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It was two minutes past midnight.
Two minutes into this hell, and Shuichi was about to lose his mind. Technically, he already had. His mind was very much not his own right now.
He lay staring at the ceiling. Amami was hanging from there, because of course he was. He'd fallen asleep hours ago in his dark dorm room, as Shuichi. But now the room was lit up; bright. Not his own. But Shuichi was a little preoccupied to observe his surroundings right now.
He hadn't tried moving yet.
Look, switching bodies was not like putting on a new outfit. He'd only just wrapped his mind around the fact that Monokuna wasn't lying about this one.
For this motive they would all switch bodies. Until the next murder.
Actually switch bodies.
How was this possible? How?
A knock at the door broke through his attention. Shuichi didn't want to open the door. So he just didn't.
He blinked.
The door was knocked again, more ferociously. The handle rattled, locked.
Shuichi sat up. Oh gods, he was short. What the hell. Something purple came down from above and he swatted it out of the way like a bug.
Ow.
Oh yeah. Hair. Kokichi had purple hair. How normal. Yes, this was--
"..."
He stared wordlessly. His hands were smaller. This was freaky. This was freaky. Body swapping was not like the movies.
"Ah..." He started to talk, then stopped himself all at once.
He blinked. No, even his eyes were different, what the hell? His vision itself had shifted somehow. Was it a tiny bit blurry now? A tiny bit clearer? He had no idea… What on Earth had Kokichi done to his room? Looking around now, he could actually take in all the chaotic mess.
The door handle rattled again, jolting him out of his observations.
Shuichi was about to clear his throat when he noticed his teeth felt different, and-- he had to lie down again.
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!
Clearly the person on the other end didn't want to shout out in the middle of the night. Shuichi felt frustration start to creep up inside.
This was not the time...!
He had an idea who was on the other side, anyway... probably the real owner of this room. Kokichi. No. He was Kokichi now. Ew. But that meant....
Wait. From his panic, a thought came to Shuichi. One very frightening possibility.
His eyes went to the door again. As if on cue, it rattled.
Shuichi leapt from the bed and tripped onto the boxes immediately. On the way up, he clipped Amami, who swung in the air towards his face.
"Guh!" Flinching from the sound of Kokichi’s voice so close to him, he crashed into another pile of boxes. That hurt, so he tried getting up again, only to faceplant into the whiteboard Kokichi had put in the worst fucking possible place in the whole room.
"Shit!" He grabbed his head, clicking his jaw shut. He did not need to hear some dissonant-sounding voice right now. It felt like he was speaking into some kind of voice changer that only spat out Kokichi. But a voice devoid of Kokichi’s tone, which was only more unsettling.
Rubbing his head, Shuichi stamped his feet-- Kokichi’s-- a few times to get used to it, feeling like he'd grown three years younger. But no, that was just the height. He stepped slower, and thankfully his(???) body seemed to get the message, so he reached the door without further injuries.
He opened it to a mirror. Shuichi didn't realise his face looked so furious. Then it blinked when he didn't, and Shuichi’s heart dropped. He shut the door, but his foot stopped it from closing.
His foot.
He looked up into his own alien eyes. Jealousy wound up inside him. No, fury. No, no, no- this was wrong. He wasn't moving it. He wasn't doing that. Instinctively, he knew. It was primal: human-- from the depths of his heart, he knew this was wrong. Because that was his body.
His body!
"Give it back," Shuichi said in Kokichi’s voice.
Shuichi saw his lips curl back into a smile.
A shiver legitimately went down his spine. It was like... it was like...
It was like it'd been taken over by...
Complicated huge feelings crashed down inside Shuichi. Clanging, loud. They felt foreign. Strange. He'd never felt all of this before.
All of these... feelings?
Were these his feelings? Why was he so-
There was no time for that revelation, as Kokichi anticlimactically shoved Shuichi aside and stepped into the room.
"Wow~ you renovated!" he drew out, in a mockery of Shuichi’s real voice, as he surveyed the bent whiteboard. Shuichi noted with some alarm that Amami had lost his nose. Kokichi looked behind him, shooing him with his hand, "Alright, bye now! Don't trip and crack my head going down the stairs, capiche?"
Actually, you know what, he didn't want to be in this room anymore. He'd only had about two hours of sleep and Kokichi was getting on his nerves. That had to be it.
Shuichi turned on his heel and went straight back to his room. Trying to ignore the sensation of Kokichi stealing his body, of leaving something precious behind. He needed some rest already... this was too much.
As soon as his head hit the pillow, he passed out.
Shuichi woke up at midday, feeling like death. His head hurt. Usually he made it a habit to wake up in the morning, so hearing Kaito's laughter outside felt like he'd missed something.
