#I know its More in-character for Kokichi’s face to go blank | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

oumakokichi · 7 years

Note

I adored what you had to say on how some adjustments in meaning really change how Kokichi comes across in the English version of V3. REALLY important question: Kokichi hates murder. So what was his motivation for the events of the chapter four trial? What are the circumstances of his decisions? He clearly established himself as someone who walks the line, but is there a difference for him between having a line and killing, going against one of his core values? Was he testing the game? What's up?

So many Chapter 4 questions, so little time. Thankfully, it’sone of my favorite chapters in any DR game so I don’t mind talking about it atall!

I hope it’s okay if I answer all of these in one big post! Iget a lot of questions about Chapter 4 specifically (as you can see) and Ithought it’d be best if I try to address all the points in common that thesequestions have. I’ll try to hit the main points, which are: “Why did Ouma gettwo people killed if he’s morally against murder?”, “Why didn’t Ouma leteveryone vote wrong in the trial and get them all killed to put them out oftheir misery?”, and “Was Ouma’s reaction just before Gonta’s execution genuine or not?”

I’ve written quite a few pieces of meta with regards toChapter 4 in the past, the most recent of which might help clear up the firstof these points (and a little bit of the second)! The post is here, if anyone’scurious.

In any case, I’ll try to make this my big “what went down inChapter 4” post, but I will be discussing spoilers for Chapters 5 and 6 aswell, so anyone who hasn’t reached the second half of the game should only readif they’re okay with that.

So, to begin… In order to better understand why Ouma gotboth Gonta and Miu killed, it’s necessary to look at everything that was goingon behind the scenes, without Saihara (or the player) being aware of it at thetime. More specifically, it’s important to realize that Ouma and Miu had a verytentative alliance in place (likely since either Chapter 2 or 3 and onward),and that Ouma was commissioning her to create various inventions for him.

He tells Saihara and the others about this alliance betweenthe two of them in Chapter 5, when he brings the hammers and the bombs in orderto let everyone clear the Despair Death Road mini-game. The news is receivedwith a great deal of suspicion by everyone—understandably, since this is rightafter Chapter 4 and they all know for a fact that Ouma got both Gonta and Miukilled as a result of his actions.

But it’s very clear that he was telling the truth abouttheir tentative cooperation. The hammers and bombs were clearly made by Miu (thebombs even have the same mouse mascot that’s on her uniform), as there’s no oneelse who could’ve made them. Later in Chapter 6, we find the design for thebug-vac in Ouma’s room, while the actual invention itself is in Miu’s lab,proving again that they were, in fact, working together. Despite how unlikelyit seemed, and despite the fact that they both clearly disliked one another fortheir personalities, the two of them did manage to cooperate for a time, andpretty much everything Ouma asked her to make was specifically for the sake oftrying to end the killing game.

However, Chapter 4 is where that temporary cooperation ranits course. Ouma provides a very vague, general explanation of what happened inthe same scene in Chapter 5, but as he’s being intentionally vague and as noone in the group really believes him, it’s easy to miss the point of what he’ssaying. Basically, what happened is this: after the whole group used theflashback light in Chapter 4 and realized how horrible the state of the outsideworld was after the meteorites hit, Miu became scared. She’s one of thecharacters whose reaction to that flashback light is the most obviously drastic, and she even claimsthat they must all be in “hell” if the world is really like that.

In the flashback between the two of them, we can see that Oumawanted to use the inventions he commissioned from her in order to take onMonokuma and the remaining two Exisals directly—basically, he wanted to trysomething very similar to what Momota was going to do in Chapter 5, butbetter-equipped. But Miu refused to participate in the fight or to inventanything new for him any longer after finishing the hammers and bombs. Afterseeing the rest of their classmates betray and kill one another repeatedly, shewas deeply paranoid and believed that someone in the group was bound tobackstab them, and that the plan would never work.

What’s more, in addition to refusing to go along with Ouma’splan or trust and cooperate with anyone else in the group, she also begantalking very emphatically about wanting to get out of the school. She claimedshe could be making the world a better place with her inventions, and therefore felt she’d be better off out there rather than trapped in the school witheveryone else. This desperation to get outside is what led her to make up hermind to try and attempt murder—as it has done with several other charactersthroughout the course of the DR series, including but not limited to Maizono,Celes, and Teruteru. It’s a trap of the killing game itself, and one of thereasons the motive videos are some of the simplest yet most effective motivesto kill in both dr1 and ndrv3.

The most important thing to note is that Ouma, seeing herreactions and desperation to get outside the school, knew she had made up her mind to try and kill someone pretty muchfrom the moment it happened. In the flashback scene itself, we can see him goextremely blank-faced as he listens to her, sprites which are usually reservedfor when he’s revising his opinion or rethinking his options. When she had himhelp move the armchairs to her lab and asked him to meet her within the VRworld to talk in private, he then put the pieces together and knew she wanted to try and kill him specifically.

As I discussed in my other post that I linked to, thebiggest problem wasn’t that she was trying to kill him within the VR world, butthat she had already made up her mind to commit murder in the first place. Inthe DR franchise, the decision to commit murder isn’t simply about taking onelife—it’s about being willing to forfeit everyone’s lives in the class trial inexchange for “graduating.” And this was clearly, from Ouma’s perspective, theabsolute worst-case scenario. Not only would he die regardless, but everyoneelse stood a good chance of dying too. If Miu’s plan worked, then it wouldresult in the deaths of 8 people (Ouma, Saihara, Maki, Himiko, Momota, Gonta, Kiibo,and Tsumugi), not just Ouma himself.

Just as Miu was too paranoid to trust anyone else in thegroup and believed that someone was definitely bound to betray them, Ouma wasalso incredibly paranoid. His paranoia shows through pretty early on in thegame; if Momota is the character that best symbolizes blind faith and belief ineveryone regardless of what the facts say, then Ouma is the character whorepresents trusting no one, doubting absolutelyeveryone, suspecting that everything is a lie until proven otherwise.

Seeing Miu refuse to cooperate any longer and knowing thatshe had already made up her mind to commit murder once, he felt there was noguarantee that she wouldn’t try it again, even if he stopped her the firsttime. The moment she made up her mind to kill was the moment he made up hismind that he couldn’t trust her, and decided she was a threat to the entiregroup’s safety that needed to be eliminated—regardless of his personal moralsagainst killing.

The problem, however, was how to eliminate her without: 1.)dying himself, and 2.) playing right into the same trap of the killing game and gettingeveryone else killed. He could certainly have tried to kill her himself—butthat would’ve meant he would be a culprit instead, not her. In which case, hecould only live by tricking everyone else in the class trial and getting themall executed instead. Again, this was the absolute worst-case scenario. He didn’twant to die either, in part because he was still searching for the ringleaderand trying to end the killing game, but also… well, simply because he didn’twant to die. Self-preservation and the fear of death is yet another prettyconstant motif with different DR characters.

As a result, he decided the most “practical” solution was touse a sacrificial pawn of sorts to eliminate Miu for him, who he could thensubtly lead the rest of the group to in the trial. This way, the total numberof deaths would be limited to two people, rather than everyone else dying andonly one culprit surviving. It was a very, veryruthless, cold way of looking at things through a lens of game theory—empatheticand morally opposed to killing though he was, one of the most contradictorythings about Ouma is that he was still very much willing to do very morallygrey things in order to achieve his goals. This walking contradiction ofsomeone who was definitely a pacifist, but who would strike back and strikehard if threatened, is something that’s very central to his character.

Chapter 4 is essentially one big mess of rampant paranoia. It’sthe chapter that best represents being stuck between a rock and a hard place, andthat’s one of the reasons I love it so much from a writing perspective. Miucouldn’t trust anyone; she didn’t want to die, so she made up her mind to killinstead. Ouma couldn’t trust anyone; he didn’t want to die either, so he madeup his mind to kill Miu and eliminate her as a threat so that she didn’t getthe rest of the group killed. It all comes back to paranoia, doubt, andsuspicion, which are some of ndrv3’s most important themes.

On to the second point: why didn’t he let everyone voteincorrectly and get them all killed in order to “put them out of their misery,”since he said that’s what he and Gonta were trying to do? The simplest answerto this is that it was a lie. More specifically, it was a lie for Gonta’s sake.

This, of course, justifies nothing about what Ouma actuallydid. He knew from start to finish that he was manipulating Gonta into takingthe fall for him, just as he knew that his actions were inexcusable (the toneof the line he has in the trial where he says “You’re right… I really am doingsomething horrible to Gonta… I’m sorry,” was yet another piece of dialoguewhere the general mood and feeling was made much less serious in the localization).However, it’s a fact that he lied about working in order to “put everyone outof their misery” in order to try and keep the rest of the group from blamingGonta, and in order to try and let Gonta himself feel like there was a greaterpurpose to him killing Miu.

After watching the flashback light that Monokuma set withinthe VR world, Gonta discovered the “truth of the outside world” just as Oumadid at the beginning of Chapter 4. He realized that the outside world was truly“hell,” and that the inside of the school was also a “hell” where they wereforced into the killing game—and Ouma led him to the conclusion that if theoutside and the inside were both hell, then the easiest solution was to “endeveryone’s suffering” by killing them so that they wouldn’t have to keepsuffering in the killing game and they wouldn’t have to know the painful truthof the outside world.

But the real truth is somewhat more complicated. Ouma clearlysuspected much, much earlier than Chapters 4 and 5 that the entire killing gamewas a show. He has tons of lines even in Chapters 2 and 3 where he talks abouthow “it’s almost like a show,” “if people were watching this I bet they’d allbe having so much fun they just couldn’t help themselves,” etc. Given the rulesof the killing game itself and Monokuma’s drive to make it “more exciting” and “moreinteresting,” he clearly knew, despite witnessing the “truth of the outsideworld,” that they couldn’t actually be the last 16 survivors of humanity:because clearly, there had to be an audience.

However, bringing this up at the end of the Chapter 4 trialwould only have made things more painful for Gonta, not less. Gonta was alreadyextremely horrified and traumatized by the idea that he would ever agree tohurt another person, much less kill them—the AI Gonta on the laptop thatMonokuma provides was traumatized even moreso by the actual memories of the “truthof the outside world.” Learning that the entire killing game was just a form ofsick and twisted entertainment and that his and Miu’s deaths amounted to littlemore than a sacrifice (and another part of that entertainment) in the grandscheme of things would’ve been crushing.

It’s clear to see that Ouma was lying about trying to geteveryone to vote incorrectly, because throughout the entirety of the Chapter 4trial he does nothing but try and push them all to the right answer, not the wrong one. He takes charge in the trial almost from the moment it starts, providing vital clues and hints, offering up information that does nothing but put him at a disadvantage, all because he’s clearly trying to get the group to realize on their own that only Gonta could’ve been the culprit.

