said so itself; if they failed a puzzle, not only would they die, but all of their classmates would be killed as well. Shuichi didn’t know how much that awful fact mattered to Kokichi, and to be completely honest, he didn’t really want to find out.

“Maybe we just have to find a light switch,” his teammate mused. “Oh! Maybe when we turn on the lights, we’ll find out we’re on a platform surrounded by lava!”

“I think we’d definitely notice if we were surrounded by lava,” Shuichi pointed out. “That’d be kind of hard to m–”

The lights turned on abruptly, momentarily blinding him and hurting his somewhat light-sensitive yellow eyes. He let out an involuntary yelp of surprise, and he did not appreciate Kokichi’s muffled snickering, thank you very much. 

Once his eyes readjusted to the light, he took a good look around at the room they were in. It looked like some kind of bland hotel room with no windows, having a singular bed in the center of the room, a small fridge, a microwave, a big closet, what he was going to boldly assume was a functional TV, and he could see a doorway that led to what looked like a bathroom. This bathroom, however, had no door.

Barely just a second later, the TV switched on, revealing Monokuma once more. The two of them hurried over to stand in front of the TV, both glaring at the bear.

“Welcome to the Objective Room. If you made it here, you’re not dead, and I applaud you for that!” Monokuma clapped its paws together a few times, which simply came across as mocking rather than cheer. “This is where you’ll be spending your free time in between puzzles! You’ll be supplied with necessities like food, clothes and water, and any used resources will be resupplied after the nighttime announcement. Puzzles will occur once after every morning announcement and occasionally after every nighttime announcement, depending on the difficulty of the morning puzzle. Spend that time in between talking, bonding, fighting, sleeping, eating… whatever you need to do! I do, however, advise against showering or eating before each announcement, because I will have to forcibly put you two to sleep from time to time… so tread carefully.

“That’s all you need to know about this motive. If any additional information comes up, I’ll let you know right away! Buh-bye, and good luuuuck~!” 

With that, the TV shut off, leaving the two of them in dead silence. Shuichi could only stare at the black screen, which faintly reflected his own dumbstruck face back at him.

“I’m declaring this the most boring motive actually,” Kokichi announced, rolling his eyes and finally turning away from the screen. He climbed onto the bed, crossing his legs and resting his cheek in his palm. “We have to sit here for twelve hours? Seriously?”

“It’s better than having to do death puzzles back to back to back,” Shuichi pointed out. He hesitated before asking, “...do you really think someone would kill just to save us?”

“Hmm… probably not.” Kokichi offered him a shrug. “If it were Kaito in here, then Maki would totally go crazy to save him. But since it’s you… well, from what I’ve seen, you’re expendable or something. So no. Kaito will probably go on one of his dumb rants about keeping the peace and that he believes in you or something like that.”

As mean as that remark was, Shuichi found himself agreeing to an extent. He highly doubted that any of his friends would kill each other just to save them, or at the very least him. 

That, however, did not make Shuichi feel any better, because there was another catch to this motive that had been nagging at him this whole time. Monokuma had said that if they failed a puzzle, everyone was going to die. That was stress not only on him and Kokichi, but also on everyone outside, who were forced to wait and see if they’d succeed.

“More importantly… Shuichi. There’s something very serious we have to address,” Kokichi told him with startling intensity.

“Wh… What is it?” Shuichi asked a little nervously.

“There’s two of us and one bed.” 

…oh. “What?” 

Kokichi’s serious look did not shift in the slightest. “We have two options here. We either share the bed, or you sleep in the shower.”

“Why am I sleeping in the shower!?” he demanded incredulously.

“Because I am the Supreme Leader of Evil, and the Supreme Leader of Evil needs his beauty sleep!” Kokichi retorted sharply. “I am NOT sleeping in the shower!” 

You’re more like the Supreme Leader of Neediness… Shuichi thought but didn’t dare to say out loud. 

“Okay, let’s just share the bed,” Shuichi decided with a sigh. He had woken up less than an hour ago and he was already extremely tired of today. “It’s big enough for us both and I’m good at sleeping on the edge. I, ah… might sleep-talk a little though…”

“You sleep-talk?” Kokichi inquired with a curious spark in his violet eyes, and Shuichi immediately found himself regretting saying anything. “Ooh, now I’m excited! What kind of stuff do you say?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged helplessly, “I’m asleep. Just… don’t take anything I might say too seriously.”

“You’re saying that like you’re gonna confess your love for me in your sleep or something,” Kokichi commented teasingly, and Shuichi instinctively stiffened, looking away from the boy with a tight scowl.

“I-It’s not anything like that,” Shuichi insisted. Aware that he was not helping his situation, he groaned lightly and turned fully towards the bathroom. “I’m gonna look around.”

“O-kay! Have fun!”

This was going to be a rough couple of days, Shuichi could already tell.

The bathroom was pretty typical and looked similar to the one in their dorms. They had a bathtub, a sink and a toilet. Shuichi was not a big fan of the lack of a door, but at least everything was around the corner, and that was the most they were going to get. There were two white towels hanging on the towel rack, and the mirror was just a plain old mirror that didn’t open. 

Overall, there wasn’t much in the bathroom, so Shuichi took to poking around the main room. The bedsheets were white and so were the pillows, but the mattress was surprisingly comfortable. As he had anticipated, both he and Kokichi easily fit on the bed, so long as he stayed on the very edge of it. He didn’t move much in his sleep so he was alright with this arrangement. 

The microwave was functional and he was surprised to find the minifridge was full of bottled water and food. This discovery immediately drew the attention of his roommate, who was busy raiding it within the second. Putting that aside, the closet was full of changes of their clothes, his being on the left while Kokichi’s was on the right. All that did was bitterly remind Shuichi how long they were meant to be here, and he closed the closet quickly, a small shudder wracking his body.

There was also a circular table in the corner of the room that he hadn’t seen at first glance, and two chairs sitting on either side of it. That made sense, he supposed. It was probably better that they don’t eat on the bed, after all. 

Something he hadn’t noticed before was that the door they had come in from was now covered by some sort of black and white metal door, which eerily resembled the one in the library. There was no way to get back to the room beforehand, it seemed.

(Not that he wanted to go back in the first place.)

Nothing in what Monokuma had called the Objective Room proved to give him any clues, but at least he had a good idea of everything in the room now. He sat down in one of the chairs and propped his head up with his hand, frowning. There was virtually absolutely nothing to do in here. It was better than having to do a life-or-death “puzzle”, he supposed, and he was grateful for that much, but he was also trapped in a room with Kokichi. And when Kokichi got bored–

“Hey, Shuichi! Since we have nothing else to do, want to recite the class trials from memory?”

–that happened.

Shuichi was left with no other option but to sigh, slamming his forehead into the table. 

***

They had been looking all day, and there was still no sign of Shuichi or Kokichi.

With the nighttime announcement nearing, everyone but those two gathered in the dining hall for the second time that day. Kaito sat up fully when Maki entered the room, being the last one to arrive. And on that note, she looked like she had been dragged through the trenches, her hair a mess and her clothes wrinkled and somewhat torn. 

“What the hell happened to you, Maki Roll!?” Kaito demanded in alarm, and she gave him a blank look.

“I went to check the Death Road of Despair,” she deadpanned. “...I can say with confidence they’re not there.”

“Okay, but are you okay?” Kaito fretted, glancing her up and down. She was even missing a shoe, and her ribbon was gone. Yikes. 

“I’m alive, aren’t I?” Maki pointed out without answering his question. “Worry about yourself, you idiot. Now what did everyone find?” 

“Oh, umm… me and Keebo searched all over the courtyard, but we didn’t find anything,” Tsumugi reported, concern painted all over her face as she blinked at Maki. 

“I looked around the school, but I didn’t find anything,” Himiko added dejectedly, her shoulders slumping. “I even used my magic to check in places I couldn’t fit, and there was still nothing.”

“It’s almost nighttime…” observed K1-B0, looking obviously at the monitor. “It should almost be time for their second puzzle, if Monokuma is to be believed.”

The second puzzle… Kaito clenched his fists, frustration at his own helplessness making him even more restless than he had already been. He wanted to tear apart the entire academy to find Shuichi and Kokichi and to stop this stupid motive from going any further. While Kokichi had needed to be stopped, this wasn’t how he had wanted things to turn out, and it was especially unfair to drag Shuichi into it too.

(Even if he was still sort of pissed about the outcome of the most recent class trial. Kokichi doing that to Gonta, and then Shuichi siding with Kokichi? 

It was a mess. All of it.)

“The dining hall closes after the nighttime announcement, so for now, let’s keep looking,” Maki decided. “It’s still really early on, so the puzzles shouldn’t be too difficult for them.”

“Shuichi’s a detective. Solving puzzles is basically his job,” Himiko agreed. “If he fails one of these… I’m gonna be really disappointed.”

“You wouldn’t be disappointed, you’d be dead,” Maki pointed out bluntly, and Kaito winced slightly, though it was technically true.

(“Good morning, dear students!” The sudden arrival of Monokuma made Kaito jump with a mildly embarrassing yelp. The bear chuckled, presumably at his reaction. “Relax! All I’m here to do is explain the new motive to you all.”

“Motive?” Maki echoed darkly.

“Wait, but Shuichi and Kokichi aren’t here,” Himiko pointed out with an anxious glance around the dining hall. “Shouldn’t you wait for them?”

“Oh, they won’t be showing up,” Monokuma replied ominously.

Kaito felt his blood run cold.

“Wh-What did you do to them!?” Tsumugi worried with a shrill edge to her voice, clasping her hands together nervously.

“If you hurt either of them I swear I will punt you into the nearest galaxy!” Kaito shouted, not even caring as his lungs creaked in protest at the volume. He may not like Kokichi in the slightest and he may be having some… issues with Shuichi at the moment, but killing them was way too far. 

“Puhuhu… they’re not dead, don’t worry!” the bear reassured him, though it didn’t do much to soothe his nerved. “But I did have to put them away to play their part as the motive!”

“Shuichi and Kokichi… are the motive?” K1-B0 clarified dubiously.

“WHAT?” Kaito demanded in alarm, whipping his head back towards the bear. 

“Right you are!” he chirped affirmatively. “I introduce to you… the Death Puzzle motive!” 

With that, the monitor suddenly flickered to life, revealing some strange two-frame, looping animation. It was a pixel version of Shuichi and Kokichi– similar to the ones on their dorm doors– and under the two of them read…

PUZZLE IN PROGRESS… 

        ~ 1: CUFFS ~

“Every morning and every night, your missing classmates will participate in a puzzle,” Monokuma explained upon their dumbfounded expressions. “These puzzles require outside-of-the-box thinking and some clever tricks, but most of all, they rely on teamwork! So long as those two cooperate, they’ll be fine, and so will you! For you see… if those two fail to complete a puzzle, not only will they die as a result, but all of you will be executed as well.” 

Maki raised a brow at the bear skeptically. “You want us to trust that Kokichi is actually going to work with Shuichi?”

“Say your prayers, everyone…” Tsumugi sighed in defeat.

“Nyeh!? Why’d you give in so fast?” Himiko exclaimed, rearing back in shock. “Even if we can’t trust Kokichi… I’m sure Shuichi will pull through. In fact, I’ll see if I can cast a good luck charm on him.”

“If you hate it so much, then there is a way to save them,” Monokuma offered, and Kaito guessed what it was long before he even said, “and that’s to kill one of your classmates!”

“Wouldn’t that make the trials a little unfair…?” K1-B0 pointed out. “We’d immediately know it wasn’t Kokichi or Shuichi, and they’d have a clear disadvantage in regards to the investigation–”

“Don’t worry about those two! With your track record, they probably won’t even be able to participate in the trial,” Monokuma interrupted the robot gleefully. “The puzzles will progressively get more and more difficult, so will you wait until Shuichi and Kokichi fail a puzzle and die…? Or will you sacrifice yourself and one other person to save everyone else…? The choice is yours, and I can’t wait to see what happens! Ah-hahahaha!” 

With that ominous note, the bear was gone, leaving everyone to stare at either one another or the monitor. 

Around two minutes after that explanation, a ten minute timer appeared above the pixel figures, and it stopped at 3:27, being replaced by the words SUCCESS!! as the pixel figures cheered. The monitor shut off shortly after that. That was the only indication they got that those two were still alive.)

“I-I’m sure they’ve got this figured out,” Himiko uncertainly refuted, pulling him out of the memory. “As mean as Kokichi is, he’s smart, isn’t he? And I’m sure he doesn’t wanna die either.”

“It’s beneficial for them to work together either way,” K1-B0 agreed. He let out a sigh, turning and moving towards the door. “I’ll glance over the courtyard one more time… Tsumugi, will you join me?”

“Oh, sure! It’s plainly better than just sitting here…” Tsumugi laughed lightly, following K1-B0 out of the dining hall. 

“Nyeh… I’ll check around the school again,” Himiko announced. “Maki, can you come with me?” 

Maki hesitated for a long few moments, a contemplative look on her face, before she finally responded with, “sure.” 

“I’ll come with!” Kaito automatically offered, only for his body to oppose him by immediately forcing him into a coughing fit that left him struggling to breathe. Maki rushed to his side worriedly, and he could only offer her a confident smile. “I-I’m fine, Maki Roll. Just a sore throat. We have some time left before the nighttime announcement, so let’s go!”

“Are you sure…?” Himiko asked him, gazing at him with a kind of concerned look in her eyes that sent a deep-rooted frustration surging through his veins. He did not need to be worried about, thank you.

“Positive,” Kaito reassured her firmly. “Kaito Momota will not be benched so easily! Let’s turn this academy inside out! Come on, guys!”

We can’t be dragged down by my illness, Kaito thought grimly as he, Maki and Himiko all left the dining hall, their first destination being the basement. If we don’t want any more murders… we have to find them. 

Either that… or we stop the killing game itself.

For now, the best they could do was keep looking and hoping that Shuichi and Kokichi could hold their own. 

Hang in there guys…

Chapter Text

“The earth physically cannot be flat.”

“Non non! It can!”

Shuichi stared at Kokichi uncomprehendingly, trying to quell his coming headache. “If the earth was flat, we would all probably be dead. The gravitational pull would pull us all toward the center of the earth–”

“Did the gravitational pull tell you that?” Kokichi challenged him. His brief hesitance was met with a defiant, “exactly. Earth is flat, said and done.”

“It is physically and scientifically impossible for the earth to be flat,” Shuichi stressed. “The gravitational pull is in the center of the earth, right? If the earth isn’t a sphere, then where would we all get pulled to?”

“The center of the earth,” Kokichi answered easily. 

“The middle of the earth,” he corrected the boy. “Instead of pulling us down, it’d be pulling us to… whichever direction the center of the equator is.”

“I see…” Kokichi mused with a thoughtful nod. “Then in that case, I’ve changed my view!”

“Oh thank g–”

“The earth is a triangle!”

Nevermind. That was somehow even worse.

“HOW!?”

“Now hear me out, Shuichi–”

Their pointless and sort of insane argument was thankfully cut off by the chiming of the TV, causing them both to fall silent. During their discussion, Shuichi had temporarily buried the crushing anxiety that came from the coming puzzle, and nothing could prepare him for the next one. 

“It is now 10pm, which means it is officially nighttime,” Monokuma’s voice came from the TV. “And that means it’s time for your second puzzle of the motive. Once the door opens, please make your way into the puzzle room and await further instruction. Puhuhu… see you then!”

The TV shut off with that short announcement, plunging the room into a cold, eerie silence. Had they really spent the entire day in this single room, talking, making up and playing stupid games? It had seemed like such a short time, and yet too long all the same.

“It’s only the second puzzle,” Shuichi reasoned as he stood up from his chair, tugging on his sleeves nervously. “Things probably won't escalate so fast.”

“Monokuma does like to drag things out,” Kokichi agreed. “Worst case scenario, we get a little hurt. Nothing I can’t manage, and I know you don’t fold so easily to things like this, Shuichi.”

The air somehow grew chillier as he looked at Kokichi, who was gazing at him without any true emotion on his face. No smile, no mischievous glint in his eyes; it was nothing more than simply Kokichi. 

“I have a feeling we’re gonna be here for a while, sooo… if you impress me, maybe I’ll consider…” he trailed off, staring at Shuichi for a few moments longer, before he said, “nah. I don’t need to offer anything. I know you’ll try your hardest, ‘cause everyone’s lives are on the line here.”

Where is this coming from…? Shuichi wondered, his words failing him and leaving him to only gaze at Kokichi, utterly mystified.

“Nishishi… since we’re gonna be stuck with one another, maybe we’ll come to understand each other a little more,” Kokichi mused with a little smile. “Hate me or love me… I don’t care what you do, Shuichi. Just don’t die from this motive.”

That was all he said before the playful spark in his eyes returned and he placed his hands behind his head, flashing Shuichi a charming smile with all of his teeth. It was such an abrupt change of mood that Shuichi found himself reeling faintly, blinking at Kokichi in nothing short of bewilderment. 

What… just happened?

“Well? Let’s get it over with.” Kokichi grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the door, making him stumble for a moment before he righted his footing again.

“Ah… right.” He wasn’t sure what all of that was about, but there was something more important for him to focus on right now, and that was the second death puzzle. He could think about what Kokichi had said later. 

When they entered the “puzzle room”, it was noticeably different from their first time here. The chairs were gone and so was the screen on the wall, and instead there was some sort of odd machine. Curious, yet cautious, Shuichi slowly approached it, and once he figured that there were no traps, he decided to inspect it.

There were two parts of the machine that caught his eye. One was a big screen in the center, and the second was a board with seven colored buttons. From left to right, they were ordered as red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, blue, and purple. Laying on top of the simple color keyboard were two, mechanical-looking collars.

“I’m gonna press them all,” Kokichi whispered with shining eyes, his hand slowly reaching for the red button.

Shuichi was quick to stop him, laughing nervously. “Let’s not press anything yet, I think. This is a puzzle…”

“Death puzzle, death schmuzzle,” his teammate muttered crossly.

Not sure how to take that, Shuichi turned his attention towards the screen, which abruptly turned on to reveal Monokuma. 

“Welcome to the Musical Memory Puzzle,” Monokuma greeted them without a second of exposition. “I probably don’t have to explain it to you, but I’ll do it anyway! You just gotta play back the melody you’re given through the seven color-coded notes. However, before we begin, you see those collars on the board? Go ahead and take one for yourselves.”

Shuichi hesitated long enough for Kokichi to snag one for himself, and when it didn’t immediately explode, Shuichi reluctantly took the remaining one for himself. The steel was cool in his palms, and although it was a little heavy, it wasn’t noticeable in the long run.

“Do me a favor and put it on, will ya?” Monokuma further instructed. “If you don’t, I’ll just come in there and do it myself, so don’t waste my time!”

“What’s stopping us from beating you up and leaving?” Kokichi questioned the monitor.

“The knock-out gas I have rigged in this entire room,” Monokuma replied flatly. Kokichi nodded with a contemplative look on his face, and Shuichi could only pray he wasn’t planning on doing anything stupid and/or insane.

As much as this was an utterly terrible idea, Shuichi would prefer not to be knocked out against his will. So with no other option, he clasped the collar around his neck, flinching when it clicked together with a loud snap. He ran his fingers over the smooth steel again, grimacing at the weight and slight pressure it placed on his throat. A secondary snap told him that Kokichi had done the same, sealing their fates. 

“Great! I’ll begin the puzzle. There’s no time limit, so take as long as you’d like. Good luck, and good night!” was all Monokuma left them with.

“So what are the chances these hurt us?” Shuichi asked Kokichi the minute he was gone.

“Very high,” Kokichi said honestly. “More importantly, I am really bad at memory games… not! I actually have a photographic memory!”

Shuichi squinted at his teammate skeptically. “You… you do?” 

“Let’s wait and find out, yeah?” Kokichi said with a sly smile, his eyes narrowing slightly and taking away from some of the childish innocence that Kokichi had somehow permanently engraved into his features. 

That didn’t make Shuichi feel any better, so he only sighed in response, rubbing his forehead tiredly.

The screen suddenly let out a singular low note, making him jump. It displayed a purple color that similarly matched the button on the furthest right of the board. Oh, the puzzle was starting. A second game of life-and-death to work through.

On that thought… Shuichi didn’t see anything around that seemed particularly dangerous. Contrary to last time, Monokuma hadn’t told them the penalty for getting a note wrong, which made him a little nervous.

Kokichi went ahead and pressed the purple button, which echoed back the note that had played previously. And about a second later, the screen changed again, playing the purple note again.

“I thought we were playing melodies,” Kokichi pouted, tapping the button again. Though this time… the screen didn’t change. “What the? Hey, Monokuma! Your machine SUCKS!”

With that, Kokichi pressed the button again, and this time it changed to a yellow color, playing a much higher note than the previous low one.

Musical memory… Shuichi mused as he watched Kokichi move to the yellow note on the board. Purple, and purple again… both single notes, and then a single yellow?

It struck him suddenly, and he barely managed to get out a panicked, “wait, Kokichi–!” before the button was pressed.

Instead of playing the note back, Shuichi’s vision flashed to a starry white for a brief second as a sudden shock caused all of his muscles to seize, cutting off his airways for a solid few seconds. It was only for a moment, but it was enough to make Shuichi’s legs give out, sending him crashing to his knees as he gasped for air. 

Was… was he just electrocuted!?

From the looks of it, Kokichi had experienced a similar thing if his strangled heaving was anything to go off of. So that was the penalty for getting a note wrong– the collars would shock the both of them.

“What the FUCK!?” Kokichi shouted furiously the moment he recovered, glaring daggers at the screen. “Shock collars? Really? What are we, dogs!?”

“It’s a memory game,” Shuichi reminded him as he struggled back onto his feet, gently touching the collar. It had heated up, which was… worrying, to say the least. “We don’t just repeat what’s on the screen. Here, let me…”

Scooting past Kokichi, he pressed the purple button twice, and then the yellow. No shock followed, much to his relief. That had been… extraordinarily painful. 

“Ohh…” Kokichi murmured, and they both watched as the screen displayed ROUND 2. “Yikes. Even I’ll admit I jumped the gun on that one. Alright Shuichi, you do the rest of these, and don’t get us shocked again!”

Why am I doing it? Shuichi huffed quietly, but didn’t object. He had better things to do than argue with Kokichi.

The screen played a green note, and since it had just stated that this was “Round 2”, Shuichi took a gamble and assumed that it was giving them a new melody. So, with trembling hands, he tensed and pressed the button.

His gamble was wrong. Very, extremely wrong.

The shock lasted for a total of four seconds this time contrary to the previous two. It knocked both of them down, bringing pained tears to Shuichi’s eyes as he coughed and tried frantically to regulate his air flow again. His head was spinning, and somewhere within his jumbled thoughts, he managed to process a very important fact.

From his observations, he assumed that the shocks increased by two seconds for every mistake. And the shocks felt strong, so if they went on for any longer than an estimated ten seconds… Shuichi feared that serious damage would occur, if not death.

That was the danger they were in. And they had already made two mistakes– two or three more and it was game over.

“Shuichi,” Kokichi laughed through gritted teeth. “What did I just say?”

“I-I’m sorry,” Shuichi stammered, shakily pushing him up. His muscles hurt and so did his throat, and his brain kind of felt like it had been jump-started. “Ow… ow… o-okay, I got this.”

“Do you!?” Kokichi snapped breathlessly. “If you mess it up again, I’m killing us both.”

“It’s the second puzzle, it’ll be fine!” he retorted as he put in the correct tune; purple, purple, yellow, green. When they didn’t get shocked, he let out a heavy sigh of relief. His entire body was shaking as the next note played; light blue. “See? It’s not that difficult. We just got confused.” 

Kokichi didn’t respond with any words. He just groaned weakly, laying limp face-first on the floor. 

A secondary light blue played, and that was the final note for the second round. With the patterns so far, Shuichi assumed that there were three more notes to be played and then they’d be done and they could take these stupid collars off and go to bed. 

Round three started, but instead of showing a color with the note it played, the screen remained black. Shuichi stared at it a little longer, heart pounding, as he waited for a color to show up to go along with the note. 

A color did not appear. And Shuichi got the sinking feeling that it wasn’t going to.

Playing what he knew so far, he determined that the note was one he hadn’t played before. It was more on the lower-pitch side, so red and orange were disqualified. That meant that the only choice left was blue, but… there was a chance he could be wrong, and his ears were playing tricks on him. 

I don’t want to get shocked again, he thought miserably, gently placing his hand on top of the blue button. He felt as if he couldn’t breathe, like the collar was tightening around his neck and slowly choking him to death, but the rational part of him knew that it wasn’t. His fear was suffocating him– the primal fear of being hurt and of experiencing pain, a feeling meant to drive somebody away from what was causing it. But he had no choice here.

It was to press the button and risk getting shocked, or wait out the night and see what punishment followed for their refusal to participate.

“What’s taking so long?” Kokichi inquired after a few more seconds. He seemed to see the blank screen though, because the annoyance in his expression was wiped clean. “Oh.”

“It’s blue,” Shuichi stated firmly. He knew he was just trying to convince himself at this point, but dammit he was afraid. “It has to be. I-It was a low note, so it can’t be red or orange… and the only low note that hasn’t played is blue. It’s blue. It has to be blue.”

Please, let me be right…!

He took in a deep breath, held it, and pressed the button.

The note played back, and no shock followed. Some of the pressure on his lungs lessened as the blue note played for a second time on the screen, and he quickly replayed the melody, now confident. 

The whole song they were meant to play was only ten notes long, and it went purple-purple-yellow-green-light blue-light blue-blue-blue-purple-blue. Shuichi never wanted to think about the color “blue” again in his entire life, and finally, the screen displayed a triumphant SUCCESS!!, followed by a bright PUZZLE CLEAR.

The second puzzle was done thanks to Shuichi’s efforts. It wasn't much, and it wasn’t even that objectively intense, but the penalty for making a mistake made everything that much more stressful. He was just relieved that this one was over now, and he couldn't wait to stare at the ceiling and regret everything until he fell asleep.

As he helped Kokichi to his feet and they both started back towards the Objective Room, there was one thought clouding his mind with numb fear.

If that was the second puzzle… what the hell are the other ones gonna be like?

“Y’know…” Kokichi hummed as they entered the Objective Room together, the metal door blocking their path out. “That sounded familiar in a way. It felt like a warning… for a bad time.”

“Um…? I didn’t recognize it,” Shuichi said softly, collapsing into one of the chairs. He reached behind his neck, feeling for a way to take the collar off and wincing when he felt some remaining heat in the steel. 

Humming the tune under his breath, Kokichi mirrored his movement, seeming to lack as much success as Shuichi was.

“Maybe it’s magnetic,” Shuichi suggested when he couldn’t locate some sort of lock. “Or maybe it’ll be taken off tomorrow…?”

“...did he actually say that they would be taken off?” Kokichi countered, lowering his hands at the same time his eyes widened slightly. “He just said to put them on. He never said they’d be taken off.” 

That was a horrifically good point. It was one that made Shuichi’s nerves skyrocket all over again, because now on top of the periodic death puzzles, now they had shock collars to worry about. What else was this motive gonna throw at him? Iron shackles? Spiders for breakfast? No thanks.

“They might play into later puzzles, too…” Shuichi guessed dreadfully. “Crap…”

As much as he wanted to berate himself for willingly putting it on in the first place, he hadn’t been given any other choice. Monokuma had said so itself– if they had refused, it would have just knocked them out to put it on. There was no getting out of it; the only thing their cooperation did was save everyone time. 

They were both powerless here. That was a fact he was forced to accept.

“...well, no use worrying about it,” Kokichi finally broke the thick silence. Untying his bandana, he dropped it on the table and climbed onto the bed. “I’m tired, and I’ve got a lot of feelings to process so let’s go to sleep. We’ve got more death puzzles and eternal boredom to deal with tomorrow, Shuichi~!”

Boredom was the last thing he was worrying about right now, but Kokichi did bring up somewhat of a good point. Being tired during a puzzle was pretty counterproductive, and Shuichi couldn't see that ending well. So he slipped off his coat and begrudgingly climbed into bed as well, feeling awkward and big next to Kokichi, who had already tucked himself under the blanket with his back to Shuichi.

The first day was done, and all that had happened was an escalation of their situation. The collar was heavy and uncomfortable around his neck as he laid down, and it was only then that he realized that merely falling asleep was going to be a challenge.

Trying not to cry, Shuichi curled up and closed his eyes, attempting to take up as little room as possible. 

***

The doorbell ringing is what got Kaito out of bed, quickly putting back on his coat as he answered the door. Little to his surprise, it was Maki.

“Maki Roll!” he greeted his sidekick happily.

Her eyebrows pinched slightly at the nickname and she glanced away from him as she always did, but only for a brief second. Kaito couldn’t help but grin at her.

“...let’s talk,” she said without acknowledging the nickname. “Can I come in?”

“‘course!” Kaito stepped aside to allow his sidekick into his room, which she entered almost immediately. Closing the door behind him, he let some of his enthusiasm fade. Maki sounded serious, so of course he was going to be as well.

(Then again, Maki Roll always sounded serious. It was a little hard to tell when she wasn’t.)

“So, what is it?” Kaito prompted her, naturally moving into his idle position as he gazed at her curiously. “Is it about the puzzle?”

“Partly,” Maki replied vaguely. “The longer the puzzles go on, the more dangerous they’ll get.”

“The puzzles will progressively get more difficult, yeah…” Kaito recalled with a grimace. He didn’t know what “cuffs” could refer to, but “musical memory” seemed pretty self-explanatory, and that didn’t seem too hard. “We gotta get them outta there before one of them is hurt!”

Maki was silent for a few moments again, a special kind of darkness flashing across her eyes before she smoothed her expression over to be blank again. 

“If we can’t find them anywhere in the academy, then we have to think of another way to stop the puzzles,” Maki stated. “The only way to do that that doesn’t end with certain death is to stop the killing game itself.”

That was not at all what Kaito had been expecting to hear from her, but he was on board with it.

Stopping the killing game… that was what they had been trying to do this whole time, hadn’t it? Between their struggles in the Death Road of Despair– which Kaito definitely wouldn’t be able to do now– Kaede’s entire motive behind her murder, and even Angie’s creation of the Student Council, they had been fighting tooth and nail to put an end to the killing game.

Granted, their efforts recently had been… lacking, but there had been a lot of stress and feelings lately, and stopping the killing game became a little hard when all of your friends were slaughtering each other. It certainly didn’t help when a certain someone was also out of their god damn mind and seemed intent on enjoying the killing game to the fullest. Unity and teamwork were essential in a place like this, so things went off the rails when they didn’t have either of those.

(That wasn’t even including the constant strain on his lungs and the wet feeling in the back of his throat. God forbid he clears his throat, or else the tangy taste of blood will coat the inside of his mouth.

Everyone knew now. Everyone knew he was sick and that he wasn’t the immovable force he tried to make himself out to be. But damn it, Kaito refused to let a little blood in his lungs stop him from doing what he needed to.

He still had to go to space. He had to see his grandparents.)

“Alright! Good plan, Maki Roll!” Kaito agreed determinedly. “So how are we gonna do that?”

“If I knew what to do, I would’ve done it,” Maki retorted flatly.

“Oh."

“But I did have an idea,” she continued, immediately igniting that familiar fire of determination that Kaito had missed. “Himiko brought up a good point earlier. Kokichi is smart– smarter than most of the people here. So I think it’d be worth it to check out his room.”

“We’re gonna break into Kokichi’s dorm?” Kaito asked in alarm. 

“And Shuichi’s,” she tacked on after a thoughtful moment. “Shuichi did a lot of detective work at the start of the game, didn’t he? There’s a chance he’s been investigating behind everyone’s backs.”

That was a thought that had never crossed Kaito’s mind before, and it was a surprising suggestion at that. He had never considered the idea that Shuichi could be going behind everyone’s backs like that– he didn’t seem like the type to do something like that, especially not now, when they all knew each other better than before.

All things considered, Shuichi was a pretty genuine guy. Kaito couldn’t imagine him being so secretive.

“I mean, alright… we can do that,” Kaito affirmed, albeit a little hesitantly. “Let’s go get everyone else–”

“Definitely not,” Maki immediately cut him off, blocking his path to the door. How she had moved so quickly, he had no idea. It was probably one of her assassin tricks that let her practically teleport from place to place. “Let’s… keep this between us for now. Whether there’s a mastermind among us or not, I don’t want to risk it. If they realize what we’re up to, they might try to stop us. The only reason I’m asking you for help is because you’re too stupid to be the mastermind.”

“Wh– hey!” he protested, the insult immediately defrosting the icy chill that had struck his very core at her words. “You really don’t have any other reasoning than that!?”

“I do. But it’s mostly that,” Maki replied coolly. 

“Jeez… what’s with everyone always calling me stupid…” Kaito wondered under his breath. It was getting ridiculous at this point and it was hurting his feelings. “Well, whatever. Thanks for trusting me, Maki Roll, but you don’t really think that one of us is the mastermind?”

“...I’m not going to take any chances,” she said instead of answering his question.

That seemed a little unfair to their classmates, but he wasn’t going to argue with her. His sidekick’s concerns were his concerns, so if she was that worried about it, then he’d have to think about that chance as well. 

“Let’s search Kokichi’s room first,” Maki decided, turning towards his door. “Out of the two of them, he’s definitely hiding the most. Come on, let’s go.”

“Right now?” Kaito demanded, hurrying after his sidekick as she power-walked out of his room.

“There’s no better time to do it,” she replied in a low voice, scanning the dormitory. “Everyone's asleep, so there’s less of a chance of us being found. If we wait until morning, Shuichi and Kokichi will have to do another puzzle, and if they fail, we all die.”

After determining it was empty, she approached Kokichi’s door, pulling something out of the void of her skirt (seriously, how did she do that?) and fiddling with the doorknob. It took Kaito a moment to recognize that she was picking the lock… or at least trying to. 

“You can pick locks?” Kaito asked her in surprise. 

“Somewhat,” she murmured, her brows pinched in concentration. “Hmm… ah!”

The lock clicked, and she easily pushed open the door, soundlessly slipping inside. Kaito followed after her quickly, taking care to close the door behind him as quietly as he could. Maki seemed pretty intent on keeping their little trespassing escapade a secret, and if she thought it was for the best, then he might as well try to cooperate.

Turning around, Kaito wasn’t sure what emotion he was supposed to feel upon seeing Kokichi’s absolute disaster of a room. Of all things, he had not been expecting… this.

The first thing he saw were the piles of boxes and notebooks that were stacked up in front of the TV. Some were left open, and he could faintly see some sort of drawing or writing on the white pages. There was a whiteboard with photos of everyone in the Ultimate Academy, including the now deceased Monokubs, and there was a bunch of writing on that, too. A drone on the armchair, the big, black tube from Ryoma’s murder, the… Rantaro effigy… hanging from the ceiling.

Out of everything Kaito had been expecting, he was not expecting to walk into some sort of apocalyptic doomsday conspiracy theorist dimension. And why was there a horse head laying on his bed!?

“How did he even get some of this stuff?” Maki wondered with a complicated look at the Rantaro effigy. “How did no one notice him taking that?”

“Didn’t Monokuma clean up all of the crime scenes after the trials?” Kaito agreed, stepping further into the room and closer to his bedside desk. He could now see the Kubs Pad from the second motive on his bed, leaning against the horse head. “Did he grab this during the investigations or what? And how did he get THAT?” He gestured violently at the pool tube, which had to be about half of Kokichi’s size in itself.

“Maybe Gonta helped him carry some things back,” Maki suggested quietly. “I’m sure he wouldn’t have questioned it.”

The reminder of Gonta made bitterness well up in the back of his throat– or, nope, nevermind. That was blood. He swallowed thickly and nodded, glancing around Kokichi’s mess of a room, scratching the back of his head.

“Man… we’re gonna be here for a while,” he laughed weakly, blowing out a heavy breath. “Kind of worried about what we’re gonna see in Shuichi’s room, now.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing like this,” Maki hummed. “Okay. Let’s take a look around.”

“On it, Maki Roll!” 

While Maki moved toward the bedside desk, Kaito crouched down near the scattered notebooks, picking up the first one he saw. It was somewhat thin compared to a few of the other notebooks, so Kaito could only assume that was because some pages had been torn out. Looking at the ones still in the book, the pages were filled from brim to brim with sketches and writing for some of the craziest, bullshit-looking weapons(...?) Kaito had ever seen. 

So he makes blueprints, too? Kaito thought with a small frown. It’s not like he can make this shit. And… if these are ALL filled up like this…

Looking upon the big pile of boxes, he suddenly had a feeling that they were going to be here for quite a while.

“Hey, we should check out Miu’s lab, too,” Kaito called over to his sidekick. “These are all blueprints.”

“What for?” Maki inquired without looking back at him.

“Uh…” Kaito wasn’t sure how to answer that one when he was looking at a sword that also worked as a gun, a shield and a car somehow. “Stuff that Kokichi thought up. Should be pretty easy to notice if this thing actually exists.”

Maki let out a noncommittal hum and didn’t say anything more on the matter. Seeing as this notebook was only going to confuse him further, he set it down and picked up the open one on the floor with a blue crayon laying next to it. In fact, there was a whole box of– 120 crayons!? Was that even available in the warehouse? 

Trying to repel the growing headache, he looked at the open page. At first glance it just seemed like another extremely strange idea, but upon closer inspection, he realized there was something odd about it that wasn’t just the invention in general. The sketch looked as if it had been off to a good start at first, but he could see the way the lines grew shakier and more misplaced in some areas, the smaller details gradually disappearing in the messier parts of the drawing. While a few things were written in pencil, he could see that even what he had written was extremely difficult to read and what was eligible was completely nonsensical. 

His eyes trailed to a note in the bottom. It was only a few words, but those words made Kaito grimace.

Smells sweet the are. werd

“Are”? He must mean air. Kaito looked up at the ceiling, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face as he stared at the sloppy, borderline inelligible words. He must have been knocked out that way, and it must have taken a while to kick in. Yeesh…

Turning the page, he was met with an entire page of writing. 

“Woah…” he murmured on reflex. “Hey, Maki Roll. Kokichi wrote something before he was taken for the motive.”

“What does it say?” Maki asked him, turning away from whatever she had been poking at to look at him. 

“It’s a bit hard to translate, but I got this,” Kaito assured her. Clearing his throat, he read, “something is totally up, l.o.l (did he actually write ‘lol’...?). I can’t think at all and my head is sort of starting to hurt a little bit. I don’t even know why I’m writing this but my door’s locked and I can’t unlock it so this is all I can do. Either I’m about to be murdered or the mastermind figured out what I’m up to so it’s basically the same thing– why does he keep using text abbreviations in this? Uh… if anyone goes snooping through my things then fuck you but also thank you. I’m getting tired-er so there’s probably electrobombs and electrohammers in Miu’s lab; I had her make them for me for a plan I will definitely not be able to do, colon left-bracket.”

Maki frowned. “What?” 

“That’s actually how he wrote it. He wrote out the words ‘colon left-bracket’,” Kaito informed her, raising an eyebrow down at the increasingly unintelligible words. “I think, anyway. This is hard to read.”

“Not that,” grumbled Maki. “He had a “plan”? What for?”

“No idea,” he replied in a murmur. “There’s more. The bombs stop anything electronic from working and the hammers stop that too. It's like Whack-A-Mole but Monokuma or the parkour road downstairs. My head’s stopping to work but whatever happens, whether I die or get robbed or something, just remember that– and it cuts off there. I do believe there’s a… mastermind among us too, so please… uh… please find who they are and kick their ass, I think it says. By the way, if I die here, I just want to tell you I do care about you guys. I killed Gonta and I’m so fucking sorry but Miu wasn’t gonna let me wait and I just panicked okay? Sorry, I guess. What the hell?”

“That’s more emotional than I would have expected from him,” Maki commented with a small frown.

Turning the page, Kaito stiffened.

lol um who is futue foundatio? 

“Future Foundation?” he echoed out loud. He flipped through a few more pages, but the rest of it was blank. “That’s all he left us with.”

“What’s Future Foundation?” Maki asked, joining his side to look at the words written there. “...he must have really been fighting to stay conscious. This looks horrible.”

The mental visual that popped up in Kaito’s head made him feel a little sick to his stomach. Just imagining Kokichi sitting on the floor, weakly gripping a pencil as he desperately tried to keep his eyes open sent a shiver down his spine. It wasn’t easy to overpower Kokichi, who despite being smaller than most of them, had always had a looming presence over the surviving group. And because of that, he had made himself into what seemed like an immovable force.

If Monokuma could easily knock down someone as stubborn as Kokichi…

Yup. Kaito did not like the thought of that.

“I’m not sure what he was drugged with, but if he managed to write an entire note before passing out, it must have taken a while to kick in,” Maki continued contemplatively. “And his door was locked…?”

“You think Monokuma can just… lock us in our rooms whenever?” Kaito worried with an alarmed look at the closed door.

“I can think of a few possibilities,” Maki said without a morsel of concern. “Someone could have been holding it shut from the outside, or he was just too weak to turn the knob. It looks like he dropped the pencil a few times while writing this.”

“Did he think he was writing a dying message or something…?” he wondered under his breath, before a sudden idea struck him. “Hey, do you think Shuichi wrote something like this too?”

“I don’t see why he would,” Maki replied truthfully. “But I’ll keep an eye out.”

Nodding, Kaito closed the notebook and pocketed it in the same way he had seen Shuichi hold onto evidence during investigations. It’d suck if the mastermind found the book and took it for themself, hiding the last words Kokichi had left everyone with before the motive began.

Maki had been right though– investigating his room had been worth it. They had drawn out a new clue from that, and potentially new weapons if Kokichi’s scribbled words were to be believed. But while they had a new piece of evidence, Kaito also didn’t have the faintest clue as to what it could possibly mean. He had never heard of a “Future Foundation” before, and there was always a chance that Kokichi was purposefully trying to mislead and confuse them by bringing something new into the equation. 

(He was missing Shuichi now. Genuinely, actually missing him; wishing that the detective was by his side right now, helping him puzzle out what this all meant.)

Kaito decided that he’d take everything in this room with a grain of salt. 

Moving on from the notebook, there were a few other things that had caught his eye. He decided to inspect the whiteboard with their pictures on it, carefully scanning the entire thing up and down. On the left side of the board were photos of all of his deceased classmates, arrows connecting murderer to victim with some stupid little doodles on the side. Himiko, Tsumugi, himself, Maki and K1-B0 were grouped together as well, K1-B0 having an arrow pointed to him with the word “weird” under it while a similar one was by Maki, saying “suspicious” (which made Kaito scowl). To the far bottom right were all five of the Monokubs, labeled “annoying”, which was an outlandishly rare instance of something the two of them could agree on. 

And isolated from everyone else was Shuichi, the word trustworthy? scrawled underneath his photo.

Before he could point it out to his sidekick, he heard the chilling sound of the Kubs Pad starting up and he turned around, seeing that Maki had picked it up from the bed and was now staring intently at it. 

“Alright! Back by popular demand, it’s time for the motive video!” Monokuma’s cheerful voice emitting from the small device made him grimace, and he walked over to look down at the screen with Maki, who still looked focused. “Who’s the most important person in your life? Now, without further ado…”

The screen changed to reveal a photo of Kokichi with an almost black cape and hat, a mask in his hand and a smug grin plastered on his face. Behind him were nine people wearing similar white costumes and checkered bandanas, their faces concealed by differing clown masks. 

“The Ultimate Supreme Leader, Kokichi Ouma…” the video stated. “ As the supreme leader of a secret organization called “D.I.C.E”, he and his organization went wild throughout the world in accordance with their two main mottos, “don’t kill people” and “commit amusing crimes”. These ten excellent followers worked together with Kokichi to form a group of eleven people, and to Kokichi, these people were friends bordering on family… they were his everything, the most important people in his life.”

“What…?” Maki whispered beside him.

“But then…” the image changed to show the nine members of D.I.C.E in jail, ragged and beaten. “A terrible tragedy befell those precious people. ” Monokuma popped up on the screen as he said, “what kind of event? That’s a secret! Find out for yourself. Puhuhuhu… ♪”

The video ended there, leaving Kaito and Maki in stunned silence.

Chapter Text

It was cold. Very, very cold. He felt the freezing temperature before he felt the floor and the rest of his body, which was being weighed down by the piercing chill in the air.

He tried to curl up against the cold, drawing his knees close to his chest as he instinctively shivered. He had his overcoat of course, but his outfit wasn’t exactly fit for a cold like this. It felt hard to move, and he was content with trying to go back to sleep to save himself from the chill.

“...ichi?”

A voice. A familiar voice, at that. But it sounded odd– it sounded as if it had come from far away, a radio back-drop present behind it. That was odd. That radio effect had happened to K1-B0 once, but the voice didn’t sound like K1-B0. And besides, it couldn’t possibly be K1-B0, because he wasn’t involved with the motive.

…motive?

“...Shuichi! Are you there?” 

Something was wrong. The cold was making it hard to think straight, but he knew that there was something very, very wrong here. He had to open his eyes.

Oh, but he was so tired. Falling back asleep would be so much easier than dealing with the cold. Shuichi had never liked the cold, so maybe if he slept it off, it’d go away. That sounded much more satisfying, so he let himself sink into the darkness a little more. Even if the cold killed him, maybe… 

…it’d be for the b–

“There you are! Shuichi! GET UP!”

That startled Shuichi into opening his eyes, mostly because of the sudden volume from who he now identified as Kokichi. He let out a shuddering breath, hugging himself and groaning in quiet protest against the cold air. Laying on the ground a few paces away from him was a transceiver, which must be how Kokichi was speaking to him despite not being physically present.

Actually, that brought up another good question. Where was he? All he could see around him were massive walls that stretched into the dark abyss of the ceiling, his only light being a small flashlight right by the transceiver. The walls were gray and the floor was a darker gray, both looking to be made of solid concrete.

“Why aren’t you getting up?” Kokichi asked him after a few moments. “Come on, Shuichi. We have puzzles to do! Motives to beat! You gotta get up because I am SO bored here.”

Puzzles. This must be the third puzzle. That’d partly explain why he woke up in a scary, empty and gray hallway and why it was so cold. Although, the question of how he didn’t wake up was present in his head now, though he was sure he would be able to easily piece that together if he wasn’t freezing to death. He couldn’t feel his fingers or his nose, and his eyes felt too dry to even tear up.

“Shuuiiiichhiiiiii!” Kokichi whined noisily. “Do you want to live or not? Monokuma didn’t say we had a time limit this time, but that doesn’t mean you can dilly dally. If you aren’t back within ten minutes I’m blowing up the microwave!”

The threat had no effect on him, as Shuichi didn’t even have the energy to really even acknowledge the weight of what he was saying. All he could think was cold, cold, cold, it’s so cold and all of his limbs were frozen stiff, locked in place so he couldn’t move outside of simply shivering.

“Oh my god,” his teammate groaned in exasperation, immediately sparking guilt in his chest. “Shuichi, seriously. Get up. Or at least move, you depressed idiot. You owe me that much for cuddling me in your sleep. You drool, by the way! I almost pushed you off the bed!” 

Well that was perfectly horrifying. Shuichi managed to cringe slightly, clenching his teeth tightly as he tried to prod his mind awake. Kokichi was right– these puzzles needed them to work as a team, which Shuichi couldn’t do if he was napping in what might be an equivalent to the literal arctic. 

Despite the dull aching in his bones, he uncurled from his protective position to reach towards the transceiver, his fingers just barely missing it. It looked like he’d have to get up to grab it, but that was so much more difficult than just moving his arm. Even that had been a challenge– he could hardly bend his elbow straight, and the lack of feeling in his fingers made actually reaching the device all that much more hard.

“So you are awake!” observed Kokichi. “That was a lie, by the way. You’re actually a really still sleeper. I almost thought you were dead, but then the sweet gas kicked in and I passed out. Is that why you’re moving so slowly? Because of the sweet gas? How weak are you, really!?” 

Ignoring him, Shuichi somehow managed to roll himself onto his stomach, pressing his forehead against the chilly floor as he tried to muster up whatever strength he could to move. At least this position was so uncomfortable that it gave him the motivation to get up, which after a bit of struggle involving shifting his knees beneath his waist and propping himself up with his elbows, he finally pushed himself into a sitting position. And while sitting up certainly didn’t help the cold, it was essential progress.

With a little more mobility now, Shuichi had the minimal strength to grab the transceiver, his grip impossibly weak as he lifted it up. He also grabbed the flashlight, since that was his only source of light right now and would be very important for the puzzle. 

“...’s… cold…” he managed to whisper, his throat aching. He could see his breath in the chilly air, which certainly didn’t do him any favors regarding the temperature.

“Cold?” Kokichi parroted back. When he nodded miserably, the other boy tsked. “Well, you can warm up once you get back to the Objective Room. Come on, up up! You’re not allowed to freeze to death. I thought I told you only I’m allowed to kill you?” 

“S…sorry.” 

“You’d better be. You sat up, didn‘t you? Now stand,” his teammate ordered impatiently. “When you do, I’ll tell you about the puzzle, since you didn’t hear Monokuma’s announcement. Do I need to come in there in a cheerleader outfit to motivate you, huh?”

The mental image made his face twist in a complicated way, and he wasn’t quite sure how to feel about the thought of Kokichi cheerleading him into standing up. Also, he was pretty sure that Kokichi couldn’t get to wherever he was, so the offer itself was impossible to fulfill. 

“Why d-do you say… such w-weird things?” Shuichi asked him through chattering teeth. 

A delighted laugh resonated from the transceiver. “Because no one ever knows if I’m being truthful or not. For example, when I tell Himiko I’m going to do a magical disappearing act, she doesn’t expect me to dive head-first into the pool.” 

“D-Did that actually happen!?”

“Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t…” Shuichi could hear the smile in his voice. “Guess you’ll have to ask her yourself, nishishi~ ♪”

Well, he didn’t know why he had been expecting an actual answer. But at least talking to Kokichi was helping him stay conscious and calm, and thus gave him the willpower needed to shakily push himself onto his feet. He hugged himself tightly, transceiver gripped in one hand while the flashlight was in his other. At least he was up now, and the sooner he got back to the Objective Room, the sooner he could warm up. 

That was, assuming he did get back to the Objective Room. Just standing up had winded him– how the hell was he going to do a puzzle? 

“K-Kokichi… c-can you… can you tell me a-about the puzzle?” he requested quietly, wincing as his voice came out uneven and stuttered. The cold was making it hard to make his mouth work in the way he wanted it to. 

“Monokuma didn’t say much about it this time. It’s apparently called the Maze Puzzle, and in case you haven’t noticed, we’re separated this time,” Kokichi explained without a second to lose. “He told us to just “figure it out”, but I think it’s pretty simple. The TV’s split up like some indie horror game– on one side is a map of the entire maze, and there’s a little blue dot near the top. That’s you, Shuichi. You’ve gotta make your way back to the Objective Room… before you freeze to death, I’m assuming. On the other side, I can see you. Turn around and look up.”

Obeying his instructions, Shuichi looked up and locked eyes with the lens of a camera mounted on the wall. 

“Huh…” Shuichi murmured. “O-okay, I… I understand. J-Just gotta get th-through the maze. Um… o-okay.”

“If you feel like you’re gonna pass out, pinch your cheek or slam your head against the wall,” Kokichi nonchalantly advised.

“‘kay…” he mumbled tiredly, forcing his feet to move as he started forward. 

It was really dark here, which did very little favors for his growing anxiety. This was close to a nightmare scenario for him– alone in a vast maze of all things, with no light other than the flashlight he had been given. He had Kokichi watching his back from the Objective Room, but that did very little to comfort him. 

At the first crossroad, Shuichi was given the option to either go left or continue walking straight. He paused in the intersection, looking back and forth between the two pathways. On top of fearing the consequences of making a mistake, the chill was preventing him from thinking straight, because his body was so cold and he had to put all of his energy just into walking. 

There was somebody he could ask, but… he was notorious for lying about everything. He had been helpful in the puzzles thus far, but that was because he was in danger too, right? Maybe he was just using Shuichi to survive further, and this puzzle was a trivial issue since he wasn't the one in danger. In fact, who’s to say he wasn’t omitting important details or even lying about what he had told Shuichi? 

Could Kokichi really be that evil…? Was that possible? 

Shuichi didn’t know. He couldn’t organize his thoughts, or think rationally about what to do in this situation. Making it out of the maze on his own was possible, but it was very cold, and Shuichi knew his body was running on a time limit. The minute his consciousness slipped from him, that was it. He was done for, and he’d fail the puzzle. He didn’t know what failure meant in this situation, but he wasn’t too keen on finding out.

“Hey, why’d you stop?” Kokichi’s question prompted him out of his spiraling thoughts. 

“I-I’m… panicking,” he confessed with a breathless laugh. “I d-don’t know… wh-what to do… I’m scared, a-and cold… r-really cold.”

“What’s there to be scared about?” Kokichi hummed, sounding frustratingly unconcerned. “It’s just a maze, I’m sure you can do it. You just gotta keep going straight here.” 

Despite the instruction, Shuichi didn’t move. He stared into the shadows ahead, forcefully banishing the paranoid thoughts of something awaiting him in the dark from his mind. 

“I-I’m scared… I’m not a-alone in here,” Shuichi riskily told him. Kokichi went very quiet as he continued, his voice shaking with uncertainty. “A-and, I… I d-don’t know i-if I can trust you. I know you were… trying to s-survive… a-and that’s why you cooperated with m-me in the other puzzles. B-But… I’m o-on my own here… y-you’re not in danger a-at all.”

It was growing increasingly more difficult to breathe and he closed his eyes, his heart pounding wildly in his chest. He felt the primal urge to run, to get away from a danger that might not even be there. It was only paranoia, he knew, and it was coming into effect so hard because he wasn’t able to think rationally at the moment. It was hard to calm himself down, too; breathing in too much hurt, as the cold ruthlessly pierced his lungs.

“I can’t… trust you…” he whimpered in defeat, covering his eyes with the arm holding the flashlight. “Not after… G-Gonta…”

That’s what had been conflicting Shuichi so much this whole time, he knew. The death puzzles were stressful in themselves, but when the factor of distrust was thrown into the mix, then maybe dying was a better choice, because they were screwed either way. Puzzles that required teamwork became utterly impossible if neither of them could trust each other. 

For a few moments, all Shuichi could do was stand there with his face hidden in his arm, not sure whether he was shaking from the cold or from the paralyzing fear slowly threatening to dominate what level-headedness he had left. The silence wasn’t helping his nerves either, his raspy breaths quietly filling that terrifying void. 

Finally, Kokichi broke that silence. 

“Oh. That’s it?” He heard a small laugh from the transceiver, though it sounded empty even to him. “Man, is that why you’ve been so tense? ‘cause you’re scared of me? Wooow… I’m hurt, Shuichi. Are you afraid I’ll kill you next? Like how I made Gonta kill Miu?”

To that, Shuichi couldn’t reply. He summoned the courage to look dead into the lens of the security camera on the wall, his throat closing around what he wanted to say in response. 

“You’re probably wondering, wow, how could he do such a terrible thing?” Kokichi continued bitterly. “Well, would it surprise you to say that I wanted to live? I don’t want to die, I still have too much to do for that. I doubt any of you would’ve believed me even if I told you about Miu’s plan… and besides, she would’ve just tried again later. All things considered, she was a big help for my plan, but she eventually cracked, and that made her useless. To win the killing game, you’ve gotta play the killing game, and that’s what I intended to do.” 

“...intended?” Shuichi echoed in a voice barely above a whisper. “I-in… past-tense?” 

Kokichi sighed heavily. “Yeah. This motive’s gone and screwed eeeeeverything up. See, I had this big plan that was gonna finally stop this stupid killing game, which is why I did everything that I did. Saving myself from dying was just a bonus– using Gonta and Miu, I managed to make all of you hate me, too. If I had known it wouldn’t matter in the end, I would’ve never gone into the Virtual World in the first place.”

As little sense as all of that made in Shuichi’s exhausted brain, he understood the meaning behind those words. All it boiled down to in the end was that everything up until now had been Kokichi’s lie; a cruel reality he had purposefully placed himself in for his aforementioned “big plan”. What that plan was, Shuichi didn’t know, and it was too cold to think about right now. 

And maybe it was ridiculous, but what truly surprised Shuichi was that Kokichi had actually taken the time to explain his actions to him. It was an attempt to earn his trust, to tell Shuichi that his monstrous acts had all been part of a character; a greater picture that nobody but he could see. 

(He could be lying, Shuichi knew. This could all be an act; an attempt to manipulate Shuichi into trusting him to get through this and future puzzles. Shuichi being there was beneficial for him. But he didn’t want to believe that that was the truth– foolish, he knew. He should consider every possibility instead of blindly putting his faith into one. He had learned this lesson with Kaede. 

But he was… so tired of distrusting. He longed for a sense of security and it was exhausting not knowing whether Kokichi was going to backstab him or not. It was simply easier to believe– to hope– that he wouldn’t.)

“Wh-Why tell me this?” Shuichi dared to ask.

“Because… I think we’re gonna get out of this,” Kokichi told him simply, and for some reason, those words sent a shiver down Shuichi’s spine that didn’t have to do with the cold. “So I figure if anyone should know, it’s you, my puzzle partner. If we fail… I want to die knowing at least someone didn’t find me boring. But! I’m not dying yet! And neither are you, so you’d better get moving, Shuichi.”

Puzzle… partner…

That felt so oddly genuine. It was like hearing a cat bark– Kokichi sounding so sincere was utterly unnatural. Maybe Shuichi was hearing a tone where there was none; seeking comfort in whatever he could to try and soothe over his fear. There was always the possibility that he was being tricked, and doing so when he was freezing and sort of woozy would be offensively easy. 

Kokichi was complicated. He was a confusing person to be around or even think about, that fact was undeniable. His motives were hardly ever clear and most of what came out of his mouth was a lie. But… he was who Shuichi was paired with in this motive, and he was the only person Shuichi was able to trust.

(“I think we’re gonna get out of this.”

In his scrambled mind, even Shuichi could identify those words for what they were. A lie.

Kokichi didn’t think they were going to survive this motive. But… he still wanted to try. And for that, Shuichi would place a fragment of his trust into the boy, and he could only hope that that trust didn’t get them killed.)

“O…okay…” he finally managed to choke out, a violent shiver wracking his entire body. Did the room just get colder…? “St-straight, right? Th-that was the truth?”

“Yup,” Kokichi replied, popping the “p”. “Going left leads you to four different dead ends. Straight is the way to go.”

Nodding, Shuichi began forward again, wincing as his joints ached at the movement. If he stopped for too long, he was going to grow stiff, and moving would be nigh impossible in that case. It was best to keep his pauses to a minimum from here on out, even if that did use up more of his energy.

“Th-this is… stupid, but, um… nothing i-is in here w-with me, right?” Shuichi asked his partner with somewhat of a nervous laugh, daring a glance over his shoulder. Nothing there, though his brain loved trying to imagine that there was.

“I checked almost every single camera before finding you. No monsters in the dark,” Kokichi reassured him. “But if there is, I’ll give you a heads up, ‘kay? I’m like your guardian angel.”

“Oh god…” he shuddered before he could stop himself.

“You don’t want me as your guardian angel?” Kokichi pouted. He sniffled sadly, and Shuichi listened as he burst out into fake tears. “Y-You’re… you’re so MEAN, Shuichi! After I poured my heart out to you and everything! I’d be a great guardian angel!”

“Um.” Shuichi wasn’t so sure about that one, but he wasn’t going to voice this thought to Kokichi. Not only did the fake crying through the transceiver kind of hurt his ears a little, but talking was also using up the already limited energy he had. He didn’t know how big this maze was and he didn’t want to wear himself down before he reached his goal. 

As Shuichi continued walking, ensuring that he was close to the wall in case his legs failed him, he realized that this puzzle was huge. Kokichi continued to give him directions, and every time it didn’t result in a dead end, he felt just a little more relieved. But this had been going on for a while now, and although it could feel as if more time had passed since he was walking so slowly, the maze still felt enormous. Maybe if he walked faster, he’d get back to the Kokichi sooner rather than later…

(When had the “Objective Room” become “Kokichi”? Why did his goal change?

Oh well. No use thinking about it now.)

Finding another intersection, Shuichi glanced around at the four available pathways. He had taken a few rights and lefts previously, but this was his first four-way split. He identified the camera on the wall and gazed at it expectantly, since words were sort of difficult to form.

“Oh, that’s… huh,” Kokichi commented under his breath. “...alright, go into the first hall on the right."

“F-First… o-on the right…” Shuichi repeated, turning his flashlight to the right wall. “First… ah, o-okay.”

The next few minutes that followed were sort of weird. While he was going down the right hall, his body was slowly being overcome with this serene sort of cozy warmth. The room must be heating up, he thought. He must be close to the Objective Room! Knowing Monokuma, of course it would get warmer the closer he was to his goal. The whole “colder/hotter” game of finding things… or whatever it was called. 

The fear, the uncertainty, the distrust and anxiety… the warmer he became, the less scared he felt. His vision was blurry and the warmth was becoming a little uncomfortable now. He considered taking off his overcoat, but something deep within him screamed at him to not do that under any circumstances. The overcoat was to stay on, it seemed.

“You’re walking really funny,” Kokichi commented after a few moments, jerking him awake again. “You’re not gonna fall over, are you?”

“‘m w-walking,” he reassured his teammate, his voice coming out slightly slurred. “Ah… wh-which w-way?”

“Straight ahead.”

“‘kay… th-thanks, K-K’ichi…” Ignoring the twinge in his chest, he forced himself onward. His throat was closing up and he couldn't stop shaking. In fact, it was getting sort of hard to breathe, strangely enough. “Hha… hmmm… i-it’s gettin’ a li’l w-warm i-in ‘ere…”

“That’s a reeeeally bad sign, Shuichi,” Kokichi told him. “You’re almost to the end, so don’t do anything stupid like sitting down or taking off your clothes…”

Shuichi was pretty sure he said something else, but his voice was fuzzing out a little, and it wasn’t the fault of the transceiver. Or maybe it was, he didn’t know. Either way, it was better to listen to Kokichi, since his brain wasn’t working right now. Maybe he could take a cold bath or something because oh man, he was boiling. Ice bath… like the internet challenges. Or was that a bucket? Why would someone dump ice on themselves anyway? That sounded like hypothermia waiting to happen. 

Or wait… was it solid ice? Or ice-water? Were they ice cubes or was it just a solid hunk of ice? Forget hypothermia, that was a concussion. 

“Ko… i-if you dumped i-ice, um, o-on your head… w-w-wouldn’t th-that sorta hurt?” Shuichi decided to ask his teammate.

“I mean… probably,” replied Kokichi. “I can’t touch ice, actually. It brings out… a darker side of me. I’ll get really pale and have a sudden craving for snow; it’s some pretty dangerous stuff. Also, turn right.” 

Shuichi obeyed, almost walking directly into a wall in the process. Add “loss of coordination” to the increasing list of things severely wrong with him at the moment. 

Turning one more corner, relief overwhelmed his body as he laid his eyes upon a door. Finally, he had made it to the very end of the maze, and thus the puzzle. Dropping the transceiver, he rushed forward to the best of his ability, seizing the doorknob in his stiff hands. Twisting it was a challenge in itself– not because it hurt, but because he didn’t have the physical strength to actually turn the knob. 

Against all odds, he did, shoving the door open and stumbling into the Objective Room. The light of the room momentarily blinded him and as he made it to safety, whatever strength he had remaining slipped from his body and he crashed forward. 

Despite that, he never hit the floor. 

“Shuichi!” he distantly heard Kokichi call out. “Holy crap, you’re freezing! Alright, stay conscious with me here. If you pass out before breakfast I’m going to…”

A lot of words came after that, but Shuichi hardly heard any of them. The puzzle was over, so there was no reason to keep fighting the pressing darkness around the corners of his vision.

Despite how scary it was, Shuichi closed his eyes and allowed the numbing sensation of unconsciousness take him.

***

Not knowing what was going on in the puzzles was going to drive him crazy.

There had been no given time limit on the monitor, but the SUCCESS!! text popped up around twenty or so minutes after the puzzle began. It was called simply the “Maze Puzzle”, and while that seemed inconspicuous enough, these were “death puzzles”. Chances were something dangerous had been in the maze with them… or whatever ridiculous thing Monokuma came up with. 

Aside from the stress of the puzzle, Kaito was exhausted. He and Maki had spent hours looking through Kokichi’s room and Miu’s research lab, eventually locating those hammers and bombs he had been talking about in the notebook with his final words. Shuichi’s room hadn’t had much in it unsurprisingly, and there was no evidence he had noticed the sweet scent that Kokichi had. Chances were, he had been asleep already when it happened.

Overall, progress had been made. They had stored the hammers, bombs and Kokichi’s notebook in Kaito’s room, agreeing that should they get in trouble for these, he would take the fall. It may not seem like much, but these were new tools to use against the mastermind. There were six hammers total and one singular pink bomb.

Although they didn’t activate the bomb, they did do some testing with the hammers, and they made the discovery that with a single hit, the hammers could disable anything electrical. Doing so drained a little bit of its battery, but these were extremely powerful weapons that Miu and Kokichi had left them with. Of course, that led up to even more questions about what the hell Kokichi had been up to, and why he would need six hammers for it, but there was really no way to find that out now.

Time was ticking until the fourth puzzle began, so everyone had split off and was turning the academy inside out to try and find their missing classmates. It was around noon when Kaito made his way down to the basement after coughing so hard he nearly threw up, wiping his chin clean of blood and scowling unhappily at whatever he could see. It had been a hell of a while since Kaito had been down here, so he figured it was worth checking out.

What he was not expecting was that upon entering the library, he saw that the moving bookcase was open, K1-B0 thoroughly searching around the hidden door that Shuichi had discovered all that time ago. 

“Hey, Keebo!” Kaito greeted the robot, striding up to him and glancing over his shoulder. “What’re you doing?”

“This is one of the only rooms we have not been in yet,” K1-B0 stated without looking back at him. “There’s a chance that they might be behind this door. I’m just trying to figure out how to open it…”

“From the looks of it, you’d need some sort of card key,” Kaito said with a thoughtful look at the card reader. “...hey, ain’t this electronically locked?”

“I’d assume so,” the robot replied distractedly. “It’d be strange if it wasn’t.” 

A shiver of excitement crawled down his spine as he gazed at the black and white door. In all honesty, the thought of this door had completely fled from his mind as more important things came up, like his illness or their returning memories from the Flashback Lights. But if the door was locked electronically… then according to their testing, the electrohammers should be able to override the card reader, and they’ll be able to enter the hidden room! 

I’ll have to tell Maki Roll later, he decided giddily. He briefly considered informing K1-B0 of their plan, but the intense look on his sidekick’s face as she expressed her worries about a mastermind among them was what kept him silent. Sure, he trusted his classmates– his friends– but above all else, he trusted his sidekick’s. 

(Even if they did agree with a lying, manipulative jackass instead of drawing answers from the evidence, Shuichi.

Maybe his anger was irrational. But for Kokichi to have taken over the class trial like that… it pissed him off beyond belief. Just a few days ago, Kaito never knew he could despise somebody so much.

Now… thinking back to that motive video…)

“Have you found anything?” K1-B0 asked him after a few moments, standing up straight again to look at him.

“Not a single thing…” Kaito blatantly lied. He felt bad for doing so, especially to someone as chill as K1-B0, but again, he was trusting his sidekick here. “But I’m sure if we keep looking, something will come up soon.”

K1-B0 smiled, though it was small and looked a little strained. “Yes… hopefully. We cannot allow our classmates to suffer through these death puzzles!”

“That’s the spirit!” Kaito cheered, beaming a big grin at the robot. It was satisfying to find someone else who shared at least a portion of his optimism.

After a moment of hesitation, his empowering hope dwindled slightly and he placed his hand on his hip, glancing aside pensively. There was something somewhat unimportant that had been bugging him, but he hadn’t found the chance to ask anyone about it.

“What is it?” K1-B0 asked him upon seeing his face. “You look… very thoughtful.”

“I’ve been thinkin’ about this for a while, but… when I think about who was paired up for the motive, I feel sort of annoyed,” Kaito confessed. “Shuichi’s strong and can handle himself, but… he’s on his own with Kokichi, the guy we know will sacrifice anyone to save his own skin. He used Gonta to stop Miu from killing him, didn’t he?”

“That, and he claimed to simply enjoy seeing other’s distress,” K1-B0 added solemnly.

“Exactly. I…” he hesitated for only a brief moment, recalling the motive video, before he managed to finish his sentece. “I’m a little worried about Kokichi doing something stupid and getting Shuichi killed.”

“That is a valid concern…” K1-B0 acknowledged, narrowing his eyes in careful consideration. But after a moment, he smiled determinedly. “But I am going to believe that Kokichi wants to survive as much as Shuichi does. These are puzzles that prioritize teamwork, and I’m confident Kokichi is aware of that.”

“Yeah…” Kaito agreed in a murmur. He soaked in those words, letting them banish the worries from his mind, before he brightened up with a stronger, “yeah! Alright, I’ll believe in Kokichi’s will to survive. Man, almost lost myself there for a sec… thanks, Keebo.”

“I’m glad I could help!” K1-B0 responded with equal resoluteness. “I’m going to continue searching the library.” 

“Alright! Good luck, man!” Kaito flashed the robot a thumbs up and one of his charming grins. “I gotta go find Maki Roll. Any idea where she is?”

“Try the third floor,” K1-B0 suggested. “I believe I saw her up there earlier today.” 

“‘kay! Thanks!”

Waving his classmate goodbye, Kaito hurried out of the library, his skin prickling with excitement. They had a new lead now, one that they probably should have considered before. Using the electrohammers, breaking into the hidden room would be a piece of cake! It was another step towards the overlying truth of everything happening here; another step towards finally stopping this killing game once and for all.

(Another step closer to rescuing Shuichi and Kokichi.)

Only taking a few quick detours for reasons very well known at this point, he made his way to the third floor, eventually locating Maki in her own Research Lab. Upon his loud arrival, she only briefly looking up from what she was holding, which turned out to be a whole gun.

“W-Woah!” he exclaimed, jumping back with his hands raised. “Is that a gun!?”

“I’m not sure why you’re so surprised,” Maki replied flatly, setting the gun down on the bench beside her, on top of a black case of sorts. “This is the Ultimate Assassin’s lab. What else is there to expect?”

“I mean…” Kaito didn’t really have a good answer for that one. “W-Well, anyway. Maki Roll! I found something great!”

Maki lifted an eyebrow at him, as if she wasn’t convinced. “What is it?” 

“You know that secret door in the library?” Upon Maki’s affirmative nod, he couldn’t stop a wide, triumphant smile forming on his face. “Well, I realized somethin’. Keebo said that the door should be electronical, so if we whack the card reader with one of those hammers, the door will open!”

“And we can see what’s in the hidden room…” Maki finished contemplatively. “That’s a surprisingly good idea, coming from you.”

“Hey! What’s THAT supposed to mean!?”

“Once the fourth puzzle starts, let’s break into the hidden room,” his sidekick decided without acknowledging him. “In the meantime… do you have a minute?”

Quickly brushing his defensiveness off, he blinked at the assassin, tilting his head at her slightly. “Sure, what’s up?”

“...do you know how to assemble a crossbow?”

Chapter Text

Shuichi woke up to the faint sound of the shower running. 

Drowsily taking in his surroundings, he almost nudged off the blanket encasing him but immediately changed his mind when a shiver wracked his entire body. Since moving was out of the question, he simply laid there, staring blankly ahead at the wall. His body felt exhausted, but at least he was warm. So, so very warm. 

Kokichi must be showering, he concluded once he gathered his thoughts. A warm shower sounded absolutely fantastic right now, actually. He hadn't gotten to shower since this motive started, so it’d be nice to do so. 

On that note, he was also sort of hungry. He hadn’t gotten to eat breakfast before the puzzle started. 

Begrudgingly leaving his cozy blanket cocoon behind, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and cautiously placed them on the floor, risking the act of standing up. When he didn’t immediately fall over, he decided that it was safe and walked the short distance that was the bed to the mini-fridge, where all of their food was stored.

Upon checking, he also discovered that it was automatically replenished every night. No need to worry about rationing what they had, it seemed. Actually, on that note, how did this mini-fridge hold so much? Either what they had was unnaturally small or the fridge was bigger than he was giving it credit for.

As much as he was starving, nothing looked appetizing in the slightest, so he picked up a small cup of yogurt, took a spoon from the drawer in the TV stand and moved to sit at the table with his back turned to the open bathroom. Again, he had to wonder why Monokuma had neglected to give them a door for the bathroom, but he supposed that that was somewhat of a trivial issue compared to literal death puzzles.

A few minutes later, the shower stopped running. And soon after that, he heard Kokichi come out of the bathroom. He glanced over his shoulder at the boy, only to instantly avert his gaze when he saw his sopping wet hair that draped all over his face. Oh man. He looked like a horror movie antagonist.

“Shuichi!” Kokichi exclaimed upon seeing him awake. Joining his side, he shot a skeptical look down at the snack he was eating. “Are you eating yogurt?”

“Yes…?”

“You should’ve had something warm! It’s like you want to be cold, sheesh,” Kokichi berated him with an exasperated sigh. “I’m not your mom, y’know!” 

“Wh… what?” Shuichi asked, watching in faint bewilderment as Kokichi strode towards the minifridge and crouched down, opening it up and rifling through it. “Um, I’m not actually that hungry…”

That was a lie, he knew. He was hungry. But if nothing looked good to eat, then he didn’t want to bother Kokichi with his picky eating habits. If even Kirumi had had a little bit of trouble figuring them out, he certainly didn’t want to pin them on Kokichi.

Shockingly, Kokichi backed down. “Man… okay. I was totally ready to show off my Ultimate Chef talent, but if you insist…”

“You’re not the Ultimate Chef though,” he pointed out dubiously.

“A man can have more than one talent, y’know! Ryoma was the Ultimate Tennis Player and the Ultimate Prisoner and I don’t see you getting on his back for that!” 

That was news to him. “Um… I don’t remember him saying he was the Ultimate Prisoner. Are you lying again?”

“I’m being COMPLETELY truthful right now, Shuichi,” Kokichi said with deathly seriousness. “Look at my face and tell me I’m lying. My innocent, sweet, inconspicuous face. Do you wanna touch it?”

“N-No thanks, I’m good,” Shuichi stammered, leaning back from the boy as he came closer. “Also, you’re making me lose my appetite. Please stop.”

Kokichi inhaled a sharp gasp of pure offense, as if Shuichi had just insulted his very bloodline. He decided that it was better to just let Kokichi get all of the Kokichi-isms out of his system before asking about the puzzles. 

Finishing his yogurt while Kokichi went off about how he had “never heard such insolence in his sixteen years of living”, he dropped the empty cup and spoon into what he was pretty sure was the trash (a compartment in their TV stand that appeared to empty every morning). Having something in his system already made him feel a little better, and even if it didn’t fully smooth over his hunger, it at least made it ignorable. 

“How long has it been since the puz–” Shuichi cut himself off as he turned around, staring in bewilderment at Kokichi’s hair. It loosely stood more like it would normally, swooping down from each side. “What the…”

“It does that sometimes,” Kokichi told him with ominous vagueness. “I once shaved it all off as an act of rebellion and it grew back the next day. It has a mind of its own, I’m telling you.”

That was… definitely a lie. “...anyway, how long has it been since the puzzle with the maze?” 

“Not sure.” Kokichi shrugged, sitting on the pulled out chair and crossing one leg over the other. “You were sleeping for a reaaaally long time though. Why do you sleep like you’re a child from the 1300s dying of the plague?”

“E-Excuse me!?” Shuichi sputtered, more stunned than offended. “What? What kind of comparison is that!?”

“You sleep like a corpse!” his classmate exclaimed, apparently hell bent on his confusing analogy. “When you told me you talked in your sleep I didn’t know I also had to worry about rolling over and seeing a dead body next to me!”

Do I really sleep like that…? he wondered in mild horror. He had always presumed he was a light sleeper– the only way he ever really got a full night of rest was when his uncle’s cat joined him in bed. The natural warmth of her body against his chest and her faint purring had always effortlessly lulled him to sleep, and kept him asleep for the entirety of the night. Otherwise, he’d wake up face-first on the floor more often than not, wrapped in blankets and having to violently fight his own bed sheets just to get free.

His bad sleeping habits had mostly calmed down since he had started training with Kaito and Maki, expending all of his energy until he inevitably passed out. There were a few times he woke up in the middle of the night, but other than that, things had been fine. At the very least, he hadn’t kicked Kokichi in his sleep yet. 

“I didn’t know I was that still of a sleeper…” Shuichi admitted sheepishly. “Do I really look that bad…?” 

“Yes,” replied Kokichi without hesitation. “Yes, you do. Watching you sleep makes me want to spontaneously buy a coffin for you, flowers and everything.”

“You watch me sleep?”

The room went deathly quiet as the two of them stared blankly at each other.

“...so anyway, the next puzzle should be starting soon,” Kokichi said. Shuichi raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in topic, but Kokichi barreled on before he could reply. “You passed out the minute you got back. Lucky you got here when you did, otherwise you would’ve died from hypothermia and I really would have had to buy that coffin.” 

“Ah…” Shuichi murmured, faintly recalling what had happened in the maze. Hypothermia would explain why he had been so unbelievably cold. “I honestly can’t remember much from it. I just remember it being dark and hard to move. And… you were guiding me through the maze.

Kokichi offered him a small smile, placing his hands behind his head. “That I was. They don’t call me the Ultimate Supreme Leader for nothing! And you’ve proven to be a very good follower. Nishishi… maybe I can make you my consort.”

“C-Consort!?” Shuichi echoed in an embarrassingly squeaky voice. “I don’t think being a follower and being a consort correlate very much…!”

“I know! I just like seeing your face go all red,” Kokichi giggled in delight. “You blush so easily, Shuichi!”

“Ah…” he turned away from his teammate and rubbed his cheeks, trying to banish the heat from his face. He couldn’t let Kokichi distract him from what was important with his weird mind games. “J-Just… tell me what happened during the Maze Puzzle, please.”

“It wasn’t anything special,” Kokichi sighed in what he was pretty sure was disappointment. It was hard to tell, honestly. “You were just really cold and out of it. Do you really not remember what happened?” 

“Things get really hazy after a while,” he told his teammate. “At the start, I know it was really cold. I remember that we talked for a few minutes… and after that, I felt less scared. What exactly did we talk about?” 

