Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Her chest felt hollow, that was the first thing she registered while waking up.

The rest of her senses were a blur. What happened? Last she remembered… Shuichi was recounting how the murder happened, what she did.

Rubbing her eyes, her surroundings came into focus. She was still in the trial grounds; she could see everyone in the distance with horrified faces. What where they looking at?

Kaede turned around and saw the towering piano behind her, lid shut and oozing blood.

…

What

Was… someone in there?

She breathed in, but it felt wrong. The hollow feeling in her chest felt more present than before.

She look ed down at herself. There was a gaping hole torn through her chest, ribs splintering out an d her remaining guts spilling down inside the cavity . Her vest was soaked red. She would have thrown up at the sight of it but she didn’t think her stomach connected to her esophagus anymore. Strangely enough, only her neck seemed to hurt in dull pain . From the chest down, her body felt numb.

She was dead.

She turned back towards the crowd. Most of them were near the elevator, but Shuichi and Rantaro were much closer. Someone, Kaito she thinks, was calling Shuichi to leave.

Wait.

Rantaro?!

There was blood soaked into his hair. Oh… if she was a ghost then… he would be too.

Shuichi looked towards her direction, “Kaede… I’m… I’m so sorry.” He looked like he had been crying for a while. He spoke quietly, “Can y-you follow us? I don’t want you to be trapped down here alone…”

Kaede blinked. Was he- was he talking to her?

Rantaro rubbed the back of his neck, he wouldn’t look at her directly. “I think it would be best for all of us if you joined us in the elevator back up.”

She… She didn’t she deserved to. It was all her fault that Rantaro was dead. She shook her head.

“We need to get going.” Rantaro looked to the elevator and then back towards her, “Think of this it this way, you can redeem yourself by helping Shuichi and I figure out who the real mastermind is and helping everyone get out of here, alright?”

She could still help… It would be selfish of her not to, especially after what she had done. She took in a shaky breath, “O-Okay. Okay.”

All three of them walked back to the elevator. Once they got in, she couldn’t focus on what was happening around her. She had several questions, for both Rantaro and Shuichi, but what flooded her mind was nothing but her own death. She was dead, she would never play piano again, she would never see her parents again, she would never see her sister again. And worst of all, she took that away from Rantaro too. Neither of them would ever see their families again and it was all her fault.

She hadn’t realized how much she had been crying until she felt a hand place itself on her shoulder.

“I don’t blame you for what happened.” Rantaro reassured her, his tone was firm but still sad. “If anyone is at fault, it’s the mastermind for trapping us here.”

“I’m sorry, Rantaro.”

“… I’m sorry too.”

-

They were in Shuichi’s dorm.

Rantaro was sitting on the desk, Shuichi was sitting on the edge of the bed, and Kaede was sitting on the chair. Shuichi looked exhausted, she thought that if he laid down even for one second, he would pass out for the night. He probably wouldn’t be the one to initiate the conversation they needed to have. Rantaro, on the other hand, seemed to be thinking intensely over something. Kaede took a look around the room, it was very similar to hers except in color and that it had a shelf with a Monokuma plushie on it.

Kaede decided to break the silence. “Hey, wait a minute, I found that Monokuma, what’s it doing here?”

That seemed to surprise Shuichi out of his drowsy stupor. “Huh?…” He turned towards the shelf, “That wasn’t there before…”

Rantaro let out a small, tired laugh. He then cleared his throat, “So… time to address the elephant in the room.” He looked over to Shuichi, “You can talk to the dead.”

Shuichi fidgeted nervously with the hem of his jacket, “Y-Yeah…”

It felt unreal. This was something that could only happen in some made up story. But, she was here, Rantaro was here, and Shuichi was talking to them.

Something was strange to her though. “We were together the whole time but… I don’t remember you ever talking outside of when I spoke to you or with the others. How were you able to communicate with Rantaro?”

“That’s um… because I didn’t really talk to him.” Shuichi stared at the ground.

Huh? “Why didn’t you?” She asked.

Rantaro sighed, “That’s partially my fault. I didn’t know if he was the one who killed me or not, so I avoided telling him what I did remember… which wasn’t much really.”

“No one… no one remembers how they die. It’s probably better that way.” Shuichi mused. “So I decided not to ask… not that I had a chance to”

That’s right, she didn’t remember dying. She woke up sometime after her death but couldn’t remember how she died.

“You seem very certain about that. Are you speaking from experience?” Rantaro asked him rather pointedly.

Shuichi looked uncomfortable. “I’ve never met anyone who could remember… so I stopped asking a long time ago.”

“Why didn’t you tell us you could see ghosts?” Kaede asked.

“It’s obvious why he didn’t, he couldn’t trust anyone with that kind of information.” Rantaro answered for him. “If he had told anyone, he would have lost any credibility he had in a split second. I mean really, would you have thought he was anything but insane if he told you that he could talk to ghosts. I know that I would have doubted his ability to determine reality if he had told me.”

That… was true. She probably would have thought he was crazy or more likely telling a joke in poor taste.

Kaede hummed, “Wait, if you didn’t talk to each other, then how did you find out that he could see you?”

“Shuichi, I’m assuming accidentally, looked me in the eyes and froze for a second after I woke up.” Rantaro narrowed his eyes at him, “I called out to him, but he tried ignoring me.”

“Sorry…” Shuichi said quietly.

“Jeez… I can’t imagine what it would be like to be ignored by Shuichi of all people.” Kaede said.

“-Wuh?” Shuichi stuttered. “What is that supposed to be mean?”

“Ah. Nothing.” This probably wasn’t the best time to tease him. “So… What do we do now?”

“Well,” Rantaro stood up and walked towards the two, “We should talk about where my monopad went.”

“Your monopad? The one we found on your… um… that one?” Shuichi asked.

“No, not that one.” Rantaro had another monopad? “The one that, I believe, the mastermind stole.”

The mastermind, Kaede had become unsure if that person even existed. But Rantaro sounded so sure talking about them.

“I know you two started to have doubts about there being a mastermind in this game during the trial, but I have, or had, proof they exist.” Rantaro said.

“You had proof? And you didn’t tell anyone?” Shuichi questioned him.

“It was too risky for me to tell just anyone.” Rantaro explained. “It’s not like you two were any better.”

Maybe if Shuichi and her had told everyone about the possibility of a mastermind, they could have shared their information together. And they could have caught them… It was too late for that now.

“So, what is the proof? I’m assuming it’s related to the missing monopad?” Shuichi asked, he seemed to talk a lot more when it involved investigating things.

“Yep. Unlike the rest of you, or so I assume, I received an extra monopad with some special information on it.” Rantaro rubbed his temple with one hand. “I don’t remember it word for word, but the tablet explained that the mastermind could be exposed when they needed to make a new Monokuma in the secret room connected to the library.”

“That was the same room we discovered and set up the cameras for…” Shuichi mumbled to himself.

“Also,” Rantaro drew Shuichi’s attention back, “It said that it would prove its information correct by predicting that the first thing that I will remember, which was supposed to be the ultimate hunt. However, I never remembered anything before I died, and it seems like no one else knew about it either.”

“Oh, right! I remember you asked about that in the dining hall.” Kaede recalled.

Rantaro nodded, “And, on the monopad, there was a complete map of the academy.”

Shuichi tilted his head. “Complete? Was it different from the ones on the regular monopads?”

“Indeed. While I may not remember the layouts exactly, there were 5 floors on the map, including labels for each of our labs and the secret room in the library.” Rantaro had a serious, kinda scary look on his face. “Someone lied about their ultimate talent.”

“Huh? Why would someone lie about that?” Kaede asked. She couldn’t imagine ever lying about her own talent. Piano was a part of her, she couldn’t try hiding that.

“…They would if it was something dangerous.” Shuichi guessed. “Right?”

“Right. The lab I saw on the map was for the ultimate assassin.”

Assassin!? “Assassin!? Can there really be an ultimate assassin?! I mean, we’re all teenagers. How can someone in high school be an ultimate at assassinating people?” Kaede asked in disbelief.

“That, I have no clue on, but it’s what I saw on the map.” Rantaro said.

“…And which lab wasn’t there?” Shuichi asked.

“I never saw any lab for the ultimate caretaker. Which, of all people, isn’t too surprising looking back on it.” Rantaro stated.

The ultimate caretaker, that was Maki Harukawa. She was… kinda intimidating sometimes. But it still felt like a stretch that she could be an assassin of all things.

“…I don’t mean to sound um, ungrateful that you’re sharing this with us, but…” Shuichi shuffled in place. “Why are you sharing this? Especially now?”

“I have nothing more to lose by sharing this.” There was a deep anger in Rantaro’s eyes. “And I don’t want that sadistic bear to win. We have to stop the killing game before more of us are killed.”

Kaede felt so immensely guilty ever since she saw Rantaro’s body laying on the ground. She had started the killing game, if only she had not gone with her plan. Rantaro wouldn’t have been killed by her hand.

“I’m not doing this for free either.” What? Kaede looked back up at Rantaro. He continued, “You are going to help me with my own case once everyone is out of here. Do you understand?”

“U-Um, I understand.” Shuichi nodded before he looked back down at the ground, “Just… make sure no other ghosts around know that I can see them. It’s…” Shuichi trailed off.

“Bad experience with ghosts, huh?” Rantaro asked.

“…You could say that.” Shuichi replied.

She wondered what that was about. He already told her about the case that made him fear eye contact. Maybe it was related to that? This seemed like a bad time to draw out whatever additional trauma he might have though.

Kaede changed topics, “What do we do now?”

“What now…” Shuichi wondered aloud. “What is there to do now? We already looked around the whole school.”

“Not necessarily.” Rantaro pointed out. “The new floors may be revealed as time goes on. Given the fact that Monokuma is treating this like a game, he might reveal the next floor to us tomorrow as a ‘reward’ for surviving. One of us should go with Shuichi while the other stakes out the library for the mastermind.”

That sounded like a good plan. “I can watch the library tomorrow, it’s the least I can do.” Kaede offered.

“Actually, I was thinking you should go with Shuichi. You two are already a good pair, and he could probably use the encouragement.” Rantaro said.

“Are you sure?” Kaede asked.

Rantaro nodded, “We take turns each day, Shuichi will visit the library each morning and we’ll change places then.”

“Why does someone need to watch me?” Shuichi asked.

“Someone needs to help you watch your back. Being a detective in a killing game makes you a primary target.” Rantaro pointed to him, “The easiest way to avoid getting found out by the detective… is if the detective is your victim.”

That really dampened the mood. Not that is was going great to begin with.

“So, the plan.” Rantaro rubbed his temple again… his head was probably hurting from the injury she gave him. “We all go to the school in the morning, Shuichi lets me into the library while you stay with him throughout the day. You will keep watch over him and warn him in case someone tries something behind his back. The next morning, you both will come back to the library and I’ll let you know if I saw something. If there’s no news, we’ll just switch places. Does that seem good?”

Shuichi and Kaede nodded. It was settled then.

“Wait, how are you going to talk to us when we’re around other people?” Kaede looked to Shuichi, she just realized that might be an issue.

Rantaro leaned against the side of the bed. “Not just around other people… The mastermind has to be watching us somehow. If they spot you talking to thin air through whatever hidden cameras there may be, they might figure that something is up. Our safest bet is that you only talk outright to us here when everyone goes to sleep. They probably won’t pay much attention to every single person going to bed.”

“Ah, okay… I can still talk to you guys around others somewhat, but not in detail. I can pass it off as thinking out loud.”

Kaede had one more question left, “So, are we both staying here for the night? Or…”

“Um… If you guys want to.” Shuichi tugged the brim of his hat, “I can open the door to the hall but I don’t really want to go much further than that at night… sorry. I can change in the bathroom if you want to stay.”

How polite of him, she didn’t want to bother him more than they already did though. “I can wait out in the hall, I bet you probably wouldn’t want your room to be haunted while you’re trying to sleep.”

“I’ll stick around outside as well.” Rantaro said.

“Yeah… okay.” Shuichi pushed himself off of the bed and went to the door. He cracked open the door and peered outside for a few seconds before opening it all the way for them. “Um… Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Shuichi.” Kaede said as she walked out.

“’Night, Shuichi.” Rantaro followed out as well.

Shuichi took one last look at them, well not exactly, he looked in their general direction one more time to be accurate, before closing the door.

It was just her and Rantaro now. Just her and Rantaro… Yay…

Rantaro leaned against the side of the stairs, “So…”

“So…” Augh, this was so awkward. How were they going to spend several hours together after what happened.

“…You still got the nail polish on?” Rantaro asked.

“Oh!” Kaede brought up her hand, the polish was still in good shape from when Rantaro applied it before. “Yeah, it’s still there.” It looked a little strange as it contrasted her deathly pale skin.

“Cool cool…” Rantaro fiddled with his necklace.

…

“Where did you get that necklace? If you don’t mind me asking.” Kaede asked. She had to break the silence with something, anything.

“Oh, this?” Rantaro held up the end of the necklace. “One of my sister’s gave it to me for my birthday actually. It was one of hers, I think she just forgot to get me a gift and gave me the first thing she had on her person.” Rantaro smiled sadly.

“What was-”

“So, you and Shuichi? What was up with you two?” Rantaro interrupted her. She guess he didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

“What do you mean me and Shuichi?”

“Well, you two were never seen apart, why is that?”

“I don’t know we just, clicked? I guess. We also were placed in the lockers next to each other.” Kaede smiled, the memory was still a little funny to her, “Shuichi fell out of the locker, it was very ungraceful.”

“Hm, I can see that.” Rantaro sighed, “Do you think he could be hiding anything else from us?”

That question surprised Kaede, she actually didn’t know what to think. “Maybe? It… sure is something that he can see ghosts. I don’t think someone can have more than one mind blowing secret like that though.”

“We’ll see, I suppose.”

“Yeah…”

Chapter Text

Quite a few people had passed by them in the morning, none of them ever noticed Rantaro or Kaede. It felt jarring for her friends to walk by them, never acknowledging them, not even aware of their presence, yet her friends were still saddened by her absence. At least she had Rantaro and Shuichi, she didn’t know what she would do if she was completely alone.

…Shuichi was taking forever, was he always such a late riser?

“What do you think he’s up to?” Rantaro asked.

“I hope he’s getting ready.” Kaede replied.

“No, not him.” Rantaro pointed over to Kaito, “Him.”

Kaito was walking up to Shuichi’s door. Huh, what was he up to. He pressed the doorbell and waited. After no response, he started to spam the doorbell.

“That sure is one way to make sure he wakes up.” Rantaro commented.

The door opened, it was hard to see Shuichi with Kaito in the way. They talked for a bit before Shuichi followed him out.

Woah. Shuichi without a hat on. That was something to see.

“Time to head out then.” Rantaro walked over to Shuichi. “Good morning, Shuichi, you sure took your time.”

Kaede caught up to them, “Rantaro, he can’t even say anything back. But… you did keep us waiting Shuichi.”

Shuichi sighed as he followed Kaito.

-

Rantaro split off from them once they entered the school, he was going to wait outside the library. Shuichi was supposed to let him into the library right away, but being dragged by Kaito to the dining hall didn’t really leave them with many options.

Everyone was, quite frankly, very surprised to see Shuichi without his hat on. She was proud to see him trying to overcome his trauma. While the discussion of staying positive in her name was great, it really was, it only reminded her that she was… dead. They were talking about her like she wasn’t there, like she wasn’t standing by Shuichi’s side.

Kaede shook her head, she needed to keep herself together. She could grieve later, she needed to be there for Shuichi and the rest of her friends. It was all she could do now.

-

Wow, they uh, really just left him alone to investigate, didn’t they? She knows that Shuichi is an excellent detective regardless of what he may think of himself, but really? They just left all of the work to him?

“Well, at least you have me by your side.” Kaede smiled, “Let’s see what these weird items are about.”

Shuichi smiled back and nodded.

-

Shuichi had let Rantaro into the library before they explored the new areas of the school that Monokuma promised. Shuichi checked the card reader quickly for dust to see if the mastermind had used the door recently. But nothing had changed.

Exploring around the school, they found some of the new labs. Including…

“That’s… labeled as the caretaker’s lab. I thought Rantaro said it should be the assassin’s?” Kaede questioned.

Shuichi reached for the handle before getting stopped by someone.

“Stay out.” Maki said sternly.

Kaede really should have been doing a better job watching Shuichi’s back. She didn’t even notice Maki approach. It would make sense for an ultimate assassin to pass by unnoticed though.

Shuichi startled, “Ah! Sorry! I was just going to look around.”

Maki’s presence was intimidating enough without needing to say another word, he was not allowed to enter the lab.

“I’ll just um. I’ll be going now.” Shuichi meekly retreated.

“I’m starting to wonder how anyone believed she could be the ultimate caretaker.” Kaede remarked. “At least she didn’t knock you out.” She mimed a punch for emphasis.

“… I don’t want to imagine that.”

-

They learned nothing about the ultimate hunt, other than it existed. At least it confirmed what the monopad said. She wished the flashback light had worked on her too, she was clearly forgetting something important.

-

“Are you sure you want to be out there by yourself?” Shuichi asked Kaede.

It was night again, there hadn’t been much for them to talk about, and Rantaro was supposed to keep watch in the library all night. Hopefully, they catch the mastermind soon. From there though, she wasn’t sure what they would do.

“I don’t want to interrupt your sleep.” Kaede said.

“…If you’re sure.”

-

Kaito went to Shuichi’s door again that night. Kaede realized that she could just walk up right next to him to listen in on what he had to say to Shuichi. It’s not like Kaito would know she’s there. Kaito dragged Shuichi out to the courtyard to train towards defeating Monokuma. It ended up seeming more like makeshift workout-therapy to her though. She was glad that Shuichi was still making friends with the others, she didn’t want to hold him back… even if these people were a little weird.

Eventually, Shuichi and Kaito returned to their own dorms while she was back in the hall again. Night passed much slower without someone to talk to, even if the conversations had been dull, it was something to do to pass time. But now she was alone with her thoughts, her regrets.

She would still be alive had she taken advantage of the motive… but she wouldn’t be able to help Shuichi. And Rantaro would have been dead either way. Why did she have to go and ruin everything…

-

Shuichi, thankfully, got up earlier today. He seemed pretty nervous this morning, she couldn’t really ask him about it and get an answer at that moment though. They made their way to the school and got to the library. Shuichi opened the door and the two walked inside. He went over to check the card reader for dust. He didn’t need to with Rantaro here, but it would look strange to anyone that could be watching him if he just opened the library door every morning without purpose.

Rantaro shook his head, “No luck, I didn’t see anyone enter the library yesterday.”

“Oh…” Kaede frowned.

“What ended up happening yesterday?”

“Well…” Kaede gave a brief rundown of what happened. Rantaro nodded along every detail and rolled his eyes when she mentioned Kaito and Shuichi’s blossoming bromance.

“Whelp… I suppose it’s time to trade places. Don’t want to leave Shuichi here for any suspicious amount of time.”

“Ah, right.”

-

The library was very boring, at least there were a bunch of books laying open to read. Kaede tried flipping the pages in a few of them, but it felt like trying to push a building with her bare hands. She couldn’t move anything at all no matter how much she tried. It was so unfair, ghosts should be able to have fun powers, fly around, throw things, appear in mirrors, phase through walls. All she was able to do was walk around normally despite not feeling her legs while she had a messed up looking torso that she didn’t like to think about.

She rubbed her neck, it still hurt, and she couldn’t even take any pain killers for that either. What a scam this afterlife business was!

She slowly breathed in and out (it felt wrong with her lungs exposed), she focused on one of the many pieces she practiced for months. Playing it out in her mind to calm herself down, to keep her mind busy while stuck in this old stinking library.

-

It felt like an eternity passed by the time Shuichi had come back the next morning. Rantaro gave her a quick rundown on what had happened. And a lot had happened, she wasn’t sure she got everything, but everyone got a video of something bad happening to their loved ones, however, those videos got mixed up; at night, Gonta had chased a lot of people down to bring them to some bug meeting thing; Rantaro had helped Shuichi avoid Gonta and he ended up paired with Kaito moving around the school for the rest of the night; and today there was going to be a magic show held by Himiko.

“Wow… Okay. You really had quite the adventurous day without me.” Kaede said.

“Let’s hope it’s less busy today. The calmer things are, the safer it is.” Rantaro said.

Shuichi was, once again, over by the card reader. “Still nothing?”

Kaede sighed, “Nothing. It was so boring down here.”

-

Kaede and Shuichi walked into the gym. Almost everyone else was there except for Kaito, Maki, and Ryoma.

“Woah, that’s a big tank. Is Himiko going to do some Houdini stunt?” Kaede marveled at the idea.

“…I hope she doesn’t actually do something dangerous.” Shuichi spoke quietly.

“Then what would be the point?” Kaede shook her head, Shuichi needs to liven up a little. Himiko was a professional after all… probably.

“What’s up there?” Shuichi asked, sounding a little nervous.

Angie, pretty reasonably, assumed that Shuichi was asking her. “Oh! Those are piranhas! There seems to be more than there were yesterday though. How strange! It must be Atua’s doing to make things more exciting.” She pointed to the smaller tank hanging above the bigger one.

“Real piranhas, that’s pretty crazy…” Kaede said and then looked back at Shuichi, he looked pale. “Shuichi… you’re not scared of fish, are you?”

Shuichi was still looking at the tank. “Do you see that?” See what?

Kaede looked back at the tank. It was difficult to see from this angle, but now paying closer attention, she could see there was something on top of the tank. Or rather, someone on top of the tank. Was that Ryoma?? What was he doing up there? It didn’t quite look like he was sitting on the tank.

Ryoma peered over the edge and

looked at her.

“Kaede?” Ryoma sounded shocked, it was hard to see his expression from down here though.

Ryoma could see her? Why didn’t he see her before? “Ryoma?”

Shuichi quickly left her side and moved across the gym. Where was he going? What was going on here?

“Shuichi, is something wrong?” Kirumi called out to him. He was gathering quite a bit of attention.

He got as close as he could to the wall that the large tank rested against and kept his eyes on the fish tank. Shuichi’s eyes widened. “There’s… There’s someone in there.”

“What?! There’s no way! Let me see!” Tenko yelled and rushed over to stand where Shuichi was, shoving him out of the way. She looked through the side of the fish tank. “WAAAAAAA! THERE IS SOMEONE IN THERE!”

The crowd quickly moved over towards where Tenko and Shuichi were. From the side of the fish tank, they could see the body, the fish, and the divider between them.

The body announcement rang out. They lowered the fish tank down after draining and moving the large tank. Kaito and Maki arrived shortly after. Ryoma’s body was inside the fish tank, pressing down the glass against the rest of the fish.

“You really got a sharp eye there, Shuichi. Try not to poke anybody with it!” Kokichi teased him.

“That… That doesn’t even make sense.” Shuichi said.

Kokichi hummed with a bored expression on his face now, “Guess you’re right.”

Kokichi sure was… something. But she shouldn’t focus on him right now. Kaede couldn’t really help Shuichi much with the investigation but she could talk to Ryoma. He had been leaning against the glass this whole time right next to his body before getting brought down.