The reason he lies about not goingto the rooftop to meet with Miu is because he was trying to lead the wholegroup into realizing on their own that the only person who could’ve had anyopportunity to kill Miu was Gonta. Had they taken his lie about the rooftop atface value, it’s still very likely that it would’ve taken them ages to actuallypoint the finger at Gonta or to realize that he was the only one who could’vedone it, and there’s no doubt that they all would’ve still been clueless as towhy—but it would’ve been a much less painful and agonizing process.

During the trial, though, Saihara calls him out on his lieabout the rooftop by lying in return and saying he went looking for him in the parlor, which pisses Ouma offimmensely. Not only does the entire group start telling him to stop lying, butthey only “know” he was lying in the first place because Saihara lied in turn.Fed up and completely through with the entire group rejecting lies as “universallybad” and demanding the truth as if it were “universally good,” Ouma just comesright out and tells them that Gonta is the culprit.

Again, had he actually been trying to get the whole groupkilled he would never have handed them the answer directly. It would’ve been athousand times easier to let them just vote for him as the culprit, since theyall thought he was the most suspicious one anyway. With a unanimous vote forhimself, everyone would’ve been executed for the wrong verdict, and only Gontawould’ve survived as a successful culprit, which was a task the AI Gontamentions he was willing to bear if it meant that everyone else didn’t have tosuffer through the killing game or the “truth of the outside world” anymore.

But Ouma also had another reason for just handing them theanswer the way that he does in the Chapter 4 trial—and that’s that he wanted toforce them all to acknowledge that the truth they all wanted from him wasextremely, undeniably painful. Lies, as he says in his Chapter 4 speech, offer “endlesspossibilities” and can be used to comfort and console others. The truth, bycontrast, is singular, and often very harsh. No matter how much you don’t wantto believe it, the truth won’t change. And that’s a lesson he pretty muchforces the entire group to learn by dragging them all by the nose for thesecond half of the Chapter 4 trial, because he got pissed off, petty, andimpatient all at once.

And now, as for the final point, about whether his reactionsjust before Gonta’s execution were genuine or not… This is perhaps thetrickiest point to discuss, because it truly is one of those moments that’s themost subjective to the player’s interpretation. No matter how much evidence isshown that Ouma hated killing and murder, no matter how much dialogue indicatesthat he really, honestly hated the killing game and his own actions within it,it’s still a scene where a lot depends on how you read into it. And of course,no matter how much he resented himself and no matter whether he had goodintentions or not, it still doesn’t excuse the fact that he knowingly led twopeople to their deaths.

I will say though that I feel it’s one of the scenes thatbest benefits from a second playthrough. On a first playthrough, Ouma simplyseems all-around despicable. The knee-jerk reaction is to simply assume that hewas lying about being sad and he was lying about wanting to be executedalongside Gonta, and that he’s just an awful and unsympathetic piece of shitwho really does want to make other people suffer. But knowing what we know abouthis character from the reveals in Chapters 5 and 6 though makes the whole scene read… quitedifferently.

In my own personal opinion, yes, I think he was beinggenuine. It still excuses nothing about his actions (and it’s very clear thatthe game itself doesn’t try to excuse him, considering he gets called out bypretty much the entire cast), but it does add insight and meaning to hisactions. One of the most interesting things about Ouma, to me at least, is thatdespite how hard he tries to play the role of a chessmaster and a cold,calculating strategist, his empathy is something that’s always there, rightunder the surface. It shows through in these little scenes and glimpses—and he goes ahead and lets it slip every now and then, because he knows the other characters (andthe players) will just think he’s lying anyway.

Something I feel is worth mentioning is that if Ouma hadreally, truly just wanted to backstab Gonta, belittle him, or see him suffer atthe end, he would’ve pulled out all the stops with his “I’m the big, evilringleader” routine before Gontadied, not after. The one thing that would’ve hurt Gonta the most and rubbedsalt in the wound would’ve been to mock him and reveal how he “double-crossedhim” and was “lying the entire time.”

Instead, he very clearly takes all the blame on himself inthe post-trial leading up to Gonta’s execution. He makes it very clear that he was the one who led Gonta to theflashback light and asked him to kill Miu, and even tells the whole grouppoint-blank not to blame Gonta or hate him. It makes no sense to say that hewas lying, in my opinion. If he’d been lying, he would’ve tried to win over more sympathy, not less. It would’vebeen very easy for him to play the part of a victim or try and win the group over to his side—but instead he makes it explicitly clear that the wholething was his fault, not Gonta’s.

Not only that, but he even begs to be executed alongsideGonta. There is literally no benefit to him doing this whatsoever, since he was volunteering his own life there. Looking atit from the standpoint of a lie or an act just doesn’t add up. He certainlywasn’t doing it for sympathy; if so, he wouldn’t have turned around and madehimself out to be the biggest asshole of the century five seconds later. Theonly way it makes any sense at all is under the assumption that he was tellingthe truth: that he absolutely hated what he did to Gonta and Miu, that he hatedbreaking such an important moral code and staining his hands, and that he wastruly tempted to just give up and die because the whole situation was soall-around horrible.

I think it’s worth noting that in Chapter 5 he does, infact, have a perfect opportunity to do the same exact thing to Momota and Makithat he did to Miu and Gonta already. It would’ve been perfectly easy for himto drink the antidote instead of Momota, let Momota die of his wounds, and tohide in an Exisal and attend the trial himself. That way, Maki would’ve beenexecuted as the culprit (and he wouldn’t have had to worry about her trying tocome and kill him again), and he would’ve been free to continue trying toexpose the ringleader and stop the killing game himself. Had he thrown theirlives under the bus, it would’ve been perfectly easy for him to have survivedpast Chapter 5.

But he didn’t, and I believe that speaks volumes about thetoll that Chapter 4 took on him. No matter how he tried to rationalize it andjustify it to himself, he still clearly felt that murder was murder and that nothingcould really excuse his actions in getting Miu and Gonta killed. In trying toact like the ringleader, think like them, and expose them, he felt in the endthat he had become no better than them. And he wasn’t willing to sacrificeanyone else’s lives after that, which is why he went willingly to his own deathinstead, leaving a trail of clues behind all over the school in the hopes thatSaihara and the others could bring an end to the killing game where he couldn’t.

I think I managed to hit all the points, and this has gottenextremely long by now, so I’ll stop, but I hope I was able to answer everyone’squestions! Chapter 4 is still the biggest point of controversy in the game, Ithink—I’ve gotten even more questions about it than about Chapter 5 by thispoint. It’s understandable too, since almost everything Ouma does and says is ahuge contradictory mess. But it’s definitely possible to look back at hisactions and to understand them in a new light after finishing the game for thefirst time.

I hope I was able to clear up a lot of the confusionregarding this chapter! It’s a long post, but if people want to reblog it andspread it around just to help clear up misinformation or misunderstandings,that would be great. Thank you all for asking and stopping by!

#ndrv3 #new danganronpa v3 #drv3 #kokichi ouma #ouma kokichi #ndrv3 spoilers //#my meta #okay to reblog #i once joked that i would never stop answering questions about chapter 4 until i reached old age #and i think that joke is coming back to haunt me #octoberwisdom10 #anonymous

698 notes · View notes

ndrv3winterexchange · 6 years

Text

Merry Christmas! ( @fryinhawaiian )! Here’s a much longer than expected Hope’s Peak AU kiiboumasai, I hope you enjoy it.

(I wasn’t sure if it would make more sense for Kiibo to be a robot or human so I left that kind of vague, you can read him either way.)

Title: I could be quite naive, happy in our make believe

Pairings: Kiibo/Kokichi, Kiibo/Saihara/Kokichi, and Kaede&Saihara

Wordcount: 9k+

Summary: Maybe they got his talent wrong, maybe he isn’t the Ultimate Detective, maybe he’s actually just the Ultimate Unlucky Student. After all, it has to be some cruel twist of fate that his first two crushes are not just taken, but dating each other.

It all works out in the end.

“And then Iruma-chan lifted Hoshi-kun by the shoulders to which he reacted rather poorly so he…” The rest of Akamatsu’s story is lost to him as the door to their classroom slams open.

Shuichi already knows what’s about to happen, and so does everyone else, which is why no one but him reacts to the loud sound other than a couple jerks of surprise. He brings his gaze up to the door and it is three seconds of nothing before Ouma bursts into the room hand outstretched as he points.

“Good morning my dear sweet darling Kiibo-chan,” A pause, “And the rest of you too I guess!”

Shuichi follows the pointed finger all the way to a thoroughly blushing Kiibo, already burying his face into his hands with a low moan as Amami laughs beside him. Ouma laughs at the reaction, which is enough to snap Kiibo out his embarrassed daze and begin to scold Ouma on appropriate behaviour and that just because they’re dating it doesn’t mean he needs to enter the classroom every day in the exact same way every morning and disrupt the class.

“Aww, but then I don’t get to see your adorably flustered face first thing in the morning!” Ouma pouts and then laughs when Kiibo’s expression turns indignant. “Hey, no need for that.”

Kiibo hums, “I suppose you’re right.”

Ouma opens his mouth to say something, but whatever it is, is lost as Kiibo leans down and gives him a small peck on the lips. His eyes widen, face turning a cute, adorable bright shade of red as Kiibo ushers him into his seat and the two begin a quiet conversation Shuichi cannot hear no matter how hard he tries.

His chest aches in jealously, longing, both, or something else he’s not sure of.

“Saihara-kun,” Akamatsu says and he blinks, realising he had spaced out on her.

“I’m sorry,” He says immediately, waving his arms frantically in front of him, “I didn’t mean to ignore you.”

She shakes her head, her eyes sympathetic as she flicks her eyes over to where Kiibo and Ouma are seated leaning into each other. “Hey, you’ll be fine,” she insists, one hand against his arm before she takes it back bring both arms up bent and fists clenched, “And if you ever want to talk about it I’m here for you, always!”

He laughs, painful and awkward as he pulls his hat down further, “Thank you Akamatsu-san.”

“No problem.” She beams, though he can still see the worry in her eyes. He’s almost grateful when their teacher arrives and she’s forced to turn out as class begins.

He sighs, looking over one last time to see Kiibo back in his seat, Iruma teasing him about something or another and Ouma already looking bored about the prospect of their teachers droning.

Maybe they got his talent wrong, maybe he isn’t the Ultimate Detective, maybe he’s actually just the Ultimate Unlucky Student. After all, it has to be some cruel twist of fate that his first two crushes are not just taken, but dating each other.