Kokichi stared at him, eerily quiet for a few moments. His empty gaze honestly made Shuichi just a little uncomfortable and he awkwardly shifted on his feet, instinctively dropping his eyes to the floor. Eye contact had always been rough, and that was only partly considering that incident…

“Nothing much, indubitably,” Kokichi finally assured him. “You were all worried about there being monsters in the dark so I checked around the cameras to make sure there were none. It’s the least I could do for my puzzle partner!”

The nickname sent a familiar chill down his spine. He had heard that somewhere before, undoubtedly in the maze. Kokichi was lying, he knew that the minute he opened his mouth. Something had happened– something important. But he had very little belief that Kokichi would tell him what it was that they had discussed, so at this point, there might not even be a point in trying to figure it out. 

After all, if there was one way to describe Kokichi, it was astronomically stubborn.

“...thank you for helping me,” Shuichi quietly settled on. “I’m feeling a bit better now… oh, actually. I do remember something.”

“You do?” Kokichi asked in somewhat of a flat voice, furthering Shuichi’s suspicion that he had missed something important.

“You mentioned something about some sort of sweet gas,” he clarified.

A look of realization flashed across Kokichi’s expression. “Ohh, that! Yeah, the way we’re getting knocked out is from some sort of invisible gas. It smells really sweet though, so it’s sort of hard to miss. I remember it happening when we were taken for the motive, and it happened again last night so Monokuma could dump you in the maze.”

“I don’t remember smelling anything sweet…” Shuichi said with a thoughtful frown. “I must have already been asleep both times.” 

“I wouldn’t be surprised. You sleep like a–”

Before Kokichi could finish his sentence, a dreadfully familiar chime echoed throughout the room, silencing them both as they turned their attention to the TV screen.

“It is now 10pm, which means it is officially nighttime,” announced Monokuma. “And that means it's time for your fourth puzzle of the motive. Once the door opens, please make your way to the puzzle room and await further instruction. Puhuhu… see you then!”

“You slept for longer than I thought,” Kokichi commented as the announcement ended, the mechanical sound of the door opening overlapping his words. “Welp… puzzle number four. Do you think if we make it to fifty, we get a prize?”

“I hope we don’t get to fifty!” Shuichi shuddered in horror. “These get exponentially harder as they go, don’t they? I almost froze to death on the third puzzle. I can’t imagine what the fiftieth puzzle would be like…”

“Maybe we have to gouge out each other’s eyes!” Kokichi suggested with perturbing eagerness. 

Not quite knowing what to say to that, Shuichi simply decided that it was best to move on and just get this puzzle over with. At the very least, both of them were conscious this time, and that was probably the most privilege they’d get in regards to these puzzles.

Walking into the room, he found that it was the exact same layout as the first room they’d woken up in– the one with the handcuffs (and after that puzzle had been completed, they had managed to get the handcuffs off after a bit of struggle. They seemed to have disappeared after the second puzzle either way, so it didn’t matter). The screen was back and so was the light, but instead of there being two chairs back-to-back, there was a long table with two chairs on either end. 

“Please take your seat in either chair!” Monokuma said as it appeared on the screen, making him jump in surprise. “Both of them are the same, so you don’t need to worry about fairness or nothing.” 

“I call the end!” Kokichi immediately shouted, running across the room and practically diving into the chair. Startled by his intensity, Shuichi sheepishly sat down in the free chair, which was the one with its back to the door to the Objective Room. 

Once they were both seated, the ceiling seemed to split, and a glass pane slammed down on either side of the room, fitting perfectly around the table with only a small gap above the surface of the wood. Shuichi let out an involuntary yelp at the sudden event, going to stand up but being halted by the beeping of his collar.

“Kokichi!?” he called out to his teammate worriedly, who looked just as stunned as he felt. “What just–!?”

“Relax! It’s just part of the puzzle!” Monokuma reassured them gleefully. “It’ll raise once the puzzle ends, so keep your shirt on. Welcome to the fourth puzzle… Russian Roulette!”

Following those words, a revolver clattered onto the table in front of Shuichi, making him freeze like a deer in headlights.

“I’m sure you two know what Russian Roulette is, but if you don’t for whatever reason, that’s why I’m here to explain it to you! Typically, it’s played by loading one round into the chamber, spinning it, and shooting yourself in the head. It’s a game of chance, and what better puzzle is there than luck? However, for this motive, I decided to change things up a little… so why don’t we nickname this the Final Dead Puzzle, hmm? A final challenge before we get into more difficult puzzles!”

These have been considered easy? Shuichi thought in anguished bewilderment. What are the hard puzzles like!? I’m still shivering from the last puzzle…!

“Here’s how the Final Dead Puzzle works: the gun in front of you is a six-chambered revolver, loaded completely.” Shuichi stiffened in horror at those words, but Monokuma continued. “Three of them are dummy bullets, and three of them are real. Your choices of targets are either your teammate, or yourself. Upupu, but not to worry, shooting your teammate won’t kill him! His collar will just give him a bit of a shock to simulate the pain of getting shot, not to worry. The glass is all bullet-proof, so you don’t gotta worry about it breaking. I’m not that sloppy."

“I’ve noticed,” Kokichi sneered at the screen bitterly.

“Ahem,” Monokuma grunted, ignoring that snarky remark. “This puzzle’s a little unique in the sense that death is completely avoidable if you want it to be! You can either play it completely safe and shoot each other every single time knowing that neither of you will die, or you can take your chances and see if you shoot yourself with a dummy. If you don’t… you die, and that person fails the puzzle!”

“Why would we do that?” Shuichi demanded as soon as he found his voice, ripping his eyes away from the very real gun in front of him.

Monokuma chuckled in response to his query. “‘cause I said before… this is a turning point in difficulty. Meaning, if you’re willing to work for it, I guess I can give you some privileges for future puzzles.”

So that’s what was on the line– “privileges”. If they played riskily here, willingly putting their lives on the line, then there was a chance they could earn prizes in regards to any future puzzles. Shuichi wasn’t sure how to feel about being offered such a thing, because on one hand, it felt severely demeaning. On the other… if it could make the puzzles at least a little easier…

“What’re we betting on here?” Kokichi prompted the bear, stating exactly what Shuichi had been thinking.

“I’m glad you asked!” A list appeared on the screen next to Monokuma, which he read out. “Shooting yourself with just one dummy bullet will earn you entertainment for the Objective Room. Watching you two argue about the earth being flat killed some of my brain cells, so I figured that you could do with some books or board games or something.”

Well if you give us nothing to do, of course strange topics are going to come up… Shuichi thought but didn’t say out loud. To this very moment, he still could not understand how Kokichi had come to that triangular earth conclusion, even if he had only been playing around.

“Shooting yourself gives you the previous benefit, and it unlocks a medicine cabinet in the Objective Room,” stated Monokuma, which actually made Shuichi perk up. “Things might get a little more wild here real soon, so this is just a luxury you can grab if you want… in case of emergencies, y’know? Teenage boys can be so reckless, so it’s really the least I can do! And last but not least, shooting yourself with all three dummy bullets gives you the two previous benefits and I’ll allow you a singular hint for a future puzzle. It may not seem like much now, but trust me, you’re gonna wish you had it if things get any harder!”

Entertainment, medical supplies and a hint… those last two seemed like pretty valuable assets for them to have on hand. The first “prize” would just be an extra win for them, because if Shuichi had to listen to a nonsensical rant about how birds are government drones for the west one more time, he was going to go legitimately insane.

Either way, if Kokichi agreed, trying for at least the medical supplies would be beneficial to them in the future. That meant shooting themselves with at least two out of three of the dummy bullets in the chamber, which was an utterly insanely risky move, given it was a 2/6 chance, three of which could kill them.

Things suddenly did not look very good for either of them.

“And by the way, refusal to play will result in death from your collars, so keep that in mind when you’re deciding who to shoot,” Monokuma added, cutting through his musings. “You’ve got two minutes and thirty seconds to decide who to shoot, and the timer will reset once you make that decision. Once you’re done with your choice, slide the gun across the table to your teammate. That’s all there is to the Final Dead Puzzle! The honor of going first goes to hypothermic-Shuichi! Good luck, you two!”

The monitor switched off momentarily before changing to a 2:30 timer that instantly started counting down second by second. Shuichi seized the gun at once, shuddering at the chilly stainless steel in the palm of his already somewhat cold hand.

“Going for the prizes seems like a good idea,” Kokichi commented with an intent look into his eyes. “Going for all three seems way too risky, and I’d be really upset if my dear detective’s brains splattered all over the floor.”

Shuichi was pretty sure that that was a compliment? Either way… “we have to try and at least get the medical supplies. The puzzles are going to take a jump in difficulty, right? We don’t know what to expect, so it’s better to be prepared.”

“Right. The problem now comes down to chance,” agreed Kokichi (shockingly). “Three dummies and three live… it’s a fifty-fifty chance of killing yourself right now. Shooting me will give us a better idea of what odds we have. You should shoot me, Shuichi.”

“I don’t want to risk missing a dummy,” Shuichi protested uneasily. “Missing two takes away any chances we have of healing ourselves later… and I don’t want to risk that. It wouldn’t be offered to us if we weren’t going to get hurt later on.”

“You won’t get hurt if you’re dead,” Kokichi argued, which was a fairly reasonable point to make, but Shuichi didn’t trust this motive not to get worse as it went on. “Did the hypothermia give you brain damage or something? I appreciate a good ol’ risky, life-threatening game every once in a while, but I will actually be pissed if you kill yourself. These are teamwork puzzles, puzzle partner. I can’t exactly do them alone.”

“Hypothermia doesn’t give you brain damage,” he pointed out in mild offense. “And I’m thinking clearly about this, Kokichi. I know my chances. I don’t want to die any more than you do… and that’s why I want to take this risk.”

Hands shaking, he lifted the gun to the side of his head. There was a complicated expression on Kokichi’s face as his guarded purple eyes bore into the revolver, and he could see his teammate gripping the table tightly.

Is he… worried for me? Shuichi briefly wondered. Taking in a calming breath, he placed his finger on the trigger. No, don’t think about him right now. The only thing to focus on is getting through this puzzle alive.

There was a minute on the clock when Shuichi finally mustered the courage to pull the trigger, fear making him nauseous as it clicked.

A few seconds passed, and he quickly concluded that he was not dead. His head was still intact, meaning that he had shot himself with a dummy bullet. At this realization, he dropped the gun on the table with a heavy breath out, gasping for air that hurt his lungs. That was an utterly terrifying risk he had just taken, and he was definitely not eager to try it again any time soon.

“Aw man…” Kokichi sighed. He rested his cheek in his palm, looking somewhat dejected. “I was hoping to finally see some gore…”

“What!?” Shuichi demanded sharply.

“That was a lie! Gore makes me sick to my stomach, nishishi ♪”

Groaning, Shuichi just slid the gun across the table, watching Kokichi pick it up and examine the barrel. The minute he touched it though, the timer restarted to 2:30, signifying round two.

“Shoot me,” Shuichi insisted immediately. “There’s more of a chance of it being a live round, right? You were saying that earlier.”

Kokichi scowled at him, appearing genuinely unhappy. “So NOW you want to listen to my advice? You want to give me a heart attack and then order me around? Remind me who the Ultimate Supreme Leader is here, would you!?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you, but this is a game of chance,” Shuichi reasoned with a guilty wince. Maybe he really had scared Kokichi with the decision he made. “There’s three live rounds and two dummies. That’s a three in five chance of dying… the odds are against you here.”

“The odds are always against me…” he thought he heard his teammate mutter. But nevertheless, he sighed heavily, pointing the gun straight at Shuichi. “Well well well, isn’t this a turn of events? Me holding Shuichi at gunpoint… I always thought it’d be the other way around, considering you’re the detective between us, nishishi…”

“...what the hell are you talking about?”

“Nothing!” With that, Kokichi pulled the trigger.

An ear-splitting bang! echoed through the room, making Shuichi jump back in his chair as the end of the barrel exploded. The glass made a hardly noticeable thud as the bullet hit it, and it clattered lifelessly onto the wooden table, still smoking.

And a split second later, a horrible, splitting pain spiked through Shuichi’s entire body, cutting off his airways for the two dreadfully long seconds that it lasted. If neither the shock nor the bullets killed him, then he was going to end up dying of a heart attack, because he was so unbelievably stressed right now and his heart was racing what felt like a million miles an hour.

Gripping the table so hard his knuckles turned white, he sat back upright in his chair, panting. That was the punishment for getting shot? It was better than dying, he supposed, but that didn’t stop him from wishing desperately that the aftereffects of the shock would stop.

“I’m okay…” he breathed, though he was probably just trying to convince himself of that more than Kokichi.

“Did it feel like you actually got shot?” Kokichi asked him as he slid the gun across the table.

He caught it effortlessly, watching the timer restart out of the corner of his eye. “It just felt like a way weaker version of what happened in the second puzzle. Anyway… the odds are even again. What should we do…?”

Kokichi was silent for a few moments, his eyes glinting with thought. Then, he sat up straight with his arms folded over his chest as he said with confidence, “shoot me.”

“Are you sure…?” he checked uncertainly. “If we miss a dummy bullet…”

“Then we still have one more chance,” Kokichi reminded him. “And at least we got the first prize, right? Just to let you know, I’m gonna demolish you at Uno.”

Shuichi couldn’t bring himself to even smile wryly at his light-hearted banter. Pointing a gun at his teammate made his stomach churn uneasily, and even if he knew it wouldn’t actually kill Kokichi, it was still unnerving. 

(No matter what Kokichi had done to Gonta and Miu… he didn’t deserve to die. No one here deserved to die because of what the killing game had pressured them to do. That included Kokichi, because…

…after the events of the third puzzle, Shuichi simply could not believe that Kokichi was as malicious as he tried to make himself out to be.)

“Alright,” Shuichi finally decided, letting Kokichi brace for impact before he steeled his nerves and pulled the trigger.

Click.

…oh no.

“Huh… a dummy,” Kokichi observed with an unbothered hum. “Nishishi… alright, we can work with this. Pass it over, Shuichi.”

Nodding dizzily, Shuichi obeyed. They missed– and depending on what came out of Kokichi’s turn, that would make it a fifty-fifty gamble again. However, a three in six chance was arguably better than a one in two. 

Shuichi felt sick with anxiety as he watched Kokichi lift the revolver to the side of his head, a thin smile plastered on his face. 

“Ah… w-wait,” Shuichi called before Kokichi could pull the trigger. “We still have two minutes to talk about this.”

“What's there to talk about?” asked Kokichi, thankfully lowering the gun. “It’s like Monokuma said! It’s a puzzle of luck. Either I die and permanently traumatize you for the rest of your probably very short life, or I’m totally fine. Seems like pretty even odds to me.”

“Nothing about that is even!” Shuichi protested in exasperation. “I don’t want you to die!”

“You don’t?” Kokichi gasped, his eyes lighting up in delight. “Aww, Shuichi! That’s so sweet of you! You really are fit to be my consort…”

“I’m not marrying you and I’m not in love with you,” he huffed defensively, ignoring the almost comical raise of Kokichi’s eyebrows. “I’m just trying to make sure we both get out of this alive. We’ve shot one live round and two dummies… that means that there’s still two live rounds in there. It’s a two to one chance. It’s safer to shoot me.”

“That’s the funniest oxymoron I’ve heard all week,” replied Kokichi. “Well, if Shuichi is that worried about me… then I guess I have no choice.”

For the second time, Shuichi found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. Inhaling deeply, he closed his eyes and tensed.

The bang that came from the gun made him flinch, and he had about a split second to be relieved that he had talked Kokichi out of shooting himself before his collar activated. Getting shocked by it never got any easier and by the time it was done, he had tears in his eyes, slumped over the table as his hands twitched uncontrollably. Today was just not his day, was it?

“Huh… no wonder you’re the Ultimate Detective,” Kokichi commented with a blank look down at the revolver. “Getting electrocuted like that can’t be good for your health, can it?”

“Pr-Probably not,” Shuichi forced out through clenched teeth, watching the gun slide to his side of the table.

Depending on his choice now, this puzzle could end with no casualties, and if he chose right, they could get that second prize; the medical care they’d undoubtedly need for later puzzles. Right now, there was one live round and one dummy, and he had absolutely no way of knowing which one it could be.

…did he have no way of knowing?

The first round had been a dummy, and Shuichi had shot himself with it. The second round had been a live bullet, which Kokichi shot him with, evening the odds again. The third round was a dummy that Shuichi had regrettably shot Kokichi with, but… then Kokichi had another live round.

Dummy, live, dummy, live… ah, that established a pattern! Every time the gun had been passed to Shuichi, he always ended up with a dummy bullet, whereas Kokichi always had a live bullet. So following that deduction… that meant that what Shuichi had now was a dummy bullet.

Now fully confident, Shuichi pressed the gun against the side of his head, ignoring the look of alarm that appeared on Kokichi’s face.

This is a puzzle… of course! I can’t be wrong here! He shot a defiant look at the timer, which displayed a glowing 1:46. All of these puzzles are beatable in one way or another; Monokuma said that during the first puzzle. As long as we play our cards right… we can win this.

A satisfying click followed as he pulled the trigger. His deduction was right, meaning that there was just one more bullet in the cylindrical chamber, which was a live round. They may not have gotten that hint, but they got the thing Shuichi had been aiming for, and he counted that as victory.

“Shoot me,” Shuichi instructed Kokichi as he slid the gun to the boy. “There was a pattern to it all.”

“I can see that now,” Kokichi grumbled unhappily. “Why’d I get all of the live rounds? It would have been impossible for you to shoot me with a live one. Actually, hey! If I shot myself, I would’ve died! This game is totally rigged!”

“It’s a good thing you didn’t, then…” Shuichi murmured, thinking uneasily back to Kokichi holding the gun to his head. If he had pulled the trigger…

“Yeah,” his teammate agreed, looking impressively unbothered by the ordeal. “Well, I’m gonna shoot you so we can end this puzzle and go play board games.”

Shuichi gave him an affirmative nod and braced himself. The gun went off and a third bullet joined the others lifelessly on the table, and as he expected, his body jolted with a shock. But as this happened, the screen on the wall went completely black and the glass barrier rose.

As soon as it was up, Kokichi ran to his side, abandoning the empty revolver on the table.

“Hypothermia and electrocuted in one day?” Kokichi commented as he struggled to stand up, his legs quaking with effort. “This motive really doesn't like you, huh?”

“Please don’t jinx it,” Shuichi begged, taking a moment to regain his balance before he started towards the Objective Room. “I’m exhausted…”

“Do you need me to carry you back?” Kokichi offered, following directly beside him. “I’m actually a lot stronger than I look.”

“You’d probably have to drag me,” Shuichi pointed out. “No matter how strong you are, I am bigger than you. I think carrying me anywhere would be sort of hard.”

“I guess you are sort of lanky…” Kokichi mused, squinting and looking him up and down.

When they returned to the Objective Room, it was different than how they had left it. Where there had once been empty space between the bed and the doorway to the bathroom there now stood a big white cabinet, and looking through the glass, he quickly identified basic medical supplies, like bandage rolls, bandaids and rubbing alcohol. Shuichi felt his shoulders sag in relief at the sight. Their biased risks had been worth it.

In addition to the new medicine cabinet, there was also a big chest at the foot of their bed. Kokichi ran to it immediately, and upon opening it, he gasped.

“UNO!” he shouted, holding up a small rectangular box. “Hell yes! Holy crap, they’ve got all kinds of things in here… even I don’t recognize some of these.”

We didn’t get the hint though… Shuichi thought worriedly, flinching as the metal door closed over the openable one behind him. We’ll have to make do. We’ll just have to try our best to not get stuck on anything.

Sitting down on the side of the bed, Shuichi let out a weary breath, brushing his fingers against the heated steel around his neck. The completion of the fourth puzzle meant the end of the second day of this motive, and apparently the next puzzle was going to jump significantly in difficulty.

“Ah… Kokichi, you were showering earlier, right?” he asked his teammate, who was still trifling through the chest.

“Huh? Yeah, I was,” Kokichi replied distractedly. “The water pressure is surprisingly great if you’re okay with sitting under a waterfall, by the way. You might be able to change it– yes! Chess!”

“So the collars are water-resistant?” Shuichi verified.

“Sure are."

“Okay… thank you.” He wanted to take a warm shower before he went to bed, but it wouldn’t hurt to wait a little bit until his collar cooled down. 

Just in case.

***

“What the hell is a Final Dead Puzzle?” Kaito muttered upon seeing the “puzzle in progress” image appear on the screen. The previous puzzles’ titles usually eluded to what the puzzles were like, but he didn’t have a clue what this one could mean.

Surely… “Final Dead” couldn’t mean…!?

Now entirely unsettled, Kaito sloppily threw on his coat and made a mad dash for his door, throwing it open and immediately being met with the deadpan look of his sidekick.

“Gah!” he cried out in shock, leaping back. “Maki Roll!”

“What’s got you in such a hurry?” Maki asked him dryly.

“Don’t you see what the puzzle’s called?” Kaito demanded, pulling her into his room to violently gesture at the display on the monitor. “Final Dead Puzzle, Maki Roll! What if this puzzle is designed for them to fail!?”

“Calm down,” his sidekick replied in exasperation, shrugging off his hand from her arm. “It’s only the second day of the motive. There’s no way Monokuma would rig a puzzle for failure on day two. It’s probably just called that for theatrics.”

“It has to mean something,” he insisted stubbornly. Swallowing down blood, he clenched his fists against his side with a fierce look at the words on the monitor. “The final part of it has to be important…”

“Whatever it is, it might not be important to us,” said Maki. Upon his questioning hum, she tucked a stray hair behind her ear, looking away from him. “Shuichi and Kokichi are the one’s in the puzzles, so whatever is happening in there, it’s something only they need to worry about. Thinking about things that don’t affect us is only going to create more stress and unnecessary concern.”

“Oh… well when you put it like that, I guess that does make sense…” Kaito mused under his breath. He turned his eyes back to the screen, where a two minute and thirty second timer had appeared, and an arrow icon had appeared over Shuichi’s pixel sprite. “What the hell does that mean?”

“Again, don’t worry about it.” Maki strode past him and picked up one of the electrohammers that was leaning against the wall, gripping it tightly in one hand. “We’ve got our own plan to carry out, remember?”

Oh yeah, the secret room! He had been so concerned about the contents of the puzzle that he had forgotten about what he and Maki had agreed to do once the puzzle started.

“Hell yes!” he exclaimed in agreement, shooting her a thumbs up. “Let’s get going before anyone sees us. We’ve gotta be stealthy, sidekick.”

Maki rolled her eyes. “Tell that to yourself.”

Using the dark as a coat of camouflage, he and Maki made it all the way down to the library in the school without incident. Kaito wasn’t sure how they’d explain what the electrohammer was and where, how and why they had found it, and he was honestly glad he wouldn't have to. Maki’s sentiment of being secretive was starting to rub off on him, he supposed.

(Not that he was much better in the first place. The minute his illness had sprung to life, exponentially worsening every day, he had carefully hid it in clever exits and well-disguised clearings of his throat.

Kokichi had eventually ripped that rug out from beneath him, prying the cruel truth from his hands with a single punch to the gut. And while he was still pissed about that beyond belief… at least he didn’t have to put effort into hiding it from his sidekick. He knew that it worried her beyond belief, but she had faith in him, just like he had faith in her.

He wasn’t going to die. Not here, not now.)

“Coast is clear,” he called to his sidekick after a quick check down the dark halls, closing the door fully to join her next to the moving bookcase. “Are we sure Monokuma ain’t gonna get on our case for this…?”

“We’re using a tool that was made by one of our classmates,” Maki pointed out reasonably. “If he didn’t reprimand Miu for making this, I don’t see why we’d get in trouble for using it.”

“Yeah… but he also probably wasn’t expecting it to be used for breaking into hidden rooms,” Kaito argued.

Maki shrugged slightly. “What else would it be used for in a place like this?”

“Oh, good point! Alright, let’s do it!”

Not quite sure why she looked so unimpressed at that, he pulled the moving bookcase open, once more revealing the hidden door that had failed to be opened until now.

Spinning the hammer in her hand, Maki carefully lined her swing up with the card reader before bringing it down on the screen. It flashed bright red for a moment before switching to static, and after a few moments, the green dot lit up affirmatively and the door opened.

“Holy crap!” Kaito blurted out in shock. “It actually worked! I mean, Miu made it, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised…”

“Just be thankful she didn’t add anything of her own to it,” Maki pointed out dryly. She abruptly shoved the hammer into his hands, which he fumbled with for a moment before catching. “You hold this, and I’ll go in first. You’d fold like a plastic straw if there was anything dangerous in here.”

“I would not!” he shouted defensively. “Also, what the hell kind of comparison is that!?”

“What I mean is that between the two of us, I’m the only one in any condition to fight,” Maki corrected herself matter-of-factly. “You got punched once by Kokichi and was rendered useless. Let me go first.”

Gritting his teeth, Kaito eventually just sighed in defeat. “Alright, fine.”

When Maki didn't immediately start swinging upon entry, he followed her into the hidden room, and was met with what he could best describe as a backstage lounge. There were multiple red, somewhat fancy-looking sofas scattered around and two coffee tables, one of which had something on it. The pillars on the sides of the room were decorated with many heart and flower designs– or stickers…?– with cylindrical globe lights illuminating the red with a gentle blue color. More notably, on some sort of mini stage on the right, there was something concealed beneath a red curtain.

The room itself was a little darker, especially when compared to the rest of the school. Though Kaito supposed that could be because it was night time, and most of the lights in the academy shut off after the announcement. But something about this room felt generally oppressive, an overwhelming sense of wrong weighing heavily on his shoulders. This was somewhere they were definitely not supposed to be.

“This feels like a secret room,” Kaito muttered as he looked around, separating from Maki to approach the curtain. “Hey, what do you think is under here?”

“I wouldn’t touch that,” Maki advised. “We don’t want to accidentally activate anything and alert the mastermind.”

Kaito hummed in acknowledgement, waving off the impulsive urge to yank the curtain off of whatever it was covering. Curiosity didn’t kill the cat for nothing, so yes, it was better to be cautious. Man, his sidekicks were really smart.

(If only he had them both with him here now. He hoped Shuichi was okay in whatever the “Final Dead Puzzle” was supposed to be.)

When he turned away from the curtain, he found that Maki had delicately picked up the thing that was on the table. And upon closer look, he realized with a churning stomach that it was some sort of bloodstained Monopad.

Joining her side, he looked over her shoulder in time to see her power the Monopad on. The words SURVIVOR PERK appeared in pink lettering on screen. He and Maki exchanged a puzzled look with each other before she swiped up on the tablet, and they were met with a map of the fifth floor.

Further scrolling revealed that this Monopad seemed to be a map of the academy, even including…

“Maki Roll!” he exclaimed with a gasp, leaning over her shoulder to point at the basement map. “Look! It’s the hidden room!”

“It’s a map of the entire school,” Maki observed with a thoughtful frown. “...what’s this?”

He watched as his sidekick tapped on a message icon in the very bottom left of the screen, and moments later, the map was replaced by a few paragraphs of text.

“The mastermind who is behind the killing game is hiding somewhere within the academy,” Kaito carefully read aloud. “Your best chance of exposing them is when Monokuma needs a spare. At that time, the mastermind will go to the library’s hidden room. 

“To prove this hint is accurate, I will predict something. The first thing you will remember is the Ultimate Hunt.

“Only share this information with people who you know you can trust. How you determine that will mean your life or death…

“...Rantaro Amami!?”

“Rantaro?” Maki echoed in mild bewilderment. “...so this was Rantaro’s.”

“What the hell was Rantaro doing with something like this?” Kaito demanded, stepping back from his sidekick to expressively throw out his free hand. “Actually, how did that thing get in here anyway?”

“We never did find out why Rantaro knew about the hidden room…” Maki mused, scrolling back up to look at the map again. “This Monopad– this Survivor Perk– had to belong to him. He saw the hidden room on the map and came to check it out for himself.”

“And then he got lured in by the flash of the camera and killed…” Kaito finished with a bitter grimace. “That still doesn’t tell us why he had this thing, though.”

“I don’t think we’ll be able to figure out why he had it,” Maki admitted, turning off the tablet and setting it back down. “That kind of thing is usually left for Shuichi. But his message does give us a few important clues… for one, we now know that there is, without a doubt, a mastermind, and they’re somewhere in the academy.”

A shiver crawled down his spine and he swallowed thickly, wincing as blood seeped down his esophagus. There was still hope that the mastermind wasn’t one of their classmates, but… it was irrefutable now that there was a mastermind within the limits of the End Wall. Someone here was pulling the strings of the killing game, forcing them all to kill one another just for their sick amusement.

“A second clue is that… the first trial might not be what it seems,” Maki continued a little more slowly. She pointed to the Monopad that she had set face down, and he could clearly see the old, dried blood on the surface. “The bloodstain outlines a hand. Someone was holding this when they were struck… and I can’t think of anyone else who would have this but Rantaro.”

“But we found his student handbook with him when he died,” Kaito pointed out with a deep scowl. “Are you saying Shuichi was wrong…?”

“I’m not saying that,” Maki refuted him immediately. “I do think Kaede is the one who killed Rantaro. But what I’m saying is that there’s another part to the murder that we didn’t see… not even Shuichi could have seen it.”

Another part to the murder…? Kaito could’ve sworn that they covered everything there was to know in that first class trial– Shuichi had done a great job at prying the entire case open no matter how much it had hurt him to convict his best friend. Shuichi was someone who didn’t let his feelings take over his deductions, and that was what made him so strong.

“Whatever this tablet is… clearly we weren’t meant to see it,” said Maki. “I think that the mastermind tampered with the crime scene. That would explain why this Monopad is in here, and why we didn’t find Rantaro holding it.”

“That seems a little unfair though,” Kaito pointed out. But then he paused, his frown deepening. “And hey, that means the mastermind knew exactly when and where Rantaro died! How would they have known that!?”

Maki was quiet, glancing away from him as she usually did when she didn’t have an immediate reply. Finding this Monopad had opened up a lot of new mysteries surrounding the very first murder of this killing game, one that he had thought they were done with. If the mastermind really had manipulated the scene way back when… then who’s to say none of the other crime scenes had been tampered with? How many paths have they been forcibly led down because of the mastermind’s meddling?

Not for the first time, he wished Shuichi were here right now. He would probably be able to work this mess out, just like he always did. Sure, it may be a little selfish of him to rely solely on his sidekicks… but even he could recognize what fields he lacked in. Shuichi was the detective between the three of them, not him.

“Let’s finish looking around,” Maki finally said. With a pointed look at the open door leading to the library, she added, “quickly.”

If the mastermind found them, then things would be pretty bad. He gave her a determined nod and set off to look around on his own, pointedly avoiding the curtain. He itched to remove it and see what was hiding underneath, and he really didn’t think that leaving it untouched was a good idea, but getting caught was sort of a worst-case scenario. It was best not to risk it.

As he heard his sidekick rifling through the trash can for whatever reason, he leaned on the wall with a weary grunt, coughing into his sleeve and trying to muffle the sound as much as possible. He had been pushing himself for the past few days and his illness was undeniably getting worse.

Tomorrow… I’m gonna have to sit searching for the others out, he realized upon seeing the fresh pink splattered onto his purple sleeve. I can’t keep this up… even I know that. Man, I hate being dead weight! Damn it!

As he let his arm fall back against the wall, he realized with a jolt that the wall next to him was… hollow? He knocked on the wall just to test it out, and sure enough, there was most definitely space behind this wall. But he didn’t remember there being any rooms past this one on the Survivor Perk map, so why–

“What is…” he heard Maki say from the other side of the room, and she effortlessly lifted something out of the trash can. Something round and steel.

The sound of the moving bookcase outside made the both of them freeze like a deer in headlights. Someone was approaching the hidden door– they had to get out of there!

“Maki Roll!” Kaito hissed as lowly as he could, giving the hollow wall a good shove with his shoulder seeing as one of his hands was occupied with the electrohammer. Much to his relief, it opened like a door, and he violently gestured for her to follow.

Without a moment to lose, Maki dropped whatever she had been holding back into the trash can and all but teleported to his side, safely evacuating into what he could now see was a long passageway. As soon as she was in, he closed the door and ran after her, not wanting to stick around for any longer than necessary.

The two of them didn’t have to run far, because soon, they made it to the end of the passageway, where they both all but fell through the wall and out of what he recognized as a bathroom’s utility closet. Maki was quick to pick herself back up, her face looking suspiciously red for a moment before she squeezed out of the cramped closet to glance around.

“Man… I think my soul left my body for a second there,” Kaito groaned, using the wall to support him back to his feet. His chest lurched and he had enough time to get out a forced, “oh crap–” before he broke into a particularly bad coughing fit.

By the time he was done, his sleeve was dyed pink and simply breathing put a horrible strain on his lungs. He was so done with this illness already, and he was over the way it made him feel so weak and exhausted and how he always felt as if he were drowning every time he laid down.

“Are you okay?” Maki asked him as he was catching his breath.

“I-I’m alright,” he reassured her with a less than confident grin. “Just… over-doing it a little, I think… dammit…”

“You shouldn’t push yourself, idiot,” Maki chastised him the minute he responded clearly to her. “You’ll only make it worse faster.”

“I know that,” he snapped, clenching his fists in frustration. “I just hate waiting around and doing nothing while everyone else is working hard!”

“You’ll survive,” Maki replied unsympathetically. Turning her attention away from him, she surveyed the bathroom. “It looks like that passageway leads into the girls bathroom on the first floor. So the hidden door in the library isn’t the only way into that room…"

“It wasn’t on Rantaro’s map though,” Kaito pointed out. “So… only the mastermind could have known abo– wait, where did it lead?”

“The girl’s bathroom on the first floor.”

For a brief second, Kaito thought he felt his soul levitate out of his body.

“WHAT!?” he yelped in horror. “Maki, I’ve gotta get out of here! I can’t be in a girls bathroom!”

“Then leave, idiot,” Maki urged him.

“Quit calling me an idiot!” Kaito shouted as he shoved the electrohammer into her hands and booked it for the door. “Catch up with you later! Cya, sidekick!”

As he left, he thought he heard her say, “see you later, Kaito.”

Chapter Text

In an uncommon turn of events, Kaito was the last one into the dining hall. However, before he could cheerfully greet everyone like he always did, Monokuma appeared abruptly among the group. And even as a robot, he did not look happy (no offense, K1-B0.)

“About time you all showed up!” Monokuma immediately began seething. “I’ve got a real bone to pick with a few of you, not naming names!”

“Hey, can we save this for later?” Himiko requested disinterestedly. “It’s way too early for this.”

“No way ho-say, missy!” Monokuma snapped. “SOME of you thought you could go into a prohibited room and get away with it?”

Kaito shot an alarmed look at Maki, who did not share his apparent concern. In fact, she didn’t look like she cared at all.

“You guys weren’t supposed to go in there!” The bear continued whining. “Just ‘cause I’m busy with the puzzles doesn’t mean you guys can go and start breaking into places you aren’t supposed to go in yet!”

“What are you talking about?” K1-B0 demanded in clear bewilderment.

Letting out a calming sigh, Monokuma explained in a clipped tone. “A few of your classmates broke into the hidden room in the library last night during the puzzle.” 

“What?” Tsumugi gasped, similarly to the exclamation of shock K1-B0 let out. 

“Why did you say we weren’t supposed to go in there yet?” Maki asked instead of sharing the other’s shocked sentiment. “Were we supposed to go in there at some point?”

“Well I don’t want to spoil the surprise!” Monokuma dodged the question with a joyous cackle. “But seriously! Quit breaking into places you aren’t supposed to before I confiscate your dumb flippin’ hammers!”

“I thought we were free to explore the academy…” Tsumugi pointed out sheepishly.

“Yeah, with the stuff I give you!” Monokuma barked, making the girl jump. “Explore the academy with discretion! The keyword is discretion, people! Yeesh!”

“Why are you so mad, anyway?” Kaito demanded. “If we were supposed to go into that room, then why are you getting all pissed about it when we do? We’re just speeding up the process!”

Monokuma grumbled unhappily, somehow crossing his arms. “You just don’t get it, do ya? Hmmpghh… well, I guess I can’t make ya understand. But stay outta that room, chumps! Or else! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a puzzle to initiate. Bye!”

With that, Monokuma vanished, leaving the five of them reeling in shock and confusion. 

“Hey… if one of us really did go into the hidden room, we’d tell each other, right?” Tsumugi worried, her anxious gray eyes trailing over all of her classmates.

“Yes! Teamwork in this situation is crucial!” K1-B0 agreed determinedly. “If any of us have found any information that could be beneficial, then please! Do share!”

If the Monokuma knows it was us, then the mastermind sure as hell knows… he thought with a grimace, casting another glance at his sidekick. No point in hiding it then.

“Alright…” Kaito sighed in defeat, wincing as Maki shot him a deadly glare. “I’ll admit it… I’m the one who broke into the hidden room.”

“You?” Himiko asked in what looked like genuine surprise.

“Monokuma said multiple of us broke into the room though…?” Tsumugi recalled. “Did someone help you?”

“Technically, yeah, actually,” Kaito replied fearlessly. “I got my hands on this thing called an electrohammer from Miu’s lab. Apparently, Kokichi had her make it. I don’t know what he was planning to use it for, but it can basically override anything electrical. All I did was whack the card reader with it and I was in!”

Kaito wasn’t going to sell out Maki. It was his job as the hero to take the fall for her, because what his sidekicks did, he was also responsible for. Besides, it was his idea to break into the hidden room in the first place, and if Maki wanted to hide her involvement, then he’d begrudgingly play into that lie. Anything for his sidekicks, after all. 

“Nyeh!? Then you really did go into the hidden room?” Himiko exclaimed. “What was in it?”

“Anything important?” added K1-B0.

Before he could respond, the monitor chimed, revealing the start of the fifth puzzle. It was the Mirror Puzzle, with a whole half an hour of a time limit. What the hell kind of thing were those two doing that could take them an entire thirty minutes?

“Oh jeez…” Tsumugi murmured upon seeing the monitor.

“They’ll be fine!” Kaito was quick to reassure everybody. “Let's have some faith in Shuichi and Kokichi. I’m sure they can hold their own until we find a way to get them outta there!”

“I don’t imagine either of them would let themselves die that easily,” Maki agreed. “Focus, everyone. Kaito, what did you find?”

So she’s going along with it too. “I didn’t have much time to search around everywhere, but I did find somethin’ really weird…”

***

When Shuichi opened his eyes, he was surrounded by blood.

His first instinctual reaction was to let out a surprised yelp and scramble away from the scene, his chest clenching painfully as he looked wide-eyed at the white outline of where he had been lying just a few moments before. The blood looked fresh, but it didn’t stain his clothes or hands in any way. Maybe it was paint or something…?

(He hoped it was paint. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if he had woken up lying in a pool of legitimate blood.)

In his panic, he had accidentally whacked something to the side. It was some sort of numbered yellow card, which was labeled 1. Glancing around, he saw three more cards similar to the first, all placed in front of scattered splotches of blood. From the looks of it, it looks like someone had been stabbed at one spot, staggered a few steps forward, and then collapsed. He wasn't sure about the 5 card on the single-drawer desk next to the empty bookcase, though.

Standing up, Shuichi quickly identified the room he was in as some kind of study. It was a really empty study, but a study nonetheless. There was a big window that was playing some looped image of a stormy night, a flash of lightning momentarily illuminating up the otherwise dim room.

In simple terms, Shuichi had just woken up in a crime scene.

Turning around not only revealed that there was a giant glass pane separating him from an exact mirror of the room, but he also realized that Kokichi was sitting up in the outline, rubbing his head. 

“Kokichi!” he called out, stepping over the giant blood spatter and knocking on the glass. Kokichi looked over his shoulder and up at him, smiling upon seeing him and standing up. His mouth moved, but Shuichi couldn’t hear a word he said.

The glass must be really thick… Shuichi realized grimly. We’ll have to communicate in some other way. 

Seeing his confused look, Kokichi must have come to the same realization as him, because he pouted almost cartoonishly and, Shuichi assumed, yelled as loud as he possibly could.

“I can’t hear you!” Shuichi shouted at him despite knowing it was futile, pointing at his ears before making an aggressive X with his arms. 

Kokichi cocked his head to the side, making a helpless gesture at him. Shuichi hung his head back with a groan, deciding that this was officially the second worst puzzle they had done so far (the first was the maze, in case you were wondering.)

“You two seem to be having fun!” Monokuma’s voice cut through the quiet sound of the rain. “Sorry that took me so long! I had to yell at your classmates for screwing up the narrative a bit.”

That didn’t sound good at all. Shuichi felt his heart sink deep in his chest at the news– just what had they done now?

“I didn’t punish them or nothing, calm down!” Monokuma scoffed, likely in response to something Kokichi had said. “Pipe down and listen up. Welcome to the fifth puzzle, the Mirror Puzzle! As you can see, the two of you are separated by a sound-proof piece of glass. Your job here is to make the rooms you’re in perfectly match each other! Doesn’t matter what has to change for that to happen, you just gotta make sure they mirror each other perfectly. Thus, the name! The Mirror Puzzle!”

“Will the puzzle end once we do that?” Shuichi asked the bear. 

“Gah! One at a time, jeez!” Monokuma yelped, rubbing his ears. “First up, you can end the puzzle by laying back down in the place you woke up. You’ll know you were successful when the glass raises and a door appears on Kokichi’s side. But if you try and submit your answer and it’s wrong… you’ll both get shocked! So make sure everything’s perfect before you lay down!”

So we essentially act as the body in the crime scene, Shuichi concluded, looking back down at the white outline. Better make sure we do this right…

“Second, what your classmates did doesn’t matter to you!” Monokuma continued with a sharp edge to his voice. “I’ve dealt with it, and if they do it again then I’ll deal with that too. You don’t gotta worry about it, alright? What you oughta be worrying about is the half an hour time limit you have.”

Thirty minutes? Just how many differences were there in this room!?

“I’ll be here if you want to change the weather or anything. You’ve got thirty minutes before you fail, so good luuuuuuck~!” Monokuma called to them before he disappeared from the monitor, which now displayed the promised thirty minutes.

How are we going to do this without being able to talk to each other? Shuichi wondered worriedly, scanning Kokichi’s side of the room. I’m sure we don’t need to talk to each other for this one… and if we do, pointing at things should be fine. We both understand the objective of the puzzle, and what matters is that we can finish it.

For now… I need to focus on finding what’s different between our two rooms. 

The first thing that drew his attention were the windows. Contrary to his stormy weather, Kokichi’s window displayed a bright and sunny day. He also saw Kokichi pointing at it and staring at the monitor, and moments later, the screen suddenly switched to show the same stormy weather that was on his side. That meant that it was now much darker on Kokichi’s end, but the boy didn’t seem all that bothered by the lighting change so he decided not to dwell on it.

Turning his attention away from his teammate, he crouched down next to the numbers, gently brushing the tips of his fingers over the blood. Dried, as he had suspected. 

In total, there were five yellow cards set up on his side of the room. Four were placed around the white outline, and the fifth was placed on the single-drawer desk he had seen earlier. Approaching the desk revealed to him a bloody knife resting behind the card, and he grimaced. It looked so real.

Looking over at Kokichi’s side, he located only four cards total, the fifth missing from the blood spatter. Where there should be a 3 card, there was none. There wasn’t even the small spatter of blood that was present on Shuichi’s side. That did not bode well for Kokichi.

Confirming the drawer empty, he walked over and knocked on the glass to catch his teammate’s attention. Once Kokichi turned around to look at him, he pointed to the 3 card and the bloodstain. The pieces seemed to click in his mind as Kokichi looked around his own crime scene, but found none. So at least he knew about it now.

Shuichi gave him an uncertain thumbs up before moving to investigate the desk in the back of the room that was by the window. There was a closed laptop, though it didn’t turn on when he tried. Also, a quick glance told him that Kokichi’s laptop was open, so he left it that way. He also had to shatter the vase of flowers that had been on one side of the desk, and something about the black rose that had been in it laying on the ground made him feel strangely guilty. He had no idea a flower could look so… sad.

“Sorry,” he murmured to the flower before moving on.

It turned out that the entire room was riddled with little differences that he wouldn’t have seen upon first glance. The curtains being tied, the clicks being set at different times, and even the chair was misplaced. They were such miniscule things that wouldn’t matter in any other situation, but here, they were essential. Everything mattered, because if they couldn’t finish the puzzle before the time limit was up, they were dead. Everyone was going to die.

While he was fretting over the shards of the broken vase, there was a somewhat violent knock at the glass, making him jump. Kokichi was staring at him expectantly, his hands on his hips.

A little nervous, Shuichi went to approach the glass, stopping short when Kokichi pointed at the single-drawer desk with the knife on it. He realized then that Kokichi wasn’t able to see the knife because the empty bookcase was in the way and so was the card. (Speaking of cards, Kokichi had somehow found a 3 card at some point, and it was resting where the bloodstain should be on his side.) 

Delicately picking up the knife from the drawer, he showed it to Kokichi. He didn’t know why Kokichi’s eyebrow raised so high, or why it looked like his face paled a little at the sight. That was, until Kokichi grabbed his own version of the knife, which…

…was totally clean.

“What?” Shuichi murmured instinctively, glancing between his knife and Kokichi’s. “But why would… ah!”

Suddenly, he understood. He knew why Monokuma had told them that there would be a jump in difficulty at the start of the last puzzle. They weren’t just becoming more complicated…

…they were becoming more aggressive.

The missing bloodstain, and the clean knife… this was no longer a simple matter of thinking their way out of these and using their heads to slip past danger scott-free. They had to be willing to harm themselves to complete these puzzles.

Every puzzle is beatable, he recalled nauseously. So long as we’re willing to do whatever it takes to beat it.

From the look on his face, Kokichi had to have figured this out as well. But what Shuichi wasn’t expecting him to do was to crouch next to the 3 card, rolling up his sleeve to his elbow and putting his hand close to the ground.

…is he actually going to do it!? Shuichi thought in alarm, rushing all the way up to the glass and banging on it. Even if it may seem hopeless, there might still be time to figure something out–!

All Kokichi did in response to his panic was line up the knife with his palm, give Shuichi a confident smirk and wink, and sliced his hand open.

That was so much stronger than Shuichi had been expecting him to do. Even Kokichi flinched at the violence of his own act, because the knife slipped from his hand and clattered to the floor, decorated with a new bloodstain. Shuichi couldn’t see his face beneath his bangs, but he could see that he was breathing somewhat unevenly, and that worried Shuichi even more.

“A-Are you okay?” Shuichi called to his teammate, knowing perfectly well that his words went unheard. His stomach churned uneasily as Kokichi clutched the wound with his uninjured hand, his shoulders jerking slightly. “Let’s finish the puzzle quickly– that looks really bad.”

Of course, Kokichi did not react to his voice. He looked focused on matching the blood splatter to Shuichi’s, which could not possibly be hygienic for his wound. In fact, all Shuichi could do was watch Kokichi as he finished up his side of the room, placing the knife back where he had found it and righting the 5 card placed in front of the weapon. 

Aside from all of that, Shuichi was pretty sure that their rooms were as identical as they were going to get them. The cards, the laptops, the weather, the vases and even the placement of the little closed safe on the bookshelf were utterly exact. The only thing that differed was the pattern of blood on the steel of the knife, but… it was bloodstained, wasn’t it? That should be enough of a similarity to count towards their victory… he hoped. He didn’t know what they could possibly do if it didn’t. 

Shooting each other a few vague and mildly confusing hand gestures, Shuichi and Kokichi each laid in their respective chalk outline. “Checking their work” made Shuichi immensely anxious– he hated the anticipation of waiting with nothing in-between. He thumbed the palm of his hand as he stared up at the ceiling, already uncomfortable with restlessness.

The wooden floor beneath him shifted somehow, and a chime of affirmation emitted from the monitor. At that, a massive sigh of relief escaped from Shuichi’s mouth, taking some of the tension in his body along with it. He could only assume that the sound meant they had successfully completed the puzzle, and this theory was further proven as the glass wall slowly began raising. Flipping onto his stomach and pushing himself up with his elbows, he watched it raise further and further into the ceiling until it was gone, finally granting him access to his teammate.

“Kokichi! Are you–” he tried, but Kokichi interrupted him with a harsh scoff that made him stutter over the words he wanted to say, and he ultimately fell silent. 

“Oh, Shuichi, Shuichi… if you ask me if I’m okay, then I’m really gonna have to question your moral standpoint,” Kokichi sneered at him with unexpected hostility.

“Wh… what?”

A bitter giggle bubbled out of Kokichi’s lips. He stood up from where he had been lying down, cradling his wounded hand close to his chest and inadvertently dyeing the white fabric of his shirt pink. There was a dark look present in his previously bright eyes that didn’t match the wide, slim smile he wore like a crown of thorns. 

“I don’t know, Shuichi… I don’t think this is working out,” Kokichi sighed in contempt, examining his blood-crusted fingernails in feigned boredom. “I just can’t hang around someone who won’t even stick to their own beliefs, ya’know? I’d expect this from Keeboy or somethin’... but you? Mr. “Let’s Mope About Everyone Dying Everywhere”? Yikes… not a good look for you, Shuichi.”

“What on earth are you talking about?” Shuichi demanded in absolute bewilderment, rising to his feet as well. Thunder rolled distantly outside of the fake window, a flash of lightning briefly lighting up Kokichi’s previously shadowed face. It was a scary expression to see on him, and an even scarier one to be alone with.

“All I’m saying is that you moved on really fast,” Kokichi replied, the emotion in his voice hidden behind an eerily flat tone. “You really haven’t forgotten about what I did, did you? How set you were on being mad at me? Where’d all that go, hmm?”

…what?

“Of course I’m still angry… how could you assume I wasn’t?” Shuichi shot back, his confusion fading back into mild resentment. However… now that he thought about it… “You manipulated Gonta into killing someone by showing him the motive, and then you laughed.”

“So then you should be jumping for joy that I’m getting hurt now, ri–”

“I’m not finished,” Shuichi interrupted the boy in a rare instance of boldness. “Ever since the maze, I feel like something has been off. You’ve been hiding something from me; the true cause of what made me feel unafraid in the maze.”

“Wow! I didn’t know delusions were a side effect of hypothermia!” Kokichi exclaimed in mock disbelief. But his tricks and cruelty weren’t going to work on Shuichi– not anymore. He refused.

“I know you want to survive, Kokichi,” he pushed, his words even more powerful than the clap of thunder outside. “It’s why you’ve been working with me. You want to survive… and so do I. Neither of us want to die… and that’s why you had Gonta protect you from Miu, isn’t it? You didn’t do it out of malice like you claimed you did. You did it to survive.”

Kokichi’s eye twitched in irritation and his smile grew a little more strained. “Uh-huh. And how much else about me do you have figured out? You gonna start explaining why I’m a liar now, too? Any tragic feelings in that one, Mister Detective?”

“I don’t have it figured out,” Shuichi corrected him sharply. “I don’t understand you at all. I never know what you want… and all you’ve done is confuse me since I met you. But on that note, do you remember what you said before we started the second puzzle?”

“I toootally don’t. I have the memory-equivalent of a goldfish, actually. Enlighten me, if you’re so smart.” 

“You said that, maybe, we could come to understand each other,” Shuichi recited with unwavering resolve. He wasn’t going to let Kokichi bully him out of this. “And that’s all I’ve been trying to do ever since we got here. It’s been coming back to me in bits and pieces… but what you said to me in the maze is important. Please… just tell me. What is the real reason you had Gonta kill Miu?”

Silence hung heavily in the study, stirring an oppressive atmosphere into the air. Eye contact was something he struggled with, but Shuichi refused to drop his gaze away from Kokichi’s. He needed to assert power in this conversation if he wanted actual answers.

“...do you really need to worry about it?” Kokichi finally questioned instead of answering his query. “I'll tell you one thing, Shuichi. Everything that I’ve done up until now has been completely pointless. Everyone outside is too incompetent to kill each other, and they probably think that just leaving me locked up is a better option than anything else. We’re going to die, Shuichi.”

Those words sent an icy spear plunging through Shuichi’s heart, and his entire body went rigid. 

How could he say that so matter-of-factly? Those awful words were spoken as if they were a fact that Kokichi had long-since accepted.

Unless… he has accepted that fact…?

Kokichi…

“Gonta… was my friend,” Kokichi finally whispered, his voice almost drowned out by the gentle pitter-patter of the fake rain against the windows. “He was stupid enough to be my friend in a killing game… and he had to die for that. I’ve gotta ask… ‘cause I’m curious, ya’know? Did you ever stop once to think that maybe I was lying about it all?”

“Lying…?” Shuichi echoed quietly. 

“About not caring for him or Miu,” Kokichi clarified. “You can’t care about people in a killing game, Shuichi. That’s rule number one to surviving. I always knew that… but realizing what Miu was gonna do opened my eyes. I couldn’t just let her interfere with my plans! I was gonna stop the killing game so no one else had to die, and if I had to kill someone to do that, then so be it. I didn’t expect this,” he swept his uninjured hand in a wide arc, gesturing at the room around them, “to happen.”

Those words sounded achingly familiar in one way or another, and he assumed they were an echo of what he had been told in the maze. Kokichi was not innocent by any means, but it sounded like everything he had done was for an ideal they all shared: to stop the killing game. All Kokichi had done was taken a different, more brutal approach to that goal, one that had ended in the unfortunate deaths of two people.

Even if Shuichi didn’t forgive him… he at least had some understanding as to why he had done it now.

“...I can’t forgive you,” Shuichi finally told him. “There’s no way I ever could. But it, ah, feels a lot better knowing that… you didn’t do it just to be malicious. What was that plan you were gonna do to end the killing game?”

“I was gonna play Whack-A-Mole with you guys until I found the mastermind!” Kokichi automatically replied, the grim lines in his face relaxing into something more playful. Looks like Shuichi’s not getting an answer for that one, then.

“Ah…” There was one thing still bothering him though, so he mustered up the courage to ask, "um… do you… feel bad? For what happened in the Virtual World?”

“Not in the slightest,” was what Kokichi replied with. But then he smiled sweetly, his eyes narrowing knowingly. “Though that might be a lie… who’s to say? You’re the detective, you figure it out.”

That was probably the best Shuichi was going to get, so he nodded slightly, the determined fire that had been alit in favor of arguing finally dying out. It was a miracle that he had gotten anything out of Kokichi at all, but… then again, if Kokichi really did believe that they were going to die here, then there’d be no point in keeping up a show at every waking moment. Continuing that act must be exhausting, he realized.

During their minor dispute, the window on Kokichi’s side of the room had swung open, revealing a short tunnel that led to a relievingly familiar door.

“For the record, I am still mad about Gonta and Miu,” Shuichi said as Kokichi turned and began to walk, prompting his teammate to pause. “What you did was… awful… but I’m not going to hate you. I’m going to focus my anger on the mastermind, who forced us all into this killing game in the first place. So in the meantime, at least while we’re here… can we work together? Properly, this time?”

“Without forgiveness,” bargained Kokichi. “‘cause I’m gonna be disappointed if you forgive me for killing somebody, Shuichi.”

“Without forgiveness,” Shuichi quietly agreed.

Their alliance up until now had been rocky at best, and many of Shuichi’s fears had resided in the simple fact that he didn’t know what Kokichi’s intentions were. He was always somewhat of a wild card in the killing game, always acting erratically and unpredictably. He switched from a brilliant ally to a terrifying enemy like the direction of the wind, and that’s what made him seem so dangerous.

But the truth was that he was another victim of the killing game, just like they all were. Even those who had become blackened killers were not to be entirely put at fault here; the killing game was designed to push them into killing one another. It wasn’t fair to blame them for a game they couldn’t win. Sure, Kokichi had taken things to a mortifying extremity, and Shuichi was sure that there had to have been some other way to deal with Miu’s murder plan, but… what was done was done.

…Gonta did ask us to not hate Kokichi, Shuichi recalled the entomologist’s final plea with a wince as he followed Kokichi back into the Objective Room. He watched idly as Kokichi immediately moved towards the medicine cabinet, swinging it open. Gonta saw what Kokichi didn’t want us to see, I think.

Alright Gonta… if not for any other reason, then I’ll give him another chance. For you.

He watched Kokichi fumble with a roll of bandages, struggling to keep the blood off of it, which proved to be a significantly much more difficult task when his entire left hand was coated in blood. Swallowing down the complicated mix of relief and grief that had begun brewing in his chest, he finally asked, “do you need help with that?”

Kokichi looked him up and down, smiled wryly, and tucked the roll of bandages into the crook of his arm with a curt, “I’ll do it myself.”

***

After spending most of his day squinting uncomprehendingly at the words scrawled in a book he once saw Shuichi invested in, he was saved from immense confusion by his faithful sidekick knocking on his door.

But of course, since this was the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, she did not come bearing anything even remotely light-hearted.

“There’s something I found in the hidden room,” she launched into the topic of her visit as soon as the door closed. “I didn’t know what to make of it at first, but it’s too suspicious not to bring up.”

“Not even a greeting?” Kaito muttered, but quickly got over it, because it sounded like she came with news of another clue. And any clue was a good clue! “Alright, hit me with it, Maki Roll! What’d you find?”

Maki shot him a faintly amused look. “I think you’d prefer to not get “hit with it”. In fact, it’d probably kill you.”

“Come on, it’s a figure of speech!”

“Sure.” Before he could argue, she had already moved on. “When I was looking in the trash can, I found a shot put ball. I didn’t have much time to look it over before we heard the bookcase move… but I can say with certainty that there was no blood on it.”

Well. That wasn’t the clue Kaito was expecting. In fact, now he was even more confused.

“A shot put ball?” he parroted back. “In the trash can? Who puts a sixteen-pound steel ball in the trash can!?”

“I don’t think that’s what you should be worried about,” Maki deadpanned. “But it got me thinking for a bit. We know that the mastermind tampered with Rantaro’s murder to hide his Survivor Perk– I even went back into Kokichi’s room and found the pictures Kaede and Shuichi took. The blood stained perfectly around how he was holding it. Considering that… what was the shot put ball doing there?”

“He was killed with a shot put ball… okay, that’s pretty suspicious,” Kaito concurred. “But hey, Monokuma did say we were supposed to find that room, right? Maybe the mastermind’s trying to confuse us; to make us see things that aren’t there. Maybe they’re just tryna distract us from the Survivor Perk!”

“It’s too early to write it off,” Maki replied simply. She chewed her thumb anxiously, her eyebrows furrowed in thought. “But I’m not sure what it could mean.”

“Look, the mastermind must have had some reason for hiding Rantaro’s Survivor Perk,” Kaito reasoned with her. “Maybe it was something only for Rantaro to see– it’d suck for them if their existence was revealed in the first trial by that note, right? Rantaro was killed by Kaede by the shot put ball we found at the scene, there’s no doubt about it. The one you found in the trash can is probably a diversion or… I dunno, something like a joke? We won’t shrug it off, but we pro’lly don’t need to worry about it.”

“...you worry too little,” Maki grumbled, rolling her eyes. “Everything the mastermind has done so far has had a purpose of some sort. I can’t imagine there’d be a shot put ball in the trash can because the mastermind wanted to joke around.”

“Man…” he rubbed the back of his neck with a weary sigh. Even he knew that that was a weak argument, but he genuinely couldn’t see any reason there’d be a shot put ball in the trash can if it wasn’t a murder weapon. “If only Shuichi was here. He’d have this figured out in, like, ten minutes.”

“He would… but he’s not here right now,” Maki reminded him grimly. “We have to figure this out for ourselves, which means we can’t rely on Shuichi. Neither of us may be detectives, but at the very least, I have critical thinking skills.”

“Hey! Don’t discredit my intellect!” Kaito protested with a huff of outrage. “Seriously, you guys don’t think I’m that stupid, do you?”

Maki’s hesitation told him all he needed to know and he slumped, sputtering wordlessly in disbelief. Seriously, what did a man have to do to be appreciated in this place? Even he would admit that he was a little impulsive sometimes, but he wasn’t stupid.  

“...anyway, we’ve searched pretty much everywhere in the academy now,” Maki continued without giving him an actual answer, which only rubbed salt in the injury. “So let’s see what we can do with the clues we have now. You have everything here, right?”

“Yup!” Kaito confirmed with a confident thumbs up. “I’ve still got electrohammers, the electrobomb, and Kokichi’s message here. I also wrote down Rantaro’s message from his Survivor Perk Monopad… and I tried to map out the first floor.”

“See? You can be useful when you’re not running around the academy,” Maki told him. A rare smile curved her lips upwards, which was a really nice look on her. “Nice job.”

Before he could thank her or comment on how that proved he wasn’t as stupid as everyone thought he was for whatever reason, the light look on her face vanished and she was back to the idle stoicness she always wore. 

“The sixth puzzle is going to start in a few hours…” she murmured with a quick glance at the blank monitor. “By now, they have to be getting more difficult. We need to find the mastermind and end the killing game before things go too far.”

“We’ve gotta be closer to finding out who they are,” Kaito said, knocking his fists together with a small huff. “And once we do… we’ll pound ‘em into the dirt and end this stupid killing game! And then we’ll save Shuichi and Kokichi too, so no one else has to die!”

“The identity of the mastermind…” murmured his sidekick, a strange look present in her scarlet eyes. It was gone in the blink of an eye though, briefly making him wonder if he had been seeing things. “Yeah, we’ll find them.”

Kaito felt his grin widen at Maki’s display of determination, and he couldn’t help but think back to how she had been at the very beginning of the killing game. Up until after the second trial, she had taken care to keep away from everyone, and the minute her lab had opened up, he hardly ever saw her out and about. It was such a large contrast from who she was now; a girl actively participating in ending the killing game and saving her friend and (probably) Kokichi. She had been tearing the school apart to look for clues, and Kaito couldn’t be prouder.

Maki really had come a long way since then. 

“Hey, by the way, I was wondering if I could have one of those electrohammers for myself?” Maki suddenly requested, jerking her head towards the line of hammers against the wall. “Since we know Monokuma won’t punish us for having or using them, I want one for myself.

“Oh, sure!” Kaito agreed without a second thought. “Yeah, take any one you want. I’m not sure what else we’d use them on, though…”

“Is Monokuma an option?” Maki suggested darkly, brandishing her chosen hammer with a somewhat intimidating aura.

“Uh, I think that’s definitely against the rules…!” Kaito pointed out hurriedly, scooting a step away from the threatening atmosphere she radiated. “Don't do anything stupid or impulsive, Maki Roll.” 

Maki stared at him for a long, uncomfortable moment. “...yeah, okay. Speak for yourself.” 

Jeez… Sometimes, he forgot that everyone in this academy was a little weird and outlandish sometimes, even the more level-headed ones like his sidekicks.

“I think finding the mastermind is going to be easier than we think,” Maki stated with surprising finality. “You said that the shot put ball might not be important, but it could be what leads us to the mastermind. I just… have to work out what that is.”

“Hey, your worries are my worries. We’ll figure it out!” Kaito reassured her, wisely avoiding patting her on the back like he’d do with Shuichi. The last time he had done that, he almost got thrown, and he was pretty sure that would not do any favors for his already busted lungs. “I don’t think it’s important when it comes to finding the mastermind, but if you think it means something, then sure, we’ll look into it.”

“You’re just saying that because you don’t have any leads yourself, aren’t you?” 

“Wh– no! Of course I can come up with my own stuff!”

Maki deadpanned at him. “Then do you have any leads?”

That was an awfully good point, and he averted his gaze from the assassin with pursed lips. This elicited a sigh from her, and he watched her rest the hammer over her shoulder out of the corner of his eye.

“I’m going to go look at the library again,” Maki told him. “Rantaro’s murder definitely has more to it than we thought. I’m going to figure out what we’re missing.”

“I’ll come with you!” Kaito automatically offered.

But Maki was quick to shoot him down. “Absolutely not. You’re still resting, remember? If you won’t sit still and let your body recover for me, then do it for Shuichi. I can’t imagine he’d be very happy to find out that you killed yourself trying to help him.”

“Wh… of course I wouldn’t kill myself!” Kaito protested in near offense. “Shuichi’s probably waiting for us to get him and Kokichi the hell out of there, I can’t just sit around!”

“Shuichi’s probably fighting for his life,” Maki shot back flatly, making him wilt under her fierce glare. “Chances are, he’s going to be injured and jittery when he gets out of there. Do you really think pushing yourself is not going to worry him?”

“...crap.” As much as he didn’t like it, she had a horribly good point. Shuichi had a tendency to worry about everything, even when his main focus should be on himself. If he got out of the motive and Kaito was even weaker and sicker than he already was, Shuichi was going to have a legitimate heart attack.

At the very least, Maki was perfectly capable on her own. She didn’t need Kaito with her to get stuff done, even if he would have really preferred to be there. Maki could efficiently work solo, and that made him feel a little better about lounging around on his bed as his lungs slowly deteriorated or whatever was going on in his body anymore. 

(If we end the killing game… I wonder if somewhere out there, there’s a cure for me?

It was a hopeful thought. All Kaito had to do was survive until then.)

“Alright, alright,” he reluctantly accepted, plopping back down onto his bed. “I’ll do my own stuff from here. Be careful, alright, Maki Roll? And make sure you show up for dinner.”

“Sure,” she loosely promised, and honestly, that was probably the best he was going to get.

It wasn’t until she was long outside of the dorms that he thought with an anxious start, wait, why does she need the electrohammer to investigate the library?

Chapter Text

Things were undeniably a little tense at first. Why wouldn’t they be? The discussion of their deceased classmates was a pretty sore subject, especially when those classmates were Miu and Gonta. There were a lot of complicated emotions surrounding that entire trial, and Shuichi hadn’t exactly had the time or opportunity to discuss it with everyone (mostly because he had immediately been whisked away to the death puzzles, but it would have been nice to talk to at least Kaito about it. Shuichi knew he had been especially upset with him about it.)

To try and ease the suffocating tension that felt as if it were physically crushing Shuichi, he offered to play chess with Kokichi. It was a game that wouldn’t put too much strain on his newly injured hand, and it was something that Shuichi knew his classmate enjoyed.

Something Shuichi had failed to foresee was that he was going to lose every single time. Badly.

“Checkmate,” Kokichi casually announced, proceeding to claim his fifty-eighth victory in a row. “Nishishi… give up yet, puzzle partner?”

Shuichi ran his hand through his hair, scanning the board and trying to figure out how he had lost. Just when he thought he had it, Kokichi always found some way to unexpectedly sweep victory out from right under his feet.

“Never,” he replied determinedly, setting up the board once more. “Kokichi, how are you winning every time?”

“You’re actually sort of predictable,” Kokichi hummed, resting his cheek in his unbandaged hand as Shuichi reset everything. “And by sort of, I mean really predictable.”

Shuichi paused, frowning at the boy. “Am I really…?”

“Maaaybe,” Kokichi giggled. “You can go first.”

Sighing and mentally preparing for his fifty-ninth loss, he moved one of his pawns.

Kokichi didn’t get very far through his turn when the TV chimed, effectively interrupting them. All of the (mild) relaxation he had gained from their game evaporated in an instant at the sound, replaced only by a surge of dread and chest-squeezing anxiety.

While no verbal announcement followed the sound, the black and white door lifted, which meant that it was time for the nighttime puzzle. The lack of Monokuma’s usual commentary was a little surprising, but he was much more focused on what was to come.

“So much for that,” Kokichi muttered, standing up from his seat. “Hey Shuichi, since Monokuma didn’t say we have to go into the puzzle room, do you think we can just skip out on this one?”

In response, both of the collars beeped warningly.

“I think that’s a no,” Shuichi said quietly.

Kokichi rolled his eyes. “Alright. Well, sixth time’s the charm, as they always say. It can’t be that bad!”

“Please don’t say that,” Shuichi begged him as he leisurely strolled towards the door. “You’ll jinx it.”

“Ohhh?” Kokichi shot a playful smirk at him over his shoulder. “I didn’t take you as the superstitious type, Shuichi.”

“I’m not,” he protested. He tried very hard not to take things like that seriously. “It’s just that nothing ever goes well if someone says that. It’s like a trigger phrase for everything to go bad. Also, it’s third time’s the charm.”

“Huh? Isn’t that what I said?”

“No, you–” Shuichi cut himself off with a sigh, having long since figured out there was absolutely no point. “Let’s just go.”

With a final triumphant grin, Kokichi led the way through the door and into the puzzle room.

The first thing Shuichi noticed about the room was that it was extremely dark. He couldn't even see the outlines of the walls; everything was obscured in an intimidating blackness that pressed in around them. The only source of light came from a spotlight that shone onto an open casket sitting directly beneath it, which was practically overflowing with unidentified blue and purple flowers. 

Behind the casket was a gravestone, and as Shuichi got closer, he could make out the words engraved into the stone. They read:

“- COFFIN: PUZZLE 6 -

       Here lies

      ????? ?????

To Initiate Puzzle: One must lie still in the open coffin before you.”

The question marks were displayed on a small screen embedded in the gravestone. He gently placed his hand over his mouth, scanning the scene placed in front of him and his teammate. He didn’t see anything else other than a few stray flowers that had fallen to the floor, so he concluded that this was all they had to work with.

“Maybe it’s a lever or something?” Kokichi suggested, leaning over the casket to examine the bed of flowers. “I saw this in a game once. You lay in the coffin and it opens up a secret hatch in the floor!”

“I doubt it’ll be that simple,” Shuichi pointed out wryly. “In case something happens when we start the puzzle, we should discuss who’s going to be the one to lay down in the casket, since it’s letting us choose this time.”

“That probably means we’re both gonna be having a rough time,” Kokichi sighed, stepping back with a hand on his hip. He examined his bandaged hand, a frown tugging slightly at the corners of his lips. “Well, I think I’ll do it.”

That was… fast. “Are you sure, Kokichi?” he asked worriedly. “You don’t have to put yourself in danger.”

“Well now I just want to do it ‘cause you told me not to,” Kokichi (hopefully) joked with a playful twinkle in his eye. Seeing his worry, Kokichi’s smile softened slightly. “You were the one who said we should work together, right? That means you should trust in my judgment; like when I trusted yours in Russian Roulette. Let being buried alive be my punishment.”

At that, Shuichi blanched. Was that why he wanted to be the one to climb into the casket? Was he putting himself in harm's way to… atone? Or was Shuichi simply reading way too much into this.

“Nishishi… wipe that sad look off your face, puzzle partner!” Kokichi shoved him a little harshly in the side, making him stumble. “I’m the Ultimate Supreme Leader of Evil. I have dealt with way worse than a measly burying, so you don’t need to look like a kicked puppy over it. Seriously, the resemblance is kind of uncanny.”

“I’m worried about you being the one in there,” Shuichi argued, refusing to play into his tricks right now. “Your hand is injured, remember? If the casket does close like you think it will, and something needs to be done in there that you can’t do…”

“You think a slit hand is going to stop me?” Kokichi demanded, gaping at him in shock. “You offend me, Shuichi! If anything, you’re the one who’s gonna be doing stuff. I know what I’m getting into here, ‘kay? Besides… you won’t let me die. I know you won’t.”

Shuichi looked at the boy he had been partnered with for this motive– really looked at him. This guy had bounced from borderline manic to the childish, game-loving prankster he had come to know in the Objective Room. He couldn’t possibly comprehend that the one offering him such a kind expression right now was the same one who had worn that malevolent, twisted smile after his friend had been executed. This was who had orchestrated an entire murder plot from behind the scenes, and this was the same boy who had guided Shuichi through that freezing maze; who had made him promise that forgiveness was not an option.

“Remorse” was not one of Kokichi’s looks. And neither was “fear”.

But Shuichi could tell. When you’re trapped in a room all day with someone, only ever leaving that room to partake in life-or-death puzzle games, then you inevitably start to pick up on some of their traits. Their tells. Their truths.

Kokichi was lying. He was not confident that Shuichi was going to save him. He was afraid.

With that in mind…

“...alright,” Shuichi finally accepted. He returned Kokichi’s unwavering determination with a little smile. “If it closes, then do everything I can to get you out.”

“O-kay!” Kokichi chirped happily. “Then we can get back to our game of chess.”

“A game that I’m going to lose…” Shuichi agreed with a sigh, though he couldn’t keep the smile off of his face.

(This was the teamwork they needed to survive. And it was the first time that Shuichi felt confident that they would win. This motive would not take them down so easily.)

Kokichi actually laughed at that a little. He turned back to the casket and climbed in, being careful to place himself in the center of it. His weight caused him to sink into the bed of flowers a little, but not by much.

“Huh. I can see why people like dying so often,” Kokichi hummed as he interlocked his fingers over his stomach. “This is really comfy. We should get a mattress of flowers when we move in together and raise a pet rock.”

“Pet… rock?” Shuichi echoed dubiously. He wasn’t aware that those were a thing.

“We’ll be a big happy family,” Kokichi sighed dreamily, relaxing into the flower bed. His smile lessened as his eyelids fluttered closed, letting out an extra small breath. “See you soon, puzzle partner.”

“See you soon,” Shuichi promised quietly.

The sight of Kokichi lying motionless in an open casket, surrounded by flowers that glowed blue and purple in the single beam of light, was extremely unnerving on so many levels. And yet… Shuichi observed the way his skin glowed in the white light, his expression somehow remaining peaceful. The purple of the flowers matched the streaks in his otherwise dark hair almost perfectly, as did the color of his eyes. If it weren’t for the steady rise and fall of his chest, Shuichi would think that Kokichi might actually be dead.

(“If we fail… I want to die knowing at least someone didn’t find me boring.”)

For what it’s worth… he didn’t say. …I don’t think you were boring at all.

It only took a few moments for something to happen. The words on the screen in the gravestone abruptly switched from the question marks to KOKICHI OUMA, which certainly didn’t help his pre-existing nerves in the slightest.

But that wasn’t all. The light overhead flickered briefly, momentarily blacking out the entire room, and Shuichi could only helplessly watch in alarm as the lid of the casket snapped shut with a loud thud, effectively trapping Kokichi. Just as he had predicted.

However, expecting it to happen didn’t make it any less scary when it did. Shuichi’s limbs locked in place as fear seized him in its cold, gripping claws. The puzzle was starting, which meant that their lives– or rather, Kokichi’s life– was most certainly in danger.

As abrupt as the flickering had been, the light shut off for good, plunging him into complete and total darkness. It was then that Shuichi realized that he hadn’t quite gotten over his fear of the dark, which he was sorely reminded of during the maze puzzle and had forgotten all about. Then again, Shuichi was afraid of a lot– heights, spiders… the pain of the truth…

This internal battle of childish fear and rationality came to an end when the room lit up again, but all other feelings were tossed out the window to make room for utter bewilderment.

The shadows had been concealing a graveyard.

Looking around wildly, he came to a few sinking realizations. For one, the door to the Objective Room was now locked behind a huge, ornate gate, and while Shuichi was pretty sure he could climb it if he really tried to, getting to safety was second on his priority list. Two, the casket Kokichi had been in had disappeared without a trace, and if Shuichi was reading into this puzzle correctly, he was most likely buried.

That was the danger of this puzzle, it seemed. The one in the coffin was at risk of suffocating to death if their partner didn’t dig them up in time.

The ground underfoot was all dirt, which Shuichi had failed to pay much attention to before, so digging shouldn’t be as difficult as it would be with concrete. A quick count told him that there were a total of thirty-one gravestones, all of which had the names and dates faded or scratched beyond legibility. The only text remaining was a pretty… colorful descriptor of how they had supposedly died.

The final thing that came to his attention was that there was a shovel leaning against the gate. Grateful that he at least had that, he rushed over to it and seized the wooden handle in his hands, lifting it up. Thirty-one graves, which meant he had a 1/31 chance of digging up his teammate. He just had to do that before the puzzle ended.

…that was a lot easier said than done.

The Final Dead Puzzle had a pattern to it despite being a luck game… so there must be clues, he deduced, approaching the grave directly across from the gate.

“Life bled from his body when inhaled the poison.” That was all it read. It seemed like all of the death descriptors were fairly simple, only telling him the direct cause of death and nothing else. It was a gruesome clue, but a clue nonetheless.

“Poison…” Shuichi mused under his breath, gripping his shovel as he looked down at the softer dirt laid out in front of the gravestone. “Miu was going to frame his death on poison…”

If only to see what he was working with, it was worth a shot.

Apparently, he had severely overestimated how easy this was going to be. The dirt was soft and he had a shovel, and he hadn’t quite taken into account that coffins were usually really low in the ground. He was suddenly more grateful than ever that he had been working out with Kaito and Maki, because if he had had to do all of this digging before that, Kokichi would absolutely die because Shuichi would be passed out on the floor from overexertion.

If he had to dig six feet into the ground for every single grave until he found Kokichi… Shuichi paused in his efforts to cast a wary look out at the collection of graves around him.

Uh oh.

This worry was somewhat short-lived as Shuichi’s shovel slammed into something that splintered. He jerked back in surprise, dropping to his knees and brushing away some of the dirt. Sure enough, it was wood– the coffin Kokichi had laid in wasn’t wood, but Shuichi knew better than to make assumptions based on that.

That couldn’t have been six feet… he thought with a glance up at the pile of dirt he had made at the foot of the hole he had dug. Maybe… three feet, at most? That’s a little better. Not by much, but a little.

Once he had cleared enough of the dirt and effectively stained all of his clothes (he was going to take a very long shower after this, he thought), he climbed out of the grave and laid back down on the side. Leaning down and straining his arms, he pried open the lid of the already fragile and breaking coffin with his shovel.

The sight of what was in the coffin made him jump with a mortified shout. For all of the executions and murders he had seen, this was somehow worse.

There was an actual man in the coffin– or at least, Shuichi assumed it was a human. His hair was white, fading into an obscure orange-pink color near the bottom. His closed eyes and peaceful expression did not match the plethora of wounds Shuichi could see on his body– his white shirt was almost entirely dyed pink, and whatever had stabbed him in the stomach must have been really big, considering that Shuichi could only see a singular wound there.

This was not the same case for his arms and thighs, though. There were a multitude of lacerations cutting through his green coat and dark jeans, and Shuichi could see a rope around his left hand, the end of which was burned.

“This is… terrible…” he whispered, averting his eyes from the gruesome sight. Was killing this poor guy with poison not enough for his murderer? It was almost sickeningly impressive, the lengths the culprit had gone to to make it look as if he suffered.