Ryoma stepped out of the tank, his clothes were wet but not as soaked as she thought they should be. “Kaede… You’re here.” Ryoma said, looking off to the side.

“Yeah, um, I’m sorry about what happened to you… Are you able to tell us what you remember?” Kaede asked.

“Us? Is Rantaro here?” Ryoma looked around and coughed, it sounded wet.

“Oh, no um, by us I mean Shuichi and I. Rantaro is in the library right now.”

“Shuichi?” Ryoma looked over at him, he was talking with Tenko and Himiko. Ryoma looked back to Kaede, “…It’s not healthy to pretend Kaede.”

“Pretend? What do you mean pretend?”

“We’re dead now, you can’t help him any more than I can.”

Kaede realized that Ryoma didn’t know about Shuichi. “Ah, I didn’t get to tell you yet. Shuichi can see ghosts.”

Ryoma raised an eyebrow at her, his expression filled with doubt.

“I’ll show you.” Kaede prepared herself to yell. “SHUI- augh!” Her throat stung harshly from trying to yell. She didn’t realize it would hurt to do that. Shuichi looked over at them for a few seconds, trying not to draw attention to himself.

“…Hm.” Ryoma looked back towards Kaede. “You’re still helping him, why?”

“Well, I mean, he’s my friend, and I don’t want anymore of my friends to die.”

Ryoma coughed again, “It’s a little late for that now.”

It was. “I’m sorry.”

Ryoma looked at her, seeing the hole in her torso and the marks around her neck, “…It’s not your fault, Kaede. If it’s any consolation, of all the people to die now, at least it was the guy who didn’t have anything to live for.”

“Ryoma…”

“To answer your question from before: No, I don’t remember what happened to me. The last thing I remember was avoiding getting captured by Gonta.”

“Shuichi did mention getting chased by him…” Kaede recalled.

“Rantaro is in the library, hm… Why didn’t he come over after the body announcement played?” Ryoma asked.

“Oh, we can’t move anything or move through anything solid, so he has to wait for Shuichi to let him out…” Kaede gasped, “He’s going to be stuck there without knowing what’s going on until tomorrow!”

-

Ryoma remained quiet throughout the investigation. Kaede didn’t want to push him on it when he already said he didn’t remember what had happened. And… he died. Even if he said he didn’t have anything to live for, he still lost his life and he deserved to have some time to process that.

-

Kaede and Ryoma followed Shuichi to the trial grounds.

The trial was long and confusing, she doesn’t think that anyone but Shuichi could have figured out the rope-way trick.

How was a teenager the shadow prime minister of Japan?

Kaede didn’t know how much Ryoma remembered, but she suspected that he didn’t tell them some things on purpose, not that she could blame him.

Watching Kirumi try to escape, and seeing her brutal execution, Kaede wondered what her own execution must have been like.

Shuichi walked over to Gonta and talked to him quietly. Gonta took off his jacket and Shuichi laid it over Kirumi’s body.

Then, they waited, most people shuffled over to the elevator but Shuichi stayed, waiting. After a few minutes, Kirumi’s ghost faded in.

“What…” Kirumi slowly came to her surroundings. Her skin was torn all over, and her leg was bent wrong as she stood up. But she still had Gonta’s jacket, so she put it on and buttoned it up to cover her shredded clothing.

“Hi, Kirumi…” Kaede spoke gently to her.

Kirumi looked at her, her eyes stuck on the hole in her chest for a moment before meeting her gaze. “Did you watch the trial?”

“Yeah…”

“Did I… fail?”

Kaede didn’t know how to respond to that.

Ryoma walked up to them, “Yeah, you did, now head on out with us. You don’t want to get stuck down here in the dark forever, do you?” He was blunt, but he wasn’t angry, he just sounded tired.

“I… suppose not.”

They walked back to the elevator. Kirumi looked so utterly defeated, it was almost hard to believe she was the same person they knew.

The ride up was quiet outside of the mechanical whirs.

Kaede lightly tapped Kirumi’s shoulder to get her attention. “Oh, um, Kirumi. Just so you know sooner than later… Shuichi can see ghosts.”

Kirumi took a moment to process, “…You’re joking.”

“She’s not, I didn’t tell them what happened though. Shuichi figured that all out on his own.” Ryoma said.

Kirumi’s gaze wandered over to Shuichi who looked back at her, she narrowed her eyes and he looked away. “I see…”

-

Kokichi revealed Maki’s true ultimate talent to the surprise of everyone but Kaede and Shuichi.

-

Kaede managed to convince Ryoma and Kirumi to visit Shuichi’s dorm to explain what they’ve been up to. Shuichi mostly filled in what Kaede had missed in her explanation.

“So, you three are trying to figure out who the mastermind is by yourselves?” Ryoma asked.

“Um, yes? We don’t want to alert the mastermind to what we’re up to and it’s… safer if less people were aware of the plan.” Shuichi said.

“What will happen to your plan if someone was to murder Shuichi though?” Kirumi asked.

Kaede actually hadn’t thought about that. “…He won’t be murdered. That’s what Rantaro and I are here for, to help watch his back.”

“Hm… and what do you wish for Ryoma and I to do?” Kirumi asked, addressing only Kaede really. She still seemed to be upset with Shuichi.

Ryoma coughed into his jacket. “I don’t remember agreeing to help… but I’m willing to hear you out.”

“Ah, well, I actually haven’t thought about that yet either…” Kaede said.

Shuichi reached for his hat, which looked a little goofy since he wasn’t wearing it anymore, “…If we had some people to keep watch around the school, we could possibly prevent another murder.”

“Oh! You’re right.” Kaede exclaimed, then paused, “But how would we stop it? I mean, we could try running to wherever you are, but by then…”

“Um…” Shuichi seemed to be a little stuck too. “It’s better than nothing?… You could also let me know if anyone is doing something suspicious and I can check it out.”

“That seems like a decent course of action for now. I will change places with Rantaro tomorrow in the library if that is alright, Kaede.” Kirumi asked her.

“Um, that’s alright, are you sure you want to though?” Kaede asked back, she didn’t want Kirumi to obligate her self into doing something she didn’t want to, especially after just dying.

“I would prefer time to myself right now… and I cannot hurry anywhere in this state, if I were to be on patrol.” Kirumi said and looked down at her broken leg.

“Right then… Well now that that’s settled, Kaito is probably going to visit Shuichi soon for training. Once we get out, you guys can either wait in the dorm building or outside until tomorrow morning.” Kaede explained.

“Sounds like a plan.” Ryoma said.

-

Kaede wasn’t sure what to think of Kaito. On the one hand, he was helping Shuichi become more confident. On the other, he brought an assassin to train with them.

Kaede sat next to Kirumi on the bench. “So…”

Kirumi glanced at her, “Do you need my assistance?”

“No no! Nothing like that. I was just… checking up on you.”

“Well… I’m still dead.” Kirumi said plainly.

“I meant more… emotionally how are you doing?”

“I am alright.”

“…You know it’s, um, okay to be upset right now.”

“I am aware.”

“Okay… would you like someone to talk to?”

“I can handle it myself.”

“You don’t have to, I could help-”

“You know what, I would like some space right now, if that is alright with you?”

“Ah… sure, I’ll go… check up on Ryoma.” Kaede got up off the bench.

She walked over to Ryoma, who was watching the trio train.

“Hey, Ryoma.”

“Hey…” He looked at her and then back towards Kirumi in the distance. “Did she kick you off the bench?”

“Well, not exactly, she just needs some alone time.”

“So she did kick you off the bench.”

Kaede sighed, “Fine, she did… How are you doing?”

“A bit chilly, but it’s not the worst, how about you?”

“I’m holding it together.”

“That’s good, not long term good, but we probably won’t be here that long anyways.”

“Right…” She watched Maki leave training early. “Were you… really ready to die?”

“I’ve been ready for a long time… But I’m guessing that’s not the same for you.”

“No…” She tried to hold back tears. “No I…”

“…Feel free to talk to me about it. Or don’t. Whichever floats your boat.”

She rubbed her eyes. “I just want to go home… is that selfish?”

“’Course not. Everyone here wants to go home… even if it’s gone for some.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“I am though, if I hadn’t-”

“What’s done is done. If I wasn’t such a stupid kid, my folks would still be alive. But there’s no use thinking about what ifs… Also you’ll start sounding like Shuichi if you keep apologizing.”

The last bit got a wet chuckle out of her. “I guess you’re right… Don’t want to steal his thing.”

After training was over, everyone separated for the night.

Chapter Text

“I’m starting to wonder if someone should stay in his dorm overnight just so we can wake him up at a decent time.” Kaede pondered out loud.

“Not the first time he’s been late?” Ryoma asked.

Kaede sighed, “No. If only I could phase through walls or ring his doorbell.”

As if on cue, Shuichi walked out of his dorm.

“Guh, finally! I mean- good morning, Shuichi.” Kaede greeted him.

Shuichi sent her an apologetic look.

-

“What happened?” Was the first thing Rantaro asked when they all got to the library.

“Well…” How is she supposed to explain what happened when Kirumi is standing right next to her?

“I killed Ryoma and failed to get out of this place.” Kirumi said.

Kaede blinked. Well, that solved that. “That’s… basically what happened. I can tell you more later.”

Shuichi checked over the card reader again, “Still nothing?”

“Still nothing.” Rantaro replied, he looked towards the side entrance to the library, “Kokichi’s watching you.”

Kaede looked over as well and saw the door cracked open, Kokichi was peeking through it. “You can’t see him with the bookshelf open… It would be kinda funny if you called out to him right now, pretending you can magically sense him or something.”

“I would like to see that, if it didn’t make Shuichi suspicious that is.” Rantaro said.

Kaede pretended to tug the brim of a hat down over her eyes, she lowered her voice a little, “I sense a presence… a really annoying person is nearby. It’s… Gasp! Kokichi!?”

Shuichi held his breath.

Rantaro smirked, “I see you have noticed me, detective. You must be able to read minds, as you know that I am about to say some completely. Random. Bullshit.”

…

“But that’s a lie.” Kirumi added quietly.

Shuichi tried really hard to turn his laugh into a cough. The bookcase moved and hid the door once more.

The library’s side door slammed open and Kokichi marched on in, “Inhaling dust now, Shuichi?”

“Yes! I mean- No!” Great defense there Shuichi, not suspicious at all.

Kokichi tilted his had at him, “Hmmm? What are you doin’ in the library anyways?” His expression changed into one of shock, “Are you actually the mastermind all along!?”

Shuichi groaned, “I’m not. I was just checking the card reader again.”

Kokichi looked disappointed, “Why? You’ve not been secretly hiding your real talent as the ultimate maintenance guy, have you?”

“What? I’ve never done maintenance work.” Shuichi sounded confused.

“Oh? So you’re tampering with the card reader I see. I’ll just tell Monokuma that you’re breakin’ in to the secret room so he can tear ya to shreds.” Kokichi smiled.

Shuichi paled, “I’m not! I’m not breaking in anywhere! Or maintaining anything! I was just checking the card reader for dust!”

“You and your dust.” Kokichi shook his head.

“What?” Shuichi looked even more confused now.

Kokichi turned his back to him and walked towards the door, “I’ll see you around, dusty.”

“Dusty?” Shuichi repeated as Kokichi left the library.

“He sure is a card.” Rantaro remarked.

-

Kaede was once again paired with Shuichi today. Rantaro was going to keep an eye out around the school and Ryoma had stayed outdoors to keep watch out there. They visited Maki’s lab with everyone else and saw the numerous weapons inside. Definitely an assassin’s lab for sure.

They found the new floor… it was something.

Kaede nudged Shuichi, or tried to nudge him but if felt like she elbowed a wall, at least she could still feel her arms. “Shuichi, this floor looks pretty scary, I’m not sure if I can go with you…”

Shuichi looked confused, silently asking why.

Kaede continued, “What if… there’s a ghost.”

Shuichi let out the biggest disappointed sigh that Kaede had ever heard. What a drama queen.

-

Korekiyo’s lab was huge, why were there so many floors just in that room alone? Angie’s lab was a little duller looking than Kaede thought it should be. She asked Shuichi if he thought the séance would work and he just shrugged. Shouldn’t he know more about how this ghost stuff works?

-

Kaede was shocked that Angie broke the flashback light. They were going to miss vital information on the outside world, even if she didn’t get to remember it first hand.

-

There was not too much to talk about with the other ghosts that night. After trying to go to training and letting the ghosts back outside, Kaede returned with Shuichi back to his dorm.

“I know it’s weird for a girl to stay in a boy’s dorm overnight, but you wake up so late that I have no choice.”

“Kaede… I don’t wake up that late.”

“You know that’s not true.”

-

Could another ghost stick their arm through the hole in her chest? Would she feel it or not? Maybe it would-

“Do you actually want to stay around me during the day, or um… do you just feel obligated to?” Shuichi asked, startling Kaede out of her thoughts.

She had been sitting around in the dark for a couple hours now, she thought he had been asleep. “Huh?”

“…Sorry, never mind.” Shuichi said.

…

Kaede spent a minute thinking of a response. “I like hanging out with you… it’s not the same as before, and you can’t really talk to me much, but I still enjoy it.”

“Okay.” Shuichi sounded tired.

“So… Can’t sleep?” Kaede asked.

“I’m surprised anyone can fall asleep here.” Shuichi mumbled into his pillow.

“Well, I guess that’s fair, but the beds are surprisingly nice here.” Kaede didn’t know why whoever was keeping them here would go so far as to get them good mattresses when they were supposed to kill each other.

“I’d prefer sleeping on my uncle’s tough couch than being here.”

“Oh? Did you stay over at his place a lot to help with cases?”

“Um… in a way, yeah.”

“Man, you’re parents must be pretty chill, my parents only let me go to a sleepover once when I promised to practice extra that weekend.”

“I don’t really know if they were chill… they weren’t around much.”

“Oh.”

…

Maybe she should change topics. “If you don’t mind me asking, when did you start seeing ghosts?”

“Ah, I think I’ve always seen them. Over time I learned to pretend not to.”

“How come?”

“People get very desperate when they’re dead. Some will threaten you, scream at you, or stalk you if they suspect you can sense them… And also because people thought I was hallucinating all the time.”

“Fun…”

“I’m surprised that there’s no other ghosts here. Usually there’s someone haunting any given area, unless you’re out in the country.”

“Huh, so no help with escaping this place then?”

“No…”

-

“Shuichi, I already said good morning five minutes ago. Get out of bed already.”

“Mrgnm” Shuichi mumbled into the pillow, unmoving.

If Kaede could smack him with a pillow, she would. “It’s time to get up.”

“Nooo.”

“Shuichi.”

-

Kirumi would not leave the library. “I am fine here.”

Kaede sighed, “If you really want to stay then… I guess you’re free to.”

Shuichi was looking over the card reader again, the mastermind still hadn’t been through the door. “There couldn’t be another room for the mastermind to work in, could there?”

“Maybe the mastermind hasn’t been able to visit with us, or rather you, watching so closely?” Rantaro pondered.

“No that’s not it… Monokuma was replaced, so they had to have gotten in somehow.” Shuichi stepped back as the bookcase swung shut.

“Hm… Oh!” Kaede clapped her hands together and made Shuichi jump. “What if there’s another entrance hidden somewhere? I’ve been in some recital halls that have stage entrances made to blend in with the walls while closed.”

“I have also accessed some hidden staff hallways before, during my time working in some manors.” Kirumi added.

“I didn’t see any other entrances on the map, but it would be unusual to have such an important room only have one entrance.” Rantaro said.

“Should we search the school again?” Kaede asked.

“You two have already been around the school several times, I can’t see the point in it.” Rantaro glanced at the side door. “…Maybe we could keep tabs on certain people instead.”

“Like… stalking? I don’t know, that’s kind of creepy.” Kaede responded.

Rantaro raised an eyebrow at her. “Stalking the mastermind is bad, but murdering them isn’t?”

“…”

“Sorry, that was too far. But, I think I’ll start following Kokichi around. He seems like the kind of guy to pull something on everyone, even if he’s not the mastermind.” Rantaro said.

“Okay.” Kaede walked towards Shuichi. “I think we should head out now, don’t want you to be here for too long.”

-

There was a new student council group formed and a new motive. The others discussed the possibility of the deaths being faked (she knows first hand that they weren’t), but there were much more important things to consider now.

The necronomicon, if what the bears said was true, then one of them could come back, but only one. Who should be brought back? And that’s if they could get their hands on the book that is. Angie and her student council possessed the necronomicon. They were going to need to have a conversation about it tonight in Shuichi’s dorm. Kaede felt a little bad that Kirumi couldn’t be there.

It was a little silly to hear Shuichi tell everyone that he did not believe in ghosts.

-

“So. Who’s coming back?” Rantaro asked.

“It would be wasted on me, my life was over a long time ago.” Ryoma said.

“Maybe we should revive Kirumi? She was the shadow leader of the country after all… somehow.” Kaede suggested.

“While she was important, she would likely try and kill everyone again to get out of here.” Rantaro pointed out.

“What happened to the world if the entire country was part of Kirumi’s motive?” Shuichi wondered.

The group fell silent for a moment. Kaede and no doubt the others had been wondering about that too. How can something so terrible befall the whole country? How can 16 ultimates be kidnapped without anyone coming to their rescue? Especially when one of them was supposed to be leading the country in the shadows.

“I would like to figure that out too, but it’s not useful for us to wonder about that right now. We need to figure out if we’re going to steal that necronomicon from Angie or not.” Rantaro said.

“It is the motive… but what’s the catch? No one even has to die for this motive.” Shuichi asked.

“The catch may be what we’re about to do. Theft isn’t taken too kindly you know, especially behind everyone’s backs. You’ll get on everyone’s bad side if you get caught.” Ryoma said.

“Well, once one of us gets brought back, we can explain the whole situation!” Kaede said.

Rantaro sighed, “If we remember being ghosts that is.”

“Monokuma is a sick bastard, there’s bound to be some sort of catch like that for reviving someone.” Ryoma said and then coughed into his sleeve. “We should not count on the person coming back to remember their time dead.”

“So, we’re down to Kaede and I.” Rantaro stated and looked towards her.

“I… I want to come back, but that wouldn’t be fair. I’m the one that got us both killed.” Kaede said. She doesn’t want to be dead, she had a whole life to live in front of her. But so did Rantaro.

“I’m sorry, Kaede. But it would be best if I was the one to come back. I’m the only one who had preexisting knowledge of my extra monopad, and I still have something very important to do that I need to be alive for.” Rantaro sent her an apologetic look, “And… you might be more helpful to everyone dead than alive. Everyone started viewing you like a martyr after your execution. They may not try as hard to escape with everyone alive once they start viewing you as a regular person again.”

“Right…” Kaede mumbled. “It’s nice that they’re motivated, I guess. But it’s still weird.”

“I guess it’s settled then.” Ryoma said.

“Now, how do we get the book from Angie?” Rantaro asked.

Chapter Text

The next morning had arrived.

“You ready, Shuichi?” Kaede asked him.

Shuichi nodded.

They made their way with Rantaro and Ryoma in tow to the library. Kirumi, as they predicted, asked to stay in the library again. Shuichi went over the check the door again.

“Any news?” Kirumi asked.

“Thankfully, not much has happened. Angie started a cult though, so that is bound to cause some trouble down the line.” Rantaro said.

“Ah, if there’s any advice you need, I would be willing to share. I have had to deal with some unsavory groups before.” Kirumi offered.

“Thanks, we’ll ask if something comes up.” Kaede said.

Shuichi let the bookshelf close and walked back towards the exit, “Nothing new.” He stopped by one of the book piles and picked up a big book with a black leather cover. He placed it in his jacket pocket.

It was so unfair that boys clothes had such big pockets, she could hardly fit her phone in her pocket while Shuichi could put an entire book in his. This is why she always wore a backpack.

Kirumi sighed, “Nothing new to speak of, no one has touched the door.”

“Time to head out then.” Rantaro waved, “Thank you for keeping watch, Kirumi.”

“It’s my duty.” Kirumi said, she was missing her smile that she usually gave them.

-

Kaede didn’t like that they weren’t telling Kirumi about the necronomicon, but everyone decided that things would go easier if she didn’t know until after they brought someone back. Shuichi mentioned that ghosts can become relentless when they wanted something to go their way with nothing stopping them from harassing others. She was going to be so angry at them once she found out though.

At breakfast, Shuichi spoke to Tsumugi. “Hey, I was thinking it over last night and… I would like to join the student council.”

Tsumugi looked surprised, “Really? You want to join?”

“Yeah… I think it’s what Kaede would have wanted. This way we can keep everyone alive.” Shuichi said. If it wasn’t part of their plan, she would have never wanted him to join. The student council only pretended everything was okay and wanted them to stay there forever.

“Well then, I’ll let Angie know right away!” Tsumugi said.

“Ah, okay… could I come with to tell her in person too?” Shuichi asked.

“I don’t see why not. Don’t you want to get something to eat first though?” Tsumugi asked, a little concerned.

“No, I’m not that hungry this morning… and I think Kaito might try to stop me once he gets here.” Shuichi glanced at the door.

“Oh, then we should hurry, let’s go then and you can eat after.” Tsumugi said.

“Alright.” Shuichi followed Tsumugi out of the dining hall.

Tsumugi led Shuichi to the new floor where Angie was apparently working on something. Rantaro, Kaede, and Ryoma were following them, keeping an eye out.

“Remember, keep your arms folded in to mask the book in your pocket when Angie hugs you, you seem like the type to be awkward about getting hugged anyways.” Ryoma reminded Shuichi.

“We only have one shot at this, make sure neither of them see you.” Rantaro said.

“Guys, you’re making him nervous.” Kaede said. She walked ahead of Shuichi so he could see her, “Don’t worry, you’re wicked smart and a good detective. I know you can pull this off!”

Shuichi blushed, it was a good thing he was walking a little behind Tsumugi so she couldn’t see it and question him.

They stopped outside the ultimate artist’s lab. It would make sense that she was in there. But what was she up to?

“Angie! It’s me, Tsumugi. We have a new recruit.” The cosplayer called out to the door. She turned and spoke at a regular volume again to Shuichi, “Angie only opens the door for one of us members.”

“I see…”

After a few seconds, the door swung open revealing Angie. “Shuichi! Atua is proud to see you following his advice! Come right in.”

Shuichi, Tsumugi, Rantaro, and Kaede walked in. Ryoma stayed outside to keep watch.

“What… is that.” Shuichi asked.

It looked like… them.

“Yahaha! I see you are interested. The book says you need an effigy for the ritual to work, but I wound up getting into the zone and creating these pieces!” Angie explained, she walked over to the wax lookalikes.

Shuichi moved to lean against the table while Tsumugi moved to view the effigies closer up. These ‘pieces’ were their dead classmates, including herself. They were pretty realistic in the parts that weren’t unfinished.

“Atua says I am right on time to complete them by tonight.” Angie said and then turned back to look at them both.

“That’s… good.” Shuichi said.