Shuichi meets Ouma first out of every one in their class.

He’s standing at outside the gates of Hope’s Peak staring up the school in all its glory. He’s hesitant to enter, still trying to grasp the fact that he really was scouted to come here. That someone looked at him and what he was able to do and thought he was good enough to be chosen.

His nerves mount at the thought and he begins to fiddle with his sleeves, maybe he should just go home? His uncle would understand, he was so very proud of him for accepting the invitation but actually being faced with the decision he maybe –

“Hey hat boy are you just goanna stand there all day?” A voice says, snapping him out his thoughts and he looks to see a boy in a checkered scarf and… a straitjacket? When the other notices Shuichi’s attention on him he grins wide, “Well, are ya?”

“Um,” He says, eyes flicking to the side and wondering if it’s too late to make an escape, “No.”

“That’s great, we’re the same age aren’t we?” The boy says, reaching out and grabbing one of Shuichi’s wrists, “And you aren’t wearing the school uniform, so I bet that means you’re an ultimate just like me starting today, we’re probably in the same class and everything.”

Shuichi blinks bewildered, and when the boy tugs on his wrist as he begins walking forward he can’t help but follow. He looks at the boy curiously, kind of impressed at his deductions if he’s being honest.

“Of course, that was all a lie, I don’t know a single thing about you maybe you’re just some weirdo that lurks outside the school. Or some deranged talentless loser who’s jealous of all of us who go here and you’re planning to kill me as we speak! Oh my and here I was trying to extend a helping hand to a boy in need and instead I’m about to get brutally murdered in some whacky way so complex that they’ll need to hold an extensive and needlessly complicated trial to figure out who did it.”

“I’m not, I wouldn’t ever kill someone,” Shuichi says, stumbling as the others pace quickens rushing them off somewhere.

Abruptly the other stops and he almost trips at the sudden lack of momentum. He twirls on his feel, leaning in close and Shuichi is amazed at how deeply purple they are, wide and shining with amusement.

“Well duh, that was a lie too! You look like you wouldn’t hurt a fly and a supreme judge of character. If anything, you should be wary of the guy who just dragged you halfway across the campus! What if I was leading you to some drug deal or a kidnapping.” The boy gasps, all fake shock and surprise, “You shouldn’t trust so easy, tsk tsk.”

There’s an almost sinister gleam in his eyes then, and yet Shuichi doesn’t detect anything even remotely malicious from the other, “I, I am not trusting you. You said you were a good judge of character; I would like to think I’m one too, and you seem like a good person to me.”

The boy pauses at that, face blank as he tilts his head to the side an action his awful head decides looks rather cute. There’s silence after that, and it stretches for so long he decides he must have horribly fumbled this conversation up somehow just as the other’s grin spreads wide across his face.

“I see, I see, you’re going to be a very interesting person,” The boy says, nodding his head sagely, “I guess I can tell you who I am then –Kokichi Ouma, Ultimate Supreme Leader, head of an organization that boasts over 10,000 members.”

He is overcome with the urge to ask more about it, that can’t possibly be true but if he’s lying he hides it well. Though, given most of what the boy has said he’s not entirely surprised. Regardless, “I’m Shuichi Saihara the” – he pauses, tugging his hat lower – “the Ultimate Detective.”

There are stars in Ouma’s eyes, it’s not true obviously but Shuichi can find no other way to describe the way his eyes seem to positively sparkle at the admission. He feels his face grow warm, it’s not really that amazing is it?

“Saihara-chan!” Ouma says and he feels his blush worsen at the suffix, “I’ll see you around, but don’t forget about little ol’ me.” The other finishes with a wink, disappearing into the door beside them.

His heart feels like it might jump out of his chest and he stares down at his wrist where the other had been holding him and then up at the door that he disappeared behind. The door to the gym, where the entrance ceremony was being held.

He doesn’t think he could forget about him if he tried; the other is odd, a mystery, and in the brief moment they just interacted for Shuichi can’t deny that the other caught his attention quite easily.

Shuichi takes a breath, just moments ago he was thinking about leaving and never coming back and now he’s here by what is seemingly some random person’s flight of fancy. Still, if he were one to believe in signs perhaps this is one and he takes the small amount of courage and pushes the door open.

Ouma is nowhere he can spot him so he takes a stand at the nearest empty spot he can find, next to a blonde girl who turns to enthusiastically greet him the moment she notices him. Her eyes are purple, just like Ouma he notes, but hers are shades lighter.

She grins widely and extends a hand towards him, “I’m Kaede Akamatsu and my talent is the Ultimate Pianist!”

He hesitantly shakes her hand and it’s the start of the best friendship he’ll ever have.

Ouma was right, they are in the same class and when he walks in through the door the first time the other practically tackles him to the ground with a loud exclamation of “Hello my beloved Saihara-chan!”

His head spins as he feels Ouma’s weight press against him and his response is barely heard over the other blonde in their class laughing so hard she sounds like she’s in pain. Its day one and half his classmates are already laughing at him, his hat flew off with Ouma’s attack and he wishes he had it to bury his face into and try to forget the whole situation.

Whether by some blessing of fate or Ouma noticing his discomfort; the other backs off with a laugh, and Shuichi scrambles to his feet grabbing his hat and hiding himself in it. Akamatsu steps in front of him and scolds the other on respecting boundaries while the rest of the class files in and stares at the odd scene before them. Shuichi sinks into his seat and wishes the ground would swallow him whole when Ouma catches his gaze in the midst of Akamatsu’s scolding and gives him a sly grin and a wink. In fact, every interaction with the other thereafter leaves him feeling like a stuttering mess of a person. Well, worse than usual anyways.

It’s a completely mature decision when he takes to mildly avoiding the other. Or, at the very least, it’s a decision that makes his heart feel less like it’s going to give out on him even if Akamatsu has taken to laughing at him every time he makes a hurried exit.

Maybe he can interact with the other like a normal human when his feelings stop ruining every attempt at conversation with Ouma. He’s not sure what Ouma thought of him when they first met other than apparently being ‘interesting’ but he can’t be thinking anything too charitable about him now.

Shuichi doubts he could have ever worked up the courage to confess, but it seems especially fruitless now and he writes off his first – still very much present – crush for the doomed failure it was probably always meant to be.

If his crush on Ouma was a sudden overwhelming force, impossible to ignore or dissuade much like the boy himself, his crush on Kiibo is something much more gradual, soft and unassuming until it has him gripped in its clutches.

He doesn’t interact much with the other at first, though they both get stuck doing a lot of the menial tasks in class. Shuichi because he doesn’t want to be a bother with saying otherwise but Kiibo seems to just have the innate desire to want to be helpful for everyone. It’s an admirable trait, Shuichi can’t help but think every time the other is the first to volunteer to run down to the principal’s office or help collect worksheets.

They run in different circles, the other is close to Amami, Iruma, and Gonta most notably. Though he and Ouma seem to have some kind of odd teasing relationship –Momota has berated Ouma for bullying Kiibo before but from what Shuichi can tell it’s mostly mutual bantering and neither ever seems truly offended by it.

The first most memorable he has of the other is an accident. He’s in a rush, trying to carry all the music sheets one of the teachers had given him over to Kaede’s lab. She has a performance coming up and had wanted to try some newer pieces that aren’t already present in the rather expansive library her lab. The stack is large enough to obscure his vision, but he hadn’t been too worried considering the late hour meant most students had already vacated the building and headed out into town or back to their dorms for the day.

Most doesn’t mean all however, and he crashes right into someone he can’t see, apologises flying out of his mouth before he even hits the ground.

“It’s alright!” A familiar voice calls out through the flutter of paper. “Do not worry Saihara-kun, it’s no big deal, let me help you pick these up.”

“Oh, Kiibo-kun, I’m sorry I didn’t expect anyone to still be in the halls.” He says, carefully but quickly picking up the scattered pieces of music sheets, “You don’t have to help me, it’s my fault and I’m sure you have more important things you have to do and –”

“It is no problem.” Kiibo interrupts firmly, “I have plans with Iruma-san later today but I can certainly take a moment to help you pick up some paper Saihara-kun. We’re classmates and friends, I can’t just ignore that.”

Shuichi blinks, somewhat bemused, “Well thanks then, I suppose. I appreciate the help.”

“It’s no problem,” He repeats, though this time instead of looking firm he smiles so bright it looks like he’s glowing.

He mutters a response, looking back to the ground and picking up the sheets around him and from the shuffling of paper he can hear Kiibo has taken to do the same.

Their hands touch on the last page, in a manner reminiscent of one of the mangas Akamatsu has borrowed from Shirogane. His hand is on the bottom, so despite how he wants to just rip his hand away he waits for Kiibo to remove his first as to not seem rude. Except, except moments pass and Kiibo’s hand remains still.

“… Kiibo-kun?” He asks hesitantly, looking up to meet Kiibo’s pensive expression.

“Your hand is very warm Saihara-kun, it’s quite the pleasant feeling.” Kiibo states and screw his previous thought he pulls his hand back towards him and grips it close as his face flushes.

“Excuse me?” He nearly shrieks.

Kiibo’s face changes from pensive to embarrassed, cheeks flaming as he raises his hands apprehensively, “I must apologize! That was an odd thing to say wasn’t it I was just rather amazed by how warm they felt but that really is no excuse.” He reaches out to grab the last piece of sheet music and hands it to him before leaving quickly down the nearest staircase.

He is left bewildered and flustered on the ground, confused as to what just happened. He walks to Akamatsu’s lab in an almost daze and her near annoyed pacing transforms to concern the moment she lays eyes on him.

“Hey, what happened, are you okay?”

He hands her the papers and feels their hands brush together. Hers are also warm, but Shuichi doesn’t feel like holding onto them for a weirdly long amount of time and from what he can tell that sentiment is returned. So what could Kiibo notice that neither of them seem to?

“I’m not sure?” He says seriously, and Akamatsu raises an eyebrow at him but otherwise lets the topic drop.

She sits at the grand piano at the center of her lab, placing one of the music sheets he brought over upon it and begins to play. He sits on one of the nearby stools, closing his eyes as he lets the music wash over him.

She really is so very talented.

He and Kiibo did not talk much before that incident, but he seems to hover around after. The next morning he greets Shuichi with a riceball and a deeply apologetic expression that he tries to wave off. It doesn’t work and Shuichi is left dealing with him until Iruma arrives and drags him away to talk about some experiment while she laughs.

He’s a more constant presence after that and Shuichi can’t say he minds. They’re about three months into the semester and aside from Akamatsu he can’t really say he’s made much headway in the way of friends. Ouma might’ve been one in the beginning but he doesn’t think it counts much anymore, and Momota is friendly enough but he feels a bit awkward around him if Akamatsu isn’t there to mitigate the other’s enthusiasm.