However. There was a factor Shuichi had to consider here. And to test his theory… he would have to touch the body.

Hoping with all his might that this wasn’t a real person, he tried his best to steel himself before he reached down. And, with a shaking hand, he brushed his fingers against the man’s cheek.

“Oh thank God,” he breathed, his body going slack with relief. “It’s just a mannequin.”

A disturbingly realistic mannequin… Shuichi thought with a grimace, standing up and closing the lid with his shovel. Do all of these graves have mannequins in them, too? Oh god…

If he wasn’t going to have nightmares before, he certainly was now. That was a grim sight no one could get out of their head, no matter how much they tried.

Now that he knew what he was working with, he decided to take a few moments to try and narrow down with graves to look at. To put it as simply as possible, two total factors went into his deductions.

The first point had to do with the pronouns stated on the graves. Out of thirty-one graves, sixteen of them stated that the victim was female, and one of them didn’t use any gendered pronoun at all. That meant that there were fourteen graves with “he” pronouns on them, so subtracting the one Shuichi had already dug up, Kokichi was in one of the thirteen remaining coffins.

Second point: the causes of deaths themselves. A lot of them were a little out there– one man was even trampled by a stampede. If the cause of death related to Kokichi in any way, then he had to watch out for either suffocation, blunt force trauma to the head, poison, a bullet, or some sort of electrical shock. Those were all things that Kokichi had had close calls with over the course of this killing game, so it’d make sense. With that in mind, that knocked his thirteen choices down to only six graves, all of which stated something akin to blunt force trauma.

Six graves, and there was a chance Kokichi was in any of them. He had already wasted who-knows how long digging up the man who had been poisoned (and probably tortured…), so he needed to get a move on. Kokichi only had so much air in there, and he didn’t imagine an old wooden coffin was as comfortable as the flower bed had been.

The second grave he chose to dig stated, “this boy’s skull caved in after he mistakenly trusted a classmate.” It was grim, but it sounded somewhat similar to Miu and Kokichi’s situation. He wasn’t sure how much Kokichi had trusted Miu, but oh well.

Digging up graves was a lot harder than it seemed, even if the soil was soft. Pin needles prickled against his skin with every small movement he made, his back and arms quaking with effort. Oh yeah, a warm shower was going to be an absolute blessing after this. It’d clean off the covering him from head to toe, and it’d soothe the horrible feeling in his back.

The second grave he dug up was also incorrect, he noted in despair. Also, he almost got whiplash seeing what looked like a girl in the coffin, and he didn’t even want to think about the implications of what the gravestone meant if this kid was what he thought they were. That was an absolute nightmare scenario for Shuichi himself, and he couldn’t imagine being killed over it…

I wonder if these are real people, Shuichi thought as he closed the coffin. Or… based on real people, I guess. Actually, some of these people’s deaths mention their “classmates”... so maybe a lot of them attended the same class.

Grave number three, and the gravestone read, “an unfortunate ending for an unfortunate kid; death hit him in the head from behind.” The thought of having to do this thirty-one times almost brought him to tears– what kind of maniac sets up a puzzle like that? Even someone like Gonta would have struggled with such a task.

And if my deduction about the cause of death is incorrect…

Yup. Stopping that thought right there.

Opening this coffin was an even bigger surprise than the other two. This time, Shuichi recognized the face he was peering down at. 

Rantaro.

It’s not real. That’s not a real body. That’s… that’s not his corpse. They wouldn’t be that cruel, surely.

Shuichi was very thankful that he had not eaten before this puzzle. He closed the coffin lid as quickly as possible, briefly dry heaving and covering his mouth with his trembling hand. His palm was unnaturally warm and he realized that he was getting legitimate splinters from the wood of the worn down shovel, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Digging up each grave was difficult not only because of how deep he had to dig, but because of how wide and long the hole itself had to be. He couldn’t open the coffin if there was a stack of dirt on one end of it, after all.

I have to save Kokichi. That was his driving goal right now. He promised him that before the coffin closed, and Shuichi would not break such an important promise. No matter what disturbing scenes he came across… he would not break that promise.

(...if Rantaro was here, did that mean…)

Dreading the soreness that would inevitably come tomorrow and silently being thankful that this was a nighttime puzzle, he forced his legs to carry him to the next grave. His eyes were watering, though he wasn’t sure if it was because of the pain in his body or if it was the anguish of having to redo the entire digging process. Maybe it was some sort of clashing mix of both.

Through his tears, he made out the text scrawled on the gravestone.

“Powerless to stop his head from being bashed in by a classmate.”

Worth a shot.

Halfway through digging up the grave, Shuichi did have to sit down to take a breather. His hands hurt so bad, and he could even see little bits of broken wood from the handle of the shovel sticking out of his palms and fingers. He tried his best to extract the bigger ones that he could grasp with his fingertips, but these were something he’d probably need help removing. He hoped Kokichi was having a sort-of better time than he was, considering all he had to do was keep his breathing steady and focus on not suffocating to death.

Then he realized that was probably a selfish thought to have and he immediately felt soul-crushingly guilty. They both hated this situation and were suffering, point period blank.

After that, it didn’t take long to unveil the coffin. With as much dirt dug up as possible and trying not to literally pass out from exhaustion, he climbed out of the hole and jammed the shovel into the side of the lid, propping it up slightly–

–and immediately being interrupted as the lid burst open and Kokichi sat up fast, heaving and choking for fresh air.

Shuichi lost his grip on the shovel with a sob of relief at the sight of his teammate and he let his arms dangle uselessly in the hole, his head hanging. He did it. He saved Kokichi. All it cost was a piece of his sanity, lasting damage to his muscles and probably his nerves, and energy he was never going to restore. Overall, a pretty fair trade if it was for Kokichi.

“H-Holy crap, it was… stuffy in there…” Kokichi panted with a breathless laugh. “Woah! What grave did you just cr-crawl out of, Shuichi?”

Nevermind.

When he didn’t respond, he felt Kokichi gently cup his cheek in his trembling, bleeding hand, a small yet forced smile on his face. He blinked back his own tears and the spots dancing in the corners of his vision. He felt blood smear on his skin and he grimaced, a small, choking breath escaping his lips.

“Hey,” Kokichi murmured, his voice hardly above anything but a whisper. “Y-You look like shit for a knight in shining armor.”

“...that’s a side effect… of digging up a bunch of graves… with that.” He glanced towards the discarded shovel with his eyes, not wanting to break Kokichi’s contact with him. 

Actually, wait a minute. It had taken him a moment to notice, but–

“Ah, Kokichi! Your hands!” Shuichi cried out in alarm, his voice breaking halfway through as he grasped Kokichi’s wrist, looking down in horror at his hands. His fingers and palms were coated in fresh blood, and Shuichi felt his stomach churn unpleasantly at the sight of his utterly destroyed nails. “O-Oh my god, Kokichi–”

Kokichi’s strained smile dropped into a scowl and he averted his eyes, but he didn’t pull away from his hold. Now that Shuichi noticed it, his skin did look a lot paler; his hair was a knotted mess and he noticed with a small gasp that there were tear tracks running down his cheeks. 

…he panicked, Shuichi realized nauseously, his own breath stuttering in horror. I… I didn’t… get there fast enough… and he hurt himself trying to get out…

“You’re saying that like your hands aren’t all gross, either,” Kokichi finally muttered. “I see splinters, Shuichi. You know it's dangerous to leave those in, riiiight?”

“I- I know, but…” Shuichi trailed off, unsure if he wanted to point out the damage to Kokichi’s own fingers. This could only be damage done by scratching at the lid of the coffin… he shuddered at the mere thought.

“Whatever! Just help me get out of this stupid hole already,” Kokichi finally snapped impatiently, whatever playfulness he may have mustered for their reunion vanishing in an instant.

Not having the energy to feel hurt, Shuichi silently obeyed, and with teamwork, they helped each other onto their feet and out of the hole. Kokichi’s legs almost gave out the second he stood, and if he had fallen, Shuichi would have gone right down with him. They were both exhausted in one way or another, so even holding each other up was a challenge.

Still, there was one more place to go before the puzzle was finished. Shuichi guided his teammate to the locked gate, and it was there he discovered that apparently, when the coffin had closed, the floor had opened up beneath Kokichi and he fell into the wooden coffin, where he had found a small silver key by his neck. Shuichi grimaced at the blood smear left by Kokichi’s hands as he shoved the key into the keyhole and twisted it, opening the gate and allowing them to enter the Objective Room and finally end this horrible puzzle.

“Gah–!” Kokichi’s sudden exclamation made him jump, and he looked to find Kokichi shielding his eyes from the light emitted by the ceiling lights overhead. “Jeez, way to blind a guy who was in the dark for-freaking-ever!"

“Sorry…” Shuichi mumbled guiltily. If he hadn’t paused for so long, or if he just figured it out sooner…

As the black and white door trapped them back in the Objective Room, the TV switched on to reveal Monokuma.

“Welcome back, graverobbers! Have a fun time working out in the yard?” Monokuma barked a cruel laugh. It took a lot of practice and willpower to not immediately burst into tears right there and then. “Sorry I wasn’t around to give you the rundown– I had to set up a little something to stop your classmates from snooping around. Seriously, whose bright idea was it to make those annoying hammers, anyway?”

Beside him, a wide, borderline manic smile formed on Kokichi’s face, though he didn’t say anything.

“By the by, I caught a peek of what happened, and man! Shuichi, I didn’t know you had that much muscle on you!” Monokuma continued his pointless ramble. “Unless you’re running on adrenaline. In which case, I put some painkillers in the medicine cabinet so you can fall asleep. You’re gonna need a good night’s rest for tomorrow’s puzzle~! In conclusion, your time for this puzzle was 1:37:11. Not that bad, honestly!”

Shuichi blanched, which almost sent him face-first into the floor. It took him over an hour to get to Kokichi!? No wonder the boy had looked so faint when he had burst out of the coffin– he must have been on the verge of passing out.

“And I know what you wanna ask– no, those weren’t real corpses.” Shuichi perked up, the sick images of the bodies he had dug up flashing through his mind all at once. “They were simply made based off real people and decorated to match their deaths! But they aren’t people you gotta worry about for now, so try not to strain your noggin thinking about it too hard."

So he was right, it seemed. And seeing Kokichi’s questioning gaze, he figured that he’d have to explain his own perspective to him later. 

“Welp, you’d better get to dealing with those hands. See you tomorroooooow! Pu-huhuhu~! ♪”

With that unsympathetic message, the screen turned off, leaving them both alone with their wounds and their thoughts. Kokichi had already turned around and opened the medicine cabinet, wiping blood onto his otherwise white shirt to try and grab everything he needed.

“Ah, I’ve got it!” he quickly scooted past his teammate and picked up what he couldn’t, though just touching the bandage roll felt like he had just tried to grab fire. Despite this, he cast a wary look at Kokichi’s hands. “You… you should probably go wash those in the sink.”

“Our bathroom’s gonna look like a crime scene,” Kokichi groaned, throwing his head back and letting it droop to the side. “Once my hands are cleaned up, I’m dealing with yours. You look like you’re about to cry.”

I am about to cry, he thought depressingly.

Migrating to the bathroom with their newly acquired medical supplies, Kokichi sat down on the toilet lid after washing his hands and holding them out for Shuichi to treat. Most of the damage was to his fingernails, which had been painstakingly scraped and chipped and even cracked. He even found wood lodged between his nail and skin, which had to have been extraordinarily painful. How was Kokichi so blank-faced right now? How was he not a weeping, shaking mess curled up on the floor right now, like Shuichi was very close to being?

He’s so good at masking how he feels. I can’t discern anything from him unless he allows me to. It’s… kind of an impressive skill to have when it’s not being used to trick me.

Shuichi winced as he examined his classmate’s nails. Our hands are more sensitive than most of our body… this must feel like hell on earth. He must have tried scratching at the ceiling to escape when he started panicking…

That was a perfectly reasonable response, as gruesome as the outcome was. Shuichi couldn’t imagine being stuck in such a dark, cramped space with slowly decreasing oxygen and no way of knowing if his teammate would get to him in time. Just the thought made him shiver.

“Wooden coffins sort of suck,” Kokichi finally said, breaking the tense silence between them. His voice was quieter than normal with more of an edge to it. “And the one I fell into sucked a lot. Th-There was– ow!”

“S-Sorry!” Shuichi flinched away from his teammate, guilt prodding him sharply in the chest. “I-I don’t know how to fix this… or, ah, treat it so it doesn’t get worse.”

“Well, when push comes to shove, there’s always the extremities,” Kokichi sighed nonchalantly. “Alright, pull ‘em out.”

“What!?” Shuichi yelped in alarm. “I’m not doing that! I- I don’t think I could even if I tried. D-Don’t be ridiculous…”

Kokichi shrugged. “It’ll grow back, won’t it? Better than this gross mess.”

You seem to be overlooking the in-between… “Kokichi, I’m not pulling out your fingernails. I’m just going to wrap up your fingers and we’ll make sure they don’t… get infected or something.”

“Hmm… okay. Fine.”

Relieved, Shuichi did just that, carefully applying each adhesive with as much gentleness as he could offer. He also replaced the bandage that had been covering Kokichi’s palm slash from this morning, which had thankfully closed and was no longer bleeding profusely.

Once he was finished, a sudden wave of exhaustion rushed through his body, and everything started to hurt a lot more. He had been so focused on helping Kokichi that he had failed to remember that his body had been pushed far past its limit. He dug up four graves three feet into the ground in the span of a single hour, and he was so… so extremely tired.

“You should…” his thoughts stalled and he fought for his next words. “...uh… ice that. I think.”

“Probably,” Kokichi agreed with a small hum, examining his mummified hands. “If it didn’t hurt so much, I’d feel like some sort of suicidal ex-mafia executive. Actually, nerd references are Tsumugi’s thing, so forget I said that.”

Instead of replying to whatever nonsense that was, Shuichi’s entire upper body leaned forward, and he found his head on Kokichi’s lap.

The boy in question went rigid, but he did have very comfortable legs. The action agitated those stabbing pins and needles in his back muscles, and he found that his eyes were watering from the pain. On that note, his breath hitched, and aside from the pain, the fear of crying in front of Kokichi kept him as stiff as a board.

After a moment, he felt a hand slowly place itself on his head. That nearly made him start sobbing right then and there– he had always had a bit of a soft spot for physical comfort. Maybe his parents didn’t hug him enough or something.

This probably looked a bit awkward to anyone else– Shuichi on his knees with his head lying in Kokichi’s lap, who was sitting on the toilet of their doorless bathroom. His breath stuttered as he tried his best not to cry, because…

…it was so hard. This was all just too much to handle. He had been trying so hard to hold it together for the sake of this motive– for the sake of survival, but how could he? Every puzzle that had come their way always felt like a narrow escape. They had shock collars around their necks that they couldn’t get off. Their lives were being toyed with as if they were mere entertainers.

The killing game on its own was a fight for survival, but this was a new level of cruel. To survive, to save everyone, they now had to break themselves to get out. Kokichi had offered to go into the coffin, and now his hands were wound in layers of bandages. Shuichi had worked non-stop to get to his friend, and now his body could barely hold itself upright. His clothes and skin was dirty, his hair was a tangled mess, and his hands were twitching because of the agony the splinters in his palms brought him.

They had inflicted this pain on themselves. The death puzzles made them do this. These puzzles weren’t going to stop until someone died, either; it was either them or their classmates, and Shuichi highly doubted anyone would kill each other to save either of them.

If they were going to die anyway… is there even a point in trying? After all, the killing game won’t stop until only two people remain, but then what? What comes after that? A lifetime of misery and survivors guilt, wondering if there could have been any way to save their fourteen dead friends?

Wouldn’t death be considered mercy at that point?

“Puzzle partner?”

Right… mercy… that’s what Gonta had been trying to do for them. The outside world had been so awful that he had actually killed someone to try and save them all from it. If Shuichi died, then Kokichi would be forced to fail the coming puzzle, and everyone would die.

Everyone would be spared from the guilt and the trauma. The… despair…

“Shuichi!” Hands cupped either side of his face and forced him to look up and into Kokichi’s fierce yet guarded purple eyes, his face displaying an unnatural level of concern for somebody who had just been musing about getting him killed. “Come on… just take a deep breath, alright, Shu? You sound like you’re about to puke, so just try and calm down a little.”

Oh, had he been hyperventilating? Shuichi clenched his teeth and nodded weakly, shakily trying to inhale an extended, deep breath. Even his calming breaths hitched as the emotions building in his chest tried to pour their way out, but he slowly expelled them with an exhale that hurt his chest.

“First try! Great!” Kokichi cheered him on, his voice maintaining that same low level as before. “Now do it again, pretty please?” 

Breathing in and out slowly like this did help, though it left him with a dull headache and a fuzzy feeling in his skull. Kokichi regrettably let go of his face too, and he sat up on his own, shuddering with a small, mildly embarrassing whimper as his back strained painfully. 

Now free, Kokichi slid off of the toilet seat to sit on the cold floor next to him, grabbing Shuichi’s wrist to raise his trembling, injured hand. He flipped it over to look at his mutilated palm, his eyes narrowed.

“Okie-dokie. It’s my turn to be the doctor,” Kokichi declared, the frown he was wearing uplifting into a little smile. “I’m actually licensed, did you know? I graduated from medical school when I was fourteen.”

Somehow, Shuichi doubted that. “Um… okay. Thank you, Kokichi– hold on.” He gave his classmate a sharp look. “What did you call me?”

“What do you mean?” Kokichi asked innocently as he strained his body to grab a towel off of the rack next to the sink.

“You called me… Shu.” 

“Mmm… slander is a crime, puzzle partner.” 

“How is that slander?” Shuichi demanded in faint bewilderment. 

“I don’t call people cutesy nicknames. The exhaustion is definitely making you hear things,” Kokichi downright lied as he maneuvered Shuichi’s hand onto the towel he laid out on the toilet seat. “Anyway, hold still, will ya?”

With no other option, Shuichi obeyed, keeping his arm as still as humanly possible for Kokichi. Despite his attempts, he couldn’t help but flinch or instinctively jerk back every time the tweezers put strain on his already sensitive skin, but Kokichi was shockingly patient with him.

As mean and cruel as he can be sometimes… he can be really gentle, Shuichi thought, guilt folding in on him like a collapsing tent. I… actually considered it, didn’t I? I considered… killing us… 

Unless Shuichi wanted to become a murderer, suicide was not an option here. Suicide would lead to the death of Kokichi, and that thought alone was awful enough to banish almost every thought of dying from his mind. He couldn’t believe he had actually considered getting himself killed…

“I’m sorry,” he ended up blurting out, turning his head away from his classmate.

Kokichi paused in his precise tweezer work only momentarily. “What are you apologizing for?” 

“...I don’t know,” Shuichi lied in barely a mumble.

“Shuichiiii. You’re smarter than this,” Kokichi whined, though he could detect somewhat of an edge in his voice. 

Right… lying to Kokichi is impossible. “I… I was thinking about something really awful. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have–”

“Jeez, apologizing for apologizing…” Kokichi let out a heavy sigh of exasperation. “At least let me finish this before you have another mental breakdown or something. It’ll hurt worse if you’re shaking and twitching and stuff.”

Swallowing back another “sorry”, Shuichi bit his tongue and kept his eyes on the wall as Kokichi extracted the last of the splinters from his hands. There weren’t very many in the first place so that task didn’t take long, but still. 

Aside from the lingering stinging prickling sensation under his skin, he admittedly felt a little better. He gazed down at his clean hand– which might be the only part of his body that wasn’t covered in dirt– and he couldn’t help but smile a little. Kokichi was so gentle… and his hands were comfortingly warm.

“Ah…” he shook the mildly traitorous thought from his mind. “Um… I’m going to take a shower b-before I lay down. Just… give me a bit.”

“O-kay!” Kokichi chirped with a flashy smile; it looked a little less forced this time around, and some of the heavy tension weighing on Shuichi’s shoulders somehow eased. “Don’t fall or pass out in the shower! I probably won’t be able to stop you from drowning.”

“How do you drown in a shower?” Shuichi asked, less startled and more curious. He supposed that if you laid face down on the floor then maybe it was possible, especially if the drainage was bad…

“You’d be surprised at the things a human can accomplish,” Kokichi replied flatly, all emotion briefly disappearing from his face. “If you’re not out in around ten minutes I’ll come make sure you haven’t split your head open. And don’t fall asleep in there either. If that really puts you to sleep, then I can massage your back.”

Shuichi blanched. THAT was a new one. “Wh-... um… o-okay? Thank you.” 

Smiling, Kokichi took his leave from the bathroom. Shuichi remained sitting dumbly on the floor for a few moments, trying to process everything that had just happened and all of the complicated feelings stirring in his chest. Everything that had just happened, between the puzzle itself and their time in the bathroom… felt so strangely surreal. This motive wasn’t giving them a chance to breathe even between each of the death puzzles, was it? 

What he felt about Kokichi or the death puzzles didn’t matter, though. The only thing he should be concerned about was survival, which means he should probably take care of himself the best he could. He needed to be ready for tomorrow’s puzzle… whatever that was going to be.

And if it’s anything like the last times… there’s going to be a jump in difficulty soon, he remembered grimly. I have to prepare myself the best I can! I will survive. I won’t let this motive kill me… not without a fight.

Cradling those encouraging words, he awkwardly hobbled out of the bathroom to grab a fresh change of clothes. Kokichi was sitting on the bed, staring dully at the ice pack he had encased one hand in, the other being placed firmly on top to create some sort of ice pack sandwich. Whatever was efficient, he thought. 

As expected, the shower did wonders on his aching back, and he spent quite a while enjoying the warm, gentle waterfall against his skin. All of the dirt washed off in a stream of dark water and vanished into the drain, and he didn’t think he had ever felt so clean in his life. 

But nevertheless, he felt himself starting to get drowsy, so he depressingly turned off the water, dried himself off and changed into his white T-shirt and pants. He wished they had something more comfortable to sleep in, but there was only so much they could do.

With the shower off, he went to leave the bathroom, but he quickly stopped upon hearing an odd sound coming from the Objective Room. Granted that they didn’t have the luxury of any streaming services on their TV, that sound could only be coming from Kokichi.

The sound… of quiet weeping.

Unsure of what to do, Shuichi stayed pressed against the wall next to the doorway. In his own misery, he hadn’t entirely considered the position Kokichi was probably in right now– he had been locked in a dark, claustrophobic coffin for over an hour, hadn’t he? He had panicked and tried to claw his way out, borderline pulverizing his fingernails in the process.

Of course he tried to act carefree and unbothered… he doesn’t want to show me that he was afraid, Shuichi realized with a silent wince. If I had offered to go into the coffin instead…

No, I shouldn’t think things like that. We can’t change what happened… we can only go forward.

With a calming breath in, Shuichi awkwardly half-limped, half-shuffled out of the bathroom. Whatever tears Kokichi had been shedding vanished within the second and he quickly rubbed his face with his sleeve before looking back up at Shuichi, wearing that practiced smile he always tried to offer him.

It didn’t affect Shuichi; not when his eyes looked so dull and hollow.

“I’m pretty tired, so… we should go to bed soon,” Shuichi yawned. He wasn’t lying about that at the very least– he was utterly exhausted.

“Monokuma said there was something for you to take, right? For the pain?” Kokichi recalled. (It was almost impressive how quickly he had wiped away any sign of his previous crying. Sadly impressive, but impressive nonetheless.)

“Ah… yeah, I think so.” Shuichi did faintly remember the bear mentioning something about painkillers earlier. When he checked the medicine cabinet, he identified a new bottle of pills there; the label had been ripped off and the pills themselves were purely white and looked a little difficult to swallow dryly. “Are… are these legal?”

“You’re asking that in a killing game?” Kokichi countered dubiously. 

“Fair point…” he muttered, struggling to get the lid open with his sore, mildly swollen hands.

When he did get it off, he swallowed one with a small sip of water and placed the bottle back in the cabinet, sitting on his side of the bed with a weary sigh. As he sat down, the lights in the room turned off as they always did– aside from the one in the bathroom– signifying that it was time to go to bed.

“I wonder what tomorrow’s puzzle is gonna be,” Kokichi quietly mused into the gentle darkness of the room. “I’ll place my bet now… it’s gonna be some sort of jigsaw puzzle.”

“That feels really uncomplicated by this motive’s standards,” Shuichi pointed out, lying down flat on his back. He shuddered when he heard his back crack, though all he truly felt at that moment was complete and utter relief. “I just hope it’s nothing too active…”

“Yeah. Your back might give out, and you haven’t even hit seventy yet,” Kokichi teased him lightly. 

Shuichi rolled his eyes. “My back will be fine. I just need to rest a little.”

“Whatever you say…” his classmate hummed, not sounding convinced in the slightest.

“Please stop sounding so skeptical.”

“Oh, okay, sorry. Wow, Shuichi! I believe you with every fiber of my material being. You are sooo truthful all of the time, every day. It is impressive how honest you are.” 

“Okay, okay, I get it,” he grumbled. “It’s not like you’re any better, though.”

Kokichi giggled softly. “You got me. You’re so perceptive, puzzle partner!”

“Why do you call me that?” Shuichi couldn’t help but ask. It had been on his mind for a while, but he hadn’t quite had the opportunity to find out. 

“Is there something wrong with it?” Kokichi questioned him, his voice somewhat stiff. 

“I’m not against it,” he reassured the boy quickly. “I’m just curious where it came from.”

“Is it that hard to figure out?” Kokichi snorted. “You’re my partner in these death puzzles. Thus, puzzle partner. Feels pretty straightforward to me. What, do you want a different nickname? How does sweetie pie sound?”

Shuichi was thankful it was dark in here, because otherwise, Kokichi would have clearly seen the way his face went bright red. “S-Sweetie pie!?”

“Hmm, yeah… that’s too sweet,” Kokichi hummed thoughtfully, seeming to see an entirely different problem than he did. “How about babygirl?” 

“And I am stopping this conversation here,” Shuichi decided, rolling onto his side away from his classmate. “Goodnight, Kokichi.”

“O-kay! Goodnight, darling.”

Shuichi stiffened slightly, trying to beat back the fuzzy feeling trying to grow in his chest. “J-Just… puzzle partner is fine.”

“Shuichi’s stamp of approval! Awesome! Goodnight, puzzle partner~♪”

Sighing, Shuichi closed his eyes. 

Tomorrow was going to be tough. 

***

There were two exisals standing guard in front of the hidden door. 

“What the hell…” Maki muttered from her place at the doorway. How did they even fit two exisals into the library in the first place? The doorway wasn’t that big.

Well. This put a bit of a damper on her solo investigation.

Chapter Text

Sleeping that night was a difficult task for more reasons than one.

Every time he closed his eyes, the darkness of the room only served to remind him of the suffocating blindness of the inside of that coffin. His fingers ached at the memory of every slow second that ticked by; laying motionless buried three feet below the ground, waiting patiently for his teammate to dig him out. The growing panic building in his chest the longer he waited, wondering if Shuichi was ever going to find him.

So he kept his eyes open for a little while and stared at Shuichi, whose mere presence reassured him that he was no longer trapped in that confining space. Instead, he was trapped in Shuichi’s sleepy embrace, and this time he was graced with the sound of Shuichi’s steady heartbeat.

This nighttime hug had never bothered him before, and Kokichi loathed to think that the hour and a half he spent in a coffin was why he was so uncomfortable. Since the day this motive started, Shuichi had always found his way to Kokichi even in his sleep. At first, Kokichi had been extremely surprised to put it lightly, because Shuichi had only warned him about his supposed sleep-talking habits, not his cuddlebug habits.

Reluctantly, Kokichi had realized that there was no getting out of it without waking Shuichi up and condemning them both to an eternity of embarrassment, so he silently resigned to his fate. His warm, gentle and comforting fate. Shuichi got to have a full night of sleep full of peace and ignorance while Kokichi got to die of heatstroke in the night. Overall, it was a pretty fair deal in his books. Besides, Shuichi never seemed to realize that he actively sought out Kokichi and latched onto him like a koala while he was asleep, and Kokichi certainly wasn’t about to tell him.

(He definitely was not happy because his favorite detective was latching onto him in his sleep. He was not overjoyed that he got to experience a loving embrace from who might be his current favorite person in the world.)

After taking those unidentifiable pills, Shuichi had conked out almost immediately. In fact, he had trailed off mid sentence about his cat back at home. Kokichi would be lying if he said he wasn’t at least a little impressed, because he had never seen someone fall asleep while they were talking before. You learn something new every day, he supposed.

While his puzzle partner slept though, Kokichi remained awake. He knew it was a bad idea to not at least try to fall asleep, especially with the puzzle awaiting them in the morning, but he didn’t have the same luxury of some magical knock-out pill as Shuichi. He was burdened with the memories, the pain and a very specific question buzzing in his mind like an agitated wasp.

How the hell did those idiots find the electrohammers?

Monokuma had said that his classmates back at the academy had been “snooping around”, and given that he had immediately brought up “those annoying hammers” immediately thereafter, Kokichi could only logically assume that someone had done a little more than snooping around and had somehow discovered the electrohammers he made Miu create for him. He would be so mad if Monokuma confiscated them, and he had a sneaking suspicion it would be because of a certain astronaut who had recently taken up a hobby in being the most annoying person on earth.

All things considered, Kokichi was pretty sure his electrohammers wouldn’t have been any more conspicuous than anything else in Miu’s lab. He didn’t know how or why any one of them would have taken it and then actually figured out what to do with it. He briefly and non-seriously considered Miu’s vengeful ghost coming back to announce the inventions he designed to the rest of their classmates, and while the thought of Kaito flipping his shit over a ghost being there was absolutely hilarious, it wasn’t realistic.

The only way Kokichi could think that they would find and use the hammers he and technically Miu created would be if he personally told them. That had been what he was planning to do before this motive crap came into play, but the keyword there was “planning”.

And as unnerving as the idea was, he might have one idea on what could have happened. It was one that was horrifying to its very core, but it was the only thing he could think of.

In his semi-conscious haze, he must have written a parting note.

When the sweet gas had been released into his room, he hadn’t noticed right away. He faintly remembered designing something, and then everything became somewhat of a nonsensical blur from there.

To put it simply: he did not remember anything from his temporary lapse of semi-consciousness after the sweet gas was deployed.

Since he hadn’t been able to get out of his room, even his half-awake brain would have been racing for something to do that could help. That would include writing some sort of final note to leave behind for the others to find.

However, that theory implied two things. One: the others had actually gone into his room. Not just that, they had to have broken their way into his room, since he was pretty sure it was locked when he was last in there.

Two: he had no idea what he could have possibly written in that note.

Kokichi was a fairly private person, and he didn’t like sharing his secrets all willy-nilly. Especially not in a killing game, where he couldn’t afford to be open and mushy and friendly with everyone. But as dearly as he held that sentiment to his heart, he highly doubted he would have been considering that when he was running on a total of 1% brain power. He could have written all kinds of personal things in that note and he would have no idea about it, which was probably one of the scariest possibilities he could come up with.

It wasn’t as if Kokichi could do anything about it either. He was stuck in these stupid puzzles and the only way out required the death of somebody, whether it be him and Shuichi or someone in the academy. He was pretty sure it was going to be the first option out of the two, since everyone remaining was too soft-hearted to actually kill someone for either of their sakes. If he had been trapped with Kaito, then at least Maki would have been able to save him from being driven to literal insanity, but he was unfortunately stuck with Shuichi. No one would kill to save Shuichi, since Kaito would be there to blabber endlessly about other solutions and believing in each other or whatever stupid shit he could conjure up. So if somebody found his potentially reputation-damaging note, he would at least be dead before he could be confronted about it. That was at least a little comforting outside of the whole “dying” part of that idea.

Well, whatever. As alarming as it had initially been, he didn’t care about what everyone did at the academy with his stuff. If they wanted to piss off Monokuma, then more power to them; he could get behind a cause like that. At least he served some purpose in the killing game, and that was the most he could ask for in his current situation.

Somehow, at some point, Kokichi managed to doze off, trying his best to take solace in Shuichi’s embrace rather than discomfort. He got at least a bit of sleep, which was crucial for the coming puzzle.

A puzzle in which he was separated from Shuichi once again.

When Kokichi woke up, he was made immediately aware of the lack of warmth by his side. He sat up quickly, wildly glancing around the Objective Room, and sure enough, there was no Shuichi in sight. He really hoped it wasn’t something like the Maze Puzzle– that one had been as emotionally draining as it was anxiety-inducing.

In his quick observation of the room, he noticed that there was something new laying on the table. Getting out of bed to investigate, he discovered that it was some sort of tablet, similar to their Monopads back at the academy. The screen was smooth as he poked at it, but it didn’t turn on and it didn’t seem to have any sort of power button.

Figuring that it was probably related to whatever bullshit puzzle they’d have to do today, he tucked it under his arm and exited the Objective Room.

When Kokichi walked into what could only be some sort of school locker room, he momentarily wondered why he even had expectations anymore before he spotted the giant glass tank at the very back of the room. And, more importantly, Shuichi.

“There you are!” Kokichi called to him, hurrying past the benches to approach the tank. “I woke up and you were gone! I demand you apologize for making me feel unloved. It hurt my feelings.”

Strangely, Shuichi didn’t reply. In fact, he didn’t even spare Kokichi so much as a glance. His wide-eyed gaze was locked on something on the ground, his hands cupped over his mouth as he leaned haphazardly on the side of the tank. Slowly following his gaze, Kokichi realized that there was something on the ground of the otherwise empty tank.

“Is that… a spider?” Kokichi asked, raising an eyebrow at his beloved detective. “Are you afraid of spiders, puzzle partner?”

Shuichi nodded rapidly, a shudder wracking his body. Despite this fear though, he didn’t take his eyes off of the little arachnid on the floor. Kokichi couldn’t smother a small huff of amusement as the spider ever-so mildly twitched, causing Shuichi to jerk back as if he had touched fire. Even if the spider was bigger than standard, it was still on the literal opposite end of the tank. Shuichi’s jumpy-shrieky reactions to a singular spider was just a tiny bit melodramatic, in his opinion.

Seeing as his puzzle partner was apparently going to be of no help, he decided to inspect the room a little bit. The tank Shuichi was standing paralyzed in wasn’t embedded in the wall, rather he was able to access either side of it, the left side having a door. It was locked with some sort of four-letter passcode, which he assumed he’d have to find somewhere in this room. The locker room itself was relatively empty, aside from a single bench with three empty school bags lazily thrown on it. The walls were lined with cubby lockers, all of which were locked with no apparent way of opening them.

A small, startled shriek made him jump, his heart skipping a beat as he whipped back around to look at Shuichi. Apparently the spider had moved a fraction of an inch, and that was enough to bring literal tears to Shuichi’s eyes.

“Are you arachnophobic?” Kokichi asked him, genuinely curious. He didn’t like spiders either, but he wouldn’t be on the verge of a panic attack because he was trapped in a relatively big tank with one.

Shuichi had gone entirely unresponsive at this point, which didn’t bode well for their whole “teamwork” agreement made only yesterday.

Unfortunately, his answer came from someone else.

“That would be correct!” Monokuma’s voice sounded from the monitor above the Objective Room door. “Welcome to the seventh puzzle: the Tank Puzzle. I had a bit of a hard time trying to come up with a puzzle regarding Kokichi’s greatest fear, which I actually have no idea what it is. And what I do know, I can’t really use it in a puzzle– without killing Shuichi, that is.”

“You could use my overwhelming fear of commitment,” Kokichi offered nonchalantly, mostly to see if he could get some sort of reaction out of Shuichi. It didn’t work, as expected. “You should’ve made us get married or something, and if we say our vows wrong, our collars explode!”

“I’ll note it down,” Monokuma replied giddily. “Anyway, I actually could use one of Shuichi’s greatest fears! He’s scared of a lot of silly things– I mean, who’s afraid of the dark past the age of ten? Or being alone, especially at night?”

We’re just putting all of Shuichi’s fears on blast here, are we? Kokichi thought, unimpressed. He glanced back at his puzzle partner, who appeared to be torn between being scared of the spider and feeling guilty. Somehow, he was accomplishing both.

“But one thing that makes him shake in his little cowboy boots more than anything are spiders,” Monokuma continued monologuing. “I decorated exactly for the occasion! Do you like it, Shuichi?”

That was an odd way of wording it, Kokichi noted with a small frown. Maybe Shuichi’s arachnophobia stemmed from some kind of childhood trauma– he seemed like the type to have something like that.

“No response… oh well! I guess that means my idea worked!” The bear snickered, sounding utterly delighted at his apparent success. “So in case you’ve failed to notice, you’ve got a little friend in the tank with you. That right there is a brown recluse; a pretty venomous spider if you were unlucky enough to get bit. But hey, Mr. Brown Recluse looks a little lonely, doesn’t he? After all, Shuichi doesn’t seem like very good company. So please direct your attention to the wall! Specifically, near the floor!”

Kokichi looked down just in time to watch as some sort of mock spout jutting out of the wall dropped out a lot more spiders– around ten, maybe. Shuichi half-screamed half-gasped, his voice going impressively high as they all scattered about in a fit of confusion, likely at being randomly spat out into some big glass tank with a petrified human boy cowering against the furthest wall.

“And there’s plenty more where that came from, not to worry!” Monokuma sneered. “Since Shuichi’s gonna be pretty much useless for this one, listen up, Kokichi. Every five minutes, fifteen spiders will be released into the tank through the spout. If Shuichi is bitten by one of these spiders and dies due to their poison, he fails. And I’m not giving you any antidotes for the venom, so you’d better be careful. If you look on the left side of the tank, you’ll see that there is a door, but it’s locked by a padlock. Not to worry, you can figure out the code with a very advanced problem-solving technique involving math and science!”

“Which is…?” Kokichi prompted skeptically.

“Using your eyes and counting,” was the anti-climatic response. “Figure out the code based on your surroundings and input it onto the Monopad you have. The puzzle will be completed once one of you reaches the Objective Room. I’ll leave you to it, so good luck and enjoy this death puzzle of despair!”

With that strange sign-off, the monitor turned off at the same time his Monopad switched on. The only difference in the pitch black screen were five zeroes with little icons above them. He tapped the first zero just to test it, and two individual arrows appeared above and below the zero. That must be how he was going to change the numbers, he assumed.

To top it off, the five minute counter was also on his tablet in the bottom right corner. No time to dawdle, it seemed.

“This seems easy enough,” Kokichi hummed out loud. This was considered a difficult puzzle? Really? What was the difficulty, first grade math? “Okie dokie. You focus on your nervous breakdown and I’ll focus on the puzzle, okay?”

“Then hurry up,” Shuichi unexpectedly snapped.

“Don’t rush me! I pass out when I’m stressed,” Kokichi whined, the lie slipping from his tongue without a second of thought. “Let’s see here…”

The first symbol was a clear, rectangular shape. At first, he sort of had no idea what he was looking at, but with some basic critical thinking skill, he was able to deduce that it had to be referring to the tank itself. It was the only thing that was solidly rectangular in the room, so it only made sense that the symbol resembled the tank. With that in mind, Kokichi tacked the first number as one.

The second was much more obvious, as it was literally only a bench. There also happened to only be one bench in the room, so once more, the final result was one.

Three and a half minutes on the clock for the third digit, and this one actually made Kokichi pause. It was a symbol of an open locker, which could mean one of two things; either he had to count the lockers themselves, or he had to count the number of open lockers. It was most likely the latter, since the number of lockers in the room definitely exceeded nine, which was the highest he could go for a single digit.

110… Kokichi took only one glance at the next symbol to guess it. A backpack, which was most definitely referring to the schoolbags sitting loosely on the bench. 1103… huh?

The next symbol was a spider.

“Hmm…” he approached the tank and scanned the spiders on the floor, one of which was crawling up the side. Counting them individually, there were eleven in the tank total, which ruled out the total number of spiders in the tank being the answer. Even then, that number would only increase when the timer ran out, so it didn’t make sense.

So what could it be? The number of starting spiders? That would be one, which would make the full answer 11031. And he had only one minute and forty-five seconds left on the clock! Not too shabby–

“KYAAH! It’s coming towards me!"

Shuichi’s high-pitched shriek made him jump and when he looked over, there was indeed a spider slowly crawling towards him. It had a little red hourglass on its abdomen, which was sort of cool, he supposed.

“Kokichi!” Shuichi shouted frantically, pointedly slapping his hand against the door behind him. “Get me the hell out of here right now!”

“Hitting the door is probably making them madder,” Kokichi pointed out.

The glare Shuichi gave him could have made his head explode.

“Okay, okay!” He threw his hands up innocently, immediately making his way to the lock. “I’ve got the answer so don’t yell at me about it.”

At least I know who’s killing the spiders in this relationship, jeez.

This entire puzzle had seemed all too easy from the moment the instructions were given to him. As he lifted the padlock into his hands, he was once again slapped with the basic foundation of these puzzles: underestimating the complexity of it made you stupider than a rock.

What Kokichi had foolishly failed to remember after his investigation of the room was that the padlock was not a number lock. It was a letter lock. And to make matters infinitely worse, there were only four digits in this one.

That explained why the puzzle had seemed so easy, he supposed. Because the solution on the tablet hardly matched the solution to the puzzle. God fucking damn it.

“Give me a few minutes!” Kokichi called over to his puzzle partner. “I have this perfectly under control, trust me.”

Whatever he said wrong seemed to be the breaking point for his detective, because the only response Kokichi received was a terrified sob. He wasn’t sure if spiders were really worth crying over, and he was honestly a little surprised that this was what made Shuichi cry. Out of all of the puzzles they had done, this was it? All he had to do was sit still and quiet and the spiders probably wouldn’t even care about him.

Putting a conscious effort into not rolling his eyes, Kokichi returned his attention to the alphabetical padlock. How could he turn a five-digit code into a four-letter word– assuming he was looking for a word, that is. He should probably figure that out first.

But before he could put any thought into it, the tablet beeped. The timer in the corner read 0:00.

…oops.

Looking through the glass, Kokichi cringed as the promised ten spiders fell out of the spout, scurrying around in alarm and effectively angering some of the present spiders. Shuichi gagged so hard it sounded like it hurt, and he continued dry heaving with his hands clasped tightly over his mouth.

“Holy shit, Shuichi. They’re not going to hurt you as long as you don’t freak them out,” Kokichi told his teammate firmly. “Deep breaths, puzzle partner. I’m almost done.”

“If I breathe too hard they’re gonna fly into my mouth,” Shuichi choked out hysterically.

If there was one thing Shuichi was good at, it was giving unexpected responses. “Uh… I don’t think that’s how it works. Are you having flashbacks to the Insect Meet and Greet, or…?”

“There were no spiders there!” cried his detective. “These are all– OH GOD the widow’s coming towards me! Kokichi! Please, hurry! I- I beg of you, I’ll do anything you want just for the love of god get me out!”

Seeing as the timer had restarted at five minutes, Kokichi figured he might as well not subject Shuichi to further psychological torment as he got back to his combination dilemma. Maybe he had to input the code based on the value of the numbers? For example, the one could be A, since it was the first letter of the Latin alphabet. Following that logic, 3 would be C, making the code “AACA”. That way, the zero was disregarded since its value was none.

This theory was disregarded immediately as he discovered that there was no option for A on the first digit. But with a little poking around, he found that the second and third digits were vowels, so… that narrowed it down a little, at least. Probably.

The only other thing he could think of was making the numbers themselves into letters. The zero was obviously O, but he wasn’t sure about the others. He could probably make the three an E? But that didn’t solve the issue regarding the digit count between the two codes. Either way, he was sure that the second and third digits were the aforementioned E and O.

Old McDonald would be so proud of me, he distractedly thought.

His initial thought regarding the 1’s were that they could be I’s, but those were vowels so he had to count those out. They could be lowercase L’s, but the letters on the passcode were all capitalized. Besides, that didn’t solve the problem regarding the unbalanced digit count.

For a few moments, Kokichi stood there, stumped. As much as he hated admitting he didn’t know what to do, it was the unfortunate truth. Flipping the tablet upside down didn’t reveal any hidden truths, and neither did violently shaking it. The timer was counting down and Kokichi was getting more irritated than stressed.

The only thing Kokichi could think of was that he miscounted something, and that brought his attention back to the last digit with the spider symbol. If it wasn’t the amount of spiders in the tank to begin with, what was it? Legs? Spiders had eight legs, but 8 could be best translated into B, and that wasn’t an option the padlock.

It struck him as he was staring at the spiders in the tank. Shuichi had commented on it earlier, but… he wondered just how many species of spiders there were. He could see some glaring differences in a few of them, like how one of them was big and fuzzy, but all he saw when he looked at them was spider.

So there was only one person left to ask.

“Puzzle partner, you can identify what types of spiders there are in there, right?” Kokichi inquired. “How many?”

Shuichi was crying too hard to even acknowledge him. As much as he was trying to keep himself quiet, he wasn’t able to entirely muffle the sound of his sobbing. Kokichi would knock on the glass, but that might piss off the spiders, and he could only imagine how much hell that would raise.

“Shuichiiii,” Kokichi called in a sweet tone. “I don’t like being ignored, Shuichi. If I’m ignored for too long, I’ll fade out from existence.”

When that didn’t get a response, he sighed in mild annoyance.

“Okay, I don’t get this whole phobia thing,” he confessed. “It probably sucks being stuck in there with a bunch of deadly, gross spiders, and Monokuma’s an asshole for using your fear against you. But I’m not an entomologist and I don’t shit myself every time there’s a spider on my ceiling, so I have no idea what kind of spiders are in there with you. Can you tell me? Pretty pleaaaase?”

Yuck, being honest. It left a bad taste in his mouth, but he needed to do whatever he could to get Shuichi to get his shit together if even for just a moment. If the cost of that was a bit of honesty on his part, then so be it.

That at least got Shuichi to open his eyes and look at him, though he immediately flinched when he saw a big, fuzzy spider coming closer to his shoe. He looked sickly pale, and Kokichi imagined that he was putting a lot of will power into not throwing up right now.

“Um…” Shuichi mumbled softly, his eyes returning to Kokichi rather than the floor. “Wh…what’d y-you need?” 

“Species of spiders,” Kokichi replied instantly. “If you need a reason, it’s to help you get out of there.”

That seemed to do the trick, as Shuichi nodded slightly, seeming to sober from his fear at least a little bit.

“There’s… okay, um…” he let out a shuddering breath, before listing in a single breath, “wolf spider, Brazilian wandering spider, red widow, brown recluse, Sydney funnel web spider, redback spider and yellow sac spider. Th-that’s seven, so… can you please… please hurry?”

“If you’re so scared of spiders, why’d you learn to identify all of them?” Kokichi asked him curiously.

With almost comical timing, his tablet beeped for the second time today, and ten more spiders fell out of the spout.

“FUCKING HELL–!” Shuichi screamed at such a volume that it made his voice hoarse. “They’re all over the floor! THEY’RE EVERYWHERE! KOKICHI!”

“I get it! I’m going!” Kokichi hurried back to the padlocked door. He had never heard Shuichi shout such vulgarity before, and if it weren’t for the fact it was prompted by such fear, he would have found it funny.

With the new life goal to get Shuichi to say “fuck” before they died, Kokichi set the fifth digit in the numerical code as 7. That left him with 11037, which was much more manageable than the last one.

Flipping the seven upside down, he found the letter L, which was available on the first digit of the padlock. Holding the tablet upside down, he was able to work out LEO, which left him with the two one’s.

Dropping the tablet on the floor and flicking through the five available letters on the final digit, he heard a satisfying click as he selected the N.

Kokichi pulled open the door, still frowning down at the padlock. “Who the hell is Le–”

He was unable to finish his sentence as the door flew open at full force, just barely avoiding hitting him as Shuichi all but flew out of the tank and into the Objective Room. He didn’t know fear made people capable of breaking the physical limits of speed.

By the time he got back to the Objective Room, Shuichi’s overcoat, shoes and pants were discarded on the floor and he could hear the shower running in the bathroom, muffling the incoherent and string of curses and paranoid ramblings coming from his detective. He grimaced slightly at the sound and stepped over the pile of clothes, watching as the black and white door cut the Objective Room off from the Puzzle Room.

That was a quick one, he noted silently, and once again, his eyes trailed to the bathroom door frame. The shower and toilet were out of sight of the door, so he could only see the small cabinet full of towels in the corner of the room. Was it really that dangerous, though? Venomous spiders are deadly I guess, but I feel like that isn’t the mastermind’s style.

No, it is. This puzzle just wasn’t dangerous for me. It was probably the scariest thing in the world for someone with arachnophobia as bad as Shu’s.

Not knowing what else to do, he decided to get some breakfast. Dangerous or not, they still had a second puzzle to do today, and he wasn’t going to waste the time he had to prepare for it.

Around thirty minutes passed as he finished breakfast, and Shuichi was still in the shower. Not only that, but there was steam leaking into their living space from the bathroom, and he had to wonder just how hot the water was.

The only reason he went in there was because he didn’t want his puzzle partner boiling himself alive. That is definitely the only factor in his concern, and he was not worried for any other reason whatsoever. Certainly no gross smushy feelings of “care” in his chest were involved in this decision.

“Shuichi?” Kokichi called out, if only to announce his arrival. “Are you trying to cook yourself? I’m not a cannibal so this isn’t gonna make me like you more.”

He approached the closed shower curtain and stood with his hands on his hips, looking down at the silhouette huddled up on the floor. The steam was almost suffocating, and he had no idea how Shuichi was still even breathing in there.

(Unless he wasn’t.)

Banishing the unprompted thought, he let out a sigh. “I’m opening the curtain, puzzle partner.”

Shuichi was still in his t-shirt and underwear, which were pretty much soaked beyond saving. There was this disturbing, blankly haunted look on his detective’s face, which he decided immediately that he was not fond of whatsoever. His skin was also an irritated color of red, and when Kokichi tested the water with a finger, he found that the water was pretty much scalding.

“You can have a panic attack and not burn yourself alive, you know,” Kokichi told him as he reached over to turn the knob. He didn’t stop the water from running, he only adjusted the temperature to make it lukewarm. “I’ve never seen anyone cry so hard over spiders before. I know a few people with arachnophobia, but none of them broke the sound barrier like that before. Speaking of which, holy crap, your voice can go high.”

“I’m not a girl,” Shuichi muttered bitterly, which surprised him slightly because that had absolutely nothing to do with what he was talking about.

“I know you’re not,” he replied simply. “I’m just saying you’ve got a high-pitched scream.”

Shuichi huffed out a weak breath, tilting his head away from Kokichi so he could no longer see his detective’s eyes.

“I’m… not a girl. And I’m scared to death of spiders,” Shuichi stated with a small shudder. “Um, you… you don’t care, do you? That I’m… I was born…”

It took Kokichi a moment to understand, but when he did, pieces clicked together very fast. “Huh? Oh, nah, I don’t care. I don’t have time to be worrying about what’s in someone’s pants when I’m running an elaborate, super evil secret organization, you know. If you say you’re a boy, fine by me. If you say you’re a girl, also fine by me. If you’re neither, then congratulations, I think.”

That got one of the more comforting responses out of Shuichi; his face twisted in its funny little exasperated manner, as if he had no idea what to do with that sentence. That at least meant he could have somewhat of a reasonable conversation with Shuichi.

“Enough about that, I want to know why you’re trying to make a Shuichi stew in our bathtub,” Kokichi continued, shifting the subject back to what he was most concerned about. “Was that level of heat really necessary for a few spiders?”

“Thirty-one spiders, Kokichi,” Shuichi corrected him, the bitterness quickly returning to his voice. “Th-there were thirty-one spiders in there. Any one of them could have… climbed into my shoe, o-or into my shirt or pants or hair, and I’d have no idea.”

“I think it’d be hard to miss a spider in your hair,” Kokichi pointed out reasonably.

“You don’t get it!” Shuichi snapped almost immediately. He gripped his wet hair and pulled, which honestly looked like it hurt. “I-I wouldn’t notice because they’re sneaky like that. They sneak everywhere, but the small ones–” he gave Kokichi a deathly serious look. “–those are the worst. They’re easy to lose, and if you blink, they’re gone. They could be anywhere. They could be in your mouth and they could lay eggs and suddenly you have to move out ‘cause there’s no coming back from that. I-I’d rather kill myself than have to… have to… eat one…”

Okay, so it wasn’t just any run-of-the-mill fear. This kind of terror sounded as if it made it literally impossible to function properly if there happened to be a spider present.

Without entirely thinking of what he was doing, he rolled up his sleeves and reached over the edge of the tub, carefully parting Shuichi’s hands from his poor hair. He didn’t want his detective ripping the hair out of his head over the mere thought of a spider. The act put slight pressure on his fingertips and thus his injured nails, but he couldn’t care less about that right now. All he knew was that they’d both need a change in bandages after this.

(They were so lucky that those things renewed themselves every morning. The mild heart attacks that came from watching Shuichi put a potentially loaded gun to his head was definitely worth it for this luxury.)

“What’s so scary about them?” Kokichi asked sincerely, since he still didn’t quite understand where this fear stemmed from. Not only was he curious, but he also just… didn’t like seeing Shuichi like this. This shaking mess was nothing compared to the mostly composed and easily off-put detective he had come to adore. “Is it their legs or their eyes or…”

While he spoke, he started gently running his fingers through Shuichi’s wet hair. He didn’t want his dear puzzle partner abusing his poor scalp any more than necessary, after all. Besides, the action appeared to be soothing for Shuichi, and he’d do whatever he could if it meant Shuichi didn’t pass out from fear.

“I was always a little freaked out by them,” Shuichi admitted quietly. “M-My mom didn’t like them, so I sorta picked up on it. One day, um, at- at school, I… I, ah… a-ate… one…”

Once again, Shuichi proved to be one of the most confusing people on the planet.

“You ate a spider?” Kokichi echoed in genuine bewilderment. It wasn’t easy to catch him so off guard, but just– what? “You were terrified of spiders and yet you ate one?”

Shuichi whined softly. “I didn’t want to! Some kids at school, um, f-found a dead one and they were like, Shuichi, eat this. Eating spiders scares other spiders off ‘cause they don’t wanna get eaten either, and I– I thought they were being honest!”

Kokichi could not fathom any universe where anyone would ever whole-heartedly believe a lie like that, but then again, it was Shuichi he was talking to.

“It was in the locker room,” Shuichi continued, burying his face in his knees. “That’s– that’s why Monokuma m-made the Puzzle Room like that. I-it’s stupid, it’s a stupid fear and stupid memory, and I was a stupid kid–”

“Being gullible doesn’t make you stupid,” Kokichi interrupted him. “You’re a smart cookie, Shuichi. You trust people way too easily, but that only makes you stupid in a killing game– or when you’re offered candy from a man in a trench coat standing in an alleyway.”

“...I probably would have fallen for that when I was younger,” Shuichi admitted weakly. “I… was not the brightest.”

“My point,” Kokichi continued firmly, ignoring him, “is that your fear isn’t stupid. I don’t think any fear is stupid. I might not understand a fear or why it’s worth screaming and crying and throwing up over, but that doesn’t mean it’s stupid.”

Especially when I have irrational fears of my own, the quietest, softest part of his mind traitorously whispered.

For a few moments, Shuichi silently considered his words, idly letting Kokichi detangle his hair in the pause. Then, he uncurled from his defensive position slightly, a pensive gaze forming on his tired, flushed face.

“I guess…” Shuichi murmured, his voice quiet. He let out a deep breath and tried again. “I guess you’re right. Thank you, Kokichi… ah, I’m sorry for yelling at you.”

“I think you should apologize to the spiders,” Kokichi joked. “I don’t know if spiders have ears or not, but they’re definitely broken by now. Either that or their egos are. You screamed like you were cursing their ancestors’ ancestors.” 

That actually managed to make Shuichi laugh a little, which might be his greatest accomplishment of the day so far. “Y-Yeah, I guess so. My throat still kind of hurts…”

“Come drink some water or something,” Kokichi suggested, (reluctantly) removing his hand and standing up straight once more. “I’ll bring you some dry clothes.”

With that, Kokichi left the bathroom to raid their shared wardrobe. Again, they were very lucky that all of their stuff was renewable, otherwise they’d have a plethora of other problems outside of the puzzles and emotional trauma. He delivered Shuichi his clothes and waited at the table, idly kicking his legs back and forth.

In his temporary solitude, he was given the opportunity to think about what just occurred while he started undoing his hand bandages.

We actually talked.

…he opened up to me. Actually, legitimately, told me something about himself.

Kokichi… was not sure how to process that. An impromptu therapy session had not been on his killing school semester bingo card.

Either way, those kids sound like jerks. I’m gonna sic D.I.C.E on them if I ever meet them in real life. Tricking MY consort is against the rules– stupid, ignorant school bullies. If you’re gonna make someone do something at least make it convincing.

Wait, does this mean Shuichi was bullied when he was younger?

Somehow, Kokichi didn’t find that very surprising. Except now he was even more interested in Shuichi’s upbringing– what got him into detective work? What schools did he go to? What about his family? Kokichi had never known his own biological parents, but D.I.C.E was enough of a family for him, so he learned not to care too much about his absent mother and father.

He continued indulging his silent curiosities until Shuichi came out of the bathroom, his hair fluffed up to a near exaggerated sense. Kokichi was unable to hold back a snicker at the sight.

“Your hair looks like a poof ball,” he teased through his giggling.

Shuichi frowned, reaching up to feel his hair. “Does it really…?”

“Yes. Extremely.”

With a hilariously dejected look, Shuichi sat down across the table from him, wincing as he did so.

“I’m just now remembering how badly everything hurts,” Shuichi said weakly, looking down at his bare hands. “It was all sort of numb before, but now I feel terrible.”

“Panic will do that to you,” Kokichi reasoned, resting his cheek in his palm. “What hurts, exactly? Your hands?”

“My shoulders, mostly,” Shuichi replied. “And my back. But… also my hands, yeah.”

“Well then, let’s deal with it.” Kokichi stood up from his chair and walked around the table to stand behind Shuichi.

“What are you– ah!” Shuichi went as stiff as a board as Kokichi placed his hands on his shoulders. That probably wasn’t going to help the soreness.

“Calm down. I’m actually secretly the Ultimate Chiropractor,” Kokichi lied easily.

“There’s no way that’s true.”

“Aww, you got me. But I do know what I’m doing, so just chill out a bit. It’s not like I can make it worse.”

That was probably the least reassuring thing he could say at that moment, but for once, he was being honest. He was actually pretty well-versed in back massages, and so long as he was especially gentle, it wouldn’t be painful in any way.

“...okay,” Shuichi eventually sighed in defeat. “Go ahead.”

Small victories, everybody. Small victories.

***

After her attempt to enter the library had been thwarted by those exisals, Maki had gone back to her room for the night. She wasn’t afraid of them by any means, but investigating was a little difficult when they took up half of the room. Also, she didn’t want Monokuma to get on her case about trying to go back into the hidden room. She would have entered through the girls bathroom, but she didn’t want that entrance to get safeguarded as well.

That morning at breakfast, Maki silently observed her classmates. The thought of any of them being the mastermind she was trying so hard to hunt down was difficult to comprehend, especially when most of them were extremely… pathetic. Trying to visualize someone like Himiko or K1-B0 being the mastermind gave her a legitimate headache. 

The “Tank Puzzle” started as Kaito walked into the dining hall. This one had a time limit of only five minutes, and she didn’t fail to notice the grimaces on the other’s faces at that.

“Good luck, you two…” she heard Tsumugi murmur with her hands clasped together in what looked like a prayer.

“Morning, everyone!” Kaito called out, loudly announcing his arrival. “Third day, huh?”

“And the seventh puzzle…” Himiko added grimly. “Nyeh… they’ve got to be getting more difficult by now.”

“They’re both pretty tough,” Kaito reminded the mage with one of his stupidly cheesy smiles. “They’ve made it this far, haven’t they? Have some faith in our classmates! FAITH, Himiko!”

“Y-Yeah! Faith!” Tsumugi agreed fiercely, though the quiver in her voice told Maki that she did not share all of Kaito’s sentiment.

“You’re energetic,” Maki commented dryly.

Kaito’s grin somehow grew wider. “I feel great, actually! I want to be productive! I’m completely ready to end the killing game, so let’s eat and get moving!”

Don’t overdo it the second you start feeling better… Maki decided not to say, rolling her eyes in faint exasperation. She didn’t know why she even tried with this guy anymore.

“On that topic, may I have your attention?” K1-B0 spoke up. Once everyone had turned towards him, he continued. “While the Coffin Puzzle was in progress, I was looking around the academy, and I discovered something strange in the library. Two exisals seem to have been placed in front of the moving bookcase…”

Kaito looked at her very fast, and Maki decidedly did not react.

“Huh? But I thought only the Monokubs could control the exisals?” Tsumugi pointed out, slightly tilting her head to the side with a puzzled expression.

“I thought that too! But it was certainly not one of us that moved them,” K1-B0 articulated. “I believe Monokuma put them there because of Kaito’s actions.”

“Wh– me?” Kaito looked genuinely shocked for a moment before he seemed to remember that he had individually claimed responsibility for their little nighttime fiasco. “If we were supposed to go into that room then why’s he so damn mad about it when we do!?”

“Um… he did say you weren’t supposed to go in yet,” Tsumugi reasoned. “Maybe it was supposed to be unlocked with one of those mysterious objects.”

“But then… wouldn’t we have to wait for someone to die again?” Himiko pointed out sheepishly.

Tsumugi blanched, her face going pale. “Oh, that’s right. Then Kaito’s brute-force approach is plainly the better option here!”

“If the hidden door is blocked, then we won’t be able to get into the mastermind’s room…” K1-B0 cursed quietly. “I was hoping we could use Kaito’s electrohammer to further explore the hidden room as a group.”

“Is there another way into the room?” Himiko suggested.

Before Kaito could respond affirmatively, Maki spoke. “Making two entrances into a hidden room is idiotic.”

“Uh… yeah. There was only one way in,” Kaito lied after a few moments. “At least, that I noticed. Like Maki Roll said, I doubt a hidden room would have two ways into it. But hey, you never know!”

“Once we get back in there, I’ll be sure to inconspicuously lean on as many walls as I can!” Tsumugi declared with a determined flare in her eyes. “Hidden passageways are always found on accident, after all.”

“Would that even work if you’re purposefully trying to do something on accident?” Himiko wondered aloud.

“Th-That’s an oxymoron!” K1-B0 exclaimed, (somehow) sweating profusely. “You cannot purposefully do something by accident.”

“I mean…” Tsumugi hummed. “If you purposefully cause a car accident by running into someone else’s car, then it’s plainly still a car accident, right?”

“That is vehicular assault!” K1-B0 argued, jabbing a finger at the cosplayer. “Or in more severe cases, vehicular manslaughter!”

“We’re getting off topic,” Maki interjected. “It’d definitely be worthwhile to investigate the hidden room with all of us, but we need to figure out how we’re going to bypass the exisals.”

“Maybe we could use the electrohammer against the exisals?” Himiko suggested.

This idea was short lived as out of virtually nowhere, Monokuma appeared, already visibly fuming. Everyone was so used to him appearing all of the time that no one but Kaito really reacted, and even then, Kaito’s expression shifted from thoughtful determination to pure anger.

“Not on my watch you don’t!” Monokuma shouted the minute he appeared. “Taking away your classmates really knocked you kids out of shape, huh? Well, that’s what I get for taking away two ahoge-havers, I suppose. Those guys always keep the group relatively sane.”

“What the hell is an ahoge?” Kaito demanded.

“Umm… you know that piece of hair that kind of just sticks up from Shuichi’s head?” Tsumugi replied. “It’s that. That’s an ahoge. Kaede and Keebo have one too. It’s a common trope in anime for cute or harmless characters to have one–”

“We’re not here for a hairstyle quiz,” Maki interrupted her. “What do you want, Monokuma?”

“Want? I don’t want nothing more than for you guys to stop trying to peek into my personal biz,” Monokuma complained. “That’s stuff that’s supposed to be saved for later. It’s like hair anatomy expert Tsumugi said: it’s a room that’ll be unlocked later! Later does not mean right now. You guys need to learn what suspense and foreshadowing is!”

“It’s not suspense or foreshadowing if it’s our lives!” Kaito snapped furiously. “We’re not gonna sit around like idiots when we have the tools to stop this killing game.”

“You’re not doing much stopping of anything right now,” Monokuma huffed. “All I’ve seen is a bunch of dilly-dallying and breaking and entering. Trespassing is a crime, I’ll have you know!”

“Murder is also a crime and you seem perfectly fine with that,” Tsumugi pointed out with a small frown.

“His priorities are way off…” Himiko grumbled.

“If I was fine with murder, I wouldn’t punish the murderers that show up,” Monokuma objected matter-of-factly. “I’m a murder advocate, not a murder apologist! Anyways, to answer your question from before, I’m the one who put those exisals there– and for a good reason, too. If any of you try to use any of those electrohammer thingamajigs on the card reader, those exisals are set to self destruct.”

“S-Self destruct!?” K1-B0 exclaimed in horror. “That wouldn’t just kill the people in the library, that would wipe out the entire basement!”

“Yup! So you’d better tread carefully! Otherwise, I don’t care what you use those hammers for. Just stay outta the hidden room,” Monokuma ordered, his words followed by a joyous laugh as he departed from the room.

Maki scowled at where the bear had once stood. He hadn’t said anything about getting into the room through the secret passageway, so as far as she was aware, they could still get the hidden room whenever they wanted. That didn’t make this new guideline any less annoying, though.

“I guess we’re barred from the hidden room for now,” Tsumugi sighed. “I plainly wanted to see what was in it, too…”

“Kaito was in it once, so we will have to work off of what he knows,” K1-B0 said with a glance in the astronaut’s direction. “We will end the killing game, though. I am confident of that much.”

“Right!” Kaito agreed eagerly. “None of us are gonna do anything stupid like kill each other. Shuichi and Kokichi can hold out until we find a way to end this crap and get them outta there!”

While everyone agreed with their mildly nauseating enthusiasm and discussing what to do next, Maki was deep in thought.

Monokuma said no to the electrohammers…

…but he never said anything about an electrobomb.

Chapter Text

Shuichi tried his best not to show it, but for the rest of the day, he felt as if he were treading a thin line between discomfort and panic.

That was not Kokichi’s fault in any way, of course. In fact, Kokichi seemed to be doing everything he could to help Shuichi come down from this morning’s fear high. Kokichi probably worked as fast as he could during the puzzle, and when all things were said and done, Shuichi was simply glad to be alive.

However, surviving was the price to pay for what came after that.

For the rest of the day, Shuichi was slowly starting to become convinced that he was going legitimately insane. He had slapped his arms on more than one occasion now after feeling even the most indistinct crawling sensation on his skin; out of the corner of his eye, he kept seeing the smallest dot on the wall, but when he turned, there was nothing there. The walls remained their empty, pasty white color, with no spiders in sight.

Kokichi definitely caught on to his paranoia, and it was honestly a little embarrassing. It was just a few spiders and he was acting like he was being manhunted by a squad of snipers. Granted, there had been thirty-one spiders in the tank with him at the time, a few of which tried to touch him, but Kokichi got him out. Besides, even if one had managed to stick itself to him, it either drowned, burned alive or did those two things simultaneously in his very long and overstimulating shower.

At the very least, Kokichi was really good at being a distraction. He had the unwise idea of making origami, which resulted in the two of them sitting at the table for a very long time, trying to use their screwed up hands to fold paper. The entire process would have been a lot more frustrating if it weren’t for Kokichi’s high spirits– mistakes weren’t mistakes if they could be made into something greater. He somehow made an elephant out of what should have been a dog, and Shuichi’s mind-boggled expression had him crying actual tears from laughter.

So even if Shuichi was on high alert the entire time, he wasn’t as miserable as he could have been. Kokichi was actually really sweet when he wasn’t sowing chaos; he could also be gentle, and his touch was always kind. He was such an intriguing person, which only became more clear the longer Shuichi spent with him in these puzzles.

It may sound odd, but… Shuichi was selfishly kind of glad it was Kokichi he got stuck with. He couldn’t imagine being here with anyone else.

After failing origami, they pulled out Jenga, which somehow evolved into “Ultimate Jenga”. Instead of stacking them flat on their sides in the classic manner, Kokichi began standing them upright, laying the pieces flat as foundation. Shuichi’s first thought was that this could not possibly end well in any universe, but somehow, against all odds, the game was… actually playable?

“Do you think anyone has actually beat Jenga?” Kokichi wondered as Shuichi was busy slowly extracting his next piece.

“Maybe?” Shuichi murmured under his breath. He successfully pulled out his piece, to which he stood upright with a triumphant grin. “Got it!”

“Sweet! Okay okay, my turn…” Kokichi’s expression shifted into one of pure concentration as he bent down, analyzing the tower. “Hmm… how abouuut… this one.”

Much to Shuichi’s alarm, he placed his finger on one of the foundation pieces at the very bottom of the tower.

“I think that’s going to make it fall,” Shuichi pointed out.

“Do you doubt me, Shuichi?” Kokichi gasped, touching his hand to his chest in shock. “I have my hands, don’t I? I only need one to win this. Watch me reign victorious, peasant boy.”

“I’m not a peasant boy,” Shuichi protested with a scowl, though he wasn’t truly offended. “I actually had sort of rich parents.”

“Really?” hummed Kokichi in response. He had become focused on his daring quest of removing one of the bottom pieces and was no longer looking at Shuichi. “Did you ride a pony to school every day, too?”

“Uh… not that rich,” Shuichi corrected him sheepishly. “My mom is an actor and my dad is a screenwriter, so… they get paid pretty well. That’s probably why they could afford so many babysitters, actually…”

That got him a strange look from Kokichi, though he didn’t understand why. “What’d you need so many babysitters for?”

“They worked overseas a lot, and it’s not exactly responsible to leave a five year old on their own,” Shuichi explained. “I mean, they stopped hiring them after a while, since I needed to learn how to take care of myself. They had a very hands-off approach to parenting.”

Slowly, Kokichi turned to look at him, an unreadable expression present on his face. Shuichi wasn’t sure what emotion he was displaying– understanding? Confusion? Realization? All of the above?

“Well, that explains a lot,” Kokichi muttered with an ominous note of vagueness. "My mom is the prime minister.”

“What!?” Shuichi automatically burst out. “...wait, that’s a lie, isn’t it? Kirumi isn’t your mom.”

“Yeah, I lied! My parents are actually in Russia,” Kokichi told him gleefully, his eyes narrowed at the block he was very carefully wiggling free from the tower. “I haven’t seen them in years since I’m actually forbidden from entering Russia.”

That was probably a lie, but Shuichi was curious how far this story went. “...why?”

“I ran for president,” his classmate sighed mournfully. “Now I can never reunite with my family.”

If it weren’t for the fact that he had basic critical thinking skills, he might have actually believed that lie, if only for a few moments. He faintly wondered how Kokichi even came up with this kind of stuff on a whim.

The tower suddenly trembled and fell, and Kokichi shrieked as he was buried under a miniature mountain of wooden blocks. Shuichi did absolutely nothing to save him from his Jenga doom; instead, he placed his hands on his hips and raised a single eyebrow down at his friend.

“This must be my punishment for lying,” Kokichi said from the floor, his eyes rounding in horror. “Fiiiiiiine. My parents aren’t in Russia. Probably. I actually have no idea because I’ve never met them.”

“Oh.” Sympathy washed through his veins and he relaxed his posture, watching Kokichi stand up and brush the imaginary dust off of his pants. “Did you live with someone else from your family, then? I moved in with my uncle when I was around eleven.”

“Yeah, I lived with some of my family,” Kokichi replied simply. His voice came out stiff, and Shuichi could tell from many years of passive-aggressiveness from his peers that he was pushing into uncomfortable territory.

“That’s nice,” was all he said in response to that. He looked down at the Jenga blocks laying on the floor. “...we should probably clean those up.”

“I’ll do it so you don’t have to strain your old man back,” Kokichi automatically offered, which only served to make Shuichi want to clean them out of spite.

As Kokichi was crudely shoving everything back into the box, that horribly familiar chime rang throughout the room, causing them both to freeze. Monokuma didn’t even have to tell them to enter the Puzzle Room this time; they both knew what to do. The black and white door had lifted, and the openable door stood mockingly and imposingly down the short hall, silently beckoning them towards their eighth battle of life and death.

Whatever content joy Shuichi had been feeling had been swallowed up by the hole opening in his chest. He swallowed thickly, not even realizing that his hands had begun to shake. If these puzzles followed the formula he thought they did, then this was going to be the final “medium-difficulty” puzzle. What was going to come after this? What did a “hard” puzzle look like in this motive? What were they going to have to do–

A warm hand interlocked with his and he looked to his side, where Kokichi wore his usual slim smile.

“We’ll be fine,” Kokichi told him in a hushed voice.

“I…” He helplessly trailed off with a painful pang of unadulterated dread deep in his chest. “Kokichi… it’s getting more and more difficult to believe those words. These puzzles are only getting harder…”

“If it’s the difficulty you’re worried about, then you’re being silly, puzzle partner,” Kokichi said, gently squeezing his hand. “No matter what it is, we can get through it. We’ve come this far, haven’t we?”

“That’s why I’m worried,” Shuichi admitted under his breath. But then he faltered, guilt overtaking his fear. “I-I’m sorry, I’m only going to make us more anxious. Let’s just go…”

As he started to disconnect their hands, Kokichi gripped his a little tighter– not enough to hurt him, but it stopped him in his tracks. Kokichi moved to stand in front of him, his expression nothing but resolute.

“We’re not going to die on the eighth puzzle,” Kokichi told him sternly, the unwavering note of finality in his voice keeping Shuichi’s mouth shut. “We gotta at least make it to ten, y’know? But if you’re going to worry that much…”

Without warning, Kokichi propped himself up on his tip-toes to press a soft kiss to Shuichi’s cheek.

Kokichi winked at him, only now releasing his hands. “A good luck charm. Come on, let’s go.”

Shuichi was frozen solid as Kokichi excitedly skipped towards the Puzzle Room, disappearing beyond the door.

What?

He reached up to brush his fingers against where Kokichi had… kissed him!?

WHAT!?

Don’t get him wrong, he wasn’t against it or anything! He knew that Kokichi was just trying to ease his nerves a bit in his usual Kokichi way, and it was purely platonic so he shouldn’t be feeling this strange fluttering in his heart or the heat making his face go red. It didn’t mean anything other than a friendly gesture from a friend– kisses could be platonic! Especially cheek kisses! Kisses were totally normal and he didn’t have to read into it weirdly.

Yes, that was definitely it. Kokichi was just being friendly with him in his own way; he was opening up to other versions of affection in a way he couldn’t in the killing game. It didn’t mean anything more than that. Shuichi was just overreacting, which meant that his heart rate could slow back to normal and he didn’t have to dwell on it!

Nodding to himself, Shuichi hurried after Kokichi into the Puzzle Room, mind reeling. No matter what Kokichi’s intentions were– friendly or that other thing he wasn’t going to even consider right now– they still had a puzzle to get through. Maybe if Shuichi found the confidence he could bring it up again later, but for now, he had to focus.

Focus. Yes. That was easy to do. Focus on not dying instead of Kokichi’s good luck charm.

The minute he stepped into the Puzzle Room, he was immediately torn between confusion and bewilderment. It looked like some sort of town hall assembly– there was a small stage with a podium front and center, and a red carpet leading from that stage, down the aisle, and to the foot of the Objective Room doorway. Thirty-two empty chairs– split sixteen to sixteen on either side– were lined up in four-by-four rows, so there was some space at the back of the room.

In the corner to his right, he could see the end of some sort of conveyor belt with an odd looking stuffed animal around the size of Monokuma sitting on it, holding a probably fake donut. It was white with pink undertones, its beady black eyes somehow appearing friendly and welcoming. It was dressed in a fancy looking dress, and he realized after a moment that it was probably supposed to be some sort of magical girl. It must relate to the puzzle in some way, he figured.

What confused him most though was that on the stage, which only took him a single step to get onto, there was some sort of tube. It looked like those types of test tubes you’d see in some kind of sci-fi movie, but that didn’t interest him as much as the contents of the tube.

“How did you get in there so fast?” Shuichi asked his sulking teammate, bemused.

Somehow, in the minute it had taken Shuichi to enter the Puzzle Room, Kokichi had gotten himself trapped in the test tube.

“There was cheese and since mice are my distant cousins I couldn’t resist…” Kokichi mumbled in what could only be described as pure and utter shame.

“Ah,” Shuichi said wryly, slowly nodding. “I see. You were tempted… by the cheese. I’m assuming you ate it?”

“Well, no. I’m actually lactose intolerant, so eating cheese while being stuck in here would be hell on earth.” Kokichi shuddered almost cartoonishly, holding himself at the mere thought. He sobered quickly though, thankfully. “Buuut, that’s a lie. Some sort of magnetic force was pulling at my collar, and when I stood on this drain, the glass came down. The magnet stopped though, so I guess I’m meant to be in here.”

“These collars are magnetic?” Shuichi murmured, touching his own collar. “Well, at least they didn’t knock us out.”

“They only ever really used the sweet gas if it’s in the morning,” Kokichi pointed out. He leaned back against the glass with his arms folded casually over his chest, a disinterested frown plastered his face. “It takes a while to kick in, so I guess that’s why it’s never used in the nighttime puzzles.”

“It’d probably disrupt our sleep schedule, too,” Shuichi added.

The monitor, which was stationed above the now closed door leading back to the Objective Room, suddenly cut to reveal Monokuma.

“The eighth puzzle and the last of the medium-difficulties,” Monokuma began. “Congratulations on making it this far, you two! Now, let me introduce you to the Seating Puzzle. In front of you, you’ll find thirty-two chairs all facing the stage, and at the back of the room there will be the guests waiting to be seated. Shuichi, since you’re the lucky gem who’s outside the tube, why don’t you guide Miss Usami to her seat?”

“Which one is that…?” Shuichi asked despite knowing its futility.

Surprisingly, Monokuma actually answered. “Front row, first chair to the aisle on the right. She’s getting impatient, y’know!”

Faintly alarmed, Shuichi hurried to the conveyor belt and carefully picked up “Miss Usami”, which weighed a bit more than he was expecting. Trying to ignore the ache that threatened to reawaken in his back, he carried Miss Usami to the chair Monokuma had identified.

The minute he sat her down, he realized that there was no way he was going to be able to pick her back up. There was some sort of magnet on her bottom that stuck firmly to the chair, making it impossible to even shift her around.