“It sure is! Now-” Angie went over and hugged him. “Atua welcomes you into his following!”

“U-Um.” Shuichi froze. “T-Thank you… Atua…”

Kaede giggled as Angie tried indoctrinating Shuichi while he had to pretend to be brainwashed.

Angie let go of him, “As your first mission, would you check the warehouse for lighters? Himiko couldn’t find any, but your skills gifted by Atua might find something she missed.”

“Ah, alright. I’ll get on it then.” Shuichi said.

“Yahaha~ See you later!” Angie waved at him. “Tsumugi, Atua says you need to stay and help me out for a couple minutes. Would you stay?”

“Ah, of course, if it’s what Atua wants.” Tsumugi agreed.

-

Shuichi let out a big breath he was no doubt holding since he entered the room. It was intensely stressful for Kaede, it must have been at least triple as stressful for him.

“Oh thank goodness that worked.” Kaede let out her own sigh.

“You mean thank Atua.” Rantaro joked. She rolled her eyes at him.

“You got the book?” Ryoma asked.

“Yep, Shuichi managed to swap out the books on the table when they turned their backs. It was just like in a spy movie!” Kaede’s eyes sparkled.

“We need to get going before they notice. Sorry, no rest for you, Shuichi.” Rantaro said.

The four made their way to the warehouse, Rantaro went ahead of him while Ryoma stayed behind the door. After a minute of searching, Shuichi found matches behind some of the boxes.

“How did you know those would be here?” Kaede asked.

Shuichi tapped one of the boxes containing tents that sat on the shelf…

“Oh! Camping supplies, that makes sense.” Kaede said.

They looked around the gym some more for their next items, an effigy and a pen. Any doll or toy would work for the effigy.

After several more minutes, Shuichi stopped at one of the shelves. “Ah, here it is.” He pulled out a box containing small featureless cloth dolls.

Kaede smiled, “Great, now we just need-”

“Angie, Tenko, and Gonta are coming this way!” Ryoma yelled through the door, his muffled coughing could be heard after.

“Shuichi! Over here! There’s a big enough box you can hide in.” Rantaro called out to him from a few shelves down.

Shuichi stuffed a doll into his jacket and ran over. He climbed into the box just as the door to the warehouse opened.

“Yoohoo~ Shuichi~ Where are you~?” Angie called out.

“This is why you should never trust a male! They’re all cruel thieves who take advantage of young women.” Tenko yelled, her voice echoed across the warehouse. “Well, except you, Gonta, I guess. You better watch it though.”

“Shuichi, Angie said book was wrong after you visit her. Gonta think Shuichi should explain what happen. Gonta think it’s all misunderstanding.” Gonta called out.

Uh oh, the powerhouses were here, there was no way Shuichi could get away if they found him. Kaede stepped onto the shelf; she looked into the crate Shuichi had jumped into. He was curled up on top of several fire extinguishers, trying to keep himself flat below the brim of the box. It did not look comfortable.

“Hang in there, Shuichi, we’ll tell you when it’s safe to leave.” Kaede told him.

The student council members and leader wandered through the warehouse, calling out for Shuichi. Ten minutes passed before they started to doubt that he was even there.

“Hey! Look at this!” Tenko called out and pointed to the box of dolls. “The rotten male is trying to use the book!”

They gathered around the box.

“Atua says we should send out a search party~” Angie declared.

-

The three left the warehouse.

“Don’t get out of the crate yet.” Rantaro said before Shuichi could move. He ran across the warehouse and stopped at the door. “What’s it look like out there?”

Ryoma must have said something back, but Kaede couldn’t hear it from where she was.

Rantaro turned to look at her from across the room, his voice carried across the space easily. “Tenko’s guarding the door, she’s waiting in case you leave.”

“That’s not good.” Kaede glanced at the crate, “Do you think it’s safe for Shuichi look around for the last thing we need?”

Rantaro hummed in thought. “I wouldn’t risk it, you and I can still look around though.”

“Alright.” Kaede pat the crate, which made no sound nor movement since she was a ghost hitting a real object. “Stay put, Shuichi. Shouldn’t be much longer.”

-

About an hour passed, Tenko was still stationed outside of the warehouse and there was no sign of any writing supplies. She could have sworn there was at least a box of pens somewhere. Maybe Monokuma or the mastermind hid them to make them suffer.

“Hey!” Ryoma shouted from behind the door.

Kaede ran over, “What is it?”

“Listen.” Ryoma said.

Kaede put her ear to the door.

“Nyeh… No, what a pain.” She heard Himiko say.

“Did you try using your magic to find him?” Tenko asked.

“Well, of course I did, but then I ran out of mana.”

“Oh no. Is there anything I can do?”

“…You could look around outside for me while I go take a nap.”

“Okay!”

Kaede heard the two walk away. After a minute, Ryoma spoke up, “They’re gone. This is our chance to leave.”

“Ah, but where will we go? We still need something to write with, but Angie’s lab is too risky to visit.” Kaede asked.

“There might be something in the store across from here.” Rantaro said.

“Then let’s go there!”

Kaede told Shuichi the plan, he climbed out of the crate and did a big stretch. It must have hurt being stuck in there for so long. Shuichi followed Kaede to the door. On Ryoma’s okay, he let out Rantaro before closing the door again. Rantaro went down to the other end of the hallway to look out for anyone approaching the corner. He gave Ryoma the okay, who gave them the okay. Kaede and Shuichi ran out of the warehouse and into the store. Rantaro and Ryoma stayed out in the hallway.

“Alright, time to spend some coin.” Kaede said.

Shuichi walked up to the monomachine, he put in a coin and drew a capsule, it had a ticket for some tea inside. She could really go for some tea right now if she still was able drink it. He drew another capsule, this one had some animal crackers as the prize. Another draw, a collection of medals. Olive oil, dog tags, hand grips… was there anything in here they could use?!

“We have some people coming by, be ready to hide when I say so.” Ryoma said through the door.

“Alright.” Kaede acknowledged him.

They drew a tasteless magazine, some magical girl looking wand, and another bag of animal crackers. After several more draws and coins wasted, they finally drew a sketchbook and pencil.

“Finally, now we just need to find somewhere to do this thing.” Kaede said.

“Hide now!” Ryoma shouted from behind the door.

Shuichi looked around the room, there weren’t many places to hide.

“Behind the counter! Climb over it!” Kaede yelled.

Shuichi noticeably did not like that idea. “Huh!? But-”

“Do it!” She yelled at him anyways.

Shuichi climbed over the counter and laid on the ground behind it.

“Hey! You’re not supposed to be back here!” Monokuma yelled at him, where on earth did he come from?!

“Ah- Um- I won’t take anything!” Shuichi pleaded.

“That’s not going to cut it, buddy. On the count of ten, if you’re not-”

Shuichi shoved a handful of coins at the bear, “Just for now?”

Monokuma stood silent for a second, before snatching the coins. “Just this once.”

The door to the shop opened, Maki walked in. “Oh. It’s you.”

“Yep! Just lil’ ol’ me in here~ No detectives to be found.” Monokuma responded.

Maki glared at the bear, she had almost turned around to leave before spotting something. She approached the counter and wiped off some dirt from it with her hand. She leaned over the counter to look behind it.

“…” Maki looked down at Shuichi.

“…” Shuichi looked up at Maki.

“What the hell have you been up to?… Why are you holding a sketchbook?” Maki asked him.

“Um… It’s for Angie?” Shuichi lied poorly.

“Yeah? Is that why the whole student council is looking for you?” Maki asked, unimpressed.

“They’re all looking for me?” Shuichi asked nervously.

“They won’t say what for. Now, again, what did you do?” Maki asked him seriously.

“I don’t think we can lie to her, Shuichi.” Kaede said.

“I um… I might have… taken the necronomicon.” Shuichi said, he was looking anywhere but at Maki.

“Are you stupid?” Maki deadpanned.

The door to the shop opened again, Kiibo walked inside. “Oh, Maki, have you seen Shuichi?”

“No.”

“Um, are you sure? It’s just that-”

“Do you want to die?”

“…See you later, Maki.”

The door closed behind Kiibo.

Maki turned back to Shuichi, “What were you thinking? You don’t actually believe in that shit, do you?”

Shuichi stayed quiet, he had a guilty look on his face.

“Damn it. Not you too.” Maki groaned. “First Kaito, now this. I thought at least you would have some common sense.”

“Sorry…” Shuichi said.

“Give it.”

“Huh?”

“Hand over the necronomicon.”

“Ah- But-”

“I’m not handing it over to that stupid cult. And I don’t think you’re capable of fending anyone off to keep it.”

“But I have everything we need. I just need a spot to not breath in the smoke and then-”

“And then what? You’re going to bring back Kaede to make her suffer through it all again?”

Shuichi frowned, “…I wasn’t going to bring back Kaede.”

Maki raised her eyebrows, “Kirumi? She’s just going to try and kill us all again.”

“No um… Rantaro.”

Maki squinted at him like she misheard him, “…Rantaro?”

“He um- he knew about the door and the ultimate hunt. We don’t know what else he could have known that might help us get out of here.” Shuichi explained.

“That’s very risky, Shuichi, you don’t know what his intentions were.”

“But we could bring someone back to life! We can’t waste this chance, Maki!”

“Do you hear yourself right now?”

“Please, Maki. I’m so close to bringing him back.” Shuichi pleaded.

“This is one of Monokuma’s motives. If no one has to die for the book to work, there has to be a different cost. What if Rantaro comes back as some sort of zombie? What if he forgets everything he’s ever known? What if that stupid bear hands us some newborn and claims it’s still technically Rantaro because it’s a clone? What if he kills someone else to ‘balance it out’ or some shit like that?”

“Maki…”

“Hand me the book before I take it from you.” Maki demanded.

Shuichi sighed and reluctantly handed her the book.

“Now, follow me.” Maki said.

-

Shuichi and the ghosts followed Maki to her lab. Maki opened the door for Shuichi to go inside. Ryoma stayed outside while the rest entered.

Shuichi spotted Tenko waiting by the weapon shelf, “Ah! Why is Tenko here?!”

Maki closed the door behind her, “She’s a traitor.”

“Shuichi! You made Himiko search the entire lawn, you disgusting male lowlife!” Tenko yelled at him.

“Tenko.” Maki glared at her,

“Ah, right right. I’m here because I need help to stop the student council.” Tenko explained.

“You… what?” Shuichi asked, confused. Kaede was a bit confused as well.

“Angie brainwashed poor Himiko… I only joined to make sure she stays okay! But this cult is getting really out of hand.” Tenko shook her head. “They have everyone looking for you right now to get the book, and to punish you.”

“P-Punish?!” Shuichi stuttered out.

“Knowing Angie, it’s probably something real messed up. She might make you donate all of your blood or something.” Tenko said.

“You won’t tell her I-I’m here, won’t you?” Shuichi pleaded.

Tenko made a disgusted face at him, “I won’t, but not for you, for the truce, for Himiko.”

“So, what’s our plan?” Maki asked the two.

“W-Well, there’s enough space in here for me to use the necronomicon safely.” Shuichi said.

“You’re actually going to use that thing?! I thought you were going to use it as ransom.” Tenko was shocked.

“I um-.”

“He’s not using it.” Maki cut off Shuichi.

“Maki.”

“We don’t know Monokuma’s intentions with this book. I’m not letting anyone use it.” Maki gave him a particularly nasty glare. “Now, how do we dismantle the student council?”

“Well, everyone is pretty freaked out about Shuichi betraying us right now. If we could implant more doubt amongst them, the group would fall apart.” Tenko said.

“Shuichi, do you have any ideas? You’re… usually smart. And you nearly got away with stealing and using the necronomicon on your own.” Maki asked.

Shuichi sighed, “Well… They don’t know that I haven’t used it yet.”

“And you won’t ever.” Maki stated.

“…We could burn this sketchbook and get some ashes from it, and I still have the doll from the warehouse. We could pin them on someone else in the student council without actually using the necronomicon.” Shuichi suggested.

Maki seemed to think over the idea.

Ryoma’s voice interrupted the brainstorming session, “Kokichi’s coming this way.”

Shuichi glanced at the door but went unnoticed by the living people in the room.

“Did anyone go with you when you visited Angie?” Maki asked.

“Tsumugi did, she stayed with her for a little bit after I left.” Shuichi said.

“Okay.” Maki furrowed her brows in thought. “What about this? We put the ashes from the sketchbook and the doll in Tsumugi’s dorm; You claim that when you found the matches and left the warehouse, Tsumugi offered to take them to Angie. Then, you also claim that she told you that Angie wanted you to break into my lab. After that, Tenko suggests checking your dorm rooms for evidence.”

“Huh? But you already told Kiibo that you didn’t see me.”

“Our story is that I kicked your ass and knocked you out accidentally after I spotted you in my lab. It would make sense if I lied to Kiibo so he wouldn’t know that I attacked a student council member.”

“Ah… but how do we get into her dorm?” Shuichi asked.

“Ooooh~ I can help with that!” A muffled Kokichi spoke from behind the door.

Maki slammed the door open, quickly shoved Kokichi inside, and then slammed it back shut. “What do you think you’re up to?”

“Calm down, y-you wouldn’t hurt a lil guy would you?” Kokichi had watery eyes and a wobbly frown.

“If you tell anyone-”

“Here I was… offering my help… and now I’m being threatened!” Kokichi wailed.

“Shut up you little shithead! What kinda help can some gross boy like you give us?” Tenko asked.

Kokichi sniffled, “I c-could pick the lock to Tsumugi’s dorm… But you guys just think I’m just a gross kid!” He cried again.

How annoying. Kaede looked over at Rantaro who was rubbing his temples. “He’s like… if my sisters were even more annoying. And that’s saying something.”

“Kokichi…” Shuichi sighed, “Would you help us?”

Kokichi stopped crying, his expression now neutral. “What’s the magic word?”

“…Please?”

“It was abracadabra, but close enough.” Kokichi grinned and held onto Shuichi’s arm, “I’ll help my beloved out anytime he asks. <3” How did he do that with his mou-

“Wow, Shuichi, first you steal the necronomicon, now you’re dating this guy? You are hitting a new low.” Maki said dryly… Kaede wasn’t sure, but it almost seemed like she was teasing Shuichi.

“You’re dating that gremlin?!” Tenko yelled, she paused and then saluted Shuichi. “Thank you for your service, taking one for the team so no girl will ever be stuck with him.”

“I am not dating him!” Shuichi denied adamantly.

“You guys are so rude, talkin’ about me like I’m not even here.” Kokichi pouted.

“I wish you weren’t.” Maki said.

“What is going on in there?” Ryoma asked through the door.

“Kokichi’s just being Kokichi.” Kaede said.

“Sooo. Are we breaking into Tsumugi’s room or what?” Kokichi asked.

“I suppose we need to act quickly for this to work…” Shuichi said.

-

Tenko hunted down Tsumugi to talk to her so she could be preoccupied while Maki and Kokichi broke into her dorm. Shuichi was told to sit and wait 15 minutes in the lab before looking for Angie.

“How do we get the necronomicon back from Maki?” Kaede asked.

“I think it’s a lost cause.” Ryoma said.

“I’m starting to wonder about what Maki said as well.” Rantaro said.

“That you’ll become a zombie?!” Kaede asked.

“Well… not exactly that. It’s more that I don’t actually know what would happen to me if I’m brought back.” Rantaro explained. “If I forget everything I’ve ever known, there is no point for me to come back.”

“But even then… You’ll be alive again.” Kaede said.

“What I need to do requires my memory. I’d rather stay dead and get Shuichi’s help instead forgetting what I need to do.” Rantaro said.

“What do you need to do so badly that you’d forfeit your life?” Ryoma asked.

“That’s my business alone.” Rantaro looked serious.

Shuichi stood up, “Um… It’s time to go.”

“Ah, okay.” Kaede said. She was kind of glad the conversation had ended there.

-

“You got this!” Kaede cheered Shuichi on.

Shuichi took in a deep breath in and out before running over to Angie and Kiibo. “Angie! I’m so sorry that I’m late. I wasn’t able to get the hammer you wanted.”

“Shuichi? Have you come to confess your sins to Atua and be punished?” Angie asked him.

“Punished?” Shuichi asked.

“Of course! You stole the necronomicon from Angie’s lab under Atua’s gaze.” Kiibo pointed his finger at him.

“I didn’t take the necronomicon… what are you talking about?” Shuichi asked.

“Ah, don’t play ignorant, Shuichi~ The book was replaced after you had arrived and you never came back with a lighter.” Angie said with a dark look on her face.

“Huh? But I gave the matches to Tsumugi.” Shuichi said.

“And not to me?” Angie asked, tilting her head to the side.

“She said you asked her to pick them up, and to tell me to grab one of the hammers from Maki’s room.” Shuichi explained.

Angie tilted to the other side, “If that is true, then where have you been?”

“Well… Maki caught me taking the hammer from the lab…” Shuichi said.

“Did she attack you?” Kiibo worriedly asked.

“Um… A little, she mostly knocked me out.” Shuichi said and rubbed his arm.

“She knocked you out?!” Kiibo looked surprised.

“I think it was um… an accident.” Shuichi said. He looked at Angie. “What happened when I was unconscious?”

“Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.” Angie was thinking over what Shuichi had told her. Hopefully she would buy their lie.

“Angie said that you took the necronomicon, so we sent a search party for you. But now I’m starting to wonder… Maybe someone else took it.” Kiibo said.

“Do you think they could have used it by now?” Shuichi asked.

“Let’s take a quick trip to visit Tsumugi!” Angie declared with a bright, intimidating smile.

-

Angie walked towards Tenko and Tsumugi. “Oh Tsumugi~ Atua has been looking for you.”

“Angie, what do you need?” Tsumugi asked. She adjusted her glasses before looking at Shuichi. “Oh? Are we punishing Shuichi now?”

“Tsumugi! Did you take the matches from Shuichi?” Kiibo asked her.

“Matches?” Tsumugi asked, confused.

“Did you take the necronomicon from my lab Tsumugi? Be honest, Atua is watching.” Angie asked her.

“Isn’t Shuichi the one who took the necronomicon?” Tsumugi looked even more confused.

“According to him, you took the matches from him and told him to visit Maki’s lab.” Kiibo crossed his arms. “Which would give you opportunity to use the necronomicon for yourself.”

“Eh?! I didn’t take it!” Tsumugi said.

“You can’t just accuse a girl like that!” Tenko shouted at Kiibo.

“I never took any matches from Shuichi, I haven’t even talked to him since I took him to Angie’s lab.” Tsumugi defended herself. Kaede started to feel a little guilty about throwing Tsumugi under the bus for their plan.

“If both you and Shuichi are saying contradicting things… that means one of you are lying.” Kiibo figured out. He had a thinking face on, “Is there any evidence we can find that would prove which one of you took the necronomicon?”

“Ah well… I’m not sure.” Shuichi said. If he were the one to suggest where to find the evidence, it would be more obvious that it was planted.

“Hm. How about we check both of your dorms! That way we can clear Tsumugi’s name from any doubt from the guys.” Tenko said.

“Um. Okay then.” Tsumugi agreed.

-

Shuichi unlocked the door to his dorm and let the student council in. Kaede went inside while Rantaro and Ryoma stayed out.

“What an interesting collection of bears, Shuichi.” Angie commented on the shelf.

“Ah, I’ve been finding them around the school. Monokuma puts them here after I find them.” Shuichi explained.

“There’s hidden mini-Monokumas around the school?” Kiibo asked while looking around his room.

Angie opened one of the drawers in his closet.

“Wha- Hey! Don’t look around in there!” Shuichi ran over.

“Hmmm? Why? You can’t hide anything from Atua, you know.” Angie said and opened another drawer. “What is this?”

“It’s clothing, just stay out of my clothes please.” Shuichi pleaded. What was up with him? Was there something scandalous in there??

“Hmm… Alright, Atua doesn’t think there is anything here anyways.” Angie closed the drawer.

Shuichi looked relieved. Kaede was going to ask him about it later.

The student council walked over to Tsumugi’s room. Inside, within the bathroom, there were ashes spread across the floor. Next to the pile of ashes was a doll from the warehouse with Kaede’s name written on it.

“I see. So it was Tsumugi.” Angie said.

“I-I don’t know how those got there!” Tsumugi said, mortified.

“I guess Tsumugi really did do it…” Tenko said.

“I have to say, I am surprised. Tsumugi has been in the council much longer than Shuichi was… yet she still betrayed us” Kiibo said.

“How do we know that no one else is planning to betray us as well?” Tenko asked.

“I didn’t betray anyone! I genuinely don’t know how those things got into my bathroom!” Tsumugi argued.

“There is no use denying it any longer, Atua knows you are responsible for your crimes.” Angie said.

“Please, I swear to Atua that I didn’t.” Tsumugi pleaded.

They all left room and ran into Himiko leaving her own dorm.

“Nyeh? What’s going on?” Himiko asked.

“Tsumugi is the sinner who stole and used the necronomicon. So now she will face Atua’s punishment!” Angie explained.

Kiibo abruptly stopped walking, “Wait. Does that mean Kaede is around here somewhere?”

The group paused.

“Well, I am here right now.” Kaede mumbled.

“Could she really be?…” Shuichi trailed off, pretending not to hear her.

“Maybe it didn’t work, it’s not any official spell that I know of.” Himiko suggested.

“How long ago did you use the book?” Kiibo asked Tsumugi.

“I didn’t use it! I don’t know when it was burned because I never took it.” Tsumugi argued.

“Nyeh, just confess already, how tiring.” Himiko said.

The group started to fall into bickering. Their mission was succeeding. With Tenko and Shuichi working together, they managed to cast more doubt on the group itself. They just had one more step left.

“I’m not sure if I… want to be part of the council anymore.” Shuichi said.

“Nyeh, this has been a lot work and fighting… I think I will resign too. Sorry, Atua and Angie.” Himiko said.

“Himiko! I fully support your decision and will leave as well.” Tenko stated.

“What?! But then it’ll just be Gonta, Angie, and I!” Kiibo said.

“Where is Gonta right now?” Shuichi asked.

“I left him to guard the effigies while we hunted down the heretic.” Angie said.

“Someone should tell him the group is disbanding.” Himiko said.

“Atua will remember this act of blasphemy.” Angie said darkly.

-

“We did it!” Tenko cheered. “Himiko is free from Angie’s control!”

Shuichi leaned against the weapons wall, “I feel bad about pinning the necronomicon on Tsumugi.”

“I still can’t believe you stole it. You really believe in ghosts?” Maki asked him.

“Ah well… There has to be something left, right? It could be possible.” Shuichi said, trying not to out himself as a medium.

“Possible. That’s reason enough for you to go under everyone’s noses and take it for yourself?”

Shuichi opted to look at the floor instead of reply. If only Kaede was able to defend Shuichi’s actions to Maki.

“Aw, poor Shuichi just wanted to see his dead girlfriend again. Don’t be so hard on him.” Kokichi mocked.

“Actually, he said he planned to bring back Rantaro.” Maki clarified.