Kokichi's arm was next to him.
Oh God what the hell was -- oh yeah. He moved his fingers, and Kokichi's digits curled.
"..." Shuichi felt very awake now.
He sat up again, still not used to the height. At least his room looked the same, nothing out of place. Seems like Kokichi woke up and went off to switch rooms immediately.
No wait, Kokichi was certainly awake last night- his room was bright. Shuichi was asleep. So when they switched, they both woke up?
"Hmm..." He hummed and Kokichi did too. Oh God.
Okay, he needed to figure out how the others were handling this. Also, he needed to eat. No time for freaking out.
Shuichi went to put on his shoes, and realised they didn't fit anymore.
It wasn't unusual for Kaito to knock at his door. So when Shuichi turned the handle and saw Himiko with her arm up about to knock, he paused.
They stared at each other.
"...Kaito?" Shuichi asked. Kokichi's voice eerily calm in his tone.
"Woah, Shuichi?" Himiko exclaimed, eyes wide. Then they narrowed, "No way."
"Yeah," Shuichi smiled, relieved to see his friend, "This is really weird, isn't it?" He scratched his cheek.
Himiko hesitated for a second, eyes on Shuichi.
"No..." she muttered to herself, then pressed her fists together, "I know it's you! You two are the only ones who haven't shown up yet."
"Kokichi does have my body, so yeah..."
"I knew it!" It was weird to hear "Himiko" without that certain lilt to her voice. Kaito made it sound more grounded, growled and loud.
"So does this mean Himiko's in your body? Did everyone switch with each other?" Shuichi suddenly had multiple questions, following Himi- Kaito out of the dorms.
"Yeah, we switched in pairs. Himiko's trying new spells outside. But I don't have the same dexterity with cards," he wiggled his hands to demonstrate, "So she's having trouble."
...Huh. The shock of the situation now worn off, he realised that Kaito had a good point. How many of their talents relied on their bodies?
"While for me," Kaito grinned, "It was hella surprising at first, but now I feel great!"
Shuichi grabbed the handle to go outside, but missed. The handle was higher than usual.
"Being shorter is starting to trip me out a bit..." Shuichi said, letting them outside.
"You said it! It's weird, since we'd have been this height growing up at some point."
Shuichi sighed, "Everything is so suddenly tall."
"It's like a bad VR game."
"No kidding."
"Kokichi!" shouted somebody in the distance.
He ignored it. Kokichi probably just did something again.
Shuichi’s back slammed into the wall. Cold brick. He couldn't-
Gonta was there, looking menacing .
Shuichi paled.
"Maki!" Himiko-Kaito shouted from the sidelines, "That's Shuichi! Shuichi!"
"..." Gonta's eyes bore into him. Shuichi felt fear strike into his breath. The fear curled around his tongue.
"Let him down!" The arm, a great weight, slowly let go. But the eyes didn't leave him. They towered over him, on an expression he'd never seen and hoped he'd never see again.
"How do you know he's not lying?" Gonta asked, incredibly fluently.
Shuichi couldn't help but gasp. Wow. He sounded like a movie star.
"Because that's really Shuichi!" Kaito defended him, "Tell her, Shuichi!"
"U-uh," Shuichi stuttered in front of Gont- Maki. Taller than normal. Intimidating. Briefly, he had the sensation of bugs crawling on him, up his nose.
"Hi Maki," Shuichi felt his lips begin to smile without his bidding, something jittery was inside him, "I'm not Kokichi, I swear-"
Gonta's arm punctured the wall beside him.
Shuichi yelped and ran behind Himiko. No, no-- Kaito . Why was it so hard to remember everybody? Was it just him, or-
Gonta stilled. He shook out his arm, getting rid of the pebbles. He seemed shocked at the crack he'd put into the side of the dorm building. No, Maki did.
Maki turned to him, a lost look on her face.
This body-swap thing was completely unnatural. Shuichi was finding it hard to think of Himiko as Kaito, and Gonta as Maki. Maki appeared to be in the same boat.
"It's- It's okay," Shuichi tried to calm her down, "I'm having a hard time remembering who everyone else is, too..."
Maki was searching for something in his face.
Kaito turned to Shuichi with a raised eyebrow, like he'd said something strange. Then he sighed and scratched his head.
"I hate to say it," Kaito grumbled, "But same goes for me. When you smile, I think I'm about to hear some 'nishishi ' bullshit."
"Oh," Shuichi blinked. He supposed he'd have the same reaction. But it just hadn't occurred to him. Because he wasn't Kokichi.