So when he asks if he can sit with them at lunch he readily agrees, and when they’re both stuck after school cleaning they spend the time having pleasant conversation. It’s an easy sort of friendship that Shuichi has never really had, even Akamatsu was a good while of him being awkward and weird while she stuck by him anyways. It’s nice.

School has just ended and he’s halfway out the building before he remembers he left the casefile his uncle let him borrow in his desk. It’s not urgent, just a minor case his uncle said he wanted his opinion on but leaving such confidential work over the weekend at school leaves him feeling uneasy.

The door to the classroom is wide open, which is odd it should be locked by now, but when he enters Kiibo is inside still sweeping.

“You’re still here? By yourself? Who was on duty with you today?”

Kiibo startles at the sudden sound, the broom nearly flying from his hands.

“Saihara-kun, you startled me!” He says, readjusting his grip on the broom as he commences sweeping again, “I was supposed to be doing this with Ouma-kun but he stayed for about 10 minutes before jumping out the window,” Kiibo sighs and then straightens up when he notices his expression, “He’s fine! He landed just fine, Ouma’s like an acrobat or something sometimes I swear.”

“Ah,” He says, not sure how to respond to that.

“No need to worry, Ouma’s always doing… odd things, I’m sure you know how it is.” He really doesn’t, Ouma still gives him the occasional enthusiastic greeting, but months of awkwardness have really put a downer on their never really there friendship.

Doesn’t stop him from still having a crush on him though.

“Anyways,” He replies instead, “I was just coming to pick up something I left but I’d feel bad leaving you here to do all the work.”

“You can leave it to me! I have it under control.” Kiibo says proudly.

“Still, we’re classmates right, friends? And friends help each other out,” he insists, parroting the sentiment the other had told him.

Kiibo blinks, recognition dawning as he nods heartily and acquiesces to his demand to help. Kiibo had already done quite a bit of cleaning before he got here, so they make quick work of the rest of it and are done in a short amount of time.

He sighs, looking around the room for anything they might have missed and when he doesn’t notice anything out of place heads to his desk to grab what he came here for in the first place. He takes the casefile out of his desk and places it neatly into his messenger bag.

“Thank you very much for your help Saihara-kun!” Kiibo says, placing a hand on his shoulder, “I know it’s the last day of school for the week and you probably had someplace to be.”

“N-no, I didn’t, it was no trouble really it didn’t even take that long.” He has to drag the words out of his mouth since all of the sudden they seem to be not working.

Kiibo smiles, eyes bright and Shuichi feels dizzy, “Nevertheless I really do appreciate it, but I have to run now the Professor is waiting for me, I hope you don’t mind me leaving you to lock up.”

“It’s fine,” he manages to say.

“Have a good weekend!” Kiibo says cheerily as he offers a weak wave back.

The room is quiet with Kiibo’s departure and the one thought ringing through his head is how warm Kiibo’s hand had felt on his shoulder. How it still feels slightly tingly now. Is this what Kiibo meant when he had called him warm before?

He stands there for a while, trying to process the warmth on his shoulder and his rapidly beating heart.

“Fuck,” he says to the air. He has two crushes; he doesn’t even know when this one happened.

Why is this his life?

He calls Akamatsu on the train over to his uncle’s office and she laughs at his predicament, he tries to stress the seriousness of it all but she just laughs harder.

“I’m sure it’ll all end up fine,” She says, voice tinny through his speakers but still notably cheery, “Look at it this way, now you have double the chances of having a successful crush. What are the chances they both say no?”

“Well,” he begins, mind already playing through every possibly awful scenario.

“Nope, nuhuh, don’t want to hear it!” She says cutting him off, and his objections die in his throat. “Repeat after me, everything’s goanna turn out okay!”

“Everything’s goanna turn out okay,” He says, almost as enthusiastic as her and garners a couple of odd looks for his troubles.

“Great, now I’ll talk to you later because I’m pretty sure your stop is coming up.” And just as she finishes the speaker announces that his stop is indeed coming up.

He laughs as he wishes her goodbye, and feels almost good about the whole thing.

So of course, two weeks later Ouma loudly announces to the class that he and Kiibo are now dating, and Kiibo follows it up with an agreement when half the class tells him to stop joking around.

When they’re looks are still slightly suspicious, Kiibo sighs and pulls Ouma closer to give him a short but sweet peck on the cheek. Ouma pushes him away almost immediately, flushing just the slightest shade of red but Shuichi can notice the small but soft smile that gently curves up on Ouma’s face.

The looks of suspicion turn to loud cheers as Iruma and Momota pick up Ouma, Gonta doing the same with Kiibo, and parade them around the room as the rest of the class shouts congratulations. It’s a bit over the top but Ouma seems to be loving every second of it despite Kiibo’s clearly embarrassed demeanor.

He feels a tug on his sleeve and looks over to see Akamatsu and almost winces at her expression. “I’m happy for them,” he says. And he really is, he likes both of them and wants them to be happy, and this is what makes them happy.

“It’s still all right to feel sad about it,” She replies, a determined frown on her face.

“Really, I am” He insists and Akamatsu gives a sigh so longsuffering and overdramatic it makes him crack a smile.

“Fine, I’ll drop it, but I’m still here if you need me!”

“Of course, I don’t doubt that at all.”

“Good, I’d have to whack you upside the head if you did.” That makes him break out into laughter, and Akamatsu grins as if she’s accomplished something.

He’s fine, really, it makes sense that this is how it end ups working out.

Ouma and he haven’t spoken much in a while, at least not one on one like they sometimes did at the beginning of the school year. Yet, as of late Shuichi feels like he’s popping up everywhere. In the library when he’s trying to study, on the way to the few times he actually bothers to visit his Ultimate Lab, seems to show up randomly when he runs errands in town. Ouma always acts like it’s a coincidence but Shuichi knows the other well enough to know that this many times can’t be anything less than planned.

He knows that much, but he’s not sure what it means. Their almost friendship had petered off and though Shuichi was never cold towards the other his crush had made him even more awkward to the point Shuichi had decided not talking to him was a better alternative to looking like an idiot.

He’s not sure what Ouma interpreted the situation as, but he had let it happen and never seemed to disgruntled by it. He’s not sure what to make of what’s happening now. But it’s nice, the other was always pleasant to talk to and it’s not often that he can talk to someone that can run logical loops around him.

What he does know, is that it’s slightly easier to talk to him now. His crush is still very much there, but knowing that Ouma is already dating someone is almost a relief in a sense. Who cares if he’s making a fool of himself, it’s not like Ouma’s single to take notice of him.

At least, that’s how he assumes it should be.

“My beloved Saihara-chan! Wait up for me wont you I ran halfway across the school just to find you.”

Shuichi startles, looking over to see Ouma bounding over to him. He stops to let the other catch up and wills his blush at the address down. Kiibo doesn’t seem to mind that he calls him that, but Shuichi isn’t sure it’s still appropriate now that he’s dating someone.

“Oh you actually stopped!” Ouma says once he catches up, “That was a lie you know, I just saw you walking past and thought how great it would be to bother you.”

“You could never be a bother to me Ouma-kun.” He says sincerely.

Ouma stares, face blank, before he grabs both of Shuichi’s hands and grins, “Wow flirting with a taken man are you? I didn’t know you we’re so bold Saihara-chan, maybe I really have misjudged you!”

“I would never,” he almost shouts, the comment smarts more than Ouma is probably aware, “Ouma-kun I would never do something so disrespectful as to try to come between the two of you when you seem so happy together. I am very happy to see that you two seem to be doing well together and I would never ruin it for such a personal agenda.”

Ouma is quiet for a second, “You really wouldn’t huh?” He finally says, but it sounds more like he’s talking to himself then to him.

“I really wouldn’t.” He confirms anyways,

He hums, leaning back away but intertwines their fingers together for a moment (a moment so quick Shuichi has to be imagining it) before backing away completely.

“I see, I see,” Ouma says, tapping a finger to his chin. “Well, I’ll be going now; it was nice talking to you my beloved!”

The amount of time he stands there for, switching between staring at the space Ouma had just vacated and his own hands, is unknown but it’s long enough for him to be startled back to attention by the ringing of the bell.

Study period is over, and their next class is beginning. He shakes his head and heads back to the classroom, he doesn’t have time to ponder whatever just happened here.

Ouma’s fervent renewal of their friendship aside Kiibo has also taken to acting weird around him too. Kiibo has always been friendly but aside from a hand on the shoulder or a very brief hug he is not particularly affectionate physically. It doesn’t really come up, considering Shuichi isn’t exactly a touchy-feeling person either, but he notices it with the others. He’ll accept them just fine if not gladly but he’s not one to give it out.

He knows this, so he’s not sure why it feels like lately whenever they hang out together it feels like Kiibo is making it his personal mission to invade his personal space as much as he can. An arm around his shoulder when they’re sitting side by side reading. Standing close enough to each other when they walk that their shoulders will brush together on occasion. Hugs that last just a moment too long.

It could just all be in his head, maybe he’s just hyperaware of the other since he has a crush on him, but it feels different somehow.

They’re walking to the nearby convenience store to pick up some things for everyone back at the dorms and again Kiibo is walking so close that their shoulders knock together and their hands brush against each other every couple steps.

Kiibo talks as if none of this is a problem, so Shuichi tries to ignore it to and he does such a good job of it that he doesn’t notice when they switch from just being close enough to brush to actively holding hands.

The other is still talking as if there’s no problem with what’s currently happening. Or maybe he hasn’t noticed, maybe he’s gotten used to doing this with Ouma that the habit just slipped out. If that is the case he’s not sure if he should say anything about it –maybe it would make things awkward?

Instead he tries to just remove his hand from the others grip without him noticing but he doesn’t even manage anything more than a tug before he feels Kiibo’s grip tightening against his hand.

“My hand is sort of cold Saihara-kun and you’re so warm, you don’t mind warming it up do you?” Kiibo asks, giving him a soft sort of smile that makes his heart skip a beat.

“N-no not at all, I don’t mind.” But… “Are you sure this is okay? You’re with Ouma-kun after all and this is kind of…”

“Kokichi-kun knows that we spend time together, he doesn’t mind.” Kiibo says immediately.

“I’m glad to hear that but sometimes it’s just –”

“He doesn’t mind at all that we hang out or what we do, there is no need to worry,” Kiibo repeats, and it’s not an answer to the question he’s asking but Kiibo seems to think it is so he lets the matter drop.

“If you say so.” He relents.

“I do, I am 100% confident in this so do not worry yourself about it,” Kiibo agrees, and then returns to the story he was telling before the interruption began.