“Oh, so dead boyfriend then.”

Rantaro, Shuichi, and herself were made deeply uncomfortable by his remarks.

“Someone should knock some sense into him.” Rantaro said.

Maki looked like she was about to. “You can leave now.” She directed at Kokichi.

“I was getting hungry anyways. You guys are buyin’ me lunch for my hard work right?” Kokichi said.

“We don’t… we don’t pay for the food here.” Shuichi said.

“You hardly did anything either!” Tenko yelled at him.

“But I was the key to your operation.” Kokichi scrunched his face, “Nah, puns aren’t my thing.”

“You’re thing should be getting out of here right now.” Maki looked she was about to deck him.

“Eh, it stinks in here anyhow. Audios.” Kokichi said as he exited the lab.

“…He didn’t even say it right.” Shuichi said.

-

They saw Angie again at lunch. She claimed that she was going to recreate the book from scratch and try the ritual again.

“But… Didn’t the ritual fail earlier? The necronomicon was used and we never found Kaede.” Kiibo asked.

“These type of things are very finicky and require precise practices. I am curious, what exactly was written on the doll?” Korekiyo asked.

“It had Kaede’s name on it, shouldn’t that have worked?” Tenko asked.

“How much of her name? Her first, last, initials, or full name?” Korekiyo asked again.

“It was just her first name.” Shuichi clarified.

“Perhaps it did not work for that reason. The writing on the doll may not have been specific enough. However, I took a gander at Angie’s wax replicas and I assume those would work perfectly according to the book’s rules.” Korekiyo suggested.

“So… it’s possible for Angie to redo the whole thing?” Himiko asked.

“I have never seen this version of such a book before, so I cannot say to the validity of it. However, I see no harm in this exercise of supernatural belief. It may be quite interesting to watch.” Korekiyo grinned from under his mask.

What would happen if she tried though? Maki still had the real necronomicon. Kaede doubted that Monokuma would accept the fake.

“If anyone is interested in a spiritual activity backed by decades of research, superstition, and mystery, I would ask you to assist me in my séance tonight. I need at least four other participants for the séance to work.” Korekiyo said.

“What is the séance about?” Shuichi asked.

“I see you are interested, in short, the séance allows us to commune with the dead.” Korekiyo explained.

“That… can’t be possible, could it?” Kiibo said in disbelief.

“There’s no way that could happen.” Kaede joked.

“Ghosts? Those aren’t real.” Rantaro added.

“Real funny you two.” Ryoma said.

“So. Any volunteers?” Korekiyo asked.

“…I guess it wouldn’t hurt. And um, it would be a unique experience.” Shuichi said. What was he doing? He could already talk to them.

“What’s this about a séance?” Kokichi walked into the dining hall. He talked about getting lunch earlier, but if he left before they did, what was he doing arriving here now?”

Korekiyo sighed, “Would you like to join, Kokichi?”

“Yep! Whatever it is, sign me up!” Kokichi said.

Despite Korekiyo’s best efforts, no one else offered to join in. He claimed that he would postpone the séance itself until enough people would join but he would still work on setting it up. Kaede wasn’t sure if it would ever happen.

-

Rantaro and Ryoma split off from them; Rantaro followed after Kokichi and Ryoma looked around the outside of the school. They said it was fine to skip meeting up later tonight because there wasn’t much for them to discuss as they had been together most of the day. Shuichi and Kaede decided to go check up on Kaito to see if he’s alright. He still refused to leave his dorm, saying he felt ill.

Afterwards, Shuichi tried hanging out with Maki. They didn’t talk much, it was awkward when one person decided to steal the motive behind everyone’s backs and the other was currently withholding said motive from them.

In the late evening, Angie wasn’t at dinner, so Gonta made a meal to bring to her. Shuichi decided he should probably bring Kaito something too because he wasn’t sure how often the guy was actually leaving his room. He made him some soup and brought the container to the dorm building. Kaede had suggested adding ginger to the soup since ginger is pretty good for sick people, but that earned her a look of disgust. She suspected that Shuichi must not like ginger very much.

When Kaito opened the door, he looked a little confused by the soup but accepted it as graciously as one can while still looking scared out of his gourd.

It was pretty late anyways, so Shuichi returned to his room afterwards.

“Whelp, our plan failed.” Kaede said after they both got into the room.

“Yep.”

“Maki ended up changing Rantaro’s mind but… I wouldn’t have minded coming back if we still had the book.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. If something happened to me, I could always relearn the piano. I can’t play now that I’m dead.”

“Right… I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s not your fault.”

Shuichi frowned at that. “I’m going to go get ready now.”

“Okay.” Kaede watched as he walked into the bathroom.

After a few minutes, Shuichi left the bathroom and with a small bundle of clothes. He threw his jacket up on the rack but put something else back in that drawer.

Kaede walked over to where he was, “What’s that?”

Shuichi jumped and closed the drawer quickly, “What’s what?”

“What did you put in the drawer?”

“Nothing…” Shuichi looked towards the wall instead of her.

“You opened the drawer to put nothing in there?”

“Would you believe me if I said yes?”

Kaede rolled her eyes, “Come on, I won’t tell anyone if it’s something embarrassing.”

“It’s not… exactly embarrassing.”

“Then you should tell me!”

“Kaede.”

“Please.”

“Kaede…”

“Please please please please.”

Shuichi sighed, “Do you promise never to tell anyone?”

“I promise!”

“Not a soul.”

“Not a single soul.”

Shuichi opened the drawer and took out what was inside, “I’ve been keeping my binder in here.”

“A… binder? What’s it for?” It looked something like a tank top to her. She didn’t see why he would be so secretive over it.

“It’s um. It’s to bind my chest.”

“Oh no, do you have heart problems? I’ll make sure not to startle you in the future!”

“What? No? What?” Shuichi looked more confused by her than she was feeling herself. “I’m transgender.”

“…What’s that?”

“You don’t- you haven’t heard of it before?”

“It sounds a little familiar, but I don’t really remember what it’s about.”

“Oh um… I was uh…” Shuichi looked very nervous, he was all sweaty and pale. Well, he was usually pale. He could really use some sun. “I um… I was born as a –or well that’s not how other people say it but um-”

“Shuichi.”

“I’m a boy!”

“…I know that.”

“No, um, I was born female but… I’m a guy. I’ve never felt like a girl so um, in simple terms, I became a boy instead.”

“You can do that?”

“Yes?”

“Oh. Cool.” That was pretty interesting.

“You won’t tell anyone, right?”

“I promised.”

“Okay.” Shuichi looked relieved.

“Does that mean you would still like guys or?”

“Ah, well, I’m bi so…”

“Oh, I think I know that one, that means you like both, right?”

“Yeah…”

“I mean, everyone thinks girls are pretty though.”

“…What.”

“Women are attractive. This is like a universal truth.”

“Kaede, that’s not…”

“Hm?”

“…Never mind.”

It was quiet for a little bit. Shuichi closed the drawer and went over to lay on the bed. Kaede sat down on the couch, it was weird to not have any real weight to dip it with.

She looked over at him, “So… Does this mean you don’t have a-”

“We are not talking about that.” Aw man.

“Fine, how do you think Rantaro’s doing?”

“He’s following Kokichi around, isn’t he? I’m not sure how long someone can stand being around him for.”

“Woah, that’s a little mean coming from you.”

“Huh? I didn’t mean it like that… He’s just, you know how he is. I wonder if he’s more tolerable when he doesn’t know you’re there.”

“What do you think he does when he’s alone?”

“I don’t know, maybe he drafts up some of his lies?”

“You don’t think he comes up with them all on the spot?”

“If he’s really the ultimate leader, I assume he plans something.”

“Do you think he could have a different talent? Like Maki did?”

“Maybe… He could be the ultimate actor pretty easily. He’s really good at it. Ah, but Rantaro only mentioned Maki’s lab being different on the map, he didn’t say anything about Kokichi’s, so that’s probably not the case.”

“True. Hmmm, you said your mom was an actor. Does he remind you of your mom?”

Shuichi gave her a blank stare, he opened his mouth but no words came out. He closed his mouth and put a hand over it in thought. Did Kaede break him??

“Shuichi?”

“No… I mean. She didn’t try to annoy people like Kokichi does but she was a little… If he wasn’t so exaggerated with his reactions… No, I don’t want think about this anymore. No.”

“It sounds like you’re in denial, buddy.”

“Why would you ever put this kind of thought in my head… I thought we were friends.”

“You can’t look away from the truth.”

“The truth? Kokichi is an annoying teenage boy, there is nothing in common with him and my mom.”

“Sure.”

“Kaede.”

-

After staying up extra late attempting to get Kaito to join them, Shuichi and Maki trained without him. It was nice not having to worry about the student council at night. However, someone came by right after they were done.

“Shuichi! Maki!” Gonta called out to them, he was running towards them from the school.

“Gonta?” Shuichi called back to him.

“Angie is dead!” Gonta shouted.

“What happened?” Maki asked.

“Gonta supposed to guard wax friends for the night. But Angie wouldn’t answer the door. So Gonta knocked door down in case Angie… but Gonta was too late!” Gonta told them.

The three living people ran to Angie’s lab. Halfway there, Gonta picked up Shuichi and carried in his arms because he was much slower than him and Maki. This, however, meant that Kaede and the others arrived shortly after the announcement had gone off.

Thankfully, they could still get into the room as the door was no longer attached to its frame thanks to Gonta. Once Kaede entered the lab, she found them gathered around the strangely arranged effigies, with Angie’s body laying dead center.

“Heyoo Kaede~” Angie’s ghost waved at her, she still seemed cheery?

“Angie!” Kaede walked over to her.

“Did you come to join me?”

“Join you?”

“In praying to Atua, of course. He will take us to be with him shortly.” Angie put her hands together and prayed.

“I’m um, sorry to interrupt, but what do you remember before dying?” Kaede asked.

“Hm, I finished making the book after sculpting you guys,” Angie tilted sideways to look past Kaede and at Rantaro and Ryoma who had just entered the lab alongside some of the others, “-so I went to grab a candle from one of the rooms. Now, I am back here again and have passed away. Atua must have not wanted me to bring you guys back, so he brought me over to you all instead. How kind of him.” Angie said, it sounded a little forced.

“Angie…” Rantaro looked sorry for her.

“Well, back to praying. You all should join in too.” Angie said.

“Ah, maybe in a bit. I have some things to do first.” Kaede said.

She had to help Shuichi however much she could. Perhaps she should ask the others if they saw something.

She walked over to Ryoma, “See anything?”

“No, I saw when Gonta ran out to get Shuichi and Maki though. What about you, Rantaro?” Ryoma turned to him.

“I was following Kokichi the whole time, at least we can know that he wasn’t involved.” Rantaro said.

At least that removed another person from the suspect list. She looked back over to Shuichi, who was talking to Korekiyo.

“Would that… really be helpful?” Shuichi asked him.

“Of course, and you need not to worry, everything has already been prepared so we can start as soon as you’re done investigating here.”

“If you say so… we don’t have anything to lose from trying.”

Huh? What were they talking about?

Kaede walked over to Shuichi, “What are you two talking about?”

Shuichi paused for a second before asking Korekiyo another question, “Have you done a séance like this before?” Oh, that’s what they were discussing.

“Not this exact one, but I have quite the experience with other séances and similar rituals. In fact-” Korekiyo rambled on and on about anthropology. Shuichi seemed to mostly be able to follow, but she was having a hard time understanding what he was talking about.

Kaede had zoned out and then remembered the conversation she had with Angie. “Oh, Shuichi, by the way-”

-

They had gathered in one of the empty rooms to perform the séance. Kaede wasn’t sure why Shuichi had wanted to take part in it, he could already talk to them all as is. She managed to get Angie to come over after convincing her it would help Himiko move on (And help her believe in Atua).

The room was dimly lit and there was a large salt circle in the middle.

“Woah! What’s up with your face?” Tenko asked Shuichi.

Everyone turned to Shuichi, who looked nervous from the sudden attention, “W-What do you mean?”

“How curious, your eyes are very reflective in this light.” Korekiyo noted.

“Hey! Does this mean you can see in the dark? Do you ruffle through the trash at night too?” Kokichi teased.

“I’m not a raccoon… and no, I can’t see in the dark any better than anyone else can.” Shuichi answered.

“We should keep moving with the séance before Monokuma summons us for the trial.” Korekiyo brought everyone’s attention back.

Tenko volunteered to take Himiko’s place under the cage, hoping to let Himiko talk to her friend one last time. That was the last thing she did before going under the cage, and the last thing she remembered upon waking up.

She appeared after the séance had ended, and after the announcement played for her body.

Tenko looked a little dazed as she stood up, “Oh? Angie! You’re here! I wasn’t sure this would work! Wait, aren’t you supposed to posses me?” She glanced around the room, “What’s everyone else doing here?”

Angie walked up to her, “Tenko… Would you come pray with me?”

“Huh? What about Himiko?”

“We can pray for her too.”

“That’s not what I meant. You should talk to her! She needs to hear from you. And you can also help us figure out who killed you.”

“Tenko… Only Atua can hear us now… And I suppose his blessed as well.” Angie looked towards Shuichi.

Tenko looked between Angie and Shuichi, clearly confused. Then she noticed her.

She gasped, “Kaede?!”

“Hey, Tenko…” Kaede tried to ignore the horrified look Tenko gave her.

“Kaede, t-there’s a hole in y-your chest!” She shakily pointed a finger towards her torso.

“I know, Tenko.”

“What are you doing here?!” Tenko yelled in shock.

“I’m helping Shuichi and some of the others. Do you um… remember anything that happened under the cage?”

“Not really anything after I offered to go under it.” Tenko scratched her head, “How come everyone’s ignoring you two being here?”

Kaede and Angie looked at each other.

“Angie, you’re more spiritual, can you, um, help her out here?”

“Sure!” Angie turned towards Tenko again, “Look down!”

“Eh?” Tenko looked down.

She saw her own corpse laying on the ground in a fresh pool of blood at her feet, she screamed. Shuichi flinched and Maki asked if he was alright.

“Angie! Couldn’t you have done or said anything nicer!?” Kaede yelled at her.

“This can’t be happening, I can’t be dead! How could- how could this even happen??” Tenko panicked.

“She will come to Atua sooner once she accepts her fate.” Angie explained to Kaede.

Tenko freaked out while Kaede tried to calm her down and Angie started praying again. Meanwhile, Shuichi was noticeably stalling for Kaede to follow him out of the room for the investigation.

Rantaro approached her, “How about I handle this for now?”

“Are you sure?” Kaede asked him.

“I’m sure.” Rantaro sounded confident.

“Okay…” Kaede walked over to Shuichi.

She turned around before going through the door to look at Rantaro again, who looked about ten times less confident now trying to console a wildly upset Tenko.

-

Kaede walked with Shuichi, Maki, and Ryoma to visit the other rooms. “I hope Tenko calms down soon… Not that she needs to be okay with dying! I hated dying too! It’s just…”

“It makes it harder to ignore your own grief?” Ryoma asked.

“Yeah… I also don’t want her to feel bad either.” Kaede said.

Shuichi opened one of the doors to the empty rooms.

Inside was Kokichi’s body on the floor, a small pool of blood was forming around his head.

“Again?!” Kaede yelled out. Just how many people were going to die tonight?!

Kokichi pushed himself off the ground, “It’s a lie!”

“Oh thank goodness.” Kaede said.

“What is wrong with you.” Maki asked, angry at him.

“Whas wrong with me? Concussion.” Kokichi pointed at the floor, “The floorboard gave way when I stepped on it.”

“That’s strange…” Shuichi said.

Shuichi and Maki prodded Kokichi with more questions. It seemed like they we’re going to leave after they finished asking him their last question.

Kaede watched them turn around. “Wha- Shuichi! You can’t just leave him like this! He’s still bleeding for crying out loud!”

“Eh, I vote you leave him.” Ryoma said.

“Don’t vote against me… thas so rude.” Kokichi mumbled.

Shuichi whipped around, “What did you say?”

“I told you not to vote agains me. Do you have wax for ears?” Kokichi whined.

“We’ll vote for who’s guilty in the trial, I hope it’s you.” Maki said.

“Shuichi, he’s clearly out of it. Get some bandages or something for him. Even if he was doing an act, you can’t fake bleeding out.” Kaede asked. Why wasn’t he helping already? Why did he look so shocked at Kokichi?

“You can toly fake bleedin’ out, but I’m not. I don’ need your help anyways. I’m a tomfoolery trained doctor.” Kokichi said.

“How hard did you hit your head?… are you hearing voices?” Shuichi asked, it sounded a little like he was interrogating him.

“We don’t have time for this.” Maki said and left the room.

“Ah, Maki-” Shuichi looked back between Maki leaving and Kokichi wobbly standing in the room. He sighed, “Come on, Kokichi. I’ll ask Kiyo if he has some spare bandages.” He held out his arm with his forearm turned in.

Kokichi blinked. “…Wa’s that? A confident pose from you? A surprise twist in character developmen’ for sure.”

“No, uh… You look unbalanced, um, I’m offering my arm for you to hold on to.”

“Oh. I knew tha’ of course” Kokichi took his arm.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Kaede asked.

“Maybe we’ll be lucky and his noggin will be too jumbled to bother everyone again.” Ryoma said.

“I’ve never been better.” Kokichi said.

“…Why are you saying that now?” Shuichi asked.

“What, can’t I join the conversation?”

“I wasn’t saying anything.”

“Yeah you were… someone was…” Kokichi looked around confused.

“…Are you sure what you heard was me?”

“Hmmm.”

“Shuichi, you don’t think he can hear us, do you?” Kaede asked.

“Oh!” Kokichi stopped.

“What is it?” Shuichi made sure he didn’t stumble.

“I’m fadin’”

“Huh?”

Kokichi fell limp and Shuichi struggled to catch him. He managed to keep him from hitting his head a second time.

“Hey! Maki! Help!” Shuichi shouted, she came running over.

Upon arriving, Maki’s face turned from one of concern to a widely displeased expression. “Please don’t tell me you need help carrying him.”

“Um… sorry.”

“Screw this, I’m getting Gonta.” Maki left.

Shuichi was left hanging on to a partially collapsed Kokichi.

“I hope he’s not dead.” Ryoma said.

“I hope so too.” Kaede said.

Ryoma coughed. “He would be so annoying as a ghost.”

“Don’t say that.” Shuichi whispered at him.

“He’s bleeding down your collar.” Ryoma pointed out.

“What- Ew! Ughhgh.” Shuichi looked grossed out. Weird, he didn’t seem that grossed out when looking at them or investigating dead bodies. Maybe it’s because the blood is touching him?

“Is Kokichi okay?” Gonta came rushing over.

-

They ran out of time for investigating the other lab. Apparently, the blood that had dried and clotted over Kokichi’s injury had rubbed off on Shuichi’s shoulder when he tried to hold him up. Korekiyo had some spare clean bandages that Shuichi borrowed to stop the bleeding. It wasn’t the most sanitary thing but it could be changed later.

While Tenko was fired up to be at the trial, ready to kick the shit out of the murderer’s ghost after the execution (could she do that?), Angie was not. Tenko ended up carrying a praying Angie to the trial grounds. That was most of what Angie seemed to do after dying. It made Kaede wonder if it actually did anything for her.

Tenko was yelling at everyone despite the fact they couldn’t hear her when Himiko became the center of attention as the suspect. Rantaro and Kaede had to hold Tenko back from Shuichi’s podium because it was getting hard for him to hear what people were saying over her yelling at him to fix it.

Korekiyo’s sister had seemed to posses Korekiyo during the trial. And during his execution, he was exorcised by his sister’s ghost. Neither of them looked similar to the rest of them as ghosts, the siblings were blue and wispy while they themselves looked practically like zombies. She didn’t know what that meant.

Monokuma took the necronomicon back to the shock of several students who had thought it had been used. Maki, Kokichi, and Shuichi had to explain what happened… which meant Shuichi did most of the explaining. Thankfully, Maki kept quiet about the part that he had intended to use the necronomicon for himself. The remaining students were a bit disappointed in him, Kaito especially.

-

After some arguing back and forth, they brought everyghost (excluding Kirumi) to Shuichi’s dorm. Tenko threw a fit over having to enter a boy’s dorm. It seemed excessive even for her, but she was likely still going through the motions of having just died. She wasn’t like the rest of them who could shove their feelings down when needed. She was still acting on that distress.

“Well now that you can talk, you better answer, why haven’t you told anyone you can see ghosts!?” Tenko shouted at Shuichi.

Shuichi shrunk behind Kaede, “I um… everyone would think I’m insane if I told them.”

“So?! Just have one of us say something only we and another living person would know but not you.”

“We don’t want the mastermind knowing either.” Rantaro said.

“Eh?! But I thought there was no mastermind.” Tenko said.

“There is, Rantaro had proof of it.” Kaede said.

“Then why hasn’t anyone seen it yet?” Tenko asked.

“…We don’t know where it went.” Kaede answered.

“Isn’t it his job to figure that out?!” Tenko pointed at Shuichi.

“He’s just a teenager like any of us, not some big-shot detective, and the mastermind no doubt took it after he died.” Ryoma said.

“Why did you all drag me in here then if no one knows anything?” Tenko asked angrily.

“We need to work together to uncover the mastermind. This is the only advantage we have over them.” Rantaro explained.

“What advantage is there? We’re dead.” Tenko said.

“The mastermind doesn’t know how many pairs of eyes we have. Kirumi is currently watching the door in the library, my current duty is to follow Kokichi around, Ryoma has been watching the outdoors mostly, and Kaede has been helping Shuichi.”

“I see, so Shuichi has been stealing the credit from Kaede, what a typical male thing to do.” Tenko tsked at him.

“I don’t usually really find anything actually, I’m more there to watch his back.” Kaede said sheepishly.

“What is Kokichi up to anyways… I hope he’s alright after his fall, even if he is Kokichi.” Shuichi wondered.

“He sure is a mystery.” Rantaro sat on the desk again, “Now that we can discuss, Kokichi has a lot of stuff littered in his room. There’s drawings everywhere from realistic-ish device blueprints to children’s drawings. There’s also a whiteboard with everyone’s names and faces on it.”

“Oh?” Shuichi’s eyes widened, “What else is written on it?”

“He seems to be deducing things about us. You, in particular, are labeled with ‘hiding something’.”

“Ah… that’s not exactly wrong.”

“What are you hiding?” Tenko questioned him.

“…This. I’m hiding this.” Shuichi gestured to everyone. “I can’t exactly tell everyone I see ghosts.”

“So what if the mastermind finds out, I want to talk to Himiko again. She needs to know that I’m proud of her before I’m gone forever.”

“People will think I’m insane. The ones who won’t, such as the mastermind, might try to kill me to keep quiet.” Shuichi desperately tried to explain to her.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Looks like the party’s over.” Rantaro said.

Shuichi walked over and opened the door, Kaito was finally there, ready for training.

-

Tenko stayed next to Angie outside, listening to her pray. Rantaro waited outside of Kokichi’s dorm while Ryoma decided to continue looking around the grounds. Kaede went back to Shuichi’s dorm.