“Your job is to correctly seat all thirty-two guests,” Monokuma told him. “And no, you don’t get a seating chart! Use your brain and figure it out with some good ol’ fashioned trial and error!”

“Is there a penalty for making a mistake?” Shuichi asked with a nervous side-glance towards his trapped classmate.

“Nope! But I wouldn’t recommend dawdling.” Monokuma lifted a paw and shook it, somehow appearing irritated. “The crowd came to hear a presentation on the specimen in the tube; scientific advancements and all that. But wait, don’t we have to preserve the specimen?”

At that moment, Shuichi heard something shift, followed by the faint sound of running water. He turned around quickly to see that in the tube Kokichi was in, water was creeping out of the drain and pooling around Kokichi’s shoes. The smallest comfort he could find in this development was that it looked like it was rising slowly, but Shuichi wasn’t going to take any chances. He rushed back across the room and to the conveyor belt, only half-listening to Monokuma finish.

“The puzzle is over once you either seat everyone or the tube is filled all the way. Have fun, kids!”

“Why’s it gotta be so cold?” Kokichi complained, followed by the small sound of splashing. “If I’m gonna drown, at least make the water a little warm.”

The next stuffed animal was another Miss Usami, except this time she was also wearing a black and white bow. He tried placing her in the chair next to the first one. The magnet stuck, and he began wondering what pattern he would have to follow to seat everyone, assuming there were anything other than Miss Usami’s–

Oh, yeah, there’s others, he discovered as he went back to the conveyor belt to discover a lifeless Monokuma in a suit with a keyboard strapped to its back. After having a near heart attack over the carbon copy of the bear, he reluctantly picked it up and carried it over to seat it next to the other two. The magnet stuck immediately.

“You are killing it, puzzle partner!” Kokichi exclaimed, clapping his hands together in applause. “Now if you could move just a tiny bit faster, that would be even better.”

Glancing over, Shuichi saw that the water was starting to rise just enough to cover his shoes. It wasn’t that much, he thought, but then he was struck with the memories of the Coffin Puzzle and the state he had found Kokichi in. They had passed the puzzle, sure, but it still took him over an hour and a half to locate the correct grave– of course it’d make sense that Kokichi wouldn’t like being in tight spaces after that experience. So to be trapped in a glass tube that was slowly being filled with water…

“I’m working on it,” he promised, grabbing the next Monokuma. It was wearing an apron.

This was the first magnet that didn’t immediately stick, so after violently beating down the instinctive panic that tried to rise in his chest, he placed it on the first chair on the left side. That did the trick, and he didn’t allow himself even a millisecond of respite before he was running across the room again.

“Do you think there’s different kinds of Monokuma’s?” Kokichi was wondering from within the tube. “The Monokubs don’t really count, but imagine there’s Monokuma rarities. Like, wow, a golden Monokuma! How rare and amazing! Want to trade me for my legendary diamond Monokuma? That kind of thing. They’d have different colors and jobs and backstories and families…”

“How do you even think of this stuff?” Shuichi demanded, trying to place down a Monokuma holding a comically oversized hall pass next to the first one on the left. It did not work– in fact, it didn’t fit into any of the front row seats

Crap, where does this go then? On the right? Shuichi hauled it over to the final seat open in the front row of the right side, but it didn’t work there either.

…he was starting to see how this was going to be difficult.

“I have way too many thoughts,” Kokichi continued talking despite his predicament. “So whenever I talk, it’s just an amalgamation of what I’m thinking. For example, how can toast be French? Did the toast tell you that? The last piece of toast I talked to screamed at me so I wouldn’t burn my face when I was working at a hotdog stand. We had a long and fulfilling relationship after that… it was truly something beautiful. Also, if you can’t figure out where to put that thing, just put it on the floor and figure it out later.”

Shuichi blinked up at him. “Am I… allowed to do that?”

“He never said you weren’t,” Kokichi reasoned with a shrug.

That was a good point, so Shuichi slowly placed the hall pass Monokuma on the ground and took a nervous step back. When he wasn’t electrocuted or blown up or whatever punishment looked like in this place, he hurried back to the conveyor belt to pick up a Miss Usami with glasses and a pen.

As he continued working with this method, he was starting to come to the realization that this wasn’t going to work. Thirty-two didn’t seem like a lot in hindsight, but the water was beginning to rise quicker and quicker. Shuichi got the front row of the right side filled with that glasses Miss Usami, but now he was left with a lot more empty rows and he had no way of knowing which stuffed animal went in what seat. It was becoming frustrating and confusing and he couldn’t figure out a pattern!

Glaring at the three unseated stuffed animals on the ground, he decided to just go get another one and pray that it went in either the front row of the left side or the second row on the right side. He knew he needed a better strategy for placing these things, but he genuinely had no clue–

The Monokuma sitting on the conveyor belt almost made him trip over his own feet. It was wearing a green jacket fitted to its size, which wouldn’t be anything to note usually, but… the jacket looked horribly familiar.

(–there were a multitude of lacerations cutting through his green coat and dark jeans–)

“Ah!” Shuichi looked around at all of the Monokuma’s and Miss Usami’s he had placed thus far. “Wait a minute…”

(“And I know what you wanna ask– no, those weren’t real corpses. They were simply made based off real people and decorated to match their deaths! But they aren’t people you gotta worry about for now, so try not to strain your noggin thinking about it too hard.”)

Based off of real people… Shuichi stared at the Monokuma in front of him with a new understanding. 

I think I get it now. The pattern here relates to whoever those “real people” are! Whoever they were must somehow be related to something here– the killing game? Are these people responsible for it? Or maybe… are they related to us in some way? These could be our families or our friends… but I suppose I have no way of confirming that. I didn’t recognize anyone in the coffins besides Rantaro, and I can’t exactly ask Kokichi.

Think about the connections later! Does this help me solve the puzzle in any way?

The layout, perhaps? No– there had been thirty-one graves in the Coffin Puzzle that hadn’t had any particular order or organization. The thirty-two chairs here were evenly placed, so he couldn’t use the layout of the graveyard for this puzzle–

“Shuichi! What’s taking so long?” Kokichi’s shout ripped him from his thoughts, making him jump.

“Sorry! I’m trying to think,” Shuichi told him, grabbing the Monokuma with the green coat. “I’m trying to figure out a pattern, and I might have got something.”

“Care to share with the class, then?” Kokichi prompted impatiently.

“In the Coffin Puzzle, I dug up two people I didn’t recognize,” Shuichi explained as he tried to fit the Monokuma into one of the chairs. It wasn’t working. “Monokuma said that they were based on real people. I didn’t think much of it at first, but one of the people I found was wearing this coat.”

Kokichi did not look impressed. The water was up to his waist now and steadily rising. “Okay!? And how does this help us?”

“That means the pattern is related to the people these stuffed animals are meant to represent,” Shuichi told him. “I just have to figure out what that pattern is… hobbies? Friendship? Ah… are they alphabetically seated, perhaps…?”

“Even if they were, how would you know their names?” Kokichi pointed out. “I don’t suppose the gravestones had names on them.”

As much as he hated to admit it, Kokichi was right. Even if he did know this small tidbit of information, it didn’t exactly help him in this current situation. He didn’t know anything about these people other than the fact that most of them were probably dead, and he wasn’t sure how that was going to help him here.

So… is there no way to identify the pattern? Shuichi glanced around at the seats, that horribly familiar dread starting to create a pit in his stomach. Do I just have to guess?

“Don’t get all discouraged on me now, puzzle partner,” Kokichi called, his voice lacking the impatience and urgency from just moments before. “Even if there’s no pattern, just try every chair until you place the right one. You’ve filled up five of these seats, so it’s a one in twenty-eight chance, right? Not the worst odds we could have.”

“What’s your definition of worst odds?” Shuichi shot back as he proceeded to do exactly what Kokichi had suggested.

“Well for one, the water could be rising faster,” Kokichi pointed out. “It’s really cold, by the way. My toes have gone numb.”

Shuichi shot him a dubious look, feeling his heart plummet as he saw how high the water was becoming. He had five minutes at the very most before it reached the top, which meant he had to work fast.

Panic fueling his body, he practically flew back to the conveyor belt to violently seize the Miss Usami sitting there. He didn’t even pay attention to what accessory she had on as he hurriedly placed her on the second chair of the front row on the left side, next to the Monokuma with the apron. It did not work, and so he tried the next chair.

Finally! It stuck! Now he just needed to keep this luck and momentum going for the next twenty-seven chairs. This puzzle was possible so long as he worked fast and didn’t waste any time thinking.

He knew things were getting a little out of hand when the conveyor belt produced no new stuffed animals for him to place. They were all basically in a big stack in the aisle, messily thrown there when they hadn’t immediately fit into any of the front row seats. At the very least, both front rows were filled. All he had were six other rows of four to fill in– that was eight out of thirty-two seats filled. Progress was progress, but progress was also happening way too slow.

“How long do you think I can hold my breath for?” Kokichi inquired as Shuichi successfully placed a Monokuma with a glass ball in the second row of the right aisle.

“I don’t want to test that,” Shuichi replied distractedly as he seized a Miss Usami holding a fan and ran to try and place her.

“My bet is on two minutes,” Kokichi continued with a small laugh. “M-Man, is this what it felt like in the maze? I don’t blame you for being delirious. This sucks.”

Shuichi stopped in his tracks to look up at the test tube. Kokichi was pressing himself against the back of the glass, standing on his tiptoes to try and keep his chest above the water. Try as he might, Kokichi couldn’t keep the discomfort off of his face, though Shuichi suspected he wasn’t trying very hard to mask it.

“I can–” Shuichi tried, cutting himself off to slam the Miss Usami he had onto the nearest chair. Left side in the final row, she connected to the chair closest to the aisle. The action agitated his already sore shoulders, which he had been pointedly ignoring.

It was no use, he realized. There was no way he could place all of these stuffed animals in their correct spots by trying every chair one by one. He simply didn’t have enough time, and he could feel his sore muscles screaming at him in protest. There were still so many empty chairs– just filling in the entire first row had taken forever, enough for the water to submerge Kokichi’s legs.

If I had moved quicker… would it be better if I was in there? Could Kokichi solve this quicker than I did? He stared down at the Monokuma in a suit, frustrated tears building behind his eyes. If I didn’t spend so much time trying to fill in only the front row– if I had tried every chair until it stuck instead of letting a pile build, would–

“Welp. W-Wasn’t expecting this… to happen so soon,” Kokichi’s voice came out hitched. “This motive had us screwed over the minute we got here. H-How is this fair? Why would the mastermind do this? Sh-Should’ve been… Kaito… Maki would’ve actually saved us then. This just… goes against the point of the killing game.”

“Kokichi…?” Shuichi breathed, watching the water slowly climb upwards to cover Kokichi’s shoulders.

“I’m a really good swimmer,” Kokichi confessed, wiping the despair off of his expression and replacing it with a complacent smile. “I took classes in the orphanage I grew up in. They were really nice, y’know? Cared about us a whole lot.”

Abandoning the Monokuma, fear drove Shuichi towards the test tube and he pressed his hands against the glass. His entire body was shaking as he could only stare helplessly at his friend, who looked torn between terror and anger.

Somehow, he had the strength to give Shuichi a gentle smile. “Hey, Shuichi… thanks for being my puzzle partner. At least these past few days have been fun, y’know? They weren’t boring at all.”

“Kokichi…” he shook his head furiously, banging his fist on the glass. “Kokichi, no, we’re not done!”

“Then finish the puzzle,” Kokichi challenged him, having to tilt his chin up to keep his mouth above the water. “You can’t. It was unfair from the start– crap, it’s cold. Um, hey, listen, I– you don’t think I was a bore, do you? You liked me?”

He’s talking like he’s going to die! Shuichi ripped himself away from the glass, hyperventilating. “Kokichi, I– I did, I love you, but I’m not letting you die!”

Something on Kokichi’s expression shifted, his eyes widening slightly; the smile on his face becoming a little more real.

“Wow. Thanks, Shuichi.”

Much to Shuichi’s horror, Kokichi placed his feet flat on the ground after closing his eyes and taking a deep breath in. For a few moments, he could only stand paralyzed as the water continued to rise, wetting Kokichi’s hair and finally rising over his head. He took another instinctive step back, fog clouding his mind as his only running thought became no, no, no, no, no, no, no…

Shuichi wasn’t even the one in the tube, but he felt as if he couldn’t breathe.

Not again. I can’t let one of my friends die again.

I can stop this.

I can stop it this time! No more death has to occur! I HAVE to stop it! Maybe I can finish the puzzle before–

His eyes saw it before his brain could register it. Kokichi’s hands were slowed by the density of the water, but they flew to his mouth as he instinctively released that breath from earlier, automatically inhaling.

That was enough for Shuichi to bolt off of the stage, stumbling as he grabbed the first empty chair and pulled as hard as he could.

I can’t finish the puzzle but I can definitely end it!

One, two, three violent tugs and the chair dislodged from the floor, nearly throwing him backwards in the process. The chair didn’t feel heavy in the slightest as he hauled it back onto the stage, adrenaline supplying him with the strength he needed to rear back and slam the chair into the bottom of the glass as hard as he could.

It’s only glass. It can break. And if he broke the bottom of the glass, then the water would drain and Kokichi could throw up all the water he had swallowed. His thrashing was getting weaker and weaker, but Shuichi was hardly paying attention to that as the chair bounced off of the glass without leaving so much as a dent.

“Come on, damn it!” he cried out desperately, pulling the chair back again. The first hit had jarred his entire body but he didn’t care because Kokichi was drowning. He needed his help right now. “BREAK!”

The second hit yielded a result; the glass cracked, but only barely. It was breakable! He could save his friend!

On the third hit, the chair of the leg pierced through the glass, and he made sure to pull it out at an angle so as to rip the glass apart. Water gushed out of the new opening and spilled onto the floor, but Shuichi didn’t care about that as he abandoned the chair to grab one side of the opening with his bare hands. He didn’t care about the water or how the edges of the glass cut his hands, he just needed to get Kokichi out.

While he was widening the opening, Monokuma’s voice rang out throughout the room. “Woah woah woah, hey! What do you think you’re doing!?”

Shuichi ignored him. Pink mixed into the water spilling onto the stage as glass sliced open his palms.

“This isn’t how you’re supposed to solve the puzzle!” Monokuma continued, his voice brimming with fury. “This is blatantly against the instructions I gave you! A rule violation! I should zap you just for making a mess of the room!”

A rule violation wasn’t going to stop him. The glass fell apart more easily now that there was empty space at the top of the tube, and he quickly, finally, had enough room to grab Kokichi.

Gritting his teeth in effort, Shuichi pulled Kokichi out of the tube and dragged him down from the stage, away from the freezing cold water and the wooden ground. He only paused on the carpet of the aisle, where he laid Kokichi flat on his back and sat on his knees beside him.

“Kokichi! Kokichi, c-can you hear me?” Shuichi immediately started shouting, his voice breaking pathetically halfway through; he could hardly even get the words out through his gasps for breath. “Ko, please, a-answer me! Kokichi!”

No response was given. He even tried gently shaking him by his shoulder, but Kokichi didn’t react at all. His eyes were closed and he wasn’t even breathing.

“P-Puzzle… partner…?” he tried in a voice barely above a whisper.

Silence.

Kokichi’s body was completely still. Limp. Lifeless.

All of the lights shut off at once, plunging Shuichi into darkness. He choked out a gasp, the air of which mercilessly struck his lungs and made his chest ache.

The monitor lit up red suddenly, casting crimson shadows upon the room.

Two words in black text were displayed in the middle of the screen.

Kokichi failed.

Shuichi’s breath picked up as he turned his teary eyes back down to Kokichi’s red-tinted face.

He… failed?

Kokichi failed?

“No,” he whispered unconsciously, shaking his head. His breath picked up and he linked his fingers together, pressing the heels of his hand against Kokichi’s chest. “No! No, he didn’t! Kokichi! Never! Fails-!”

Shuichi had never had to perform CPR on anybody before. His uncle taught him how to do it, but he could barely remember those instructions right now; he was panicking too much to correctly recall what to do. Some help was better than none though, and Shuichi would be damned if he let Kokichi die on him without even trying to help.

The red light from the monitor bore down on him threateningly and hard as he thrust his hands downwards repetitively, doing his best to keep the steady rhythm he had been taught. It felt as if the light was mocking him, silently sneering at his desperate attempts of resuscitation. Mouth-to-mouth was hard when Shuichi could hardly breathe himself, but he was determined. He was stubborn. Kokichi had not failed the puzzle yet.

“This is just sad to watch,” Monokuma sighed, providing unnecessary commentary over the tension. “I mean, you’re not even doing it right, but I’m not gonna correct you! If you do somehow save him, then I’ve gotta punish you, y’know? Kokichi failed the puzzle. Whine about unfairness all you want, but this is unfair to the puzzles. He failed fair-and-square, who are you to try and correct that?”

Shut up! he silently begged. Fair or not, punishment or none, nothing was worth losing Kokichi.

(“We’re not going to die on the eighth puzzle. We gotta at least make it to ten, y’know?”)

He swore they’d make it to ten! Kokichi said they wouldn’t die on the eighth puzzle, so he couldn’t go breaking that promise and leaving Shuichi alone!

Out of seemingly nowhere, Kokichi’s body lurched and he suddenly heaved, the inhale he took in sounding like it hurt. He started coughing, gagging, gasping, his body doing whatever it could to right itself.

Shuichi sobbed in relief, immediately rolling Kokichi onto his side where he automatically vomited, something sticky and beige spilling from the corner of his mouth. The red glow from the monitor cast a contrasting shadow over his pale face, his hazy and unseeing eyes glinting in the low light.

“It’s okay… it’s okay… y-you’re okay,” Shuichi reassured him over and over, keeping his hand firmly on his friend’s shoulder as he struggled to right his breathing. “You’re alive, you… y-you didn’t fail, you’re okay, Ko…”

Kokichi didn’t respond, and Shuichi didn’t try to force him to. He was just relieved that Kokichi was breathing at all.

Once he was sure that it wouldn’t hurt him, Shuichi gently pulled Kokichi up into his lap, letting his head rest against his chest. Call him selfish, but he just wanted to hold Kokichi, to reassure himself that he was there and that he was going to be okay. The numbness in the tips of his fingers and his lips was starting to fade into something more fuzzy, and he felt like there was cotton stuffed between his brain and his skull, making it impossible to form a coherent thought. The adrenaline was dying down, but the searing pain in his hands and back was nothing compared to the pure relief he felt.

On the screen, Monokuma walked into frame to cover the text, his hands behind his back.

“Well well well, flip my flapjacks. You actually did it,” Monokuma said in an unusually blank tone. “I won't lie, I’m pretty impressed. You knowingly broke the rules, destroyed my property and the revived someone who failed the puzzle. That takes guts! And not the literal kind! I’m pretty sure I’ve made it clear by now, but you can’t just screw over the rules of the motive and get off scot free. I will have to punish you for this transgression, Shuichi.”

Shuichi hugged Kokichi a little closer to him, his heart pounding wildly and uncontrollably. In terms of the killing game, “punishment” was just a lighter way of saying “execution”. Did he just save himself from one fate only to doom himself to another…? Was the exchange made for Kokichi’s life… his own?

“I’m not gonna execute you,” Monokuma assured him. “The rule you broke was never explicitly stated beforehand, nor was it in the school rules. I thought basic common sense was enough to keep you in line, but I guess not. Furthermore, your punishment will not kill you… unless you want it to.”

“What are you gonna do to me?” he quietly demanded, hating the way his voice quivered with fear.

“Puhuhu… nothing, yet. I’ll give you time to situate your boyfriend or whatever.” The door to the Objective Room reopened as he said this. “Besides, I’ve gotta set it up first, so hold your horses a bit; I get you’re a masochist, but you’ve gotta have patience! So hurry up and get out of the Puzzle Room.”

As untrue as about one hundred percent of those statements were, he was being given a huge opportunity here. Not only could he get Kokichi settled down, but he had time to mentally prepare himself for whatever this “punishment” was going to be. 

This was time he had to use wisely.

It was getting harder and harder to breathe the longer Shuichi waited.

In reality, it couldn’t have been any more than ten minutes. He had half-dragged, half-carried Kokichi back into the Objective Room. The effort had taken a big toll on his body, because as small as Kokichi was, he was still a whole person, and Shuichi was still sore from both the Coffin Puzzle and his panicked, adrenaline-fueled one-sided battle against the glass tube.

Speaking of Kokichi, Shuichi was really, really worried. Now that he was a little more sound-of-mind, he could now worry about the multiple logistics that went into not only drowning, but CPR. When Shuichi had been changing Kokichi after his wet clothes (in fear of hypothermia), he had noticed some pretty bad bruising forming on his chest, which had instantly made Shuichi feel extremely guilty, but he knew it was for the better. Broken ribs were a small price to pay for being alive, in his opinion.

Aside from the potentially and most likely broken ribs which he would be apologizing for later, his main concern was how long it had taken for Kokichi to revive. The brain couldn’t survive for very long without oxygen, but the problem was that Shuichi didn’t have the slightest clue as to how long Kokichi went without air. And Kokichi was either unconscious or asleep right now, so he had no way of asking. The most Shuichi could discern from him regarding any lasting problems was his stuttered breathing, which probably came from the broken ribs. Oops.

Miserable, Shuichi buried his face in his arms, which were crossed on top of the bed. He didn’t want to sit on it itself, so he had taken his place in a chair he dragged over from the table. The only distraction he had from this horrible feeling of impending doom was the pain in his now bandaged hands, and even that didn’t do much to ease his mind.

Punishment. If he wasn’t going to be killed, then what was going to happen? He couldn’t exactly imagine getting off with just a slap on the wrist; he seemed more likely to lose his wrist than anything. Either way, he couldn’t see any possibility where he got away from this uninjured. He was going to get hurt, and he was going to get hurt bad.

It’s worth it, he reminded himself firmly. If it’s for Kokichi… I can do it. I can handle it.

That was a lot easier said than done.

The time came a short while later when the monitor switched on, revealing Monokuma once more. He stood up from his silent vigil, trying his best to smooth over his nerves and keep his composure.

“If you’re willing to cooperate, this will go over a lot smoother,” Monokuma told him in a jarringly loud voice. Or maybe it wasn’t very loud at all– maybe it only sounded loud because the room had been silent. “So head on through the door, and make sure you close it behind you, yeah?”

It’s time. “I’ll be back,” he said to Kokichi, his voice deathly quiet. “...soon. I-I’ll be back soon.”

He wasn’t expecting a response from Kokichi, and he didn’t get one. Releasing a calming breath that did nothing to help him, he took a hesitant step towards the door, before pausing.

“...um… thank you,” Shuichi murmured with a helpless look over his shoulder. “Things have been hard… and really confusing ever since we got here. B-But, ah… even if you have done some terrible things… I-I can’t bring myself to hate you.”

A lump was forming in his throat that he swallowed thickly.

“I know it’s ridiculous, but… um… Kokichi, I…”

…no. He didn’t know what he was saying– he was being an idiot. Those feelings were utterly unacceptable, especially in a situation like this. Besides, it was probably just the feeling that came with having a close friend you shared a lot of traumatic experiences with; nothing like… love at all.

(But what about before? Before the puzzles began, and before the truth of the fourth murder came out? What about those twinges of jealousy, of odd possessiveness, of attachment and of longing? The times they had spent playing games together in their free time, running around the academy and laughing with one another as if nothing in the whole world could ever be wrong?

Had that been simple friendship, too? Or had that been more?)

No matter what it was, Kokichi couldn’t possibly feel the same, so there was no point in even considering it.

His fingers wandered up to his cheek, gently touching the spot where Kokichi had gifted him his good luck charm.

“I’ll come back,” he promised Kokichi.

He had to.

Chapter Text

Kokichi failed.

Those were the words that caused everyone to scramble to meet in the dormitory lobby, worry and fear painted all over their faces.

“What does it mean?” Tsumugi fretted, her voice shrill with terror. “D-Did Kokichi… really fail!?”

“How!?” Himiko demanded, shaking her fists back and forth as she looked between the others and the monitor. “How did Kokichi fail? I thought he was as indestructible as a cockroach!”

“No one’s indestructible,” Maki pointed out darkly.

Kaito growled, his voice hoarse. “So, what? Did they fail the puzzle? Are we really gonna freakin’ die!?”

“I don’t believe so,” K1-B0 interjected suddenly, though his firm tone couldn’t hide the nervous beads of sweat dripping down the side of his face. Somehow. “If there’s a success screen, there must be a failure screen as well. I don’t imagine that one is quite as… unnerving as this.”

“It says only Kokichi failed the puzzle,” Maki added in agreement. “Shuichi should be fine.”

“But… if Kokichi failed…” Tsumugi’s face went as white as a sheet. “D-Doesn’t that mean… he died?”

Maki had considered that, as it was the only possible reason that one would fail a death puzzle. There was no doubt in her mind that Kokichi Ouma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader and the lying ball of mystery who had made the past few weeks hell, was dead.

“That…” not even Kaito could argue with that one, it seemed. He clenched his fists and partly turned away from the group, his frustration and anger at the situation clear in his body language. “It’s only the third day, damn it… how hard did these puzzles get in such a short amount of time!? We were almost there!”

“Wh-What do you mean?” Tsumugi dared to ask through the tears that were starting to form in her eyes.

“Me and Maki Roll were so close to figuring out who the mastermind was!” Kaito exclaimed, though his glare didn’t have as much of an effect as it usually would. “We got a shit ton of leads… but then I had to sit out ‘cause I was getting sicker, and now this happened!”

“I-It’s not your fault you’re sick…” Himiko weakly tried to reassure him. Her eyes were hidden by the rim of her hat, which she had pulled downwards to hide her face.

Kaito didn’t seem to appreciate the sentiment. “I still could’ve done something!”

“Quit yelling at each other,” Maki snapped at Kaito specifically. “It’s helping no one. Besides, Shuichi’s still alive, isn’t he?”

“P-Probably not for much longer,” Tsumugi sobbed, taking off her glasses to wipe her eyes.

“Th-They are puzzles designed for teamwork…” K1-B0 reluctantly agreed. “The chances of Shuichi surviving tomorrow’s puzzle are… slim.”

“Then we still have a whole night to find the mastermind and stop the killing game,” Maki pointed out. How come she was the only one even trying to be reasonable here? “The death puzzles can’t continue if the killing game ends. We can tie up the mastermind, force them to tell us where Shuichi is, and then kill them.”

“K-Kill the mastermind?” Tsumugi squeaked, somehow managing to go even paler than she already was. Actually, she looked close to passing out.

“I don’t recall that ever ending well,” K1-B0 reminded her grimly.

Maki was well aware of what Kaede’s actions had led to, but this was different. She had evidence to back her up now, and that evidence originated in the very crime the pianist had committed all that time ago. Maki was confident that whoever it was, she would be able to kill them with no regrets.

“I don’t think that’s something you should just… say,” Himiko said to her.

“I don’t care,” Maki informed the mage bluntly. “I’m close to the truth, and nothing is going to stop me from getting there. I’m finding out the truth tonight, and I won’t allow anyone to stop me–”

The image on the monitor changed abruptly, making everyone but her jump in surprise. It was the SUCCESS!! screen that showed whenever a puzzle was completed.

“...what?” K1-B0 murmured somewhat unconsciously, before seeming to register what that screen meant. “Wait, what?”

“B-But I thought Kokichi failed!” Tsumugi exclaimed in shock, glancing around at everyone to gauge their reactions. “The puzzle plainly shouldn’t be a success if Kokichi failed, right?”

“Did Shuichi use a revival spell…?” Himiko murmured in equal confusion.

For once, Maki actually wasn’t sure. She didn’t know if it was right for everyone to assume that Kokichi was actually alive in the first place; what if the puzzle was a success because Shuichi completed it on his own? It was too early to start celebrating, in her opinion.

“Oh!” Kaito jabbed a finger up at the monitor, his eyes sparkling with pride. “Kokichi clinically died, but Shuichi revived him using CPR! That’s my sidekick for ya!”

…on second thought, that explanation also made a lot of sense.

“Shuichi… revived Kokichi?” Relief made Tsumugi’s shoulders go slack. “Oh, thank goodness… that’s so plain heroic of him…”

“Kokichi’s lucky that he was there,” Himiko commented with a sigh. “Maybe one of them cast a good luck charm on the other.”

“A good luck charm would certainly be useful in a situation like that,” K1-B0 affirmed. “I don’t imagine Monokuma will be very happy, but… they are both alive.”

“As far as we know,” Maki pointed out dryly.

Tsumugi shot her a little smile. “Always the realist, aren’t you?”

“Whatever it is, we can’t waste any more time!” Kaito punched his knuckles together with a stupidly determined grin that could have lit up a downtrodden room. “There’s no time to sleep, guys. If we want this shit to end, we’ve gotta work together to end it now.”

“Y-Yeah! I plainly can’t just sit around anymore and wait for something to happen!” Tsumugi agreed fiercely. “I want to help out Shuichi and Kokichi!”

“Even if I’m tired… I’ll help too,” Himiko declared. “...just gotta make sure I don’t fall asleep on my feet somewhere.”

“I’ll come with you then,” Tsumugi decided immediately. “Two heads are better than one, right? We can look around the academy!”

“I will search the outside,” K1-B0 informed the group. “Whether it’s a way to our classmates or it’s a way out… I will find one.”

“I’m gonna look around the courtyard,” announced Kaito. “I might even check out the casino or that weird hotel, since we haven’t been there much. What about you, Maki Roll?”

“I have something in mind,” she replied vaguely. “Just give me a bit. And make sure you grab some flashlights.”

“Huh? Okay…” Kaito didn’t look reassured by that answer, but he didn’t ask. “Tsumugi, Himiko, you heard her. Grab as many flashlights as you can carry! Let’s go, everybody! We’ll regroup here when dawn comes, how ‘bout that?”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” K1-B0 said. “Let’s not waste any time!”

Maki watched as everyone filtered out of the dormitory, all full of a new kind of determined energy that only someone like Kaito could supply. The astronaut himself shot her one last cheesy grin and thumbs up before disappearing after the others, leaving her standing all alone in the dormitory lobby.

It was only a matter of time before all of them realized that they had no idea what they were meant to be looking for, but Maki didn’t need to worry about that. She started up the stairs and swiftly made her way into Kaito’s unlocked dorm, taking what she came for before making her speedy exit from the dormitory. This was a plan she had been working out all day, and if there was any time to put it to good use, it was right now, when everyone was high on productivity.

Never let it be said that Miu’s Ultimate Research Lab was useless.

The biggest challenge that came with her plan was actually getting onto the roof of the academy. There was no way up that wasn’t scaling the side of the building, but luckily for Maki, that wasn’t as impossible of a task as it seemed. The warehouse was stocked full of useful things, so her mission was somehow even easier.

How she was going to get down was also somewhat of an issue, but she could deal with that later. She stuffed the grappling hook she had used to climb the building back into her borrowed bag and carefully pulled out the electrobomb; the key component of this plan.

None of them except Kokichi and Miu should know what this thing does, but she couldn’t exactly ask either of them, so she could only hope it didn’t actually explode. If it did what she thought it did though, then they were going to have complete free range in the academy that Monokuma couldn’t dictate.

She was getting into that hidden room through the library one way or another.

Miu’s lab had been left behind as somewhat of a chaotic disaster. A good portion of her inventions, finished or not, somehow had to do with sex. It was honestly almost impressive, the crude things she could come up with. But Maki didn’t care about those. What she did care about was a certain little invention she found that, according to Miu’s log, could amplify the effects of her other inventions by fifty times.

The device, which had been simply named the “Intensifier”, was still apparently in beta. But from what Maki had read, Miu made all of her things with what she described as a certain “charm” that should automatically link to the Intensifier. Maki wasn’t sure what she meant by charm, nor did she know what Miu could possibly need this thing for, but she also didn’t care (and didn’t want to know) so long as it did its job.

Was it a bad idea to mess around with things that she had no idea what they did? Probably. The possibility of her having miscalculated was pretty high, especially when it came to the electrobomb (which she hadn’t found in Miu’s logs). But she had also been waiting for too long; whether Kokichi was alive or not, that didn’t change the fact that Shuichi survived. She wanted to get at least him out of there.

The Intensifier was a tube-shaped device that acted somewhat like an injector; it had no needle, but one end of it did have a small panel that, when she switched it on, lit up white. It wasn’t that hard to figure out how to use, since all she had to do was press that panel to whatever invention she wanted to intensify and turn it on. She knew it was working when the electrobomb started heating up in her palm, and she only removed the Intensifier once the electrobomb was almost too hot to hold.

“This better work,” she muttered to herself, walking to the edge of the roof and holding it up. Necromancy wasn’t possible, but she would perfect it to kick Miu’s ass if this failed.

With no more hesitation, she triggered the bomb.

The effect was instantaneous; a shockwave resonated from the small device as it imploded in her hand, which didn’t hurt nearly as much as it would have if it was a legitimate explosive. Wind rushed past her face and she watched as the entire academy began to go dark. The lights from the casino and Hotel Kumasutra shut off, and the faint glow from K1-B0’s Ultimate Lab vanished as well. 

Following shortly after that, the night sky displayed in the dome overhead vanished as well, being replaced by a grimly dark, ashen-red color. The clouds were hardly any better, being virtually black in contrast to its haunting backdrop. That wasn’t what she had seen coming when she had taken this plan into consideration.

Well on another and less concerning note, she could hear screaming from down below, so it was probably time to get down from the roof. 

It took her around the same amount of time to get back down as it did for her to climb the building, which truthfully wasn’t a lot. Once she did have her feet planted safely on the ground, she quickly scoped out the source of the screaming, which had turned out to be Tsumugi from within the academy. She, Himiko, Kaito and K1-B0 were all gathered outside the doors to the building, all clustered around the robot with varying concerns.

As she got closer, she realized that K1-B0’s eyes were entirely black and he was completely still. 

“Maki Roll!” Kaito exclaimed when he saw her. “The power’s gone out in the academy!”

“Not just the academy,” Tsumugi pointed out, her voice hitched with anxiety. “Keebo stopped moving too!”

Oh. Maki hadn’t been thinking about that. It made sense that K1-B0 would also shut off if she disabled anything electronic. Hopefully K1-B0 wouldn’t be too upset.

“That would be my fault,” Maki confessed. “I activated the electrobomb.”

“The… what?” Himiko asked.

Maki took a few minutes to explain what she had done, and by the time she was finished, her three conscious classmates looked much more relieved.

“Nyeh… I wonder what Miu would have used that Intensifier for,” Himiko wondered aloud, her eyes flicking in the general direction of Miu’s lab.

A nervous smile crept onto Tsumugi’s face. “I don’t think we want to know…”

“Either way, that was some pretty clever thinking, Maki Roll!” Kaito complimented her, giving her a firm pat on the back. “What are we gonna do about Keebo, though…? We can’t just leave him here.”

“Yes we can,” Maki deadpanned. “All of the exisals and Monokuma should be deactivated right now. Let’s go investigate the hidden room while he isn’t able to yell at us.”

“Oh, yeah! The exisals won’t self-destruct if they’re turned off!” Tsumugi gasped. “But… it’s so plainly creepy down there, with all the lights off…”

“We did grab flashlights,” said Himiko. She had a white grocery bag hanging from one arm, and she reached into it before producing a pretty heavy-duty flashlight. “We weren’t sure how many we’d need, so we took ten.”

“Keebo’s flashlight eyes would have worked too,” Tsumugi murmured with a sad look at the deactivated robot. “I hope he doesn’t feel too sick when he turns back on…”

“Oh, yeah. When does the electrobomb stop working?” Kaito asked her for some reason, as if she could possibly know the answer to that.

“I don’t know. That’s why we should get moving now.” With that, Maki swiped the flashlight from Himiko’s hands and led the way into the dark academy.

Tsumugi was right, the academy was dark. It was nearly pitch black, and the red sky certainly didn’t do any favors in regards to natural lighting. She heard Tsumugi and Himiko shudder behind her, and she could practically feel Kaito’s uncertainty rolling off of him in waves.

“You’re acting like we’re going into a haunted house,” Maki commented dryly, shooting a quick glare back at her classmates. “It’s fine, it’s just dark.”

“A-Are you sure?” Tsumugi squeaked. “Because this is plainly the place to go to be slaughtered by vengeful spirits.”

Kaito choked. “S-S-S-Spirits!? D-Don’t say stupid crap like that! There’s no spirits here, least of all vengeful ones!”

“I can think of nine different vengeful spirits that could be wandering around here right now,” Himiko hummed unhelpfully.

“Knock it off,” Maki snapped as Kaito’s breathing picked up in terror. “Get your own flashlight and watch where you step.”

“Y’know, the only thing that could make this worse is if it started storming outside,” Tsumugi mused while Himiko handed her and Kaito flashlights. “...huh. Usually after someone says that, it starts–”

“DO NOT finish that sentence!” Kaito shouted at her, his voice reverberating off of the walls. He shrunk back at the echo, as did the other two girls, their eyes going wide.

Rolling her eyes, Maki started in the direction of the basement, no longer caring if her idiot classmates were following her or not. The light from their flashlights helped illuminate the path a little, which was especially helpful on the slim stairs leading down to the basement, where it was very easy to trip.

As they all made it safely to the ground, Tsumugi suddenly sucked in a sharp gasp, scaring the absolute life out of Kaito if his shriek was anything to go off of.

“What!? WHAT!?” Kaito demanded urgently, whipping his head around. “What is it!?”

“Sorry! I thought I saw something!” Tsumugi yelped, shielding her eyes from Kaito’s flashlight. “It was just Maki’s shadow, I think.”

“You think?” Himiko echoed dubiously. “Maybe… it was the shadow of one of our fallen comrades. Maybe Maki’s gonna be the first to get claimed by the ghosts.”

“I won’t let no ghost claim my sidekick!” Kaito snarled with a flash of defensiveness, his terror seemingly forgotten. “I’ll punch their freakin’ lights out!”

“It’s either her or Kaito,” Himiko amended her words, to which Kaito squawked in offense. “Tsumugi, you kind of have final girl energy. I’ll cast a craftsmanship boost on you so you can make weapons more easily.”

“Thank you, Himiko, but I don’t think those apply to ghosts,” Tsumugi pointed out apologetically. “Well I mean… I could try. I’d think Maki would be the final girl though. She plainly has such final girl energy, it’s hard to imagine her dying to a ghost!”

“I wouldn’t die in a slasher either,” Maki told her dryly. “Also, ghosts don’t exist, so quit it. You’re going to take even more years off of Kaito’s rapidly shortening lifespan.”

“Hey!” Kaito protested, sounding genuinely hurt. “My lifespan’s still decently long, and ghosts don’t scare me! ‘cause like you said, they’re not real, s-so of course they don’t scare me. It’s stupid to be scared of something that doesn’t exist. Obviously.”

“I don’t know,” Tsumugi murmured skeptically. “Sometimes I hear piano music coming from Kaede’s Research Lab, but when I check, there’s no one in there…”

Kaito blanched, a horrified, stuttered breath forcing its way out of his mouth.

Maki couldn’t believe she willingly hung around these people. She walked ahead and into the library, where the two exisals stood imposingly still in the dark. Their metal machinery glinted as she shone her light on them, and after confirming that neither of them were active, she approached the bookshelf.

“Someone give me light,” she ordered as she bagged her own flashlight.

Using the steady light from her classmate’s flashlights, she pulled the moving bookshelf out of place with a little more effort than she usually needed to reveal the hidden door, which was now wide open. It was somehow even darker in the secret room than it was in the library, and she could feel the anxiety radiating from her classmates.

“I keep checking behind me, expecting something to be there…” Tsumugi shuddered. “I’ve plainly watched too many horror animes… ah! M-Maybe this is all just a closed space! Does anyone remember doing a friendship charm before this?”

“A what?” Kaito demanded.

“It’s probably an anime thing,” said Himiko, disinterested.

Tsumugi lit up, her eyes glowing with excitement. “Yes! It’s about a friendship ritual gone wrong, and as a result nine students– technically only six, two being a teacher and one of the character's little sister–”

“Save it for later,” Maki interrupted her, drawing back out her flashlight. “Make sure you look around thoroughly. We won’t be able to get back in here once we’re done. And again, watch your step.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” Himiko reassured her. “Worry about the guy wearing slippers everywhere.”

“It’s not like I’ve got anything else to wear!” Kaito immediately jumped to defend himself.

The four of them split off to different parts of the room to investigate, Maki making a beeline for the trash can. She lifted up the lid and let it fall to the side, shining her flashlight into the bin.

This was a possibility that she had worried about, but for it to actually be true was not only disheartening, but extremely infuriating.

The shot put ball was gone.

“Hey, where’d it go?” She heard Kaito asked from over by the table. Turning around, she could see Kaito searching around for something, and she already guessed what had happened before he said, “hey, the Survivor Perk’s gone!”

“The mastermind probably hid it,” Maki cursed, anxiously biting her thumb. It wasn’t the cruelest setback in the world, but it was still annoying. “They probably guessed we’d break in here again.”

“That’s plainly disappointing…” Tsumugi lamented, giving Kaito a somewhat sympathetic look. “Who knows what else they hid that you didn’t find, then?”

“Well, I still haven’t checked what’s under that curtain.” Kaito jerked his head in the direction of the red fabric. “I didn’t want to set off any alarm bells or whatever.”

“That’s probably the smartest idea you’ve ever had,” Maki deadpanned, fully aware that it had initially been her idea. She was fully willing to let Kaito take the fall if it kept her classmates– or rather, the mastermind– off her back.

“Hmm… the alarm bells can’t go off if the power’s out, right?” Himiko pointed out. “Let’s see what’s under there before it comes back on.”

“But what if it’s something not electronical?” Tsumugi argued worriedly.

“Then I’ll deal with it,” Maki assured her, her had twitching towards the knife she kept hidden under her skirt.

“That’s my sidekick,” said Kaito, approaching the curtain. “Alright, I’m taking it off!”

In a grand sweeping gesture, Kaito ripped the curtain off of whatever it had been concealing beneath its red fabric, like a marketer revealing their newest sale.

“KYYAAAAAAAAH!” Tsumugi shrieked in response to what was beneath the curtain, jumping back into Himiko and nearly knocking them both over. “Wh-Wh-What is that thing!?”

There was a large Monokuma head suspended in some sort of tank.

“It looks creepier in the flashlight light…” Himiko griped, but her voice was also quivering.

“What the heck…!?” Kaito exclaimed, dropping the curtain and jumping back in alarm. “This thing is way bigger than Monokuma’s head! Is it the decapitated head of a… a Mechakuma or something!?”

“Either way, it plainly looks like it’s powered down, thank goodness…” Tsumugi breathed out a sigh of relief, regaining her composure to approach the tank. “See? It’s lights are all off, and it isn’t saying anything.”

“Nyeh… maybe it’s the mothership,” Himiko suggested with a deep scowl. “Everytime Monokuma gets destroyed, this thing clones itself and grows a body using it's gross Monok-ooze to become the new Monokuma.”

“That was… unnecessarily graphic,” Kaito commented in alarm.

“So it’s essentially… a Motherkuma?” Tsumugi guessed.

Himiko nodded seriously. “That must be it. Monoit.”

“Alright, enough with the Mono’s and the Kuma’s!” Kaito barked at the two girls. “More importantly, if this thing is the mothership… then we obviously gotta destroy it!”

“I agree,” Maki concurred immediately. “If this is making spare Monokuma’s, it needs to be destroyed immediately.”

“Destroy it?” Tsumugi echoed with a slight hitch in her voice. “H-Hold on, we shouldn’t destroy things when we don’t know what they do! What if it also supplies our oxygen!? Have you seen the sky outside?”

“Suffocating to death would be bad…” Himiko mused. “I wouldn’t be able to make breatheable bubbles for everyone if that happened.”

“Oh, is that why it’s getting so hard to breathe?” asked Kaito, a look of understanding dominating his features. Some of the overpowering courage on his face faded to show some of the exhaustion Maki knew he had been trying to hide. “Tsumugi’s oxygen theory might be right, Maki Roll. Ever since the power shut off, I feel like the air’s been getting more intoxicating. It might not be a good idea to go around smashing things.”

“I- I kind of feel it too,” Himiko confessed wearily. “My lungs are starting to hurt a little.”

Maki scowled. She couldn’t deny the air-tight feeling that had gradually begun seeping into the academy, especially the further they had gone into the basement. Suffocating to death might not be worth destroying the maker of Monokuma’s, if Himiko was right and it was the mothership.

“But…” Concern was painted all over Tsumugi’s face. “...doesn’t that make you kind of wonder? If the power going out turned off some sort of air purifier…”

“...why’s there need to be an air purifier in the first place?” Kaito finished for her. “You don’t really think those meteors…”

“The red apocalypse sky… the air getting toxic…” Himiko murmured. “That definitely sounds post-meteor.”

“I suppose there’s no way to check though…” Tsumugi sighed in defeat. “I hope the power comes back on soon. Kaito’s looking pretty pale… though that could be the light of the flashlight.”

“Gah! Quit shining that thing in my eyes!” Kaito yelped as Tsumugi once again directed the beam directly at his face, his hands flying upwards to shield his eyes. “I’m gonna go blind before I lose the ability to breathe! And hey, I’m fine. You don’t gotta worry about me.”

“Also, there is a way to check,” Maki told the cosplayer, much to her visible surprise. “It’s somewhere else we haven’t been able to reach. Remember? The Death Road of Despair.”

It took a moment for her words to sink in, but when they did, her classmates all lit up.

“I plainly forgot about that place! If the exit really is at the end, then it should be a piece of cake to get to!” Tsumugi exclaimed with a newly awakened enthusiasm. “All of the traps will be deactivated thanks to the blackout!”

“Nyeh… but what about the air?” Himiko pointed out anxiously. This concern seemed to put a damper on Tsumugi’s mood as she faltered, the excitement in her expression falling.

“I’ll go,” Maki offered. “I can bear it longer than any of you can. I’ll go see what’s at the end of the Death Road of Despair, and I’ll come back to report my findings.”

“You’re a friggin’ life saver, Maki Roll!” Kaito exclaimed with a bit more volume than necessary. This was proven as whatever he tried to say next was lost in a short series of painful sounding coughs, his hand flying up to shield his mouth. “Ah, geez…”

“Let's finish looking around, and then we’ll go back outside,” Maki decided. The basement’s air was stuffy in itself, and she didn’t want to put any more strain on Kaito’s already suffering lungs than necessary.

As she had expected, the rest of the search was entirely inconclusive. Kaito pointed out the secret passageway to the others and told them where it led, but other than that, they didn’t find anything worthwhile. Finding Motherkuma could be potentially valuable, but at the end of the day, they had no idea what it actually did, and they couldn’t exactly ask it since the power was out.

The four of them returned back outside the academy, where K1-B0’s deactivated body still stood frozen in the same position they had left him in. Kaito staggered over to the robot, plopping down onto the ground beside him.

“I-I’m gonna… wait here,” he huffed, his voice worryingly hoarse. “The air’s way better out here, but I’m feeling… really crappy. Sorry, guys.”

“We understand,” Tsumugi reassured him. “Just wait here and we’ll be back soon, okay?”

“Keebo will need someone to fill him in on what happened anyway,” Himiko added simply. “If the power comes back on before we get back, then he’s probably gonna be really confused.”

“Not sure how I feel being demoted to a messenger boy, but okay!” Kaito’s cocky grin returned and he flashed them a thumbs-up. “I’ll stick around with Keebo until you guys get back. Be careful, Maki Roll!”

“Sure,” Maki replied dryly, already walking ahead. She’d squash her concern for Kaito by focusing on the task at hand.

It was now just her, Himiko and Tsumugi. Maki had to admit that she wasn’t exactly comfortable trudging around with these two; the bitter truth was that either one of them could be the mastermind. She couldn’t wave off that possibility just because they were both a little… droopy.

They were as droopy as they were chatty, because it was anything but silent as the three of them descended the ladder leading down from the manhole. Maki was the first one down, and as she waited for the other two girls, she couldn’t help but notice how much worse the air seemed to be leading into the tunnel. The academy undoubtedly had oxygen purifiers somewhere.

“I can’t wait until the air becomes breathable,” Tsumugi panted as she stepped down from the ladder. “I’m… plainly suffocating in here…”

“If it’s that intolerable you can go wait with Kaito,” Maki told her unsympathetically. “I’m going to go check out the end of the tunnel. If I’m not back within ten minutes then come get me out.”

“Oh… should we have brought some escape ropes?” asked Tsumugi.

“Not to worry. I have enough mana left to cast a protection spell on Maki,” Himiko announced proudly. “It’s only effective for five minutes though, so be quick.”

“I don’t plan on taking any longer than that,” Maki replied.

With no further delay, she walked into the pitch black Death Road of Despair, her quick-paced footsteps echoing loudly off of the walls. Navigating it on her own was not only easy, but also much simpler now that none of the traps reacted to her presence. 

Despite this, she did have to perform her fair share of acrobatics; climbing over the gate, jumping from platform to platform, pulling herself up ledges… and this task became a little more tedious when she had to occupy one hand with her only light source. Trying to hold a flashlight in your mouth while climbing something turned out to be incredibly awkward for your jaw.

And to top it all off, the air. Don’t get her wrong, she didn’t regret causing the blackout in the slightest, but if she had known about the oxygen situation then she would have approached everything a little more cautiously.

Why would the air be so unbreathable in the first place? Maki wondered as she traversed the lifeless tunnel. If it starts to become toxic the second all of the oxygen purifiers are turned off, what does that mean for the outside world?

The memory of the ashy sky flashed through her mind.

The secret of the outside world…

Maki’s eyes were watering from the air by the time she made it to the end. It turned out to be some sort of huge steel door, which was sealed tight. She wiped her eyes and walked up the ramp, squinting at what looked like some sort of card reader. Hadn’t the initial motive for the previous killing been a card key? A card key that Kokichi snatched the moment it was presented?

So this is where he used it… Maki mused with a tight frown. She glanced back at the tunnel. He must have used one of those electrohammers to get through the tunnel. The bastard really did know the secret of the outside world before he showed it to Gonta…

Regardless, there was no way she was getting past this door. It might be possible with an electrohammer so she could override the card reader, but contrary to the door in the library, the blackout seemed to have disabled the power to the reader, making it impossible to get this door open.

Frustration surged through her body and she threw a kick at the base of the card reader.

“God damn it!” she cursed loudly, resisting the urge to throw her flashlight across the room. Maki wasn’t one to get easily frustrated, but she was fed up with this place throwing a wrench in all of her plans and ideas. Even the building architecture was causing problems for her now.

Sitting around in this room and slowly suffocating would do her no good though, so she stormed her way back into the tunnel, too irritated to even feel fatigued about the trek back.

As she was returning, she heard Himiko and Tsumugi’s voices before she saw them.

“...okay. I mean, if the power’s off, then they can’t be forced to do a puzzle,” Tsumugi was saying.

“Hrm… guess you’re right…” Himiko sighed. “How intense do you think the puzzles are, anyway? I can’t imagine something like a “seating puzzle” would be very difficult.”

“It is Monokuma,” Tsumugi pointed out. “Who knows what he can come up wi– oh, I think Maki’s coming back!”

“Nyeh?” Maki saw Himiko perk up before hurriedly rising to her feet. “Maki!”

“I’m back,” Maki announced herself. “There was a huge door at the end of the tunnel and a card reader, but since the power’s off, I couldn’t use it.”

“Oh! Could we use one of the electrohammers on it?” Tsumugi suggested eagerly.

“Probably. But that’s not a good idea if the outside air is toxic,” Maki pointed out bitterly. They had come so close to freedom, only to find out that the air made the outside world uninhabitable.

“So… we can’t leave?” Himiko murmured worriedly, glancing between her and Tsumugi. “We either have to go outside and die… or live here forever…?”

“M-Maybe it’s just the area we’re in?” Tsumugi tried, though even she didn’t sound very confident in that assumption. “I’m sure the rest of the world is fine!”

Before Maki could open her mouth to respond, before she could do anything, the monitor in the room suddenly cut to static, faintly lighting up the otherwise dark room. All three of them– yes, even Maki– jumped at the abrupt burst of light, though dread visibly washed over her classmates as realization struck.

If the monitor was on, that meant that the effects of the electrobomb were wearing off. The blackout would be over soon.

However, the static was going on for too long for it to be normal. Maki glanced over at Tsumugi and Himiko, who seemed to be frozen in confused terror, before deciding to cautiously approach the monitor, moving extremely slowly. If it was Monokuma, the static would have ended by now, so what could it be? Were the systems simply coming back online? Or was this because of something else?

“Ah… you probably shouldn’t be touching that!” Tsumugi cried out as Maki began reaching towards the screen. “What if it–”

The static cut the second Maki’s fingers brushed against the cool screen, and she found herself looking into the yellow eyes of none other than Kaito’s first sidekick– her friend. Shuichi Saihara.

“Wha–!” she exclaimed in surprise, taking a startled step back. Shuichi did the same on his side of the screen, though the action made him stumble and break into a hoarse, coughing fit. “Shuichi!?”

“Nyeh? Shuichi!” Himiko exclaimed at the same time Tsumugi did, the two of them crowding around the screen with her.

Shuichi didn’t respond for a moment, and Maki had to notice how he looked… really bad, to put it lightly. There was blood dripping from his mouth and staining the bandages wound around his hands and his left arm. The room he was in was extremely dark save for a red glow coming from what looked like some sort of emergency light overhead.

Anger made her hands shake as she saw something gray and thick around Shuichi’s throat. Was he wearing a collar?

“Ah… Ma…Maki,” he choked out, as if he hadn’t spoken in several years. “Oh my gosh… i-is’t really you?”

“A-Are you okay?” Himiko asked before Maki could. “You sound like you have some sort of bad cold.”

“M-Me?” Shuichi gestured to himself, his eyes going wide. “No! Nonsense! I-I’m not sick, obviously, I’m just– hey, w-wait…” he looked down at his hand, looking genuinely confused. “...oh yeah. Nevermind. Sorry, I– I h-hit my head a few times, really hard, on the board.”

“Where’s Kokichi?” Tsumugi demanded anxiously, and Maki realized that the boy was nowhere to be found.

“Kokichi…” Shuichi hummed, narrowing his eyes in thought. “Ko…ki…chi… yes. He’s, um… not here. He’s g-going– going– um, he’s going to, a-ah… ghhk…”

Maki watched in alarm as Shuichi buried half of his face in his arm, hacking and coughing and borderline gagging. Himiko gasped in horror at the sight while Tsumugi whimpered nervously, clasping her hands together as they were all forced to simply watch Shuichi suffer through a horrible sounding coughing fit. It reminded Maki uncomfortably of Kaito’s condition.

“Ow, oh man, wow,” Shuichi wheezed once he recovered a little. “Hmm, Ko would probably say something like, um… wow, cowboy? I-Is that you? Didn’t know I was getting the, um, redemption.”

“He’s talking crazy,” Tsumugi whispered loudly, her eyes stretched impossibly wide.

“I guess he really did hit his head,” Maki agreed. Doing everything in her power to mask her own worry, she asked, “Shuichi, where did Kokichi go? Is he alive?”

“Alive!?” Shuichi yelped in alarm. “No, no, no! Kokichi never fails, d-don’t be silly, Maki. He’s fine. He says I’ll pro’lly… feel better… when I sleep, so he– so he said to do that, but I’m scared of the dark a-and I want him here with meeee…”

“Shuichi,” Maki growled, though not in frustration. After growing up in an orphanage with a herd of little kids, you tend to learn an incredible amount of patience. “Where did Kokichi go?”

“Kokichi. Yes. Um. Out there.” Maki watched, unimpressed, as Shuichi pointed at something off screen. “The doors open, so he’s exploring ‘n looking for a way out… I think. Haha… I’m… woah, r-really lightheaded. Sorry, I–”

Yet another brutal cough forced its way out of Shuichi’s throat, effectively interrupting him.

“He sounds really sick…” Tsumugi worried, her voice hitching with sympathy. “What happens to the puzzles if one of them is sick…?”

“He sounds worse than Kaito at this rate…” Himiko added.

“That’s because he’s talking like a three year old who got access to a dictionary,” Maki retorted flatly. Though, this way of talking did somewhat remind her of something else.

(“My head’s stopping to work but whatever happens, whether I die or get robbed or something, just remember that– and it cuts off there.”

“...he must have really been fighting to stay conscious. This looks horrible.”

“I’m not sure what he was drugged with, but if he managed to write an entire note before passing out, it must have taken a while to kick in.)

“...ah!” she gasped in realization, pieces clicking together in her mind immediately. “Shuichi, do you smell anything odd in the room?”

“Mmm… sorta, ahhh… sweet,” Shuichi responded in barely a mumble. “‘s making my head… real fuzzy.”

“That’s why…” Maki murmured, clenching her fists. No wonder he was barely coherent– he was probably high on whatever that sweet knock-out drug was. “He didn’t only hit his head. He’s being drugged by some gas that was used to put him and Kokichi to sleep. He’s probably going to pass out soon… but that doesn’t explain the coughing up blood.”

“H-He's being drugged!?” Tsumugi demanded in horror. “Shuichi, hold your breath!”

“Do not do that,” Maki snapped sharply as she saw Shuichi visibly panic, choking over his own breath. “Tell us what you can, Shuichi. It said that Kokichi failed the last puzzle, so what happened there?”

“He died.”

Perhaps it was the blank look on his face when he said that, or the lack of any human emotion in his voice, but the minute those words left his mouth, Maki felt a chill crawl down her spine. Not a moment of hesitation or thought– just, he died, as plain and simple as that.

“I b-broke the, uhh, the puzzle, to save him, ‘n I… broke the puzzle. Wait, no, th-the rules,” Shuichi continued to stumble over his words. “Aahhh, crap, I- can’t think. H-Hit my head… wayyy too hard. I did the, um, chest compressions on him and he breathed again. Back to life. Yeah. Mhm.”

“So Kaito was right…” Tsumugi murmured sadly.

“Since I broked the rules, uhh…” Shuichi reached up to rub his head, his eyes drooping dangerously. “Mmm, got punished. Real hard. Um, there was a… porcupine, for some reason, I think. But it’s! Fine now! Ko saved me s-so I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine…”

He continued to repeat that phrase under his breath over and over, hugging himself as he slouched over, his knees shaking under his weight.

To say the least, the three of them were mortified.

“See what your hesitance to kill has done to this guy?”

Monokuma’s voice forced them to turn around, only to see the bear standing there with a lantern hung around its neck. Maki was brandishing her knife before she could even think twice, glaring at the bear as forcefully as she possibly could.

“Even when he’s not totally cooked out of his skull, he’s still suffering pretty badly,” Monokuma continued without even reacting to her silent threat. “His body’s sore every time he gets up in the morning… his hands are torn up from grabbing glass and then overusing them to carry out his punishment… his arm’s a pin cushion… and now his very organs are fighting themselves. It can’t even decide whether his blood is supposed to be inside his body or out! And believe me, Kokichi’s not doing much better either, puhuhu…~ ♪”

“Puhuhu… ♫” Shuichi parroted deliriously, earning a look of pure alarm from Himiko and Tsumugi.

“While Shuichi and Kokichi have been fighting for their lives– destroying their feeble human bodies to save you– you kids haven’t done a thing to try and rescue them,” Monokuma said, tilting his head to the side. “I really thought you guys would’ve had a bit more heart than that. I mean, what’s better? The potential sacrifice of two people, or the torture of two people?”

Maki’s hand hurt from how tightly she was gripping the handle of her knife.

“If this goes on any longer… they’re both totally screwed. And when they're screwed…” Monokuma’s voice darkened, dripping with a sick and sinister note of triumph. “...you’re all screwed. It’s better to try your luck at the class trial than with this motive, isn’t it? Everyone say goodnight, Shuichi… ‘cause you probably won’t see him again at this rate.”

As if on cue, a dull thump resonated from the other side of the monitor as Shuichi collapsed to the side, disappearing from view.

“Y-You’re horrible!” Himiko shouted nearly hysterically. “W-We’ll never kill each other! Shuichi and Kokichi are strong boys, they can hold out until we find a way out of here.”

When neither she or Tsumugi agreed, Himiko shrunk back, whispering a fearful, “...right?”

“Puhuhu…” Monokuma snickered. “Ah-hahahahaha~! Your comradery is heartwarming, it really is! But is the power of friendship enough to save those two? I mean, it definitely wasn’t enough for all your other classmates, so why is this so different?”

“I’m not relying on friendship,” Maki corrected the bear, her voice quiet to match her simmering, pent-up rage. “I will end this killing game, and no one is going to stop me.”

“Sure, sure,” Monokuma said in an infuriatingly dismissive manner. “Frankly, I don’t care what you do. Just don’t go flippin’ KNOCKING OUT THE POWER, lady! You know how much crap in this place relies on that stuff!? If you want to disable all the oxygen purifiers and suffocate to death, be my guest! Yeesh, you kids have absolutely no tact. Well, if you’d excuse me, I’ve got some generators to kick. But this is your final warning, missy!”

Grumbling as he went, Monokuma disappeared, leaving the three girls on their own.

And for a few moments, all they could do was stand there in silence. Maki wasn’t sure about the other girls, but she was furious. She was lucky to have gotten off with no punishment, but in the end, did anything they find really help them? The discovery of Motherkuma could be important, but there was nothing they could do with the information; and the same went for the door at the end of the Death Road of Despair. They learned nothing about the identity of the mastermind.

No. It wasn't for nothing. Checking in on Shuichi also served to be important– it gave them a sense of how long they had left before they were all slaughtered. Those two obviously couldn’t keep this up forever, and they were depending on everyone on the outside to stop the death puzzles. If they didn’t hurry, then they could be killed by tomorrow morning.

“We’re… all going to die…” Tsumugi whispered, breaking the spell of silence. “I don't want to die…!”

“Don’t do anything rash,” Maki warned her. Fear meant impulsiveness, and impulsiveness could get someone killed faster. “If Shuichi’s made it this far, he can go farther–”

“B-But what if he can’t?” Himiko interrupted her. “He said it himself… Kokichi died… what if they fail the puzzle tomorrow morning?”

“I can’t take the suspense anymore!” Tsumugi cried out, stumbling several steps away from them. “I-I’m going back to my room!”

“God dammit, wait–”

But it was too late. Tsumugi was already hastily climbing the ladder, quickly vanishing through the manhole opening within a matter of seconds. Maki curled her hands into tight fists, frustration building up in her gut. Maybe she had a little less patience than she gave herself credit for.

“Nyeh… I- I think I should go back to my room too,” Himiko stated hesitantly. “I’m really sleepy… and I’m just sad now. I miss Shuichi… and I guess Kokichi too.”

“Just don’t do anything stupid like killing someone.” Maki paused for a moment, before adding, “and don’t get killed, either.”

“I’ll try. I’ll lock my door and cast a seal of binding on it. That should keep people out…”

With that, Himiko ascended the ladder, leaving Maki on her own in front of the entrance to the Death Road of Despair. She turned her eyes to the monitor, which was still displaying the seemingly empty room that Shuichi and Kokichi had been staying in. Maki knew that Shuichi was unconscious on the ground, out of sight.

Just a few days ago, they had all sat under the stars together. She, Kaito and Shuichi, all talking and laughing together as if nothing in the whole world could ever be wrong. That was the nature of this killing game, she supposed; everything could be fine one minute, and then plunge into pure tragedy the next.

“Sleep well, Shuichi,” she said to her friend as she turned away from the monitor. Her words were meaningless to someone who couldn’t hear them, but…

…she was sure Shuichi would have appreciated the sentiment.

***

“Hm? That’s unusual.” He tried calling his associate back, but he couldn’t even get in a single ring. His phone had stopped working completely. “Gah, come on… really?”

A quick examination of all of his equipment led him to one logical conclusion: something had knocked out the power. And he assumed that the power surge had something to do with that unnatural gust of wind he had felt mere moments before his line to headquarters was cut off.

The wind had come from the west. He stood up from his temporary camp spot and gazed out at the ruined city, which was one of the most hazardous, uninhabitable cities in the country, according to Future Foundation’s research. The air in this city was so toxic that a few minutes of breathing it in directly could result in death. He hadn’t seen any point in going there since there was no possible way anyone could be alive in such a wasteland, but that power surge hadn’t come from nothing. And whatever it did come from, it was strong enough to disable his devices from even miles away. That seemed worth checking out to him.

“Not boring at all,” he subconsciously whispered to himself, adjusting his specially-made gas mask before tucking his phone back into his pocket. “Alright. Let’s see what this is about.”

Chapter Text

The last tangible thing Kokichi could remember was Shuichi’s terrified expression from the other side of the glass. And those lovely, lovely words…

“...I did, I love you.”

So even if Kokichi had died there, at least he would have died loved, right? That was so much more than he could have ever asked for, so he was perfectly content with death in that scenario. Sure, it’d mean that Shuichi would die soon after, but they were both going to die to this stupid motive anyway so it had to happen eventually. In fact, maybe Shuichi would have saved Monokuma the trouble and just overdosed on painkillers. It would have sucked, sure, but Kokichi was kind of past the point of caring.

Except now Kokichi was conscious, and he had a pretty good idea of what happened. His main clue were his ribs, which he sort of felt like he had been hit head-on by a speeding semi-truck. And since there were no semi-trucks in the Ultimate Academy (that he was aware of), the next best guess he had was that Shuichi had broken his ribs doing CPR. Kokichi had performed it once before when he was littler on someone he knew, but that entire situation had set him up to fail. Perhaps that good luck charm had indeed given Shuichi good luck, because he somehow managed to save Kokichi.

Which led to a few very important questions, none of which would be answered by speculation. And as much as his ribs– no, his body felt as if he had been dragged through a paper shredder, he had a very distinct feeling that something was very, very wrong.

That instinct was what gave Kokichi the power to open his eyes, and lo and behold, his instinct was right. The lights overhead were off save for one, which emitted a faint red glow that only somewhat lit up the otherwise dark room. It was cold, even under the blankets, but most important of all…

…the door was open.

The black and white door that kept them trapped in the Objective Room was raised. If this were any other time, Kokichi would have simply accepted the idea that a puzzle had started, but compared to the light in the room and Shuichi’s absence, he had the feeling that “another puzzle” simply wasn’t the case. Something else was happening.

Slowly, Kokichi sat up, trying his best to avoid further hurting his aching ribs and failing drastically. How was he supposed to find Shuichi when even just breathing hurt?

Think about it this way. Not only do you have to go yell at him for fucking up your ribs, but you’ve also gotta go see if he actually meant it when he said “I love you”.

And…

(“…I will have to punish you for this transgression…)

…he was, admittedly, a little worried.

“Well, I’m gonna die anyway,” he rasped as he carefully swung his legs over the side of the bed. “No time to worry about healing. Might as well see what's up.”

With that in mind, Kokichi stood up, and he was so grateful that nobody was here to see him let out a subconscious whimper and clutch at his chest. Dying in front of Shuichi was embarrassing enough, he didn’t need to make things worse for himself by stumbling around like an idiot. He had an image to maintain here, after all.

Decidedly not taking a deep breath to prepare himself, he limped forward, driven by the simple goal of finding his puzzle partner. It got darker as he moved further away from the red light, but as he opened the door, he was relieved to see emergency lights on...

…what exactly was he looking at?

There was a staircase leading down, the heights of which were lined with those red emergency lights, but he had no idea what was going on with the walls. One of them was concrete, and the other looked similar to the walls from the Seating Puzzle. They stretched pretty far back, though they didn’t meet, and the emergency lights unfortunately didn’t reach whatever was in that small crack.

Kokichi cautiously stepped out of the Objective Room, glancing down the staircase, and then at the lengthy pathways on either side of him. These pathways were positioned further back than where the door led, and he could see scrape marks on the walls next to the door.

Oh! Kokichi perked up with realization, looking between the two differently colored walls. Those must be the puzzle rooms. That’s how the rooms changed contents and even shape so fast– they were different rooms all along. They must rotate every time a new puzzle starts, and then the door to that room lines up with the Objective Room door.

So on his right was the room that contained the Seating Puzzle, and on his left was… the Tank Puzzle, presumably. He hadn’t seen the walls to that one, since the only walls there had been rows and rows of lockers, but it was the best guess he had. Keyword: guess.

Either way… he should check it out. He was itching to go down the stairs and figure out what was going on here, but unfortunately, Shuichi took priority for now. He had to make sure his puzzle partner wasn’t dying or something, and his best lead was the concrete room.

Using the wall as support, Kokichi carefully made his way to the doorway of that room, which didn’t take him long to do at all. The room was longer than it was wider, so he found the dior pretty quickly.

Thankfully, there was an emergency light in here, too. It was positioned in the center of the ceiling, illuminating the majorly empty room in an ominous red hue. There were only three things here that caught Kokichi’s attention. One was the chalkboard on the farthest wall, most of which already had writing on it. The second was what kind of looked like a gatling gun hanging from the ceiling.

The third was the one he had come looking for. His puzzle partner. Shuichi.

Shuichi was gripping a worn piece of chalk in his trembling, dust-coated hand, painstakingly scrawling something on the board with it. His left hand was raised high over his head, held against the concrete wall with a single iron band. And, Kokichi realized with a sickening jolt, he could see six huge needles– quills?– sticking out of his discolored arm, painting his skin an awful pink color.

“Shuichi!” Kokichi called to him, wincing when his ribs ached. “Ow– hey, couldn’t you have been a little more gentle? I’m fragile, ya’know.”

Those words were met with nothing. No reaction, not even a twitch. Shuichi just kept writing.

Frowning, Kokichi approached his puzzle partner, and he felt his frown deepen into a scowl when he saw what was being repeatedly written.

I saved Kokichi Ouma.

“What are you, in detention?” Kokichi scoffed. He placed a cautious hand on Shuichi’s shoulder, nudging him. “Heyyy, Shuichi! Earth to Shu! Hello?”

Still, nothing. Kokichi didn’t know whether to be concerned or annoyed. Compared to everything they had done so far, a few needles in the arm should be nothing. Kokichi had literally died and you didn’t see him staring blankly at a chalkboard.

There must be more to this, he thought with a suspicious glance at the gatling gun. This isn’t a puzzle, it’s a punishment. If Monokuma can’t kill Shuichi, I’m sure he’d have a way to make him suffer in a way similar to death, right? It must have to do with those needles. Quills? Whatever the hell they are.

The dazed look on Shuichi’s face didn’t indicate any sign that he’d be getting answers from him, though. He even tried waving in front of Shuichi’s face, but he must have acquired muscle memory of some kind, because he simply continued writing that same stupid phrase over and over.

Without thinking much about it, he growled in frustration and raised his hand–

“Wha.. w-wait! Wait!” Shuichi suddenly yelped, flinching away from him so hard it looked like it hurt. His voice was scratchy, every word sounding as if it was painful to get out. “Wait, I- I’m doing it, see? I’ll write faster, I’m going. I-I’m going, promise."

That reaction made Kokichi blanch, his hand falling back to his side as he watched Shuichi hurriedly scribble down something borderline incomprehensible, a look of panic now present on his otherwise vacant expression. Kokichi didn’t like the way Shuichi had looked at him, even if only for a moment. He didn’t like seeing Shuichi look so afraid of him.

Slapping him back to reality won’t work, then. Kokichi let out a sigh, immediately regretting it as his ribs ached. Ouch. Jeez, I need to get my shit together. I shouldn’t be hitting people in the first place… especially not Shuichi. Who am I, Kaito?

The comparison immediately made him feel about ten times worse. That had been a stupid lapse in judgment, one that he would partially blame on the lack of oxygen to his brain. Except now he had absolutely no idea what to do to pull Shuichi out of it.

“Sorry,” he said earnestly, his voice quiet. “Can you stop writing for a second? You’re gonna cramp your hand.”

The fear of getting hit seemed to have snapped Shuichi out of unresponsive stupor, because he shook his head slightly.

“You don’t have to write that,” Kokichi tried to press. “We know you saved Kokichi Ouma. Kind of hard not to know that, considering I’m right here.”

“Gotta,” Shuichi whispered stubbornly.

“And why is that?”

“Gotta. Can’t stop.”

“That is not very descriptive, dear detective.”

Again, Shuichi only shook his head.

Figure it out, Kokichi told himself. If Shuichi thought that he “couldn’t stop” writing, then something in the punishment had to have pushed him to think that, and the only penalty he could see were the quills jutting out of his arm. What about those quills made Shuichi so afraid of stopping, though? They didn’t look particularly painful. Sure, it sucked and was kind of gross, but Kokichi had seen this guy pretty much walk off digging up four graves in the matter of an hour and a half. This should be tame compared to that.

Then again, it was Monokuma they were dealing with. Even if it didn’t look like much, Kokichi knew better than to judge based on that. Monokuma– or rather, the mastermind– had probably done something to these quills to make them extraordinarily painful or something.

Oh. He wasn’t scared of me, he was scared of the pain.

Kokichi wasn’t sure if that thought made him feel any better.

So he’s scared of the penalty… which I’m pretty sure won’t happen right now. Whatever’s going on, it probably isn’t supposed to be happening. A blackout, maybe? Did Monokuma get lazy with maintenance? Or –

The answer suddenly hit him like a brick, and he didn’t know whether to laugh or fume.

Those idiots used the electrobomb. And the somehow fucked it up so bad it knocked out the power. How do you even accomplish that!?

Whatever his classmates were doing at the academy wasn’t his business, although that did at least tell him that they were close to the school. He had to focus on knocking sense back into Shuichi.

“Alright,” Kokichi finally decided. “Gimme that.”

In a swift fell swoop, Kokichi snatched the piece of chalk from Shuichi’s hand and chucked it across the room as hard as he could. A strangled cough broke from Shuichi’s mouth and he tensed, his shoulders shaking as he coughed and hacked.

“See? Nothing’s happening,” Kokichi pointed out, placing a comforting hand on his detective’s shoulder. It didn’t seem to help. “So just breathe a little, Shuichi. You don’t have to write silly things on this board anymore.”

“Bu– b-b-but–” Shuichi gasped in near hysterics, craning his neck to look over his shoulder. “I need– I can’t– gimme the thing back, please. Please, K’ichi, I– I need it–”

“What you need is to get out of this room,” Kokichi told him. “You’re freaking out too hard to think straight, and I have someplace I want to explore.”

“I can’t stop!” Shuichi all but wailed, tugging helplessly at his bound hand. “I need it, give it back! I- I d-don’t wanna get shot again! I don’t– it- i-it hurts so bad, please–”

“Holy crap.” This was a lot over a piece of chalk. He cupped Shuichi’s tear-stained cheeks in his hands, forcing him to look up at Kokichi. “Shuichi, it’s okay. You don’t need it back and you can stop writing now, got it? I am telling you to stop. You are not going to get shot.”

“YES I WILL!” Shuichi shrieked, jerking away from Kokichi. “It’s gonna burn and I gotta keep writing s-so I don’t get shot! I don’t– I don’t w-wanna get shot again!”

Kokichi watched in alarm as Shuichi ripped his hand free from the iron band, his wrist looking to be an awful purple and red color from where he had probably struggled. The band probably hadn’t been as tight as Kokichi thought it was, but that action looked as if it had hurt. It certainly didn’t help when Shuichi stumbled one step and tipped sideways, and despite Kokichi’s efforts, crashed into the concrete floor with a painful thud.

The fall seemed to have stunned him for a total of two seconds, because when he recovered, he broke into a violent coughing fit, curling in on himself slightly as his entire body shook with coughs.

What the hell did this punishment do to you? Kokichi thought in a mix of bewilderment and concern. He crouched down next to Shuichi, who only tried to scoot away from him. God damn it, I don’t think I’m going to be able to reason with him here.

Force it is.

Ignoring his ribs, which were creaking in agony, he bent down and tucked his arms under Shuichi’s, which earned him some sort of scream-sob that made his gut curl unpleasantly. Shuichi tried fighting him on it by pulling, kicking, thrashing and shouting nonsensically, but Kokichi was the most stubborn man alive and he would be damned if he let Shuichi actually manage to fight himself free.

“I’m– helping you, you idiot–” he grunted as Shuichi elbowed his leg. “It’s only gonna hurt more if you keep flailing around like that!”

Kokichi was never more grateful that the Objective Room was so close, because even he had his limits, and dragging someone much bigger than you who was acting as if he was being kidnapped was incredibly difficult. He didn’t even bother trying to lift Shuichi onto the bed, he simply dropped him on the floor, trying his best not to accidentally jostle the quills.

“No gatling gun!” Kokichi shouted down at him, pointing aggressively up at the ceiling. “See!? This is the Objective Room! You can take a breather and stop screaming, for the love of god!”

It seemed as if his words got through to Shuichi, because his eyes raked across the ceiling, his breaths coming in short, quick gasps. Kokichi was breathing heavily himself, and he was maintaining a lot of willpower to not start crying from the pain in his ribs.

“I… but… I need to write…” Shuichi wheezed, attempting to move but immediately stopping with a sob of pain as the quills were moved. “I need to…”

“You don’t need to do anything,” Kokichi snapped, his words coming out a little more harshly than he intended. He was just… exhausted, okay? Tired, in pain, everything was stressful and Shuichi’s behavior was honestly freaking him out. “Just breathe, okay? Slowly and calmly. I’d give you an example, but breathing hurts, so I’m trying to avoid doing that.”

Removing Shuichi from that room seemed to have worked wonders, because he actually listened. He tried to draw in a deep, shaking breath, which staggered and broke into a hoarse cough. Kokichi noticed in alarm that blood was starting to trail from Shuichi’s lips, but Shuichi didn’t seem to realize that.

Not able to do much more, Kokichi sat down next to Shuichi, trying to keep his back straight so as to not further aggravate his probably extremely broken ribs. He really hoped he didn’t end up puncturing a lung– that would be really bad.

“I’m gonna be in… so much trouble…” Shuichi eventually whimpered, squeezing his eyes shut. “He’s gonna poke me with so many more needles…”

“You look like you got attacked by a porcupine,” Kokichi snorted. “We should take those out, though.”

“But what if– what if that makes him more mad?” Shuichi protested anxiously. “Wh-What if they’re supposed to stay in forever and ever…”

“Then he can take it up with me,” Kokichi replied simply, positioning himself so he was next to Shuichi’s arm. “Can you tell me what even happened in there?”

Shuichi shuddered. “Ah… I… got punished, f-for violating the– the rules. M-Monokuma said I had to write, um, that I saved you… until it filled up t-the whole board. And I couldn’t stop o-or else it’d shoot me.”