Shuichi tries to listen, he really does, but his mind is stuck on how his hand practically feels like it’s burning from where they’re linked together.

It’s nice, it’s very nice, and he selfishly wishes they could do this more often before he mercilessly squashes the thought down.

“Happy birthday, Saihara-chan!” Ouma says, plopping a poorly wrapped present upon his desk.

“It’s not my birthday?”

“Happy friendiversary!” He corrects.

Shuichi looks over to the date, “Um, this isn’t any kind of month or week accomplishment I think, and you’ve never done this before.”

“Merry unbirthday!” He tries again, and when Shuichi opens his mouth again Ouma places his finger against his lips, “Hey just take it, don’t friends give each other stuff?”

“I suppose, but I don’t have anything for you so I’d feel bad –”

“You think I need anything from you? Someone’s self-involved, or maybe that was a lie? Either way don’t think so hard about it it’s just a random gift.” He says and then saunters back over to Kiibo and whispers something into his hear. Kiibo swats him away and the other slinks into his seat with a laugh.

“So what is it?” Akamatsu asks, bringing his attention back to her and the gift. She wiggles her eyebrows at him and he scowls.

The wrapping is bright and purple, glitter all over it, tied together by a pretty blue bow. His assessment of it being poorly wrapped proves to be correct because the moment he unties the ribbon the entire wrapping falls apart and glitter scatters all over his desk.

“Its…” he pauses, blinks, but the present remains the same.

“Well?” Akamatsu prods.

It’s a book by an old famous detective in England. One he’s been wanting for quite a while but there weren’t many put into print so it’s practically impossible to come by and any one he can find is well beyond his price range. He opens it, thinking that maybe it’s a joke, that just the cover is the same, but, no, the whole thing is the same. It’s even one of the earliest editions where each chapter end has some additional written notes from the detective. On the back is a sticky note with a small doodle of what looks like Ouma sticking his tongue out and winking with the message “You’re welcome, Saihara-chan!”

How did he even know he wanted this? He’s absolutely sure he never mentioned this to other, or anyone for that matter. He thinks it might’ve come up once in a conversation with Kiibo once but that doesn’t really explain why Ouma would know about it. It was a one-off moment and there’s no reason for Kiibo to mention it to the other even if he did remember.

Maybe it’s a coincidence? However, he can’t seem to shake the feeling it isn’t.

“Hello? Earth to Saihara-kun, what’s the present?”

“Oh, it’s a book I’ve really been wanting,” He says, still staring at the book “Really been wanting.” He mutters, somewhat in awe.

“Well that’s nice of him!”

He agrees, turning to look over at Ouma who is already staring at him at grins slyly when he notices Shuichi’s gaze. He blushes, turning back to the book.

Nice, he affirms mentally, just nice, it’s what friends do.

When he looks back Akamatsu is laughing quietly into her palm and refuses to tell him what exactly is so funny.

“Saihara-kun, would you mind helping me with something today after class?” Kiibo asks him during lunch, he seems oddly at ease considering Ouma is leaning against him as he sleeps, snoring just loud enough to be audible. It looks sweet, precious, seeing them so casually intimate with each other and he feels something that definitely isn’t jealously but he can’t quite place at the sight.

He fidgets, and focuses on a space just behind Kiibo when he responds, “Yeah sure, no problem!”

“Fantastic!” Kiibo says, just loud enough that it Ouma wakes up, sitting up straight as he blinks blearily.

“What happened?”

“Saihara-kun agreed to help me out today.” Kiibo says cheerily and Ouma perks up immediately.

“How exciting!” He says, leaning over to pat Shuichi on the cheek, “Have fun on your date tonight boys!”

“It’s not a date,” he says weakly as Ouma stands and leaves, heading over to where Amami and Shirogane are sitting.

“I’ll pick you up after class,” Kiibo says after a moment, and then switches topics to something else.

It’s not a date, it can’t be.

He repeats the phrase like a mantra as he watches Kiibo flit around the kitchen in the Home Ec room.

Kiibo had apparently wanted his help taste testing some recipe he found online. He’s pretty sure his is something he’d be better off doing with Ouma, especially considering the table he’s seated at has a table cloth thrown across it and is set up vaguely like they’re at a restaurant. The whole thing seems somewhat romantic but Ouma knew this is what they were doing, had even told them to have a good time.

So this is just a friendly thing. Shuichi was free and Ouma wasn’t and Kiibo just likes to be fancy. He’s sure if Tojou were the one doing this the table would be done up in an even more elaborate manner and she definitely wouldn’t have meant anything by it so clearly he’s just reading into this too much.

“Sorry for the wait, Saihara-kun. I hope it’s not too bad I’ve never tried anything quite like this.” Kiibo says, placing a plate in front of him. It’s a simple dish, but the presentation is elegant, like something from a cooking magazine.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, but what made you want to try this out?”

Kiibo flushes at the question, rubbing the back of his head, “No reason, I just thought it would be fun to try out something new, and it’s nice to share things with others and we’re close so I thought it would be a good idea.”

“Thank you for inviting me then, I’m really glad we’re friends!”

“… Right, friends,” Kiibo agrees, smile looking slightly strained, “Enough about that, let me tell you something Amami-kun told me about his travels the other day it was really interesting actually.”

Shuichi listens attentively as he eats, and it’s actually surprisingly tasty and Kiibo practically puffs up in pride when he mentions it. It’s a nice dinner, though the effect is ruined when one of the upper years throws the door open.

“Are y’all done in here me, Chihiro and Ishimaru booked this room for 5 and we’d like to get started.”

Shuichi jumps, and then practically falls out of his seat when he notices their hands have been intertwined the whole time.

“Thank you very much for the d-dinner Kiibo-kun it was lovely but I think I’ll be l-leaving now.”

Kiibo opens his mouth to speak but whatever he was going to say is lost to Shuichi as he bolts out of the room shoving past the taller male standing in the doorway.

What just happened? That was… that wasn’t a date it couldn’t have been so what in god’s name just happened here.

It keeps happening. Again and again, the two of them hover around him with sweet words, and hanging out and the occasional gift and sweet smiles and he feels like he’s going insane. They both have to know what the other is doing, and neither seems offended by it so it can’t be what it feels like it is but this isn’t how friends act.

Sure he isn’t the most experienced in the friendship area but he knows that much. But even if it isn’t what is he supposed to do about it? Is he supposed to do anything? He likes both of them, and if this weird but pleasant friendship is what he can have with them then he doesn’t want to lose it. Though he’s not sure how much more of this his heart can take.

“Akamatsu-san,” he says weakly as she raises an amused eyebrow at him.

“Yes dear?” She responds playfully and he groans, burying his face in his hands.

“Are you ever just confused, at a loss for what to do? Like your life is spiraling out of control?”

Predictably, she laughs, “Hey calm down, we’re teenagers the world isn’t ending any time soon no need for the raincloud.”

“But…” He protests.

“Nope,” she says, putting a hand out, “remember what I told you? That everything will work out just fine?”

“Yeah…” It hadn’t, though it’s better now.

“Well trust me on that, I know what I’m talking about.”

He sighs, “If you’re sure.”

“Always am!” She agrees cheerily, patting him on the shoulder, “Now come on you promised me lunch.”

Everything will be just fine, he repeats, just like she had told him to before. Maybe this time it’ll actually work.

Ouma corners him in an empty classroom, he’s not sure how they ended up here but what he does know is that the other sure can be imposing when he wants to. Despite being half a foot shorter it feels like Ouma is looming over him.

“Ouma-kun do you need something?” He asks, trying not to appear as off-kilter as he feels.

“You know,” Ouma replies, apparently ignoring his question, “As a supreme leader I’m used to subtle missions, misdirection, and having to take things slow but sometimes you need to take a more forward approach. Sometimes there’s nothing more efficient than just being straight up in what you want.”

“O-Ouma-kun I’m not sure I understand what you’re getting at here,” He says, taking a step back, and then another when Ouma follows him forward.

“That’s the problem Shuichi-chan, you really aren’t getting it.” Ouma says, eyes narrowed and grin sly and Shuichi thinks he might faint.

“You called me by my first name Ouma-kun,” He says faintly and his heart rate rockets when he feels his back hit the wall and Ouma continues moving forward.

“I did!” Ouma agrees, rising up on his to stand on his toes and his face is so close and Shuichi’s knees feel so weak. “Don’t panic about this too much, it’s a-okay with the both of us.”

He doesn’t even get to ask what the other is talking about before Ouma tugs him down and presses their lips together.

Ouma’s lips are chapped, and he can taste the grape chapstick he has on, but the sensation is still nice; warm and just for the moment Shuichi forgets the situation and loses himself in it. It’s just as good, if not better, than he had imagined it would be and his arms rise unconsciously to grip Ouma’s shoulders and pull him in closer. The other makes a pleased sound and Shuichi feels his lips quirk up at the nouse.

Then the door swings open and reality comes crushing down on him. He pushes Ouma away, covering his mouth with one of his hands as he slides down the wall.

God, Oh God what did I just do.

It felt so nice and he wants to do it again and fuck he’s an awful person isn’t he.

“Kokichi-kun I told you not to do this it would be too much at once.” Comes Kiibo’s voice and Shuichi chokes, it’s bad enough someone walked in on them but Kiibo? How can he ever look at him in the face again?

“We’ve been at this for over a month and he still hasn’t caught on, I thought it would speed things up.” Ouma responds, voice casual as if he hadn’t just been caught cheating on his boyfriend.

“What you’ve done is throw him into a panic attack.” Kiibo says, and he wants to argue, he’s not having a panic attack he’s just extremely overwhelmed and he might have one soon but not now.

“I told him not to panic before I kissed him. I told him that we were both okay with this it’s not my fault he didn’t listen.” Ouma argues, though even though his near panic he can tell the other sounds almost regretful.

“Because you’re just so trustworthy. The most honest person in our class.” Kiibo says, kneeling down in front of him and ignoring Ouma’s indignant shout of ‘hey’.

“I’m sorry.” He says immediately and Kiibo shakes his head at the apology.

“You don’t need to be, this perhaps wasn’t the best way to go about it but Kokichi-kun is right. Our other methods weren’t working out so maybe now is the time to be direct.”

“Ouma-kun said the same thing, but I don’t get it.” He replies after a moment, panic subsiding as he realises that Kiibo is neither upset with him or even offended. Ouma’s words from before come floating back, had he really been okay with this?

“We, uh,” his face heats and Ouma snickers from behind him, “we know that the two of us are dating. But we both also like you, and I hope it is not too presumptuous to assume that you like the both of us as well? So we were hoping we could all date together, we were trying to be a bit subtle about it, to court you so to say but you weren’t catching on despite out best efforts.”