“What if they find out?” Shuichi asked, finally changed out of the slightly bloody shirt and into his pajamas.

“Well… I’ll still be here to support you no matter what happens.”

“Thank you, Kaede.”

Kaede laid down on the small couch, “Can ghosts… really be exercised?”

“I haven’t really seen it before… but Korekiyo never reappeared, so I suppose it works… The possession part makes me worried.”

“Are you afraid one of us will take control over you?”

“…I don’t want to think about it.”

“Okay…”

Chapter Text

Instead of swapping out with Kirumi in the library, Angie joined her in an attempt to keep her company and most likely to convince her of joining Atua. It was hard to tell how Kirumi was doing when she kept staying down here, hopefully having another person to talk to would help… even if it was Angie. There was no news with the door.

Tenko went to keep watch inside the school, in her words “To keep the remaining girls safe.”

A new motive was introduced, Kokichi swiped it and ran. Everyone else spent some time chasing after him in a futile effort. Since Rantaro followed him and never came back, they assumed he was able to keep pace with him wherever he was.

Kaede followed Shuichi around, unlocking new parts of the school. Shuichi’s lab was filled with poisons and antidotes among other things. After coming across Rantaro’s lab, they were sorry to see that it was locked away forever. What was the point in even building it then?

-

“You’re weird.” Maki said.

“Huh?” Shuichi turned to her.

“You keep acting like someone’s around, it’s creepy.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Kaede unhelpfully added.

Maki squinted at him, “Sometimes you’ll look at nothing, or you’ll walk around like you’re keeping pace with someone.”

“What are you… trying to get at?” Shuichi asked.

“Nothing.” Maki said, it seemed like she had more to say, but she stopped the conversation there.

-

They parted from Maki and walked around previously explored areas of the school, just to check if something had changed or if they might find a previously unnoticed hidden entrance.

“Oh, hey, Rantaro. What are you doing here?” Kaede asked as they ran into Rantaro.

“Shuichi, we’re fucked.” Rantaro stopped in front of them.

“Eh?!” Kaede was surprised by the bluntness.

“Kokichi’s coming this way with blackmail on him.”

“What?! What kind of blackmail.” Kaede asked.

“He bugged the dorm.”

Kokichi appeared from behind the corner, “Shuichi! Just the detective I wanted to see. I was hoping we could have a one-on-one chat.”

“Kokichi… what do you want to talk about?” Shuichi asked, he looked nervous.

“Oh, I just wanted to thank you for helping me the other day.”

“Does that… need to be a private chat?”

“Yep! Now, you better follow me, or else I’ll reveal your secrets to the entire world!”

-

Rantaro, Kaede, and Shuichi all sat in Kokichi’s dorm. He had some weird vacuum turned on before they had gotten there. It was a little noisy.

“What’s this about?” Shuichi asked.

“Jeez, so impatient, don’t you know anything about the art of suspense?”

“I would rather not wait in suspense.”

“Boo… Then I’ll get right to it.” Kokichi stood right in front of him, leaving a few inches of space between them. “You’ll help me and I won’t tell anyone your lil’ secret.”

Shuichi froze, “What secret?”

“Oh, you know, this one.” Kokichi held up a small playback recorder.

He pressed a button and the audio played. They heard Shuichi’s part of the conversation they had last night.

“So, I’ll keep quiet about your imaginary friends if you do what I say.” Kokichi smiled at him.

“They’re not… imaginary.” Shuichi mumbled.

“Hm? You really think you can talk to ghosts?” Kokichi tilted his head at him, “Who’s here with us right now?”

Shuichi glared at Kokichi.

“Come on, I’ll make sure the mastermind knows about this if you don’t tell me~” Kokichi threatened him.

Shuichi avoided his gaze, “…Rantaro and Kaede are here.”

“Oh! The first ones to die. I’m surprised they get along well enough to be near each other, unless they’re haunting each other. What are they saying?”

Rantaro looked at Kokichi, “You’re an asshole.”

“…Rantaro called you an asshole.”

“Wow! Incredible! You should really take up being a medium.” Kokichi clapped his hands.

Shuichi frowned at him.

“Does Kaede have anything to say?” Kokichi asked.

Did she have anything to say to him really? “Uh… Oh!” She saw the whiteboard was flipped over. “Tell him about the whiteboard.”

“What?- Oh, um… Kaede wanted me to point out your whiteboard.”

“And?” Kokichi looked unimpressed.

“Rantaro saw it earlier, it has everyone here on it. He said you, uh, labeled me as hiding something.”

Kokichi genuinely paused. He narrowed his eyes and moved to the opposite side of the room, “Turn around.”

“Huh?”

“Turn around, have one of your ‘ghost pals’ keep watch of me or something. But don’t look back.”

“Okay…” Shuichi turned to face the wall. Really? No resistance, Shuichi?

“How many fingers am I holding up?” Kokichi asked.

“Eh?” Shuichi sounded confused.

“He’s holding up three.” Rantaro said.

“Three?” Shuichi answered.

“Hmph.” Kokichi crossed his arms, “Lucky guess.”

“I’m not guessing…”

Kokichi picked up a paper off the ground, “What’s this?”

“It looks like a drawing of a gun shooting Monokuma, it’s pretty childish looking.” Kaede said.

“A drawing of Monokuma being shot?”

“…One last test.” Kokichi brought up one hand, “What am I doing?”

“He’s giving you the finger.” Rantaro said.

“Are you flipping me the off?!” Shuichi turned around, “You are!”

“Hey! Who said you could turn around!”

“What do you want from me?”

“Oh, that’s simple, why didn’t you just ask earlier?” Kokichi walked back over to him and pulled out the key card, “You’re helping me investigate this.”

“The motive…” Shuichi reached out to grab the card but Kokichi snatched it back.

“Nuh uh,” Kokichi wagged his finger at him, “Only I get to hold the card. But we can investigate it together.”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Nope!”

Shuichi sighed.

Kokichi poked him, “I have a question myself.”

“…What?”

“Did ghost Rantaro stalk me?”

“Ah… um… a little bit.”

“I should’ve known he was a creep.”

Rantaro rolled his eyes, “Says the guy that bugged someone’s room.”

-

“Where did the boulder go?” Shuichi asked

“I ate it.” Kokichi said.

“… You did not.”

They were in the boiler room, standing around the manhole cover.

“How do you know what I had for breakfast?”

“That’s not… Anyways, is this where we’re looking first?”

“Yep!” Kokichi tried to lift the manhole cover, “Why is this so hard to pick up? Shuichi, get down here and help.”

“Must have been the boulder you ate.” Shuichi reached down to help move the manhole cover.

Incredible, two smart individuals working together, struggling to move a manhole cover that Gonta managed to throw several yards. “You both need to work out more.” Kaede said.

As soon as they managed to remove the manhole and place it down nearby, Rantaro went down before the other two could approach the manhole. She should probably head down too.

-

Kokichi swiped the key card and the traps down the escape route deactivated.

“Why are we doing this by ourselves? Do you want us to leave everyone else behind?” Shuichi asked.

“You’re so silly, what kind of detective would think Monokuma would just hand us the key to freedom just like that.”

They walked past several traps, it was so… easy. Too easy.

“We never even got this far… how much further do you think it is?” Shuichi asked.

“Should be another mile, but I was the best at track, so I can carry you there if you want.”

“Gonta already did…” Shuichi mumbled quietly.

“Whas’ that?”

“Nothing…”

“You can hold my hand if anything’s too scary down here for you.”

“…Why?”

“I just thought my motherly energy might sooth you.”

Shuichi blushed out of embarrassment, “You heard that too?!” Then he froze. “Does that mean you heard-”

“Yeah, yeah, who cares. Part of the blackmail, which means no one finds out unless you bail.”

-

They walked through the darkness before the exit.

“Ah!” Kokichi yelped.

“What?!”

“I forgot your eyes are creepy in the dark.”

“…I’m going to start wearing my hat again.”

“Then how will anyone know where you are at night? Should I get Kaito to bell you?”

“I’m not a cat.”

“What?! I thought you were. You sure act like one.”

“He’s not wrong.” Rantaro said.

“Yeah, I can see it.” Kaede agreed.

“I’m not… I’m not a cat.” Shuichi denied, it was a wasted effort.

-

They got to the door, Monokuma was waiting for them.

“Glad someone used the motive, I was starting to think you guys didn’t care for the effort I put into them.” Monokuma huffed.

“Open the door already.” Kokichi said.

“Okey dokey! Enjoy some fresh air from the outside!” Monokuma stepped aside and the door opened.

It was bright red as dust and smoke poured inside, and when Kaede could see again, she saw the outside world.

It was in ruins. The red light she saw came from the sky’s new hue. She couldn’t believe what she saw. What happened? Where were they? It looked like they were in the middle of a city, but which one? Why was everything so burnt and broken down?

She heard gasping. When she looked back towards the others, she saw Shuichi and Kokichi on the ground, struggling to breath.

“Shui-” Kaede felt Rantaro put his hand over her mouth. She looked at his face and then followed his gaze back outside. He slowly removed his hand.

She hadn’t noticed it before as it was obscured by the dust, but there were dozens of silhouettes shambling around. One of them had stopped and faced towards them. They both froze, silent, listening to their friends choke.

It charged towards the door, drawing attention from the other figures that followed suit. They almost reached the door before it slammed shut once more. What was that? Was that a person? They couldn’t be alive, could they? Were they ghosts too?

Monokuma spoke over their raspy breathing, “How refreshing! I really needed that.”

“What-” Kokichi broke out into a coughing fit.

Shuichi just laid on the floor, trying to breath.

“What’s up with the outside world? Well aren’t you two in a rush, you didn’t even wait for the next flashback light before coming down here. But I’ll let you guys in on some of the know. Listen closely, because I’m only saying this once.” Monokuma laughed at them. “A whole buuuuunch of meteors slammed into the Earth quite a while ago, eventually leading it to the state you just saw it in. But don’t worry, not that many people died directly from the collisions, the rest of humanity suffered slow and painful deaths instead!”

This can’t… this can’t be real.

“They’re all… dead?” Rantaro asked in disbelief.

“They can’t be-” She looked towards Rantaro, “They can’t be, right? It’s not possible.”

Kaede watched Rantaro collapse, whatever the last thing holding him together was, it was gone. She was the last one standing, she had to do something. But. What could she do? Why was she the only one who wasn’t falling apart? Was it denial, shock?

They just… stayed there. Rantaro cried, Shuichi had a panic attack that she tried her best to keep from worsening, and Kokichi was still and unreadable.

-

Kokichi was dragging Shuichi back, it was surprising he even got him to stand. Kokichi talked on and on and on while Shuichi didn’t say a word. They barely seemed aware of each other.

Kaede herself had to drag Rantaro back, albeit less forcefully.

Trying to get everyone up the ladder was more difficult than she thought it would be, but they managed to get everyone up.

She flagged down Ryoma once they got outside but…

“You all were gone for a while, what did you find down there?” Ryoma asked.

Kaede tried to speak, but nothing came out. She didn’t know what to say, how to explain.

Ryoma looked at the rest of them, “…Nothing anything good I take it?”

She shook her head.

Ryoma coughed, “…Shit.”

-

Kokichi quickly abandoned Shuichi behind the school. He was probably up to something, but Rantaro wasn’t in the state to do anything… She would have to explain to Ryoma later what happened.

“Kaede…What do we do?” Shuichi asked.

“Huh? Shuichi? You’re not supposed to talk to me directly like that, what if-”

“Is there a point in hiding it anymore?”

She… didn’t know.

“There’s no bugs out here… I’m going to lay down.” Shuichi proceeded to lay in the grass.

“…” Rantaro also laid in the grass.

Kaede watched the two of them… it was pretty tempting.

Kaede laid in the grass, it felt weird, she felt a static fuzz as the blades of grass didn’t move under her and instead poked through her back.

What are they supposed to do? Everything felt so pointless now, everyone was trying to survive for what? Another day in this hell hole?

The three laid there for about an hour, maybe longer, before someone found them, or rather, found Shuichi.

“Nyeh?! Shuichi?!” Himiko ran over. “Are you okay?”

Shuichi didn’t bother to move, “No.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Everything.”

Himiko looked over him, probably checking to see if he was injured. “…You missed the flashback light. You should talk to Kaito or Maki about it… I’m not sure I could explain it.”

“I don’t care.”

“Huh?”

“There’s no point.” Shuichi’s voice wobbled.

“…I’ll go get them, stay there, or else I’ll use my magic to keep you still.” Himiko turned around and ran back to the school.

-

“Sidekick! There you are, we were worried after we couldn’t find you or Kokichi.” Kaito briskly walked over with Maki.

“Why are you laying in the grass?” Maki asked.

Shuichi looked at his friends, “…I’m sorry.”

“What for?” Kaito asked.

“I’m sorry.” His voice broke.

“Shuichi?” Maki looked concerned.

Kaito sat him up, “What’s wrong? Did Kokichi do something?”

Shuichi covered his face with his hands and shook his head. “No… sorry.” His breath hitched.

“Can you tell us what happened?” Maki asked.

Shuichi took a shaky breath in, “Everyone’s dead. T-There’s no reason to leave… My aunt a-and uncle are dead.” He started sobbing.

“Woah, woah, Shuichi, calm down.” Kaito tried to settle down the crying mess of a detective.

“Uh…” Maki was at a loss of what to do. “What… made you think that?”

“I-I saw the outside world.”

“Where?” Kaito asked.

Maki narrowed her eyes, “The motive… were you with Kokichi?”

Shuichi nodded, “We w-went to the escape route.”

“You went with him there alone?!” Kaito was shocked.

“Why?” Maki asked.

“He blackmailed me… not that it matters now.” Shuichi slumped over back onto the grass and sniffled.

“Dude…” Kaito looked to Maki, “What do we do?”

“I don’t know, I don’t comfort people, aren’t you the motivating person?” Maki asked.

Kaito looked at Shuichi again, “Are you uh… sure that the outside world was dead? Maybe we’re in uh… an abandoned city, there’s quite a few of those around!”

“T-The sky was red and I-I couldn’t breath the air” Shuichi cried.

“It… was just a wildfire?” Kaito tried.

Shuichi wiped his face with his sleeve. “Monokuma said everyone was dead.”

“You trust what Monokuma says?” Maki asked.

“I saw it… I’m laying here till I decompose.” Shuichi tearfully curled up on himself.

“Shuichi…” Kaede said.

“I’ll stay by your side.” Rantaro said from his place next to Shuichi on the grass.

“Okay…” Shuichi said.

Kaito and Maki looked at each other.

-

“Come on, sidekick, you should eat something.” Kaito was shoving a piece of bread at Shuichi’s face.

Shuichi was laying on the ground in the dining hall, he really was pathetic when depressed. The back of his jacket was a mess as they had to literally drag him there.

Why wasn’t Kaede upset, was something wrong with her? Her friend was floored (also literally) by what they both saw and she just kept moving on. She paced around the dining hall.

“I don’t know… it must have been bad. Do you think it’s related to the memory?” Maki asked Tsumugi.

“Maybe… it’s pretty scary to think of. The world can’t actually be gone, right?” Tsumugi asked.

Kokichi walked in nonchalantly, “Oh, hey, what’s for lunch?”

“You. What did you do to Shuichi?” Maki

“Me? I didn’t do a thing~” Kokichi walked towards the kitchen.

“You blackmailed him.” Kaito yelled at him.

“Shuichi, you weren’t supposed to tell.” Kokichi tsked. He took out the playback recorder, “Guess I won’t be needin’ this anymore.” He tossed it onto the table.

Maki quickly picked up the recorder and pocketed it.

“Maki? What are you doing?” Kaito asked.

“We’ll confront him about it later, we don’t know exactly what’s on it and I don’t want just anyone to grab it.”

“Aw. The assassin does have a heart, who could’ve known.” Kokichi retrieved several snack bags from the kitchen.

“More than you do.” Maki retorted.

“I’m wounded.” Kokichi kicked open the door and left.

“If I wasn’t trying to make sure Shuichi ate something…” Kaito grumbled, he pat Shuichi’s head. “Quit crying, you need fuel.”

“I don’t want fuel.”

“What do you want then?”

“I w-want my uncle.” Shuichi cried. “But he’s dead. Everyone’s dead.”

“You said you went with Kokichi, right? He seemed to be his usual self to me.” Kiibo noted.

“Shuichi, how about we get you back to your dorm.” Maki offered.

“…I don’t care.”

His friends carried him back to his dorm. Kaede followed along, not much was on her mind, it felt hard to think. Rantaro was still in the grass. If the exisals hadn’t mowed the lawn before, he might have been impossible to spot as his hair blended in with the greenery.

Maki and Kaito were in Shuichi’s dorm now. They threw him on the bed (after taking off his nasty jacket) and sat around the room.

Maki took out the playback recorder, “Before I play this, anything you want to tell us?”

“No…”

“Alright.” Maki played the recording.

Several conversations played out, with only one speaker ever recorded. Kaito got hugely creeped out and Maki had an unreadable expression. Shuichi moved only once to cover his ears with a pillow.

“I knew something was off.” Maki said.

“S-Sidekick, you don’t a-actually talk to ghosts do y-you?” Kaito stuttered out.

Shuichi ignored them and sunk further into his bed.

Maki ran a hand through her hair. “We’ve been putting our lives in the hands of a delusional kid this whole time.”

“I’m not delusional.” Shuichi spoke quietly.

Maki’s eyes widened in realization, “This is why you took the necronomicon… if I had known, I would’ve dissuaded you from getting this bad.”

“This bad?” Shuichi questioned.

Maki waved Kaito over and whispered to him, Kaede moved closer to listen in. “I’m starting to doubt that he actually saw the outside world. Maybe Kokichi lied to him about it.”

“I-I don’t know Maki… Shouldn’t we check if he can actually see ghosts?” Kaito whispered back.

“Ghosts aren’t real. This could be some sort of mental thing that got worse in this place.”

“But… I want to give my sidekick a chance.”

“And I don’t want to feed into whatever this is.” She gestured towards Shuichi, who was crying on the bed.

“Just one test. And I don’t like talking about ghosts either, w-we’re doing this for him. Please, Maki.”

Maki tried to avoid Kaito’s puppy-dog eyes. “…Fine.”

Kaito let out a quiet “Alright!”

Maki walked over to the side of the bed, “Prove it.”

“Huh?” Shuichi looked up at her. His smeared eyeliner left stains on the sheet.

“Prove you can talk to ghosts.”

“…How?”

“Shouldn’t you know how?”

“I don’t… I usually keep it secret.”

“Great… Kaito, you take over.”

“Eh?! Me?”

“Yes, you, now do whatever,”

“O-Okay.” Kaito swapped places with Maki. “S-So… Are there any spirits in the room with us?”

Shuichi lifted his head again to look, he made eye contact with her. “Kaede’s here.” He plopped his head back down.

“O-Oh! Is she, uh… a vengeful ghost? A sad one?”

“How you feeling Kaede?” Shuichi asked.

“Well… pretty shitty.” She answered truthfully.

“She’s feeling pretty shitty she says.” If she wasn’t also sad, she would have found hearing Shuichi say that with a wobbly voice to be funny.

“…Okay.” He didn’t look too convinced. “…Is there anything specific you remember that you could only see a g-ghost for?”

“I saw Ryoma’s ghost above the fish tank… that’s why I ran to the side of it to see his body.”

Maki blinked, “You didn’t just find the tank to look strange?”

“No… and Rantaro helped us stay away from Gonta that one night.”

“R-Rantaro?… You were unnaturally able to notice Gonta approach us nearby several times…” Kaito thought over it.

“It is strange… I still don’t buy it.” Maki stated.

“I don’t hallucinate.” Shuichi argued.

Maki crossed her arms, “You claim you can talk to ghosts.”

“…Can you leave.” Shuichi mumbled.

“What?” Maki asked.

“I want you to leave me alone.” Shuichi spoke up.

Maki threw her arms up, “Fine.”

“M-Maki?”

“Let’s leave him, it’s what he wants, he’s safe in his dorm anyways.”

Kaito looked back and forth between them. “Okay then, but I’m borrowing your dorm key, you’re not skipping out on training.”

Kaede watched the two leave. “Are you… okay?”

“No…”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“There’s nothing to talk about… there’s no point in doing anything.”

“Um… Don’t you want to figure out how we got here? Or why we were put in a killing game?” She tried to motive him.

“Our families are dead… just let me lay here.”

“…”

So she did, she let him lay there for hours in silence. She felt alone despite the living, breathing person on the bed. This wasn’t fair, none of this was fair. Nobody here deserved this. If only she could get her hands on the piano one last time, she would play him something, anything, to help him feel better.

It was getting late… He skipped dinner.

She thought over what happened recently, how much she didn’t know about what ghosts are capable of. And, what Korekiyo’s trial may imply.

She walked up to the bed, “Shuichi…”

“…hm?” She couldn’t tell if he had been asleep or not.

“Could I… just for a little while… try to posses you?”

“…Why?”

“I… want to play the piano one more time.”

“Isn’t your lab locked?”

“I’ll manage. But… Would you let me? I’ll drop it if you say no.”

“…Sure, nothing matters now anyways.”

“Thank you… now, um, how does this work?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Okay… I’ll just… try.” Kaede put her hands against his arm and concentrated, imaging sinking through.

And

She

Fell

-

-

-

Kaede stood up, she felt disoriented at the sudden movement. Her chest felt constricted, but she could feel her legs once more. But they weren’t her legs, they were slightly too long and skinny. She went over to the bathroom mirror and saw Shuichi’s reflection, creepy.

“Wow.” Oh that was, she sounded like a girl still. Shuichi must lower his voice all the time then.

“Please don’t use my voice like that.”

Kaede looked around the room but didn’t see Shuichi despite hearing him, “Where’d you go?”

“I’m right here… Just in your- my- our? head.”

“Okay… not creepy at all…”

“Speak lower…”

Kaede tried lowering her (his?) voice, “Sorry. Woah! I sounded just like you.”

“Shouldn’t you get going?”

“Right, I’ll get on it.”

She took off… and miscalculated the stride. She tripped and landed on the floor.

“Ow.”

“Ow.”

Kaede stood up and tried again, this time walking more carefully. “Sorry about that.”

“Voice.” Shuichi reminded her.

“Right right.” She lowered it again.

-

“…Why are we outside Kokichi’s dorm?” Shuichi asked.

“We need a lock picked, don’t we?” Kaede whispered. She rang the doorbell.

After minute or so, the door cracked open.

Kokichi looked at them through the crack, “Come back with a warrant.”

Speak low, speak low, don’t embarrass Shuichi, “I was, um, going to ask you a favor.”

“A favor, from me?” Kokichi gasped.

“Could you unlock the pianist’s lab for me?”

“You mean Kaede’s lab?”

“Yes?”

“Did her ghost ask you to?” He sounded skeptical.

“Um… Yes?” Technically.

“This late at night?” Kokichi asked.

“Well, when else?”