"...I'll trust it when I see Shuichi." Maki-Gonta stared a hole in him, "Where is he?"
"You mean Kokichi?" Kaito, bless his soul, was still defending Shuichi's honour.
"Whatever."
They both turned to Shuichi, as if he had a homing radar, "I have no idea, I just woke up. Maybe in his room?"
They knocked on Kokichi's door, and yelled out a few times, but nobody was home.
The trio made their way back outside into the midday sun.
"He could be anywhere," Maki muttered to herself, accidentally cracking the dorm building glass door as she closed it. Shuichi pretended not to notice.
"Found him," Kaito pointed ahead to Kokichi sauntering down the road. Purple hair, white outfit and all.
"Wait..." said Kaito.
That Kokichi looked just like Kokichi.
Double Kokichi? Maki and Kaito turned to Shuichi.
"Huh," Shuichi said blankly before he was picked up by a hefty arm. And Gonta was in his face again.
"Maki! It's cosplay!" Kaito yelled at the top of his lungs, but his voice didn't carry in the way it used to, and Gonta's voice boomed over the top.
"Do you want to die?"
His feet were off the floor. Being Kokichi was terrifying, what the hell.
It wasn't unusual for Maki to be throwing death threats at the purple liar. But Shuichi was used to her anger festering like smoldering coal throughout the day, burning in her eyes as she glared. Maki only spiked in rage at key moments throughout the story. And yeah of course they would mix each other up. It was a confusing situation!
But this?
"Stop it." He told her, seriously.
Kaito was grabbing onto her arm now, trying to reach it. As soon as he yelled, "Come on!", Maki flinched and let go. Shuichi crumpled to the ground.
Maki stilled.
Looked at the other Kokichi, who was just staring at the trio with an eyebrow raised. Looked to Shuichi, on the floor.
"I..." She swallowed, something like fear darting across her face, "I..."
"I'm..."
"..." Shuichi waited, but she couldn't finish her sentence. She looked exactly like Gonta after Kokichi stepped on his favourite ant: upset.
"I..."
"..." After a moment where she seemed to be fighting something inside her, she turned and walked away.
Kaito and Shuichi and the other Kokichi watched her go.
"Man, what's up with her today?" Kaito turned to Shuichi, "You okay dude?"
"I am now..." Shuichi breathed out. He stood up, slowly. Watching Maki disappear around a corner, gears started to turn in his mind.
"Are you Shuichi, by chance?"
Kokichi was talking to him, in a mirrored voice. It was quite creepy. Even from this close, the lookalike Kokichi was very realistic.
"...And you're Tsumugi," Shuichi nodded, putting a hand to his chin, "You can cosplay as Kokichi?"
"...Bro, this is tripping me out..." Kaito muttered, glancing between the two. He took a step back. If one closed their eyes, it would sound like Kokichi was having a conversation with himself.
"Yes!" She smiled softly, which looked incredibly suspicious on Kokichi's face.
Ah. No wonder Kaito had been looking at him weirdly.
"Since I switched bodies with Miu, I don't have cospox anymore. Sorry if I spooked you, I've just been having fun cosplaying all day!" Kokichi giggled.
"O-Oh," Shuichi was getting tired of the sound of Kokichi's voice, "But if you can cosplay us, that means you have sets of our clothes, right?"
"That's right. Do you need shoes?"
Shuichi suddenly felt all too self-conscious. He indeed wasn't wearing shoes.
"Yeah, I... don't fit into any of my own anymore." He explained.
"Hmm," Shirogane looked thoughtful, "I'm cosplaying right now, but come to my research lab later, okay? I'll give you a pair."
Shuichi felt a weight lift, "That would be great, thanks." It was certainly a welcome relief from needing to swap his closet with Kokichi.
"If you have the stuff, count me in too!" Kaito piped up, and Shirogane smiled and nodded.
"I have several sets of our uniforms, all brand new. It would be convenient for everyone!"
Shuichi shared her smile, "We should tell Gonta, do you know where he-"
"What the fuck is this clown convention?" Shirogane yelled from up the street, "Am I shitting myself right now?! Keeboy, come see this!" Ah. That would be Miu...?
Shirogane's normally neat hair had been unbrushed since last night, forming rivets down her shoulders. And that scrunched up look on her face as she squinted and marched towards them was definitely peculiar.
Cosplay-Kokichi sighed softly from beside him, "She's lost my glasses..."
Shuichi hummed in response.
Behind her stepped out Monokuma himself, in the Y-pose. A dragon of the shadows. Still and silent, but menacing.
Shuichi’s heart started beating very fast.
Monokuma waddled up the street to the two Kokichi. Looked between them.