“Yep,” Ouma cuts in, popping the p, “for a detective you’ve been super oblivious about this. It’s almost shameful.” He says, and then laughs when Kiibo shoves him for the comment.

“You’ve been… flirting with me, both of you?” He breathes, and then mouths the words again as if it will make it make any more sense.

“Have been for the past months, thanks for finally catching on.” Ouma says blandly, leaning down to pat him on the cheek and Shuichi is in too much shock to say anything about that.

“I have.” He argues faintly, “I’ve noticed that the two of you have been affectionate and overtly kind at times. And in theory I understood what those actions meant but I can’t…”

“You could not accept that the both of us, either of us, would be showing signs of affection to you while in a committed relationship with the other.” Kiibo finishes for him when it becomes clear he’s not going to himself.

He nods, gaining traction with Kiibo’s words. “Yes, exactly, sure I have heard of relationships like the one the two of you seem to be implying but I would never assume that that was what actually happening. I mean, that both of the people that I have had a crush on for, for months would not only be interested in me but with each other and the fact that we would all apparently be okay with it seems high unlikely. And life is rarely so kind as to allow to things to work out so perfectly for me so of course I would be skeptical of it. I thought it was just wishful thinking on my part, that I was just reading into things what I wanted to but I could never ask, what if I was wrong and ruined it. I like being friends with the both of you and if –” He stops abruptly, a finger pressing against his lips and shushing him.

He looks at it until his eyes cross and then up at the apologetic Kiibo who it belongs to.

“I think you’ve said enough.” He says, face turning red.

“Oh definitely,” Ouma agrees, and although he sounds nonchalant Shuichi can see the faint blush on his cheeks, “‘both of the people I’ve been crushing on’, ‘all be okay with it’, if that isn’t a confession and an acceptance of our proposal than I don’t know what is.”

It’s his turn to blush then and he can’t help the low embarrassed moan that he lets out. “I do,” he says, voice shaking, “I do like the both of you, I have for months and if you’ll,” he hiccups, and with muted horror realises he’s crying, “shit.”

“Hey, Saihara-kun,” Kiibo says, “Would you mind if I kissed you?”

He blinks, fresh tears rolling down his cheeks at the action, and the question seems almost surreal. Just moments ago Ouma was kissing him, and even less than that the both of them are trying to tell him that they like him too and want him to join in on their relationship.

He nods, the action feels like both acceptance and allowance at once.

Kiibo smiles, soft and warm and the kiss feels just the same. It’s sweet, and he feels like laughing when he feels Kiibo brush away the tears from his eyes, instead he leans forward pressing their foreheads together. When they break he feels like he can breathe again, and then he actually does laugh.

“Did you know?” He asks as the two of them pull him up to his feet, “That when you’re dreaming most of the time you’ll have too many or too little fingers. I have ten, so I’m not dreaming, probably.”

“Wow, any more I riveting trivia Shuichi-chan?” Ouma asks and it is only the fact that the two of them are holding each of his hands that keep him from falling when he trips.

“You called me by my first name again.” He says, eyeing a grinning Ouma from the side.

“We’re dating now my beloved, why wouldn’t I?” Maybe because every time he hears it he feels like his heart might implode.

“Kokichi-kun is correct, if you’re okay with it then I too would like to call you by your first name Shuichi-kun.”

“That’s fine,” he croaks, and briefly wonders if they’re trying to kill him through kindness.

“While we’re at it, you already call Kiiboy by his first name, so you should call me Kokichi-chan!”

“Absolutely not!” He says immediately, he’s sure he wouldn’t be able to get through that once without stuttering through the whole thing. “But, if it would make you happy then I’ll call you by your first name too, Kokichi-kun.”

The name feels intimate when he says it and both of them tighten their grip on his hands as if they can tell he wants to grab his hat and pull it down until he disappears. Gonta and Kiibo had insisted since day one to be called by their first names but the switch from one to the other feels momentously different.

The entire situation leaves him off-kilter for long enough that he doesn’t even notice when they reach his dorm. He stares at the dorm room, then at the two of them, and then back to the door to his room.

Ouma laughs and when he turns to question why he leans up and presses a kiss to his cheek at the same time Kiibo kisses the other one. His face flushes so fast he thinks it might make him overheat.

“Uh,” He says, the door to his room clicking open.

“We’ll talk more tomorrow when you look more like a functioning human being.” Ouma says, pushing him into his room.

“Ah,” he responds, stumbling in.

“Thank you very much for agreeing,” Kiibo chimes in, voice sincere, “we’re both very happy that you did, I hope you understand that.”

Shuichi nods listlessly, trying to get his heartbeat to calm to a moderate rate.

Ouma snickers, “Let’s go he needs a nap or something. But he’s right you know, and that’s not a lie.”

“I hope you rest well Shuichi-kun, we’ll talk more tomorrow.”

“Alright,” He says after what he hopes wasn’t an inappropriately long amount of time and the door swings shut behind him with Ouma’s parting wave.

He leaves it unlocked, sends a text message to Akamatsu, and then promptly falls into his bed and passes out.

When he wakes up Akamatsu is seated at his desk typing away on her phone. When she notices his gaze she grins at him with a wink.

“Didn’t I tell you that it would all work out?”

He groans, throwing one of his pillows at her as he sits up, and her resulting laughter though expected is still displeasing.

“You couldn’t have possibly known that I would end up in a polyamorous relationship with the two of them. I don’t even care if you did know, because that means you watched me make an idiot of myself for over a month and said nothing about it.”

Akamatsu doesn’t answer him, but her laughter speaks for her clear enough.

“I hate you sometimes.”

“No you don’t.” She retorts.

“No, no I don’t.” He agrees.

“Look at this way, now you have double the boyfriends, you have boyfriends squared, the possibilities are limitless.”

“Stop, stop right there, that’s not what I called you here over for.”

“Oh, then why did you?”

“I don’t know,” he says, thinking of everything that happened before he got back to his room and wondering if it’s possible for the brain to short circuit.

Akamatsu hums at his reply and then begins to talk about how practice for her next performance is coming along. He lets the words wash over him, half a mind on her and her story, and half a mind on the events of this afternoon.

He just needs time to process and Akamatsu has always been good at helping him with that.

The next day when he exits his room he is assaulted by Ouma – by Kokichi, he mentally corrects – who latches himself onto his arm while Kiibo hands him a cup of coffee.

“I know it’s rather early, so take more time to think about it if you need to, but you’re still okay with what we talked about last night right?”

Shuichi nods readily, he’s sure of his answer now, “Absolutely, if you’ll have me than I am more than happy to accept.”

“That’s fantastic,” Kiibo says, looking almost relieved.

“Mushy stuff aside let’s go, I can’t wait to see the look on Harukawa-chan’s face when she hears I have two boyfriends, it’s going to be hilarious.” Kokichi says, moving from his latched position to grab him by the hand and begin dragging him along.

The action is reminiscent to the first time they met, and just like before he lets the other lead the way easily making sure to grab Kiibo along with them. He thinks it’s a nice picture, the three of them walking hand in hand to class as Kokichi leads them along.

It’s nice, it’s more than nice, and Shuichi is amazed he actually gets to have it.

The movie hasn’t ended yet, but Shuichi turns it off anyway, flipping the channel to a news station instead. They’ll finish it another time.

The newscaster begins to talk of some scandal with some politician but he mainly tunes it out as he focuses on his situation at the moment instead. It was supposed to be a movie marathon tonight, but Kokichi hadn’t even lasted through halfway through the second one before he had fallen asleep head cushioned in Shuichi’s lap. He runs a hand through the other’s hair smiling gently. Kiibo hadn’t lasted much longer either, all but dead to the world against Shuichi’s shoulder now, but he doesn’t really mind.

He’s happy to spend time together just the three of them no matter what they do, and there’s something quiet and peaceful about having them both of his boyfriends asleep against him. It’s enough to make him sleepy as well, though that might just be the late hour taking its toll on him.

He leans his head to side, resting it atop Kiibo’s on his shoulder, and laces one of his hands with Kokichi who though asleep grips back easily. He closes his eyes and lets the soft sounds of their breathing and the low droning of the television lull him to sleep.

He’s so very glad he let Kokichi drag him along that first day of class so long ago and convinced him knowingly or not to not back out of coming to this school. He’s not sure he ever would have found something like this if he hadn’t.

And this is something he wouldn’t give up for the world.

#kiiboumasai #shuuichi saihara #kiibo #kokichi ouma #ndrv3 #submission

35 notes · View notes

evilback-wards · 6 years

Text

Top Candidate [Pre-DRV3]

Chapter 15

Length: 1853

Rating: 16+ish is the average I’d say for this series? I dunno!

Prefer AO3 format? Click here. Otherwise, below the line lovelies!

The Funeral Room, once blank, was now bursting with different colors. I didn’t think Kokichi would have the finse to write out a plan like this.

“Yeah, I totally stole this idea from FMAB! We shouldn’t take any chances! Knowing Junko, if she’s anything like what I’ve learned from the games, she’ll pull some backhanded twist to allow herself to view this room,” Kokichi explained as we first began the plan, “Plus I like to think of him as my sugar~” Before I got the chance to ask what ‘FMAB’ was, he was rattling off key codes for me to remember. The main people in our plan, those we’re hoping to last the longest, are the typical base ingredients of cake. The topping were the extras, or rather, people we were unsure we could trust. There were flavorings, too, and all of this was becoming a bit overwhelming. But I understood Kokichi’s reasoning clearly; we couldn’t let Junko have the slightest chance of figuring out this plan.

We pushed the bed from its original position to cover the corner entrance. This was to make sure no one could inadvertently come through. And, well, I was a bit anxious. The memories of last time were still screaming at me, though, Kokichi’s words were louder than them.

We were sitting on the bed, scanning over the written words on each whiteboard. I estimated about a day had passed since we got up here. It would really help if they had a clock here, but I guess, they’re already giving us an edge by letting us plot.

“Now, with all of our planning done, I want to pick your brain a bit. About me and you. I don’t want this to all be wasted space in some room, ya’know,” Kokichi said, leaning his head on my shoulder, “We need a strategy to supplement this plan.”

“Right...I want to believe people would believe you about the killing game, but once your personality becomes full set, there’s no clue what’ll be the truth or a lie coming from you,” I said, pondering as a placed my hand underneath my chin. I rested that arm on my knee, thinking of how to get things organized properly. From the debriefing I received before coming in the stadium, I’d get one clue and the full map of the killing game territory. Those I wanted to keep secret for now, and if plans required use of them, I should be as vague as possible with Kokichi. Kokichi was an ally to me, but the perks I gained from surviving last cycle were my own. I had to keep that request of hers if all else fails.