“…Oki! Why not.” Kokichi came out of his dorm, he was wearing a white-t shirt with a clown face printed on it while wearing his regular uniform pants.

“Is that a hand-done print?” Shuichi wondered for only Kaede to hear.

“Oh? Just like that? Okay, let’s go then.” Kaede said.

They left the dorm building and headed towards the school.

“It warms my heart to see you have such a turn around.” Kokichi smiled.

Kaede looked at Kokichi, confused. “What do you mean?”

Kokichi held his arms behind his head. “You were soooo mopey earlier, glad to know the death of the planet stuff doesn’t bother you.”

“It… It does.” She wasn’t unaffected, she just reacted weirdly.

“Weird.”

“What’s weird?”

Kokichi smirked at her, “Nothin’”

She wished someone else knew how to pick locks, shouldn’t this be a skill that a detective like Shuichi should know? Once they got inside the school, Kokichi kept watching her like a hawk.

“Is there something you want to ask?” Kaede asked him.

“Not yet~” Kokichi said.

“Okay…”

They stopped outside of her lab, currently closed off from her.

Kokichi leaned against the door and looked back at her, “So, who are you?”

“What?”

“Are you Tsumugi? Or did Miu invent a convincing disguise thingamajig.”

“I’m not Tsumugi or Miu… I’m Shuichi.”

“You can’t lie to me~ Whoever you are, you’re not good at imitating him. Maki would’ve found you out in an instant. Eh, Kaito probably wouldn’t notice if Shuichi’s hair turned pink.”

“Kaito’s nice, he’s not that dumb.”

“Not that dumb?”

“You know what I meant.”

Kokichi looked curious. “Do I? Maybe you’re here to murder me and frame Shuichi. His friends likely don’t trust him as much anymore. After all, who can trust a delusional detective? He might hallucinate the evidence and throw everyone off in the trial.” This bitch.

“He is not delusional.” Kaede angrily told him.

A scary smile formed on Kokichi’s face, “He?”

Shit!

Kokichi stopped leaning the door, “You don’t carry yourself the same way, and your inflection is different. I’ve not even heard you say ‘sorry’ once. But you look just like him.”

“Uh…”

Kokichi took out a pin and started unlocking the door, “Whoever you are, since you asked for a favor, I’ll get one back.”

“Okay?” At least he was still working with her?

After a bit of messing with the lock, the door clicked. Kokichi turned the handle and let Kaede in. The lab was poorly lit, maybe there was a light somewhere? The only illumination came from the windows.

“Hm, you still have the shiny eyes.” Kokichi commented.

“Huh? Oh, right.” She almost forgot, she couldn’t see Shuichi’s eyes since she was using them… creepy.

Kokichi looked around the room, he dug through some of the vinyls and CDs. “Eugh, bunch of boring old stuff.”

“It’s not boring.”

“B. O. R. I. N. G.”

Kaede huffed at him, “You just have no taste.”

“What is it that you wanted to do here anyways? Not much to murder with in this room, unless you dropped a piano on someone.”

Kaede stayed quiet.

“Oh? Is it a secret?”

“You can go now.”

“Leave? But I wanted to watch what you’re gonna do here, as a favor.”

Kaede groaned, of course he’d do something like that.

“What? You think I’d help a stranger for free? Not even Shuichi would imagine up something different from me.”

She was fed up with him insulting Shuichi, “You know what, fine. It’s me, Kaede, possessing him. Are you happy? Can you stop insulting Shuichi now?”

“What are you doing?!” Shuichi yelled in her mind.

“Kaede? You think I’d believe that?” Kokichi hummed, “Maybe you really are Shuichi, having an identity crisis to cope.”

“I came here to play the piano one more time.”

“Why?” Kokichi tilted his head at her.

“Because I’m dead, this is my last chance to.”

“Kaede…” Shuichi sounded sorry for her.

“Well, then play. Don’t mind me, I’ll just be watching.” Kokichi sat on a box of vinyls.

Kaede sighed, she didn’t mind someone else listening, she just hoped he didn’t heckle. She picked up some music sheets of her choice, a collection of Debussy works, and placed them on the music desk.

She sat at the piano and did a small warm up, playing different chords. It felt weird playing while using someone else’s hands. At least they were about the same size so it didn’t take too much adjustment.

“What piece is that? I’ve never heard anything like it before.” Kokichi teased her.

Kaede rolled her eyes, “Your mom’s.”

“HA! What! You definitely aren’t Shuichi. Can you make him say more things?”

“Kaede… please don’t.” Shuichi pleaded.

“Nah, I don’t want to bother him too much.”

“Booo, aren’t you possessing him? Wouldn’t that be a bother?”

“I asked if I could.”

“Oh so he consented to possession, jeez, he’ll let anyone do anything to him if they asked nicely enough.”

“That’s not true!” Shuichi denied.

“Ehhhh, pretty much.” Kaede said.

“Kaede.” She could imagine Shuichi burying his head in his hands.

“He disagrees though.” Kaede told Kokichi.

Kokichi tilted his head. “He’s listening? So he’s aware of the possession?”

“Yeah?”

“Has Rantaro possessed him before too?”

“No, I think… he might still be on the lawn, I’m not sure.”

“I see, replanted.”

“I’m going to actually play something now so I would appreciate if you kept quiet.”

Kokichi mimed zipping his lips.

She decided to play the piece she had mentioned to Shuichi a while ago. Debussy pieces were usually pretty soothing. Maybe it would help? She’s not sure how much music could balm the pain of losing everyone they ever knew and more. But she played, because she wanted to, because there was nothing else left to do. She didn’t stop at the end of Clair de Lune, she played Passepied, Rêverie, Mazurka. It was a concert for two, but it didn’t feel any less important to her than when she played for tens or hundreds of listeners.

“Huh.” Kokichi was likely convinced by now… He seemed to be like his regular self just a few hours after they saw the outside world. But was that an act?

“You should lay under the piano.” Kaede suggested.

“Eh? Why? Is it booby trapped?” Kokichi asked.

“No, but you can feel the vibrations from the piano, you should try it.”

“If this ends up being a complicated murder plot, I’m hauntin’ the both of you.” Kokichi said as he reluctantly scooted under the piano and laid down.

“I don’t think anyone has been killed by Deux Arabesques, but who knows, this could be a first.” Kaede said as she started to play.

“Can’t believe Kaede wants me dead, should’ve known.”

“I don’t want you dead.” Kaede said a little sadly.

“’Cause I’ll be an annoying ghost?”

“That’s how Ryoma feels, I just don’t want any of my friends to die…”

“So the whole gang is still floating around?”

“Not, um, Korekiyo. His sister exorcised him during his execution. I think she disappeared after too.”

“Thank god.”

She was… a little relieved that he wouldn’t be around. There wouldn’t be any screaming matches between him and Tenko.

Kaede kept playing as she talked. “I don’t know what we’re going to do now. Shuichi just wants to rot away.”

“What do you want to do?” Kokichi looked at her from under the piano.

She just wanted to go home. “Play piano I guess… which I’m doing now… Actually-”

“Actually what?”

“Shuichi skipped dinner, I might force him to eat something.” She could feel his empty stomach nagging for food.

“Pft, but that’s short term. Sounds like your trying to avoid the thinkin’ long term just like him.”

“Well what’s your long term plan?”

“Me? I’m starting a business.”

“A business.”

“Yep, I just need to get enough monocoins to buy the entrances to the school, that way I can charge entree fees and get rich quick.”

“You really are evil.”

There was a knock on the door, she froze and the last note she played rang out and faded away. The handle shook but the door didn’t open.

“Did you lock it?” Kaede whispered.

“Uh, duh.” Kokichi whispered back. He slowly removed himself from under the piano and crept over.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to open the door.” Kokichi whispered sarcastically.” I’m going to listen in obviously.”

That… might be a decent idea. Kaede carefully got off the bench and made her way to the door.

“Y-You can’t say you didn’t hear that!” She heard Kaito say from behind the door.

“The school isn’t haunted, its probably a recording.” Maki said.

“Recordings don’t cut off like that!” Kaito argued.

“Hey, hey Kaede.” Kokichi nudged her.

“What?”

“Play something scary on the piano.”

“What, I can’t do that.”

“Come on, you should, it will teach them an important life lesson.”

“What lesson?”

“I dunno.”

Maki scoffed at Kaito, “You can’t be acting like this, we don’t want to end up making Shuichi’s hallucinations worse.”

Maki was still so convinced that Shuichi was imagining things. “…Kokichi, slam the door on my cue.” Kaede went over to pick through some music sheets.

Kokichi stood by the door with a devilish smile on his face. “Aye aye.”

“This will do.” She picked out a short piece, Tomie piano solo, and walked back to the piano. “Hit the door a beat after I look towards you.”

She put her hands on the keys and started to play. The song started sudden, but slow, with some unsettling chords.

“Do you hear that?” Kaito asked.

“You’re freaking out too much.” Maki said back to him.

“But Kaede’s the only one w-who plays the piano, and this her lab!”

“Stop letting this ghost stuff get to you, this is just some sick joke. Monokuma is probably playing records or something to fuck with us.” Maki grabbed the door handle again and shook it, “Cut it out.”

Kaede lifted her hands up and held the peddle down, letting the notes ring out as long as they could. A recording couldn’t do that. She waited a moment before continuing where she left off.

“Maki.”

The two argued as the melody picked up, Kaito got more scared while Maki got more irritated at him.

The notes started to clash more as the tempo increased. It sped up faster and faster getting more chaotic. Moments before the end, Kaede looked towards Kokichi.

He hit the door with the back of his arm while she forcefully (sorry piano) slammed the lid shut.

Kaito screamed, frantic running could be heard going down the hall away from them.

Kokichi moved away from the door, quietly giggling into his hand. He looked back towards her and flinched hard.

He blinked, “What- I saw- What did you do? Did you do that on purpose?”

“Do… what?” She had been just standing there.

He stayed quiet for a moment, holding his neutral expression. But he couldn’t hide how he broke out into a sweat. “Nothing, must’ve been a trick of the light.”

“It’s not nothing. Tell me what.”

Kokichi tilted his head to the side, “You wouldn’t… happen to have a gaping hole in your chest. Would ya?”

“You saw that?!”

“Is that what you look like?!”

“It’s what I look like as… a ghost.”

“Creepy, disturbing, disgusting, never do that trick again.”

“I didn’t even know what I did.”

“Hm, is that what Shuichi sees all the time? Gorey ultimates everywhere? Sounds real fun, I’m envious.”

“I bet you are.” He still seemed rattled to her.

“Thanks to you, I’m going to have nightmares tonight.”

“How kind of you to say that… about my body.”

“I’m retiring for the night. See ya.” Kokichi unlocked the door and paused. “You started speaking like yourself by the way, people will notice Shuichi sounding like a girl.”

“Oops, thanks… See you” Huh, thanking Kokichi, weird. Maybe weirder than being a ghost.

They both left the room and Kaede locked it behind herself. When she turned around, Kokichi had already gotten out of sight.

“I didn’t take him for a scaredy cat.” Shuichi spoke up.

“Ah! You’re still here.”

“I can’t exactly… leave.”

“I thought you might’ve been, like, asleep?”

“I didn’t have anything to say… sorry.”

“It’s fine, I’m stopping at the dining hall though.”

“Oh… Okay.”

“Did you like the music?”

“Yeah, um, it was nice…”

“But?”

“It feels disturbing to have someone else move my body… Sorry.”

“I don’t think you should be sorry about that.”

“Sorry.”

Augh. Shuichi.

-

Kaede stood outside the dining hall. “I forgot it was locked at night.”

“Maybe there’s something in the warehouse?” Shuichi suggested.

“Oh, good idea.” She went there instead.

She walked around the warehouse and hummed. Once she got to the far end, she found a large bag of chips she remembered seeing earlier. It was better than nothing.

Kaede heard the door open to the warehouse, she stepped back to hide behind the aisle but she ended up knocking over a lamp. Before she could grab it, it landed against the ground and the bulb shattered.

“Wh-Who’s there?!” It sounded like Himiko, what was she doing up? “H-Hello?”

She didn’t mean to scare her, “Sorry!” She raised her voice, hoping it would echo across the warehouse.

“KAEDE?!” Himiko screeched. It was silent for a moment after and then she heard the door slam shut.

“Are you going to keep scaring people?” Shuichi asked.

“I didn’t mean to that time.” Kaede covered her face with one hand.

-

The bag of chips had been snacked on and was now empty. It was a little nerve wracking to walk around outside in the dark, but she got back to the dorm building just fine.

There was a new problem now though, Kaito still had Shuichi’s dorm key. So they were locked out.

Kaito should be back in his room by now, right? She rang his doorbell and waited…

She rang it again and waited some more…

She spammed his doorbell.

The door finally opened, “Who- AH!” the door slammed in her face.

“…What was that about?” She rang his doorbell again, she was not letting Shuichi sleep outside. Even though he’d be willing to lay on the lawn again probably.

The door slowly opened a smidge. “Oh… it’s just you, sidekick. Ah, um, I forgot your eyes shine like that in the dark. You need something?”

“You still have my dorm key?”

“Y-Yeah, here.” Kaito handed him the key through the door. “Where’d you go earlier?”

“I just… walked around the school.”

“You did? We didn’t spot you there earlier… Did y-you see anything?”

“What do you mean?”

Kaito was shaking in his slippers. “A-Any ghosts? Was Kaede around?”

Heh. Heheh. Heheheheh. She summoned up her regular voice, the timbre was Shuichi’s, but it was close enough. She smiled, “I’m right here.”

Kaito stumbled back in fear. “W-WHAT?!”

“Goodnight, Kaito.” She closed his door for him.

“Kaede, why did you do that?” Shuichi groaned at her.

“You should lighten up a little, at least now he’ll be convinced you’re not hallucinating.”

“He’ll think I’m haunted.”

“I mean… you are though.”

“He’s going to be scared of me now… I didn’t want that either.”

“Sorry.” She felt a little guilty now. It was just supposed to be some light fun.

“I don’t think I want to be possessed again.”

“That’s fair, I’ll just get into your dorm first. You might fall down or something once I leave.” She stopped in front of his the door.

“Who Shuichi talking to?”

She turned around, Gonta was just leaving his dorm. “Ah! Gonta, I was just talking to… myself. What are you doing out here?”

“Gonta look for bugs at night, some nocturnal and Gonta mostly looked during daytime.”

“Oh, good luck. And goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Shuichi.”

Kaede unlocked the door and closed it behind her. She plopped on the bed and concentrated on trying to un-possess Shuichi.

-

She felt really dizzy for a few seconds. She opened her eyes, she was was laying next to Shuichi on the bed. Thank goodness that worked, she didn’t know what they would do otherwise.

She hopped off the bed, “Phew, now you can get ready for bed. It’s gotten pretty late huh.”

Shuichi mumbled something. He grabbed the corner of the blanket and flipped the comforter in half over himself, not bothering to actually climb under the blankets.

“Shuichi! That’s gross, you’ve been all over the school. At least change clothes.”

Shuichi faked a snore.

“I’ve been here the past few nights, I know you don’t snore!”

Chapter Text

Shuichi would not get up.

It was getting pretty late in the morning, she tried coaxing him out of bed but he was all sad again. She heard the doorbell ring quite a few times a while ago. Maybe she should have asked Kaito to unlock the dorm for them and keep the key instead of scaring the shit out of him.

Oh well. Nothing to do but wai-

The door flew off the wall.

That got Shuichi up, he fell out of the bed.

“Is Shuichi okay?” Gonta called out into the room.

“Shuichi?” Maki called out too.

“Hello??” Shuichi spoke from the floor.

“What are you doing on the floor?” Maki asked.

“Why did you break down my door!?”

“You scared everyone after never showing up for breakfast, did you forget the situation were in?”

“Oh… sorry.”

“We looked around for you in the school after you didn’t show up for training last night and you weren’t in your dorm either. But, Kaito said you stopped by later and told him you were in the school. What’s up with that?”

“Where is he?”

Maki narrowed her eyes at him, “…He couldn’t make it.”

“Oh…”

“Stop being so sad. I don’t like seeing you like this.”

“…”

“Miu said something about uncovering the secret to the outside world tonight, doesn’t that sound interesting?”

Shuichi kept laying on the floor without a response.

“Gonta think he see bug other day, Shuichi want to help find bug?”

“We still don’t know how we got here, we could investigate around the school for that.”

“Or friends can set up scavenger hunt for Shuichi.”

Maki sent Gonta a questioning glance, “A scavenger hunt?”

“Forest family used to set up bug hunt for Gonta growing up. Maybe help Shuichi?”

“I don’t think-… Shuichi, would you like to do a scavenger hunt?”

Shuichi’s eyes started to water.

“Ah! Gonta sorry! Gonta won’t mention scavenger hunt again.”

“It’s not the scavenger hunt, he’s been sad since Kokichi convinced him the world ended.”

“Like how Kokichi trick Gonta? But… Shuichi is smart. Unlike Gonta.”

“He’s… not in his right mind right now.”

Shuichi rubbed his eyes, “I did see it.”

“Were there ghosts?” Maki asked.

“Y-Yes.”

Maki sighed and looked back to Gonta, “See, hes not thinking straight. We’ll have to keep an eye on him.”

“Didn’t Himiko and Kaito say school is haunted?” Gonta asked and Maki shushed him.

Shuichi looked up from the floor, “What?”

“They’re just paranoid from the killing game.”

Shuichi sniffed, “The school is kind of haunted… Tenko should be a-around inside somewhere, and Kirumi and Angie are in the library…”

“But Himiko and Kaito said ghost was Kaede.”

“Gonta, you’re not helping.”

“Oh… Um… I did let her possess me last night.”

“Alright, how about we drag you out to lunch instead of talking ghosts.” Maki said.

“I’m not hungry.” Shuichi argued weakly.

“Too bad. Gonta, pick him up.”

-

“I can’t believe I have to be the one who forces you to eat. This should be Kaito’s job.” Maki said.

This time, they had actually forced Shuichi to sit on a chair at the table. He was slumped over with his head in his arms though. His hair was a mess and he still wore yesterday’s clothes, but they did put a new jacket on him.

“Poor Shuichi, do you think he’ll be up for whatever Miu is planning.” Kiibo asked.

“He better be. Have you seen Kaito anywhere, Kiibo?” Maki asked.

“I only saw him at breakfast… you don’t think the ghost could have gotten him, do you?”

“Oh god, not you too.”

“Ghosts can’t get people.” Shuichi mumbled, ignoring his untouched sandwich.

“Eh? But-”

“Ignore Shuichi, he’s been having delusions.”

“Delusions?! Is he okay? What happened?”

Maki leaned in and whispered to Kiibo.

Kaede sat on one of the open chairs next to Shuichi. “This is getting really out of hand.”

“I just want everything to stop.” Shuichi said quietly.

“I’m sorry, Shuichi…”

“It’s not fair.”

“I know, it’s bad enough being dead but… everyone else being gone too…” She had to suppress her own tears from falling.

“I should have… I should have told my aunt and uncle that I loved them.”

Kaede looked down at the table. “I should have tried fixing things with my sister before it was too late.”

“I should have kept quiet about the blackmail… now everyone is going to think I’m insane again.”

Again?

Maki sighed, “I’m going to find Kaito to see if he can cheer up Shuichi, can you watch him?”

“Watch him? He’s not a child?” Kiibo asked, confused.

“Just make sure Kokichi doesn’t make him worse.”

“Kokichi… I’ll try. I don’t think I can keep him from being himself though.”

“If only.”

-

Kaede was trying to keep her mind off of anything sad, which was hard to do when you’re waiting around for someone to cheer up your very depressed friend. Maki had been gone a while and any attempt Kiibo made to lighten the mood got squashed immediately.

“Maybe Miu’s thing will be fun! She does seem very excited about it.”

“Like Himiko’s magic show?”

“Yeah!”

“The one Ryoma died in.”

“Right… Um… But this time no one will die!”

“I don’t want to know what Miu is making either…”

“Huh? Why not?”

“It’s probably some… weird sex toy thing.”

“…I can’t argue that there’s no chance that it could be that. But if it’s not, then it might be something cool. She’s the ultimate inventor after all!”

“…”

“Maybe you feel better after eating your sandwich?”

“…”

“…Is what you saw really that bad?”

“Everyone’s dead.”

“You can’t know that!”

“I… saw it.”

“What if… what if it’s only this area? There could be other parts of the world still alive.”

“…”

The doors to the dinning hall opened, Kaito was finally there, followed by Maki.

“H-Hey Sidekick.” Kaito looked a little pale.

“Did you scare Kaito last night?” Maki asked, she looked annoyed.

“I um… I mentioned earlier that I let Kaede possess me last night… and she scared him a little.”

“P-POSSESS?!” Kaito tried to back away but Maki grabbed him by his shirt collar.

“Why are both of you like this?” Maki looked so tired.

Shuichi pouted. “I don’t… mean too be.”

“H-H-He’s haunted Maki! What are we supposed to do?!”

“What both of you need to do is to calm down.” Maki’s not exactly wrong.

“Wow, Kaito, you’re really afraid of ghosts.” Kiibo looked surprised.

Kaito crossed his arms. “I-I’m not afraid of anything.”

“Kaede’s here right now.” Shuichi pointed out.

“WHAT?!” Kaito frantically looked around.

“Shuichi. If you weren’t already a crying mess…”

“I’m not lying.”

“You certainly aren’t helping.” Maki dragged Kaito over to him, “Kaito, fix him.”

“What?! How am I supposed to do that w-when there’s ghost bothering him?”

“No one here bothers me.” Shuichi said.

“Then… why are you sad?” Kaito asked.

“Because the world ended.” Shuichi sounded distraught.

“Oh, right.” Kaito shakily pulled out a chair and sat next to Shuichi. “Look, if all that stuff is true, which you don’t know for sure, then would your folks want to see you like this?”

“Huh?”

Kaito put a hand on Shuichi’s shoulder, “They would want you to live on, would they really rest at peace if you just gave up because they’re gone?”

“But…”

Kaito shook his shoulder a little, “We still have each other. Once we figure out how to stop Monokuma, we can honor them properly. We need to tough it out for now.”

“I…. guess so.” Shuichi raised his head.

“There we go… now can you eat your sandwich?”

“Do I have to?”

“Yes.”

“What if it’s… haunted.”

“HAUNTED SANDWICH?!” Kaito fell backwards with his chair.

“Shuichi!” Maki yelled at him.

It seemed like they would be here a while. Hm, the door to the hallway was propped open.

Kaede stood up, “Hey, Shuichi, I’m going to go check on Kirumi and Angie. I’ll come right back.”

Shuichi subtly nodded and took a small bite of sandwich while Maki was watching Kaito get off the floor.

-

Kaede stood outside of the library. “Hello?” She called out to the door.

“Kaede?” Kirumi spoke from the other side.

“Yep, it’s me. I’m sorry we didn’t visit yesterday. What’s been happening in there?”

“Well… Angie has tried to convince me to pray with her a few times, and I did entertain the thought, but she mostly sits and prays.” Kirumi paused. “Is Shuichi not with you? Did something happen yesterday?”