“With the quills,” Kokichi clarified with a slow nod. “And… why is that so scary?”

“They hurt.” Shuichi gave him a wide-eyed look, one of unbridled fear. “It takes a sec, but they feel like… th-they’re stabbing all of my nerves… l-like it’s fire. It’s fire in my skin and it hurts so badly…”

“So… some sort of venom?” Kokichi guessed. “That’s… yikes. Is that why you’re coughing up blood, too?”

“I dunno,” Shuichi mumbled miserably. “I’m… so lightheaded. Just talking is sorta hard.”

“I can tell,” he replied. Shuichi had hit his head pretty hard when he fell, which didn’t bode well for future puzzles. He wasn’t sure how long they’d survive if Shuichi was concussed. “Alright, I’m gonna pull all of these out.”

Shuichi didn’t respond. He just let his head lull to the side, away from Kokichi.

So that's why he’s acting so weird. The venom is scrambling his brain. Looking down at his arm, it looked like that wasn’t the only thing it was scrambling. His skin was an unnatural deeper shade compared to what it usually was, looking much more fleshy and veiny than what could be considered safe. As a test, he gently brushed the tip of his finger against the base of one of the quills, and Shuichi flinched and cried out as if he had just been stabbed. Definitely something like venom, then.

“Do you feel anything weird about your arm?” Kokichi asked him as he (mournfully) pulled himself to his feet to fetch the necessary medical supplies.

“About to explode,” was Shuichi’s extraordinarily vague reply.

Kokichi could only assume that he meant he felt a lot of pressure in his arm, which probably had something to do with the swelling. Taking his momentary leave to grab a towel and wet a rag with warm water, he came back to begin his work, knowing perfectly well that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing.

First, Kokichi placed Shuichi’s arm on top of the dry towel he had grabbed. They didn’t need any more blood staining the floor than necessary– it only served as a bad reminder to what had happened. Next, he carefully ran the damp rag over Shuichi’s arm, making sure to avoid it touching the quills. This action made Shuichi groan in quiet protest, but Kokichi was pretty sure that it would help with the whole extraction process.

(Once, he had accidentally been shoved into a bush of thorns. One of the older boys at the orphanage had pretty much dragged him to the bathroom despite his protests, insisting that he take care of it. Kokichi had doubted it at first, half expecting to be locked in the sink cabinet again or something stupid like that. He was picked on because he was smaller than standard, and all the bigger and older boys loved to try to be the “dominant” ones.

But shockingly, he did actually take care of it. Kokichi had hardly felt a thing as the hooked thorns were removed, which would definitely have not happened if Kokichi tried to yank them out himself. That kid was one of the warmest, sweetest guys Kokichi had ever met in that orphanage. That was why Kokichi had gone to him first about D.I.C.E.

Trying to remember that now felt like trying to drag his brainy through honey. His mind shied away from names, from discernable faces and voices. But hey, that was something he could deal with sometime later.

…hopefully.)

Dwelling in past memories would do him no good right now, though. He had six quills to pull out before this blackout wore off, because he wanted to see what was beyond that staircase.

“Just try and hold still, okay, puzzle partner?” Kokichi warned him. He felt bad pinning down his arm when even a gust of wind would cause it to hurt, but he really had no other way of ensuring he stayed still.

Is that why he was screaming so much earlier? he suddenly recalled, feeling guilt punch him in the gut. A mix of wanting to keep writing and the pain from this? We are having a very in-depth talk tomorrow… or whatever time it is.

Letting Shuichi brace himself, Kokichi gave the quill a test tug– not too hard, but just enough to see where it was caught. It was hooked just as he anticipated, but he had no idea how far it went down.

“Can you just–” Shuichi cut himself off with a shaky breath. “...r-rip it out? Please? I saw a st-staircase earlier, I know you wanna go see that… so just get it over with.”

Kokichi narrowed his eyes down at his detective, but nodded. He wasn’t aware that Shuichi was somewhat of a masochist, but he didn’t judge. Whatever made the death puzzles more bearable, he supposed.

“Alright…” he wrung out the rag on the ground before pretty much stuffing it into Shuichi’s mouth. “Bite this hard, ‘cause this is gonna hurt.”

Regret immediately flashed in Shuichi’s eyes, but he obeyed nevertheless.

“By the way, I’m not sure how safe this is, but I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Kokichi said. “I actually have a PhD in medicine, so there’s a good chance this procedure will go very well.”

The lie relieved some of the pressure weighing down his actions and without further hesitation, he gripped the quill in one hand and pressed Shuichi’s arm against the ground with his other, putting all of his strength into this one yank.

On one hand, it surprisingly worked. Blood spurted from the wound with the pull before it resorted to simply oozing out, slowly starting a trail down Shuichi’s arm and onto the towel. The quill was also much longer than Kokichi had expected, and he cringed at the other five quills. Ew.

On the other hand, Shuichi screamed something into the rag that sounded very close to, “MOTHERFUCKER–!” Kokichi was very sad that the only time he could get Shuichi to say the “F word” was when he was either scared shitless or suffering immensely, but the shout generally just felt like an extra jab to the ribs. He didn’t want to hear Shuichi raise his voice like this, to scream because of or at him; the only screams he’d accept were screams of delight.

“I hope that doesn’t have any lasting effects,” Kokichi muttered to himself, laying the quill on the side of the towel. “You want me to do it again, or should I do it very slowly and not-as-painfully?”

Shuichi moaned something incoherent, probably delirious from the pain. Kokichi wasn’t sure if that was a yes or a no, so he’d take it as a I don’t know, you decide.

“I hate seeing you make that face, so I’m just going to get it over with,” Kokichi told him. “I’d get ice, but I’m not sure if it’s very cold right now. The power’s out, did you know? The cold is just waiting to escape the fridge so it can take form as an ice princess! Well no sir, I’m not letting it do that today.”

Something about Shuichi’s expression told him that he was not amused.

Shuichi’s arm was coated in blood by the time he was finished, and he was shaking and crying into the rag. The good news was that his skin was sort of starting to return to its natural color, but Kokichi didn’t wait long to figure it out.

“Let’s go to our crime scene bathroom and wash all this off,” Kokichi said over his sobbing. “Can you stand? ‘cause I don’t think I’m getting you up. My chest reeeeally hurts.”

His detective gave him a small, guilty nod, rolling over onto his good side and starting the slow process of standing up. Kokichi had a bit of an easier time since he could use the bed as a support, and while he did have to help Shuichi stand a little bit, he was mostly able to do it on his own.

He started towards the bathroom, expecting Shuichi to trail after him. He did not.

“K’ichi, I…” Shuichi spoke softly, making Kokichi pause in his tracks. His puzzle partner looked so uncertain; his eyes were cast downward, pointedly avoiding Kokichi’s gaze. “Listen. I know we’re… going to die here. There’s no way out of this, a-and that’s why I think… I, um… before we do, I want to… tell you something.”

(“I did, I love you.”)

Kokichi could feel his heart beating in his chest as he turned to fully face his detective. Was he…?

“I’m not very good at things like this,” Shuichi continued in a voice hardly above a whisper. “I’ve seen a lot of bad things when it comes to, ah… people who love each other… s-so I’m not really sure how to do it right. But… the way I feel, I–"

There was nothing Kokichi wanted more than to hear those words from his detective. It was something he often childishly fantasized about– him and Shuichi living happily together somewhere that was stable and safe. He liked to imagine worlds where this entire situation wasn’t how things had ended. No killing game, no death puzzles… preferably, nothing else that had to do with death.

But right now? It wasn’t fair to Shuichi. So as tempting as the confession was…

“Shuichi,” Kokichi interrupted him, holding up his hands to halt his puzzle partner. “...not right now, okie?”

“Wha…?” The look on Shuichi’s face was so confused and hurt, it almost made him feel bad. Almost.

“Nishishi… I don’t think you’re in your right mind right now,” Kokichi explained with one of his flashy smiles. “I want a confession from you when you can think clearly. Tell me tomorrow, when the venom isn’t making your brain all mushy. Got it?”

Shuichi was quiet for a few moments, before he nodded in understanding. “O-Okay… I understand.”

“Great! Now come on, I’ve got some stairs to fall down.” Kokichi beckoned him towards the bathroom, being relieved when he followed.

“Um… please don’t fall down the stairs,” Shuichi begged him. “B-But, also, I can take care of it myself. We don’t know how long the blackout is gonna last, so… y-you’d better go check it out now.”

“What kind of housewife would I be if I didn’t take care of my puzzle partner?” Kokichi whined in protest, but also as a way to ask, are you sure?

“Housewife…?” Shuichi echoed under his breath, his face scrunching up in an adorably confused way. “Ah, yes, I-I’ll be fine on my own.”

“Well, okay…” Kokichi sighed in mock defeat. “I’ll go see what’s up. If I see a way out, I’m taking it immediately, by the way. I’ll come back for you, promise.”

“Just be careful, please,” his detective said, slipping past him and into the bathroom.

“Lucifer banned me from going to hell, so trust me, I’m not dying again,” Kokichi reassured him with a smirk. It felt great to be able to joke around again– it felt like it had been forever since they had been playing Ultimate Jenga, giggling and cheering about stupid things like boys do, y’know? “Be back soon, puzzle partner.”

Kokichi wasted no more time because Shuichi was right, he didn’t know when the blackout would end. At the very least, he felt a little more comfortable leaving Shuichi on his own now that he was talking a little more clearly and he was able to walk. They’d have to figure out what exactly those quills did to him at some point, but for now, Kokichi had a staircase to descend.

The staircase wasn’t very long, and it led into a vast and very dark cavern that Kokichi could hardly see very far into. Fighting back his instinctual fear of the dark, he steeled his nerves and willed his feet forward. He had to walk slowly, putting his arms out to ensure he didn’t accidentally walk into anything, which was an embarrassing mental visual that he quickly banished from his mind.

It was a good thing he did though, because very soon, he felt his palms press against something thick and solid. Whatever it was, it was some sort of pretty wide, circular wall, and he assumed it was the base for something. He must be in the center of the room, he assumed, which meant if his whole “rotating room” theory from earlier was right, this was the middle device that did the rotating. He must be touching the base of it.

Making sure he could see the stairs behind him, he used the curved wall as a guide, slowly starting to make his way around it. And as he did a half-loop, his eyes were graced with the gift of light. Granted, they were still red emergency lights, and he was getting really tired of all of the rooms being lit up red, but it gave him enough light to see some sort of control panel connected to the rotator. 

“Buttons,” Kokichi whispered. The human instinct to press every single one of them made his fingers twitch, but he restrained himself. Besides, he didn’t want to accidentally hit the “sweet gas” button, if there was one here. Shuichi had enough to worry about.

What labels the buttons had had were scribbled out with black marker, and while Kokichi couldn’t imagine why that would be, there was something strange that caught his eye. A symbol engraved in black on the base of the control panel.

DR.

“What the hell…?” Kokichi murmured as he crouched down to get a better look at what he assumed was some sort of logo.

…logo?

Understanding flooded him at that very moment, and he felt a simultaneous rush of both triumph in being correct, and absolute horror.

I was right.

This whole killing game… is to be watched. Entertaining murders my ass– we have an audience! All of these deaths… this death puzzle bullshit is all for someone to watch.

Kokichi could be wrong. He really, really wanted to be wrong. There was nothing more horrifying than the idea that his last moments, the ones he had hoped to spend alone with Shuichi, could be broadcasted to other people. Maybe even the world, if they were going to the extreme’s. Everyone who had died so far had done so just so some bastard(s) could have something fun to watch.

He knew there were bad people out there, but really? The stuff they had seen here would require diabolical amounts of funding, with the exisals, Monokuma and the technology behind the Flashback Lights– on that note, what did the Flashback Lights mean in all of this? Was that just something to throw them all off?

(Kokichi tried not to think about the implications of the Flashback Lights. The fact that their memories could be rewritten so easily, formed to perfectly fit what the mastermind had crafted. He tried not to think about the idea that he, as a person, could be fake.

He tried not to think about the idea that they could be fake.)

But then what about the outside world? Kokichi had seen it himself– unbreathable air, a wrecked city with an apocalyptic gray-orange sky… could that have really been faked? How many contradicting facts would he have to learn before he found the unwavering truth? How much longer would he have to be driven on the path the mastermind laid out for him before he identified the undeniable facts!? Even as someone who adored lies, he was getting sick and tired of all of these ones. Lies that toyed with people’s lives were disgusting. Repulsive. Utterly despicable.

Shaking with anger, Kokichi glanced into the darkness behind him. The control panel was at human height, so he could only assume that the mastermind came down here themselves to manipulate the rooms. By extension, they must drag him and Shuichi to the start of the puzzle every time they’re unconscious, and the thought of the mastermind having access to him while he’s unconscious made him immensely uncomfortable. Sharing a room with someone was hard enough as it was, but this was infinitely worse.

Calm down. The breath he released hurt his ribs, and his hand instinctively found its way to his chest, tears of pain and frustration pricking the corners of his eyes. This place was horrible, but he couldn’t get worked up like this.

Thinking logically, the mastermind had to have a path down here. Everything beyond this point was pitch black though, and Kokichi didn’t have very good natural night vision.

Those watching assholes better be glad the power’s out and the cameras are off, he fumed as he stretched out his arms and started walking through the dark again, making sure to shuffle his feet as he went. He looked like an idiot, and if Shuichi were here to see this, he would collapse and die out of pure embarrassment.

As he fumbled around in the dark, his mind wandered back to the logo. What did “DR” mean? It had to be short for something, as most logos were. What the logo stood for might not be the most important thing when it came to figuring out the truth, but it’d sure be nice to know. Unresolved mysteries were the worst.

Kokichi found the wall very quickly, and he began following it. His path was impeded very quickly by something that felt like wood beneath his hands, and a little sightless exploration brought him to the conclusion that it was some sort of table standing on its side. Props for the puzzle rooms, maybe? He was pretty sure they reused rooms– the Cuff Puzzle and the Final Dead Puzzle had the same structure with the light and the wall screen.

How big is this cavern when we think about the Maze Puzzle, then? Kokichi found himself wondering, casting his blind gaze upwards. That one was huge.

The function of the rooms was confusing as it was– the Coffin Puzzle had been confusing him ever since it happened. The floor had opened beneath him, so he assumed that the original casket he had laid in was at ground level initially, but– actually, he didn’t have time for this. This academy had introduced him to so many insane concepts that stuff like this didn’t phase him very much anymore.

As he was moving, he felt his hand disconnect from the wall, and he was delighted to discover a passageway hidden in the darkness. Unfortunately for him, a bit of feeling around with his foot told him that the passageway was made of stairs, and it didn’t seem like they had a railing. Stairs never ended well in general, let alone in the dark where Kokichi couldn’t even see his own hands in front of him.

“Bite me,” he snapped under his breath. The dark wasn’t going to scare him away from the truth.

Using the wall as support, Kokichi cautiously lifted his foot onto the first step, and then lifted his foot onto the next one.

…this was going to be a very long process.

And a long process it was. Finally, after about twenty-two steps, Kokichi’s foot landed hard on flat ground. He pulled himself up and swept his leg out, relieved to find that he had made it to the top. He did, however, exercise extreme caution as he walked forward, turning a single corner before–

–his hands pushed through a wall, and he emerged into a room with light.

It wasn’t very much light, just a single beam emitted by a flashlight, which turned off the second he opened the door. That single glimpse was all he needed to know that he had just come out of the closet in a dorm room, though.

Undoubtedly, the mastermind’s.

And if the light turned off when I came out…

…someone’s in the room with me.

“You know I have perfect night vision, right?” Kokichi called out into the dark. “It’s only in one eye, but I can see you. Don’t try to hide from me.”

His lies did not draw the mastermind out of hiding, though. He only heard the shuffling of clothes, followed by a door closing. He had to assume it was the bathroom door, since he was pretty sure the dormitory would let at least a little natural light in.

Cursing under his breath, Kokichi backed up until he could feel the closet door, to which he began following along the wall. If he could get out of whatever room he was in, he could make a break for the others. He didn’t know exactly what they’d do, but Monokuma couldn’t blame him for escaping when he had such poor management skills.

He was so close to freedom, so even if the mastermind was right here, he had to prioritize leaving the room. They wouldn’t be foolish enough to confront him physically… he hoped. It was still sort of indefinite, but–

The door appeared before him in a glorious blaze of light right before his entire vision went white with pain.

A scream tried to tear itself out of his throat, but he couldn’t get any sound out of his mouth. His hands itched to reach instinctively for the source of the shock– his neck– but he couldn’t move. All other thoughts were banished from his mind as electricity made his body seize, only releasing him when no other thought but make it stop occupied his head.

Paralyzed, Kokichi lost footing and collapsed, not even able to cry out from the pain in his entire body as he hit the floor. He could only stare unseeingly up at the door, which was so close. He could have reached the doorknob, but his arm wouldn’t move. He could scream for help and hope it reached the outside, but his vocal cords couldn’t work past anything that wasn’t a whimper.

In all honesty, he should have seen this coming. It was just his luck that the power would return just as he was about to obtain his sort-of-freedom. That didn’t make it hurt any less, both emotionally and physically. Were broken ribs not enough for these people?

If I can’t escape… Kokichi managed to curl his hand into a fist, gritting his teeth in effort. …I can at least figure out what room I’m in. I can at least figure out who the mastermind is! I won’t let this opportunity pass me u–

The attempt was seen, and his collar beeped again, another shock ripping through his body and making him freeze once more. This one didn’t last as long as the first, but it did leave him gasping, which hurt more than anything he could have ever imagined. This was flat out cruel, kicking a guy who was already down, but he wasn’t going to lay down and take it.

The doors to the bathroom were glass. All he had to do was get a glance, a single look, and he’d know. None of the survivors could be mistaken for each other– Shuichi was in the Objective Room, Kaito was dumb and purple and noticeable, Maki’s black and red aesthetic made her very noticeable, Tsumugi had stupidly long, blue hair, Himiko was shorter than everyone there and K1-B0 was, well… K1-B0. That guy was a robot, which made it hard to misidentify him.

As he was struggling to get his muscles to function, he heard the bathroom door creak open. The sound made him instinctively freeze, the uncomfortable feeling of fear making his blood run cold.

Kokichi was immobile and helpless; he was unable to fight back. Even if he was conscious… the mastermind could do whatever they wanted to him simply because his body would not cooperate with him. They could kill him and he wouldn’t be able to defend himself.

No… no! No no no! He would not allow this! He was not going to die ignorant!

Quick-paced footsteps sounded behind him, but by that point it was too late. He had already seen the flash of blue, right before the heat in his collar intensified and another jolt of electricity made his body seize with agony. He barely got the chance to process what he had seen as he was electrocuted, stopping after a very long couple of seconds.

Long blue… hair. That was hair– she must have run to the closet.

…which means…

Oh, god damn it.

Before his mind could even start reeling at that discovery, Monokuma waddled into his field of vision from his other side, an old-fashioned lantern hanging from his neck.

“You made it impressively far on some broken ribs and ruined hands!” Monokuma mockingly commented. “And you’re still moving after all those shocks? You’re resilient, kid! It’s impressive!”

Kokichi couldn’t respond. All he could do was glare, his body occasionally spasming from the previous shocks.

“Well, we can’t have you leaving the motive,” Monokuma sighed, flipping the lantern over to reveal a bright red button. “That’d just be unfair!”

Pressing the button, Kokichi’s nose was suddenly assaulted by a sweet scent, which made him cringe back. The top of the lantern apparently had a vent on top of it, and what he thought was a light also served as a source for the transparent gas. Though, this time, it had a bit of a pink tint to it, but he didn’t care what the gas was made of. He cared about what it was doing to him.

“You’ve probably seen a few things you’re not supposed to, and honestly, I should wipe your memories just for that,” Monokuma monologued as he fought to keep his eyes open. Since when did this stuff become so fast-acting!? He could already feel his mind clouding! “But isn’t it a fairer game if I let you keep that knowledge! I’m all about a fair game, after all… puhuhu~ ♪”

The world was blurring around him. Kokichi felt his nostrils and eyes burning at the powerful sweet gas, tears rolling down his cheeks against his will.

“Oh yeah, that was some strong stuff, huh? It’s usually administered in low doses, but I wanted to put you both out quickly, so I upped the dosage,” Monokuma blabbered on. “I don’t know what it’s gonna do to you two, but you’ll probably be fine. Nighty night, Kokichi… sweet dreams.”

His eyes drooped and his vision tilted sideways, before everything suddenly disappeared.

Chapter Text

The door closed with a thud. A subway car stood before him, his friend walking ahead with his hands behind his back and a contemplative look on his pretty face.

“Puzzle nine,” his friend said with a sigh. He cast a charming smile in his direction. “You ready, puzzle partner?”

Subconsciously, he nodded. He understood what was happening, and he understood that this was the ninth puzzle for them to face. But he felt disconnected from his body– his mind was in stasis. Everything was too bright and too loud, even if the only sound was the faint rumbling of the subway car.

“Shuichi? Hellooooo?” Kokichi called to him, snapping his fingers in his face. Shuichi flinched at the action, blinking down at his friend. “You finally waking up? You’ve been sorta dead on your feet all morning, so it’s about time you came to. Do you even remember waking up?”

“...ah.” Shuichi finally got his vocal cords to work, and he nodded. “I- I understand… I think. Sorry, the venom must have messed with me a little more than I thought…”

“That and the gas,” Kokichi added with a grimace. “You’ve had it rough, haven’t you? Well how about you relax for this puzzle and I’ll figure it out for us, okay? I’ve been itching to do something productive after being sidelined a whole lot. Now it’s your turn to sit around.”

That… didn’t sound like a very good idea. “But aren’t these teamwork puzzles…? It’s dangerous to do it alone. Besides, I can still help–”

“Can you?” Kokichi challenged him sharply. “Your brain’s melting from the trauma and the venom.”

“Trauma?” Shuichi echoed, scowling at his friend. “I won’t deny the… the venom part, but trauma? Really?”

“You were traumatized so hard you can’t even remember this morning,” Kokichi accused him. Before he could even try to protest, Kokichi lifted a finger at him. “Ah ah ah! And don’t try to deny it, Shuichi!”

“I’m… not trying to deny it–”

“I know you’re trying to ignore your dissociating problem but I’ve got you all figured out,” Kokichi talked over him. “So I’ve got this. Trust me! Aren’t I trustworthy?”

“I guess so, but… alright. I’ll stay here,” Shuichi sighed in defeat, sitting in the closest seat he could. There was no way he was winning this argument. “Be back soon, okay?”

“Okay!” Kokichi chirped. “I’ve still got to hear your love confession for me, so I won’t die!”

“What!?” Shuichi tried to demand, but Kokichi was already skipping away, giggling mischievously to himself. He sounded so lively; energetic in a way that Shuichi hadn’t seen since the very start of the killing game. It was actually kind of uncanny, though he didn’t understand why this chipper, childish behavior made his stomach churn.

Letting out a sigh, Shuichi leaned against the back of the cushioned seat and let his gaze wander around the subway car. Each row of seats had two chairs, each cushioned with a black confetti-splatter pattern. The text running along the thin screens on the walls read Welcome to the Death Puzzles: Next Destination– followed by an unreadable word before the message repeated. The floor was gray and the walls were a soothing white, but that didn’t do anything to help the uncertainties weighing heavily on his mind.

What don’t I remember about this morning? he wondered, absent-mindedly rubbing his left arm. Maybe I can ask Kokichi when he comes back. He seemed to understand this puzzle, so maybe it was explained to him.

Shuichi only had faint memories of the blackout, though a lot of it was a haze between when he had gotten shot by that first needle and when Kokichi had pulled out the fourth one, which was when his memories started to piece together more coherently. After Kokichi left the Objective Room, he had cleaned himself up in the sink and wrapped up his own injured arm, thankful that Monokuma had left his dominant hand alone. He had thrown up a worrying amount of blood into the toilet before limping back out into the living room, where shortly after, a sweet smell had spread through the room, and the memory sort of just… stopped there. Shuichi had never experienced the sweet gas awake before, so it was honestly a little disorienting only being able to recall feelings of pure joy and relief for reasons he couldn’t remember.

After that, Shuichi had only really come back to reality at the start of this puzzle. Apparently he was awake before then according to Kokichi, but he didn’t remember anything from that short period of time.

He felt a little better debriefing himself on all of that; understanding his situation would help him keep calm. And in a death puzzle, keeping calm was vital to their joint survival.

That led to his next question: what exactly was this puzzle? The only clue he had was the subway car setting and Kokichi’s unexpected behavior. Shuichi didn’t remember reuniting with him after he had ventured out into the darkness, so maybe he had found good news? Or maybe this puzzle was going to be an easy one? Shuichi wasn’t sure, but maybe he was simply reading too much into it. Another explanation could be that Kokichi was putting on a front; simply another mask to hide what he truly felt. He had died, after all. That had to be a bit of a traumatizing experience to come out of.

These puzzles are tearing us apart… Shuichi thought miserably, feeling his bottom lip trembling as his emotions began building uncontrollably in his chest. He swallowed a lump forming in the back of his throat and let out another, more shaky sigh, reaching up to wipe his eyes. I’m just glad we’ve made it this far. I really don’t want to die now…

Sitting here in silence was doing nothing to help the unease that was making Shuichi’s leg bounce and sending anxious jitters through the tips of his fingers. So, despite Kokichi’s declaration, he stood up from his seat and began investigating the subway car. The windows were dark, and Shuichi could see nothing outside of them. That’d make sense if they were in a subway, he presumed. The only source of light came from the lights in the top of the car, which lit up the space effortlessly. It was a nice contrast to the dark, ominously illuminated Objective Room he had sat in for god-knows how long.

Checking all of the individual seats and even under them, Shuichi was surprised to actually find something wedged between two of the seats. With careful precision, he pried it free, and was even more surprised to find that it was a piece of worn down, lined paper, seeming to be ripped from a journal of some kind. The handwriting was hard to read and many words were smudged beyond literacy, but he could still make out most of it.

———

It’s kind of getting cold out again, which means us younger kids are gonna be freezing all winter. Ouma and —— might share blankets with us though, and apparently they have a secret bunker somewhere. We’re gonna sneak out in a few nights when Miss — is out to go ———— 

It cut off there. Shuichi furrowed his eyebrows at the child-like handwriting, his eyes straying to the one familiar name. Ouma. That was Kokichi’s family name, so unless this note was referring to a family member of his, Shuichi would assume they were talking about Kokichi.

Flipping the page over, Shuichi discovered even more writing on the other side.

———

D.I.C.E is great! Ouma is a very good leader, he takes care of all of us and ——— — my —. He’s very understanding and he’s very kind. Kinder than everyone else here, aside from maybe —— but I don’t trust that guy. Boys are so gross, but Ouma can be the exception I guess. Finally, people want me!! I don’t think I’m as sad now. Thank you Ouma, D.I.C.E.

“What is this…?” Shuichi murmured to himself. This person clearly knew Kokichi, if this is real. Every other name is smudged except for his, and… whatever D.I.C.E is.

Ah…! The writer did mention that Kokichi is a “good leader”. Could D.I.C.E be his secret organization?

From what Kokichi had said in the past, the group he led was a highly influential, “evil”, ten-thousand member secret organization. Shuichi had always somewhat suspected that that was a lie, but… this writer seemed very young, based on the handwriting. They mentioned a “Miss”, which Shuichi assumed was some sort of authority figure, and how the “younger kids” were going to be very cold that winter. That didn’t sound like a regular household. It sounded more like…

…an orphanage? Or a foster home, perhaps?

But… I thought Kokichi said he lived with famil–

“Hey, Shuichiiii. What are you doing?”

The voice of his classmate made him jump like a frightened cat and he quickly stuffed the note into his pocket, hoping that he was as inconspicuous about it as he thought he was. The minute he met Kokichi’s gaze, a shudder wracked his body, for Kokichi’s eyes reflected none of the light overhead. It made his expression look… dead. Uncanny.

“I was investigating,” he admitted truthfully, choosing his words carefully. “Did… did you find anything?”

Thankfully, the darkness in his gaze lessened as he cast a scowl at the door he had apparently just come from. “I walked and walked for seven whole cars before I ended up back here.”

“So this subway is seven cars long… but you didn’t find a control room?” Shuichi confirmed, right before another detail hit him, and his heart plummeted. “W-Wait a minute, which door did you come out of?”

“Huh? That one.” Kokichi pointed at the door farther across the car, which was exactly what Shuichi had been fearing. Because that end of the car was where the two of them had entered from the Objective Room.

Just to confirm it for himself, Shuichi ran to the door and opened it, only to find himself peering into an identical looking subway car.

“Kokichi?” Shuichi called back to his puzzle partner in growing panic. “The door–”

“Yeah. Yeah, I see that now,” Kokichi interrupted him (and he sounded like he usually had now, thank god. His voice had that rough edge to it that Shuichi had grown accustomed to; the weight of death and responsibility wearing him down and forcing exhaustion into his mannerisms.) “Okay… that’s freaky. Yup, I’ve decided that I don’t like this. I want off. Right now.”

“Did you find any clues to beat the puzzle?” Shuichi asked him, joining his side again.

“Not really. All the cars looked relatively the same,” Kokichi reported. “The text in some of them changed, but it just said things like welcome to hell or next destination: death. Edgy crap like that. What about you? Did you find anything?”

Shuichi opened his mouth to tell him about the strange note he had found, but he stopped short at the last second.

If the note was real, Kokichi might be able to recognize who was writing it. He and the writer seemed to have been close in the past, so giving him the note was obviously the right thing to do. It was the respectful choice, to not purposefully try to peer into Kokichi’s past when he wasn’t ready to share it.

…but… if Shuichi did hand it over… he would have to accept the strangeness of this situation and give up his only clue. It wasn’t that he distrusted Kokichi or anything! There might not be anyone in the whole world who he trusted more. But after the craziness of the Seating Puzzle, and then the blackout…

Even if it made him selfish or rude, he didn’t want to give this up. And besides, if it was found in the puzzle, it could be for the solution. That should be an argument towards telling Kokichi, but for some reason, it kept his mouth shut.

“Nothing important,” he finally replied, keeping his voice as even as possible. Kokichi’s eyes narrowed, sending a trickle of discomfort crawling down his spine. 

(Since when did Kokichi’s gaze look so… terrifying?)

“Maybe we should go through the cars one by one,” Shuichi suggested to try and shift the subject off of him. “We can investigate them slowly to make sure there’s nothing we missed.”

“I can’t imagine anything changed though,” Kokichi argued. “And besides, are we not going to talk about the missing door!? The freakin’ train looped! That’s not natural! There’s no way it’s possible.”

“Yeah, that’s… strange,” Shuichi agreed with a weary glance at the door behind him. “M-Maybe the room is… circular?”

Kokichi deadpanned at him as if he was the stupidest man alive.

“The puzzle rooms work on a rotating base,” said Kokichi. “When the Monokuma door is closed, the rooms rotate to connect to the doorway of the Objective Room. I couldn’t see much since it was so dark, but there’s a control panel under the rotator for Ts– for the mastermind to use.”

“Was the maze also on this rotating base…?” Shuichi questioned.

“That’s been confusing me too,” Kokichi confessed. “The maze was the biggest puzzle room so far… if it was on the rotator, I can’t imagine it’d fit very well.”

This was a puzzling mystery, that’s for sure. Understanding how the puzzle room worked might give them a clue as to how to beat the puzzle though, so he let out a small breath and scrunched his eyes shut in concentration.

Think. According to Kokichi, all of the puzzle rooms, and my... punishment room… are on some sort of rotator. If that’s the case though, then either the cavern it’s in is absolutely enormous, or the Maze Puzzle physically cannot fit on the rotator. It was a massive room in length, and although it might have felt bigger to me since I was walking so slow, Kokichi had a full map of it.

So if the Maze Puzzle can’t fit onto the rotator… it had to have been placed somewhere else. Was it… stationary, maybe?

“Ah!” Shuichi gasped, effectively startling his friend, who jumped a good foot off the ground in fright. “Oh, sorry– are you okay?”

“It’s fine,” Kokichi brushed off his reaction quickly, his cheeks tinted a faint red. “Why’d you do that? Did you have an epiphany? Or are you having traumatic flashbacks to the maze?”

Shuichi lifted an eyebrow at him. “If I’m having traumatic flashbacks to anything, it’d be… m-my…”

The words got caught in his throat, and his eyes automatically drifted away from Kokichi, who only gazed at him expectantly. He wasn’t sure why, but even just trying to say it made his hands start to shake, his skin prickling with unease as he broke into a cold sweat. What was this feeling…? Why was he suddenly so uncomfortable?

Shaking away the overwhelming urge to find something to write with, he quickly changed the subject. “Um, a-anyway, I don’t think the maze was on the rotator you saw. In fact… I don’t think that puzzle room moved at all. I think it’s the other way around.”

“We moved?” Kokichi concluded.

Shuichi nodded. “Right. The Objective Room can also rotate, or be moved around. I think that might have happened here, too. The Objective Room moved and was replaced with another car.”

“Wow! I never knew the fear of death made you smarter!” exclaimed Kokichi, his eyes lighting up. “But I didn’t know it made you deaf, too. You were sitting here the whole time, weren’t you? I’d think it’d be hard to miss a whole room moving. That tends to be pretty noisy.”

That was… a good point. But he knew he was right about the Objective Room’s mobility, even if it didn’t fit into the context of this current puzzle.

“And, on that note, it doesn’t explain how I looped back into this car,” Kokichi continued, his voice flattening significantly.

“Ah, I… forgot about that,” he winced. “My head still must be a little cloudy from the, um… venom… sorry.”

“I forgive you!” Kokichi chirped instantly, a bright, cheerful smile painting over his tight frown. “This place has gone too far. I could get behind the robot uprising and I guess the Flashback Lights, but breaking the laws of physics? They’re laws for a reason! We can’t go around doing that!”

“Let’s walk back through the subway again then,” Shuichi decided. “We can look out for anything you might have missed on your first trip… and we can try and find out where the cars loop, if this one isn’t it.”

Kokichi let out a heavy sigh. “Okay, fiiine. I’m still trying to figure out what the deadly part of this puzzle is, though.”

This puzzle was abnormal, Shuichi would agree with that. The blatant absence of a threat, the disappearing Objective Room, whatever Kokichi did earlier… it was all extremely strange.

The two of them continued into the second car, where Shuichi immediately got to investigating every nook and cranny, checking under the seats and in-between the cushions. He couldn’t forget about his secondary goal here as well, and that was to figure out what was going on with the diary entries he found earlier (at least, he assumed they were diary entries. He didn’t really know what a diary looked like, since no one liked to talk to him very much and his dad thought diaries were a waste of precious time. Why write down your feelings or chart down your activities for the day when you could be doing something productive?)

As he was looking around, he concluded that this car was the exact same as the car previous, down to the smallest detail. So, they carried on to the third car, which was again devoid of diary notes and, again, the exact same as the other two.

Just as Shuichi was starting to think that all of these cars were identical, Kokichi jumped, which in turn startled him and made his heart hammer like a bass drum.

Why is he so jumpy? Shuichi found himself wondering, both concerned and extremely confused. Did something happen… during the blackout…?

“Oookay, that’s new.” Kokichi pointed up at the ceiling. When Shuichi looked up, he discovered that there was an extremely out of place ceiling fan, which was idly rotating.

“This went from weird to absurd,” Shuichi commented. “A ceiling fan… in a subway…?”

“I kind of want to laugh, but… looking at it is making me feel really depressed,” Kokichi complained, pointedly turning away from it with his arms crossed. “Like… rain-cloud-depressed. It’s gross, honestly. Is this what you feel like?”

“What?” Shuichi couldn’t help but ask. He didn’t even know what that was supposed to mean, let alone how to reply. “Um… just ignore it, I guess. Look at something that makes you… less rain-cloud-depressed, I guess?”

Immediately, Kokichi locked eyes with Shuichi. He would have been touched by the sentiment– and maybe a little surprised– if the lack of light shining in Kokichi’s eyes didn’t make his heart jump in fear.

Forcing himself to give Kokichi a small smile, he guided his friend onto the fourth subway car, away from the strange ceiling fan. The lights in this car had an effect on Kokichi’s eyes, much to his relief. The uncanny valley was making Shuichi feel like there were ants crawling under his skin, and he felt awful for feeling the need to run around the boy he liked… no, more than just that.

I’ll… tell him after the puzzle, Shuichi decided firmly. No more hesitation and no more waiting– he refused to die without telling Kokichi how he felt. For once… he wanted to pour his heart out to someone with no filter and no concern for being socially perfect.

“What’s the matter?” Kokichi asked him innocently. “You’re really pale.”

“Ah, it’s just… it’s nothing. I guess the fan freaked me out, too,” Shuichi lied, knowing perfectly well Kokichi could see through his bullshit like glass. “If you don’t mind… could you wait here? I want to investigate the car.”

“Mmm… okay,” Kokichi accepted without much thought. “I’ll investigate this one, then.”

“Okay, thank you.”

Being on his own did not do much for his pre-existing anxiety issues, but he was confident that he made the right choice hiding that note from Kokichi. There was something strange going on with him… the light in the eyes, the odd, weaving shifts in personality… even his mannerisms were a little more stiff than usual. Usually he was pretty expressive when he spoke with both his body language and his face, but now, he just… stood there. No cheeky giggles, no playful winks, no shifting or hands behind his head. And maybe that’s what was scaring Shuichi– the lack of Kokichi in his personality.

Either something happened during the blackout, or… something happened this morning while I couldn’t remember it.

The ceiling fan cast an unsettling aura upon the car as Shuichi hurriedly looked around, eager to get out of this room as soon as possible. His hands were shaking as he fished out a crumpled piece of paper from under one of the seats, and the triumph of finding a new note briefly overcame the panicky get out now right now GO GO GO feeling that made his entire body tremble with adrenaline.

Nevertheless, the diary note. This time, there was only writing on one side of the page.

———

Sneaking out got me, — and Ouma put in the cellar last night. Ouma took most of the fall for the others, so he’s in massive trouble. I can’t believe he would lie like that for us! Ouma is out of his mind I think, but I guess that's what's so admirable. He makes this place a little more bearable, but the other kids are ruthless. They push us smaller kids around, and the smaller kids all act like frightened rabids. I’m sure they’d foam at the mouth and snarl if they could. I think even Ouma could be this way, if he didn't have D.I.C.E. Shortly, this place sucks. I wish mom didn’t die.

That last part was… tragic, but it did undeniably confirm Shuichi’s suspicion that the writer– and by extension, Kokichi– came from an orphanage. A rather bad one, at that.

So Kokichi led a group of people from his orphanage, and they called themselves D.I.C.E, Shuichi mused. It looks like the younger kids were mistreated in this orphanage… did none of the attendants do anything about the bullying? On that note, I wonder how old the writer is, and how old Kokichi was at the time. I could ask him, but…

The inhuman look on Kokichi’s face from earlier flashed through his mind, and he quickly dismissed the thought. He’d ask Kokichi about it when he wasn’t… doing whatever was happening with him at the moment.

So he must have been lying about living with family, he realized, recalling the few words exchanged before the disaster that was the Seating Puzzle. If he never knew his parents… that means he’s been an orphan his whole life.

With the second note collected, Shuichi folded the paper and put it in his pocket before running back into the fourth car. Years of practice helped him hide the terrified pounding of his heart, and he was extra lucky that the doors between each car opened and closed automatically.

Remember what Uncle says, he reminded himself with a trembling exhale. Monsters cannot logically exist, and this anxiety is just that: anxiety. Take a deep breath… ground yourself… open your eyes and try again.

Shuichi had only struggled with his childish, irrational fear of monsters and the supernatural when he had first moved in with his uncle when he was around… ten? Eleven? The years tended to blur together. The point was that his uncle was shockingly understanding of this, and he took time out of his day to realistically explain things to Shuichi that nothing was waiting for him to be isolated to strike. Nothing was shifting in the shadows, and at his age, his overactive brain tended to see things that weren’t there, especially in a dark room. His uncle listened as Shuichi tripped and stumbled over his words, trying to explain what he was afraid of (which wasn’t something most adults did), and he made those instructions based off of that explanation: deep breath, ground yourself, open your eyes and face the world again.

Now that Shuichi was older he understood all of that perfectly, and he was painfully self-aware of how dramatic he was being. He hadn’t been afraid of “monsters” in a long time now– especially not the ones his brain tried so hard to convince him were real. If anything, the only thing he had to fear about being alone was the dark thoughts that’d come in the absence of everything else.

So why now? What about this subway is putting me on edge? Shuichi wondered as he opened his eyes, prepared to conquer the puzzle once more. Kokichi said the ceiling fan made him feel sad… is this puzzle somehow messing with our heads? Triggering old fears to try and slow down our progress?

“This car’s empty,” Kokichi announced with a sigh, scaring the absolute life out of Shuichi since he had gotten a little too lost in thought. “Did you find anything, puzzle partner? Didja?”

“I didn’t.” It was almost scary, how effortlessly the lie slipped off his tongue. “You were right, though. That ceiling fan did freak me out… I can’t figure out why it’s so unsettling though.”

“Must be some sort of human psychology thing,” Kokichi suggested disinterestedly. “Like, a ceiling fan in a subway. That’s not supposed to be there! Go back to the normal house you came from, freak! That sorta thing, y’know?”

“Maybe…” Shuichi murmured in agreement, forcing himself not to glance over his shoulder. He would not entertain his remaining anxious thoughts. “Three more cars left, so let’s go through them and see if we end up back in the first car.”

“How will we know we looped, though?” Kokichi pointed out as he powered onwards, proceeding into the fifth, identical car. “All the cars look the same.”

“...then we use the ceiling fan as a marker,” Shuichi decided dismissively. “Come on, we have to continue.”

Instead of following him, Kokichi planted his feet firmly on the ground, placed his hands on his hips and scowled. “Okay, who put a stick up your ass?”

That made Shuichi stop in his tracks, and he backed out of the doorway of the fifth car, shooting his classmate an incredulous look. “What?”

“Did I do something?” Kokichi continued with a gesture towards himself. “‘cause I don’t remember doing anything that’d piss you off.”

“I’m not mad,” Shuichi corrected him.

“Aren’t you?” challenged Kokichi, his expression pinching into something more upset. “Because you’re acting like I killed your cat.”

“What are you talking about?” Shuichi demanded in exasperation. He may not like confrontation but he wouldn’t allow himself to be misinterpreted over something stupid. “What made you think I was mad?”

“For once, you sound pissed,” Kokichi listed on his fingers. “For two, you’re giving me the “uh-huh sure whatever” treatment. For three, you keep lying to me. What are you finding that’s making you angry?”

“I just told you, I’m not angry!” Shuichi defended himself, torn between confusion and frustration. “Do I really sound mad? I’m not, I promise. I’m just trying to finish the puzzle.”

Kokichi still looked skeptical, which didn’t help the building irritation in the back of his mind.

Gritting his teeth, he said, “I am finding a few things, but they’re nothing important–”

“Oh my god– you did it again!” Now Kokichi looked and sounded angry. “For someone who loves the truth so much, you sure like lying! To me! Are you a masochist!? ‘cause at this point you’re going out of your way to make me yell at you!”

“You don’t need to worry about them!” Shuichi shouted back, his lungs straining. He didn’t like raising his voice, but it felt appropriate to match Kokichi’s volume. “Do I need to tell you everything?”

“In a death puzzle? Yes! Yes you do!” his classmate snapped. “These are puzzles for teamwork! Weren’t you the one who wanted to work together? To build a bond to get through this bullshit? Did that fucking punishment melt your brain, too!? Because I was under the impression only the toxin did that!”

There was a “too far” point in every debate, and Shuichi just discovered what his was. The mere mention of the punishment made him reel back, his jaw clicking shut.

Shuichi wasn’t sure what made the punishment so scary to even think about. Maybe it was the toxin, as Kokichi said. Or maybe only the pain was enough to implant a glass seed of unbridled fear deep in his chest, ready to explode and pierce his lungs under the slightest pressure. Excruciating pain… in his hand, from the non-stop writing; in his shoulder, from his left hand being suspended over his head. From his arm, where he had been shot six times by those awful, toxin-filled quills that made his mind fog and blood clog his throat and caused his skin to swell and change into a grotesque red.

Something on his face must have changed drastically, because the anger in Kokichi’s body all visibly melted away, replaced by a vacant look rather than fury.

“I’m sorry,” Kokichi said in a voice hardly above a whisper. He approached Shuichi slowly, extending his hand to take one of his. “You’re not someone I want to fight with like that… I’ll apologize. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up.”

Shuichi didn’t move as Kokichi released his hand to wrap his arms around him, though the embrace didn’t feel claustrophobic or even uncomfortable. It just felt… warm. Gentle. All of the things Shuichi truly saw Kokichi as.

For a few moments, his voice wouldn’t work. It nestled deep in his throat like a child throwing a fit, locking itself away with no sign that it’d come back out. All he could do at the moment was hug Kokichi back; a silent reassurance that he accepted his timid apology.

“Let’s… let’s just continue,” Kokichi decided, detangling himself from Shuichi to lead the way into the next train car. “We’re almost to the end of the loop anyhow.”

But… we weren’t done talking…

However, Kokichi sounded so defeated that it was hard to argue with him, so Shuichi simply nodded and followed him.

During the investigation of the next two cars, neither of them spoke a word to each other. It wasn’t like Kokichi to be so quiet, much less cave so quickly after an argument. Glancing over at him, Shuichi could see the difference– his shoulders were slumped and his movements were delayed and sluggish, his expression pinched in such a way that it looked somewhat like he was holding back tears. It was so un-Kokichi-like that it nearly gave him emotional whiplash.

Without a doubt, something weird was going on in this subway. Something advanced enough to alter Kokichi’s personality and manipulate the layout of the train.

This puzzle relates directly back to Kokichi, Shuichi deduced. The notes… his reaction to the fan… somehow this puzzle all circles back to him. Kokichi… would never yell at me like that, even if he does hate being lied to. And he’d never act so off afterwards. I think he’d try to cheer me up to make up for what he said, instead of… this.

The fifth and sixth cars had nothing of importance aside from the changed text on the screens Kokichi had mentioned previously, and nothing turned up in their thorough investigation. The seventh car looked the same at first glance, but the foreboding atmosphere hanging in the air made Shuichi want to get out as fast as possible.

“I just realized,” spoke Kokichi, thankfully sounding a little more like his usual self. “How are we going to know the train looped? We didn’t really leave behind any markers.”

“...we didn’t,” Shuichi agreed softly. Using his voice was hard after such a bad reaction, but he couldn’t exactly stay silent in a literal death puzzle. “Could one of us, ah… walk to the beginning? I could do it.”

“Your heart would explode if I left you on your own any more than I already have,” Kokichi scoffed, that bitter note returning to his voice. “How about you investigate this car and I go loop back around, got it?”

“Are you still angry because I won’t tell you what I found?” Shuichi (unwisely) asked.

Whatever weary expression Kokichi had been wearing before vanished instantly. “You could at least pretend to sound like you give a shit.”

“I don’t need to “pretend” to do anything,” Shuichi protested. He did care, the whole reason he was investigating this stupid, borderline supernatural train was because he cared. “Shouldn’t I go loop back around? I thought you didn’t like seeing the fan in the third car.”

“Oh my god, does everything have to be an argument?” Kokichi growled in clear frustration. “You’re the detective, you figure this puzzle out! I’m apparently too goddamn stupid to get it, after all.”

Shuichi honestly didn’t understand where all of this was coming from. “Y-You offered to figure it out at the start–”

“That’s because you were spacing out harder than the Ultimate flippin’ Astronaut does. I was just trying to be nice, but this is where “nice” gets you!” His classmate threw his hand out in either direction, gesturing vaguely at the car surrounding them. “Put in a death puzzle motive where everything is fucked up and you’re acting weird as shit and fucked up and– and what-fucking-ever, okay!? I’m leaving! I hope you get sweet-gassed and hang yourself on that fan from the delirium!”

With that horrific note, Kokichi stormed back into the sixth car. The casual closing of the automated door didn’t serve very well as a dramatic exit for his freak-out, but his words were enough to make Shuichi feel as if a knife had been wrenched in his heart.

Did… did he just tell me to… kill myself?

The thought alone brought tears to Shuichi’s eyes and he covered his mouth with his hand, too shocked to even sob or form any proper reaction at all. Shuichi knew he had been acting strange but this was… inconceivable…

Okay… okay… calm down. Deep breaths, he had to remind himself, though it was easier said than done. You shouldn’t have pushed him when he was already triggered. It would’ve been better to let him shout, because… angry people don’t listen to logic or– or reason, they just want to be mad. Did I sound too “uncaring”? Is that it? He’s mentioned that a lot; that I’ve been acting like I don’t care, but I told him that I did… did he think I was lying? That must be it, maybe he thought I was trying to trick him.

Yup, that must be it. Shuichi was definitely at fault here since he failed to recognize and acknowledge the multiple cues Kokichi threw at him, so hopefully this walk would clear Kokichi’s head a little, and Shuichi could apologize for making him angry and they could make up and be okay again.

As much as he’d prefer laying on the floor in the fetal position and crying, Kokichi did tell him to investigate this car, so he might as well do that. It might help him calm down a little, so that way he could be as sincere as possible when he apologized. Because surely… he must have done something truly horrendous in Kokichi’s eyes to be told to take his own life.

Upon finding the third diary note, he couldn’t even bring himself to feel even remotely excited about a discovery. He sat down on one of the seats and read it, having to wipe the tears out of his eyes to be able to make out what was written.

It was a single-page note once again, and the message was much shorter compared to the other three notes. In addition, a lot of the text was smudged beyond comprehension.

———

——sn’t helping anymor– — I don’t know why. I only feel guilty when I do it, and I hate guilt. My 14th —th— is soon though, so maybe I’ll ——— ——— –en as a gift to myself. Sorry Kokichi, but this place is awful. I love D.I.C.E so — ——— – —— —————————

“14th… birthday?” Shuichi murmured to himself, glancing the entire note up and down once again. So the writer was thirteen at the time of writing this note… I wonder if that’s the same case for the other three. The handwriting improves only a little, so I assume all of these were spread out over time.

What isn’t helping anymore? Whatever it was, it made the writer feel guilty. And why are they apologizing to Kokichi– ah! They address him by his given name! They must have grown pretty close if that’s the case.

Pulling the other three notes out of his pocket, he glanced over them all, trying to piece everything together in his head. He couldn’t understand any of this, or why he was finding these notes. What about this puzzle was different from, say, the Tank Puzzle, which personally victimized his fears to use against him? What about this puzzle targeted Kokichi–

…this… hold on.

…what puzzle… is this?

Every single puzzle up until now has had a name. Monokuma made sure they understood that name, and even with puzzles where he didn’t outright say it, like the Coffin Puzzle, he made sure they knew what the puzzle was called via that beginning gravestone. The name of the puzzle was always made clear from the very start.

So why didn’t this one–

The building concern mounted abruptly into terror when all of the lights in the car shut off, and he couldn’t hold back a shriek of fear, scrambling to pull all of his gathered notes back to him. The only light now came from the windows of the doors, though only by a little. The dark amplified his anxiety by about ten thousand, and he booked it for the closest door, which was the one that led to the first car. Light meant safe, safe was where nothing could get him and he couldn’t be hurt because most crime happened in the dark, most secrets happened in the dark. But all truths came out eventually, so long as Shuichi stayed where it was safe–!

As soon as he stepped foot in the first car, some of that adrenaline rush immediately died, and he dared a peak through the window. The car behind him was still dark, but… he swore he could make out shadows on the floor and on the walls, shouting silently at each other or weeping under the weight of cruel words he could not hear.

But, most importantly, in the window on the door across the car, were a set of yellow eyes. The same pair of eyes, swirling with fury and regret, that had haunted his nightmares for years.

The same eyes that got him on the Ultimate Initiative as the “Ultimate Detective” in the first place.

Calm down! he screamed internally at himself as he bolted across the car, running into the second one where even the light couldn’t protect him. It’s not real, there’s no way that’s real. This puzzle… whatever’s going on here, it’s trying to mess with us both! It’s making Kokichi angry and now it’s trying to throw me off of my investigation!

Though that was terrifying in itself. The puzzle can read my thoughts!?

At that horrible realization, he tried to flee into the third car, and–

–and he couldn’t even bring himself to scream at what he saw.

Tied to the motionless ceiling fan was a rope, and from that rope hung the body of a young, teenage girl wearing a familiar white outfit with a clown mask concealing her face. Her fingernails were crusted with blood, which had to come from the desperate claw marks tearing into her skin surrounding the rope circled around her neck.

Seeing her, Shuichi knew immediately. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but the answer popped into his mind and there was nothing he could do to stop himself from whispering, “the writer…”

For a few moments, he was frozen in… what? Shock? Paralyzing fear? Maybe it wasn’t either of those that restricted him from moving. Maybe it was this crushing sense of defeat he felt, the kind that made you wonder if there was even a point in trying anymore.

His eyes strayed to something laying on the ground beneath her dangling feet. A checkered bandana, and a final diary note.

Shaking, he slowly approached, bending down to his knees to pick it up. The edges were flayed, tear marks on the paper. Contrary to the last four notes, the entirety of this one was legible.

The words written made him sob quietly.

Dear Ouma Kokichi,

I’m not strong enough for D.I.C.E. You and your group have made this place better than I could have ever asked for though, so thank you very much. I’m leaving the rest of my stuff to you alone. The party you all threw for me was wonderful, and this has been the loveliest birthday I’ve ever had. I want to end it happily. Thank you Kokichi. You’re a good leader, I’m just not a very good follower. Please grow up to be better than your parents; don’t fight with everyone, don’t die, and find a kind man to settle down with. I have no future, try as I might. I’m sorry, but I was never meant to succeed. But you can do so much more!! You’re a natural leader and liar, you’re going to go really far in life. Just don’t let your lies hurt you okay?

I love you,

———— ————

She was only fourteen… when she killed herself.

Shuichi felt sick to his stomach. She was the same age as he was when he– no, he couldn’t turn this around on himself. But at least a few things made much more sense, regarding Kokichi specifically. Because if this puzzle was designed to target him specifically, then… the anger he was displaying…

Behind him, he heard the door slide open. His heart plummeted as he whipped around, just in time to see Kokichi’s eyes travel upward, his expression morphing into one nothing short of horror.

“Wh… wha…” Kokichi sputtered, subconsciously shaking his head with his eyes locked on the body. “Wh-What t-the…”

“Kokichi!” Without entirely thinking, Shuichi ran up to him, throwing his arms around his shoulders and burying Kokichi’s face in his chest. “Don’t look at it, o-okay? Don’t look…”

“I saw my mask,” Kokichi whispered, his voice heartbreakingly meek. “I… th-that was hers… that was… ghah, hhggnnnngh! Shuichi! W-Why can’t I remember her name!? Th-Their names? Oh god! Fuck!”

Kokichi shoved Shuichi away from him, though there wasn’t much force in it. He was hyperventilating now, the emotional mask he tried so hard to keep up disappearing entirely as he broke.

“I-I can’t remember… any of their names!” Kokichi clutched either side of his head, his voice steadily rising in volume. Though this time, it was rising in panic. “None of them… I-I can’t remember their names! SHIT! Wh-What did that son of a bitch cosplayer do to my head!? What did she do!?”

Shuichi had the mind to keep his mouth shut despite the race of questions that whirled through his mind. Cosplayer? As in… Tsumugi? Why would–

That thought train could not be finished as Kokichi seized the fabric of his coat, making him stumble at the force of it. His friend let out a guttural, heart-breaking wail into his chest, and Shuichi couldn’t do much but hug him, slowly helping him sink to the floor. Shuichi had never seen Kokichi cry like this before– not even when Gonta had been executed. This type of crying came from the deep-rooted childhood grief of finding the body of your friend who killed herself.

It was difficult to keep himself from crying too, but he somehow kept his composure. He had to be here for… for the guy he loved, no matter how confusing and downright hurtful he had been for the duration of this puzzle. Shuichi knew that it wasn’t his fault he was acting like that– something had to have happened to trigger such an abrupt switch in attitude, whether it was before the puzzle or during.

It took a while, but Kokichi couldn’t physically cry forever. Eventually he started to calm down, his tears lessening as his sobs came in quiet hiccups and heaves. His grip on Shuichi’s overcoat loosened and eventually let go, leaving his hands pressed limply against his chest.

When Shuichi was sure he had cried himself out, he decided to speak. No matter how Kokichi felt, they had a dubious death puzzle to solve.

“Do you think you can solve the puzzle with me?” Shuichi gently asked his classmate. After a moment of hesitation, he added, “...puzzle partner?”

“Huh? Ah… I…” Kokichi sniffled quietly, leaning back from Shuichi and aggressively rubbing his face with his sleeve to hide any evidence of his breakdown. “Yeah, I- I got it. I can do it. Just… I… god, don’t look at me right now. G-Give me a second…”

Shuichi caught Kokichi’s hand in his own as he tried to conceal his face, which prompted a surprised look from the boy.

“You don’t have to hide from me,” Shuichi reassured him. He lightly squeezed his partner’s hand, shyly dropping his eyes to the ground. “It’s okay… I really don’t mind. I don’t think of you any differently.”

“Th-That’d be… a lot more flattering if it weren’t for the c-.. the corpse b-behind you,” Kokichi choked out, though Shuichi could detect the faintest note of amusement in his quivering voice.

“I don’t think it’s real,” Shuichi assured him, sparing a glance over his shoulder at the unsettling sight. “Do you remember the corpses I saw during the Coffin Puzzle?”

“I s-sorta saw them, b-but– oh my god.” Kokichi firmly cleared his throat before continuing in a hoarse voice, “Yeah, you’ve mentioned them. Y-You think… it’s a doll?”

“It’s definitely a doll,” Shuichi confirmed. “It’s not a real body. And… ah… if I’m right, there’s no way it could be the real body.”

His movements shaking with nervousness, he fished out the three folded pieces of paper in his pocket, and gave them and the suicide note to Kokichi.

“Oh… I remember these,” Kokichi whispered so quietly that Shuichi almost didn’t hear him. “I-Is this what you were hiding from me?”

Shuichi winced, unable to meet his gaze. “Yeah… I’m sorry. You were just acting really off, a-and at some points your… your eyes scared me. This puzzle is messing with us, I think, I- I’m sorry.”

“I don’t even care anymore,” his friend sniffled weakly, blinking hard. “I know you… you wanna know so I’ll t-tell you. A-As soon as I stop this stupid… voice… thing.”

“It must be the puzzle,” Shuichi murmured thoughtfully. “It must be making it more difficult to do that, um, emotional mask thing you do. I-I was having a harder time handling my anxiety earlier, so I think it’s affecting us both.”

“It’s annoying,” Kokichi grumbled in irritation. “Wh-Whatever. So… um… m-my talent comes from the organization I lead. I-It’s name is DICE, made up of me and ten followers of mine. W-Well, nine, now…” his eyes traveled despairingly beyond Shuichi. “She was t-the tenth. I met her a-at the orphanage I lived at… b-before it closed down for a suspected murder. Haha, I, uh… I pinned her suicide on one of the adults I d-didn’t like. H-He was never arrested, but… yeah.”

“Oh.” Shuichi wasn’t sure what else to say to that, or if there even was a proper response to such information.

“I-It was her fourteenth birthday,” he continued, his voice dropping into a whisper. “We… wanted to do something nice. We wanted to congratulate her, because we… we thought she was getting better. She, um, fuck… she hurt herself a lot, but she stopped ‘cause I– I told her to try and… get better. T-To at least try, that’s all I wanted. She looked so happy for the entire day… but later that evening, she… she gave me this note,” he lifted up the suicide note, his voice wobbling dangerously, “a-and she… she h-hugged me and went upstairs. I read the note, and I… I tried to get into the b-bedroom, but it was… it was locked. A-and, I didn’t know how to pick locks, s-so I panicked and broke it, but…”

“But it was too late,” Shuichi finished for him. “...I… I’m so sorry, Kokichi…”

“I learned how to pick locks for that,” Kokichi admitted weakly. “Because she didn’t break her neck, meaning… if I g-got in there sooner, she might’ve survived. B-But, I’m sort of over it. I… did my best to move on, like she told me to. I tried to preserve my lies for a good cause a-and harmless fun. Actually, it’s not important. Let’s just… get this stupid puzzle over with s-so we can go… I dunno, build a statue of Kaito with Jenga blocks or something stupid.”

“...if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s okay. I understand. Thank you for sharing that with me, though.” Shuichi pulled himself onto his feet, offering his hand for Kokichi to take. “I appreciate it.”

Kokichi rolled his eyes, but he accepted Shuichi’s hand nevertheless.

Though, the minute he was on his feet, his gaze sharpened in focus and he turned Shuichi’s hand over, even going as far as to push up his sleeve.

Before Shuichi could ask what on earth he was doing, Kokichi spoke first. “Your hand is totally fine.”

“...i-is that… a compliment?” Shuichi tried to ask.

“I’m too upset to flirt with you right now. Call back in five,” Kokichi retorted quickly. He moved on before Shuichi could address that remark, though. “No, your hand is fine. I remember seeing your hand all cut up during the blackout.”

“Ah–! Now that you mention it… my arm hasn’t hurt at all!” Shuichi gasped in realization, turning his bewilderment towards his suddenly uninjured arm. “Wait, what about your hands? A-And your ribs?”

Holding out his own hand, the one he had sliced during the Mirror Puzzle, Shuichi was stunned to see that it was completely unharmed. There wasn’t even a remnant of the injury.

“I can breathe just fine,” Kokichi added thoughtfully. “Breathing doesn’t hurt… in fact, I ran all the way around the train loop and I felt perfectly fine.”

“What is going on?” Shuichi wondered aloud, unable to tear his eyes away from where their injuries had disappeared. “The Objective Room door disappearing, ceiling fans and fake corpses appearing… the whole concept of the looping subway train is insane in itself.”

“I feel like I just woke up. What the fuck is going on?” Kokichi shot a wildly suspicious look at the car around them, his eyes wide. “Wait, do you remember when we got here?”

“I can’t remember anything from this morning,” Shuichi reminded him. “Can you?”

“It’s like trying to remember a dream,” replied Kokichi, biting his thumb nail in frustration. “I… can’t make out any details. I just remember starting the puzzle knowing that I could probably take care of it on my own, but as it went on and you kept making unnatural faces and talking in that weird tone, I got more and more suspicious and stopped thinking much about the puzzle.”

“Like… my eyes weren’t reflecting light?” Shuichi guessed warily.

Both of Kokichi’s eyebrows shot up, which was enough of an answer for Shuichi. “Exactly, yeah! Did you see that happen with me, too?”

Shuichi nodded vigorously. “I did! That’s why I didn’t tell you about the notes.”

“So the puzzle tried to turn us against each other…” Kokichi hummed. “And maybe even against ourselves. When I was walking back around the train, I was trying to figure out why I was so angry. If the puzzle is screwing with my head, that’s probably why.”

“...sorry if this is personal, but… could anger be how you coped with, um… that?” Shuichi gestured vaguely at the suspended corpse behind him.

Kokichi hesitated for a long moment, a blank expression slamming itself on his face. But then, very reluctantly, he slowly nodded.

“So the puzzle is pulling things from the past,” Shuichi concluded in a murmur, trying to quickly move past the subject of the suicide. “Ah! It did it to me, too! While I was waiting for you, the lights turned off in the seventh car. I ran into the next car and when I looked back through the window, I saw shadows of couples fighting and… ah, um… this is going to sound really trivial compared to yours, but there’s this… guy, whose eyes freaked me out. That’s why I wore my hat.”

“Look at us. We are so good at this communication and opening up thing,” Kokichi replied somewhat playfully. “So this puzzle is somehow reading our minds, digging into our past traumas, making us hallucinate and bending the laws of physics to fuck with us. That’s all fun and fine, except for the fact that it’s literally impossible.”

“A lot of things about this puzzle haven’t been possible,” Shuichi mused. “And a lot of it has to do with us specifically… about things we wouldn’t normally tell people… um, Kokichi? Do you know what this puzzle is called?”

“Uh, yeah? It’s the–” A look of realization dawned on his friend’s face, and he spat out a particularly vulgar curse under his breath.

“I thought so…” Shuichi sighed in turn. “Monokuma never told us the name of this puzzle, and he always makes sure that we know.”

“It would’ve been so easy to do so, too,” Kokichi grumbled, shooting a look at the screens. “So we have all these clues: our injuries are gone, the Objective Room door disappeared, the train loops and can read our minds, shit is appearing out of nowhere, the puzzle’s trying to mess with us by dragging up past trauma and Monokuma is nowhere to be found. What does this add up to?”

“When I tried to think about it too hard, the puzzle turned off the lights and distracted me with the stuff I mentioned before,” Shuichi recalled. “...it doesn’t want us to figure it out, I think. It just wants us to beat the puzzle.”

“But how do we do that?” Kokichi challenged suddenly. “Think about it. Can you tell me, step-by-step, what we need to do to beat this puzzle?”

Shuichi opened his mouth to respond, but found that… he couldn’t.

Holy crap, Kokichi was right! They had no idea how to actually beat the puzzle! Monokuma would usually give them instructions on that too, and when he didn’t, it was always obvious what needed to happen, such as the Maze and Coffin Puzzles. But here, they had been given no instructions, no clues and not even an exit.

“Is this… even a puzzle, then?” Shuichi wondered. “Monokuma would never alter the structure of the motive this much, I’m sure.”

“The screens say Welcome to the Death Puzzles, so I’m sure it’s related,” Kokichi hummed as he turned around, finger on his chin. “...can we leave this car? It’s really uncomfortable.”

“Ah– yes, sorry. Let’s go.”

Thankfully, none of the contents of the second car had changed, so they could stand in the aisle with no problems (aside from the ones they already had, of course).

“Okay, back to thinking. We don’t know how to beat the puzzle, we don’t even know what the puzzle is called– assuming it is a puzzle– and we don’t know what’s going on with this weird subway,” Kokichi summarized in growing exasperation. “It looks like self-awareness wades off the effects of it, though. I don’t feel like punching you anymore.”

“...thanks?” Shuichi wasn’t sure how to take that. “Yeah, you seem much like your usual self now. Although… you haven’t been lying as much… are you okay?”

Kokichi actually scoffed at that, rolling his eyes in heavy amusement. “Aww, does Shuichi actually love my lies? I can lie more, if you want! Like, did you know I have the superhuman ability to make people drop unconscious in less than five seconds? I just need a blunt object and the element of surprise~♪”

“Actually, pretend I never said anything,” Shuichi immediately replied, only causing Kokichi to giggle even more.

(At least he was laughing genuinely again, Shuichi thought. It had been a while since he had heard that lovely sound.)

Drop unconscious… no. No, wait. That’s important to consider…

“Kokichi, can you tell me what you remember from the end of the blackout?” Shuichi requested. “I fell asleep from sweet gas that released into the Objective Room. What about you?”

“Oh. The end of the blackout.” Whatever joy Kokichi had been feeling faded in an instant. “...I have a lot to say about that. Listen close, Shuuuuichi. I was screwing around in the dark when I eventually found a passageway. I followed it, of course, and it led into– get this– the closet of the mastermind’s room. I’ll tell you about that later by the way, so don’t you worry about it now.”

(“Wh-What did that son of a bitch cosplayer do to my head!?”

…yeah, Shuichi was pretty sure he already knew.)

“I tried to get out of the room, but my collar activated and–” Kokichi cut himself off with an odd choking noise as his hands flew to his neck. He pulled down his scarf, and–

–his bare neck showed, free of steel or any burns.

Shuichi inhaled sharply at the sight, reaching up to feel his own neck. “Our collars…!”

“Add “messing with our basic perception skills” to the list of things wrong with this puzzle,” Kokichi commented wryly. “You can’t just get those things off. Well, anyway, my body gave up on me and I had to lay on the floor like a loser until Monokuma showed up. He was wearing this lantern necklace, which he stuck in my face and sweet-gassed me. It was a lot faster acting, and I think I remember him saying something about it usually being administered in low doses. Considering I was out in seconds, I’m a little worried about what it did to my brain.”

That was definitely something to keep in mind, but for now… “And that’s all you can remember?”

“I told you, this morning was like a dream. Either I made it up or the puzzle did, but my real memories stop there,” Kokichi confirmed confidently. “Why?”

If Shuichi was right about this… then everything would add up. It was almost incomprehensible, so far out of the realm of reality that he almost didn’t believe it himself, but it was the only explanation that considered all of the factors given to them.

“Kokichi…” Shuichi hesitated for only a moment more; even thinking about it made him feel dizzy. “...this isn't real.”

His teammate’s expression twitched and he noticeably tensed; likely experiencing the same, prickly discomfort Shuichi had felt upon even thinking about such a possibility. 

“Like… you think we’re in purgatory?” guessed Kokichi stiffly.

“M-Maybe? But, ah, I can say with certainty that where we are now… isn’t reality,” Shuichi stated. He gestured at the car around them, quietly taking note of the lack of words on the horizontal screens. “I think… we might be in a shared dream of some kind.”

“You’re telling me that we got sweet-gassed so hard, our brains conjoined with each other and made up a puzzle?” Kokichi groaned, dragging his hand down over his face. “We’re so screwed up.”

“Yeah, I’m, um… not sure how to process that part,” Shuichi agreed with a small wince. “But it explains everything, doesn’t it? Even if it’s totally unbelievable…”

“Aside from being the lamest plot twist in the century, yeah. But!” A smirk tugged at the corner of Kokichi’s lips and he lifted a single finger, appearing triumphant. “Now we have an idea about how to beat this brain puzzle, which I have professionally titled the Subway Puzzle. We just have to wake up! So hold still, I'm gonna pinch you–”

“Ah, I’m sure there’s– owch! Hey!”

“Huh, so that didn’t work. What do you usually do to wake up from a dream?”

“Not that,” Shuichi shot back, rubbing his cheek with a faint pout. That hurt. “Also, I’m not sure… I don’t dream very often, and I’ve never had a dream I wanted to wake up from.”

He wasn’t sure why Kokichi looked so surprised at that. “Wait, you really don’t dream? When was the last time you had one?”

“Excluding nightmares…” Shuichi paused for a moment, before he reluctantly admitted, “probably when I bought that key from the casino.”

“You actually bought that– actually, not important. Maybe we should try falling asleep?” Kokichi dropped onto his knees and rolled onto his back. “I’ve seen that if you fall asleep in a dream, you wake up.”

“Maybe, but… doesn’t it seem like the puzzle doesn’t want us to wake up?” Shuichi pointed out warily. “What if you, um… make it angry?”

“It’s my brain,” Kokichi argued sharply. “I’m not gonna let my own brain bully me into not waking up.”

The minute those words left his mouth, the lights in the train cut off, making both of them jump. Immediately, Shuichi’s heart rate sped up, though he felt silly for feeling so afraid when he knew it was just his own head.

…though, I guess to me, that is the scariest thing of all.

The sound of a fist pounding against the door startled him, and for some unfathomable reason, he latched onto Kokichi, hugging his arm and trembling like a scared child. He didn’t get a chance to apologize before he froze in place. That knocking… sounded familiar.

It sounded sort of like…

“It’s not real, remember?” Kokichi tried to reassure him. “Scary mind-reading puzzle trying to distract us. We just have to–”

“Uncle?” Shuichi blurted out, glancing around anxiously. He had only ever heard panicked knocking like that once before… but he never locked the door. Uncle knew he could come in at any time, right?

“Um. Shuichi?”

He tried to release his grip on his friend, but he ended up grabbing Shuichi’s hand before he could absent-mindedly depart, preventing him from moving any further.

“Shuichiiii?” his friend prompted him, squeezing his hand kindly. “Hey, pull yourself together! God damn it, I forgot you’re the delirious type of mental breakdown… so the puzzle is trying to distract us.”

That was… partly true, but he wasn’t fully delirious. There was a churning in Shuichi’s stomach that made him feel nauseous– he felt the phantom sensation of his throat tightening, tears of shame and fear building behind his eyes.

“Ah.” Shuichi understood now. The knocking was indeed something he had heard a very long time ago. “...it’s a hint.”

Kokichi looked legitimately concerned. “Oh god, are you delusional, too?”

“No, I… I know where this knocking comes from,” Shuichi replied without looking at his partner. He wished he had his hat with him, that way he could hide his eyes. “Just, um… the puzzle has been giving us hints, actually. On… on how to get out. I-It’s just… taking those hints from our memories.”

“I thought it was trying to stop us from getting out?” Kokichi pointed out dubiously.

“I don’t know anymore,” Shuichi snapped a little more harshly than he intended. His heart immediately crumbled in guilt and he hid his face in his hands. “S-Sorry, I’m just…”

It’s hard to think with this knocking, he didn’t say, miserably trying to cover his ears. Somehow, it seemed to rattle in his skull, too, and he bit back the urge to cry. He couldn’t break, not now.

“I-It’s been simultaneously guiding us to the answer… while also trying to push us away from it,” Shuichi breathed. “It’s our subconsciousness at war. One of us wants us to stay here, a-and the other wants to leave. That’s why… it’s using this now, too. I know how to get out.”

“Hints… oh.” Kokichi’s expression dropped and he took a step back from Shuichi, disconnecting their hands. “Shuichi…”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he forced out through gritted teeth. “Please… please don’t ask me about it. All I know now is that to get out of this puzzle… w-we have to commit suicide.”

The knocking stopped. So did every other sound on the subway, but that may be because Shuichi felt extremely light-headed and was having a hard time processing anything right now.

Commit… suicide…

Shaking his head vigorously, he grasped weakly at Kokichi’s hand again, holding it in both of his.

“I’m sorry…” he whispered, his voice feeling as fragile as cracked glass. “I never wanted it to be this way…”

“What are you apologizing for?” Kokichi whispered back. He tried smirking, but it didn’t come out very confidently. “I’m not against committing double suicide, I- I guess. What’s a more romantic way to go out, after all…?”

Not even Kokichi could disguise the quiver in his voice at that. Shuichi could understand why; if they were wrong about this conclusion and they actually took their own lives and died, then everyone at the academy would die because they were too foolish. And even if they were correct… killing yourself is still such a difficult thing to do, even if you are at your lowest point.

“...she’s gone,” Kokichi observed suddenly. Shuichi stared at him in confusion for a moment, before realizing that he was looking past Shuichi, through the window into the next car.

Turning his head, Shuichi noticed it too; Kokichi’s friend was gone, leaving behind only a noose.

“I guess that’s how,” Shuichi winced. He didn’t release Kokichi’s hand, too afraid to do so as he led the way back into the third car.

How could things have ended up this way? Everything had happened too fast… answers he didn’t want being forced into his face because he was foolish enough to seek the truth. This is always what happened when he tried to hunt down such a terrible thing– he’d lead them into the horrible, awful truth that shattered everything good in the world.

“You do it first,” Kokichi decided suddenly, mournfully breaking their interlocked hands to approach the noose. A chair had appeared under it, Shuichi realized nauseously. “So you don’t have to watch me do it.”

“Ah… o-okay. I understand.”

It felt surreal, climbing onto the chair. Shuichi’s entire body was shaking as he grasped the rope in his hands, slinging it over his head.

“Hey… Kokichi. If we’re wrong about this–” and what a terrible thought that was, being wrong. “–then, um… I don’t want to die without telling you this, okay?”

For a moment, Kokichi hesitated. He wore no expression on his face, nor did he react to Shuichi’s jitteriness.

But then…

“What is it?”

This is it… tell him and die loved or unloved, or keep it to yourself and die with it. Even so, he deserves to know… we deserve to be given that chance.

Shuichi took a deep breath, which turned out to be difficult to do when there was a noose hanging around his neck. Despite this, he swallowed back his nervousness and waited no longer to prepare himself. It was now or never.

“I love you,” Shuichi told him quietly, meeting his guarded violet eyes in a rare moment of boldness. “I’m… in love with you, Kokichi. A-and, before we die, whether it’s right now or later in these death puzzles… I’d like it if we could die… in love with each other.”

It was so embarrassing to say out loud; to admit that he felt such a soft emotion for the boy standing before him, with a noose around his own neck as he prepared to take his own life. Before these death puzzles, he never thought he’d have to confess to someone like this… he never even thought he’d find it in him to confess to anyone, even if he did find himself attracted to them.

But he did it. He somehow found the courage, the words, to tell Kokichi how he truly felt.

The smallest of smiles appeared on Kokichi’s face.

“Nishishi… wow. I love you too,” was Kokichi’s melancholy reply. His smile grew just a little wider as he tilted his head to the side, the sharp, focused look in his eyes softening into something much sweeter. “I have loved you, Shuichi. And now your heart is mine, so… if we do die here, I’m satisfied. Mhm, okay! We can die in love, since you’re okay with it. But we will wake up, and we can live in love, too. Okay? ♡”

We can live in love…

That sounded amazing to Shuichi. Even if the death puzzles weighed cruelly down on them, forcing them to hurt themselves or even each other… their bond couldn’t be broken. Even through all of the horrible things they had said to each other– the awful things they had done– they had each other, and that was the only thing that mattered in this motive.

Death puzzles weren’t so scary if you died with the man you loved, Shuichi supposed.

So he nodded. He didn’t have to summon any more courage to kick the chair away, because Kokichi was here.

He’d wake up for Kokichi. He’d survive and beat this puzzle… for Kokichi.

Even if he had to hang himself.

***

Death by hanging was an ugly way to go.

Kokichi knew he was conscious, and alive, because he sucked in a sharp, panicked breath that pierced his broken ribs, and he couldn’t bite back a groan of pain. He was lying on his back on a soft mattress, and he could easily identify the Objective Room. Next to him was Shuichi, who seemed to be in his same predicament: just waking up and remembering how badly his body hurt. But most importantly, he was also conscious and alive.

That was the most important part. Shuichi was breathing. That was the only thing that mattered, and so Kokichi could relax just by just a fraction.

As his senses fully began to return to him, he managed to hold back a sigh of relief. It was coming back to him now….his perception of time, of reality, of himself was slowly coming back. The lingering, old anger and remorse over his friend’s death was fading as well– of course he still felt it, buried deep inside his chest, but it was no longer teetering on the edge of exploding. It was back to being a drive for him to get up in the morning, and that was extremely relieving to feel like himself again.

Stupid puzzles… he thought bitterly, rubbing the drowsiness from his eyes. I can’t believe we had to do a puzzle in our sleep. Dream-walking is one thing, but our brains literally collaborated to make some fucked up suicide subway puzzle. Hmm, I wonder if they have therapists in hell.