“And, on top of that, you’re going to have some memory issues still. Your full memory won’t be unlocked until you figure out your talent again, right?” Kokichi added, his arms wrapping around my me. I hadn’t realized his body had already invaded my personal space and likely wasn’t moving an inch from here. But, as long as we were productive, I didn’t mind much of what Kokichi had been doing. In a strange way, it reminded me of my youngest sister with how he had been acting.

“Yeah, right,” I replied, curving my head to view the first section of our plan. Or, in our code, the first ingredients in our recipe:

One Donut

One litre of Fanta

One pound of flour

One pound of Sugar

“How about we make flour and Sugar become friends with our Donut early on? That way, when they realize- - ” I started to explain, but Kokichi pressed his head in my chest.

“No! Flour is a cunt. I already don’t like her from training. I think I prefer taking a ‘good cop bad cop’ stance on this. I’ll be the object of disgust for everyone, follow my scripted character, but then also break out of character when needed. You can be the nice voice of reason that gradually turns everyone to pay attention to my words,” Kokichi suggested. But could he really break out of character once we enter the domain of the game? Even with how my cycle went, no one broke character. No matter how much people didn’t want to play their characters, once the game engine shut on, there was no turning back. Kokichi likely wasn’t an exception of the 27 other top candidates they have scouted thus far.

“I don’t think good cop bad cop would work. Remember, you’re only able to break out of character now because we’re outside the domain of the game. Once we’re in the domain of the game, you’ll be stuck to your personality to a tee,” I explained. I watched as Kokichi’s face turned sour, looking down as the shadows from his har obscured his face.

“I can break out of it, ya’know? That’s why I’ve been so dedicated to mastering my character now. You have to believe in me if this is going to work, Rantaro,” Kokichi said, pressing his face into my chest. When I tried to pluck him out, his arms wrapped tighter around me. I wondered why Kokichi was being especially close to me as of late? Had Kokichi and Shuichi really been close lovers before all of this, and he had been missing that feeling of closeness?

“What do I have to do to gain your trust? How can I earn it? I need it, everyone in the world needs it,” Kokichi mumbled into my chest, his fist gripping at the fabric of my shirt, “I’m special. You told me that. You told me I’ll remember everything but I’ll be reduced to a liar. But, just because I lie a lot, doesn’t mean every statement I’ll say is a lie.” Wait, what was Kokichi getting at? The game was purposely designed thus far to have Kokichi as the cornerstone to assist the protagonists with the class trials. In addition, much like Nagito and Togami, Kokichi will irritate the protagonists to a variety of emotional levels. That included having Kokichi tell frequent lies of varying intensity.

“I mean, almost everything out of your mouth will be a lie, Kokichi, we need to come to terms to that first. Then--”

“I did not get fucked by Shuichi.”

“This isn’t the t---”

“I didn’t get fucked by Shuichi. Just kidding, that’s a lie! See? I can lie but still tell the truth in a roundabout way. If I get an urge to lie but know the truth, I can use that setup. You see? OR,” Kokichi said, his face poking out of my chest with a grin, “I didn’t get fucked by Shuichi. But if I did, I’d be--”

“Ok, Ok, whatever, I believe you. It’s not like we can test things before the fact. But I still want to be able to verify that I’m talking to you and not your character you somehow,” I replied before Kokichi said some more ‘experimental lies’. A scarlet blush consumed my face as I looked down at him this time. I had to stop him before he got off track again.

“Like, a test phrase or whatever? Do you think you’ll be in the right mindset to even gauge my answer for it? Seriously, you need to find your research room first. After that, when your memories come back fully, we should be able to collaborate. Since we’re not sure what memories you’ll have, the main focus is for you to find your room. Leave the dirty work to me,” Kokichi said with a grin, pushing his head up to kiss my cheek. I let out an awkward laugh, shaking my head at him. Even with everything we’ve been put through, Kokichi still found new ways to deter me from our current blight. Just like my younger sister. Or am I using him as a placeholder for her at this point? I’m not really sure...but Kokichi has a good point. My research room should help jog my memory. My survivors perks should assist me in finding that. No need to get Kokichi involved in that section of the plan.

“Even then, Junko will probably put my research room somewhere not easily reached. I wouldn’t put it past her to unveil my room last or close to that. It’ll probably be the same for yours,” I explained, “Especially since we’re following a script similar to the 1st and 2nd games. One of us needs to survive until the end, or at the very least, help the best we can to end the killing game in session. Our best hope for that will be the 1st class trial, if the format will stay the same as Junko has planned it to be. Junko plans on combining the elements of the last trial in the first game with the ending for the 2nd game.”

“So you’re saying it’ll be one of those ‘revealing the truth’ to the killing game events like the 1st and 2nd games? That means Junko plans on…” “Yep. If no one dies quick enough to her liking for the first round of things,” I said, securely wrapping my arms around Kokichi, “Junko’ll kill someone herself. That’s where discussions were leaning toward as we got closer to the 1st audition day. If we’re able to catch the mastermind early on that way, then the whole killing game will be a wash. Two failures for killing games in a row should discourage demand and overall interest within the fanbase.” I leaned in a bit, bowing my head to feel Kokichi’s neck along mine. Burying himself closer into me, my blush felt hot. I think I understand why Kokichi likes this closeness now. The warmth of his body helped with starving off the old memories of cycles past. Kokichi leaned into my touch, his head placing itself alongside mine on my shoulder.

“It’s likely to be one of the protagonists right? If it’s Shuichi…” Kokichi trailed off, his voice not wanting to finish the sentence. His arms held me tight. His hands gripped at my shirt still, reminiscent of how my sister would do that when she got really emotional over things. Though, I knew Kokichi’s grip wasn’t as pure as that. Especially since he had previously referred to my...lower region as a food condiment.

“We don’t need to think that far out. We just need to ensure we corner and conquer the mastermind. If someone ends up dying as a result of things, I know a failsafe we can visit once survivors fully exit the game domain. I only know of it because, well, I’d rather not get into it,” I said, nuzzling the side of Kokichi’s head. Kokichi’s body curled up close to my own, his head cradled by my shoulder and head as he seemed to drift off. Kokichi deserved to sleep some of the stress. I’ll do the thinking for now while he rested. I hadn’t known much for the intimate love Shuichi and Kokichi shared, but, I did know how to best comfort my sisters. That’ll have to do for now, Kokichi.

2 notes · View notes

i-demand-a-hug · 7 years

Note

Ouma/Kaede 26

Here it is, my first ever attempt at writing ndrv3 characters! I really hope this is okay!

26.Tending an injury

In such a bizarre and dangerous situation, writing a diarywas almost comforting. It was something normal, if a little cliché, andAkamatsu treasured any sense of normalcy she could find in this strange school.She wrote every night at her desk, venting her thoughts and feelings whilelogging the day’s events. It felt like her time inside the school would start to blendtogether: the diary at least helped her keep count of the passingdays.

That evening, just as she started writing about her day, a sheheard a voice.

“What are you doing, Akamatsu-chan?”

She whipped her head back to see Kokichi, that childlikesmirk on his face as he looked over her shoulder.

“Ouma-kun! How did you get in here?!”

“The door was unlocked. You know, you’re surprisingly careless,Akamatsu-chan,” Ouma said easily. Then he snatched her diary off the table. “Hey,hey, what’s this? Could it be Akamatsu-chan’s diary?”

Akamatsu couldn’t deny it. The word ‘diary’ was clearlywritten on the soft pink cover.

“Ouma-kun, give that back. It’s private.”

She stood and made a grab for the book, but Ouma dodged herlunge with a wide smile.

“Oh? So, there’s something in here you don’t want me to see?”He made a show of flicking through the pages, jumping back when Akamatsu onceagain tried to catch him. “You know, in this life-or-death situation, isn’t itdangerous to keep secrets? For all I know, the reason you don’t want me to readyour diary is because you’re plotting a murder. How scary. I didn’t realise youwere that kind of person, Akamatsu-chan.”

“I’d never—“

“’Never’ what? Murder someone? Even if you were backed intoa corner? Even if you were desperate? Oh dear, I think Akamatsu-chan’s lying!”

“Ouma-kun, stop it!” Akamatsu dived at Ouma one more time,but he ducked and slipped through the door. Huffing, close to furious, Akamatsucharged after him.

He hadn’t gone far. Ouma stood at the other end of the hall,waving the diary above his head. “Come and get it, Akamatsu-chan!” he called.He only started running again when Akamatsu gave chase.

Akamatsu knew Ouma was enjoying himself. This was all justsome game to him. A tired part of her mind whispered that if she gave up Oumawould grow bored, and might even give the diary back. If Akamatsu wasn’t upsetwith him then it wouldn’t be any fun. However, she also knew Ouma could just aseasily read the diary and disclose its contents to their classmates. It wasthat thought alone that made her run around the school, chasing after Ouma ashe waited for her at corners and at times held the diary tantalizingly closebefore speeding up again.

Then Ouma tripped.

He must have caught his foot on the long grass growing inthe hallway. He dropped like a sack of potatoes, his face hitting the floorwith a particularly loud smack. Akamatsu slowed to a halt, breathing heavily.

She grabbed the diary first. It had slipped from Ouma’sgrasp when he fell. Though she felt somewhat heartless for not immediatelychecking if Ouma was okay, she hadn’t run throughout the school just to forgetabout her diary. Plus, she couldn’t deny she was angry at Ouma for pulling sucha stunt.

“Honestly, Ouma-kun… It’s your own fault for running aroundso recklessly,” Akamatsu scolded. Then she realised Ouma hadn’t moved at all,not even a twitch, and a sliver of concern stabbed through her irritation.

“…Ouma-kun? Y-you’re okay, right? Hey, if this is anotherone of your pranks, then it isn’t funny.”

She reached forward to tap his shoulder; Ouma’s hand shotout to grab her wrist. Akamatsu yelped and yanked her arm away, and as she crawledback she heard Ouma laughing. He pushed himself up, sitting upright on thefloor. Blood leaked from his nose and down to his lips.

“Were you worried about me, Akamatsu-chan? Wow, you reallyare too soft-hearted…” Ouma wiped at his face with his hand. He froze when hesaw it come away with blood.

“You must have hurt yourself when you fell,” Akamatsuexplained, somewhat wary as she watched Ouma’s blank expression. She had half amind to tell him off for that prank, but she was tired and wanted nothing morethan to return to her room. She clutched her diary to her chest.