“He’s busy right now,” eating a sandwich, “but everything’s fine… mostly fine. Actually… not fine at all.”

“What happened?” Kirumi sounded concerned.

“You remember the exit we couldn’t get through? Well, the new motive was a key-card that disabled the traps. And when Shuichi, Kokichi, Rantaro, and I got to the end… um…” It felt difficult for her to continue.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry about it. Anyways, we saw… the world in ruins. It’s gone, everything’s gone.”

It was quiet behind the door.

Kaede continued on. “Now we’re… just trying to stop the mastermind from torturing everyone. There’s no point in getting out of here.”

“The mastermind…”

“Did you see them pass by?” Kaede asked, she shouldn’t bother at this point. They never went in the door here.

“No… but I did notice something strange.”

“You did? What is it?”

“It is difficult to not think about the first murder while being stationed in this library for so long. And, upon some thinking, I realized some things don’t add up.”

“What?”

“The blood stain on the bookshelf, from what I very vividly recall, did not align with where the shot-put ball should have landed and killed Rantaro.” Kirumi sighed, “I know it is nit picky, and the ruling of the trial is long over, but it makes me wonder.”

“Wonder what?”

“If the mastermind is wise to what happens in the game, and if your plan was doomed to fail, I wonder if they played a more active part in Rantaro’s demise and covered it up.”

Kaede stayed quiet. If that was true… then that meant she and Rantaro died for no reason.

“I am sorry if I have upset you by bringing up the topic. I just thought it may be important to know.”

“Thank you, Kirumi… I… I should go check up Shuichi now.”

“Farewell.”

-

Shuichi was still pretty down, but he was doing a lot better than before. With little convincing needed, he went back to his dorm to shower and then change into fresh clothes.

Shuichi pressed the side of ribs. “Oww… that’s not good.”

“Huh? Are you okay?” Kaede asked.

“I wore my binder for too long.”

“Oh, you slept in it too, right?”

“Yeah… you’re not supposed to.”

“How long can you wear that thing for anyways?”

“About… six hours.”

“Six hours?! It’s almost been two days!”

“Sorry…”

“Do you need to be reminded or something?”

“My uncle used to…”

“Oh.”

“I’ll have to wear this sports bra for now. We should, um, get going.”

“Right.”

-

Kaede and Shuichi decided to walk around outside for a breather and also to check up on Rantaro. He wasn’t where he was last they saw him, she didn’t know if that was good or bad.

“Do you have any ideas on why Kaito is so scared of ghosts?” Kaede asked Shuichi.

“No… it’s not that unusual for people to be afraid of them. But it uh… does seem extreme.”

“Very extreme, he fell over because of a sandwich.”

“I didn’t think he would… react that strongly.”

“It was still a little funny.” Kaede looked around, “Oh, I think I see him.”

Shuichi followed her gaze, “Ah, I see him too.”

Rantaro was sitting against a tree off in the wooded parts of the school grounds. He looked up when they got close to him. “Oh… Hey…”

“Hey, Rantaro. How’s it going?” Kaede asked.

“Going great.” Rantaro sighed.

“Why are you out here?” Shuichi asked.

“I used to go out into the woods with a few of my sisters when our parents were being too much. I just- I don’t know. Now I’m here.”

Kaede couldn’t imagine the woods as a fun retreat, they were usually full of bugs, dirt, and wild animals. “Is it comforting for you?”

“…Not without them.” Rantaro looked away.

“I’m sorry.” Shuichi said.

Rantaro looked back up at him, “Shuichi.”

“Yes?”

“How long do ghosts stick around for?”

“Ah… um… most people stick around for a few weeks to a few months.”

“Can they stay for longer?”

“Yes… but they’re usually not really themselves anymore… I don’t think any of you are the type that will stick around that long.”

Wait, how long did they have left? Could they vanish any minute? What if she vanishes in the middle of something important. What would happen to them after they stop being ghosts?

“Kaede! Please calm down!” Shuichi snapped her out of her thoughts, was she being that obvious? “Ghosts only disappear when they’re ready to, you don’t have to worry about suddenly leaving.”

“Oh, thank god. You should’ve said so sooner.” Kaede felt relieved.

“Ah, sorry!” Shuichi said.

“So… most people don’t stick around long of their own choice?” Rantaro asked.

“There’s not usually a reason to… they can only really talk to other dead people… ghosts usually stay around their families while they grieve for a while before they’re ready to leave.”

“I see… What about the ghosts we saw outside?”

“I don’t know… I didn’t really see them.”

“That’s helpful.”

“Sorry… I don’t really study ghost stuff.”

“…No, don’t apologize, I’m just-. You know. I wish none of this had happened.”

That, they could all agree on.

“Do you want to hangout with us again?” Kaede offered.

Rantaro raised an eyebrow, “Are you sure? I don’t want to be a bother.”

“You could use some time around people.”

Rantaro thought over it for a bit. “Yeah, sure. Why not. How about we walk around the forest a bit though? I don’t think anyone has investigated this area.”

Shuichi nodded, “That is true… I’m not sure what could be of use to the mastermind out here though… we don’t exactly need to find an exit anymore.”

“A nature walk might be nice anyways.” Kaede said. Depends how much nature there needed to be to call it a nature walk though.

“Ah, I suppose so.”

The three made their way deeper into the trees.

“What were your guys’ families like? If you don’t mind me asking.” Rantaro asked.

“My parents were alright, I love them, but they ended up pushing apart my sister and I.”

“Your sister?” Shuichi asked.

“Yeah, we’re twins, my parents got me into piano while they tried to get her into violin… it didn’t work out for her, but they didn’t really accept that.”

“Oh… sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault, Shuichi. It’s theirs, and mine, I should’ve tried sticking up for her instead of following my parent’s example. She probably still hates me.”

Rantaro stepped over a large rock, “Parents. They cause so many problems between siblings, don’t they?”

“What’s your relationship like with your sisters?”

“Ah… well… I’m their shitty older brother.”

“What? You don’t seem that bad, why do you think that?” Kaede asked. He didn’t give off that kind of vibe.

“All of my sisters are missing, and I was never able to find a single one of them.” Rantaro admitted.

“But… you looked for them, right?” Shuichi asked.

“Of course I did!” Rantaro looked offended by the question.

“Then that makes you a good big brother! A bad one wouldn’t care if they were gone.” Kaede assured him.

“I… I don’t know about that.”

“Is that what you wanted me to do? As payment for helping us?” Shuichi asked.

“…Yeah. It is.”

“Why didn’t you just ask me before? I would’ve helped you.”

“It’s not an easy endeavor… and everyone always says it’s a lost cause. I didn’t want to hear that again.”

“Why would it be a lost cause?” Kaede asked.

“I have twelve sisters that were last heard in different parts of the world.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah.”

“If the world didn’t end… I would help you search for them.” Shuichi said.

“Really? You’d travel all around the world to find some pathetic brother’s sisters?”

“I like helping people… that’s what I want to put my talent towards.” Shuichi kicked a pebble, “I don’t like investigating murders… or more infidelity cases.”

“Infidelity cases?”

“They’re very common at my uncle’s detective agency. There aren’t really any ‘big cases’ like on TV.”

“Well… I appreciate your hypothetical offer to help me find them.”

“Ah, it’s no problem… quite literally.”

“What about you, Shuichi?” Kaede asked.

“Me?”

“What’s your family like?”

“I um… they’re okay.”

“Just… okay?” Rantaro asked.

“You mentioned your aunt and uncle a few times before, mostly your uncle. What were they like?” Kaede asked.

“Uh… they’re nice. My aunt is kind of weird- but not in a bad way! And my uncle is a little gruff, but he cares.”

“And your parents?” Rantaro asked.

“They’re um… they work overseas. I don’t see them often.”

“…no siblings?” Kaede asked.

“Not that I know of, no close cousins either.”

“I can’t even imagine.” Rantaro said.

“You must gotten a lot of attention growing up then, being an only child.” Kaede said.

“If only.” Shuichi mumbled.

“Not all sunshine and rainbows I take it?” Rantaro asked.

“I don’t think they really cared about me much… I’m sorry, I don’t want to talk about them anymore.”

“That’s okay. Would it be… alright if I talked about my sisters more?”

“That’s fine.”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

Kaede and Shuichi listened to Rantaro talk about his sisters. He had so many stories. Which made since given that he had a 12 sisters. Kaede herself ended up talking about the few nice moments she had with her sister. While Shuichi didn’t say much, he did mention how he and his uncle got stuck inside an elevator once for several hours. And how they tried to fix it themselves and only broke it more. Being good detectives didn’t make them good engineers as it turns out.

It was nice that for a little while, it felt like they were just regular teenagers sharing stories.

-

“Sidekick! There you are!” Kaito called out to him.

“Kaito?” Shuichi stopped walking.

“Jeez man, you scared us by disappearing again. What are you doing out here?”

“I was just going for a walk.”

“I guess that’s good you’re not moping around… but you should come have dinner with us.”

“Ah, I’m not very hungry right now.”

“Shuichi, you barely ate today.” Kaede said. And it was true, she was there for it.

“You should go eat.” Rantaro said.

“Sidekick, you’re not going to get strong enough to help us defeat Monokuma unless you eat properly.” Kaito pointed out.

“Augh, fine…” Shuichi relented. Peer pressure success!

“There we go, now we can head over to the dinning hall.” Kaito smiled.

They followed Kaito out of the trees and back to the main path.

“Have you told Ryoma about… everything?” Kaede asked Rantaro.

Rantaro sighed. “Not yet.”

She wondered what Ryoma was doing. “Hey, how come if Ryoma was ready to leave, why is he still here? Didn’t you say ghosts leave when they’re ready, Shuichi?”

“Maybe he’s not actually ready.” Shuichi replied.

“Huh?” Kaito blinked.

Shuichi seemed to have forgotten that Kaito couldn’t hear them. “Oh, sorry… I wasn’t talking to you.”

“Then who were-” Kaito jolted, “Are you talking to a ghost?!”

“Um… Ghosts”

Kaito frantically looked around, “Where are they?”

“It’s just Rantaro and Kaede… why are you so scared?”

“M-Me? Scared? The luminary of the stars doesn’t g-get scared.”

Shuichi didn’t look convinced. “Everybody’s scared of something.”

“But, I’m not just anybody, I’m Kaito Momota, the luminary of the stars!”

“So you would be fine if I let Kaede posses me again?” Shuichi asked.

Kaito broke out into a sweat.

Rantaro side-eyed her, “You possessed him?”

“I asked!” Kaede said.

“Kaito.” Shuichi pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I may have… an aversion.”

“Why?”

“…My old folks used to play horror movies all the time when I was a kid. It may have… left an impression on me.”

“Ah… would some exposure therapy help?” Shuichi asked.

“Don’t even joke a-about that.” Kaito said.

“Okay… but… are you scared of me?” Shuichi asked, he avoided Kaito’s gaze.

Kaito looked confused, “Huh? No? Why would I? You’re not a ghost.”

“But I can see them.”

“That doesn’t make you scary.” Kaito rubbed his neck. “If anything, it should be reassuring, you can detect when any are nearby.”

“I see…” Shuichi didn’t look too reassured.

“Anyways, we’re right outside the dining hall, enough ghost talk, it’s time for dinner.”

-

“What is the plan now?” Rantaro asked Kaede.

They were sitting near the end of the table while the living people gathered mostly around the middle.

“I’m not sure.” She drummed her fingers on the table. “Catch the mastermind, stop Monokuma, end the killing game, and then… hold a funeral?”

“I suppose dying of old age is better than being murdered or executed.”

“Yeah… I’m glad I can’t remember my own death.”

“Speaking of… it’s been a while again, hasn’t it? I’m worried someone might be-”

“HEY! IS ANYONE IN THERE?!” Tenko yelled from behind the door.

Kaede and Rantaro looked at each other before quickly getting up and moving towards the entrance of the dining hall.

“Tenko?!” Rantaro shouted through the door.

“Is Shuichi there?” Tenko asked.

Kaede wished she could open the door. “Yeah, why? Did something happen?”

“Obviously! Miu is planning on killing somebody!”

“What?!” Rantaro and Kaede exclaimed at the same time.

Shuichi stood up from the table, excusing himself for the restroom. He walked over and opened the door for their exit. He whispered, “Let’s get around the corner and talk.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice.” Tenko said.

Once they were out of sight from the dining hall, Shuichi stopped and asked, “What is Miu planning?”

“She’s been working on a virtual reality simulator. I’m not the most tech savvy girl, but I could watch her test things out on the screen. I’m pretty sure I know who she’s planning to kill.”

“Who?”

“Thankfully, it’s not one of the girls, she’s planning on killing Kokichi.”

“Do you think it’s personal?”

“With that menace? She’s probably going to kill him because of his wonderful personality.” Tenko rolled her eyes. “She changed his avatar’s properties so he would freeze once she touches him.”

“How would that kill him though?”

“The virtual reality simulation, the neo-world program I think she called it, is incredibly dangerous. It seems almost unreal but it can trick your brain into experiencing anything, including dying. Miu’s probably going to freeze him and then kill him in the program.”

Could that really be possible?

“Also,” Tenko continued, “She stole some poison from your lab just a bit ago, I’m not sure how she is planning on using it though.”

Rantaro leaned against the wall, “Thank you for keeping watch and telling us. Now, what do we do with this information?”

“We have to stop her of course. The only question is how.” Kaede said.

Tenko pointed to Shuichi, “He has to stop everyone from going into the program.”

“Even if he does, wouldn’t Miu try something else?” Rantaro asked.

“We would have to keep a watch on her afterwards. That is… if anyone listens to me.” Shuichi said.

Right, it only seemed like Kaito and Kokichi believed him. Maki and the rest would be harder to convince.

-

“Kaito, could I speak with you for a moment?” Shuichi asked.

Kaito was washing his plate in the kitchen sink. “Uh, yeah, sure. What’s up, sidekick?”

Shuichi looked around, some of the others were still in the dining hall. “It’s, um, private. Could we talk somewhere else?”

“Oh?” Kaito put his plate on the drying rack. “There’s not… a ghost haunting the restrooms, is there?”

“…No. That’s not it.”

Kaito dried his hands with the kitchen towel. “Alright, let’s head outside.”

The two left the kitchen and went through the dining hall’s exit to the outside. There were a few tables out but no one ever ate there.

“Is this private enough?” Kaito asked, gesturing to one of the tables. Well, it’s not like anyone is around, and they could see anybody approaching from quite a distance.

“Sure.” Shuichi sat down and Kaito sat opposite from him. Kaede and Rantaro took the remaining chairs.

“So, what’s up?”

“Um… This isn’t an easy conversation, so don’t freak out.”

“I won’t.” Kaito leaned forward. “What’s the problem?”

Shuichi looked down at the table. “Miu is planning to kill someone.”

Kaito stared for a moment. “What?”

“The thing she’s been working on… It’s some sort of computer simulation, and she’s going to use it to kill Kokichi.”

“That’s… how did you find this out?”

“Tenko has been keeping watch over the school. She saw that Miu was up to something so she followed her around.”

“Tenko… Were you able to check it out for yourself?”

“Not yet, I just found out.” Shuichi fidgeted with his sleeve. “She also stole one of the poisons from my lab.”

Kaito scratched his chin in thought. “That’s not good, we need to figure out to stop her.”

“That’s why I’m asking you for help, I know nobody else would really believe me.”

“Good call on asking me, with both of our smarts we can come up with a plan.”

“Right…”

-

They stopped at Shuichi’s lab first. Looking around the shelves, they found an empty spot where a bottle would have been.

Kaito looked over all the poisons. “Sidekick, do you remember which poison that’s gone?”

“I didn’t really spend time memorizing the poisons here… So I don’t know.” Shuichi put a hand to his chin. “But, if Miu only took the poison, then the antidote for it should still be here.”

Together, they took out all of the poisons and antidotes, lining up each poison with its cure. Eventually, there was one antidote left by itself.

“This should be it.” Kaito picked it up.

“Let’s hope so.” Shuichi sighed.

Kaito handed the bottle to Shuichi. “Hey, I have a question for you.”

Shuichi took the bottle. “Yes?”

“What… happens after someone dies?”

“…What do you mean?”

“Does everyone become a ghost?”

Shuichi looked away. “I don’t know… I don’t spend time around dying people so I can’t say.”

Kaito looked disappointed by that answer. “Oh.”

“But, um, everyone who died here is still around, for now. Korekiyo is the only one missing because he was exorcised during his execution.”

Kaito blinked, “Okay. Well, what it’s like being a ghost then?”

“I uh… don’t know personally. I could ask Kaede if you want.” Shuichi offered.

Kaede startled at her name. Had she… been spacing out this whole time? She was watching them though, so that can’t be it. But it almost felt like she was just an observer, and not a person. Just a witness without a real thought.

“I-I, uh, don’t want to bother her.” Kaito quickly denied. It looked to her like he was still afraid.

“Okay… um, from what I’ve been told, and what I’ve seen, ghosts look like their dead bodies a few minutes after dying. They don’t decay with their body.” Oh, ew, Kaede didn’t want to think of what her real body looked like by now.

“Do their deaths… effect them metaphysically as ghosts?”

“Yes, but not as much as their actual injuries would hurt a living person.”

“I see… is it difficulty for you?”

“Huh?? What do you mean?”

“I mean, is seeing everyone’s dead bodies talking to you all the time bothering you?”

“Ah… it’s… not that bad. I’ve seen dead strangers walking around my entire life so I’m a little desensitized to it.” … Poor Shuichi.

“Strangers? Are there other ghosts here too?”

“Oh. No, it’s only us. Which is… strange. We’re in the middle of a city, and Kaede mentioned there being ghosts outside… But there aren’t any in here for some reason.”

Kaito breathed a sigh of relief. “One less thing to worry about then.”

“Yeah… we should get going.”

“Oh, right. Let’s go, sidekick.”

-

Kaito and Shuichi found Maki outside of her lab.

Kaito walked up to her first, “Maki-roll! Something’s happened.”

“Don’t call me that. What happened?” Maki asked.

“One of the poisons from my lab is missing.” Shuichi said.

“What?”

Shuichi and Kaito explained the missing poison, and the remaining antidote.

“Who do you think could have taken it?” Maki asked.

“I don’t know, I’m not sure when it was taken. Who have you seen pass by during the past two days?” Shuichi lied, it was becoming a little too common for Kaede’s comfort.

“Obviously you two… Kiibo, Miu, and Tsumugi are the only other ones who have gone to the floor above.” Maki stated.

“I can’t imagine Kiibo or Tsumugi would steal something like that.” Kaito said, scratching his goatee.

“Should we check with Miu? She’s been holed up in the computer room since it opened, right?” Shuichi asked.

“Right, she’s already been planning something for everyone in there for a while now…” Maki said.

“I don’t want to accuse Miu of anything without evidence… but it might be dangerous to leave this unchecked.” Shuichi said.

“Oh!” Kaito clapped his hands together, startling both Maki and Shuichi. “We can just hide out here and wait for her to head back down for the restrooms. Then, we can go into the computer lab and look for the poison.”

“And, where is here, exactly?” Maki asked.

“In your lab, you can let us know when-”

Maki interrupted Kaito. “That’s not happening. Go hang out in the empty rooms down the hall from the computer lab.”

“Ah… okay.” Shuichi said.

Kaito looked quickly back and forth between the two, “But-”

“Come on, Kaito.” Shuichi started walking back to the stairs.

-

Kaito stood tense in the dim light of the room. This was clearly not what he had in mind. Kaede wasn’t a fan of these rooms either.

Shuichi looked over at Kaito, it was hard to miss as his eyes reflected a lot in dim environments. “Do you think Miu could be keeping the poison on her person instead of leaving it in the computer room?”

“Sidekick. You better not tell me that we’re hiding in this room for no reason.”

“Ah, never mind, it’s probably in the computer room, I don’t think there’s anywhere she could actually keep the poison in her uniform.”

“Right. Is there any news from the uh… ghosts?”

“Not yet… Rantaro’s still gone to inform Tenko on what we’re doing.”

“Is anyone with us right now?”

“Kaede is.” Shuichi glanced at her.

“Hm.” Kaito looked away from him. “Is she always around you?”

Kaede thought it over, she and Shuichi did wind up almost always being paired together.

Shuichi looked at the ground, “I um… didn’t really think about that until now. I guess so.”

Kaito gave him a slightly judgmental look, “Huh… you’re not like… dating her ghost, are you?”

“What?!” Shuichi and Kaede yelled.

Kaito shushed him, “Quiet down man, we don’t want Miu hearing us.”

Shuichi lowered his voice, “We’re friends, you can’t even- how do you date a ghost?? Wait- Don’t actually answer that.”

Shuichi further tried to convince Kaito they weren’t dating when she heard Rantaro talk through the door.

“Hey, Miu’s on her way. Be prepared to get in and get out quickly.” Rantaro warned them.

“Loud and clear.” Kaede responded back.

-

Once Miu had passed by them, Kaito and Shuichi rushed into the lab. Tenko pointed out where the poison was, it had been hidden in a small drawer that blended in with the machinery. Shuichi put it in his pocket and was ready to leave when Kaito stopped him.

“Shuichi, I was thinking… you know how dangerous this program is supposed to be, right?”

Shuichi looked towards the exit. “Yes? We don’t really have time, Kaito. We can talk after we get out of here.”

“I know, but, what if we could stop the program altogether?”

“What?”

“Miu can’t hurt anybody if there’s nothing to hurt anyone with. So, we get rid of the program or whatever. You said you already witnessed the ‘secret of the outside world’ anyways.”

“That may be a good idea… but nobody is going to trust me anymore if I destroyed a motive again.”

“Don’t worry, sidekick, if anything bad happens, I’ll take the blame, alright?”

Shuichi looked uncertain, he looked to Kaede.

She wasn’t sure either, but the last time they left people alone with the motive (­albeit a fake one), Angie and Tenko ended up murdered. “This is our only chance.”

Shuichi sighed. “Okay. We have to be quick though.” He looked over to Tenko “What’s the best way to do this?”

“Hm, well, it’s just a computer, throw some of her energy drinks in it.” Tenko pointed to the array of cans laying around. How much sleep was Miu not getting?

“Will that work?” Kaede asked. That answer felt a little too simple for such a complex machine.

“She flipped out after knocking her drink onto the desk alone, so yeah. Tenko may have also spilled a drink on her own laptop before… so she know how much damage it does.” Tenko looked away sheepishly.

“Kaito, grab a couple of the energy drinks.” Shuichi instructed him.

“Huh? Now’s not the time for-”

“We’re spilling them inside the computer.”

“OH, okay.”

Shuichi and Kaito proceeded to open the energy drinks and pour them onto the super computer. The computer started to crackle with the carbonated drink filling into the cracks. Then all of a sudden, the lights powered off.

“Okay, let’s get out of here.” Kaito said.

-

They got back out into the hallway, Rantaro was waiting out there to watch for Miu.

“You sure took your time, did you guys have trouble finding the poison?” Rantaro asked.