"If I'm correct..." Monokuma put a paw to his chin, " Neither of you are the real Kokichi." He sounded like calculus if it'd become sentient. Keebo?!
"We fucking gathered!" Iruma yelled from behind him.
Oh God. That was really Keebo in there. He'd actually switched bodies.
Sure, he was Kokichi right now. And that kind of sucked. But at least he wasn't Monokuma .
Mono-Keebo turned to him mechanically, "Are you Shirogane?"
"Shuichi," He told him.
"Shuichi? Great! Everyone is accounted for then."
With a twirl, Shirogane reverted back to Iruma Miu's form. Which was very good, because Shuichi was starting to get a real headache from all this. He still paid attention though, just in case something became important later.
Shirogane's Miu looked utterly identical to the real Miu. She'd even gotten the scowl and hair twisting down perfectly. Shuichi wondered if the cosplayer was enjoying this motive.
"Still have no idea how the fuck this shit's gonna start a murder," Real Miu muttered under her breath, as she walked up to Monokuma. She picked him up under her arm.
"MIU! STOP DOING THAT!" Keebo yelled, but she threw him like a softball towards her research lab.
She turned to the others, who were staring at her, "Calm ya fucking tits. I removed the explosives."
"Shuichi," Kaito got his attention by tugging his sleeve. He looked rather pale.
"What is it?"
"..." Kaito paused, just looking at him. People were doing that a lot today. Shuichi tried to go for a reassuring smile, but remembered it looked suspicious, so settled for a thumbs up instead.
However, Kaito was looking at something beyond him.
"Boo!"
A dark reflection against the sunny blue sky. Black hair framed someone familiar. He didn't realise his eyes could look like that . Kokichi wore his face differently, Shuichi’s usual drawn-off expression more playful and vibrant. Like spastic energy flew in the air now.
"You make me look like a dying baby bird," Kokichi drawled, and tapped him on the forehead three times, "You didn't do my skin routine, did you?! Where's my conditioner?!"
"Uh- I-" Shuichi wasn't used to this.
"Ewww, did you even take a shower?" He roughly wiped the purple hair and then stared at his hand in disgust, "Did you even take care of me?"
Shuichi snapped, "Kokichi!"
"What?" Kokichi took a step forward, peering down his nose. Shuichi didn't let himself be intimidated- it was his body after all. That means he knew all of its strengths and weaknesses, and thus, could best Kokichi at whatever he was doing.
That being said, Shuichi struggled to come up with any particular weakness of his that was useful at the moment. He only remembered that Kokichi was faster than him, once jabbed him in the nose when they'd crossed paths by surprise in the night, and had the reflexes of a card-dealing tiger. Every other memory was fizzled out.
And that was strange, because Shuichi considered his memory to be quite good.
"What do you want." He settled on.
"When you say my name, you sound like a Pokemon," Kokichi breezily replied, and then in a stupid voice, "Shuichi! Shuichi!"
Maki's earlier rage tendencies were starting to sound sane. So Shuichi stopped that train of thought and began another:
"Did you come here just to annoy us?"
"Give it up man," Himi-Kaito put a hand on his shoulder in a low voice, "He's too far gone."
Kokichi abruptly stopped doing Shuichi impressions and a wicked smile grew on his face. Kaito patted him on the back again and Shuichi realised he was right. The same glee that seemed childish on the shorter boy had only become more unsettling.
"I just realised something!" Kokichi's voice sounded off. He was staring at Kaito.
"What."
"I can beat the shit out of you now!"
Shuichi caught his breath on the stairs of the casino, and doubled over. His hands met linoleum. God his lungs hurt.
"Kaito-" He panted, "Get off me-"
The astronaut slipped down from the piggy-back, "Thanks," he said gruffly.
The both of them caught their breath for a few more moments, sitting down on the cold steps. His legs burned.
"That little shit..." Kaito growled under his breath, then louder: "What's the time?"
Shuichi's Monopad wasn't in his pocket, nor anything else for that matter, so he stood up with a groan and observed the clock on the wall.
"Two-thirty."
"He's been chasing us for forty minutes," Kaito grumbled, unbuttoning his blazer and taking an arm out of the sleeve.
Then he crossed his arms, "I think, anyway. My mental math's not where it's usually at."
"Side-effect of the body swapping?"
"Probably," Kaito glowered at the memory of Kokichi chasing after them like a chainsaw-wielding maniac through the bushes, "I wish I could deck him."
"You could," Shuichi turned to him, and Kaito despondently waved his little arms, "With... cards?"