“Alive?” Shuichi gasped, somehow managing to sit up. He looked down at his shaking hands, and then back at Kokichi, where a big, wobbly smile appeared on his face. It was honestly cute. “W-We’re alive…!”

“Your theory was right,” Kokichi agreed, using his elbows to prop himself up. It hurt like a bitch, ow. “God… hanging hurts. I can still feel it on my neck…”

Shuichi’s happy expression faltered and he subconsciously lifted a hand to feel his throat, flinching when he felt the collar. At least they knew for sure this was reality, Kokichi supposed. But man, he missed the lack of subtle pressure around his neck.

“So we dreamt the same thing, right?” Shuichi asked, his voice hitched with nervousness. “About the subway train… the notes, the weird… childhood trauma hallucinations… the, ah… suicide.”

Kokichi smirked at him. “Yes, I remember your confession. And you know what I have to say to it?”

Before Shuichi could respond, Kokichi leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Shuichi’s face went impressively red at that and he squeaked adorably, his hands flying up to feel his face. Kokichi giggled at his reaction– he was so dramatic sometimes, it was so endearing.

(He decided not to think about how nonchalant he felt over everything else. He had just killed himself, and he couldn’t even bring himself to really… care? He didn’t feel anything about the whole ordeal, actually.

Did that mean he was getting used to this? Did that mean… he was properly prepared to die, for when the time came?)

“Sheesh, since when did you two become lovebirds?”

Annnnd of course the one good moment had to be spoiled. Kokichi swiveled his head to glare full force at the monitor, wondering if he glared hard enough it would explode.

“I mean, we all sort of knew, but I didn’t know it was official,” Monokuma continued. “You guys were asleep FOREVER! I was worried I put you two into a coma with the sweet gas! Then we really would’ve had a problem, and I’d have a hell of a lot of paperwork to fill out.”

“Can you not talk to us?” Kokichi snapped. He usually had at least a bit of patience for Monokuma’s antics, but apparently killing yourself had some pretty heavy effects on your psychology. “We are busy having a nice moment.”

“Sorry to rain on your parade buster, but you’ll have to save that nice moment for later!” Monokuma barked, jabbing his arm right, which would be in the direction of the black and white door. “It’s morning, which means it’s time for a puzzle.”

“W…We just did a puzzle,” Shuichi protested weakly, and Kokichi couldn’t blame him for the exhausted waver in his voice. “The gas linked our minds, a-and we had to do a puzzle in our heads. We... killed ourselves to beat it.”

“Lot’s of deep, personal things were shared,” Kokichi agreed. “What happened to one to two puzzles a day, huh?”

“Sorry boys, but because I didn’t see it, that puzzle is unofficial,” said Monokuma. “Also, suicide is such a lame solution to a death puzzle! If you’re telling the truth, then your puzzle-making skills needs some serious work!”

Shuichi blanched beside him, a look of utter despair present on his face. Kokichi understood the feeling; they just did a puzzle, one that was extraordinarily mentally exhausting. They really had to do another one right now?

“This puzzle’s not very long, so the sooner you do it the better, right?” Monokuma pointed out in delight. “The doors open, so go on through! This one will be narrated by yours truly, so make sure you get in there!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Kokichi growled under his breath.

“Let’s just do it,” Shuichi sighed in defeat. He stood up from the bed, stumbling and nearly collapsing immediately. “It said this one is short… so if we do it, we can rest before evening’s puzzle.”

“You’re right, I guess. I have always wanted to cuddle you when you’re awake,” Kokichi mused, silently enjoying Shuichi’s shy, flustered sputter. “Alright… let’s get this over with.”

Chapter Text

The room he stepped into immediately made him feel uncomfortable.

The walls were screens, displaying a red-orange sunset and trees that went on for miles and miles. Shuichi was pretty sure that the trees that weren’t on the screen were fake, but he didn’t care to check. There was a river at the very back of the room, and Shuichi found that he actually hated technology a tremendous amount; it took him a moment to identify the place where the wall met the floor.

Actually, this entire room felt like he had just stepped into the wilderness. The sounds of trees creaking, the artificial wind on his face… it made his heart ache for the outside.

But that will never happen, he reminded himself firmly. He couldn’t reminisce on what he once had– it might get his hopes up, and he couldn’t afford that to happen.

“I feel like I’m getting made fun of,” Kokichi complained a few steps behind him. “...I feel like I’m about to have to find eight pages.”

“Wh-What kind of analogy is that?” Shuichi questioned with a small huff of laughter. As worn out as he was, Kokichi had accepted his love. It was inappropriate– especially at a time like this– but Shuichi felt sort of over the moon right now.

Kokichi is right. We are screwed up, he realized with a guilty grimace. I’m in a death puzzle and I’m not even afraid of it anymore. Have we really gotten used to this…?

“It’s a reference, Shuichi,” Kokichi scoffed. “Crazy how an orphan makes more internet references than the rich boy does.”

“I wasn’t allowed on screens for a long time,” Shuichi defended himself. “I-I had a flip phone, though.”

Kokichi gawked at him in utter disbelief, before he barked a shout of laughter, which he seemed to immediately regret as he clutched his chest with a groan torn between agony and snickering.

“It functioned, that’s all that matters!” Shuichi protested, much to Kokichi’s wide amusement. “I could even play Tetris on it. And that was a long time ago, so don’t make fun of me…”

“A flip phone! What, did it have a little keyboard too?” Kokichi giggled, wiping away a fake tear.

Shuichi could feel his face growing hotter by the second. “If I tell you, you’ll laugh at me more…”

“No, no no no! I won’t!” Kokichi waved his hands quickly, though the massive grin on his face easily told Shuichi that he was lying. “Would I lie to the love of my life? My boyfriend? Househusband?”

The words took a moment to process, but when they did, Shuichi whipped around to face Kokichi, alarm spiking through his mind. “What did you just call me?”

“My boyfriend.”

“N-No, that last thing!”

Unfortunately, before Kokichi could give him an answer (which would probably be a lie, anyway), a static noise cut through the air, scaring the near life out of him. This puzzle room was convincing when you weren’t looking too hard at the walls, he supposed.

“Welcome to the official ninth puzzle: the Storybook Puzzle,” Monokuma began in a calm, even tone. “I’m your narrator, Monokuma, and today, we’ll be reading a story about a hiker who had quite the intriguing, life-changing encounter out in the woods…!”

“A hiker?” Just one? Shuichi silently wondered. From the look on Kokichi’s face, Shuichi could assume he was thinking the same thing. Is it talking about us as a whole, or is he referring to only one of us…?

“Oh crap, do we have to act out the story he’s telling?” Kokichi suddenly realized. “The Storybook Puzzle, Shu. I think we have to reenact what he says.”

“I’m not a very good actor…” Shuichi admitted, shooting a worried look up at the fake sky.

“Don’t worry! It’s just like lying, but fancier!” Kokichi pointed out gleefully, patting him reassuringly on his shoulder (his right shoulder, the one that wasn’t injured).

That didn’t help in the slightest, but Shuichi didn’t mind. He faintly wondered about potential, long-lasting side effects of the sweet gas that had caused that previous puzzle before Monokuma’s grating voice cut back through his thoughts.

“And don’t worry about trying to relate this to any pre-existing, nonfiction tales. This is a story written by yours truly~!”

Kokichi folded his arms across his chest, perking a brow up at the ceiling. “So we’re basically acting out your fanfiction.”

While Shuichi couldn’t see Monokuma given there were no monitors in the room, he did hear the bear sputter in offense. “It’s not a fanfiction! It’s an original story using a character I made myself!”

Again with the singular reference to the hiker… Shuichi noticed. Something was definitely up with this puzzle; a trap laid out for them in the shadows that stretched out into the fake trees, the feeling that predatory eyes were locked on the back of his head at all times. It made him shift his feet anxiously and curl his hands into fists, actively having to keep his breathing steady.

“You’re the one in the puzzle, so pipe down and listen!” Monokuma barked in a stroke of anger. Clearing its throat, it began in a (sort of) soothing voice. “Once upon a time, a hiker was making his way through a trail deep within the mountains. The sun was slowly setting, casting blankets of gentle orange tones across the gradually darkening sky. The hiker had begun to grow weary from his many hours of walking, of admiring, of relishing in the beauty of mother nature. And so, the hiker decided to settle down for the night, replenishing his energy to resume his travels tomorrow. All he had to do was look for a safe and comfortable place to set up camp.”

After a lapse of silence, Kokichi left Shuichi’s side, walking towards the river. Shuichi figured that this pause must be for them to reenact the story, so he followed suit and began investigating.

The room wasn’t very big, he found out as he walked directly into the wall. The screens really were convincing, and so long as he didn’t think about it too hard, it sort of felt like he was truly out in the mountains. Even if he knew it was just a set, it was… nice, in a way.

While Shuichi was following the wall to the edge of the river, Monokuma suddenly startled speaking again, almost startling him into tripping. Just like a real forest, the ground was full of loose twigs and dirt, further adding to the illusion.

“Now to introduce our second character, the ambiguous animal.”

The minute those words were spoken, a loud snap and crunch ripped through the otherwise still air. Shuichi only had a split second to wonder what that was before he heard a dull thump, followed by an ear-piercing scream.

Shuichi was back in the center of the room before he even processed what had happened, looking around wildly for any sign of his partner. It wasn’t something he had considered before, but there was quite a bit of brush on the ground, which could easily hide something in the dying light of the setting sun.

Finding Kokichi became tremendously easy as he saw his partner sit up from behind a rather large bush, but something was wrong. His eyes were wide, filled with tears that threatened to spill out in the blink of an eye. His breaths came in short, thin gasps, which couldn’t possibly be good on his lungs.

Fear and concern and everything in between struck Shuichi like a knife being driven through his heart, causing his body to move without his input as he rushed forward.

It took him a moment to see what was wrong, but when he did, his stomach rolled unpleasantly.

A dirty, rusted bear trap had clamped its dull teeth over Kokichi’s ankle.

“While stalking the undergrowth for tonight’s dinner, the animal had been an unfortunate victim to a bear trap placed by a previous traveler!” Monokuma was saying.

“Why am I the animal!? OW! FUCK!” Kokichi cried, his voice breaking in a twisted mixture of fury and agony. It hurt to hear.

“Don’t move too much!” Shuichi warned him, catching his hands before he could grab the bear trap to try and pry it open. “It may be dull, b-but I don’t want to risk you losing your foot. Just stay still, okay?”

“STAY STILL!?” Kokichi bellowed, making Shuichi jump back. “How am I supposed to stay still when– God, fuck, ow! Ow–! GET IT OFF OR SO HELP ME–”

“Calm down!” Shuichi shouted over his rather colorful string of swears. He tried to grab Kokichi’s shoulders with both of his hands, but simply trying to move his left arm sent spikes of pain through his body, so he settled with just one hand. “I’ll get it off, I promise. Just try and– and just don’t struggle, it’ll only make things worse.”

Kokichi must either have one hell of a supply of self control, or he had a pretty high pain tolerance, because he nodded and sat back, placing his hands in the dirt to keep himself upright. With Kokichi docile, Shuichi moved his attention to the bear trap. As he had initially noticed, it was extremely dull, and its teeth must have been worn down just enough to not bite Kokichi’s foot clean off. Despite this, the steel was still digging deep into Kokichi’s skin, blood dyeing the white fabric of his clothing pink.

“This must have been made specially for the puzzle,” Shuichi mused under his breath. “Can you feel your foot, Kokichi?”

“I c-can–.. gh, ow– I can feel how much it hurts,” Kokichi hissed through gritted teeth. “P-Pry it apart or something, I don’t know. J-Just get it off!”

Shuichi shook his head mournfully. “I’m pretty sure bear traps are designed so they’re impossible to pull apart. I- I don’t know much about them, though, um… the puzzle might give me a clue, just hang in there.”

“The hiker, who had been nearby, heard the animal’s wretched cry and cautiously approached to see what had happened,” Monokuma continued narrating while they spoke. “And he found the animal, who was writhing in agony. It was hurt and confused, unsure why someone would so cruelly place down the trap it was caught in. I mean, the only bear in the area was totally friendly, so why do such a thing? The hiker thought similarly, so he felt nothing but pity for the poor animal. He wanted to help the animal, but every time he drew near, it bit him, fear blinding it and causing it to violently lash out at the hiker, who only wanted to help. Seeing as the sun was sinking lower and lower beyond the mountain range, the hiker knew he only had so much time. 

“He had two options: firstly, he could help the wounded animal, but he would risk his life by staying out past dark. For you see, this mountain was cursed; scary creatures roamed the forest when the light of the sun was gone, feasting on whatever living creatures they could get their long, boney claws on.”

“There’s the time limit,” Shuichi murmured to himself, standing back up.

“Helping the animal could take quite some time though, as it was a stubborn little bastard who continuously pokes its nose where it shouldn’t,” Monokuma growled, which was most definitely a targeted remark. “It might not like the solution, and so it’ll fight the hiker until its stubbornness gets them both killed. The other option the hiker considered was leaving the animal, ignoring it in favor of saving his own life. What would the hiker do, I wonder?”

As it said this, the door to the Objective Room opened back up.

It took a moment for the situation he was in to process, but when it did, Shuichi didn't know whether he was horrified or angry.

I’m being given the option to abandon Kokichi to save myself…? He clenched his fists– or rather, tried to. He didn’t know what that toxin had done to his body but it had seriously messed up his arm.

That wasn’t important right now, though. He jabbed his (mostly) uninjured hand up at the ceiling, in lack of knowing where Monokuma was watching them from. It– the mastermind– must be out of their mind if they thought he was going to book it the second he got the chance to.

“You think I’m really going to take the safe way out?” Shuichi spat at the bear, wherever it was right now. “Bullshit. I’m never going to abandon Kokichi. Tell me what I need to do.”

“The hiker is apparently very mean to the guy offering him safety,” Monokuma commented sadly. “This is why writers get writer's block… but alright, the hiker decided to risk himself to save the wounded animal. To do so, he’d have to work fast! First, the hiker went in search of his bag, which he had dropped when the animal had cried out. He had an important tool in that backpack, which would make the rescuing process that much easier.”

Shuichi didn’t think twice. He hurried away from Kokichi’s side, targeting where he had been investigating before. If he was the hiker in this scenario, then the bag would likely be where he had been looking around before Kokichi had screamed, and that was by the edge of the river against the wall.

With this in mind, Shuichi wasted no time in heading to that spot in the room. He made sure to watch where he was stepping though, knowing perfectly well the consequences of what would happen if he didn’t and got unlucky. They’d have a major problem on their hands if he got caught in a bear trap as well, and while it was unlikely, Shuichi wasn’t going to take any chances.

The bag was indeed where he had been before, leaning against a tree. It was a huge, brown hiker's bag, the kind that could crack a person’s skull open if they got hit with it. He had no idea how this thing worked, so he yanked down the first zipper he got his hands on and pried open the compartment.

With this, Shuichi discovered that the bag was primarily empty aside from a singular item.

When Monokuma had mentioned an “important tool’, he hadn’t considered what it could be, only registering the instruction to find the backpack and running with it. It hadn’t really occurred to him what might come next.

Inside the backpack was a wire basket dog muzzle.

“The sun was setting lower and lower, and so the hiker retrieved the tool from his backpack and rushed back to the animal, knowing little time remained,” said Monokuma; a silent prompt to get him moving.

I have to put this… on Kokichi?

Further looking at it, it looked like there were no buckles or belts that he had to fasten. In fact, the leather straps were extremely hard, and he realized that this was going to be a permanent addition. If there were no buckles, that meant it shared the same technology as what had been used for keeping their collars connected. And while Shuichi still wasn’t sure whether that was a magnetic force or what, the important fact was that once this was on, Kokichi wasn’t going to be able to take it off.

With a firm shake of his head, Shuichi gripped the muzzle tight and turned back towards where Kokichi still sat, hurrying over. He didn’t have time to think about how it worked or what the consequences would be, he just needed to save Kokichi before the sun set.

It was getting dangerously dark when Shuichi came back, and the minute Kokichi saw what he was holding, his pupils shrank in size and he shuffled backwards as much as he could, hurt and anger plastered all over his expression. He looked so vulnerable in this condition, and it made Shuichi angry for him. Kokichi hated being seen as weak, he knew that much. For the puzzles to have beaten him down to the point where he could hardly even hide the pain he was in…

Or maybe he’s letting you see it, whispered the quietest part of his mind. Maybe he doesn’t see a point in hiding it from you anymore, since you’re both going to die here anyway.

“Shuichi.” Hearing his name spat out with such venom made him shudder. “I-If you put that thing on me, I swear… for the love of god…”

“I have to,” Shuichi told him weakly, dropping to his knees. “If I do this, then maybe Monokuma will tell me how to undo the bear trap.”

“You think your scrawny arms are going to undo it?” Kokichi spat at him, lifting his arm in some sort of defensive motion. The act sent a pang of guilt through Shuichi’s chest, and he faltered, now hesitating. “At least let me die with dignity. C-Come on, Shuichi… Shu… y-you love me, don’t you? Right? We knew we were going to die, s-so… at least d-don’t muzzle me like a dog before I have to g-go…”

The way he tripped over his words, anxiety and… fear seeping into his shaking voice… it made Shuichi feel sick to his stomach. Could he really find the strength to muzzle his partner, even if it was to save his life?

“The animal was fearful towards the hiker when he presented the muzzle, but it was all with best intentions,” Monokuma’s irritating voice continued. “After all, the hiker couldn’t help if the animal bit him every time he got close. So despite the animal’s protests and struggles, the hiker wrestled the muzzle onto it.”

Kokichi blanched at those words, the remaining color draining from his face as he eyed the muzzle distrustingly. Shuichi didn’t understand this sudden change in attitude– of course, he’d be upset if he had to be muzzled, but he wouldn’t prefer death over it.

“I just want you to survive with me,” Shuichi told him as calmly as he could manage. “Do… do you really want to die like this? I thought you said… you wanted to die fighting. I can save you, why don’t you want me to…?”

“Do I… r-really have to tell you?” Kokichi retorted sharply, shooting him an indignant glare. “Nngh… I-I said all that b-before I knew who the mastermind was. I don’t see a point in playing her game if it’s just going to… to please her more!”

Ah. The mastermind. They had yet to discuss it, but Kokichi had blurted out a few hints back in the dream puzzle. Granted, Shuichi hadn’t had very much time to think about it, being busy with… everything else… but he was pretty sure he knew who it was. It was a hard pill to swallow, but after everything, Shuichi trusted Kokichi’s word above all else.

Most of the time, anyway. If there was one thing he’d stand up to Kokichi about, it’d be suicide. After what they had just experienced, it was still a pretty sore subject fresh on Shuichi’s mind.

“So you’re giving up?” Shuichi challenged. It was a low blow, he knew that, but he couldn’t think of any other way to get through to him.

And it worked. Kokichi’s expression sharpened into a glare, though the effect was tainted by the pained pinch in his features. “I– I’m not giving up. l’m just not giving her what she wants– ow, fuck! C-Can’t you just screw around with the trap until y-you… undo it…?”

“I wouldn’t recommend that,” Monokuma interjected suddenly. “That bear trap was made specially by yours truly for this puzzle, so you can’t work around it. The only way to unlock it is to follow the story, then you’ll be able to pull back the springs. And don’t worry about it being too difficult to open– I designed it specially so that someone could do it with even just one hand!”

“Stay outta our business!” Kokichi barked up at the ceiling, before turning his teary eyes back towards Shuichi. “Let me make this… very clear. I– listen, I don’t want to wear a m-muzzle. I would rather die than wear a flippin’ muzzle.”

Shuichi glanced over at the fake mountains, where only a fraction of the sun was peeking out.

“I don’t want you to die,” Shuichi pressed urgently. “Please, Kokichi. It’s just us in here, who cares about the mastermind?”

“They can clearly watch us, though,” Kokichi snapped. “There’s a limit to what I’ll do to survive. Humiliating myself is part of that limit. I- I don’t want the mastermind thinking… th-thinking she had control over me.”

“When has that ever mattered?” Shuichi demanded, sitting back on his knees to glare back at his partner.

Kokichi hesitated for only a moment, his expression flipping rapid-fire through a ton of emotions Shuichi couldn’t discern before he finally managed to speak. “I- I don’t want to be silenced. Besides… wh-what’s the point in trying? If we know we’re gonna die, why– why even try? Why f…f-fight if it only serves to entertain the m-mastermind?”

They shared a lapse of silence, accompanied only by the idle sounds of the forest.

“...did… did something happen after I… hung myself?” Shuichi finally dared to ask.

Ah. Kokichi flinched at the question– legitimately flinched, which seemed to agitate the steel teeth digging into his skin. It seemed he guessed correctly.

“...killing myself… felt so freeing,” Kokichi confessed in the softest of tones, his voice so quiet Shuichi had to strain to hear it. “M-Maybe it’s the… the puzzle still having after effects, but I want to die so fucking b-badly. I don’t… want to do this anymore…”

I want to die.

No. 

No, Shuichi couldn’t allow himself to resonate with that thought process. He was so lucky to be alive– to be as lucky as he had been been so far with his wonderful uncle and his dear friends.

He couldn’t… he couldn’t afford to think like that. Knowing death was imminent didn’t meant he wanted it– he had simply accepted that fact. More than anything, Shuichi wanted to live. He refused to throw away the life his uncle had bought him back.

(He had been trying to tell himself that over and over. “I want to live”. “I want to survive”.

Did that make it true, though?)

“Kokichi.” At his name, Kokichi looked back up at him. “We’re leaving this puzzle with each other… one way or another. I’m not letting you kill yourself.”

“S-Shuichi?” Kokichi tried, shrinking back slightly.

Something about hearing Kokichi say he wanted to die… Shuichi simply couldn’t stand it. If he wanted to die, then what was the point of the past nine puzzles they had endured? What was the point of promising their love to each other if it was going to end so soon?

“We have to try,” Shuichi told him firmly, lifting the muzzle again. “A-And… if wearing a muzzle is the price to pay for your survival… then I will make you wear it.”

Kokichi looked stunned. “...excuse me?”

He meant what he said. He had to push down any form of hesitance; he had to banish himself of any second thoughts. People who crave death don’t think rationally when they’re at the very edge. Shuichi knew that, because he had been that way before. Not everyone had the ability to reason with themselves.

As much as he didn’t want to do this, the sun was almost entirely gone. He was working with only the faintest sliver of light, and he still had to undo the bear trap and pull Kokichi back to the Objective Room. They didn’t have time to bargain– call Shuichi selfish, but after such a scare during the Tank Puzzle, he was not going to allow Kokichi to die. He had a fair chance to save him this time– one that wouldn’t end in… punishment… neither.

Kokichi might never forgive me for this. 

With that in mind, Shuichi lunged forward, brandishing the muzzle as if it were a weapon– which it may as well be, with the way they had been discussing it.

Getting it on him was actually much easier than he thought it’d be, as awful as the thought was. Kokichi didn’t put up much of a fight, though that might be because of the pain in his leg and his broken ribs that they had collectively done very little to care for. He pressed the muzzle over his partner's nose and mouth, and despite how hard it was to make his left arm work in the way he wanted it to, he pulled the strap around his partner’s head. 

The two connecting pieces clicked together in the same way their collars had way back when, permanently sealing Kokichi’s fate.

With that, Shuichi heard a snap as the springs to the bear trap retracted, and he thought he saw the jaws loosen ever-so slightly.

“What–” Kokichi gasped as he seemed to fully process just what happened. “Ow– ghaah! Ow! Wh-What the hell is wrong with you– huh? Ah–!”

“It turned out that the muzzle was perfectly fitted to the animal’s face,” Monokuma stated, and Shuichi could hear the snicker in its voice; it was amused. “It’s quite fortunate the animal was not any bigger– otherwise, it would hurt the animal to move its jaw. At least it can still talk! But with the sun setting and the hiker’s safety somewhat ensured, he easily undid the bear trap and started guiding the animal back to the trail, where they would be safest.”

Shuichi didn’t want to look at Kokichi’s wounded expression. He gripped either side of the bear trap with both hands, faltering momentarily as pain shot up his arm. But after a deep breath, he pried apart its jaws, startling even himself in the process as they actually moved.

Monokuma did say it was specially made. Maybe this was simpler to make, Shuichi guessed as Kokichi pulled his foot out of its grasp, his inhale broken and quaking with pain as he moved.

“Can you stand?” Shuichi asked him, already standing up for himself. He’d ignore the pain in his own body if it meant he could ensure his and Kokichi’s safety. “Come on, please, Kokichi…”

“Why would you…” Kokichi was whimpering, his hands planted firmly on the wired cage around his mouth. “I– ow, I t-told you to–”

It was just the start of the day, Shuichi knew. But between the events of the puzzle in the subway, having to kill himself in such a real-feeling dream, and then the stress of this puzzle, he could not handle this today. Shuichi never thought he could feel so emotionally beaten down. Perhaps everything had been building up to this moment; like water filled to the very brim of its container, and the slightest gust of wind finally making it all spill out. He could not deal with the guilt or the fear or the searing shame that came with forcing his partner, the one who he had just promised to warmly love not even an hour ago, to wear something he so clearly despised.

Tears came to his own eyes, ones that finally slipped free and rolled down his cheeks. A lump formed in his throat as everything was simply too much, and he really did want to feel bad for what he did, but feeling anything right now was so overwhelming.

Need to be there… for Kokichi, he reminded himself as he tried to dry his eyes, failing. He’s in a sensitive state of mind, that’s why– that’s why he wants to die, so I have to get him somewhere safe. Only I can do that… so just… deal with it for a little longer…!

“Kokichi, god dammit, please,” he begged his partner, offering out his hand. “Just come back to the Objective Room with me.”

“I–” Kokichi started, but he quickly cut himself off. Whether that was because he was in too much pain to function or he, too, was emotionally exhausted, Shuichi didn’t know. But Kokichi reluctantly accepted his hand and, in a grand team effort, stood up.

Since his ankle was injured and bleeding heavily– in fact, with the force that the bear trap had come down on his ankle, Shuichi wouldn’t be surprised if it or part of his leg was broken. That didn’t bode well for their future, but it was something they’d have to worry about later. Shuichi allowed Kokichi to lean on him, and together, they very slowly limped back towards the door to safety.

The light died in the puzzle room very soon after they started moving, and Shuichi could feel the way Kokichi’s shaking intensified. He felt the same way– an animalistic snarling resonated far into the fake trees, though it sounded so real that it sent a wave of adrenaline crashing all throughout his body.

Thankfully though, they were close enough to get into the Objective Room before anything got to them, and the door shut behind them the second they stepped inside. Kokichi was breathing heavily, his breaths coming in agonized, weak rasps that made his eyes cloud and his head droop dangerously.

“Bathroom,” Shuichi murmured aloud, wrapping his other arm around Kokichi’s chest so that he was practically holding him upright. “Come on, you’ll be okay… I’ve got you…”

It wasn’t until they were both in the bathroom, with Kokichi sitting in the tub without pants and water cleaning the blood from his wound, that Shuichi came to a little. His senses were slowly starting to return to him, and the first thought he registered was, I need to give him bandages.

With Kokichi holding a rag over the wound, and thus stopping some of the bleeding, Shuichi stopped the stream of water from the detachable showerhead and hurried to the medicine cabinet just outside. It was honestly a miracle they hadn’t screwed anything up in trying to tend to their own injuries, and Shuichi certainly hoped they weren’t going to start now.

Right now, his priority was stopping the bleeding. That was a pretty simple task considering how many times he’s done it so far– and it was even simpler, since it was a straight limb and not something like his hands. Bandaging hands was not easy, he’d tell you that.

With bleeding no longer being a major issue, he gazed down worriedly at his partner, who was pointedly avoiding looking at him. Despite his averted gaze, he couldn’t hide the muzzle wound tightly around his face; something that he’d have to wear until he died. All because of… Shuichi…

Get it together, Shuichi snapped at himself, shaking his head to try and clear his thoughts. It’s better than dying because you weren’t thinking straight.

“I think… wanting to die can be an addicting thing,” Shuichi finally found the courage to speak. “Once you start thinking like that, it’s hard to stop… and even when you think it’s gone, the even smallest misfortune can bring it all crashing back. Believe me, I know how you feel– I’ve thought about it over and over. ‘What’s the point in trying if we’re going to die anyway?’ But I think, ah… I think trying is all we can do. Not just for Kaito, Maki, Keebo, Himiko, and… even Tsumugi, I guess, but for ourselves, too. I don’t want to roll over and take it. None of our classmates did, so why do I deserve to sit down and die while everyone else fought so hard to survive?”

Kokichi was still silent. That was okay, Shuichi supposed. He didn’t have to say anything.

“Knowing that you’re going to die isn’t the same as wanting to,” Shuichi decided to continue. “But knowing that death is near… doesn’t it make you want to try harder? Even if no one else is here to see us, I want to do everything I can before I die. I want to know that I died trying my hardest to keep living. I think… it’ll be less painful that way. S-So, if you’ve given up, then… I won’t stop you in the next puzzle. B-Because, I love you, and I want to see you happy, Kokichi– or whatever happiness is in a place like this. But I’m not going to stop fighting.”

“Oh, for f-fucks sake, you sound like Kaito,” Kokichi finally scoffed. And while his voice was quiet and even meek, Shuichi thought he heard a hint of relief lying somewhere under his exasperated tone. “You’ve spent too much time around that idiot. You’re making speeches now. G-Gross. Stop.”

Shuichi couldn’t help but crack a small smile at the remark. “Ah… I just spoke from the heart, is all.”

“Oghh… t-that’s even worse,” groaned Kokichi. “...but, I guess you’re right. These puzzles are finally getting to me, I think. I- I don’t like that they’re changing me.”

“Things have been really stressful in the past few hours,” Shuichi reminded him softly. “That, plus the blackout…”

Kokichi rolled his eyes. “Know what? You’re right. I’ll live. I’ll go down fighting dirty… it’s actually sort of romantic when you think about it.”

“Wh-What? Dying together is romantic…?”

“See? We’re made for each other. We even think alike.”

Shuichi wasn’t so sure about that, but he could sort of see where Kokichi was coming from.

“By the way, I’m in an unbearable amount of pain right now,” Kokichi informed him leisurely. “Can you help me to the bed pretty please, my beloved, light of my life, mi amor–”

“Okay, okay, I will,” Shuichi interrupted him before he could go on. “My arm hurts a lot, too… the one I was, um… pricked with.”

“Ah.” No further words were needed for Kokichi to understand what he was referring to. “Well, let’s limp dramatically to bed. Help me up.”

It was a relief to see that some of his humor had returned. Shuichi wasn’t sure if he was putting up a front or if he was actually feeling a little better, but either way, Shuichi felt a little reassured.

Between Shuichi’s screwed up arm and Kokichi’s probably broken foot, getting to bed was much easier in concept. The body strength he had built up from those nights training had faded by now, his limbs still sore from overexertion, so supporting Kokichi as he walked was significantly much more difficult. And the adrenaline had faded fully, so such a short distance felt extremely unforgiving on their bodies.

Despite all of this, they made it. Small victories, he reasoned with himself as he helped Kokichi get comfortable. And after a moment of contemplation, he laid down next to him, pulling the blankets over them both.

“Aren’t you gonna eat?” Kokichi pointed out. “It’s still morning. We have another puzzle to do.”

“I feel like that’d be unfair…” Shuichi murmured, averting his gaze from Kokichi’s. “After all, um… you can’t eat like this.”

After a long moment, Kokichi narrowed his eyes. “You’re not going to eat no matter what I say, are you?”

“No.”

“Damn it… some of my stubbornness rubbed off on you,” he cursed, and Shuichi couldn’t smother a small laugh. “Well, fine. I’ll make you eat later– that can be your payment back to me.”

That was fine by Shuichi, though he wasn’t sure if they would remember about such a deal after the eleventh– tenth? Did the puzzle they dreamed about really count? Either way, the next puzzle was most likely going to be absolute hell on both of them. Even thinking about what was to come killed the little appetite he had.

It’s only been five days and I can’t even keep track of what’s happened to us, he silently lamented. The thought brought a small frown to his face– had it really only been five days? It felt like it had been an eternity since this whole ordeal started.

(Usually, somebody would have died by now.)

“Ah… Kokichi. Now that everything has calmed down a bit, can you tell me what happened during the blackout?” Shuichi requested hurriedly in an attempt to wave off the gruesome thought. “You said you know who the mastermind is.”

“The mastermind.” Kokichi let out a small, weary sigh. “Alright, sure. It’s not like it matters if you know or not. So, after I went down those stairs…”

“I could not be any more positive that it’s Tsumugi. I definitely saw her.”

“Tsumugi’s the mastermind…” Shuichi contemplated under his breath. “...I’m not sure how to feel about that. I-I mean, I believe you, but…”

“You’re surprised someone so plain and boring was the mastermind?” Kokichi guessed with a small side smirk.

“I guess so…?” That was part of it, but… “I’m surprised because she seems so… harmless.”

“What was your first impression of me when we met?” Kokichi unexpectedly asked him.

That felt wildly off topic, but Shuichi was used to this kind of thing by now. “Um… hmm… I thought you were a little odd. Definitely a part of the more energetic group… your looks definitely threw my initial assumptions off, too. Then you revealed your lying habit, and… I don’t know. You got more and more confusing from there and at some point I gave up trying to make sense of you.”

“So you didn’t think I was anything to be worried about?” Kokichi summarized.

“I suppose– oh.”

“Rule number one of people: never judge based on appearance,” Kokichi told him with a playful poke in the forehead. “Your instinctive interpretation of them could put you at a disadvantage. So be friendly with everyone, but be cautious, too.”

“I don’t know how to do both,” Shuichi admitted, already having lost track of the conversation.

“Basically don’t get your hopes too high,” Kokichi corrected himself. “People can surprise you in more ways than one, so always keep that in mind.”

“I… will. Thanks.” He would not. He had no idea what they were talking about. Besides, this advice would be of no use to them when they were dead.

“Back to Tsumugi, I’d bet even she didn’t expect  blackout to happen,” his partner continued thoughtfully. “I’ve been thinking a lot about it, and it was either Kaito or Maki who did it.”

“Why them?” Shuichi inquired.

“They’re the only ones stupid enough to dig through my stuff,” Kokichi replied immediately, his voice holding a bitter undertone despite sounding so cheerful. “Keeboy wouldn’t set off something he knows would make him sick or even put him to sleep. Tsumugi, despite being the mastermind, would never cause a blackout. Himiko wouldn’t even think about breaking into my room. It can only be those two. I still have no idea how they managed to cause a blackout in the entire academy, but they probably screwed around with Miu’s other stuff.”

“Wait, wait. Why did you have something that could cause a blackout, anyway?” Shuichi demanded in faint alarm.

Kokichi’s smile beneath the wires grew a little more wry. “It was for that plan I mentioned. Y’know, the one this motive screwed over? I was gonna use it to knock out the cameras. All it did was disable all electronics for a few hours– I didn’t expect it to be able to turn off all electronics. That’s not what it was made to do.”

“Why would Kaito and Maki turn off the power?” Shuichi wondered aloud. He admittedly hadn't been thinking much about what his friends were doing back at the academy, but when he considered it, they were probably doing everything they could to get the two of them out of this hell.

“I have a few guesses,” said Kokichi. “And the best one I have is that they wanted to get into a room that was locked. Namely, the hidden room in the library. Since we’re not free from this place, obviously a murder didn’t happen, so that’s the most probable reason. I don’t know why they didn’t just use the hammers again, but–”

“Hammers? What even was this plan of yours, anyway? If, ah, you don’t mind telling me…”

That question made Kokichi go silent, staring blankly at him in return. Shuichi shifted uncomfortably under his intense gaze, though he had gotten used to the prickling feeling under his skin that came from it, as if Kokichi was dissecting his brain simply by looking at him.

It must have been something pretty personal to ask, Shuichi realized a little too late. This “plan” was something Kokichi had talked sensitively about in the past, merely claiming that it would have ended the killing game entirely. Whatever it was, it had required everyone to oppose Kokichi– the unfortunate sacrifices of Miu and Gonta were evident of that fact. If Kokichi had found the strength to pin a crime on his friend, then it must be something that required a lot of sacrifice.

You must play the killing game to end the killing game. Isn’t that what Kokichi had said? Did that way of thinking play into more than the events of the fourth trial…?

But then, completely unexpectedly, Kokichi shrugged slightly.

“Sure, why not. I’m past the point of caring.”

Chapter Text

Nobody came to breakfast that morning. In fact, Kaito was sure that no one had left their room at all since the blackout.

As disappointed as he was to admit it, he had also been pent up in his room for most of the day. He had showed up at the dining hall, and when he found it empty, he settled on making himself food and eating alone before going back to his room to lay down. It wasn’t like he wanted to be cooped up all day! He was just aware of the effects this sickness was having on his body and he knew not to push it too much. Just the travel during the blackout had taken out nearly everything in him, not even considering the air slowly becoming unbreathable.

But that wasn’t the only reason, he knew. He had a pretty good guess as to why everyone was hiding. And it had to do with the video broadcast that had happened a few minutes before the power came back on.

When it happened, he had abandoned K1-B0’s side to look at the nearest monitor in nothing short of confusion. The robot had been just waking up somewhere behind him when suddenly, Shuichi’s exhausted face appeared close to the camera.

His sidekick didn’t respond to anything Kaito said, and he had quickly realized that what he was responding to was most likely where Maki, Himiko and Tsumugi were– mostly because Shuichi had outright said Maki’s name. He has blabbered on and on about the randomest of things, struggling to stay on one topic as his words were broken by hoarse gasps or, most worryingly, bloody coughing fits. Kaito couldn’t even begin to describe the feeling of his heart plummeting as he watched his sidekick hack out blood in the same way he did.

By the time Shuichi had collapsed, K1-B0 had made his way over to his side, apparently seeing the final bits of the strange broadcast. And then, mere moments later, Tsumugi had rocketed past them both, tears streaming down her cheeks. Kaito could shamefully understand the feeling– an unmanly fear had struck a chord deep in his chest, planting an irritating seed of dread and, most dangerously of all, distrust in his mind.

If Shuichi and Kokichi died, then they would too. And from the looks of it, they were hanging on by the thinnest of threads, using only each other as support to keep going. And even now, Kaito had no idea if that was the case, given the condition Shuichi had been in.

(“But it’s! Fine now! Ko saved me s-so I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine…”)

With a shudder, Kaito sat upright in his unmade bed, too restless to stay sitting. This was ridiculous– they weren’t going to make any progress just laying around here and doing nothing! If they wanted to put a stop to the death puzzles to save their classmates, then they needed to actually do something. The second puzzle was going to start very soon, so they still had time.

Washing his face, he slipped on his shoes and jacket and left his stuffy dorm room, his destination automatically set on his remaining sidekick’s door. He wasn’t going to sit around and wait for death to knock on his door, he was going to find death and punch it in the face. It would be nice to have the backup of his sidekick, though. He could take care of himself, but… moral support and all that.

Kaito took immense joy in ringing Maki’s doorbell over, and over, and over again in rapid succession. He only stopped when she slammed open the door hard enough to give a man a concussion, and he instinctively jumped back from the evident danger with his hands up. The thunderous look on her face was simultaneously the most amusing and most terrifying thing Kaito had ever faced.

“Hey, Maki Roll!” he greeted her as he always would, quickly relaxing in her presence. Maki would never hurt him, so he wasn’t worried. “We missed out on training last night ‘cause of the blackout, but I was thinking–”

“No,” Maki told him before he could even finish.

“I wasn’t do–”

“No,” she interrupted him again. “I know what you’re about to suggest, and why. My answer is no.”

Kaito scowled, consciously trying not to look like a pouting child. “Why not?”

“Because going out at night is dangerous,” Maki replied matter-of-factly. “And anything could happen with only two of us out there. If we’re outside and those two die, we’ll be easy targets for the exisals or Monokuma’s that come to kill us. Not only that, but you’re sick, and I’m not carrying you back if you throw up or pass out. I know the toxic air took a toll on you.”

“Wh–”

“There’s more. I don’t want to train– it’s a waste of time,” she barreled over his attempt to speak. “Other times it was fine, but not only have we lost Shuichi, he’s in terrible condition, which doesn’t bode well for any future death puzzle. There’s a high chance that either one of them is going to fail again, and I doubt they’ll get off with only a punishment next time they try to revive each other. And we’ve investigated everything we can, there’s nothing else to look at. We could try finding the entrance to those puzzles, but what’s the point? We’ve flipped this academy upside down trying to find one and we’ve turned up with nothing for five days now. There’s too few of us to explore alone, because if a murder occurs, we’ll all have no alibi and the trial will be long and difficult, especially considering we’ve lost our two main thinkers.”

“Uh, can I–”

“I’ve been going over the evidence we have and I’m going to find a conclusion. I’m working alone to find the mastermind, and tomorrow…” Maki’s already intense, red eyes darkened significantly, her gaze shifting from irritation to downright deadly. “...I’m going to end the killing game.”

“End it? You mean…” Kaito trailed off, realization slowly dawning on him. “Maki Roll, you aren’t seriously going to–”

“I am. And I will. And you can’t stop me,” Maki informed him, her voice holding an ominous note of finality that Kaito had the sinking feeling he couldn't argue with. “I have everything I need. I’m just waiting for the final clue to fall into place, and then I’ll have the truth. And then, this killing game is over.”

With that declaration, she slammed the door in his face, leaving him completely stunned standing alone in the dormitory lobby.

***

“Hey Shuichi. You know what I just remembered?”

“Hm?”

Kokichi propped his head up with his arm, turning to look at Shuichi as he leaned upright on his pillow. “Weren’t you coughing up blood? What happened to that?”

“Oh.” Bitterness rose in Shuichi’s throat at the reminder, but he disregarded his emotions in favor of his partner. “I stopped doing that when I woke up. I think it was, ah... an effect from the venom.”

“That sure wore off fast,” Kokichi commented nonchalantly. “You sure your lungs aren’t feeling screwed up? Do you perhaps have an urge to explore the vast expanse of space?”

“Alright, enough,” Shuichi lightly scolded him. “My throat has felt sort of scratchy, but that’s it. The only thing I’m still feeling from it is extreme exhaustion, and… lingering pain in my arm.”

“It does look swollen,” mused Kokichi. “Can you make a fist?”

Shuichi lifted his left hand slightly, trying his best to follow Kokichi’s instructions. To his credit, his fingers did curl a fair amount, but he couldn’t even press his fingertips against his palms. Grimacing, he let his hand relax again, silently noting that it was shaking slightly.

“Wow. They got you good,” Kokichi hummed, having been staring intently at his hand. “Hmm… do you think we can ask Monokuma reeeally nicely for ibuprofen, or maybe even methylprednisolone?”

“I don’t know what that last one is, but doubt it,” Shuichi sighed. “We were lucky to get that bottle of mystery pills.”

“I want to try some after tonight’s puzzle,” Kokichi confessed with an exhausted yawn. “I’m hoping it'll knock me out.”

Shuichi blinked in faint bewilderment at the boy. “Is… is that safe?”

“Probably not.”

“Ah.”

The room fell silent once more, but the lack of sound wasn’t as uncomfortable as it would normally be. Trying not to let his shyness show on his face, he edged his good hand forward until his fingers interlocked with Kokichi’s. He didn’t know how long they had left until the evening puzzle began, but he couldn’t imagine it was very long. He wanted to savor this comfort as much as possible before the puzzle began.

As he expected, the monitor chimed its usual four-part melody, indicating not only the beginning of nighttime but the start of the next puzzle. Shuichi pushed himself up and out of bed before he could talk himself out of it, and although it was a bit of a mental shock at the sudden change, he didn’t want to risk being late.

“I’ll help you walk,” he reassured Kokichi before he could say anything. “I’d carry you, but…”

“Twigs arms, yeah, I know.” Kokichi flicked his hand dismissively, appearing unbothered. “Fine by me. I can’t stoop much lower than wearing a muzzle, after all.”

Shuichi winced guiltily, but he figured that the statement was fair. If he wanted to passive-aggressively insult Shuichi’s decision making, then he would take it in stride.

Stepping into the puzzle room felt like getting hit with an emotional sledgehammer. It took him approximately two seconds to recognize the layout of the Seating Puzzle, and although everything from that puzzle was vacant, he could still feel the weight of death lingering in the air.

Where the stage was supposed to be there was now a big machine of sorts, and the chairs were replaced by two individual tables with a collective total of sixteen different items. The corners of the room were concealed by white curtains, likely to hide the conveyor belt from before, and the red carpet was also gone.

“It’ll be fine,” Kokichi reassured him in a low voice. He must have felt the way Shuichi’s posture went rigid, his feet rooting themselves to the ground as anxiety flooded his entire body. “No tanks to drown in this time, see? We’ll be fine.”

“...yeah,” Shuichi murmured in return, unconvinced.

Walking further into the room and letting Kokichi use one of the cheap tables as a support, Shuichi left his side to inspect the machine closer. A lot of it, like the machine from the Musical Memory Puzzle, was simply wires and hefty mechanical blocks. The two most important things of note about it was the screen and the open, concave compartment under it, which was pretty wide– he could probably fit a full school bag in it. It also seemed to be on some sort of swivel, so it could rotate and close the compartment with its back wall.

“Welcome to the twelfth puzzle: the Sorting Puzzle!” Monokuma’s voice rang out from the monitor, making him jump. “The gist of this puzzle is pretty easy, but don’t forget that it is classified as a hard-difficulty puzzle. So don’t go getting comfortable just yet! Save that mushy stuff for the Objective Room.”

“This looks like the tamest puzzle so far,” Kokichi commented dryly. “What are you gonna do, shock us? That trick’s pretty old now. Neither of us care.”

“Um… I do,” Shuichi protested weakly. He was far from used to getting electrocuted, and he doubted he ever would be.

“You’ll see,” Monokuma told them with ominous vagueness. “Here’s the deal. The screen on that machine will give you an Ultimate talent, and you have to choose which item on the table fits that talent. Put that selected item into the slot beneath the screen to progress! Of course, if you get three wrong, you die. No warning shots, no slaps on the wrists; three strikes and you’re out. Permanently!”

“See? Tame,” Kokichi said with a small smirk in Shuichi’s direction.

On the monitor, Monokuma drooped sadly. Shuichi still had no idea how he managed to look so dejected as a robotic bear. “Whatever makes you feel better, I guess, but I’d really appreciate a sense of urgency in a death puzzle I thought so hard about.”

“Can we do it already!?” Shuichi snapped. He wasn’t sure why Kokichi appeared so surprised at that, but then again, he didn’t usually shout. The stress of the puzzles must be getting to him, he presumed.

“Yeesh! If you’re so eager to do it then go right ahead! Don’t let me stop you.” With those parting words, the monitor shut off, and in turn, the screen on the machine flickered to life.

Two simple things were displayed on the screen, one consisting of numbers and the other being words. In the corner, 0/16 was displayed in white lettering, and in the center of the screen, it simply stated the words Ultimate Gamer.

“Sooo we’re playing a matching game?” Kokichi guessed as soon as Monokuma was gone. “Sounds easy enough.”

It does, Shuichi silently agreed, shifting nervously on his feet. It’s… too easy. What’s going on here?

“Well, let’s get this over with. But make sure nothing explodes in your hand,” Kokichi warned him, sounding entirely too casual for what just came out of his mouth. “Ultimate Gamer, huh? That’s got to be the greatest talent ever.”

“It… it is?” Shuichi dared to ask.

“Right after ours, of course– holy crap, is that a gun!?” Kokichi sputtered in alarm, jabbing his finger at something laying harmlessly on the table he wasn’t leaning on.

“Kokichi, I don’t think a gamer would use a gun,” Shuichi pointed out with a small frown. That seemed like a pretty big leap in judgment… he couldn’t even begin to fathom had Kokichi had come to that conclusion–

“I was exclaiming my surprise,” Kokichi informed him haughtily. “I’m not saying an Ultimate Gamer would actually use it, although that is a pretty funny mental visual.”

“...oh.”

Trying to shy away from the embarrassment, Shuichi dejectedly grabbed the video game console he spotted on one of the tables and trudged to the machine, carefully setting it down before jerking his hand back. He didn’t want to know what would happen if he left it in there for too long.

The machine hummed quietly, before releasing an affirmative ding! Shuichi watched the item disappear as the swivel rotated, and when it turned back about five seconds later, the console was gone. A quick glance up at the screen showed up 1/16 and the words Ultimate Imposter. He wasn’t sure why Kokichi looked so wildly amused.

A glance over the items told Shuichi the same thing; nothing really resonated with what he thought an “Ultimate Imposter” may be. There weren’t any masks, or wigs, or… actually, he wasn’t really sure what else there would be. He imagined the Ultimate Imposter could impersonate people… but again, that might be hard to discern in object-form.

“...a drawing tablet… a microphone… a camera…” Kokichi was listing under his breath, his brows scrunched in focus. “...AHA! Got it!”

“Wha–?”

Kokichi jabbed a finger at an object sitting at the table he wasn’t leaning on, smirking proudly. “Do that one.”

Following his gesture, Shuichi lifted up what looked like a pair of heavy-duty night-vision goggles. They were sort of heavy in his hands, putting unwelcome strain on his injured arm no matter how mild it was.

“Why this?” Shuichi questioned his partner. If they got three of these wrong, they were going to die. He wanted to make sure Kokichi had a plausible reason for this decision before randomly inserting items.

“‘cause it’s the only thing I can think of that would even mildly associate with an imposter,” Kokichi responded. Though after a moment, his casual smile twitched and he averted his eyes. “And also because it just… feels right.”

“It feels right?” Shuichi echoed dubiously.

“I’ve been having a lot of weird dreams lately,” Kokichi shrugged noncommittally. “Whenever I think about it too hard, my head starts to hurt. Super suspicious, but just know that I’m right.”

On one hand, a “feeling” was definitely not how they should be going about their reasoning right now. This was a death puzzle, so logical deductions and conclusions were practically essential towards their survival.

But on the other hand… there was no one in the world Shuichi trusted more than Kokichi.

“Alright,” he accepted with no further thought. “I hope this doesn’t kill us.”

“It won’t,” Kokichi confidently reassured him.

Shuichi let out a heavy sigh as he carried the night-vision goggles to the compartment, shoving them inside and hurriedly hopping a step back. His chest felt tight as he watched the goggles disappear, the anxiety of anticipation making it difficult to breathe.

This fear was soothed over as the screen dinged in confirmation, immediately switching to 2/16 and Ultimate Chef.

“Oh, that was right?” Kokichi exclaimed, trampling over Shuichi’s attempted calming efforts within the second. “Wow, that’s pretty cool. Maybe I’m actually remembering stuff.”

“You weren’t even sure!?” Shuichi demanded, whipping around to glare at his partner. “You told me to put it in there and you didn’t even know one-hundred percent whether it was right or not?”

“Who shoved a stick up your ass?” Kokichi retorted, lifting his hands ingenuously. “It was right, wasn’t it? And we’ve made guesses based off of way less before, so why are you so mad?”

He wasn’t sure why his heart ached so much, or why the simple act of inhaling hurt. Still though, he understood he was being irrational, so he stepped back to take a breather. Kokichi was right– they got it correct, and that’s all that mattered. Maybe he was so irritable because his arm hurt so much…?

Whatever it was, they could deal with it later. There was still a puzzle to beat.

“Sorry,” he said to Kokichi, his voice coming out meek. “I’m not mad, I promise. I’m just… stressed out, I think.”

“Nah, I get it. The gas is getting to you too, huh?” Kokichi let out a sigh, some of his composure melting away for Shuichi to see what hid beneath. He was exhausted. “It could also be that neither of us have eaten… not that I can, anyway."

Shuichi opened his mouth to spat out a snappy half-apology, but he quickly closed it after considering what exactly laid on the tip of his tongue. No, he was better than this. He had no right to be so mean to Kokichi when he was the one who forced that muzzle onto him.

“Let’s… get back to it,” Shuichi finally managed to force out in a mildly less murderous tone. “The Ultimate Chef would probably have that spatula, right? It’s the only cooking utensil I see.”

“You are such a smart cookie,” Kokichi agreed in his usual roundabout way.

With his partner’s approval, Shuichi swiped the spatula off of the table and placed it in the compartment. Unlike last time, he was comfortable with his answer, so he felt a little less suffocated as he waited for the machine to ding.

The screen changed for a third time, although this time, the words made him pause. It wasn’t anything outrageously noteworthy– it simply displayed 3/16 and Ultimate Photographer, but he realized that the entire premise of this puzzle seemed very odd. 

It may be a reach, but in the Seating Puzzle– while it was something he would rather not remember– there was a Miss Usami with a camera slung around its neck. And presently, a quick glance over his shoulder was all he needed to see a nice looking camera on the table. Now that he thought about it, there was a Monokuma wearing a cooking apron during the Seating Puzzle, too. Was that connected to this, in some way?

They have to be. That man in the Coffin Puzzle and one of the Monokuma’s had the same jacket– that means there’s a very high possibility of this being related.

But then another realization struck him.

If the people featured in the Coffin Puzzle and Seating Puzzle are now featured here, being assigned Ultimate talents…

…does that mean they were Ultimate students, like us?

It made perfect sense, but the notion made him feel nauseous. The Coffin Puzzle featured real people who died, if Monokuma was to be believed. Maybe his initial assumption way back when was correct– maybe they were related to the killing game itself, but not in the way he thought.

Maybe they were victims of a killing game.

“You’re staring at that camera like it’s about to explode,” Kokichi commented wryly, pulling him out of his thoughts. “Do you know something I don’t, perhaps?”

“I don’t think you were wrong,” Shuichi told him as he delicately picked up the camera, his hands shaking as he did so. “These people– this class– has been a recurring theme in these puzzles. I was wondering why, but… ah!” He couldn’t contain a gasp as yet another realization dawned on him.  “One of the headstones of the graves I dug up said that they were killed by their classmate! That must be referring to… yes, it has to be…”

“From what I can hear, you think the guys who keep showing up in these puzzles were a class of Ultimates, right?” Kokichi guessed nearly perfectly. “I didn’t get to see what all the graves said, though. What's this about?”

“The one I’m referring to specifically said, 'this boy’s skull caved in after he mistakenly trusted a classmate’,” Shuichi recited. It was hard to forget words that had caused him so much inner turmoil, after all. “I didn’t think much of it at the time, but… considering Rantaro was there… those all must have been victims of past killing games.”

Kokichi was silent, simply staring at him with the eerily blank expression he wore when he was deep in thought. Shuichi could understand his pause– the implication of previous killing games was perfectly horrifying in itself, but… with what they had learned so far, it made sense, right? The graves, and now this puzzle assigning everyone Ultimate talents? Shuichi couldn’t think of any other reason they’d be relevant to this whole thing if they weren’t in a killing game just like they were. The cherry on top was that Monokuma had gone out of his way to specify that the life-like mannequins in the coffins were based off of real people. It all added up, as sickening as the conclusion was.

Past killing games… others suffered like us? Did they have to watch their friends slaughter each other too…?

(And the man in the green coat… if he experienced a killing game, then…

…what could he have possibly done to deserve such a brutal fate…?)

“Hey, Shuichi… you dug up Rantaro, didn’t you? Kokichi unexpectedly asked him. “Do you remember what his headstone said?”

“His headstone…?” Shuichi echoed in quiet confusion. He wasn’t sure why he wanted to know, but… “I think it said something about Rantaro being unfortunate, and then it said his cause of death was… ‘death hit him from behind’, if I remember correctly. Why?”

Once more, his words were met with silence. However, Shuichi had been cooped up with Kokichi long enough to start spotting his subtle reactions and tells, so he didn’t miss the way Kokichi’s jaw clenched and his lips curved downward ever-so slightly. What he just said apparently held importance to Kokichi, but he wasn’t sure exactly how.

“Is… something strange about that?” Shuichi questioned him cautiously. When Kokichi didn’t immediately reply, he was surprised to feel a kindle of… panic ignite in his chest? “I-If you’re hiding something from me–”

“I’ll tell you after the puzzle, okay?” Kokichi interrupted him before he could spiral. He held out his pinkie finger, winking at him playfully. “Pinkie promise. The only reason I’m not telling you now is so we can focus on the puzzle.”

The only reason…

“...alright,” he reluctantly accepted, interlocking his own pinkie finger with Kokichi’s. “Back to the puzzle. What’s next?”

“Ultimate Swordswoman. It’s probably this.” Kokichi presented some sort of folded sword scabbard, handing it off to him.

Nodding, Shuichi took the scabbard and inserted it into the compartment.

This routine carried on for a while– a microphone for the Ultimate Musician, a fake four-leaf clover for the Ultimate Lucky Student, the gun Kokichi pointed out earlier for the Ultimate Yakuza. One by one, they easily progressed through the puzzle with no further hindrance, only pausing once or twice to contemplate the solution.

Eventually though, they reached 15/16, and the screen displayed Ultimate Animator. The only thing left on the tables was a singular drawing tablet, so Shuichi placed that in the compartment and watched as it spun out of view, an inevitable ding resonating from the screen. It showed 16/16 now, but didn’t provide them with any more Ultimate talents.

“Well that was insightful,” Kokichi commented dryly. “And… really suspicious. Did Tsumugi run out of ideas for something?”

Shuichi shivered slightly. “It’s so weird hearing you refer to the mastermind by name…”

“I had time to process things in the suicide subway,” Kokichi told him with one of his signature carefree smiles.

“Ah.” Multi-tasking like always, I guess…

However, Kokichi was right. This was really suspicious– this was probably the easiest puzzle they had done thus far, proving to be even simpler than what Monokuma had considered the “easy” puzzles. There wasn’t even a time limit, compared to a vast majority of the other puzzles they had endured.

With that in mind, there was something even stranger about this puzzle. The screen clearly displayed 16/16, which should mean that they had completed the puzzle. But the Objective Room door had yet to open.

“By the way, I’m starting to feel light-headed,” Kokichi cheerfully informed him. “I know we’ve got a lot of other problems on our hands, but I doubt you’d be able to drag me back if I passed out.”

“Maybe Monokuma got distracted… but are you okay?” Realizing the futility of asking such a question, he quickly changed it. “I-I mean, does your ankle feel any better or worse…?”

“I don’t think it’s infected, at the very least. I’m pretty sure the old look was just for show,” Kokichi replied, testing his weight on his injured foot and immediately wincing. “It’s definitely broken, though. It hurts… really bad.”

“I can imagine,” Shuichi murmured sympathetically. “If the pain is too bad, then maybe Monokuma will give you something, like it did for m–”

Ping!

The sudden sound startled him and he quickly turned around to look at the machine. The compartment had swiveled back around to reveal an item inside, and not the drawing tablet Shuichi had last placed in there.

Instead, it was a hacksaw, paired with the words on the screen: Now cut off your hand.

…

…

…what…?

“...um. He doesn’t seriously expect us to do tha– no, of course he does,” Kokichi immediately interrupted himself. “Okay, that’s why it’s a hard puzzle. Fuck. Motherfucker.”

“W-We’re not… we’re not seriously going to cut off our hands, right…?” Shuichi choked out, tearing his eyes desperately away from the screen to look at his partner.

Kokichi looked just as pale as he felt. Not even his words came out steadily. “I mean… not all of them. I-It’s a singular noun, so… maybe just one of us has to cut off one of our hands, a-and… we insert it then.”

This can’t be real.

Shuichi’s head was spinning. Usually, if this were any other situation, he’d press his denial and only hope for it to be true, but… this was the death puzzle motive. This wasn’t some sick joke the mastermind was playing on them– it was an order. And they’ve known for a very long time now that a lack of compliance would be met with punishment.

(Shuichi knew that all too well.)

This went far past anything they had done so far. Cutting themselves was one thing, but… dismembering themselves was a whole nother region of extreme. The puzzle was forcing them to go about removing their hand in the worst way possible; they had to cut it off themselves.

“Calm down… we’ve literally killed ourselves, this… this should be fine, too,” Kokichi said in a weak attempt of reassurance.

“That was a dream,” Shuichi snapped lowly, his voice hoarse with anguish. “We knew it was a dream, and th-that we’d be fine. This… this is… impossible…”

Not even Kokichi had an immediate comeback. The reality of the situation must have settled on him, too. There was no getting out of this– it was either this, or death.

But… Shuichi eyed the hacksaw, his heart thudding heavily in his chest. …I told Kokichi that I wasn’t going to stop fighting. It’d be hypocritical of me to take that back now.

We have to do this.

“Hmm… hear me out,” said Kokichi, drawing his eyes back to his partner. “Wh-What if we… cut off my hand?”

“Wh… what?” Shuichi sputtered. He wasn’t expecting tribute to be offered so quickly.

“Think about it this way. I’m already done for.” Kokichi gestured at his foot. “My fingers are totally destroyed and my palm still hasn’t fully healed from when I cut myself open in the Mirror Puzzle. My ribs are screwed up, so breathing hurts. In addition, I’m… I’m going to get even weaker, since I can’t eat or even walk. I could crawl, but there’s a point where persistence just becomes pathetic to watch. So, since I’m already beat up, let’s just… cut off my hand.”

“Kokichi…” he murmured in quiet devastation. “...haven’t you been through enough?”

“Someone clearly doesn't think so,” Kokichi grumbled with a particularly vile look up at the monitor.

Shuichi couldn’t help but frown. “I’m serious, Kokichi. You’ve been taking hit after hit… I don’t think that’s fair to you. You have been the victim of every single puzzle so far.”

“Nuh-uh, you got the Tank Puzzle. Remember?” Kokichi reminded him pointedly.

“That didn’t hurt me so much as it… emotionally scarred me.”

“What about the maze?”

“My point,” Shuichi growled through gritted teeth, “is that you’ve done enough. You’ve taken on every voluntary puzzle, and I think it’s enough. Besides…” he paused for only a moment, having to draw in a calming breath to say what he was about to. “...you’re ambidextrous.”

Kokichi stared at him in silence, his eyebrows pinched.. “...you stared at me long enough to figure that out?”

“I noticed while we were playing all those board games,” Shuichi admitted. “At first I thought you switched since your hand was hurt from the Mirror Puzzle, but then I realized you can efficiently use both with no problem. But that… isn’t the case for me.”

He lifted his left hand up for Kokichi to see, eyes trailing down his arm. He wasn’t wearing his overcoat– he hadn’t worn that thing since before the blackout. And because he was only in his white t-shirt, it was easy to see the damage visibly shown on his left arm. That venom, whatever it was, had rendered it practically useless and a complete bother. It was the most practical solution for everyone– Kokichi wouldn’t have to hurt himself any further, and Shuichi could take advantage of the effects of what happened to him.

It was the only option that made sense.

“Kokichi, I’m right-handed.”

The minute he had lifted his hand, he knew that Kokichi had understood what he meant, but those were the words that undeniably sealed his fate. Of course, Kokichi had to know that it was the best option they had; to make sure of a limb that was already hindering their progress.

“I want you to cut off my hand,” Shuichi told him more firmly. He swallowed thickly, pushing back his nerves as he walked over to seize the hacksaw. “I won’t be able to do it myself… s-so please, Kokichi. Let’s survive this together.”

“...we are so fucked up,” Kokichi whispered with a drastic shudder. His eyes were pinned on the hacksaw, and Shuichi only noticed then that he was trembling. “I– do you know how hard it is to sever somebody’s limb? You’ve got to get through the skin… the muscle, and the bone. You’re wide awake, you’d feel it all.”

“I know,” Shuichi winced, squeezing his eyes shut to blink back tears. He couldn’t back down now– it was as Kaito taught him, he had to be strong. “I… I can take it.”

“What makes you think I’m strong enough to saw off your hand?” snapped Kokichi.

“What makes you think I’m strong enough to?” Shuichi countered defiantly, placing his hand firmly on the table next to Kokichi and setting down the hacksaw. “I can barely even move my arm without it hurting like hell… a-and, I trust you, Kokichi. I trust you more than anything, so… please, I want you to be the one to do it. Cut off my hand.”

Kokichi looked like a frightened deer in headlights. “Are you… have you lost it? Legitimately lost it? If anything, since I’m ambidextrous, I should… I…”

No matter how much he tried to argue, Shuichi knew that he knew it was pointless. If they had to do this, they had to do it in the most optimal way possible. So even if it hurt like hell, and… even if Shuichi was afraid… for some reason, he felt this drive to keep going. He wasn’t sure what it was, but somewhere buried deep in the depths of his mind, there was a small flicker of light. A light that never went out, no matter what was thrown his way or how many times he was ruthlessly beaten down. Somewhere along the way, this light shrunk and diminished into only the faintest candle glow, but that ember stubbornly hung onto life, growing in durability instead of size.

It was the light of hope; the hope that they’d be saved. And that’s why Shuichi wasn’t okay with giving up here.

So if the mastermind, Tsumugi Shirogane, wanted him to cut off his hand? Fine. Watch him.

“...okay. I’ll do it,” Kokichi accepted in the smallest of voices. “These puzzles made you pushy, jeez… but even if you’re weirdly eager about letting me cut off your hand, we probably shouldn’t just saw through it like this.”

Shuichi hesitated. “What do you mean?”

“Do you know how many arteries there are in there?” Kokichi scoffed. He still looked uncertain, but at least he wasn’t outright refusing. “You’ll bleed out in less than a few minutes if we don’t do something about it.”

“So apply a tourniquet,” Shuichi suggested. “We could use your scarf, or one of the curtains.”

With a shrug, Kokichi reached up and pulled off his checkered scarf. With a bit of testing with its size, they were successfully able to establish an, albeit unconventional and extremely uncomfortable, tourniquet for Shuichi’s arm. He has never had one before, so it was a pretty new experience, though he didn’t imagine it was supposed to be nearly this painful. He assumed that was because of the pressure it was putting on his already injured arm.

“We have other things to worry about too, like shock and infection,” Kokichi mused once they were done with that. “...and how to keep you still.”

“Th-These tables are, ah… tall enough for me to cr-crouch,” Shuichi offered. Keeping his hand firmly on the surface of the table, he lowered himself onto his knees. He was at eye level with the table now, so while the position was also uncomfortable, he at least wouldn’t try and instinctively fight Kokichi. “And it keeps my hand above my heart.”

“So once it’s off… I-I just put it into that box thing, right?” clarified his partner. “And then we can drag you back to the Objective Room and… I don’t know, stuff your wrist into the blankets or something to stop the bleeding. I hope Monokuma– Tsumugi, whoever– gives us pain killers after this.”

“I will beg Tsumugi for them,” Shuichi promised sincerely. “I will beg her so much.”

Without replying, Kokichi shuffled forward until he was standing behind Shuichi, leaning over him so he could do what he needed to with his work on the table. Shuichi couldn’t deny it, he was really, really scared– how could he not be? Both he and Kokichi were afraid right now, but this wasn’t the time to back down. Their collective survival was on the line.

“We don’t have much for you to bite down on, huh?” Kokichi was murmuring. “Can you use your shirt?”

“Uuuh… ah, I– I guess so.”

“Okay. Great. See? Look at us, we are so resourceful.” Kokichi laughed softly, though it sounded ingenuine. “Try to think about something you like, ‘kay? Just leave this all to me.”

Since he was busy biting down on the lazily bunched up fabric of his shirt, he couldn’t tell Kokichi that he trusted him entirely, and the only thing he feared from this was the pain that would inevitably follow. All he could do was nod, pressing his forehead against the side of the table and bracing himself.

Everything is going to be okay.

It was all going to be fine, because he had Kokichi. And if there was anything Kokichi had proven over the course of this hell, it was that he was the most reliable person Shuichi had come to know.

He felt Kokichi maneuver his arm and hand into a more practical position, one hand pinning his arm to the table and the other holding the hacksaw. Shuichi shivered as he felt the pointed edge of the tool press against his skin, directly below the tourniquet tied above his wrist.

“Starting on the count of three, okay? This is going to take… a few minutes, so just bear with me here. Love you, Shuichi, so hold still. If I’m not allowed to die, you aren’t either. So, um… damn it, this is hard. Okay. Three… two…”

Shuichi braced himself.

“...one.”

Chapter Text

Something was missing. Something that had been his for a very long time was gone, but he did not know what it was.

Instead, someone was touching the air of that missing thing. A sharp little needle, methodically piercing his skin; but it didn’t hurt. He knew it was there, but it didn’t cause him pain. He was content to lie there complacently while someone drew a thread through his body. There was the sound of a gentle hum resonating through the air, lulling his already tired mind back into the depths of unconsciousness.

However, the part of him that did have this fraction of awareness was curious, and maybe a little confused. This humming sounded like it came from a much more feminine voice, one that certainly wasn’t Kokichi’s. He wanted to ask if it was Kaede– she hummed occasionally, even if she didn’t realize she did it. While they walked, when she was thinking of a piece to play on her piano, when she started to laugh– but his jaw was paralyzed, and he couldn’t move his tongue. He wondered why his vocal cords weren’t working. Maybe they had left for a vacation? That was okay, he supposed– they worked hard enough. Even organs deserved a vacation… little hard workers. So noble.

What was he thinking about again?

Ah, right. The melody. The focused humming. It was nice… it was very soothing… it made his mind feel even fuzzier than it already was. He wanted to savor the comfort it brought him– to wrap it in a small, little cozy ball and hold it closely and dearly to his chest. Peace like this was such an unattainable thing nowadays, especially with his recent predicament.

That wasn’t a nice thought though, so he decided to quit putting effort into forming coherent thoughts. It was exhausting, and he’d much rather enjoy the calm.

Somebody suddenly asked him if he was really awake, and without thinking about it, he gave the slightest of nods in return. It was polite to answer a question, but he did have to notice that the humming stopped when the speaker talked. That wasn’t very nice. He wanted the song back.

That same somebody tsked, commenting something incomprehensible… maybe she said “ineffective”? He might be mishearing things though. He was in a weird limbo; a space of mind where he felt like he was forming thoughts for the very first time ever. Mostly though, he was just tired.

The person singing the song agreed he should go back to sleep, that it’d be better this way and it’d hurt less. And he didn’t like to hurt– hurting was bad, unless it was for his partner.

Ah, his partner. His kind-hearted, lying partner. His lies weren’t bad though– just confusing, if anything. That confusion was alluring in a strange way. Kind lies. How gentle of his partner to do that for somebody as weak as he was.

These thoughts accompanied him as he slowly sunk back into the soft pillow of darkness, which welcomed him with open arms.

Shuichi woke up. And he immediately wished he didn’t.

The second he was conscious, the worst headache he had ever felt slammed into his very skull like a fucking truck, driving tiny daggers through his closed eyes and slowly, painstakingly tearing apart every lobe of his brain. He tried pulling his hands to cover his eyes from the light in the room, moaning quietly in agony.

Migraine?

Water. Water helps.

But where could he get water? The sink. Maybe if he… put his face in warm water, the pain would stop.

So his destination was the bathroom. The problem was getting to the bathroom.

He hardly had his eyes cracked open as he sluggishly pushed off his blanket, tumbling out of the bed he was previously lying in. He used the wall as support as he staggered and stumbled to the bathroom, putting an ungodly amount of focus into moving his feet correctly. It’d be bad if he fell over and hurt his head worse by hitting the ground.

By some holy miracle, he gripped the edge of the sink with his hand, breathing heavily. Trying to open his eyes any further than a squint felt equivalent to pushing icicles further and further into his eye sockets. So he fumbled uselessly for the handle for the warm water.

He briefly wondered why his hand wasn’t closing around anything.

And that’s when he finally remembered, oh, right. That’s gone.

Shuichi wasn’t sure why, but that was the final straw. Tears welled in his sore eyes and he let his head hang over the sink, using the sides of it to keep himself upright. His knees trembled under his weight and his shoulders shook as he sobbed uncontrollably into the sink, crying so hard it felt like his very soul was leaking from his eyes.

He cried and sobbed and even wailed, his voice breaking under the ferocity of his despair. He tried so, so hard every day to push through these puzzles; to keep himself held together, even if only just barely. But he could only take so much before he shattered, and at the very least, he was thankful it wasn’t during a puzzle. Here, in the safety of the bathroom, he could scream his hurt into the drain with no long-lasting consequences.

Even after his throat was scraped raw, he still continued to cry, albeit much quieter. If not from the unbridled sadness he felt, then from the dull pain in his entire body. The splitting migraine he felt had simmered down into a post-crying type of headache, but that gave him the unfortunate realization that his entire body felt… simply uninhabitable.

After awkwardly washing his face in the sink with his remaining hand and taking a good, long moment to breathe, he tried to slowly settle his nerves. He was still jerky and shaky from his breakdown, which he still hadn’t quite recovered from if his occasional breath hitches and sniffles were anything to go off of, but he was functional enough to take in his surroundings now.

Ground yourself first, he instructed himself with a slow exhale. First, where am I?

That one was easy. He was in the Objective Room’s bathroom, standing in front of the sink. His hand was still wet from washing his face clean, and his other… had been cut off by Kokichi as per his request.

Okay, that still seemed to be a sensitive subject, but he wanted to establish his situation. It was what his uncle told him to do when he was grounding himself.

The reason he asked Kokichi to cut off his hand was to complete the Sorting Puzzle. The memories of what happened after the whole process ranged from a haze to being completely vacant, so he didn’t try to think too hard about what he remembered. Instead, he looked down at his severed wrist, shuddering at the sight. It felt so wrong, seeing a limb that should be there wasn’t. Instead, clean bandages were wound around the stump where his wrist was, securely covering the entire length of his forearm. He felt nearly nauseous taking in this fact, but so long as he continued his deep breaths, he should be able to keep himself level-headed.

It took a lot longer than it probably should have for something else to occur to him. Something that was extremely important.

Where the hell was Kokichi?

Grounding process forgotten, he hurried back out into the Objective Room, his eyes flicking to each and every corner of the room as panic dawned on him once more. If he was scream-crying in the bathroom, he would have thought that Kokichi would at least check on him after he quieted down. That thought hadn’t occurred to him while he was still barely even conscious outside of the feeling aspect, but now that he was thinking about it, he was forced to come to a terrifying conclusion.

Kokichi had completely up and vanished. He was nowhere to be seen in the Objective Room.

His immediate and, quite frankly horrifying, idea was that Kokichi was getting punished in the same way he had. Maybe he had truly passed out from the blood loss and Kokichi saved him, and for that he had to be hurt. Or maybe something happened after he lost consciousness, and Kokichi was…

So much for grounding himself; his breathing began to pick up and he hugged himself to the best of his ability, staring at the spot on their bed Kokichi would usually be. No, he couldn’t be gone, could he? Kokichi was stubborn, and he had said it himself– if he wasn’t allowed to die, then Shuichi wasn’t either. If Shuichi was alive here and now, it had to mean he was also alive, right?

Am I alone now?

Raw terror seized him by the throat and he practically gagged, his stomach churning anxiously. The migraine was coming back, but panic was making his mind foggy and all he could think about was that he was alone, there was no one else here with him and he was going to asphyxiate on his own terror–

Just as he swore his knees were going to give out, the monitor switched on, prompting a startled hiccup out of him. He didn’t even bother to wipe his tears as he looked up at Monokuma on the screen, still hyperventilating so hard he saw darkness shrouding the edges of his vision.

“You are really not the stable type, are you?” Monokuma commented on his condition.

“Ko– i-is Ko–” he gasped, not having the strength or coherence to even form a proper sentence.

“Is Kokichi dead?” the bear finished for him. “Cool your jets, ‘cause he’s… well, I wouldn’t say he’s fine, but he’s alive.”

The sentence felt like an extra punch to the gut. “Wh…what…?”

“My point is that you’ve been dawdling like crazy,” sighed Monokuma, its shoulders deflating dejectedly. “Did you even notice the door’s open? Or the walkie-talkie sitting on the table? Really, you’d think a detective would have better observation skills than this before jumping to conclusions…”

The door…?

Turning around, Shuichi did see that the door was open, leading into a room with what looked like a lot of lockers. It only then occurred to him that, maybe, the reason he hadn’t woken up alongside Kokichi was because the morning puzzle had begun.

…he felt kind of stupid for freaking out now.

“Yeah, I bet you feel dumb now, huh?” Monokuma sneered mockingly, which only served to make him feel infinitely worse. “Welcome to the eleventh puzzle: the Locker Puzzle. The instructions are really simple; Kokichi is stuck in one of the 128 lockers, and your job is to open the right one to get him out. I was nice enough to give you guys a means of communication too, so don’t take this for granted! Now, go forth, and good luck!”

Leaving him with that unnerving message, the screen shut off, leaving him on his own once more. However this time, he knew he could do something about it.

So, with dread hanging over his head like a heavy cloud, he grabbed the walkie-talkie off of the table and entered the puzzle room.

Unlike the walls in the Tank Puzzle, these lockers were full height, like the type you’d find in a high school. There were four rows in total, each presumably with thirty-two lockers– two rows were against either wall, and the other two were pressed back-to-back going down the center of the room. All the lockers were unique, too; on the front of each one there was a colored square. A quick glance around told him that there were also four colors, which were red, green, blue and white.

So this is the puzzle, he mused silently, trying to peer through the bars near the top of the door. He couldn’t see anything unfortunately, so he wasn’t finding Kokichi that way.

Since he didn’t even want to consider opening the doors all willy-nilly– there was definitely a penalty for choosing the wrong one– he had only one option left. He pressed the button on his walkie-talkie.

“K..Kokichi?” he called nervously. Monokuma had said that Kokichi was alive at the very least, which made him incredibly worried about what condition he was in. What if he was angry at Shuichi for taking so long? What if–

“Shuichi!?” Kokichi replied almost immediately. His voice was hoarse, as if he had been… screaming. “There you are! C-Crap, I was… so worried… wh-when you weren’t responding… hey, can you get me out? Hurry it up, I– I know it’s not very Supreme Leader of Evil of me to ask for help, but, but, but, I can ask my consort, yes? Yes! So get me out, p-please!”

“Ah– slow down, Kokichi,” Shuichi stammered quickly. “I’m working on it, okay? But it’s going to take me a bit.”

“‘cause it’s a puzzle, right? Mmhhnishishi, she really likes putting me in… small spaces…” Kokichi snickered quietly, though his words were uneven and lacked confidence. “Okie-dokie, I’ll just lean against the wall. You do your thing. A-After, what, twelve puzzles? Yeah, we must be puzzle masters by now, so you got this! Alright, show them who’s boss.”

That was probably much easier said than done, but it wasn’t like he wasn’t going to try his best.