“A-Akamatsu-chan…!” Ouma sniffled dramatically, his eyesfilling with those familiar crocodile tears. “I won’t last long with this wound…My organisation will fall apart without me! Please, Akamatsu-chan, you mustsucceed my title, and lead the organisation in my place…!”

“What are you talking about, Ouma-kun? It’s just a nosebleed.Come here.”

Ouma shuffled forward quietly. Akamatsu pulled out her handkerchiefand reached towards Ouma’s face, but just as she touched his skin Ouma let outa pained shriek. She jerked back, panicked, but Ouma was laughing again.

“Please be serious, Ouma-kun,” Akamatsu muttered, and shegot to work on wiping away the blood. Ouma’s nose was still bright red, but itseemed to have stopped bleeding which Akamatsu was thankful for.

“You really are a kind person, Akamatsu-chan.” Ouma’s voicelacked its usual teasing tone. Akamatsu looked away, a little embarrassed.

“I’m not just going to leave someone when they’re hurt, evenif it’s a minor injury.”

“Is that so? Even if I did… this?”

Ouma reached forward to snatch her diary once again.Akamatsu hit him on the head with it.

“Ow! You’re so mean, Akamatsu-chan…”

Akamatsu couldn’t bring herself to deal with Ouma anymore.She had a headache, and her limbs were aching from so much running. She stoodup with a grumble.

“I’m going to bed.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, my dear Akamatsu-chan!” Ouma calledas she walked. Akamatsu could only sigh.

#kaede akamatsu #kokichi ouma #oumaede #ndrv3 #ndrv3 spoilers #kind of #drv3 #drv3 spoilers #v3 #v3 spoilers #my writing #anon

234 notes · View notes

archived-gtronpa-account · 4 years

Note

So what if for a motive instead of kokichi being a giant he’s shrunk and stuck with shuichi :0! ( like continuing off of the other motive writing you did -)

hiii I'm glad for this req I was hoping someone would catch my drift and ask for a sequel since I had an idea for it in mind 💃 altho I took a wittle little bit of liberty with your req I hope you don't mind

(again terribly sorry for the delay friend I hardly had any time for this hope you'll enjoy either way)

___

Word count: 1800

Summary: The game master has a new dirty trick up their sleeve to get rid of a certain little liar; but Kokichi isn't going down so easily, even with the threat of now death waiting for him at every corner.

___

It seemed the mastermind wasn’t too pleased when the motive hadn’t gotten him murdering and executed, so their next plan was to get him directly murdered.

Kokichi stands in Monokuma’s shadow, expression blank in face of the bear’s cruel cackles. It's a wonder how the mastermind can see him as a threat when he hasn't been able to stop any of the past murders, but he's still flattered that he's managed to mess with their plans enough that they'd stoop to such a low motive.

When the monochromatic bear leaves, Kokichi is left silently staring at the rest of his classmates from his spot on the cafeteria table, standing at the miserable height of a toy. Any other day, jokes and taunts and lies would be flowing out of his mouth, but his mind doesn’t come up with anything when he’s surrounded by classmates who he knows are already thinking of killing him and hiding his body to avoid a class trial; the same classmates whom he could hold in the palm of his hand only yesterday.

Silent and unmoving as he is, they must think him a scared little child; Kokichi Ouma, supreme leader of evil, reduced to some cute joke, some fanservice for an audience to coo at before he inevitably dies. The thought of the mastermind looking down on him and laughing to themselves at the moment is near sickening.

Kiibo is first to speak up, “So… What should we do about this?”

“I say,” Maki’s reply is instantaneous, like she’d been waiting to say those next words for too long, “We end this killing game right here and now.”

And when she takes a swift step forward, red eyes piercing through his tiny form with a murderous intent he’s seen too many times already, Kokichi can’t do anything but resign himself to the fact that he won’t live to stop the killing game.

Then something darts in front of him and blocks his view, and he thinks he somehow must’ve dreamed the words, “Maki, don’t hurt him.”

It takes his paranoid brain longer than he’d like to admit to realize that the hand in front of him isn’t coming to grab him and squeeze his guts out, rather, it’s shielding him. A gesture he wouldn’t expect coming from anyone in this room, except-

“You can't fall for the mastermind's trick so easily.” Shuichi stands towering in front of him in a protective stance, like some knight in shining armor; and to think this is the same boy who was cowering in his presence only days ago.

"Yeah! Harumaki, you promised, remember?" Kaito, the actual knight in shining armor of the academy, doesn't come to protect him; instead, he steps up to Maki and places a hand on her shoulder. Of course, when killer girl is trying to kill poor lil' Kokichi, it's still her who needs help and support and not the doll-sized villainous boy about to be murdered. "This has gotta be a trap or somethin'."

"Right," Shuichi joins in. He briefly glances over his shoulder at Kokichi, and the now tiny boy meets his gaze with the same blank expression. "Think about it, doesn't this new motive seem more like a way to…" his gaze lingers on Kokichi's small form for a second longer, before he tears it away, "… to get rid of a specific classmate?"

"Yeah," Kaito chimes in, "I'm starting to think the mastermind wants Kokichi dead for whatever reason," The grave expression on his face matches the morbidity of his statement. He slams his fists together in determination, "We can't let that happen."

"I do agree," Kiibo pipes up, "That if Kokichi was the enemy hiding among us, it wouldn't make sense to put himself in such… disadvantageous situation," he's hesitant and careful with his choice of word, like he could somehow be tiny-phobic.

"You're all overthinking this too much," Maki's cold gaze falls back on him, and if looks could kill, a body discovery announcement would have played out, "The killing game stops when the mastermind is dead. Simple as that."

The pressure of her stare threatens to crush him. Kokichi's legs nearly give out under his weight, and his first reaction is to stumble a few steps back and plaster a grin on his face.

“Pish posh, poor Harumaki… wants to kill me so badly, she's ready to do it in front of everyone,” His voice nearly wavers, he takes another step back for good measure. No use in trying to reason with an assassin or try to gain anyone’s sympathy; it’s always easier to stick to the role he’s written himself into.

Kokichi speaking for the first time seems to trigger the whole cafeteria to erupt in a cacophony again. Maki tries to push past Kaito and Shuichi to get her grubby hands on the little leader, and the two boys defend him (at least he thinks they do); someone yawns and someone else gasps and exclamations and accusations are thrown around.

"There has to be more to this motive!"

"You're protecting him over a maybe?"

"This is terrible, we shouldn't fight!"

"Nyeh… we still haven't had breakfast…"

They argue and bicker, like they always do when a new motive is presented and they don’t know what to make of it. Kokichi finds it easy enough to block out the obnoxious voices. He lets cold logic take over his mind and shadow his fear as he assesses the situation.

Even if he refuses, they'll probably force him to be baby-sat by someone. Staying with Maki or Miu is out of the question. Kiibo would be a good choice if Kokichi wanted the eyes of the mastermind and the audience on his back at all time, and Himiko would be a good choice if he wanted all the protection of a bodyguard who doesn't tolerate him and sleeps most of the time.

Gonta does tolerate him and has already worked with him in the past; he wouldn't be a bad choice, but for now Kokichi has a feeling he'll end up sleeping in a bug case with cockroaches if he goes with the giant entomologist, so he'll pass. Kaito superman-wannabe-Momota wouldn't be so bad either, but he'll probably take advantage of the situation and try to get the tiny boy to open up about his super evil dark past or whatever; so again, he'll pass for now.

And then there's Shuichi… Staying with his beloved detective, they could stay up late at night and braid each other's hair and share their secrets, they could make plans together and explore the school and beat the mastermind like some iconic duo, they could even pick that night's game of chess back up since Kokichi still remembered the setting of the board. Staying with Shuichi, truely a dream come true, and a dream right in his reach. But he wasn't in dreamland, he was stuck in a killing game hell where he couldn't let his facade slip and show vulnerability so easily to the protagonist of their game. His eyes fall to the floor with the shame of entertaining such a dream before remembering the sobering reality. Staying with Shuichi is out the question.

Kokichi goes back to listening to the conversarion, but he finds the room silent and eight pairs of eyes on him.

“Kokichi,” Shuichi speaks again. The boy is tempted to look away, but he forces his eyes to meet the giant detective's faded gold ones, “you can stay with me if you want?"

A taunting smirk pushes its way to his face. “Man, Saihara wants to get a hold of me so he can do all kindsa weird stuff to me? Ew ew ew, so gross, I'm so terrified! How could you do this to a frightened little boy?”

“Kokichi,” he considers the exasperation in the detective’s tone a victory to him, although an unpleasant one, “You don’t need to be so obnoxious, if there’s someone you want to stay with, you can say it.” Sheesh, wasn't Shuichi dying to talk to him the other night?

His best option isn’t ideal, but he can't get too picky in his current situation. “Welll, I think I’d like to stay with big sis Shirogane!” he hears the girl in question sputter a noise of surprise, and all eyes turn to her.

“What are you planning?” Maki speaks again after a long silence, voice betraying her skepticism.

“Oh, are you jealous I didn’t pick you, big sis Harumaki?” Do you want to die?

“Do you want to die?” Bingo. Too predictable.

“Uhm,” Tsumugi’s meek voice cuts him off before he can retort, “Why me? I-I mean, I don’t mind, I just don’t understand?”

Kokichi turns to her, and she nearly flinches at his attention. At least there’s one person in the room who’s still intimidated by him. “I just wanted to stay with my absolute favourite girl in this academy," as he says that, he walks around Shuichi's still outstretched hand to better face the absolute favourite girl in question, shooting on his way a quick glance up the detective, "aaand there's also this one cosplay I really wanna try now that I'm cutie-sized. That is, if Shirogane is fine with it?"

Tsumugi looks down to her feet and starts to vibrate with excitement hard enough that he can feel it under his feet. "O-Oh, I am fine with it. I wonder if we're both thinking of the same anime… but the only male character there has a dark skin tone, and there's one girl that really looks like you… You don't mind wearing a dress, do you?" She's already walking up to him with an outstretched hand, as if driven by the by the force of her love of cosplay.

Kokichi blinks his fear away and steps into the unsteady surface, immediately understanding the fear and discomfort in Shuichi's face that last night. Questions and accusations are still coming at him left and right, but he pointedly ignores it all and waves back to his remaining classmates with his cockiest smile as he leaves in the giant girl's hand, mind already buzzing with plans to survive the new motive.

___

hope you don't mind the bit of saiou angst twist thing in the end 😔😔 I was too tempted to resist. Well hope u enjoyed dear !!

#danganronpa #ndrv3 #gtronpa #gt #Kokichi ouma #Shuichi saihara #maki harukawa #kaito momota #tiny!Kokichi #giant!shuichi #giant!Maki #giant!kaito #ask #request #writing

39 notes · View notes