"Oh yeah!" Kaito's mood flipped like a switch, "I could probably put him in a knife show or something-- no, Iron Maiden, that's what it's called-- but it wouldn't work if he knew the trick. These things go better if the audience cares about the person involved, like a friend or family member--"
Kaito paused in thought, like a great weight of information had crashed upon him.
"Kaito?"
"Oh yeah, sorry," Kaito seemed to be off in his own world, "...Y'know, I didn't have lunch. Are you hungry?"
Shuichi’s rumbling stomach made itself known then, so they began their journey to the cafeteria at once.
The sun wore on. They were silent for a good while, tired from running.
Only to spot another not-so-familiar student, sitting alone at one of the benches.
Shuichi began, "Is that Gonta-"
"Gonta!" Kaito waved his arm out and ran towards Maki, who looked up innocently.
And Shuichi had to slow down, because woah, her face was totally unguarded.
Then it broke into a stunning smile, "Kaito! I found a ladybug!"
"Seriously?"
I thought this Academy had no bugs.
Maybe one escaped?
Shuichi ran up to the duo, to see what they were looking at.
And there was Maki smiling happily, pointing to a single red m&m on the table.
"..."
"Gonta..." Kaito's smile faltered, and shared a glance with Shuichi, "You okay buddy?"
But Maki has stars in her eyes, in awe of the red m&m, which was slightly cracked. Which he supposed gave the illusion of wings.
"Gonta will take good care of you," Maki smiled in a mothering tone to the m&m, to which Shuichi sounded completely alien.
"I think he got worse," Kaito whispered to his side and Shuichi could only nod.
She looked up at that- No, Gonta! -and Gonta's eyes grew wide with amazement.
"Kokichi!"
"No, I'm Shuichi," Shuichi quickly clarified once more, "We both switched bodies."
Gonta's smile lowered a little, but didn't come off any less warm.
"Ah, yes, Gonta understands..."
The stilted acknowledgement sounded like something Maki would die rather than say. Shuichi locked eyes with the red m&m and hoped Gonta understood the gravity of the situation.
"Shuichi is here," Gonta told himself, with a sense of finality.
Gonta seemed to be having the most trouble at the moment, when it came to handling this mess. He was busy corralling the m&m into an empty plastic cup by the time Shuichi and Kaito had told him about the clothes and left.
A sense of exhaustion crept over Shuichi, who swept a hand through his hair, "This situation is... just..."
"..."
He was at a loss for words.
"Yeah, you said it."
"I didn't say anything."
Shuichi was sure that they'd eat together, but then Maki had materialised and tugged Kaito away, who was unable to stop her. Apparently they were going to eat in her lab.
Maki didn't meet Shuichi's eyes. Which... while strange, he somewhat understood. He couldn't hold it against her, honestly.
It must be strange to look for a friend within someone you hate.
Shuichi was in the kitchen.
It was a great tragedy that the maid Kirumi was dead at this point in the story. Shuichi supposed it could be worse. Maybe she would have switched with Hoshi and been too short to reach the kitchen counter, thus still unable to make a meal. But he greatly missed her cooking anyway.
Ever since she'd passed, he had kept himself fed on Monokuma's extravagant array of ready-made bento boxes. But Shuichi was in the mood for a treat today, so set up a bunch of ingredients in the kitchen to cook his favourite dish.
Briefly, Shuichi wondered if doing something so unhabitual could be the precursor to a murder, but he wouldn't be using anything dangerous for this. And it could not be a more simple recipe that even a five-year old could conduct. That being said, he couldn't seem to remember the recipe at the moment...
"..." Shuichi leant on the counter and stared at the ingredients.
"..." He picked up a salt shaker and twirled it around in his hands absent-mindedly. Surely it would be muscle memory at this point?
"..."
He couldn't remember how to start.
Shuichi's hands easily juggled the salt shaker and he looked down at it. He stilled, then placed it gently on the kitchen counter.
"No..."
It wasn't that he didn't remember, that wasn't the problem. Kokichi's body didn't have some kind of memory issue, it just didn't know how to cook!
Realisation flooded him in an instant. No wonder he'd bothered Kirumi so much!
A gnawing feeling made itself known in his gut.
Shuichi's mind traveled to how second-nature it had felt to pick up Kaito and run away from Kokichi. He hadn't even thought to mention it. But Shuichi usually wasn't that athletic, now that he considered it...
The feeling in his gut grew cold; odd reassurance that somebody would probably kill at some point, and he'd be back in his body eventually.
He didn't like it, but he'd be surprised if things stayed this way for long. He'd just have to make sure nobody killed Kokichi or himself in the meantime.
Which hopefully wouldn't be difficult.