“I’m going to need your help to do it,” Shuichi warned him. “We wouldn’t have been given these things if talking to each other wasn’t crucial to the puzzle.”

“Alright, fine… what’s the situation?”

“The room has 128 lockers aligned in four rows, split evenly,” Shuichi reported without hesitance. “Every locker has a color on it, which is either red, green, blue, or white. There’s no numbers on them though, and all of the colors are kind of scattered about. There’s no pattern.”

“So we just gotta narrow it down…” murmured Kokichi. “Alright, easy enough. S-Sounds like the distinguishing factor is the color-coding, so… we just gotta figure that out. There’s nothing in here that’s color-coded, so this is on you.”

“Ah… okay. Give me a moment.”

For a good 15-20 minutes, Shuichi took the time to investigate the room thoroughly. He didn’t dare open any of the lockers, and instead focused his attention on the walls, ceiling, and the ground. They were all a different shade of gray, so he didn’t think those counted towards a possible hint. Also, there were no patterns to go off of, and the monitor mounted above the Objective Room door was the same as always.

Overall, it was inconclusive, which was simultaneously frustrating and worrying beyond belief. Because if there was nothing out here…

“I can’t find anything,” he reported grimly. “I think… our only choice is to open one of the lockers.”

“Fine by me,” Kokichi replied unexpectedly quickly. “Whatever happens can’t possibly be worse than what happened last time.”

“Please. Please do not say that,” Shuichi begged. “And, a-are you sure…? We don’t know what’s going to happen. What if it kills you…?”

“I’ve gotten to a point of thinking less that these puzzles are gonna kill us and more that they’re trying to hurt us,” Kokichi scoffed indignantly. “So I’ll be fine. Just open one. And hey, you have a 1/128 chance of being right! Those are… pretty good odds…”

Shuichi wasn’t sure what Kokichi’s definition of “pretty good” was, but it seemed like he was given no other choice in a situation like this. If there were no clues to be discerned from anywhere in the room, then his only choice was to check inside the lockers, which could very well be a death trap.

As much as he didn’t want to do it and as scary as it was, there was no other option that he could see. So he approached the first locker in the first row, tucked the walkie-talkie under his arm and gripped the handle.

With only a moment more of suspense, he yanked open the locker. It opened easily, being unlocked, and–

–there was nothing inside.

Quite literally nothing inside, at that. There were no shelves, and certainly no Kokichi. However, he could certainly see how Kokichi would fit inside the locker– it was small, certainly too small for Shuichi to fit comfortably inside, but Kokichi probably could with a tiny bit of wiggle room.

This must be horrible on someone with claustrophobia, Shuichi noted, nausea churning in his stomach. I’ve got to hurry.

“There’s nothing in this,” Shuichi told his partner. “Kokichi?”

He heard the other end crackle, before cutting off abruptly. It did it for a second time, and then a third, each time supplying no noise from his partner.

“K…Kokichi?” Shuichi tried again, nerves making his voice hitch. Every worst fear of his was parading through his mind all at once, but if Kokichi was activating the device, he must be alive.

(Unless he was in the process of dying. In which case, that argument was worthless.)

On the fourth stutter of the static, it stuck, and he could hear Kokichi’s labored breathing on the other end.

“...hhhaaaa… ahhaha…” Kokichi wheezed after a moment, causing Shuichi’s concern to skyrocket. “Th-there’s, uh… a thing… going th-through my shoulder…”

Just when Shuichi had thought things couldn’t get worse, they did.

“What!?” he demanded frantically, squeezing the walkie-talkie in his hand as a lack of having any other way to release this stress. “Kokichi? What is it? What happened!?”

“I-It’s thin,” Kokichi stammered, which was such an uncharacteristic way for his partner to talk that it caused physical pain to his heart. “It’s some sorta… fucking… long needle. I think it missed my, uuhhh, vitals?”

That’s the penalty for choosing the wrong locker. Kokichi gets hurt. And if I’m unlucky enough… it could be fatal.

“Okay, try not to move,” Shuichi advised in a panicked hurry. “How big is it?”

“Knitting-needle size… d-damn, it shot out fast,” Kokichi laughed a little deliriously. “I didn’t even see it coming! And it’s hard to catch me off guard, y’know? Just, uhh, a-at least the pain is… distracting.”

That didn’t sound good– Shuichi had to get him out, and fast. Knowledge was power in these death puzzles, so first, what had he learned from this new development?

To start, they found out what the penalty for getting the answer wrong was. If he opened the wrong locker, Kokichi was going to be impaled with some sort of needle. Should he open too many incorrect lockers or if he was unfortunate enough, those needles could hit something vital and Kokichi would die. He had to be especially cautious here, or else he was going to lose the most important thing he had in this awful place– his partner.

With that covered, what else had they learned? If needles long enough to pierce through Kokichi’s entire body– or, spikes seem like a better descriptor, considering what they did– came out of the wall, then there had to be room for something like that to happen. Of course, there was always the chance they could fold into themselves, but Kokichi had said that nothing was in the locker, and he certainly would have mentioned them before. He even said that he “didn’t see it coming”. It was logical to assume that they were withdrawn into a wall, meaning that the two rows of lockers lined down the middle of the room… could possibly be eliminated from their list of options.

There was a way he could test this, he figured. It’d just take a bit of sacrifice.

“Kokichi, can you look at the wall behind you and tell me what’s there?” Shuichi asked his partner. If he was going to test this theory, he first needed to learn some key facts about how the room worked.

“...lots of holes,” Kokichi reported dryly. “Huh, those… were not there before. Oh, th-there’s probably a thin part of the wall that slides open, which would be why… I didn’t notice.”

With that in mind, Shuichi approached the empty locker he had opened. He put the walkie-talkie in his breast pocket before pressing his hand against the wall– consciously having to keep his left arm down– before pushing his entire weight against it.

With a great amount of effort that involved ducking down and squeezing into the locker a little bit, he felt the wall shift, before it practically glided to the side. The part of the wall that moved couldn’t be any thicker than paper, and it didn’t reach the full height of the locker– a few inches off of the ground and about a foot down from the steel ceiling.

That confirmed a part of his theory, but now came the harder and significantly riskier part; he had to check inside one of the lockers in the middle two rows.

“I have an idea,” Shuichi cautiously informed his partner. “But… I have to open another locker– one that you might not be in.”

Something he noticed was that Kokichi had a habit of creating long pauses before responding to a difficult question, and that’s exactly what he did then. Shuichi wasn’t even given the static sound of the walkie-talkie being active– it was scarily quiet from his end. Shuichi hated that quiet.

Thankfully, he finally answered with a clipped, “go ahead. Whatever finishes the puzzle.”

That wasn’t quite the level of agreement Shuichi was looking for, but Kokichi was dealing with a lot in this puzzle, so it was probably the best he was going to get.

As much as it hurt and as much as he didn’t want to do this, Shuichi chose the locker opposite of the first one he opened and, with a heavy heart, told Kokichi to prepare himself, right before he opened that one too.

Of course, Kokichi wasn’t in this one either, but knowing what happened when he got it wrong made him feel infinitely worse about his failure. He couldn’t imagine how scary it must be for Kokichi, knowing that the wrong locker could strike him somewhere deadly. Being locked in a confined space he couldn’t escape, which slowly became smaller and smaller via piercing needles…

“Oh,” Kokichi suddenly sighed in relief, his voice startling Shuichi out of his worries. “It just went through my clothes.”

“Oh thank god,” Shuichi half-choked in response, clutching the fabric of his shirt. He didn’t know what he’d do if that had killed Kokichi. Taking the walkie-talkie out of his pocket, he activated it to say, “that’s good. Just give me a minute, I’m confirming something.”

Kokichi mumbled his acknowledgement, and so Shuichi tucked the device back away and focused his attention on the back of the newly opened locker. He did the same thing with that as he had with the last one, pushing his entire weight and more into trying to move the back wall.

However, no matter how much he pushed, it wouldn’t budge.

Between the stress and the fear, he felt triumph bloom.

“Kokichi! I know how to narrow down our list of options,” Shuichi reported back to his partner excitedly. “The lockers in the two middle rows don’t have the back compartment.”

“So… it’s only a wall locker?” Kokichi concluded. “That leaves us with only sixty-four choices. Which, in case you didn’t know, is still a really big number.”

“It’s better than 128,” Shuichi shot back. “There’s still a chance I can keep narrowing it down, too. Is there anything else you can tell me about the locker you’re in?”

“Oh, yes, let me open it up real quick to check,” Kokichi snarked. “I don’t know. I can’t think straight, Shuichi. My head hurts from being terrified and being pissed that I’m terrified.”

“I’m working on it, I promise. But please, anything helps,” Shuichi all but begged. “The spikes– can you tell me anything else about those?”

“Mmfph, fine. They extend to the entire width of the locker, s-so… I can’t really pull myself off them.” He heard the faint sound of shuffling, as if Kokichi tried exactly to do that. “They’re… kind of white in the light, if that helps.”

Shuichi’s head shot up. “White?”

“Yeah. The colo– ohhh!” Kokichi interrupted himself with a gasp, which was immediately followed by a strained cough. “The– the lockers!”

“Assuming the colors are also split evenly among all of the lockers, we can narrow down our list of options to…” he hesitated for only a moment, quickly doing the math in his head. “...sixteen.”

Sixteen. It was so much of a better number than 128 and sixty-four, but… even opening one incorrect locker could be fatal, much less opening sixteen (sans the one Kokichi was in). Besides, who’s to say their reasoning is even right? What if that was simply the color of all of the spikes in every locker? What if–

“Holy shit, I can feel you overthinking,” Kokichi’s exasperation cut through his worries. “Sixteen is sixteen, s-so… just go for it. It’s not like this is any worse than any other puzzle we’ve done, so just go for it.”

“This one relies on luck rather than logic and time,” Shuichi pointed out. “I’m just… really worried…”

“Just do it,” Kokichi urged him impatiently. “You’re overestimating how much I want to be in this thing. I don’t care if I get hurt– you said you’d get me out so I trust you to do that.”

And for some odd reason, it was at that moment that Shuichi remembered something crucial.

In these puzzles, where death loomed around every corner and every choice, peace was no longer an option available for them. Even in the Objective Room, where they were meant to sit back and prepare themselves for the next puzzle, there was no way either of them could ever fully relax. Even sleeping at night had become difficult, plagued with anxiety and uncertainty, always wondering what would happen when morning came around.

In a place like this, the only solace they’d ever be able to find was in each other. Falling asleep was much easier knowing Kokichi was by his side. Eating things was always easier when Kokichi was there to distract him from what he was doing. Easing his mind became significantly simpler when Kokichi, his love, his partner, was holding his hand the whole way through.

Even if these puzzles forced them to hurt one another, there was no way it could tear them apart. They agreed to keep fighting this motive until the very end, and they agreed to die hand in hand, loving each other.

So right here, right now, when Kokichi had asked him over and over to get him out, that was what Shuichi needed to do. Forget the objective of the puzzle, Shuichi needed to save his partner.

“Okay. I’ll get you out,” Shuichi promised. “Just… brace yourself, please. I- I love you.”

“I’m not saying it back,” Kokichi replied haughtily, “‘cause I’m not gonna jinx it. We’re not doing this dying-last-words love confession thing.”

Somehow, that actually made Shuichi laugh a little. “A-Alright, I understand. After I open a locker, can you tell me where you were hit…? I– I don’t want to open one to find out you died.”

“I can do that,” his partner confirmed. “Good luck… puzzle partner.”

With a small smile, Shuichi released the button on his walkie-talkie and stuffed it back into his pocket. He had sixteen lockers to open, with a 1/16 percent chance of finding Kokichi. All he had to do now was act.

He decided to go in order from left to right. From the locker he already opened, he started moving along the wall, scoping out the first locker assigned the color white. With luck, this would be the right one, but Shuichi knew better than to get his hopes up.

And he was right. This locker was also empty, which was further evident by Kokichi’s agonized shout.

“Gggh– leg–” Kokichi hissed. “Th-Through the thigh.”

Shuichi grimaced, but he promised not to hesitate. He trusted that Kokichi wouldn’t die on him.

The next one got Kokichi stabbed through his side, and Shuichi heard him gag and cough wetly. Shuichi really, really hoped that internal bleeding wasn’t going to become an issue, because otherwise, they’d have a whole new world of problems.

The fifth locker he opened was inconclusive, and Kokichi reported that it was a spike through the arm. Then the leg again, and then a tearful, whimpered, “shoulders…”

When Shuichi opened the eighth locker, he wasn’t initially expecting much. So imagine his surprise when he was greeted with the gorey sight of his partner, his skin pale and clammy to accompany the seven, thin, blood-soaked spikes sticking out of his body.

“Ah–!” gasped Kokichi the minute he opened the door. He lurched forward desperately, stopping short as he nearly fell off of the spikes, which seemed to be the only things holding him upright. “Ghhh, Shuichiiii…”

“Aaah… hhhhkk…” Shuichi choked out, stumbling a step back in horror. He could only stomach so much before it became too unbearable, and he might have just hit his limit. Kokichi Ouma, who always seemed so untouchable, hanging nearly limply from a bunch of spikes protruding from his body– the simple knowledge that they had originated from the very back of the locker was making his stomach churn unpleasantly. The muzzle still wrapped firmly around his face wasn’t enough to hide the dried tear tracks staining his cheeks, or the wide-eyed near manic glow in his eyes at the light of some sort of freedom.

“Sh..u…ichi…” Kokichi tried, his voice strained with effort. “Please…”

All Shuichi did was watch as Kokichi yanked himself off of the spikes, his entire body slumping forward with that extra support gone. His own arms automatically shot out to catch him, and Kokichi landed safely in his chest, secured by his embrace. He wasn’t moving.

It was only a few seconds, but those few seconds were an embarrassing amount of time for Shuichi to stand frozen, staring dumbly down at the top of Kokichi’s head. The wire from the muzzle dug uncomfortably into his chest, but that was the least of his worries. Now that he had ripped himself away from the only things holding the blood in his body, it was all starting to pour out.

“Oh… ah– Kokichi!” His senses flooded back to him as he struggled to support his and Kokichi’s weight. “Holy shit– hold on, we, ah… f-fuck, what do I do? Um–”

Well, that answer was obvious. It was the same first step they had always had to take in this motive: return to the Objective Room.

The fear of Kokichi dying on him again made the struggle of getting him there seem less than it actually was. His muscles were weak, he hadn’t eaten in nearly twenty-four hours now, he was missing a whole hand and Kokichi was a whole nother human being that he was trying to move– one that was actively bleeding out.

Still though, he somehow did it, though he couldn’t get Kokichi onto the bed or even to the bathroom. He lowered his partner to the ground as gently as he could, panting and breathing heavily. He immediately hurried to the bathroom to grab all of the towels he could, because “stop the bleeding” had become such a standard aftermath to these puzzles by now that it was hard to consider anything else. 

Even though his brain and body felt as if it were on hyperdrive, the logical part of his mind that was still functioning was trying frantically to consider every other factor that went into impalement wounds. Usually, you weren’t supposed to remove the foreign object, but it was a little late to fix that mistake now. Even if the spikes hadn’t been that wide, they still probably caused internal bleeding, and Shuichi had no idea how he was supposed to treat that. Could he even treat it, with his shaky medical knowledge and resources? The simple truth of the matter was that he had no idea what he was doing, and because of that, Kokichi might die.

Kokichi… might…

A shudder wracked his body as he pressed the towel down harder against Kokichi’s side wound. The boy was unconscious now, so he didn’t react. It was scary.

It reminded Shuichi of…

(...Kokichi failed.)

“No, no no no…” he whispered fiercely under his breath. He had bandages, right? He could stop the bleeding that way, although it wouldn’t do anything to stop the potential internal bleeding.

What if Kokichi died because Shuichi didn’t know what to do? The thought made him feel sick to his stomach, and– oh. Oh wait. Crap.

Tripping over his feet, he booked it to the bathroom, seized either side of the toilet bowl, and vomited.

***

From the continuous knocking on her door, Maki’s initial assumption was that it was Kaito. That guy had a habit of persistently knocking on her door even when she was obviously ignoring him, and after their conversation last night, he seemed like the type to talk her down from the declaration she made.

So, when she opened the door to tell him to buzz off, imagine her surprise when she came face to face with Himiko and Tsumugi.

“Oh wow. I wasn’t expecting her to answer the door that fast…” Tsumugi commented in wonder.

“Shh. You might scare her off,” Himiko scolded the girl warningly. “You have to coax her out of her room very carefully, or else she’ll ignore us for the rest of the day. Then we’ll have to go get Kaito…”

“Oh… I’d rather avoid that,” Tsumugi murmured with a solemn nod.

Maki blinked at them. “I’m right here. I can hear you.”

“Maki,” said Himiko, completely ignoring her. “Can you come with us to the dining hall?”

“Why.” It wasn’t even phrased as a question. Simply a statement.

“We thought it’d be better to travel as a group of three,” Tsumugi explained sheepishly. “Since… if we’re in a group of two… it’d be easy for a murder to happen.”

Oh, yeah. Everyone was especially spooked after bearing witness to Shuichi’s beaten down condition. Maki had been so busy trying to pin down the final piece of damning evidence that she hadn’t really been thinking about how on edge everyone was at the moment.

“You’re not going to leave me alone if I say no, are you?” Maki grumbled.

“Actually, we’ll just ask Keebo,” Himiko unexpectedly replied. “Tsumugi just recommended you because you’re terrifying, so we’ll be less tempted to kill each other.”

She wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or an insult coming from Himiko, but she was used to it. Kaito was probably used to it by now, but Shuichi was always a little jumpy at times, especially when she habitually asked if he craved death.

Shuichi…

“...fine,” Maki finally accepted. Getting out would do her good, she figured.

“Yippee! Thank you!” Tsumugi cheered, grabbing her hand with thanks written all over her stupid, smushy face. “Oh, I’m so plainly relieved…!”

Skin contact. Unprompted. Maki gave her a dark look. “Do you want to die?”

“Eep–!”

“My murderous intent is at negative zero right now,” Himiko announced as Tsumugi jumped back with a squeaked apology. “Although… my mana is draining a little, too…”

“W-Well, as long as the murderous intent thing is at zero, right?” Tsumugi reasoned.

Himiko hummed, tapping a finger against her chin thoughtfully. “I guess it’s a reasonable sacrifice.”

“You had murderous intent?” was what Maki was more concerned about.

“A little,” Himiko confessed. “I could see Shuichi’s magical aura through the screen, it… made me a little sick to my stomach, so I started panicking. O-Only a little, though. I renewed my protection charms this morning, so it’s fine.”

Maki didn’t really care to try and figure out what half of that meant, but at least Himiko wasn’t considering murder anymore. Honestly, Maki doubted she was physically capable of murdering anyone– unless she used some sort of trap or poison, she wasn’t harming anyone with a body like that. Maki could snap her like a twig.

Putting aside this morning’s grotesque and morbidly violent visual, Maki locked her door and set out with the other two girls. She stayed behind them, listening silently as they talked.

“What is a magical aura, anyway?” Tsumugi had asked the magician.

Himiko visibly hesitated. “Nyehh… if you really want to know, then sure. Everyone’s magical aura has to do with color, patterns and shapes; for example, Maki’s looks really sharp and it’s sort of a cinnabar color. When I hear somebody talk for the first time, I can make out their magical aura. My magic makes it easier for me to judge somebody’s mood, since I’m not very good at reading people’s faces.”

“Wow! That’s so fascinating,” Tsumugi exclaimed with stars in her eyes. “What does my aura look like?”

“Mm… it’s really blue with some hints of green and white,” Himiko described slowly. “Usually it’s really soft, but recently, it’s been kind of jagged and rough.”

“So you have synesthesia,” Maki concluded.

The minute those words left her mouth, Himiko broke out into a sweat, casting her eyes downward. “N-No… it’s my magic.”

“It’s still really cool either way,” Tsumugi reassured the mage quickly. “Does it ever get overwhelming? Like, if you’re in a crowded room…”

By now, Maki had tuned out. Himiko’s way of perceiving the world was none of her business. What she was worried about was the mastermind– she and Kaito had torn apart the entire school to look for clues, and while they had found some things of interest, they also had raised a lot more questions– most of which had to do with Kokichi and what he had been up to. She would have loved to shake some answers out of him, but unfortunately, the motive had taken him.

The dining hall was empty when they arrived, so Maki and Himiko sat down while Tsumugi offered to cook breakfast for them. Once she had disappeared into the kitchen, Himiko turned to her, most likely about to start some sort of socially obligatory conversation. God, Maki hated those.

“What do you think it means?” Himiko asked and, yup, Maki knew it. Socially obligatory conversation.

“What are you talking about?” Maki shot back disinterestedly.

Slowly, Himiko pointed up at the monitor. It was displaying its usual puzzle in progress graphic; this morning’s puzzle was the “Locker Puzzle”.

“I’m not sure,” Maki grumbled. “I’m just shocked they’ve survived this long.”

“They do have Kokichi,” Himiko reminded her. “Between his stubbornness and Shuichi’s brain, I’d bet they can last a few more puzzles before one of them… fails.”

Kokichi already failed, Maki decidedly didn’t point out. The only reason that guy was alive was because Shuichi went against the rules and saved him. Either way, she knew better than to place any hope in either of them– things could go awry very quickly, just as they had proven during the… what was it again? The Seating Puzzle? She hadn’t really been paying attention to the names.

“Then something needs to happen before they fail,” Maki responded curtly. Under her breath, she muttered, “I just need something else…”

Himiko sat up quickly, her eyes wide. “Nyeh? You have an idea?”

For a few moments, Maki contemplated her choices in silence. She could reveal her plan to find the mastermind to Himiko knowing there was always the chance that she was in fact the mastermind, or she could keep her mouth shut with the price of being stumped.

Well, even if she was the mastermind, there wasn’t anything she could do to stop Maki from throttling her.

“Somewhat,” Maki replied, making her decision. “Actually, you might be able to help me out. This may sound strange, but we should go over the first case again.”

The first murder, supposedly between Rantaro and Kaede. There was no doubt that Kaede had set up that death trap– she had admitted to it– but with what they knew now about the secret passageway in the hidden room, Rantaro’s Survivor’s Perk, and the clean shot put ball she had found in that room… there was something more to that trial that no one had seen.

“The first case?” Himiko parroted, though her expression fell as realization dawned on her. “You mean… Rantaro’s murder?”

“Yes. Something about it has been bothering me for a while.” 

“Nnnnyeh… I mean… I guess so.” Himiko propped her head up on the table with her cheek resting against her palm as she let out a sigh. “Is there something specific bothering you?”

Maki hesitated for only a moment before simply stating, “everyone’s alibis at the time. I didn’t care to pay much attention to them because I didn’t think they were important.”

“Our alibis…” Himiko mused quietly. “If I’m rememberig right, me, you, Kaito, Tenko, Angie, Gonta and Rantaro went downstairs to the game room. We were planning to fight Monokuma so no murders would have to happen… not that it did any good. Shuichi and Kaede were in the classroom by the basement stairs, and that’s where Kaede rolled the shot put ball through the vent to kill Rantaro. Kiyo, Miu, Kirumi and Tsumugi were here in the dining hall… and Keebo, Kokichi and Ryoma were off alone. I think that’s it.”

She had no idea how Himiko had remembered all of that, but it worked in her favor. Because the minute she was mentioned, every single piece fell in place.

During the trial, Maki distinctly remembered it being talked about that a certain somebody had gone to the bathroom. There had been a brief discussion about the possibility of her talent being used to fabricate a potential murder, but that was quickly shot down by the supposed condition of “cospox”.

However. That defense didn’t hold up when there was a secret passageway in the bathroom she went to.

“That bitch!” Maki spat furiously, standing up sharply from her chair. Angry outbursts were nothing like her, but after all the bullshit she had had to endure, she was entitled to some sort of rage.

“Nyeh!?” Himiko exclaimed in alarm, scooting away from her. “Did… did you f-figure it out?”

Maki wasn’t even going to grace her with a response. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was too angry to form words, or if she was mad at herself for not realizing it sooner, or if she was simply too busy formulating a murder plan in her mind, but someone was going to die in exactly one hour. Maki had things to prepare.

Silently fuming, she stormed out of the dining hall, ignoring Himiko’s questions and– fucking– Tsumugi’s worried calls. Her destination was her lab, and if anyone disturbed her then she hoped they enjoyed a crossbow bolt to the eye. Dipped in poison.

Tsumugi Shirogane, you are finished.

It took precisely an hour to prepare for her murder.

First, she had to calm herself down enough to function, which took very little time since Maki tended to be pretty reasonable when it came to her emotions. That didn’t mean she wasn’t still angry at Tsumugi, because that was far from the truth, but her hands weren’t shaking because of that rage anymore.

Second, she had to assemble the crossbow and find the right poison. Before she killed Tsumugi, she wanted to see if she could locate Shuichi and Kokichi. She didn’t trust Monokuma on his word that once a murder occurred, they’d be set free– if the mastermind died, the killing game was over. That was what he said when Rantaro had first died. Maki didn’t want to risk being screwed over by Monokuma once Tsumugi was already dead.

Setting up her weapon alone took an hour, mostly because spent quite some time finding the right poison for the job. She settled on Strike 9 poison– it was slow acting and lethal, which was exactly what Maki wanted. The Ultimate Detective’s lab was both a curse for the killing game and a blessing for the killing.

The on-going puzzle ended at some point after she left the dining hall, and thankfully, it displayed the SUCCESS!! screen that failed to bring her any relief. She allowed herself to wonder for only a moment how they were doing before she focused her attention back on her plan. Hopefully Monokuma wouldn’t try to stop her from getting information, but if he did, Maki would simply kill her and interrogate him.

If that didn’t work, then… between the warehouse and Miu’s lab, they probably had enough stuff available to manufacture a bomb or two.

Armed with her poison-tipped crossbow, she made her way back down to the dining hall. Himiko was still sitting at the table, and when she looked up to see Maki holding a weapon, all of the color drained from her face.

“Wh…what is that?” Himiko stammered, her voice coming out in barely a squeak.

“Nothing. Where’s Tsumugi?” Maki demanded in return.

Himiko swallowed thickly, her eyes flicking nervously towards Maki’s loaded crossbow. “...um… she went back to her room. She said she would be fine on her own…”

“Thanks,” was all Maki said as she turned and power-walked off, a new destination in mind. Tsumugi would not, in fact, be fine on her own once Maki was done with her.

It was a relatively short walk. The dormitory and the academy weren’t very far from each other, so walking there at the pace she was going should have taken less than a minute.

However, as she left the school with her eyes locked firmly on the dormitory building, she noticed a flicker of movement from the corner of her vision. It was something much taller than any of them. It was something she had never seen in this place.

On reflex, she whipped around, pointed her crossbow and fired.

And the man– because that’s what the shadow had been, a man she had never seen before– leaned slightly to the side, the poison-tipped arrow whizzing right past his head. He didn’t react to the attempted murder at all, either– his face didn’t even shift. He simply gave Maki a small frown, as though he were a disapproving parent.

“Hello, there. I don’t think you should be walking around with that.”

Chapter Text

The man’s blank expression cracked and faltered until he was smiling sheepishly down at her. He lifted his gloved hands innocently, having the nerve to chuckle. Even though he tried to make himself look complacent, there was still an air of authority buzzing around him– one that made Maki’s skin prickle with unease.

“I can tell that you’re on edge, right?” he guessed; his voice was soft, and yet firm all at the same time. “If what I assumed is correct… then I wouldn’t blame you at all for being wary.”

Maki narrowed her eyes at the man, tightening her grip on the crossbow. He spoke so freely and casually that it made her feel even more frustratingly unnerved. Despite this, something about the calm note of his voice soothed her racing heart only slightly. This man knew what he was doing.

“How about this? Hello, my name is Hajime Hinata,” the man politely introduced himself. “I work indirectly with an organization by the name of Future Foundation.”

That name coming out of this guy’s mouth felt like a punch in the gut.

All this time, the final bit of Kokichi’s final note had been confusing her. What and who was Future Foundation? Why did Kokichi know about them, and– well, it made sense that he’d never have brought them up before, it was Kokichi for heaven’s sake, but the way he had written those words was as if even he didn’t know who they were.

But this man, Hajime or whatever his name was… he knew what it was. He worked with the Future Foundation organization, even if only indirectly. And while she had no idea what “indirectly” was supposed to mean in this situation, she didn’t care so long as Future Foundation wasn’t an organization opposing her.

“Can I trust you?” Maki decided to ask, her voice coming out quiet and downright deadly.

“I’d like to say yes, but that’s entirely up to you,” Hajime replied unhelpfully. “If it helps, I am against the killing game, and here to stop it.”

Maki lowered her crossbow slightly, lifting an eyebrow at the man. “You know about the killing game?”

“A Monokuma started yelling at me the minute I came in through those doors below us, so I only assumed,” Hajime shrugged. He paused for a moment, contempt making him frown slightly. “...for the record, it is destroyed, so you don’t need to worry about it bothering us.”

“You destroyed Monokuma?” Maki demanded. She wasn’t exactly surprised, considering the impression Hajime had given off thus far, she was just a little shocked at Monokuma’s sheer stupidity. Why would you approach someone who can and will so obviously kill you in seconds?

“It’s policy,” was all Hajime said on the matter. “Now, if I may ask, what were you going to do with that crossbow? If it’s what I think you’re going to do–”

“I am going to kill someone,” Maki cut him off darkly. “But it’s not just anybody. I’m going to kill the mastermind.”

Something in Hajime’s tense demeanor shifted immediately, making him appear a little more relaxed. “I see. What’s her name?”

Maki hesitated for only a moment, before saying, “Tsumugi Shirogane.”

“Tsumugi Shirogane… I believe she was on the list…” Hajime mused under his breath. List? she wondered for only a split second before Hajime stiffened, cursing quietly. “Forgive me, but what’s your name?”

“Maki. Maki Harukawa.”

“Maki. Hello. Sorry about that, I have spent… more time than fit in a radioactive wasteland,” Hajime admitted with a small, strained laugh. “It’s relieving to get a breath of fresh air… more or less.”

Radioactive wasteland was not a reassuring description of the outside world, but at least it explained his outfit. He was decked out in thick gear; gloves, large boots, a utility belt with what looked like a few tools, some sort of megaphone, a gun and a radio. The backpack he was also wearing looked huge, so she assumed it was full of all kinds of things.

Finally convinced, Maki cautiously lowered her crossbow entirely. She didn’t fully trust him, not yet, but she trusted that his intentions were good.

“If you’re here to help, then listen up,” Maki told him sharply. “We have a lot of problems to deal with. The first is obviously the mastermind. I need to find and kill her before she does any more damage.”

“I’d prefer it if I was able to arrest her,” Hajime said, patting a pouch on his utility belt. “Kyoko prefers to arrest people like that for information.”

Maki glowered at him. “Then do that. Whatever gets her out of my sight. The second problem is the motive–”

“Motive?” Hajime interrupted her. She shot him a deadly glare, causing him to falter. “Ah, sorry… it’s just that this sounds very similar to past killing games. What’s the motive?”

She wasn’t even going to try and figure out what half of what he was saying meant anymore. “It’s called the “death puzzles motive”. Two of our classmates were taken and put into these ridiculous death puzzles, and if they die, we die. It’s been six days now, and they’re not in great shape. I was going to force Tsumugi to tell me where they are before I kill her.”

Something in Hajime’s multi-colored eyes darkened, and he nodded solemnly. “We’ll find them one way or another. I have some medical knowledge, so I should be able to treat them to an extent.”

“Good. They’ll need it,” Maki murmured, grimly recalling Shuichi’s tired expression and heavy breathing. “The third is–”

“MAKI ROLL!”

“–that.”

Maki turned around as Kaito stumbled to a halt in front of her, but his visible exhaustion didn’t stop him from pulling her behind him in what seemed like protectiveness? That wasn’t needed, since if anyone was doing the “protecting” here, it was her. Kaito glared at Hajime as if he was trying to light him on fire with his eyeballs, probably trying to size the man up like the idiot he was. Also, his gaze was in no way intimidating.

“Maki Roll, who is this guy?” Kaito demanded in a low voice, still holding onto her arm. “And why do you have a crossbow!?”

She ripped her arm free from his gross, sweaty grasp, muttering an instinctive, “do you want to die?” before she gave him a proper answer. “He’s here to help, calm down. Remember the Future Foundation, the thing Kokichi mentioned in his note?"

Kaito turned his head to stare at her with the widest eyes she had ever seen. “You mean this guy’s part of that Future Foundation thing? I thought he was about to kidnap you or something.”

That was one of the stupidest things she had heard come out of Kaito’s mouth, but there were more important things to worry about than his inhumanly low IQ. She knew he was trying to hold back a coughing fit, if his poorly disguised wheezings and throat clearings were anything to go by.

“I’m not trying anything like that,” Hajime reassured Kaito. His voice seemed extremely single-toned so far though, so she wasn’t sure how effective his words were. “This does bring me to another question. How many of your classmates are still alive?”

Maki and Kaito exchanged glances with one another.

“Seven,” Maki told him truthfully.

“Seven…” There was a pained look in Hajime's eyes, but he didn’t say anything more on the matter. His expression sobered quickly as he said, “okay. Why is… I’m sorry, what’s your name?"

“Oh!” A proud grin plastered itself on Kaito’s face and he pointed to himself with his other hand placed on his hip. “I’m Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars! This is my sidekick, Maki Harukawa. She’s a lot nicer than she looks, don’t worry."

“That’s objectively not true,” Maki corrected him dryly. And once again, he completely ignored her. She didn’t know why she even tried anymore.

“I see,” Hajime replied vaguely. “Maki, you were telling me about a third issue? Is Kaito himself that issue, or…”

“Hey, what?” Kaito protested, shooting her a wounded wet-puppy look. “Maki Roll…”

“I’m referring to your illness, you idiot,” Maki snapped before turning back to face Hajime. “He’s been really sick. He’s coughing up blood, he can barely breathe and even that short run wore him out. Future Foundation can fix him, right?"

“We’ll have to figure out what his exact condition is, which will require further testing,” Hajime mused thoughtfully. “I won’t promise Future Foundation can cure him, but we can certainly try to help.”

There was a glow of hope in Kaito’s eyes, one that Maki hadn’t seen in a while. “Hey, the impossible is possible, you just have to make it so. I’d bet I can be cured! Thanks, man!”

“...you’re welcome,” Hajime responded softly. “I’d like to speak with you all. Is there anywhere we can meet to talk?”

“The patio!” Kaito suggested immediately. “It’s where me and my sidekicks train… or, well, where we used to train. We’ve been slacking lately…”

“I wonder why,” Maki muttered.

“That’s great. I hate to ask this of you, but are you able to round everyone up there?” Hajime requested of the astronaut. “Or tell somebody else to do it while you wait there. Try to limit physical activity for now, and see if somebody can bring you water. And… avoid Tsumugi, please.”

“Huh? Tsumugi? Why?”

“I’ll tell you later, now go.” Maki lightly shoved him further along the path. “We’ll meet up with you guys later, so no one moves from the patio. Got it?”

“Alright, alright! Geez… who knew Future Foundation was so bossy…” Kaito grumbled as he left, moodily scuffing the pavement with his shoe.

“He’ll live,” Maki told Hajime, who was staring after the astronaut with furrowed eyebrows. “Himiko told me that Tsumugi went back to her room. Let’s check there first.”

“You know this place much better than I do. Please, lead the way.”

The dormitory wasn’t far at all, and they made it without interruption. While Hajime was still glancing around at all of the rooms in silent contemplation, Maki’s feet brought her straight to Tsumugi’s door, where she started mercilessly banging on it with her fist. Only a moment later did she remember there was a doorbell, so she pressed that instead of abusing the poor door.

At least a minute ticked by, and even after Maki’s non-stop ringing, nobody opened the door. Either Tsumugi knew that Maki was about to come kick her ass and was hiding, or she wasn’t in there at all.

“I can do it,” Hajime offered suddenly. “Step back.”

Following his orders, Maki backed away from the door, allowing Hajime to have a go at it. He rattled the doorknob for a moment before stepping back, suddenly sending his foot flying into the door. And even more alarmingly, the door actually swung open under the weight of that single kick. Whether it was the boots that did it or his natural body strength, she had no idea and did not want to find out.

“Three years and I still underestimate my own strength…” she thought she heard Hajime murmur to himself with a glance down at his hand.

Ignoring him, Maki slipped into the room with her crossbow loaded and ready, wildly pointing it at every corner of the room before determining that it was empty. There were a ton of magazines strewn across the bed and desk, as well as racks with varying kinds of clothes hanging on them pushed neatly against the walls. Curious, Maki approached the bed and picked up the first magazine she could. It had a pretty girl on it with alluring blue eyes, blonde hair tied into pigtails and some sort of new outfit it was advertising. ENOSHIMA ☆ FASHIONISTA, it read on the side.

Disinterested, Maki put it back down.

“She’s not here,” Hajime observed. “...I see she was a collector.”

“She seems obsessed with this lady,” Maki agreed. Upon closer look, all of the magazines had something to do with that girl. “Do you know her?”

“Unfortunately,” Hajime grumbled, displaying the most emotion she had seen from him yet as a massive scowl formed on his face. “Junko Enoshima was the leading factor of what caused the Tragedy; the biggest, most awful, most tragic event in human history. We got it mostly under control now, but there’s still incidents like this from time to time.”

“You mean this killing game?” Maki guessed darkly. If those Flashback Lights were to be trusted, then the Tragedy must refer to something akin to those meteors.

“This is an extreme case,” Hajime told her grimly. “A killing game such as this has to have been directly inspired off of the killing school life, simply based on what I’ve seen and what you’ve told me. Not only did Tsumugi have the power to create a situation like this, but she had the resources and time. She must have been working on this since the broadcast first started.”

“You do realize none of this makes sense to me, right?” Maki pointed out flatly.

“I’ll explain it all later,” Hajime promised. “But I have reason to believe that Tsumugi isn’t in the Ark.”

“The Ark?”

“The dome we’re in right now. If that Monokuma approached me, then it must have warned her ahead of time. There’s a chance that Tsumugi ran away the moment she realized I was here, especially if she knows about Izuru Kamukura.”

The name Izuru Kamukura strangely sent a shiver down her spine, though she couldn’t pinpoint why. It was like something had grabbed hold of her brain, squeezing and tugging and begging her to remember something that was too far out of her reach. She didn’t know who Izuru Kamukura was, she had no recollection of ever hearing that name.

So why…? Why was the simple mention of that name giving her such a headache?

Shaking her head to clear herself of the feeling, she focused her attention back on what was important.

“I’m not sure how Tsumugi would have escaped, but I do have another idea about where she could be,” Maki said as she approached one of the racks, pulling aside all of the hangers to look at the wall behind it. “She might be setting up the next puzzle. There’s two of them every day– one after the morning announcement, and one after the nighttime announcement. The morning puzzle is already done, so I’d bet she’s preparing the next puzzle for nighttime.”

“Even the announcements…” Hajime winced lightly. “I get it, though. Do you have any ideas where we can get to the people in the motive?”

Maki anxiously bit her thumb nail. “We’ve all looked the entire school up and down, but there was no sign of them anywhere. We haven’t checked in here yet though, so let’s get searching.”

“Understood.”

It took less than five minutes to find something. Maki was looking in the bathroom when she heard Hajime call her back into the room, and she found that he had somehow removed the entire closet door without her hearing it. More importantly, there was a secondary, most definitely hidden door within the closet.

“This might be what we’re looking for,” Hajime contemplated as he unlatched something from the side of his utility belt. “I only have one flashlight, so stick close to me.”

As he said this, he flicked on a glaringly bright flashlight, one that made Maki have to shield her eyes. He averted its beam with a quick apology, one that she did not acknowledge.

As much as she would rather lead the way, Hajime took front with his flashlight and gun– which was apparently fully loaded and ready to be shot– and began carefully making his way down the frustratingly steep flight of stairs. There was no railing, but Maki wasn’t worried about that as she followed close behind the much bigger man, one hand on the wall and the other tightly gripping her crossbow. She had briefly considered leaving it upstairs, but if Tsumugi was down here, she was shooting that woman on sight no matter what Hajime’s orders were.

Thankfully, as the stairs ended, the need for the flashlight also ended with lights illuminating the entire circular room. Folded tables and chairs and all kinds of different props were stacked up against the walls, as well as different kinds of tools, crates, a few freezers and some devices she couldn’t identify. It was a pretty disorderly mess, but at least it was all pressed against the walls, leaving a pathway for them to walk.

Hajime made a silent motion to follow with his hand and he stealthily powered forward, Maki in close pursuit. She had her finger pressed dangerously against the trigger as she and Hajime swept the area, only to find that no one else was down here with them. 

As disappointing as it was that they hadn’t found Tsumugi, there was certainly something else of importance. A fairly wide control panel and a second passageway leading up a significantly shorter flight of stairs which, for some reason, ended at a solid ceiling. Maki climbed the stairs the best she could and pressed her hand against the ceiling, knocking lightly on it and trying to push at it. Expectedly, she could not get past it.

While she was investigating the mysterious stairs, Hajime was at the control panel. Maki turned around to see him tucking something away into his pocket before he bent down to inspect all of the buttons.

“The labels here are scribbled out,” Hajime reported. “But looking at this panel… hmm…”

Maki’s initial thought was that if the labels were unreadable, then pressing buttons at random was the last thing they should be doing. Hajime did not seem to share this sentiment as after a moment, he reached down and tapped one of the buttons.

Much to Maki’s extreme shock, the ceiling above her shifted. She hurried back down the stairs, watching as what she had failed to recognize as a whole room began slowly moving to the side. Its departure revealed a black and white door eerily similar to the one behind the moving bookcase in the library.

“How did you know which one to press?” Maki asked as she recovered from her split-second shock.

“...I’ll tell you later,” was Hajime’s vague response, an awkward smile present on his face despite the dark look in his eyes. Snapping back to attention though, he walked up the stairs to look at the door, a hand on his chin. “This must be electronically locked.”

A quick glance around at the walls revealed that there was no place for some sort of card reader, so opening the door might be one of the buttons on the control panel. Even so, maybe if she hit the door with one of the electrohammers…

Before she could even bring this up to Hajime, he was already pulling out that megaphone, pointing it at the door as if it were a gun. Actually, upon closer look, it did look a little different from a normal megaphone, since it had a more gun-like trigger and some little panels on its sides.

“Move,” Hajime whispered through gritted teeth as he pulled the trigger.

And much to Maki’s complete and extremely rare bewilderment, the door shuddered and began to open very, very slowly.

“You just have a solution to everything, don’t you?” Maki demanded in a low voice, shooting a sharp look up at the man.

“When you’re the smartest person alive, yes. That tends to happen,” Hajime told her matter-of-factly, sheathing his megaphone-gun. It must work similarly to the electrohammers, she presumed.

Maki was no longer interested in his surprising amount of intelligence, though. Her eyes were trained on what was beyond the black and white door.

It was somebody. Somebody familiar.

That somebody was sitting on the ground with his back to the door, his head hanging low as he stared down at the second person in the room, who was dressed in white and wasn’t moving. That somebody’s breathing was erratic and uneven, as if every breath was being mercilessly forced into his lungs.

The door rose higher and higher until it reached the top with a stiff creak, and his violent shaking suddenly stopped as his entire body went as rigid as ice.

“...Shuichi,” Maki’s mouth spoke for her. She stepped into the room, dropping the crossbow as she went since it was no longer needed.

The sound of her voice was what made Shuichi turn his head, staring at her from over his shoulder. His sclera were tinted a faint red and the yellow of his iris was dull and haunted, the light in his eyes having entirely faded. He had clearly been crying, there was no doubt about it. It must be an effect of the morning puzzle, which must have beaten Kokichi down pretty badly.

…Kokichi…

Looking past Shuichi, the one he had been crouched over was definitely Kokichi, but… there was so much terribly wrong with him. 

Kokichi had always been smaller than everyone, but with his eyes closed and his body entirely still, he looked nothing like the bastard she had come to know. Despite his short stature, Kokichi had always seemed so big in comparison– almost as big as Kaito. He was always moving, always fidgeting in a restless way contrary to Shuichi’s nervous demeanor, and he was always wearing a fake emotion on his face. Joy, fury, sorrow… he could switch out those masks in the blink of an eye, making him as confusing as he was frustrating.

After the fourth trial, Maki had seen him as nothing more than a threat. He was someone she had to keep an eye on before he did anything drastic; someone who, if needed be, she would not hesitate to strangle against the floor just to watch the life bleed out of his eyes. He was a heartless, evil son of a bitch that had to be stopped before he got someone else killed.

Things started to change after she investigated his room, though. As much as she would have been entirely content in painting him as pure evil, his motive video had shown her a new perspective to look at: Kokichi was a liar. And then there was the message in his note, where he had apologized half-heartedly for Gonta and Miu’s deaths before leaving them with the cryptic question of Future Foundation’s existence. The final nail on the coffin was when she and Shuichi had spoken during the blackout, and she had been forced to bear witness to Shuichi dizzily blabber about Kokichi and how friendly they had become. Kokichi was capable of being kind, he just didn’t extend that kindness to everyone else.

Seeing him here now? Limp in front of Shuichi, his shirt missing and replaced by tons of messily applied bandages that she could still see blood seeping through? A– is that a muzzle!? Tsumugi really forced a wire cage muzzle onto Kokichi as if he were a violent mutt? Maki never liked to kick someone when they were already down, and from the physical condition she could see now, Tsumugi had clearly done that more than once.

For now, she had to stamp all of her gross mushy guilt and discomfort feelings into a pile to light on fire and deal with later, like she always did. Shuichi had started trembling again, not taking his wide eyes off of Maki. She didn’t like seeing this kind of fear on Shuichi’s face, especially when he was looking at her. Shuichi was… her friend. She didn’t want to terrify her friends.

“Shuichi,” Maki tried again, daring to take another step forward. “Are–”

“M-Move again,” Shuichi spat with unexpected ferocity, “a-and I’ll… kill you…”

Maki was very rarely, if ever, stunned into silence. But hearing Shuichi utter those words with such scorn overlaying his hoarse, scratchy voice, much less directed at her, felt like an extra punch in the gut. He didn’t seem this bad when they spoke during the blackout– what had these past few puzzles done to him?

“...what?” was all Maki could think to say.

A hand was suddenly placed on her shoulder and she nearly decked Hajime, only finding a scrap of self control to keep her fist planted firmly at her side.

“Consider his position,” Hajime whispered to her. “This motive has been going on for days, right? Every day, he’s been forced to participate in a life-or-death puzzle where he and his friend have been hurt over and over again. That kind of trauma messes with your head; he’s most likely trying to protect his friend from being further injured, even if he can’t identify what exactly that threat is.”

Nevermind the trauma, Maki’s mind immediately flashed to how he had been acting during the blackout. If that sweet gas had any long-term effects, then that could also very well be what was making Shuichi act so odd.

“So what do we do?” Maki whispered back, not taking her eyes off of her friend. He was staring at the two of them like a cornered animal.

“I can’t do anything here,” Hajime admitted. “He doesn’t know who I am. From what I gathered, you spent a lot of time with him, right? Make him recognize you, calm him down and try to reason with him. Tell him I can help his friend.”

Maki nodded. She wasn’t good at this “calming down” thing since she never had a reason to do it; the most experience she had was coaxing younger kids out of tantrums or meltdowns back at her orphanage. Could that work here, too?

“I’m not going to hurt you or Kokichi,” Maki reassured her friend in the gentlest tone she could manage. “We’re here to get you out.”

There was a flash of panic in Shuichi’s eyes. “O-Out? What… wh-what do you mean, out?”

“You don’t have to do any more death puzzles,” Maki told him, allowing a hint of firmness to seep into her voice. “Did you really think we wouldn’t do anything to try to get you two out?”

“Wha… but… we…” Shuichi cast a helpless look down at Kokichi. “We were gonna die, though… I was so ready to die, y-you… you’re telling me…”

“You don’t have to die,” Maki murmured, risking taking another few steps forward. He didn’t react, thankfully. “No more death puzzles. No more of that gas. No more of this.” She gestured vaguely at Kokichi’s condition, which made Shuichi flinch. “We’re here to get you out. Kaito is gathering everyone in the courtyard right now, and this guy– his name is Hajime– he’s here to help. He can save Kokichi.”

That certainly got his attention. Shuichi perked up, finally moving his gaze towards Hajime, who was lingering awkwardly in the doorway. He opened and closed his mouth, as if to try and say something, but all that came out was a weak sob as tears welled in his eyes, quiet, gut-wrenching cries escaping out of his mouth.

Maki took this as her sign to move closer, and she crouched down next to him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. This was the final crack, because he pretty much flung himself into her, wrapping his arms around her midsection as he cried and wailed like a lost child.

It was in this embrace that she noticed something that made her heart drop. She hadn’t seen it before because of the way Shuichi was sitting, but…

…one of Shuichi’s hands was missing.

Raw anger swirled in Maki’s stomach and she placed one of her hands on top of Shuichi’s head, pushing aside her initial discomfort at a hug. If anyone deserved it right now, it was Shuichi, so she’d set aside her grievances and hug him back.

The minute Shuichi’s face was hidden, Hajime moved from the doorway to Kokichi’s side, dropping to his knees and immediately feeling for a pulse. He then began checking over all of the bandages Kokichi had, his expression deathly serious.

“Better tell Mikan to prepare a room…” Hajime muttered to himself, standing up and ripping the blanket off of the bed. “Is he coherent enough to give me an explanation?”

“Shuichi,” Maki prompted softly, “where is Kokichi hurt?”

“Ah… th-this morning, he got impaled… s-six times,” Shuichi whimpered into her chest, squeezing her shirt slightly. “I tried… I tried to wrap it up, b-but– but–”

“You did the best you could,” Hajime assured him. “Where was he impaled?

Through a shaky voice, Shuichi listed everywhere Kokichi was stabbed. Twice in his shoulder region, once in the very side of his abdominal region, once in his left thigh which was apparently connected to a potentially broken foot, once in his right calf, and once in his right forearm.

“H-his hands… one of them was cut during the Mirror Puzzle,” stammered Shuichi. “And… and his ribs are b-broken. I broke them… doing CPR.”

“How has he not pierced a lung yet…?” Maki muttered in wonder.

“We’ll have to keep him still,” Hajime decided as he crouched back down next to Kokichi.

With very careful movements, Hajime began bundling Kokichi in the blanket, moving extremely slowly so as to not worsen any of his injuries.

“Ah–! What are you doing?” Shuichi demanded urgently, attempting to push himself off of Maki and failing as she firmly held onto him. “Hey–”

“We’ll bring him up to the patio,” Hajime spoke over Shuichi’s panicked sputtering. “I want everyone together, in case Tsumugi is still around.”

“How do I know you’re not Tsumugi!?” Shuichi unexpectedly spat. That was something that made Maki pause, narrowing her eyes at Hajime. She hadn’t considered that– Tsumugi’s talent as the Ultimate Cosplayer was something that never seemed all that important to her. In fact, the only time she had put any real thought into it was when they were discussing cospox in the first trial.

Even more alarmingly, Hajime looked genuinely contemplative, as if even he didn’t know the answer to that.

“I suppose you can’t,” Hajime admitted after a few moments. “Tsumugi was on the list as the Ultimate Cosplayer, so I guess it’d make sense she can make perfect disguises.”

“She can’t cosplay real people,” Maki informed him. “She breaks out in cospox whenever she tries.”

She was about to point out that they didn’t know if he was even real, when Hajime leveled her gaze with a hint of confusion in his eyes.

“Cospox… isn’t a real phenomenon. She could cosplay real people if she’d like.”

And at that moment, Maki had to wonder… how many times has she been tricked so far? How many more unverifiable, conflicting facts were going to be shoved into her face?

What exactly was the truth?

“Wh-wha… what does that mean?” Shuichi stammered, his body beginning to shake again as he clung onto Maki a little tighter.

Hajime sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “It’s… a very long story. I promise I will explain what I know later. But first, I’d like to get you and Kokichi out of this room– if Tsumugi is still around, then I don’t want her locking us in here.”

“Or… using the sweet g-gas…” Shuichi agreed in a murmur. He sniffled weakly, finally detaching himself from Maki to wipe his eyes. “...o-okay… fine…”

“You’re going to believe he’s not Tsumugi just like that?” Maki demanded, faintly surprised. You were the one who brought it up…

“I don’t know how I can convince you otherwise…” Hajime said a little helplessly. “I don’t have a badge since I’m not formally part of Future Foundation. I never got a valid ID or driver's license before the Tragedy… though I don’t imagine that’d do us much good now.”

Maki lifted a skeptical brow at the man. “So you’re openly admitting you don’t have any way to prove yourself?”

“Yeah. I can tell you I’m not Tsumugi in cosplay all I’d like, but without evidence to back that claim up, it’s not a very convincing statement.”

At least he’ll admit it. While Maki doubted he really was Tsumugi– he was giving up secrets about the outside world left and right, and she doubted the mastermind would want that to happen– she couldn’t be one hundred percent sure.

Even so, Kokichi needed help, which Hajime claimed he could provide. She’d have to take her chances if it meant Kokichi wouldn’t die (as much as she would have loved that idea nearly a week ago).

“I’ve got my eye on you,” was all she told Hajime in response.

Hajime shrugged. “That’s fair. Anyhow, let’s go to the courtyard.”

While Hajime carefully lifted Kokichi into his arms in a bridal style carry, Maki helped Shuichi to his feet, catching him when his knees nearly gave out on him. The mere act of standing up seemed to have fully exhausted Shuichi as he whimpered quietly in pain, breathing a little too heavily for such a mundane task.

Before they left the room, Hajime tossed her his flashlight, which she caught with ease. She allowed Shuichi to use her arm as a crutch as they exited the room, slowly making their way down the stairs and to the circular room.

“Ah…!” Shuichi choked suddenly, stumbling to a halt. His eyes were locked on what seemed to be a casket leaning against the wall, lid closed. “Th-that’s… the Coffin Puzzle… and–” he turned his head to look at a few open boxes, where there were Monokuma's and some white rabbit overflowing from the top. (She didn’t know why Hajime looked so bitter at the sight.) “T-The… those…”

“Look away,” Hajime advised quietly. “Nothing here will hurt you or Kokichi anymore.”

“I never… finished that puzzle…” Shuichi whispered nearly deliriously. “If I… m-maybe Kokichi wouldn't've…”

Those must be from the puzzle Kokichi “failed”, Maki presumed, scowling at the items.

“There's nothing we can do now,” Maki pointed out with as much sympathy as her voice would allow her to express. “Come on.”

Shuichi nodded, though he didn’t look convinced in the slightest.

Getting up the stairs that led to Tsumugi’s room was proven to be an even more time-consuming task when traveling with Shuichi, who had to pause multiple times to catch his breath. He apologized frequently for having to stop, and Maki reminded him that if he passed out on the stairs, Hajime couldn’t carry him and Kokichi.

Finally though, they made it, and Maki was eager to get out of Tsumugi’s room. It was unfortunate she hadn’t been able to stick a crossbow bolt or two into her eyes, but rescuing Shuichi and Kokichi was arguably an even greater reward.

“W-Wait,” said Shuichi as they were about to leave. Both she and Hajime paused, glancing over at him. “What if we can’t leave…?”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Maki asked.

Shuichi lifted his hand to brush his fingers against the collar resting heavily around his neck. Maki had been trying to avoid looking at it, but right now it was a little difficult to disregard. Especially when, upon closer look, she could see the faintest burn marks on his neck.

“Kokichi said… when he tried to leave, h-he was electrocuted,” Shuichi explained weakly. “Electrocuted to the point where he couldn’t move. Wh-what if our collars turn on?”

That was a new piece of information. Kokichi was in Tsumugi’s room? How did he manage to pull that off?

It was a little embarrassing that it didn’t click right away. During the blackout, Shuichi said that Kokichi was exploring. He must have found the staircase that led up to Tsumugi’s room and followed it. If Shuichi knew that Tsumugi was the mastermind based off of his earlier outburst, then Kokichi must have realized who’s room he was in.

…or he had seen her himself. Tsumugi ran back to her room very soon after Shuichi passed out on the broadcast. Had she and Kokichi encountered each other there? If Kokichi had made it out the door, how different would things have turned out?

There wasn’t time to contemplate past choices, though. Shuichi had detached himself from Maki and was walking towards the door, his footsteps uneven and hesitant.

“I’ll go through first,” Shuichi announced determinedly. “I-If it shocks me, then–”

“You idiot, don’t go through the door if it’s going to electrocute you!” Maki snapped, rushing up to him and catching him by the arm before he could reach for the doorknob. “You’re hurt badly enough as it is.”

“I don’t think it’ll shock you,” Hajime interjected thoughtfully. “People like Tsumugi tend to be pretty confident that their plan will work out. She would have seen no reason to set up a sensor that activates your collars since she thought you would never escape the motive. Go ahead, go through the door. You’ll be fine.”

That was the opposite message Maki was trying to send, but she was too late to stop Shuichi from throwing open the door, his entire body tensing as he did so.

A few seconds passed, and nothing happened.

“See? It’s alright,” Hajime reassured the boy, who was still eyeing the door warily. “I’ll get those collars off of you two soon, I just need all of you in a single area to ensure all of your safety. Okay?”

While Maki was wondering how this guy managed to be the most suspiciously inconspicuous person alive, Shuichi nodded miserably, latching back onto her arm for support.

Leaving the dormitory, Maki could already see that there was something going on at the patio. Kaito, Himiko and K1-B0 were all there, but K1-B0 was sitting on his knees on the ground, seeming to be arguing with the other two. There was something wrapped around his body… was that a rope? Why was K1-B0 tied up?

“Oh boy,” Hajime muttered upon seeing the scene.

“I just remembered why it’s a bad idea to leave these idiots alone,” Maki grumbled under her breath. “Shuichi, can you walk on your own?”

“...um… maybe.”

“Good.” Gently removing her arm from Shuichi’s hold, she ran to the patio where her idiot classmates were arguing.

K1-B0 was, in fact, tied up, but he made no move to try and escape from his binds. Meanwhile, Kaito was sitting on the bench facing towards the robot and Himiko, who was standing and waving her arms indignantly.

“...intervals or something!” Himiko was saying. “If he turns evil all of the sudden, we’re screwed.”

“I don’t deny it was suspicious, but to believe something like that can happen to me…!” K1-B0 trailed off with a look of powerless distraught on his face.

“I still don’t think it’s right to tie him up,” Kaito argued stubbornly. “Who’s to say she even has technology– hi Maki Roll– like that? Especially on hand with her if she was– Maki Roll!”

“What the hell is going on?” Maki demanded, ignoring Kaito’s visible excitement.

“I had an encounter with Tsumugi, and apparently that makes me suspicious,” K1-B0 explained unhappily. “She somehow knocked me out, saying she needed something from me…”

“Probably his soul,” Himiko supplied unhelpfully. 

“She did not take my soul!” K1-B0 protested, and from the tone of his voice, Maki guessed this was not the first time he was saying this.

“You talked to Tsumugi?” Maki questioned in alarm. “When?”

“About ten minutes ago,” said K1-B0. “But I blacked out shortly after. When I woke up to Himiko shaking me, she was already gone…”

Ten minutes ago? That at least discredited the idea that Hajime was Tsumugi in disguise, but now they had another problem.

However, that’d have to wait for later, because she saw the change in all three of her classmate’s expressions the minute they saw Shuichi, Hajime and Kokichi.

“Shuichi? Shuichi!” Kaito shouted in joy, leaping up from the bench and immediately dashing towards the detective. Maki managed to catch him by the arm before he could, knowing that any form of physical contact Kaito tried to initiate with Shuichi would probably knock him over. Also, Shuichi looked a little terrified. “Ow– Maki Roll!”

“Wh-wh-who is that!?” Himiko yelped, jabbing a shaking finger at Hajime. “And… nyeh!? Kokichi!?”

“Kaito, sit back down,” Hajime ordered, jerking his head at the table. “Shuichi, you should sit down as well. I’m going to lay Kokichi on the table for the time being.”

“Why not one of the beds?” Maki inquired while Himiko was still sputtering in confusion.

“I don’t want to be indoors at the moment,” Hajime explained vaguely. “One of you can grab a pillow and more blankets from one of the dorm rooms, though.”

While Hajime laid Kokichi, who was bundled in the white blanket from the underground room, on top of the table, Himiko had grabbed her arm, shaking her slightly.

“Stop that.” Maki pulled herself free, scowling down at the mage before letting out a sigh of defeat. “This is Hajime Hinata. He’s apparently here to free us. We just saved Shuichi and Kokichi from the motive.”

“The Objective Room,” Shuichi corrected her automatically. “...also, um… why is Keebo tied up?”

“Don’t worry about it,” both she and K1-B0 said at the same time. K1-B0 continued, saying, “I’m so glad you’re alright, Shuichi! We were all very worried about you two.”

“Especially after that broadcast during the blackout,” Himiko added.

For some reason, Shuichi’s face went pale, and he anxiously glanced between the four of them. Maki wasn’t sure why he looked so alarmed.

“What… broadcast?” Shuichi whispered so quietly she almost didn’t hear it. “I-I don’t remember a broadcast.”

…what?

“Nyeh? You don’t?” Himiko exclaimed, her closed fists flying up in surprise.

“Me, Himiko and Tsumugi talked to you through one of the monitors,” Maki explained, sharing Kaito and Himiko’s looks of confusion. “You told us that Kokichi was off exploring, and that you resuscitated him after he died.”

“...ah. Th-that must be the gas,” Shuichi finally murmured. “It’s been having weird effects on us… so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was messing with our memory, too.”

“The sweet gas, right?” Kaito guessed.

Shuichi looked faintly surprised at that, but he nodded in confirmation. “Yeah… but it does make me wonder what else I can’t remember.”

“Nyah–!?” Himiko suddenly yelped, doing an awkward jump that startled everyone. “Shuichi, your… your hand…!”

A blank expression slammed onto Shuichi’s face immediately and he hid the stump of his left wrist beneath his remaining hand, ducking his head.

“Don’t bring it up,” Hajime advised with a sharp edge to his voice. “Don’t discuss the puzzles right now. Just be happy they’re both back.”

“I’m sorry, who exactly is this?” K1-B0 queried.

Hajime cleared his throat, stepping away from the table to address them all directly. “I apologize for my rudeness. My name is Hajime Hinata, and as Maki said, I’m here to get you all out of here… though that’s a bit of a work in progress. I work closely with an organization called Future Foundation, which is dedicated to rebuilding the world from its current condition.”

“Rebuilding?” echoed Himiko, her voice quiet with uncertainty.

“I suppose we have time,” Hajime sighed. “Right. Let me tell you about the biggest, most awful, most tragic event in human history… the Tragedy.

It was a long-winded explanation, one that left Maki with many conflicting feelings. Hajime told the four of them all about Hope’s Peak Academy and the events that led to its downfall– Junko Enoshima, the Kamukura Project, the Parade, the mass suicide of the Reserve Course, the execution of Chiaki Nanami and thus the brainwashing of Class 77, who would soon become the Remnants of Despair. He told them about Future Foundation, about how it had since been reformed following the events of the supposed “final killing game” that had taken place two years ago, shortly after the Remnants had been rehabilitated. He told them about the killing school life, about the Towa City war and about Monaca Towa, the self-proclaimed Junko Enoshima II.

He told them grimly about how things had slowly been getting better; the world had begun recovering slowly. Industries began rebuilding. A wave of artificial hope had crushed a majority of despair, leaving its supporters weak and in few in number. It had been getting better for a little while.

That was, until disaster struck again. In trying to stop a war between two sides, the artificial hope from some sort of brainwashing video snapped, and it went from a war between the people to a massacre. Crime rates skyrocketed suddenly, nuclear warfare somehow broke out, mass suicides occurred in succession. Many despair organizations suddenly rose from the woodwork, intent on fighting Future Foundation as a group. Of course it wouldn't be smooth sailing, Hajime had sighed.

Cities re-collapsed, apparently. Maki didn’t even know that was something that could happen. Once word got out that Future Foundation had broadcasted a brainwashing video to rid the world of despair– which had apparently been the actions of one guy– everyone was understandably pissed. The world, after just starting to heal, plummeted into a kind of chaos that was somehow even worse than the first.

That led them to now, nearly four years after Hope’s Peak had closed its doors permanently. Future Foundation was in its second attempt of reparation, and this time, they didn’t intend to make the same mistake twice. Not with the Ultimate Hope leading the organization.

“The only reason I was on mainland was to scout out some of the more dangerous wastelands on behalf of Future Foundation,” explained Hajime. “But something knocked out my line to headquarters, and that led me here.”

All eyes aside from Shuichi’s immediately turned to Maki, and she scowled at all of them.

“Maki Roll caused a blackout in the entire… what’d you call it? The Ark?” Kaito elaborated with a frustrating note of affection in his voice.

“I couldn’t think of any other way to get into the hidden room,” Maki defended herself coolly. “We learned a lot of valuable information there.”

“And you bought Kokichi time,” Shuichi unexpectedly added, his eyes still glued onto the ground.

“What?” Maki tried.

She wasn’t surprised when she was met with a mumbled, “nothing.” Though it did intrigue her.

“Nyeh… so if the world’s destroyed… what about us?” Himiko questioned, her voice quivering. She was clearly struggling to keep her composure. “Wh-why were we put into this awful place if everything’s already destroyed…?”

“You’ve mentioned a list a few times now,” Maki recalled, narrowing her eyes at the man.

“The best guess I have,” said Hajime, “is that Tsumugi Shirogane was trying to recreate what Junko Enoshima did with the killing school life. Of course, she didn’t have any other Ultimates to take and put into a killing game– the last class of Hope’s Peak was Class 78, who participated in the killing school life. She must have somehow got her hands on Hope’s Peak scouting list, and sought out the people who were on that. If I could get a roster of your class…”

“I can write it down,” K1-B0 offered, sounding a little faint. “Do you have a pen and paper…?”

“Yup. Here you go.”

While K1-B0 was writing on a small notepad Hajime had presented, Maki was deep in thought. All of this was absolutely insane, but it explained nearly everything they had learned so far. She had long since stopped trusting the Flashback Lights, and now she had a valid reason for doing so; an actual testimony from a man from the outside, one who spoke with such a burdened heaviness in his voice that it was hard not to believe him.

“When the power was out, we couldn’t breathe,” Maki told Hajime. “Monokuma said something about air– wait a minute. Oh, god damn it!”

“Maki Roll? What is it?” Kaito fretted.

“Tsumugi was the one to suggest that we shouldn’t destroy Motherkuma,” Maki spat. She clenched her fists tightly, suddenly feeling the urge to hunt the mastermind down and clock her. “...she named it, too!”

“They tend to be sneaky like that,” Hajime sighed sympathetically. “What were you asking?”

“Where we are,” Maki growled through gritted teeth. “Or rather, where the Ark is and why the air is toxic.”

“Ah, I see. The Ark is located in the dead center of one of the most dangerous cities that fell victim to a bit more nuclear radiation than what’s deemed fit,” Hajime explained nonchalantly. “I’m guessing that its placement was intentional, so that the killing game wouldn’t be interrupted should Future Foundation have found out. Speaking of which… I might know what Tsumugi wanted from Keebo earlier. It’s only a guess, but she might have been collecting recordings.”

That made K1-B0 stop writing as he looked up at Hajime, visible confusion written all over his face. “Recordings…?”

“You have a picture taking function, don’t you?” Himiko pointed out dryly. “It makes sense that you’d have a recording function, too.”

“But I don’t believe I’ve been recording,” K1-B0 protested uncertainly. “Surely I would have noticed…? Why would she want something like that from me, anyway?”

“To record the killing game,” Hajime answered simply. “Instead of broadcasting it live, I’m assuming Tsumugi wanted to record it, so Future Foundation couldn’t stop it from happening. I can’t be sure, though– there are other possibilities too. She could have been stopping a broadcast we never caught, for example.”

Even for a robot, K1-B0 looked a little pale.

Maki couldn’t blame him at all. Just as she thought this situation couldn’t get any worse, it did. Everything they had done here… had been televised? Or at the very least, recorded. And if Tsumugi did have those recordings in her possession…

No matter what, everything that had happened in this place was public one way or another. Their misery was going to be used as mere entertainment value for the despair-obsessed masses who loved seeing their hopes get crushed over and over again. Everything that K1-B0 had seen, the world has, too.

“Future Foundation will handle it,” Hajime promised solemnly. “You won’t ever have to see it.”

“...I… I finished the roster,” K1-B0 announced as a change of subject, holding the notepad and pen back out to Hajime.

“Thank you.” Hajime took the notepad, his eyes flicking down the list for only a brief moment before he nodded. “Hm… not boring at all…”

“What a weird way to say interesting…” Himiko commented dryly.

“It’s a habit,” was Hajime’s vague response. “Six out of sixteen of you weren’t on the scouting list.”

“What? Who was missing?” Kaito demanded.

“Rantaro Amami, Maki Harukawa–” Maki sat up sharply, surprised to hear her own name. “–Ryoma Hoshi, Keebo, Kokichi Ouma and Angie Yonaga.”

“There isn’t anything different about everyone listed though.” Shuichi frowned slightly as he spoke, a comfortingly familiar thoughtful expression present on his face. “A pattern… is there a pattern…?”

“There doesn’t have to be a pattern in this case,” Hajime told the detective in a significantly softer tone. 

For some reason, that made Shuichi tense.

“I believe that Tsumugi collected people outside of the list to complete the sixteen-student roster needed to perform a killing game like the one Junko Enoshima led,” Hajime continued, tapping the notepad with the back of his hand. “The scouting list had more than sixteen when we checked it, but I’m assuming that Tsumugi either couldn’t find them, or they were killed amidst the Tragedy. I see two possibilities regarding your participation; the first is that you were forced into the killing game against your will. The second… is that you were influenced by despair and chose to participate.”

“W-We… chose to participate in the killing game?” K1-B0 sputtered in horror. “I… I cannot even deny the possibility…”

Maki couldn't either, which is why she was so pissed at the revelation. It was hard to imagine herself as a prisoner, but she also couldn’t see herself volunteering for a killing game. And what about the others, too? Rantaro, Ryoma, Kokichi, Angie… what were their situations? Why had they ended up in this inhumane killing game?

Why did this have to happen?

“So are our talents real?” Maki wondered, her voice coming out sharper than she meant it to. “Or were those made up by Tsumugi and stuffed into our heads with those Flashback Lights?”

“I can’t be sure,” Hajime admitted with a wince. “I’ll have to look into all of your backgrounds to find out what exactly happened. But once I do find out, I’ll make sure to tell you. You deserve the truth.”

Maki could only hope Hajime held onto his promise.

***

This man was once part of a killing game.

Shuichi couldn’t stop staring at Hajime knowing this mere fact. Hajime was a participant of a killing game. Hajime’s friends had died in a killing game. Hajime was telling the truth because he was the survivor of a killing game.

It had been about twenty minutes since the reveal of the Tragedy, and everyone was still at the patio for now. Hajime was carefully watching over Kokichi, pulling out a whole oxygen mask and respirator from his enormous backpack for Shuichi’s partner. K1-B0 had been untied, though Shuichi still failed to see why he had been tied up in the first place.

And now everyone was crowded around Shuichi. Maki was sitting next to him, Kaito on his other side, while Himiko sat on her knees on the ground and K1-B0 stayed standing. They were all talking amongst themselves, going from discussing the Tragedy to talking about their memories. Shuichi stayed silent, his eyes trained firmly on Hajime.

Hajime had survived a killing game before. Kokichi had known one of the Remnants of Despair, and Hajime had survived a killing game that he never mentioned in his explanation of the Tragedy.

(“I’ve been having a lot of weird dreams lately. Whenever I think about it too hard, my head starts to hurt. Super suspicious, but just know that I’m right.”)

Why wouldn’t he mention something as important as a second killing game?

“One of you, can you go get some more blankets and pillows?” Hajime suddenly requested. “I need to prop him up.”

The minute he heard the request, Shuichi was up on his feet. It was second nature at this point, to do something when someone ordered him to– after all, if he didn’t, he was either shocked or would be killed for refusing to participate. And they’ve come so far now, he couldn’t let that happen–

K1-B0 quickly caught him by the shoulders, nearly scaring the living daylights out of him. He was guided back into his seat.

“You’ve done enough,” K1-B0 told him. He released Shuichi before offering him a small, reassuring smile. “Leave everything else to us.”

“But– I can still–” Shuichi tried, before he stopped himself. He didn’t have to do everything that was asked of him. “...okay. Sorry.”

“Hey, don’t worry, man. I’m benched from the team too,” Kaito laughed lightly. He attempted to pat Shuichi on the back, but Maki slapped his hand away at the last second. Shuichi silently thanked her. “We can chill here together, alright?”

“...I guess,” Shuichi agreed, finding his gaze trailing back towards his partner. He couldn’t leave Kokichi alone with these people anyway, so it was best if he stayed put.

“I’ll go with Keebo to get the blankets,” offered Himiko. “It may not look like it, but my magic will allow me to carry two and a half times the amount of stuff I usually can.”

“Fantastic…!” K1-B0 exclaimed. “Let’s hurry, then.”

And so the two left with each other towards the dorms. Shuichi shifted uncomfortably in his spot, his hand itching to do something. Everything felt so surreal, and the feeling was only getting worse the longer he lingered outside of the Objective Room. His partner was unconscious, so he was on his own in this puzzle–

He caught the thought with a flinch, his shoulders tensing. Why the hell was he thinking like that? This entire situation was freedom, wasn’t it? The thing he and Kokichi had thought was entirely impossible had happened by some miracle. He should be ecstatic that this was happening. “Freedom” meant that he and Kokichi could live in love, just like they always talked about.

So what was wrong? Why didn’t he feel okay after getting out?

…why did he want back into the Objective Room so much?

It had only been… what? Six days? And yet the Objective Room felt like a sacred holy ground to him– a space he felt comfortable in because it was familiar. He knew that he was always safe there, having Kokichi with him out of danger’s long claws. Even if going to sleep was utterly terrifying… at least the day gave them solace. They could hold each other, they could play and talk. They could anticipate the next puzzle to come their way.

Out here, Shuichi had no idea what to expect. He never thought he’d make it this far.

M…maybe… it’s for the better… if we go back…

Yeah. Yeah, I should go back to the Objective Room. It’s… against the rules to leave it anyhow…

His limbs feeling numb, Shuichi stood up from the bench.

I don’t… want to be punished again.

Punishment. It sent a cold shiver down his spine and he took a staggering step forward, feeling scarily detached from his body. He was watching himself move from far off, the connection between his consciousness and his body severed.

All he knew was one simple fact. He needed back into the Objective Room. The Objective Room was a safe place to be. He wouldn’t be punished if he was there– if he followed the rules, he’d be okay. He wouldn’t be punished.

(I saved Kokichi Ouma.)

“SHUICHI! Bro!”

Someone had grabbed his shoulders and was now standing in front of him. 

“Get a hold of yourself, man!” Kaito shouted at him, the volume of his voice feeling like chalk on a blackboard to his ears. “You’re muttering all kinds of crazy shit to yourself.”

“I have to go back,” Shuichi insisted quietly. “It’s… I want to go back… please take me back, please–”

“Take you–” Kaito jerked away from him as if he had been burned, his eyes wide. “You don’t mean… to the motive?”

Not the motive. The safety of the Objective Room. Shuichi wanted him to understand that, but all that he could get out of his mouth was an incomprehensible slur of words.

“Shuichi, sit back down. You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Maki ordered him. “Give yourself some time before you start making any decisions.”

“N-No, I…” His words weren’t working. He didn’t know how to tell them what he wanted. Frustrated, fearful tears were brimming the corners of his eyes, which only made it even more difficult to think because he didn’t know how to make himself clear. He needed to go back. “I don’t… wanna… be p-punished… a-again…”

I saved Kokichi Ouma.

The words felt like lines of fire scrawled into his mind. He could feel the phantom pain in his left hand, despite it being severed from his body. He was there for so long, and the quills– the venom– hurt so badly. The last thing he wanted was to go back to that. It was worth it to save Kokichi, but… if it was avoidable…!

“Back up, now.”

“But–”

“Kaito, listen to me. Back up. I’ll take care of Shuichi; Maki, can you handle Kokichi for a moment? Keep an eye on his breathing.”

“...okay.”

A firm hand was placed on his shoulder and Shuichi felt himself being gently guided away from the hushed conversation of his friends. The quieter their voices became, the louder his thoughts grew, until he felt as if he were swamped in a puddle of pure darkness, which was rapidly growing deeper and deeper. That darkness filled his lungs, making it impossible to breathe.

Hajime gently guided him into a sitting position on the grass, taking his own seat beside Shuichi. He was holding Shuichi upright, which he would have appreciated more if he was capable of processing any form of basic thought.

“You’re triggering yourself more and more. Try to focus on my voice, okay?” Hajime advised him in a soft murmur. “It’s okay if you can’t do it first try. There are no penalties for failing. Breathe in slowly, just like me.”

No penalties…?

This was a good rule since Shuichi’s first attempt left him in a coughing and sputtering mess, and as he tried to apologize through his gasps, Hajime reassured him that it was okay. He encouraged him to try again.

A deep breath in…

“...good, now let it out at that same pace.”

And a deep breath out. It made Shuichi’s head feel light, like cotton was stuffed between his brain and his skull.

“Great job. Let’s do it again, okay? Deep breath in,” Hajime gave him a demonstration, which he followed with a little less trouble. “And… exhale. Take in your surroundings– where are we?”

“Th-the courtyard,” Shuichi answered in barely a whisper.

“That’s correct. And can you tell me my name?” Hajime requested. “Just my given name is fine.”

That was an odd question. “Y-You’re… Hajime.”

“That’s also correct. Now, can you tell me your name?”

“Shuichi Saihara… U-Ultimate Detective.” It wasn’t a title he wore with pride, but it was his nonetheless.

Hajime nodded, smiling softly at him. “I know someone who shares the same talent as you. She’s very good at what she does, and I’m sure you are, too.”

Shuichi wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he stayed silent, keeping his eyes trained firmly on the ground.

“Shuichi.” Hajime, who had taken his hands off of Shuichi at some point, cautiously wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Shuichi nervously leaned into his side, feeling small. “You and Kokichi have been through a lot. I know I’m a stranger to all of you, but I’ve got a psychology talent or two stored up in here,” he tapped his temple with a wry smile, “so if you’d like, you can talk to me.”

Talk to me.