"If your body dies, you can't switch back into it!" Monokuma had an evil glint in his eye, "So kill REAL carefully, chumps! Nobody wants to be the odd one out!"
"Why are you doing this?!" That was Kaito.
Then Monokuma had cackled, "What's the problem? Most of you are going back! Just kill somebody!"
So not only did they have a murder to worry about, but one person would be left behind without their original body...
To be honest, the thought just made him sick. He quite liked his body, it was better than this. At least he could cook.
The detective sighed and put all the ingredients back. Forlornly, he grabbed another bento. His arm paused as he brushed against a can of Panta in the fridge.
Could it be...?
No, Kokichi would kill him if he drank this. But its purple sheen seemed oddly alluring...
"What are you up to, Shuichi?" Monokuma's dastardly voice emerged from behind the fridge door, so Shuichi yelped and pocketed it, slamming the fridge.
"K-Keebo?"
"You wish!" Keebo was crouched on the floor and looking smug, "I just love having hands, don't you?!" He wiggled his fingers and a crackly recording of Monokuma's "puhuhuhu" emerged from his speaker.
Immediately wanting to exit, Shuichi bolted over the kitchen counter and was halfway down the hall when his brain caught up with him.
"Oh," He had not been expecting to actually do it. Shuichi stopped running and turned around, but Monokuma hadn't followed him.
Feeling a bit silly for running off like that, Shuichi spun around and trotted off towards his dorm room.
Shuichi's room was boring, like being in prison.
Just a desk, a bed, and an army of Monokuma figurines that stared down at him in the dark as soon as Kokichi swapped bodies. Now that was a shock.
The light of early afternoon did nothing to decrease their creepy factor. One more look at their little beady eyes, and Kokichi turned them all around the other way. Then he realised their heads came off, so he busied himself by making a giant Mecha-Monokuma in the centre of the bedroom.
It's eyes were two heads, it's teeth made of plastic ears, and Kokichi was halfway through the body when Shuichi opened the door.
"Ah-" The shorter boy stumbled on his way in, almost dropping the food, "Kokichi! What are you doing here?"
How did you get in? Was the question unsaid, and yes, yes, Kokichi couldn't pick locks anymore. He'd tried and failed miserably.
But he had figured out the biometric backup lock, and with Shuichi's fingerprints, that was all he needed.
"I broke in!" He grinned, and kicked the Mecha-Monokuma under the bed. It broke into a million pieces and clattered horribly across the floor.
Shuichi's eyebrow twitched and Kokichi took a step back from the rubble. Only to swoop up the dark bundle of clothes he'd left on the desk.
"What- are those my clothes!?"
"Mine now, sucka!" And the liar jovially skipped past the befuddled boy at the door. His arms were too short to stop him.
"Kokichi- wait! You don't have to-"
God, he was loving this new height!
Seventy-one... seventy-two...
Shuichi blinked his tired eyes and stared at the broken Hula-Monokuma despondently. Mini pieces of Monokuma figures splayed out in front of him, broken, yet organised. He rubbed his face. God, he needed to sleep. It must be eleven already...
"..."
Shuichi stared at the clock in his room. No, that couldn't be right.
The clock read 4 AM.
"Kokichi..." Shuichi grumbled under his breath, for he must have changed his clock too. But upon looking at it, there wasn't any mechanism to change the time. Then the earlier comment sprung to mind, and he was flung into a vision of Kokichi crouching in tall grass, grumbling his own name under his breath, like a Pokemon.
Yep, it was time for bed now.
Shuichi promptly face-planted into his bed. He should probably shower, but his eyes slipped shut.
The room was silent.
Still.
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!
Somebody was at the door.
Shuichi pressed a hand to his eyes. He groaned, long.
Knock!
Knock!
An unmistakable voice, hissing, "Shuichi!"
His mouth went dry.
Feeling a bit faint, Shuichi somehow made it over to the door and opened it.
The shadow of Kaito's body was there in the night.
Shuichi squinted at it and hissed back, "It's the middle of the night!" He was hit with a bout of deja vu from yesterday's business.
"Umm..." It felt like Kaito's spark had dimmed out. Himiko treated his voice gently, "Sorry. I need to come in, Shuichi. I promise it's important."
Shuichi could feel a headache coming on but still let her inside. The light he flicked on revealed the organised chaos on the floor.
"What is it?" He asked.
And why do I feel so moody?
The more sane part of his brain whirred up with ideas of might be wrong. But no, nobody was dead yet. They couldn't be, it was far too early for that.
Too early?
"Shuichi," Himiko glanced down at his expression guardedly, as if she expected him to start clowning around, "I know you don't want to hear this from me, but I need to tell someone..."
Then she dug into her pocket, and Shuichi only stared at what she bought out.
It was a crumpled tissue. Blood was splattered in the centre of it.
Looking up, he spotted dried blood clotted in the corner of her mouth. How did I miss that?
Well, he didn't have to be a detective to put two and two together.
"Are you okay?"
Himiko nodded, staring down at the floor.
"I think Kaito's sick," Himiko met his eyes, "I just coughed this up in his bathroom, but his trash can is full of these."
She stuffed it back in her pocket.
"It's weird, but you know what's going on, right?"
He did not. "Why not ask Kaito?"
Himiko frowned, "So he didn't tell you?"
"..." He didn't.
"It'd be a pain to ask him... because it's his body... or, it's like..." Himiko played with her hands, trying to find the words to explain, "Shuichi... I trust you."
She'd said that in a strange way. What was the word? Ah.
Uncharacteristic.
"Is this something to do with switching bodies?"
"Yeah...!" Himiko blinked, like she'd been bought out of some kind of fog, "Shuichi, I trust you way more then I did before!"
"Y-you do, huh?"
"Like, double!"
Now that was interesting.
"I think this motive isn't as skin-deep as it seems," Shuichi put a hand to his chin, his voice quiet in the night, "And it's disturbing that Kaito's been sick for so long."
He didn't dwell on the implications of it. Not yet.
"He didn't tell us!"
"Thanks for telling me."
"Yeah," Himiko nodded, seemingly satisfied with the late night chat, "Somebody had to know." She put her hand on the doorknob.
"Goodnight, Shuichi."
"Night. Take care, okay?"
"I will."
And then she was gone.
Shuichi woke up at midday, and her words hit all at once.
He was too tired the night before, but Kaito was really sick, wasn't he?
I need to talk to him.
Shuichi got up, showered (This was less of a problem than he anticipated. It wasn't like his body had changed that much. Maybe the others would be different) and ran out the door, straight into Maki.
"Oof!"
"Shuichi." She acknowledged him. Her expression was blank.
And then as if she had just remembered, "Are you alright?"
Shuichi rubbed his forehead, where a bruise was beginning to form, "I'll live. Did you end up finding Kokichi?'
Maki's stern look told him that was the wrong question to ask. But she was clearly a lot calmer than yesterday, so something had finally clicked. Maybe he'd pranked her or something.
She sighed, "He's tainted you."
Oh God what did he do?
"You're not awake in the morning anymore."
Shuichi stepped back to look up at her, not expecting that answer, "That's true. Maybe Kokichi's a night owl?"
"Hmm," She looked like Gonta when he was sorting his rhinoceros beetle collection by size. Calculating and considering all factors.
Which drove another question to mind, "Maki, how much did you know about bugs before this?"
"About as much as anyone else, why?"
"You've seen his m&m?"
"Lady? Yeah," Maki fiddled with her hair, "At breakfast he added a stick insect. You can guess what that was."
"Concerning."
"It's normal. I think he's the same, but just lost all his bug knowledge," Maki crossed her arms, "It's like he still loves bugs, even though he can't recognise any..."
"That's... informative, though I still want to check on him again," Gonta's behaviour had been amongst the strangest yesterday, after all.
"I'm also keeping an eye on Gonta. I don't think it's in him, but if his access to my lab becomes a problem, at least I can still stop him."
Shuichi smiled, "Thanks, Maki."
She made a weird growl under her breath, and kept playing with her hair, "That's creepy. Don't do that."
"Sorry."
Shuichi glanced around for Kokichi's presence and swiped a bottle of Panta from the fridge.
For some reason, this drink worked wonders on him. It was legitimately delicious. Shuichi cracked open his second can.
Is Kokichi addicted to these?
But halfway through this reverie, Maki's words sliced through his mind.
"I think he's the same, but just lost all his bug knowledge"
He lowered the can. She'd said it so casually, and he'd waved it away just like that. But it made sense...
Shuichi swallowed. He couldn't forget how to be a detective, right?
No, that had to be impossible.
But a slow cold broke over his skin, and he thought about all the things he'd almost missed, and the way his memories didn't line quite so neatly on command anymore.
Yet he could run fast, enjoy Panta and could probably pick locks if he tried.
He could probably lie.
Shuichi stared into the can, his mind on the verge of something.
"Himiko's trying new spells outside. But I don't have the same dexterity with cards"
The puzzle pieces of this situation dropped around him, like a drum.
He'd assumed it was muscle memory.
As if brains weren't part of bodies.
As if his talent- his knowledge and skill- was somehow above all of that.
Something hot curled in his throat.