Comfort was something that had always felt a little foreign to Shuichi. The first time he truly felt it was with his uncle, when he had shown Shuichi’s room to him for the first time and promised they could decorate it however he’d like. But that feeling had escaped him once again during the death puzzles– he had Kokichi, but neither of them had felt comfort during or inbetween the puzzles. They had solace and they had relief, but never the kind of warm, cozy comfort that came only from the deepest place of care.

Being offered that kind of comfort so freely now, after everything that had happened and everything he had learned… it was like feeling it for the first time again. 

Comfort. What a gentle feeling.

“Talking is so hard,” Shuichi eventually whimpered, reaching up to scrub helplessly at his tears. “I don’t– I can’t… get it all out…”

Hajime hummed, matching his quiet volume. “Then I’ll ask you. But don’t feel as if you have to answer, alright?”

Ask me…? Shuichi nodded, a little confused.

“First, you said you wanted us to take you back to the Objective Room,” recalled Hajime. “Is there a reason you want to go back, or is it a feeling of obligation?”

“The Objective Room is safe,” Shuichi explained to him. Maybe, if his friends wouldn’t understand, Hajime would. “Me and Kokichi are always safe in the Objective Room… a-at least until we fall asleep, but… otherwise, it’s safe.”

“Are you feeling unsafe?” Hajime inquired.

Shuichi paused. Was he feeling unsafe? It was difficult to tell– he was never that good at discerning complicated emotions. He was content with keeping it all inside and letting it pass until he was alone, where he could cry into his hands without being a bother to everyone else. “Safety” was such a vague emotion though, how was he supposed to know how it felt?

“You can always say ‘I don’t know’,” Hajime reminded him after a few moments of uncertain silence.

“Oh. Um… I-I don’t know.”

“Alright… then what do you feel about the Objective Room?” Hajime asked, moving on from his previous question with no more complaints. Usually the “I don’t know” response ticked people off– although Hajime did say he had talents in psychology. He could probably read into Shuichi’s answers more than even Shuichi himself.

“I-it’s safe,” Shuichi told him again. However, that was an objective fact, not a feeling. He tried again. “I mean, I felt like we were okay there. We could actually talk to each other there, a-and it was never… scary in the Objective Room. I know it’s, um, a childish thing to say, but everything outside of there is so terrifying. T-The scariest part about the Objective Room was going to sleep, but… at least I knew exactly what would happen. I’d wake up in another puzzle the next day. I don’t know what’s gonna happen out here. I don’t know if… if I’ll get shocked for doing something wrong, or if I’m breaking the rules, a-and… Kokichi’s still not awake… b-but I really tried my best…”

“I know you did,” Hajime murmured, gently squeezing his arm in a reassuring manner. “You two did great, but it’s over now, okay? You don't have to do any more death puzzles. Readjusting is hard, especially at first. But you have your friends here too, and they want to help you. If you’re feeling afraid, remember that we’re all here to protect and help you.”

For some reason, the promises of protection and safety made his heart twist unpleasantly. He lowered his head, trying his best to keep himself from crying again. His eyes hurt. “I want Ko… I-I miss him. I don’t… want him to die…”

“I know… it’s hard. But once we get to a Future Foundation facility, he can receive professional medical help. They’ll save him– and you can receive treatment, too.”

Shuichi had nearly forgotten that he was also injured for a second. He looked down at his missing hand, but quickly averted his eyes when he felt his stomach churn.

“It’s not that bad,” he choked out. “K-Kokichi took most of the beatings, even when he didn’t have to. I’m fine…”

He didn’t even have to look up to see Hajime’s skeptical expression. “Shuichi, your hand is missing.”

“...aside from that. I-It’s not important.”

“On the contrary, that is a huge medical risk,” Hajime corrected him, though not unkindly. “Can you give me a rundown of all of your injuries? I need to report to Future Foundation on everyone’s conditions when I call them.”

“Um… not much, honestly,” Shuichi murmured, straining his brain to try and remember every time he had been injured so far. “I-I cut my hands breaking glass…? I also had, um, hypothermia at some point, I think, but that was during the third puzzle, s-so it’s been a while. I’ve also been electrocuted… a lot. I don’t know exactly how many times it’s happened, sorry.”

“That’s definitely a cause of concern,” Hajime murmured contemplatively. “Is that all?”

“Ah… there was this one time…” his voice failed him and his words trailed off into silence. An uncomfortable prickling sensation ran down his arm– the arm that had been suspended as a target for those quills.

The venom in the quills…

“...I don’t want to talk about it,” Shuichi finally whispered. “Please… don’t make me. I don’t… I don’t wanna…”

“Okay, you don’t have to,” Hajime was quick to reassure him. “I’ll find out what happened later. For now, I want you to focus on staying calm. Kokichi will need you to be calm when he wakes up since he might be panicking too, right?”

“Oh… yeah. That’s a good point,” Shuichi agreed quietly. “When is he waking up…?”

“I’m not entirely sure yet,” Hajime admitted. “I just hope it’s not before I can get him to a hospital unit. Do you want to go back to your friends now?”

Shuichi glanced over his shoulder. He and Hajime were sitting in the grass a fair distance away from the patio, where he could see his classmates either watching him worriedly or clustered around his partner.

A sudden surge of protectiveness came over him and he nodded furiously, using Hajime’s shoulder as a support in standing up. He wasn’t sure why his body still felt so weak, or why it hurt so damn badly when he had been mostly fine this morning, but it wasn’t the worst thing he had ever felt. What he did know though was that he needed to get back to his partner now– they had been separated for too long.

“Hey, bro. You alright?” Kaito asked him as he and Hajime rejoined everybody at the patio.

Shuichi didn’t answer him, knowing that his truthful answer wasn’t anything favorable. He sat down across from Kokichi and reached out to hold his partner’s hand, which lacked the warmth it usually had. 

(When he felt for a pulse, he was relieved to find that there was one there. It took at least a little bit of the weight off of his shoulders.)

“I’m going to call Future Foundation,” Hajime informed them. “It might take me a few minutes, since I think Naegi is going to be… a little angry at me. He’s going to have my head for not calling him back after I lost contact with him.”

“Why didn’t you?” Maki inquired curiously.

Hajime glanced away, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.. “...I was so focused on figuring out what the energy surge was that I forgot.”

“Don’t you have, like, every talent ever?” Kaito pointed out in surprise.

“That’s part of the problem. I have a lot going on in my head at all times, making it hard to sleep or think sometimes,” Hajime replied. “I’ve mostly gotten used to it, but… hmm, how to explain it in layman’s terms… alright, imagine fusing two people together. One is a normal, unextraordinary high school boy, and one is practically a god on earth. What do you get?”

“...that makes a lot more sense,” Maki muttered. “Go make your call. I want out of this place as soon as possible.”

Hajime nodded, shooting Shuichi one last mysterious look before walking away towards the dormitory. Shuichi was sort of starting to wish that people would stop looking at him like he was something fragile.

“Do you think he’ll let me take the doves?” Himiko wondered with a finger on her chin. But then she jumped, looking alarmed. “Nyeh! I haven’t fed the doves!”

“The doves in your lab, right?” K1-B0 guessed. “We shouldn’t leave them here. If the world is in ruin, it must have affected the ecosystem, too! We should preserve what life we can!”

“You’re optimistic… but also, great thinking! If four doves can save the ecosystem, we should do it!” Kaito exclaimed, jumping up from the bench with a wide, determined grin.

“Four doves alone aren’t going to save the ecosystem,” Maki told them dryly.

This didn’t seem to stop their growing excitement, though. Himiko pointed at the academy, her chest puffed out confidently. “Let’s go get the doves so we can save the ecosystem one small step at a time!”

“Yeah!”

“That’s what I’m talking about! Let’s go!”

“Wait, you shouldn’t be–” Maki tried, but it was far too late as Kaito, Himiko and K1-B0 went running for the school. The assassin let out a heavy sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. “And I wonder why he’s been getting sicker. At least they have something to be excited about, I guess.”

“Having something to look forward to is really important,” Shuichi told her quietly. “It gives you a reason to keep going.”

Maki didn’t reply to him, but he didn’t expect or want her to. She simply took her seat back on the bench, maintaining a little space between herself and Shuichi. He appreciated that, honestly. He wanted to have Kokichi to himself for a little bit.

For a while, he and Maki sat in silence, though there wasn’t an air of discomfort between them. Shuichi was relieved that she wasn’t trying to force a conversation, however the silence did give him time to work out his thoughts.

This entire scenario felt… too good to be true. That was sort of difficult to say considering that the world had supposedly ended, but in regards to his and Kokichi’s predicament, it was all too much of a saving grace. Kokichi was heavily injured, and as Shuichi lost sight of all rationality and started panicking, Maki and this guy gifted with every single talent suddenly come blazing in to rescue them? It was too good to be true. It felt unrealistic.

The thought made him pause, and he cast a thoughtful look down at his hand intertwined with Kokichi’s.

Unrealistic…

Unrealistic… like a looping subway?

The theory was… terrifying, but it had grounds. That would explain to some extent why Shuichi felt so subconsciously intent on getting back to the Objective Room– because this was all a puzzle, a test of wills to try and test his limits and perception of reality. Maybe he had been sweet gassed while sitting vigil over his partner, and what was happening now was actually the nighttime puzzle. Maybe he had been so desperate for Kokichi to be okay that his mind conjured up a second unofficial puzzle– a puzzle that granted him artificial freedom.

It could be reality, the tiniest, most hopeful part if his mind whispered. This could be real.

But there’s a chance it’s not, and so long as there’s a possibility that this is a puzzle, I need to get through it, he rationalized back. I can’t afford to make any stupid mistakes.

Dream or not, though… I guess I can enjoy it a little. After all, I doubt I’ll ever get to see any of my friends again after this.

He glanced over at Maki, who was frowning deeply with her gaze elsewhere.

Just a little more… and then I’ll see if suicide is the puzzle solution.

The sound of Hajime’s voice coming their way broke Shuichi out of his half-dissociated trance. He looked over to see the man approaching the patio again, speaking dryly into his phone.

“I was not lobotomized to be told no by a man whose wardrobe was inspired by back-to-school shopping,” Hajime snapped at the person on the other end. He paused for a few moments before letting out a sigh. “Kaz, I swear to God I will suspend you by your toes if you don’t do this for me. It’s classified; Naegi’s pissed enough as it is. You and whoever you can gather– except for Nagito, do not involve Nagito– are going to clean that motel to perfection, got it? Also, make sure you tell Mikan to have some rooms ready in the hospital.”

Shuichi and Maki exchanged looks with one another as Hajime grumbled under his breath, his expression strained in something between irritation and exhaustion.

“Okay, whatever. Thank you guys,” Hajime sighed after a moment. “See you soon.”

Still glaring, Hajime hung up the phone and crudely stuffed it into his pocket, letting out another calming breath that didn’t seem to help very much.

“Who are you suspending by their toes?” Maki had the guts to ask.

“A friend of mine,” was all Hajime replied with. He glanced around at the empty patio, lifting an eyebrow. “Where’s the others?”

“Saving the ecosystem,” Shuichi told him in barely a mumble.

“Supposedly,” added Maki.

Somehow, Hajime managed to look even more tired. He massaged his temples with two fingers each, squeezing his eyes shut.

“Okay. As long as they’re together,” the man accepted, albeit reluctantly. “Well, I just finished my talk with Future Foundation. And after some consideration, we’ve decided that you won’t be going to… Future Foundation. Apparently, our lack of information on Tsumugi’s whereabouts is a massive liability, and until we determine where she went, you will all be going to a more isolated area.”

Shuichi felt his heart clench in fear. “W-We’re being put in solitary confinement?”

“What? No.” Hajime clasped his hands together, his exasperated expression remaining unchanging as he said, “you’re coming to live with me.”

Chapter Text

The simple truth of the matter was that he was not a violent person.

For his entire life, he had always tried to avoid a fight. It never worked in resolving arguments, and when people got hurt, that meant that at least somebody wasn’t having fun (unless they were a masochist, in which case… good for them?). What was the point of fun if not everyone could be included? Avoiding violence was something he tried very hard to do, so long as he could help it.

Violence made his stomach twist unpleasantly, and a lump form in the back of his throat, and it made his hands shake uncontrollably and his skin sweat profusely. He hated listening to people scream at each other, or seeing hands or even weapons fly. Blood made him want to puke. Bruises and broken bones made his own blood run cold with discomfort. Resorting to violence was such an unnecessary means of resolution, and so long as there was violence, people were hurt. He never, ever wanted to be the reason someone got hurt.

(And yet look what he had done. He didn’t deserve to claim he held onto this philosophy anymore with the pain he had forced people he viewed as his friends to endure.

Gonta…

…Shuichi…)

Point line blank, he did not like violence. He hated it; he even prohibited it (to an extent) in his group.

However.

That beeping.

There was this god damned, methodical constant beep, beep, beep assaulting his senses, despite it sounding so quiet. It was the only sound in the room he was in– he wanted to assume it was the Objective Room, but it was too early to make that presumption– and it turned out to be one that made him want to rip his eardrums out.

On a more important note and one that related to his whereabouts, clearly this was another puzzle. He had passed out after the… what was it called? The Locker Puzzle? His head was really fuzzy, so thinking was nigh impossible, but that had never stopped him before. Clearly this was the nighttime puzzle, so he had to get up and fast. A lot of these puzzles required communication, and Shuichi might start panicking if he didn’t respond soon.

Unless this is the Objective Room and Shu is in danger.

That notion made his stomach churn, but at least he could form mildly coherent thoughts now. That was a good step forward– he just needed the energy to move his limbs or even open his eyes. The latter sounded easier, so he tried to make that his primary goal. He had to open his eyes. No matter how comfortable the bed was and how light his body felt, there was a very real possibility that his puzzle partner was facing danger, and he couldn’t let that stand. He couldn’t let him do that alone.

Also, if he got up, he could find whatever was making that infernal beeping sound and smash it into ten thousand little pieces. That alone was giving him the fraction of motivation he needed to get up, because it was so annoying. It was the quietest of sounds too, but somehow that made it worse because it was scratching the very back of his skull and he needed it gone.

So first, he had to open his eyes. That seemed like a lot simpler of an activity than it felt, because it kind of felt like his eyelids were glued together. However, his plan to rush to his partner’s aid was immediately crushed as a whole new wave of exhaustion spread over his body. Even trying to channel his energy into opening his eyes took a criminal amount of effort, and it only proved to tire him further.

Mmm… maybe Shuichi can… hold his own for a bit…

No, I should really get up. I can't sleep during a puzzle! That’s a death wish!

…well, he was going to die anyway, right? That much had been made very clear over the past six days. And if he was going to die, he might as well be asleep for it– a semi-peaceful death and all of that. He was just… so tired. If he couldn’t even open his eyes, then there was no way he could complete a puzzle.

So this is where it ends. Man, that’s kind of lame. But at least it doesn’t hurt as badly now.

He knew that his partner couldn’t hear him, but…

Sorry, my beloved Shuichi. Come see me in hell, please.

“Ghh-AGGH! AAAAAAAAGHHH…!”

“I-I know, I know– do you need me to stop? Puzzle partner!?”

“No. N-No, keep–” he sobbed, his shoulders wracking violently as he pressed his head firmly against the edge of the table. “K-Keep g-g-going… ple-please, K-Ko… ju-just– gggh, ahh– pl-please…”

The fragile quiver of his partner’s voice made his heart squeeze and he had to remind himself to breathe in.

“Okay… okay… I’m doing it. I’m almost there.”

He hated this hacksaw. He hated Monokuma, and these stupid puzzles, and he hated mother-fucking Tsumugi Shirogane.

If it were Tsumugi he were holding against the table, he might feel a little less awful about doing this.

Cut it off.

Cut it off.

He had cut it off.

His body was too numb for him to even realize his foot hurt. He deposited the severed hand– still bleeding, still warm in his own traitorous hands– into the compartment. It flipped around. The hand was gone. All that was left was the blood coating his own hands, the hands that had hurt the person he cared the most about. The hands of a terrible human being.

Maybe she had the right idea, whatever her name was.

Shuichi had long since stopped screaming. Breathing heavily, Kokichi pulled off his shirt and wobbled back over, pressing the fabric against the open wound. It was unhygienic– he could get an infection, but it was better than him dying.

…on second thought, maybe death was much more merciful than he was.

Somehow, they were in the bathroom. The water was running. His conscious mind was buried in honey– thoughts were too hard to form, and everytime he tried, the headache from his own crying and guilt slowly started to return. It was better not to think.

Hidden beneath the scent of blood, the air smelled faintly sweet.

Ah. It seemed like he just remembered something he’d rather forget.

If he was conscious enough to remember that, he was conscious enough to wake up. However, hiding in the depths of the void was a much more blissful existence than dwelling in his memories.

It wasn’t until he could already feel himself already fading away that he realized he wasn’t dead.

Third time’s the charm, they always say. And man, if that couldn’t be any truer.

Waking up this time felt like waking up from any normal nap, except the crushing sense of foreboding slapped him in the face the millisecond he regained consciousness. Death puzzle, right! It had to be the evening one, which meant he had to get up now. He couldn’t afford any more rest.

With a stronger drive than before, he tested his energy by switching his fingers, and further pushed it by weakly scrunching his hands into closed fists. Good, that meant he had mobility, and having that meant he could act in the puzzle.

Contrary to the first time, he could open his eyes without as much trouble. It was still sort of difficult, but it didn’t send him crashing back into unconsciousness, so he’d take the win where he could get it. It took a few moments for his vision to adjust, but when it did, he found himself staring at the spot where the wall met the ceiling. There was a window to his right letting in likely artificial sunlight, which was covered by a thin, white curtain, and to his left…

…was a hospital room.

It had to be a set, obviously, but it was still a little jarring to see. His mind flew through possibilities– were they going to be forced to play doctor/patient? If that was the case, then where was his puzzle partner? He felt like he had been sleeping for a while, if the heaviness in his limbs were anything to go off of. Was he also stuck in a hospital room? This might be some sort of escape room, so maybe they were working separately for once… no, these puzzles always required some form of teamwork. Their rooms were probably connected in one way or another.

Well, he wouldn’t find out if he kept laying here. So no matter how tired he was, he pushed the blanket off of himself and painstakingly sat up. Surprisingly, his ribs didn’t hurt nearly as badly as he thought they would, so he forced himself to move a little quicker.

It was as he was moving that he realized three things in rapid succession. One, the muzzle wrapped around his face felt very different.

Two, he was in different clothes. A blue hospital gown, it seemed. He didn’t even want to know the implications of that.

And three, there was a wire in his skin.

It was more of an automatic reflex than anything, but he seized it and ripped it out before he could even process that it was an IV drip. It hurt like a bitch, and he bit his tongue to keep himself entirely silent as he dropped the drip, not even bothering with the trickle of blood that ran down his arm as a result. That must be why he slept for so long– he was being drugged! These puzzles wanted him to fail at this point, because this was getting ridiculous.

Now that he looked, there were more wires attached to him, too. They were mostly clustered around his chest, and this time, he actually hesitated before pulling at them. If they were in his skin, then he could potentially screw himself over by accidentally hurting himself. He was panicking, not stupid– he knew better than to tug at unidentified stuff attached to his body.

So instead of that, he followed the wires down to some sort of connecting point, and he pulled that apart. The minute he did, the consistent background beeping suddenly transformed into a singular, carried out beeeeep that made him shiver. Ah, so that’s what it was. A really noisy heart monitor that had just flatlined.

I hope that doesn’t screw with the puzzle, he thought sheepishly. Alright, what else is there…

The only truly restricting thing left was a cord attached to his muzzle, for some reason. He reached up to touch it and try to figure out what was going on there, and… his fingers met what felt like a silicone material.

…silicone?

He was pretty sure his muzzle was made of metal or steel. It was a wire cage muzzle– the type they put on violent big dogs. It had always been a pressing discomfort against his face, digging uncomfortably into his skin when he slept and always a nuisance when he opened his mouth to do anything. It had prevented him from eating, leaving him to starve for the duration of the puzzles– and of course, he could last for days without eating, but that didn’t mean he wanted to.

(Even worse, Shuichi had stopped eating after putting that thing on him. It frustrated him to see, but he could somewhat understand why.)

The tightly-bound leather straps were gone, though. It felt like a pressure had been alleviated from his head, making it infinitely easier to breathe– fuck, that’s what it was! It was an oxygen mask!

Why would she put us through the trouble of putting it on if she’s just going to take it off!? he thought in outrage, fighting to get the stupid thing off of his head. It was so liberating to have his jaw entirely free once again– it felt like he was human again. Did she just want to humiliate me…?

That might not be all there is to it, now that he thought about it. During the Cuff Puzzle, he had only managed to unlock his end of the restraints, and the handcuffs hung from Shuichi’s wrist until the Maze Puzzle, which was the first time they were separated for a puzzle. They must have been removed, which went to show that Tsumugi wasn’t opposed to taking off their little puzzle accessories.

There was a chance that, because it got in the way of the puzzle, she had to remove it. That meant that the oxygen mask had been something important to the puzzle, in which case, it was a good thing he got it off.

A smug smirk found its way onto his face. He wished he knew where the hidden camera in this room was simply so he could flip Tsumugi off. For once, these puzzles worked in his favor.

However, his victory was short-lived as he looked down at his legs. He didn’t think anything had ever wiped the smile off of his face faster than seeing the beefy cast wrapped around his foot.

“Ooh boy,” he muttered to himself, his voice coming out pitifully hoarse and quiet. Alright, he’d save talking for when he met back up with Shuichi.

More importantly, this was going from unnerving to weird. Why the hell would Tsumugi give him a cast in a motive literally titled “death puzzles”!? Wasn’t the whole GOAL of this stupid motive for him to die a horrible and embarrassing death? Giving him a cast was the opposite of that. Giving him a cast was tremendously helpful.

There’s probably some trick to it, he reasoned with a scowl. Maybe there’s something in there to cut off my foot the minute I step down. Would she do something like that?

No, she wouldn’t. She likes when we hurt each other or ourselves– a trap like that would be too cheap for her.

Reassured, he swung his legs off the side of the bed and tested his weight. He almost toppled over the minute he tried to stand, but at least his foot wasn’t immediately chopped off. That meant that, even if wobbly, he could walk around. She was gonna regret giving him a handicap– he’d lick someone’s shoes if it meant he wasn’t on the losing side. Shuichi was right; screw dying! If being alive pissed off Tsumugi then he was going to become the most unkillable man on earth.

Now that he was free from his wiry prison, he was free to finish the puzzle. Standing up was utterly exhausting, and he felt terrifyingly light-headed for a few moments, but he clung onto consciousness like life itself. He couldn’t afford to pass out here– God knows what Shuichi has been suffering through while he was snoozing away. He had to finish this puzzle.

His first destination was the door, which was a straight line from the bed he was in. There was a very good chance it was locked, but he might as well try. He’d look like an idiot if he tore apart the room looking for a key, and the door was unlocked the whole time.

With that expectation, he turned the knob. So imagine his surprise when the door actually opened.

Weird was starting to turn into extremely suspicious. Was this a Suicide Subway scanario, where there was no clear objective goal? If it was, he’d have to dig into his past to find the answers he wanted; although, he didn’t have any hospital trauma. Maybe Shuichi did, wherever he was.

Before he stepped out of the room, he glanced down both ends of the hall cautiously. To his left was a wall, though he could see an open space branching off to the left. Another hallway maybe, or perhaps a staircase. To his right, the hall extended onwards, and he could see a total of four doors– three being ones that led to what he assumed were patient rooms, and the other one being a double door that led to some other part of the hospital. A lobby, maybe? Just how big was this puzzle room, anyway?

Whatever. He had to find Shuichi, who might be in one of these other patient rooms.

Luckily, he had the wall to use as support this time. He took only a few moments to catch his breath before sidling forward. There were only three other patient rooms, and once he found Shuichi, then he would probably help him walk… assuming he was strong enough to support both of their weight. Neither of them had eaten in over twenty-four hours, so he wouldn’t be surprised if Shuichi was struggling to maintain his own balance.

“KYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH–!”

His heart flew out of his chest at the sound of what he briefly thought was an alarm. A quick glance over his shoulder proved him very wrong as a woman rushed toward him, outstretching her hands as if she wanted to touch him but also hesitating.

“Wh-wh-wh-wh-what are you d-doing out of bed!?” The lady demanded in a mousey voice, settling on just keeping her hands to herself. Horror morphed on her face as her eyes trailed downward. “D-Did you pull out your IV!? Ooohh, this isn’t good… this isn’t good at all…!”

Is her voice naturally like that? he found himself wondering. It was kind of impressive, if she wasn’t doing it on purpose.

“Y-You really shouldn’t be walking around on a fractured ankle…” the woman continued stammering, her hands on her head. “I-If malalignment develops, then H-H-Hajime’s the only one who’d be able to fix it! You should r-really lay back down!”

“You should try ketamine,” he retorted dryly. “You sound like you’d benefit from it.”

“Hh…wha..!? Wait! No! Come on, Mikan, we talked about this…” the woman gripped her hair, muttering to herself. “I can’t let everyone boss me around… especially not my patients.”

“My patients”? So she’s a nurse or doctor of some kind, he determined, shuffling a step away from her. She was really putting him on edge. No matter what she is, she’s still part of the puzzle. I’ve got to keep my guard up.

“Um… p-please come back to your room,” the woman tried in a mildly steadier voice. “Y-Your body hasn’t fully recovered, s-s-so you should really not walk for a bit wh-while your foot heals. I-I’ll grab a wheelchair if you promise to not move, o-okay? Hajime is on his way, too, s-so he can carry you i-if you don’t want to move.”

Like hell he was going to let anyone carry him. He turned sharply and started shuffling forward again, resorting to simply ignoring the woman. It seemed like she was simply an obstacle in this puzzle– underneath those stutters and nervous squeaks, she was probably delighted to see him in such a vulnerable state. Killing-game-loving bastards.

“Ah–! Please stop walking!” The woman caught him by his shoulders to stop him in place. The touch made him flinch violently, and her firm grasp was the only reason he didn’t go falling face-first into the floor. “As your nurse, I-I’m ordering you to go back to your room.”

You think you can order ME, the Ultimate Supreme Leader, to go back to my ROOM? The order almost made him laugh– in fact, he would have if he had the energy for it.

“No,” he snapped in response. “I gotta get to Shuichi. ‘m not going back.”

“Sh-Shuichi is asleep right now, s-s-so you really sh-shouldn’t…” the woman trailed off thoughtfully. “...umm, m-maybe we should wait for Hajime, right?”

He arched his eyebrows at the woman, unsure of what to say in this particular situation. There was a chance that he could agitate her and worsen the puzzle for himself… but he was also pretty sure that going back to “his room” was exactly how he would fail the puzzle. Maybe her true motive was to lure him back to the room to kill him, and that was the deadly part of this puzzle.

“Lady. If you want me back in that room, you will have to drag me there kicking and screaming,” he told her darkly. “I-I’m going to see my partner, so buzz off. I know you just want to see me hurt.”

The absolutely stricken look on the woman’s face was a little disarming, in all honesty. Was she only surprised because he called her out? Could that be why she was getting so teary-eyed?

“W-W-Well…” she stammered nervously. “A-Alright, I guess I can t-take you there. B-But only if you promise to sit in a wheelchair, please!”

“So you can wheel me back to my room?” he challenged right back. “No. Absolutely not.”

“I won’t!” The woman squeaked immediately. “H-His room is just next to yours, s-so it’s not like it’s any trouble or anything. I-I just don’t want you walking on your fractured ankle…”

Next to mine? Out of the four patient rooms, his room was at the very end of the hall. If this lady was telling the truth, that meant his room was the one he had been very close to checking before she shrieked. He was right next to the door; the knob was within grabbing distance.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” he asked the woman flatly, not bothering to try to hide his unfriendliness. “You don’t have to play dumb with me. I know this is a puzzle, and I know you’re either Tsumugi in disguise or some bitch who’s secretly drooling over me and Shuichi being tortured. My ribs are broken, not my eyes.”

“A-Actually, your ribs were only bruised… puzzle!?” The woman went as rigid as a statue, interrupting her own nervous mutterings with a high-pitched yelp. “No no no, that's not it at all! This isn’t a puzzle!”

“Sounds like something a puzzle would say,” he snarked, unable to hold it back for any longer. “I’m going to see my puzzle partner, but nice try.”

“N-No, I’m really… I’m really not part of some puzzle!” The woman insisted frantically. “Please, hear me out. I-I know you don’t remember it since you were unconscious, but you’re not in the death puzzles anymore. My fr…friend Hajime got you and all of your classmates out of there. We’re at a place called Jabberwock Island– m-my name is Mikan Tsumiki, and I’ve been taking care of you and Shuichi since I’m the Ultimate Nurse.”

Mikan Tsumiki. That name sounded eerily familiar– it was like suddenly scraping his brain with a sharp pin. It was the kind of flashy headache that let him know he was going to be having some very vague and ominous dreams tonight.

(The first dream he had was muddled and confusing. He remembered it being dark, and he remembered the fear striking his heart as he held firmly onto the hand of one of his D.I.C.E followers. They had been hiding from something– something wearing night vision goggles, granting them a privilege to see in the dark. The person had passed by quickly, venturing off further into the building and allowing them a safe escape back to the rest of his waiting group.

He didn’t know why he had been so afraid of somebody. He just knew that they were dangerous, and letting them see him and his friend could mean certain death. Everything past that was a complete, incomprehensible blur. He faintly recalled a lot of pink, though.)

Wait, Ultimate Nurse? Where had he thought of that term recently?

“S-See? You do recognize me,” Mikan pointed out, cutting through his thoughts. “S-S-So just wait here, and I’ll go get a wheelchair.”

He decided not to fight her on it anymore; now that he knew where Shuichi was, he could easily get to him with no further complications. And if a simple nod is what got her to go away, then his decision was a no-brainer.

“O-Okay, just stay still and I’ll be right b-back,” Mikan said, anxiously slinking past him and towards the double doors.

Stupid despair-loving bitch. The minute she was past those doors, he was moving again, albeit with a little more urgency than before. Now he was working with a time limit, because if she came back before he got to his partner, he was going to be in trouble.

Luckily, his trip wasn’t far at all. He took a total of three steps to get into the room Shuichi was supposedly in, and once he was safely inside, he quietly closed the door.

The sound of gentle piano music filled the still air, masking the steady beeping of the heart monitor. Rays of sunlight lit up the room through the window, casting a golden glow upon the one sleeping motionlessly in the stark white bed sheets. The only part of him visible was his raven-blue hair, his back being turned to the door.

Shuichi was lying motionless in a hospital bed.

If it weren’t for the steady beeping of the heart monitor, he would have thought his partner was dead. However, consciously knowing that didn’t stop his breath from catching in his throat, nor did it save him from the claws of terror that seized his heart. He didn’t like seeing Shuichi so… still. So alone.

Ignoring the dull, aching pain growing in his ankle, he limped forward until he was at his partner's bedside. There was a trash bin right next to the bed, and from here, he could now identify where that piano music was coming from; there was a cellphone propped up on the counter.

How could such a peaceful atmosphere exist in a death puzzle? How could such a beautiful sunbeam make Shuichi look so impossibly small?

Even in his sleep, there were heavy bags under Shuichi’s eyes, making him look as if this was the first time he had slept in weeks. His skin was pale; paler than it’d usually be. It was a kind of sickly pale that painted him to look extremely frail. Despite this though, his expression was peaceful. He slept as if nothing could ever be wrong in the world.

The door behind him creaked open, but this time, he was expecting it. He craned his head to look over his shoulder, and instead of seeing Mikan like he had been expecting, it was some man. His most noticeable feature was his heterochromia– one brown eye, and one red. How very interesting.

“Kokichi,” the man spoke, his voice soft so as to not disturb Shuichi. “You’re awake.”

The sound of his own name sent a shiver down his spine.

“My name is Hajime Hinata,” the man introduced himself, quietly stepping into the room and closing the door behind him. “It’s a relief to see you up and moving.”

Oh, Mikan mentioned this guy earlier. She claimed that this was the man who got him and his classmates out of “there”, which he assumed was supposed to refer to the killing game. They were really driving this puzzle home hard, huh?

Wait! Kokichi’s head snapped to the side, and sure enough, he identified an IV drip attached to Shuichi. Crap, it is related to the puzzle. If I pull it out or turn it off, maybe–

“Mikan told me you think this is a puzzle,” Hajime interrupted his train of thought. “Shuichi thought so, too. But I promise you, this isn’t a puzzle.”

“Very convincing,” Kokichi scoffed, unamused.

“I’m being truthful,” Hajime promised. “I’d advise you to try touching your neck.”

My neck…?

Keeping a wary eye on Hajime, Kokichi slowly lifted a hand towards his neck.

Instead of the hard, cold steel he had been expecting to feel, his fingers touched skin. He felt his hand touch his bare neck, the skin of which feeling raw and uncomfortably tender. Even so, the presence of the weight that collar always had on him was gone. The death trap wound around his throat was entirely vacant.

How did he not notice its absence before…? The muzzle was one thing, but he should have realized his collar was gone sooner. This discovery startled him to tear his eyes off of the man and to check Shuichi’s neck, his hands shaking as he nudged aside the blanket.

Sure enough, Shuichi’s collar was gone as well, replaced by a thin layer of bandages.

Why would they… be taken off…? Kokichi looked back at Hajime, who wisely hadn’t moved an inch from his spot. That’s… no, it’s not proof this isn’t a puzzle. Maybe they just got boring. Maybe… maybe they’re… inconvenient for the puzzle.

…maybe, we really are free–

“No, not possible,” he hissed under his breath, shaking his head violently. “What puzzle is this? Tell me.”

“It’s not a puzzle,” Hajime said again. “You’re in a hospital on an island called Jabberwock Island, far away from mainland and forgotten about since the Tragedy. The killing game Tsumugi Shirogane hosted is over, and she won’t be finding any of you ever again.”

That wasn’t what he asked. “You’re avoiding the question.”

“I’m not. I’m telling you the truth,” Hajime insisted, though not forcefully. He sounded frustratingly calm, as if Kokichi was being the irrational one here. “Shuichi told me you had a talent for spotting people’s lies. Am I lying when I tell you that the killing game, and thus the death puzzles, are over?”

Kokichi glanced the man up and down, feeling beads of sweat forming on the side of his face as he scanned for any sign of a lie. Finding a lie in people he had never spoken to was a little more difficult than people he knew, since he could identify their tells easier. Everyone had a tell– even he did, as difficult he made it for others to see.

But after a few moments of silence, Kokichi realized something that planted a rock of dismay deep in his gut.

He didn’t know whether Hajime was lying or not.

Was he out of practice? It had only been a measly six days since he and Shuichi were tossed into the death puzzles, locked up with only each other. Surely that wouldn’t have been enough to screw up his keen eye for lies?

What he did know was that he couldn’t let his panic show. He kept his face carefully blank as he studied Hajime, relieved to be tapping into his old habits again. He could hide what he felt and manipulate the situation to flow in his favor, just like he always did. Only Shuichi was allowed to see him at his weakest, and no one else.

“I’m not lying,” Hajime stated when Kokichi didn’t say anything. “Shuichi told me about the puzzles. Each one has a gimmick, or a clear objective, right? Can you identify one here?”

“Those IV’s were drugging us, so yes. I’d call that a “gimmick”,” Kokichi replied with feigned leisure. “And also the fact that the fake doctor lady tried to make me go back to my room. Clearly a death trap, if you ask me.”

“The IV’s are supplying you both with nutrients, water and medication,” Hajime explained. He gestured to the door behind him with one hand. “Mikan, the nurse, was concerned for your health. Walking around on a fractured ankle is dangerous and counterproductive to your recovery. We don’t mean you or Shuichi any harm.”

Kokichi cast a glance back at his partner. He hadn’t even stirred amidst their conversation.

“If this were a puzzle, why would we be healing you?” Hajime continued cautiously. “If this were a puzzle, why would Tsumugi involve two strangers who have never been seen previously in the academy?”

Those were valid lines of reasoning, even Kokichi would admit. But…

“So you’re telling me to believe,” said Kokichi, “that as I was dying and bleeding out on the floor, you majestically swoop in to save the day and stop the killing game? You, who none of us have ever seen prior to now?”

“The blackout Maki caused caught my attention and drew me to your location,” Hajime told him. “Should I call over one of your classmates, if that will reassure you?”

“No,” he spat before even thinking twice about it. He was not letting his classmates see him in such a pathetic condition, and he especially wasn’t in the mood for questions from them. “...why should I believe you in the first place? How do I know this isn’t some Suicide Subway Puzzle deal again?”

To his surprise, Hajime winced at the mention of that. “I can bring you outside, if you’d like. But you’d have to let me carry you, or you’d have to sit in a wheelchair. I can’t allow you to worsen your fracture, I’m afraid.”

Outside? That wasn’t an offer he was expecting.

Thinking logically, the signs pointed towards this being an actual hospital rather than a puzzle. Hajime had brought up some good points, and both he and Mikan hadn’t hurt him or Shuichi so far. His muzzle was gone, their collars were gone, and they had been medically tended to professionally. He couldn’t see a reason for Tsumugi doing any of that for a puzzle.

Even with all of that evidence though, Kokichi was having a really, really hard time believing it. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to believe it– he wanted it to be true more than anything else– but it was simply… too good to be true. How could he believe, after everything they had been through, that it was suddenly over?

The blanket rustled behind him and he turned back around to look at his partner, who had turned onto his back with his eyes cracked open only slightly. He was holding something to his chest, which looked like some sort of… black cat stuffy with Kokichi’s scarf? And more noticeably, Kokichi’s eyes were drawn to his left arm– he was confident he had cut his hand off at his wrist. So why was everything below his elbow… missing…?

“Shu–” Kokichi tried, but his partner abruptly sat up, an awful heaving sound escaping his mouth.

Hajime practically flew across the room, grabbing the trash bin that had been at the side of his bed and holding it up to his partner. In an instant, Shuichi vomited, the sound and odor sending a sharp stabbing pain of despair through Kokichi’s heart.

As soon as he was done, Hajime lowered the bin back down to the ground and scooted it away. Shuichi was breathing heavily, tears pricking the corners of his eyes as he stared unseeingly at Hajime, a nauseating look of helpless desperacy on his face.

“Mikan!” Hajime called to the lady, and mere seconds later, the door opened, and Mikan came rushing in. “Bring me a damp rag and dispose of the bin.”

“O-Okay. Give me a minute!” Mikan grabbed the bin and hurried out of the room, muttering anxiously to herself as she went.

But Kokichi wasn’t interested in her. His eyes were locked on his partner, who hadn’t even glanced his way yet. Hajime placed a hand on Shuichi’s back, rubbing gentle circles as Shuichi coughed and frantically, hysterically fought for air. Kokichi wanted to be jealous, or protective, or anything like that, but for some reason, his mouth wouldn’t move. He couldn’t think of anything to say.

“It’s okay… it’s okay, Shuichi…” Hajime was soothing Shuichi, as if he were coaxing a young child out of fright. “I know you tried. It’s okay. Look, Kokichi is here for you.”

“K..Ko?” Shuichi gasped, which was the first word he had managed to say beyond his scrambled sputtering and crying.

For the first time since the Locker Puzzle, he and Shuichi locked eyes. Relief flooded over Shuichi’s face at the sight of him and he let out a guttural sob, helplessly reaching out towards Kokichi with both arms. Without even thinking about it, Kokichi lifted one knee onto the bed and scooted forward, immediately embracing his beloved detective.

Oh, his partner was so warm. Shuichi’s entire body shook as he sobbed into Kokichi’s shoulder, clinging onto him like a lifeline. Kokichi held onto him just as fastly, pointedly ignoring Hajime and simply letting himself enjoy the comfort of Shuichi’s hold. It was like gaining something back he had lost long ago– the feeling of safety and security. The feeling of Shuichi’s arms around him when there was nothing going out to hurt them anymore.

That’s when it really sunk in. A realization that brought tears to Kokichi’s eyes.

The puzzles really are over.

The door opened and Mikan came back in, but Kokichi and Shuichi didn’t detach from each other. Kokichi especially didn’t want to pull away– not only because he’d hug his partner until the end of time if he could, but also because he was trying to hide his tears from the audience they currently had. He didn’t need them knowing how much those damned puzzles had broken him.

“A-After the.. th-the Locker Puzzle, I–” Shuichi sniffled, unfortunately removing himself from their embrace. He did however intertwine his and one of Kokichi’s hands, refusing to break full contact. “I thought… I was so sure…”

“You thought I was gonna die?” Kokichi scoffed, disguising his teary voice underneath a snicker. “Yeah, right. Like I’d die in a stupid locker.”

Shuichi cracked a grin at that, squeezing his hand. His grip was weak, worryingly so, but he still felt it.

Interrupting their sweet reunion moment, Hajime cleared his throat. “I apologize, but… Shuichi?”

“Oh.” Shuichi’s cheeks flushed red and he ducked his head, his voice cracking in embarrassment. “I-I’m sorry…”

“I know,” Hajime murmured, reaching forward with the rag and wiping Shuichi’s chin with it. Shuichi cringed slightly, but to his credit he didn’t try to lean away. “We’ll try again later.”

“I’m gonna need an explanation on a lot of things,” Kokichi announced. He swallowed back the lump in his throat, leveling Shuichi’s gaze with a serious one. “Once you’re done crying, that is. Now that our lives aren’t being threatened, we can cry as much as we want without having to waste time.”

Because the puzzles are over, he reminded himself again. We… survived all of the death puzzles. Together.

The thought felt… strangely surreal.

“R-Right,” Shuichi sniffled, automatically reaching up with his left hand to wipe his tears and pausing as he remembered. “Ah… um… well, I haven’t been able to eat. I- I throw up every time I try.”

“Oh. Why?”

“I’ve been trying to figure that out,” Hajime sighed. He had handed the gross rag back to Mikan, who was quietly slipping out of the room. “I can’t tell if it’s a result of that venom or if it’s a stress response.”

The venom. Kokichi hadn’t been thinking about it nearly as much as he should have been. The only time it had really mattered in the puzzles was during their decision in the Sorting Puzzle, but that was about it.

“It’s been a few days. Shouldn’t the venom be gone by now?” Kokichi pointed out with a scowl.

“That’s why I think it's a stress response,” Hajime told him matter-of-factly. “The only reason I’m not ruling it out is because I don’t know exactly what the venom is. In the Tragedy, especially dealing with Tsumugi Shirogane, it could really be anything. Something even I haven’t heard of.”

What the hell is the Tragedy? he wondered but didn’t say. He didn’t think he was emotionally prepared for any bombshells today.

“A-Also…” Shuichi interjected uncertainly. “It’s… been a bit more than a few days. You’ve been in and out for the past w–”

“Stop,” Kokichi interrupted him, lifting a silencing hand. “I don’t… I don’t want to know. Okay? I don’t want to know how long it’s been. I don’t care. But! You can tell me when I do give a shit. Later.”

Shuichi looked a little sad, but all he did was nod with a quiet, “okay, Kokichi.”

“Now that you’re both awake,” said Hajime, changing the subject. “Kokichi, I understand you want to be with Shuichi, but you are also still recovering from severe injuries.”

That was an immediate no on his part. After what they had been through together, Kokichi was not moving from this spot, especially after just getting back to Shuichi when everything’s fine and they’re safe and the death puzzles are over. There’s nothing to worry about.

Staring Hajime dead in the eye, he pulled Shuichi back into a protective hug, eliciting a small “omph” from his partner.

“I expected that,” the man sighed tiredly. “How about only at night, then? You’ll both be asleep, and you can reunite while the sun is up as long as you do not rip out your IV again.”

“Why can’t we sleep in the same room?” Kokichi demanded, consciously fighting back open hostility. None of this “separate from Shuichi” business was happening so long as he could help it.

“A few reasons. For starters: it’s unsanitary,” Hajime began, listing each reason on his fingers. “Shuichi is very susceptible to sickness at the moment, since his body is weak and can’t fight off illness. It could also get you sick, which I can’t imagine you’d enjoy. Number two: it’s unsafe for both of you. Now that you’re safe, your brains are going to start processing the trauma you’ve experienced. Panic attacks, night terrors, bed wetting, flashbacks, insomnia, avoiding traumatic triggers… those are all probable things that could and will most likely occur as you settle down. The problem is that both of you experienced the same trauma, so if one of you is distressed, that will inevitably carry over to the other, and then you’re both going to be spiraling. I don’t want either of you hurting yourselves as a result of this.”

“You told me I was the “delirious type of mental breakdown” during the Subway Puzzle,” Shuichi reminded him softly. “I-I don’t want to accidentally hurt you… trying to wake you up.”

Kokichi could ask what that was supposed to mean. He could try and pry deeper into the meaning behind those words. But he decided against it, because he already knew exactly what Shuichi was talking about.

“I’d like to prevent any further incidents.” The sentence made Kokichi shoot a questioning look at Hajime, who simply ignored him. He lifted a third finger. “Number three: if either of you have a medical emergency, then me and Mikan will have a harder time stabilizing you than if you two were in separate rooms with individual machines. All in all, it’s a safety hazard.”

So far, all this guy had done was oppose Kokichi in the most polite, reasonable way possible. It was starting to get on his nerves, but he couldn’t even be mad about it because he knew that logically, Hajime was right. As much as he abhorred the thought of leaving Shuichi on his own for any extended period of time, it’d only be a bigger problem if Kokichi was an obstacle to his recovery, both medically and psychologically. 

And honestly? Shuichi was a little scary when he wasn’t thinking straight. His behavior when Kokichi had found him in the aftermath of his punishment had effectively freaked him out on many different levels; he never wanted to hear Shuichi screaming like that ever again. Then came the Subway Puzzle, when the inhuman, dull look in Shuichi’s dead eyes paired with his flat words had slammed against every single one of Kokichi’s comforts. And even if they had both been off their rocker in that puzzle, that didn’t change the reality of the Storybook Puzzle, which was where Kokichi had truly seen how terrifying Shuichi could be.

The minute the words “I don’t want to do this anymore” had left his mouth back then, he had seen the change on Shuichi’s face. His eyes had shot wide and his lips tilted into a bit more of a frown; he didn’t even flinch at the statement. He just sat there in silence for no less than seven seconds, before announcing he was going to force Kokichi to wear that damned muzzle. Being pinned against the ground by his partner, who wore an expression of raw, unfiltered desperacy, had been more frightening than even death itself.

If Shuichi were to lose touch with reality here, Kokichi dreaded the things he might do in his haze of panic. And Kokichi really didn’t want to inflict that kind of guilt on Shuichi.

(They didn’t both need to be feeling heart-wrenchingly guilty for hurting each other. Between the muzzle, and then the… removal of Shuichi’s hand, they both had things to dwell on, to feel as if their hearts were being compressed with the regret of what they had done.

At least one hadn’t been permanent.)

Still, though… Kokichi really, really didn’t want to have to separate from Shuichi. They always went to bed together, and even if they didn’t wake up together in the morning, they could always still find each other with the arrival of the next puzzle. Sleeping in each other’s arms was the one thing that brought him any form of comfort in those puzzles– was it really fair to rip it all away from him now that they were out?

Life is never fair. Come on, you know this better than anyone.

“Only at night,” Kokichi finally accepted (as much as it hurt him to say). “I will be walking back here as soon as the sun is up, though.”

“...I’ll take that into consideration,” was all Hajime said to the promise. “I don’t want Shuichi eating for another hour or two, but Kokichi, how would you like something? You can’t have anything big yet, but something small should be fine.”

Food. He could feel his mouth watering at the offer, which was stupid and made him feel like a desperate, starving animal or something.

“I’m good with anything,” he told Hajime noncommittally, even offering him a small shrug. “I’m so hungry, I’d even eat a horse! Nishishi…”

Hajime smiled, but it didn’t feel forced or wry.

Kokichi appreciated that.

So apparently.

The world ended.

Kokichi couldn’t say he was really surprised, but he wasn’t happy about it, either. At least he had context behind the fractions of strange memories that had been plaguing his dreams lately, but that was little comfort in knowing that the fucking world ended.

Well, not entirely. The world tore itself apart, more like. All because one high school girl, Junko Enoshima, was feeling a little goofy and had a bit too much of an obsession with despair and now half of the earth was a radioactive wasteland while the other half was fighting itself in the name of despair. And apparently, his classmates– his friends– were put into a killing game just to carry on Junko’s legacy; it was a sort of tribute to her work.

Now here’s where it got gnarly. Tsumugi Shirogane, the mastermind, was a part of some sort of despair organization who had named themselves “Team Danganronpa”. It was a group of killing game fanatics who had adored the first two (yup, apparently there were two killing games like his)  and desperately wanted more like it. The project had been in the works for years, having started directly after the end of the first one and gaining a massive amount of support after the leaked footage of the second one. People loved the despair of watching their favorites be slaughtered; they loved the feeling of despair that came from a hopeful ending too, knowing the side they had been rooting for had lost.

Even worse? Some of his classmates had helped with the project, even if those memories had been erased. Despair had seized some of them by the throats, and so they flaunted towards a new killing game project like moths to a flame. Some of them were already going to be Ultimate students at some point in the future, and others weren’t. They were all split into two groups among those categories: “willing” and “unwilling.”

Kokichi was never on that Hope’s Peak scouting list apparently, and he was also “unwilling”. That meant that he hadn’t wanted to participate in the killing game, which most likely meant he was abducted or brainwashed for it. Maki, Ryoma and K1-B0 were also unwilling, much to his surprise. K1-B0 had apparently been stolen, and Maki was basically sold to the project by some whack-jobs called the Holy Salvation Society. Ryoma had apparently been hard to classify, since he didn’t exactly… care? He inadvertently escaped from prison in the chaos of the Tragedy, was dragged into the project against his will, and never made any attempts to leave.

Those who weren’t on the scouting list but were willing were Angie and Rantaro. Despair had hit Angie full force, so she was absolutely deranged before her memories were rewritten with the Flashback Lights. To put it lightly, there was a lot of blood on her hands. As for Rantaro, his situation was… interesting. He was going to be revealed as the Ultimate Survivor later on into the killing game, and there was a reason for that. He had had a big family– lots of sisters, to be specific, and a particularly immoral set of parents. A paid slaughter had been set up by his parents between all twelve children– thirteen originally, but one had gone missing before the Tragedy– where people could place bets on who would win and whoever was right got a shit ton of money. Rantaro had come out victorious in that slaughter, but his simultaneous bloodlust and grief didn’t stop there. He killed his dad, set his house on fire and ran off to join Team Danganronpa, if only to take his mind off of his dead family.

As for the people on the scouting list, almost all of them had been despair-obsessed. Kaede, Kaito, and Shuichi had been ecstatic to join the killing game, and apparently had even made “audition tapes” at Tsumugi’s request for her fake narrative. Shuichi had lost his uncle in the Tragedy, and unfortunately it was Team Danganronpa who found him first, influencing him with the killing game and showing him the “wonders” of despair. Kaede wanted to see hope again even amidst a dark situation, and what better place for that than a killing game? Kaito lost his grandparents due to the Tragedy and set off on his own, joining Team Danganronpa in his anger over the loss of his family; he believed that if he had to lose something, everyone else should, too. Miu had simply been bored and had helped create and build a lot of stuff for the game, such as the exisals, Monokubs, and this thing called “Motherkuma”, which created spare Monokuma’s. Kirumi had joined at the request of Izuru Kamukura, who she had somehow encountered at some point during the Tragedy. Korekiyo had seen potential in some of the girls in the project, so he joined the killing game to befriend more girls for his deceased sister.

There were only three unwilling participants among the scouting list. Gonta, Tenko and Himiko. Tenko and Himiko had found each other during the Tragedy by coincidence and had been traveling together, getting unfortunately abducted by Team Danganronpa after their names on the scouting list were discovered. Gonta had never wanted to join the game– he had been content with hiding in the forest as humanity tore itself to shreds, since nature was so much more forgiving than mankind. He had been ripped from the safety of his family in the woods by Team Danganronpa, and held prisoner until the game began.

(That might explain why Kokichi was having dreams about him again, in a place he had never been in before. He remembered staring at the ceiling, at the handcuffs around their wrists, saying words he couldn’t recall to his only friend in this awful room. They would talk for hours and hours; Kokichi learned about all kinds of bugs, and in turn, Gonta learned about Kokichi’s family, D.I.C.E.

He decided not to bring this up. Gonta was dead now, the bestest friend he’d ever had outside of that orphanage. He had sacrificed himself for reasons he couldn’t even remember; reasons Kokichi had stuffed into his head.

As Hajime told him about his friend's background, he had to wonder if Gonta– the Gonta he had spent many nights with in a room he couldn’t quite remember yet– would have forgiven him for what he did.

As much as he didn’t want to think he would, he knew Gonta very well. No matter what Kokichi had done, Gonta would forgive him, memories or not.

Gonta had forgiven him, right before being carted off to his own death.)

So in the end, Kokichi was partly right. It pissed him off that Tsumugi had managed to escape, presumably with the footage, but there was nothing he could do about it now. Hajime told him that he and Future Foundation would handle everything from here, and that he should try to focus on the new life waiting for him on Jabberwock Island. Kokichi supposed he was right, but that didn’t make him any less mad about it.

How did this information come to light? Well, it turned out that taking memories away from a specially built robot such as K1-B0 was very difficult. You could repress them, but they’d never go away. After all, K1-B0 was a robot who could learn, and a robot who could learn would never forget. With some work on Hajime, some guy called Kazuichi, and K1-B0’s part, the three of them had managed to dig up what Team Danganronpa– more specifically, despair-driven Miu– had tried to suppress. That was partly why they didn’t have much information on Tsumugi herself yet, but K1-B0 had reported that Tsumugi had always been a little on-and-off, flipping between an obsessed Junko fangirl who couldn't possibly wait any longer for the killing game, and a depressed, teary-eyed girl who could hardly look anyone in the eye. No one really knew what was going on with her, and in the foreseeable future, they might not ever find out.

Hajime had asked him not to think badly of his classmates, both dead and alive, for what they had done during the Tragedy, because they were all simply children who were unfortunately influenced by despair. To that, Kokichi responded that he really couldn’t care any less. And it wasn’t entirely a lie either, y’know? He did care, but not nearly as much as he wanted to. He was just… tired of all of this. He was tired of not knowing what he’d be forced to face next, whether it was a death puzzle or the fact that his classmates had apparently been evil and/or insane.

That had been a pretty hard pill to swallow, but Kokichi had plenty of time to do so. Mikan was in his room with him almost constantly, always being there when he woke up to bring him to Shuichi (in a wheelchair, he finally accepted after a solid fifteen minutes of argument). A day passed by alarmingly quickly, though that might be because Kokichi fell asleep before the sun even set (Hajime said this was because his body was still recovering, and rest was crucial to that). And after that, two days went by, each as insignificant as the last.

It was… jarring, how each day had nothing in store for them. Those six days spent in the motive had felt like months, between the puzzles themselves, the waiting periods and how long every night had felt. It was difficult readjusting, when every morning he woke up expecting something bad, and every night when he went to bed expecting this all to be torn away from him as he woke up in a puzzle once more. Hajime said this was to be expected, and that over time, it would become less scary. Kokichi decided to interpret that as, “power through the panic attacks, make fun of whoever thought he was actually scared, and stick his hand out the window to prove that this was real.”

On the fourth day after he woke up, Shuichi got visitors. Visitors that Kokichi went out of his way to avoid by leaning against the wall outside of his room. What luck; he had been using the bathroom when they showed up, perfectly avoiding their arrival.

(And yes, he knew he shouldn’t be walking around yet. That was something Mikan, Shuichi and Hajime all reminded him of daily. Was that going to stop him, though? No. No it wasn’t.)

“...great, right?” He could hear Kaito saying. “Everyone here is really nice! And Teruteru makes really good food. How’s Mikan and Hajime?”

“Haven’t you met them…?” Shuichi pointed out. Kokichi didn’t like how small his voice sounded next to Kaito’s boisterous one.

“Mikan has barely left the hospital, and Hajime has put a lot of his attention into you two,” the voice of K1-B0 replied simply. “Since Kaito was cleared, we’ve barely seen him. Even his spouse is concerned.”

That was news to Kokichi, and it seemed to be surprising for Shuichi too, because he said, “Hajime’s married…?”

“That’s what I was assuming,” said K1-B0. “I’m not… entirely sure. Those two are incredibly odd.”

“Nyeh… Nagito’s really weird in general,” Himiko commented disinterestedly. “And confusing."

“All of the Remnants are weird, so I don't know why you're surprised,” Maki pointed out. “Shuichi, how have you been? You look better than the last time we came.”

“Ah, yeah… eating has gotten a little easier now that–” Shuichi cut himself off, stuttering over his words before settling on, “n-now that Kokichi’s been getting better.”

That was… weird. Why didn’t he tell them I’m awake?

“Oh yeah, Kokichi… how’s he doing?” Kaito asked, much to his alarm. He would really prefer the subject to not be about him.

“...better,” Shuichi responded vaguely. “He’s not in critical condition anymore, a-and his breathing has gotten better, too. A lot better, especially since I didn’t break his ribs like I thought.”

“They were only bruised, correct?” K1-B0 verified. “It’s incredible how lucky you two were when it came to handling injuries. If he had broken a rib and punctured a lung…”

“I really don’t want to think about that…” Shuichi winced. “I-I was lucky enough to resuscitate him at all. And even that was against the rules…”

“The rules were stupid,” Himiko insisted fiercely. “I’m glad you guys are okay now. I was casting all kinds of protection charms for you, but I wasn’t sure if they ever reached you.”

Protection charms.

Kokichi had nearly forgotten about it after what happened in the Seating Puzzle, but with that reminder, he could feel his body heating up.

(“A good luck charm. Now come on, let’s go.)

That was his first time ever kissing Shuichi. Granted, it was on the cheek, but he’d count it as a win.

Since leaving the puzzles, they hadn’t really gotten the chance to talk about what they were. They had promised to die as partners in love, but since that plan had entirely gone out the window, what were they? Were they still the “lovers” they had been in the motive? Or had they just gone back to being only acquaintances, like in the killing game? After everything they had been through together, Kokichi was pretty sure they were a few steps above “ acquaintances”.

Maybe he should ask about it. He should ask if Shuichi was okay living in love here on Jabberwock Island, and if he would be fine with letting their classmates know about their relationship. Kokichi didn’t really care on that regard– in fact, he’d love to rub it in their faces– but Shuichi was typically the more sensitively emotional one between the two of them. He wanted to make sure Shuichi was comfortable.

“...shouldn’t be talking about things if they make you uncomfortable,” K1-B0 was saying, his voice holding a note of finality that Shuichi most definitely couldn’t argue with.

“I don’t want you having to tip-toe around me, though…” Shuichi protested, though his voice was weak and not very convincing. “I… I don’t want to be a burden.”

“You two worked hard to stay alive,” Maki reminded him with much more sincerity than Kokichi would have expected from her. “You kept us alive by extension. It’s only fair that we let you settle down.”

“Right on, Maki Roll,” Kaito agreed. “She’s right, man. You’ve gotta take it easy on yourself.”

“Yeah!” agreed Himiko. “If it’ll help, me and Maki can sew you another cat. We’ll make it you-themed.”

“And if you ever need to talk to someone, we’re all here to support you,” K1-B0 added brightly. “Hajime has encouraged us to practice communication, after all. Don’t dwell in your worries alone; we’re here for you, Shuichi.”

Kokichi stared meaninglessly down at the floor, his arms wrapped around himself.

With his mind being so preoccupied in the puzzles, he had almost forgotten the atrocities he had committed during the killing game. He had killed Gonta and Miu, and then convinced everyone he didn’t care for them in the slightest. They still knew only that version of him, didn’t they? So yeah, it made sense that he’d be alone now. Call that karma, if you will.

Supporting himself with the wall, he limped back towards his room.

***

It took them a little over a month to be released from the hospital. Apparently Hajime would have kept them there for longer if he could, but decided that it wasn't healthy for them to be cooped up in one place for too long.

After an extensive check-up, they were both cleared, so long as Shuichi was very careful with his wrist and Kokichi didn’t overexert himself. Kokichi had also been getting better at walking, but he was still encouraged not to overdo it. At the very least, he could now walk short distances.

Even if Shuichi had been given a tour of the island before Kokichi woke up, it was still a sight that surprised him every time. The Reformed Remnants had worked very hard over the past few years to make this place home, so it was in pretty good shape with their combined efforts. The fourth and fifth island were still closed, but the first three (sans the central island) were habitable. The hospital was located on the third island, and the place they were going– the motel– was also located on the third island.

“Titty Typhoon,” Kokichi read aloud as they passed by the music venue. He was sitting in a wheelchair that Hajime was pushing, under Mikan’s request. “Whoever named that deserves a raise.”

“We throw parties there sometimes,” Hajime told them. “Ibuki and some of the girls like making music, so they’ll perform great songs while everyone dances or talks.”

Ibuki was the Ultimate Musician, if Shuichi remembered correctly. “What’s her latest song?”

“...it’s titled, Girl I Superglued My Hand To My Neck and I Can’t Get It Off.”

“Th-That’s… a really long title,” Shuichi stammered in honest bewilderment. He’d love to know the lyrics to that one.

“I want one of this lady’s albums a.s.a.p,” Kokichi announced. “I have to know what her other music is like. It sounds like she just names them with whatever comes to mind– what’s next? Heavy Metal Drowning in a Shark Tank?”

“I’ll let her know,” Hajime chuckled lightly. “We’re almost there. Then, we’re going to have a bit of a more serious talk, if that’s alright.”

“Things are always serious,” Kokichi complained as they continued walking. “Can’t we have a day of fun or something? Let’s have a big scavenger hunt– last place has to slit their stomach open!”

“Or we can just… have a nice picnic somewhere,” Shuichi suggested hurriedly. “No one needs to slit open their stomachs.”

Kokichi pouted. “Not even a little bit?”

“What does a little bit even mean…?”

This debate continued as they approached the motel parking lot, where Shuichi could see his friends all clustered closely together near their door, talking excitedly. He didn’t miss the way Kokichi went quiet immediately upon seeing them, his expertly perfected blank expression slamming onto his face to hide whatever emotion he was truly feeling.

Before he could ask if he was okay, he practically felt the overwhelming aura of excitement from his classmates lock onto him all at once. He loved his friends, he really did, but man were they a lot all at once.

“Shuichi!” Kaito called out, triggering the chain reaction of the other three all looking towards him at once. The simultaneous movement was just a tiny bit eerie, but he didn’t have time to worry about it as they all ran to his– and, by extension, Kokichi’s– side.

“It’s great to see you two have been released!” K1-B0 exclaimed happily. “Kokichi, we haven’t seen you at all– how are you doing?”

For some reason, Kokichi had banned visitors once word got out that he was awake. Shuichi had tried to keep it a secret for his sake, wanting to let Kokichi be the one to publicize his recovery, but there was only so much he could do.

“Better than you. Wooow, did the island air make your face look even worse?” Kokichi gasped in feigned awe. “Nishishi, maybe all this fresh, tropical island air is frying all your circuitry.”

K1-B0’s eye twitched. “I’m… glad to see you’re recovering well…! It seems even your robophobia is still intact.”

“Yup! I’m doing great!” Kokichi giggled, crossing one leg over the other with his hands leisurely behind his head. “You reeeeeally thought I’d go down that easily? Nope, but your concern is heartwarming… and a little gross. What am I, a harem protagonist?

“Yup, he’s fine,” Kaito grumbled, which was the complete opposite of what Shuichi thought; Kokichi was definitely a little anxious. However, Kaito’s smile returned quickly and he patted Shuichi’s back, making him stumble. “Sidekick! We heard you guys were getting released, and ‘cause you’re sharing a room, we collected some stuff you guys would like!”

Shuichi blinked at him, unsure whether he should be concerned or thankful. “You… you did?”

“Yeah! Come on, you guys should see it!” Kaito exclaimed excitedly. “It’s pretty great!”

“The room’s a little small for two people, but it’ll probably be comfortable enough for you two,” Maki added. Even she had a small smile on her face. “Later you’ll get your own rooms, but this is the best we can do right now.”

“We had to clean up the motel last minute,” Hajime sighed, tiredly running his hand down the side of his face. “We never prioritized this place since we had the cottages, and we never expected anyone else to be living on this island. It didn’t help that Gundham and Ibuki used one of the bathrooms as a ritual ground last year…”

“Nyeh!? They did what!?” Himiko demanded in alarm. “I-Is that why chocolate eggs and encouraging stickers keep falling out of my sink? I just thought the room was adjusting to my magical aura…”

“I’ll have to look at the piping,” Hajime muttered. “Anyway, since you four are so excited, go ahead and show your friends their room.”

Shuichi stumbled as Kaito excitedly grabbed his hand, pulling him along and rambling enthusiastically about how happy he was to have them as a neighbor. Maki was the one to hand him the keys to their new room, stepping aside to allow him to unlock it.

With a glance back at his partner, he fiddled with the lock until he heard a click. Holding the key against his palm between two fingers, he grabbed the knob and opened the door.

Maki was right– the room was small, but not uncomfortably so. The wallpaper was a comfortable shade of yellow, patterned with faint, unnoticeable horizontal stripes. Against the wall Shuichi could see a properly-sized refrigerator, a trash bin, a small, round table eerily similar to the one that had been in the Objective Room, and a big wardrobe on the opposite wall. 

There was a bed– bigger than the one they’d had in the Objective Room– placed in the corner of the room. The blanket set neatly on the bed had a cat graphic on it, and speaking of cats, his own plush one was sitting on the bed with its paws tucked in and its feet sticking out. Notably, there was a second cat plush– a white one– next to it, also wearing a smaller version of Kokichi’s scarf. Across from the bed was a TV, which was shut off. However, he did see a remote on the stand, which should mean it was operational.

It was much less white than the Objective Room and hospital had been, which somehow instantly put his mind at ease. The only white walls he could see were in the bathroom, which was straight across from the front door and, just like the Objective Room, had no door of its own. Also, having the option to sleep against the wall made him feel infinitely better, knowing he was safe from the world on at least one side.

It was small and comfortable enough to make him feel safe, and not too similar to the Objective Room to make him uncomfortable. It was a fair balance of everything.

“We all cleaned this place like hell,” Kaito told him proudly. “Maki and Sonia made you guys the blanket, and Maki also made the white cat for Kokichi! Now you have matching cats!”

Maki made it… for Kokichi? Shuichi cast a surprised look back at his partner, who had stood out of his wheelchair and limped into the room. He gave Shuichi a similarly confused look, seeming to lack any form of an answer too. Well, she was the one who found us. I was really aggressive over him when that happened…

“The TV is still sort of, uh… a work in progress,” Kaito continued. “Every time we turn it on, it just shows some poptart cat in space. It’s really weird and annoying as hell, so…”

“I think it’s adorable,” Himiko protested defensively. “I wonder how it even got there, though…”

“I have three guesses,” muttered Hajime unhappily.

“Anyway,” said Kaito, veering them back on track, “we stocked the fridge with stuff, too. There’s ice packs for if you guys need them, that Panta stuff Kokichi always drinks, and… we weren’t really sure what you liked, Shuichi, so we left it empty for you.”

Honestly, Shuichi wasn’t sure what he liked either, so he was fine with this arrangement. He was more shocked they did any of this at all.

“Annnd…” Smiling widely, Kaito backed up to fling open the wardrobe. “Boom! Clothes for you guys! Those hospital gowns cannot possibly be comfortable, so we collected all of these to give you!”

“Where do you even get clothes in the Tragedy?” Kokichi wondered aloud with a discreet look in Hajime’s direction.

“Future Foundation has connections and clothing makers of their own,” Hajime explained. “Also, some of us learned how to make clothes for ourselves. I taught everyone basic lessons, and some people, like Mahiru, Hiyoko, Sonia and Gundham, took it up for themselves. They’ve gotten really good at it… Gundham even makes his animals clothes, too.”

“Gundham is really good at it,” Himiko added nonchalantly. “You should see the barn. All of the animals have little hats. It’s amazing.”

Ah, barns. Shuichi didn’t imagine that he was going to be visiting that place anytime soon. Big animals were nice, and he always found horses a little fascinating, but up close? They were a little terrifying.

Then again, Shuichi had seen much scarier things up close.

“That’s not all,” Kaito said, ignoring the side-subject. At the bottom of the wardrobe was a single drawer, and Kaito leaned down to pull it open.

Inside, he could see the boxes of board and card games. It wasn’t as diverse as it had been in the Objective Room, but the sight was still enough to make him shiver.

“Since you’re sharing a room, we figured it’d get boring after a while,” Kaito explained, oblivious to Shuichi’s unease. “So, we got a few easy games from the supermarket on the first island and brought them here!”

“Supermarket?” Kokichi echoed, his voice eerily dry. He must have felt that prickle of anxiety at the sight of the games, too.

“Future Foundation– specifically, Naegi– supplies us with copies and duplicates of a variety of things, whether it’s scavenged from the Tragedy or they accidentally made too much of something,” Hajime took to explaining again. “I refill it every time we get a shipment. It’s a sort of trade system me and Naegi have set up– it’s not important to you guys.”

“Is there Jenga?” asked Kokichi. He shuffled forward until he could lean on Shuichi’s left shoulder, which instinctively made him tense to maintain his balance. Ow. “Shuichi needs a rematch at Ultimate Jenga… since he lost every round, that is.”

Shuichi kindly decided not to point out that Kokichi had literally been buried under the blocks at one point. Instead, he was focused on Kaito and his strange optimism– in fact, all of his classmate’s behavior. Every time he had seen them, they never displayed even a shred of negativity. How could that be, when they were dealing with the same things he was? The end of the killing game… Team Danganronpa and themselves before… the Tragedy…

And especially…

(It was two days after they arrived on Jabberwock Island when Shuichi got his first visitor.

“SURGERY!?”

Shuichi winced at his friend’s loud voice. “Yeah, for… for my arm. I-It’s, uh… f-for… safety purposes.”

This did not mollify Kaito’s horrified expression in the slightest. “Are these people even qualified for surgery? I mean, I know Hajime’s talented at freakin’ everything or something, but… Mikan seems a little…”

“Mikan is a nurse,” Shuichi reminded him. “I don’t think… nurses do major surgeries. If anything, she’ll just be helping Hajime.”

“Still, that’s… jeez, man.” Kaito sighed, before his chest heaved and he coughed into his arm.

Panicked, Shuichi flinched forward, his hand half-outstretched. “Ah–! Kaito…?”

“I’m fine,” Kaito grunted, wiping his chin with the sleeve of his gown. “Mikan said that should clear up soon.”

“Your illness…” Shuichi murmured, letting his hand fall back into his lap. “Do they know what it is?”

“No one’s been able to name it,” said Kaito, a dark hint of frustration flashing through his otherwise bright eyes. It was gone instantly though, and he was grinning confidently again. “But Hajime’s treatment is working. My chest has felt a little clearer since I’ve been here, and I haven’t been coughing up as much blood.”

The good news made Shuichi’s shoulders deflate a little in relief, and he couldn’t stop himself from smiling softly. Hajime truly was the Ultimate Talented Student if he figured out a way to help Kaito so quickly…

“How are you, though?” Kaito asked him. “Surgery can be pretty damn scary. My grandma, she had to have surgery for her hip once, and she was… well, I didn’t know she could be that cranky. Me and my grandpa were banished to the outside a LOT.”

On the topic of families, Shuichi briefly thought back to his own. His parents had moved overseas, so he had no possible idea what could have happened to them, but his uncle…

Kaito had lost his own grandparents in the Tragedy, Shuichi was sure. It must have been a devastating fact to not only learn, but to remember. Still though, he was here sitting on the edge of Shuichi’s bed, checking up on his well-being and chatting as if nothing was wrong.

“I… don’t know,” he finally answered, dropping his gaze down to his lap. “I’ve never had surgery before, a-and… it’s…”

A hand placed itself firmly on his shoulder, and when he looked back up, he was met with that reassuringly encouraging grin that Kaito always wore. It was the one he gave Shuichi every time he was stuck, or uncertain, or most of all, afraid.

And with that grin, Shuichi realized something.

This all was a front Kaito was putting on… for Shuichi.

Beneath the layers of confidence and concern, Kaito was just as afraid as he was. He had been forced to come to the reality that his grandparents, whom he was raised by and loved so much, were dead, and as a result, he himself had joined a despair organization to see and endorse similar tragedy. There was no way he had come to terms with that in just a few days.

Over and over, Kaito had expressed his worry for Shuichi, especially after his first, brief panic attack back at the patio. He had offered Shuichi his endless support, because to Kaito, his sidekicks were the most important people in the world to him. And now, his sidekicks were all he had left.

Kaito was not someone who openly displayed “weakness”. There was no way he’d let Shuichi see how heartbroken he truly was.

“You’ll get through this, man,” Kaito told him in an uncharacteristically calm, even tone. “You’re stronger than you think you are.”)

Every single one of his friends were wearing a fake mask; concealing how they were truly feeling with their support for him and Kokichi. They didn’t want him to see how sad they all truly were– the despair and misery they felt from their worlds being shattered.

They were hiding it… because he and Kokichi were hurt. They’d been hurt in ways unimaginable, and it wasn’t like either of them had told anyone about the puzzles. Shuichi had let a few things slip here and there, but he could never go too into detail, even when it was only him, Kokichi and Hajime.

His friends…

“Woah! Are you crying?” Kaito exclaimed, his excitement snapping into alarm instantaneously. “Bro, it’s– I mean, uh,” he cast a quick look at Hajime, before saying, “y..you good, Shuichi?”

Reaching up to touch his face, he realized that tears had indeed escaped his eyes. He gasped quietly, rubbing his eyes aggressively to try and clear his face.

“S-Sorry, I–” he sniffled, trying desperately to stabilize his voice. “I-I’m just… happy to have you guys.”

The uncertainty in the air dissipated, and everyone visibly relaxed as smiles spread across their faces. He felt Kokichi’s taut grip on the side of his gown tighten.

“I’m glad you like it,” K1-B0 said. “Tomorrow, you two should join us at breakfast! The others would love to meet you– I know some of them are especially excited. Imposter especially wants to welcome you to the island.”

Kokichi jumped as if he had been poked with a cattle rod. This action did not go unnoticed by the robot, who cast him a questioning look.

“We’ll save breakfast for some other time,” Hajime interjected, though not disapprovingly. “Sorry to interrupt, but I need to talk to these two. You can come back later.”

“Aw, man… alright…” Kaito sighed in surprisingly quick defeat. “I’m gonna head over to the beach house. Me, Nekomaru and Akane were gonna talk about getting back into training.”

“...I’m coming with you,” Maki announced nearly immediately. “Good luck, Shuichi. Kokichi.”

“Try not to trip over a grain of sand and die~ ♪” Kokichi called after them as the two made their departure.

“How… would that kill him?” K1-B0 unwisely asked, appearing legitimately worried.

A huge mistake, Shuichi thought Kokichi’s lips curved upwards into that somewhat unnerving, cheshire smile.

“I mean, I think you ought to be most worried. Did you know sand has tiny little bugs that like to eat metal? Specifically… robots?” Kokichi outright lied, not that anything in his face gave it away. “You’d better watch out, Kee-boy. They might get you when you’re charging tonight…”

K1-B0 somehow paled. “Th-That is not true! There is no such bug! I have been fine all month, and I have not seen any of these creatures!”

“Obviously, they’re waiting until you’re vulnerable,” Kokichi scoffed, as if this was common sense. “But I guess a robot can’t predict tactical war moves like that.”

“I will see you in court!” K1-B0 declared, jabbing a finger towards the boy before marching out of the room.

Kokichi snickered as he went, and his eyes landed on Himiko, who went as still as a deer in headlights.

“I’m gonna go, too,” she quickly announced, sweating profusely. “Good luck, guys.”

Himiko politely shut the door as she left, and that left only him, Kokichi and Hajime in the room. Once Kokichi was done giggling, he tugged on Shuichi’s sleeve.

“Let’s sit down! It is our new home, after all,” Kokichi urged him. His words were chosen carefully, but Shuichi could read between the lines: my body hurts, so let’s try and get this over with.

With that in mind, Shuichi nodded.

The mattress was surprisingly comfortable, which made him remember their shared bed in the Objective Room. It was just big enough to fit the both of them, and while it hadn’t been agonizing to sleep in, it wasn’t the best thing in the world. This bed was big enough to fit the both of them with some extra room, too– the blanket was soft, the pillows were fluffed, and his and Kokichi’s cat plushies had been cleaned, it seemed. They smelled like lavender.

“This place is great,” Kokichi decided aloud. “We even have games, and we didn’t have to clear a puzzle this time!”

“I found games in my inspection of the Objective Room,” Hajime carefully recalled. “You had to do a puzzle for that?”

“Yeah. That’s also how we got the medicine cabinet,” Kokichi told him, seeming entirely unbothered by the topic. “It was a really stupid puzzle, and it had a stupid name, too.”

“The Final Dead Puzzle,” Shuichi murmured on reflex.

For some reason, he saw Hajime flinch.

“Why were you investigating the Objective Room, anyway?” Kokichi asked the man without acknowledging his reaction.

“I like to investigate everything I can,” Hajime replied, also pretending as if nothing had happened. “I didn’t look in any of the puzzle rooms, though. I had to stay with your classmates in case Tsumugi tried anything.”

It had taken a while for Future Foundation to arrive at their location; a range of time that Hajime refused to disclose. In that time, Hajime had investigated what he could in the academy, taking K1-B0 and Himiko along with him while Maki and Kaito remained behind at the patio with Shuichi and Kokichi. He had found a secret to one of the classrooms, investigated the Objective Room, and the hidden room in the library. Future Foundation agents had taken things from there, led by a lady with a stone-cold gaze, lilac hair and black gloves. She had been a little scary at first, but she was nice to him in the brief exchange they had, and she even apologized that this situation had flown under her radar. He hadn’t really known what to do with that, but he was put medically unconscious very soon after that, so he didn’t have to worry about it.

“Anyhow,” said Hajime, pulling him out of his thoughts, “we should discuss what to do going forward.”

“The serious talk,” Shuichi clarified with a frown.

Hajime nodded. “Right. First, I haven’t explained to you much how the island works. I gave Shuichi a tour before you woke up, Kokichi, but I failed to tell you about how we function here. So let’s start with that, and then we can discuss a recovery plan. Sound good?”

“I’m fine with this,” Kokichi agreed without a second of hesitation. And by extension, Shuichi agreed too.