How many of their talents relied on their bodies?
The answer to that, was all of them.
Silence descended on him as light crashed through the window pane.
If Kokichi died, he'd lose his talent and body. Shuichi would never be the Ultimate Detective again.
He never could be.
Shuichi stared into the Panta, all too out of his body. He really wanted to go back, all at once. Back into his head, his way of looking at these pieces, back to his feelings. He wanted his body back.
An unsettled rage sparked in him, foreign, and he took a slow breath out.
Shuichi leaned back in the chair, gazing at the ceiling. A sense of foreboding crawled overhead.
My talent's helped us get through the trials so far.
How much have I got left?
How are we getting through this?
It was hard before, but it was harder now. His body had worked for him, and all the little pieces of each motive had been carefully sorted. His memories laid out before him like a lifeline, he could depend on them as evidence. But the more he was kept inside this body, the more he felt it slipping away.
As if, at some point, he'd run out of wall to lean on. This tightrope he'd been treading on would fall away into the dark, and he'd have no part of him left at all.
Because it was obvious, wasn't it?
He was acting more like Kokichi without even thinking.
Would Kokichi have to lead the trial? He didn't want to think about it.
God, why wasn't he thinking about anything?
"Having a little identity crisis?" Came the smug sound of his own voice.
Shuichi's eyes flit to him, firm. It looked like he'd just walked in.
Kokichi's grin on Shuichi's face... he wasn't sure if he'd ever made an expression like that before. Perhaps only in quick moments. Late nights in his uncle's office sitting on a floor of papers, covering his knees. His uncle waking up by the fireplace, turning around, asking what he was doing. Shuichi with a file in his hands, and a guilty smile on his face. Not enough shame to hide sparks of delight.
It was an expression of a child.
Then Kokichi's expression flipped like a switch, and Shuichi was hit with a wave of uncanny.
"I see you've found my Panta collection." His voice was dark, "Too bad you're allergic."
"If it helps, I like Oolong tea..."
Kokichi made a choking sound at that, but Shuichi pushed on, "I swear, it'll taste better than before. And you can cook now."
A frigid cold swept over the cafeteria.
"Never."
Shuichi shrugged and sipped his Panta, "Alright."
Kokichi huffed and kicked his floor, and yeah he wasn't acting quite right either. There was something... less. Spastic energy flew in the air around him, attached to nothing.
Kokichi collapsed into the chair in front of him.
"Your brain is boring." He stole the Panta.
"It's better than yours. You can't remember anything," Shuichi sulked, then blinked and ran over what he'd just said.
"You're more whiny," And Kokichi had taken the words right out of his mouth.
The realisation from earlier spun back into light, and Shuichi's face broke into alarm.
"Kokichi-" Kokichi's face was expressionless. Were his own eyes always that piercing?
Shuichi tried again, "I think I've got your talent. Your way of thinking. It's like I have a piece of you, and you have a piece of me."
"Disgusting, but whatever," Kokichi drawled, playing with the can, "I already figured that out yesterday." I would have.
"Yes, and I didn't ," Shuichi put a certain emphasis on that line, "And you're not lying either."
Kokichi's eyes met his, and he felt like he was on the same page.
On the same page. With Kokichi.
Oh no.
"You're a shitty liar anyway," Kokichi pointed at his nose, "Your face is all wrong."
"I can't just pull off crazy expressions..."
"You already are. You're creepy."
As if that made the situation any better.
But despite everything, Shuichi was secretly relieved there was a mutual understanding between them. As if some unsaid misinterpretation had drifted off to the side for the time being.
Shuichi frowned. Or maybe he just doesn't want to die.
"So how are we killing Keeboy?"
"Nope, not doing that," Shuichi stood up, chair squeaking across the floor.
"C'mooooooon, it'll be fun!" Kokichi smirked, "I bet you didn't realise he can still explode."
Shuichi looked at him, "What?"
"Miu can't work on him anymore, dummy!" Kokichi cackled, "You're soooo dead. Weak constitution AND no detective brain? Oh, I pity your poor soul!"
Okay, it wasn't like Kokichi was stupid but that still hit pretty close to home. It was like he'd stolen his favourite toy and was waving it above his head.
Or in this case, his brain.
Shuichi snatched the Panta back from him, "Then you figure it out. I'm sure you can lead the class trial too then, no problems."
Kokichi came to a standstill, eyes narrowing above him, "You don't trust them."
You don't trust them not to kill.
And those words...
Shuichi felt something hot inside his throat. Burning. Wanting to lash out.
The sun burned into the glass of the cafeteria.
"...Of course I trust them."
His words were carefully blank.