“Nope, but we might have… possibly… destroyed the computer.” Kaede said.

Rantaro’s eyes widened. “You did what?!”

Kaito and Shuichi quickly moved back into the classroom. Shuichi held open the door for her.

Kaede waved him off. “I’ll stay out here for a bit.”

“Ah, okay.” Shuichi closed the door.

“What did you all do?” Rantaro asked.

“Kaito suggested we destroy the computer so the program couldn’t hurt anyone. So that’s what we did.”

Rantaro looked shocked, “Outside of Kokichi, Kaito’s the only one who believes what Shuichi says about ghosts and the outside world!”

“And?” Kaede didn’t see what his point was.

“There is no evidence to prove that Miu was going to murder someone now.”

“What about the poison?”

“From Shuichi’s lab? That Shuichi is holding onto now? With only Kaito as a witness, and, I’m assuming, Shuichi found exactly where it was right away?”

“Oh.” She was starting to see the flaws in their plan.

“Okay. Okay.” Rantaro paced around and pressed his palms against his temples. “Here’s what we’re going to do, we all book it to the dorms. You and I run ahead while Shuichi and Kaito follow a short ways back. If we spot anyone, we double back and tell them to hide so they don’t get spotted. If it goes well, no one will know they were the ones who destroyed the machine.”

“Except Maki.”

Rantaro stopped his pacing. “Shit. She still thinks Shuichi is crazy. Even so, she’s still close enough to them that she might keep quiet as long as she gets answers out of them later.”

“Maki has already covered for Shuichi once though, do you think she’ll do it again?” Kaede asked.

“We can only hope so.”

-

Kaede told Shuichi the plan through the door.

Miu finally made her way back to the computer room, once she entered, Kaito and Shuichi exited the empty room and they all ran.

They ran past Maki who gave them a baffled look seeing them go by.

They got outside and almost to the dorms before Kaito stopped.

Shuichi turned back around, “Kaito?”

Kaito broke out into a coughing fit.

Shuichi ran back over to him, “Kaito! Are you okay?”

When Shuichi got close, Kaito jerked away from him. He coughed, “I’m fine.”

“Ah, are you sure?” Shuichi sounded worried, Kaede was a little worried too.

“Goodnight, sidekick.” Kaito walked to the dorms.

“What about training?” Shuichi trailed behind him.

“Tonight counts enough as training.” Kaito coughed into his arm.

“Kaito? You don’t sound alright.”

“It’s fine.” Kaito shoved open the door to the dorm building.

“But-”

“Shuichi, just leave me alone.” Kaito interrupted him and made his way up the stairs.

“Kaito…” Shuichi stood at the bottom of the stairs, watching Kaito’s back.

“See you tomorrow.” Kaito said as he entered his room without looking back.

“What do you think is up with him?” Kaede asked Shuichi.

“I don’t know.” Shuichi said sadly. He slowly walked back to his own dorm.

“He’s definitely hiding something.” Rantaro said.

“Yeah… see you tomorrow, Rantaro.” Kaede followed Shuichi.

“Goodni- Hey, wait, let me back outside first.” Rantaro realized he almost had been left stuck in the building.

“Oh, right, sorry.” Shuichi turned back and opened the door to the dorm building.

Rantaro walked out, “Goodnight.”

“Night.” Shuichi closed the door.

“Back to your room now?” Kaede asked.

“I guess so… there’s no training tonight.” Shuichi walked into his dorm.

“Maybe Maki will swing by later and you two can train without Kaito.” Kaede followed him in.

“Maybe, she’s probably just going to ask about what happened.” Shuichi sat down on the edge of the bed.

“That… is true.” She is not going to be happy about this.

Shuichi took off his jacket and held it in his lap. “Do you think Kaito is mad at me?”

Kaede blinked. “Huh? Why do you think that?”

“You saw how he acted… was he upset that I had us run out of the school? Or that I made him help us?” Shuichi wondered aloud.

“You didn’t make him do anything, you asked and he agreed.” Kaede sat down next to Shuichi. “Whatever is going on, I don’t think it was anything towards you.”

“But he brushed me off, he ignored me… people only do that when they want you to stop talking to them.”

“He just seemed a little out of it to me. He said he’ll see you tomorrow right?”

“I guess.” He looked unconvinced.

“Um… Oh, what do we do with the poison?” Kaede changed the topic.

“Ah, well… I don’t want to keep it on my person so… I suppose I’ll dump it.” He sat up.

Shuichi took the poison and antidote out from his jacket and walked over to the bathroom. He removed the cap to the poison, holding it away from him, and poured the contents in the sink. He placed the bottle in the trash bin and then washed his hands.

He dried his hands and then glanced back the sink counter. “This antidote is a lot bigger than the poison.” He picked up the bottle and flipped it around to read the label on the back. “Huh, it’s several doses… The cap is the measuring cup.” That must be a lot of doses then.

Kaede watched Shuichi place the bottle on the counter. “Keeping it around might be handy.”

“Maybe.”

The doorbell rang.

“Ah, that must be Maki.” Shuichi turned and made his way to the door.

He unlocked the door and opened it to see someone else.

“Shuichi, sorry, it’s pretty late isn’t it?” Tsumugi greeted him.

“Tsumugi, hello, is there something you need?” Shuichi asked.

“I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while… about the necronomicon thing. Could I come in?”

“Oh, sure.” Shuichi opened the door wider to let her in. “I’m really sorry about that.”

Tsumugi walked in and Shuichi closed the door behind her.

Shuichi looked back at her. “I didn’t mean for you to get thrown under the bus. It’s just-”

“Don’t. It’s fine.” Tsumugi stopped him.

Shuichi looked down. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be, you’ll repay what you did soon enough.” Tsumugi smiled.

“What-”

Tsumugi grabbed his shoulder and, with the other hand, shoved a cloth in his face.

“Shuichi!” Kaede shouted, her throat stung from it. What was Tsumugi doing?!

Shuichi struggled and knocked her hand away from his face. “What are you doing?!” He pushed her away from him.

Tsumugi frantically looked around the room, something caught her eye and she ran to the bathroom. She grabbed the antidote bottle and then looked towards the trashcan.

“You dumped it!?” Tsumugi slammed the bottle back down on the sink.

Shuichi stumbled his way dizzily to the door and almost reached the handle before being pulled back. Tsumugi knocked him over and pinned him to the ground. Kaede could only watch in horror as Tsumugi shoved the cloth against face again while holding him down.

“Come on, pass out already! Stop making everything so difficult all the time!” She held the cloth in place as Shuichi’s protests gradually became weaker.

Once Shuichi stopped moving, Tsumugi stood up, leaving the cloth on his face.

She walked towards the bathroom and picked up the antidote again, reading the label. “Well… I suppose the dose makes the poison.”

She as going to overdose Shuichi with the antidote?! And all Kaede could do was… watch?

No.

She had to do something.

Kaede quickly knelt down next to Shuichi. “Sorry about this.”

-

Kaede opened her eyes and jolted up, the cloth fell off of her face. Instead of sparring a second to look around, she rushed to the door and threw it open. She ran out of the room and towards the door of the building.

“Shuichi! Get back here!” Tsumugi yelled from behind her as she rushed outside.

Kaede looked around. Please please please. There! Outside of the school were two very angry looking ultimates, Miu and Maki.

“Help!” Kaede yelled out while running over to them.

“Shuichi! Did you fucking destroy the computer, you jackass!?” Miu yelled at him.

Kaede ignored her and went straight up to Maki. “Tsumugi tried to kill me!” She felt out of breath, she was surprised that she had almost forgotten what actual breathing felt like.

Maki’s anger faded into concern, but not exactly the kind of concern she wanted. “Slow down, are you sure?”

“What do you mean ‘are you sure’?!” Kaede didn’t like what she was implying.

Maki grabbed her hands. “Stop, it’s just you don’t-” Kaede realized something.

She interrupted Maki, “She tried to chloroform me! Can’t you smell it?” The cloth was very damp, it had to have left some stuck onto Shuichi.

Maki paused. “You… do smell like it.”

“Of course miss assassin would know the smell of chloroform.” Miu rolled her eyes.

“Do you want to die?” Maki glared at her.

“Eeep! Sorry!” Miu shrunk away from her.

Maki looked back towards Kaede. “How did you get away?”

“Ah, I… pretended to pass out early. And then I fled when she turned around.” Kaede was very certain that Shuichi was technically passed out right now. She was so grateful that the possession managed to save him.

Maki squeezed her hands, “Shuichi, I need you to be honest with me, for your own safety.” Uh oh.

“What is it?” Shit, Shuichi wasn’t even here for this.

Maki looked into her eyes. “Did you break into the computer lab and destroy the computer?”

Kaede didn’t know how to answer, what would Shuichi want her to say? What was safest for him to do right now? Why does Maki want to her to answer this in front of Miu? If she said ‘no’, then Maki would know she’s lying because they literally told her about the poison. But if she answered ‘yes’, then Miu would know. And, ‘for his safety’? What could that mean, what she needed to do was keep Shuichi safe from Tsumugi. Even if Maki wasn’t sure she believed her, and Tsumugi definitely wouldn’t back Kaede’s claim… oh.

That’s why.

It’s his alibi.

“Shuichi?”

“I’m sorry… I did.” Kaede looked off to the side. “Kaito and I broke the computer.”

Chapter Text

“Do you know the countless hours I worked on that computer for?! I was almost finished! Why the hell did you break it?!” Miu yelled at her.

Kaede looked between Miu and Maki. Admitting to knowing that Miu was going to kill someone, while standing right in front of her, did not seem like a very nice idea.

Maki sighed. “We’ll deal with that in a bit. I’m more concerned about what Tsumugi might be up to.” She started walking over to the dorms, Kaede and Miu followed.

Miu sped up to walk next to Maki. “Uh, it’s a pretty big fucking deal that Shuichi broke the computer.”

Maki rolled her eyes. “If he broke it, he probably thought you were going to do something bad with it.”

“I was not!” Miu blatantly lied.

As they walked over, they saw some people walk out of the dorms. After getting closer, Kaede could see that it was Gonta, Kiibo, and Tsumugi.

Tsumugi hid behind Gonta. “Protect me, Gonta!”

Maki walked up to them. “What is going on?”

“Tsumugi said that Shuichi tried to attack her!” Kiibo said.

Maki narrowed her eyes. “That’s funny, Shuichi said that she tried to kill him.”

Kiibo stilled, then groaned, “Not again.”

“Gonta confused… Tsumugi and Shuichi attack each other?”

Tsumugi adjusted her glasses. “Shuichi claimed he wanted to apologize about the necronomicon to get into my room.”

Kaede’s eyes widened. “You liar! That’s what you said, you wanted to talk about it to get into my room.” She had to be very careful of her wording, making sure she referred to Shuichi’s stuff as her own, or else she’s going to get some really confused looks.

“I’m getting everyone up for this.” Maki walked away from them.

“Huh? Why?” Kiibo asked.

“If we have to decide who tried to kill the other, everyone should be here for it.” Maki walked into the dorm building.

-

After a few minutes, everyone was standing around inside the dorm building.

Himiko yawned. “Can’t this wait until morning?”

“It is morning, can’t you see the sun shining through the windows?” Kokichi rubbed his eyes.

Gonta looked towards the window. “Gonta not see any sun. Does Kokichi need his eyes checked?”

Kaito walked up to Maki. “What’s going on?”

“We need to figure out who tried to kill who.” Maki answered.

Everyone looked a lot more awake suddenly.

“Oooh~ What’s the drama?” Kokichi asked.

Kiibo pointed to Tsumugi, “Tsumugi claims that Shuichi tried to kill her.” He then pointed to Shuichi, “While Shuichi claims Tsumugi tried to kill him.”

Himiko wilted. “Again?”

“Hold on. What do you mean again?” Kaito asked, clearly confused.

Kiibo tiredly explained “This is the necronomicon incident all over again.”

“The poison is still in my room, we can all go look.” Tsumugi said.

“You had time to move everything to your room after I ran away!” Kaede argued.

“It is strange… if Tsumugi was the one attacked, why did Shuichi run away?” Kiibo wondered.

“Sidekick, you didn’t defend yourself?” Kaito asked.

“She chloroformed me! I’m still dizzy from it.” Kaede explained.

“Gonta not know who is lying… Why would Tsumugi hurt Shuichi?”

Kokichi rolled his eyes, “Psh, that’s obvious, she wanted revenge for being used in his necronomicon plan.”

Kaede actually… didn’t know about that. This seemed way too far to go for something like that. There wasn’t even a motive for her to kill him, especially with how unplanned the attack felt, there was something else at play.

“I’m not so sure about that… but I don’t have a motive to kill her either.” Kaede stated.

“I don’t know his motive, but he did have the means. He was going to use one of the poisons from his lab to kill me.”

“I dumped the poison before you even got to my room. If you all go look wherever Tsumugi moved it to, you’ll see it’s empty. And you were going to use the antidote to kill me by forcing me to overdose on it.”

“You can kill someone with an antidote?” Himiko looked surprised.

“Yeah dumb-ass, it’s still putting chemicals and shit in your body. Too much of a lot of stuff can fuck up your body.” Miu said.

“Hrg… if you insult me again, I’m going to put a curse on you.” Himiko sent her a glare from under her mage hat.

“Why did Shuichi have poison with him?” Kiibo asked.

“We stole it from Miu’s lab.” Kaito explained.

The room went quiet for a moment.

Then people started shouting over each other. “We?!” “Miu’s lab?!” “Huh??”

“It’s true. Kaito and I noticed that one of the poisons from my lab was missing.” Kaede said.

“Did that dumb whore leave a trail of poison behind to her lab? How gross.” Kokichi looked disgusted.

“I didn’t leave behind anything!” Miu shouted.

Kokichi smiled. “Oh? So it was a lucky guess?”

“I don’t know how they-… how they found poison in my lab.” Miu looked nervous.

“Nice save.” Kokichi commented.

“Miu?!” Kiibo looked shocked at her. “Were you going to poison somebody?!”

Miu froze. “Um.” She looked around the room, everyone was staring at her. “T-This whole thing isn’t about m-me right now… let’s focus on Pooichi and Tootsmugi.”

Kokichi nodded. “You’re right, let’s ask why Kaito and Shuichi were all the way in his lab so late in the evening.”

Kaede blinked, wuh oh.

Maki looked between the two. “Why were you two in Shuichi’s lab?”

“Just wanted to visit with my sidekick, that’s all.” Kaito said.

Maki didn’t seem to buy it. She looked towards Kaede. “Shuichi?”

“What Kaito said…” Kaede replied.

Before Maki could ask again, Gonta interrupted her, “Gonta confused about one thing. Shuichi say he was chloroformed. But Shuichi still awake?”

“It is a little surprising, there’s enough that I could smell it without really trying, but you seem mostly fine.” Maki narrowed her eyes at her again. “But your breathing sounds… off.”

Kiibo stood next to Kaede, “You’re right! My sensors are noticing it in the air around him.”

“Jeez, we get it Kiiboy, you can smell stuff too, it’s not that impressive for a robot.” Kokichi antagonized Kiibo.

Kiibo yelled at him about his robophobia. This whole thing was getting sidetracked.

Kaede sighed. “We should focus. Kaito and I took the poison from Miu’s lab… and we also destroyed the computer while we were there. We had to rush back to the dorms to not get caught, which is why I still had the poison and the antidote on me.”

Miu cursed at Kaede under her breath.

“Nyeh? You destroyed the computer Miu was working on?”

“Yeah, Miu was planning on using it to kill that little shit over there.” Kaito pointed his thumb towards Kokichi.

Kokichi looked towards Miu, teary eyed. “Y-You we’re gonna kill m-me?” He wailed. “WWAAAAAAAAHHHH HOW COULD YOU.” Kaede covered hear ears.

“How did you know that what Miu was making was targeted at Kokichi?” Tsumugi asked Kaito.

Kaito scratched his goatee. “Shuichi said Tenko saw Miu program it that way.”

…

“Kaito!?” Kaede shouted at him.

“Huh? OH-” Kaito’s eyes widened after realizing what he said.

Maki face palmed. “God dammit.”

“Tenko? But…” Gonta trailed off.

Kiibo looked nervous. “Is this… part of the thing you mentioned, Maki?”

“What thing?” Himiko looked confused.

Kokichi had a curious look. “What? I thought everyone knew Shuichi here can see ghosts.”

“Shuichi thinks he can see ghosts.” Maki said.

“Nyeh, I did sense some strange magic from Shuichi.” Himiko mumbled.

“Of course he’d have few a screws lose, everyone here is bat-shit in their own way.” Miu said.

“There’s nothing wrong with my sidekick.” Kaito yelled at her.

“Not a thing wrong! He’s just being possessed by Kaede again.” Kokichi said.

“Kokichi?!” Kaede yelled out. He could tell?!

Kokichi rolled his eyes. “How about you stop yellin’ our names and actually explain yourself.”

Explain how?! Everyone was looking at Kaede now and she wasn’t even the one who sees the ghosts. The cat is out of the bag now, so she has to continue forward anyways. Telling the truth, even if it may complicate the situation, is her only real option. Lying would only make things worse at this point.

“I um… I know it sounds… far fetched, but Kokichi wasn’t lying this time.” Kaede said.

“You’re… possessed?” Tsumugi asked slowly.

“Shuichi sure Kokichi not trick him?” Gonta asked.

“I’m sure. It might be more accurate to say that I’m possessing instead of being possessed though.” Kaede said.

“Shuichi… Is there any way you could prove this?” Maki asked, clearly not believing a word she was saying.

Is there? Shuichi was fully asleep right now so she couldn’t ask him for help… could that itself be used to prove it? “To tell the truth, the chloroform did knock Shuichi out, I only possessed him to save him. Maybe you could check his vitals? He should still be passed out.”

“Miu did add a function for me to do that. Alright, I’ll check your vitals, but only to dissuade you from this belief that you’re possessed.” Kiibo walked over to her. “Hold you arm out.”

“Okay.” Kaede followed the request.

Kiibo held onto her arm with his hand and waited. After about a minute and some complaints of boredom mostly from Kokichi, Kiibo’s eyes widened. “Huh. Well. He should be passed out.”

“Does that mean it’s really Kaede talking to us?” Himiko asked.

“Why Shuichi keep ghosts secret?” Gonta asked.

“You’re possessing my sidekick, again?” Kaito looked surprised, and a little nervous.

Kaede blinked, that was a lot of questions. “I am Kaede, but we don’t need to focus on that right now.” They needed to believe her about Tsumugi, she also wanted to figure out why she tried to kill Shuichi. “For why we kept it a secret… we didn’t want the mastermind to find out.”

Kiibo held a hand to his chin in thought. “If that’s true, why did Shuichi stop caring to keep it secret yesterday?”

“It was because of what you saw with Kokichi, wasn’t it?” Kaito asked.

Kaede wilted a little upon remembering the experience. “Yes… it is.”

Himiko frowned. “What did you see?”

“We saw… the end of the world. There’s nothing out there but burnt rubble. The air isn’t even breathable.” Kaede said.

Gonta looked shocked, “The world dead? That can’t happen.”

Miu crossed her arms. “No, I believe him.”

Tsumugi looked surprised. “How can you believe him so easily? Aren’t you a scientist?”

Miu huffed. “I believe him because I am a woman of science. I only grabbed that poison right after I had dinner early, there’s no way he could have known that I took it without some voyeuristic spirit watching my every move.”

Maki stared at her. “Are you admitting to attempting murder?”

Miu scoffed. “We’ll its not like I can do shit now. I wanted to get out of here because I thought the world still needed my inventions but if what that ghost-fucker says is true… then there’s no point.”

Kiibo looked to Kaede. “Shuichi, why were you so sure about the mastermind existing?”

“Rantaro had proof, he told us after the trial. He had a monopad that proved their existence, but it was stolen from him.” She explained.

Himiko paled. “If that’s true… then one of us…”

“It’s Tsumugi!” Kokichi cheered out.

The room broke out in shock.

“I’m not the mastermind?!” Tsumugi yelled.

“You cant just accuse someone baselessly like that!” Kiibo shouted at him.

“What the hell man?!” Kaito exclaimed.

Kokichi… he had, strangely enough, been pretty helpful during this pseudo trial. Could that mean this was also the truth, or at least what he believes?

“Kokichi, what makes you think that?” Kaede asked.

Kokichi tapped his chin. “Well Smoogs tried to kill Shuichi right? Only someone real evil would go outta their way to murder someone else.”

Was that a jab at Tsumugi or Kaede? Maybe both.

Kokichi’s statement, however, caused a lot of angry looks to be sent his way.

If only Shuichi would wake up, he would be really confused in the moment but he was better at these trials than she was.

Could Tsumugi really be the mastermind? If so, why did she want to kill Shuichi? Was it because he had just prevented a murder from happening? But that didn’t make sense, either she would get executed or everyone else would die, that seemed to go against what the mastermind wanted.

Kaede tried to remember any clues about the mastermind while everyone was busy shouting at Kokichi. Kirumi suggested that the mastermind might have ensured that Rantaro died despite her plan not working. That really sounded like it should make it the mastermind’s fault for Rantaro’s death, can the mastermind kill without being considered guilty? Tsumugi’s murder attempt was so sudden… and from what Kaede remembered, she had gotten very angry about the poison being dumped, like as if she was planning on using it despite the fact that she shouldn’t have known about it.

…

Shuichi had been depressed. He was sad about the world ending, about his friends dying, about people not believing him, and lastly over how Kaito acted towards him before they separated. Would it have been such a stretch for everyone to believe that he ended his own life if no one was counted guilty for it?

Kaede ignored the bickering over Kokichi. “Tsumugi. Did you try to kill Shuichi because he successfully prevented a murder from happening?”

Tsumugi furrowed her brow. “Why would I want to murder someone over that? I don’t want anyone to die.”

“You would if you were the mastermind.” Kiibo said quietly.

Tsumugi turned towards Maki. “Maki, you don’t believe this, right? There’s not even any real proof in any of this.”

Maki stood quiet for a second while the rest of them stood tense.

“Maki-roll?” Kaito waited for a response.

Maki looked off to the side. “I… I don’t believe that Shuichi could have chloroformed himself, or that he could currently be awake by any natural means. That is proof enough that something is going on here that you are lying about.”

“If Tsumugi could be the mastermind… should we cast a spell to lock her up just to be safe?” Himiko suggested.

“Gonta not want to accuse Tsumugi. But if it safer, Gonta help keep watch.” Gonta kindly offered.

Kiibo avoided eye contact with Tsumugi. “Now that I’m thinking about it, she never really did interact with anyone else much.”

“And you guys thought I was messing around; I thought it was obvious from the start.” Kokichi angrily huffed at them. “Why wouldn’t the mastermind want to get rid of the guy who can talk to several untraceable actors all working against them?”

That was exactly why Shuichi never told anyone for the longest time. Kokichi really was right on the money.

Kokichi yawned. “Anyhoo, I’m casting my vote on Tsumugi.”

“She did try to kill Shuichi… and I can’t see any other reason why.” Kaede agreed.

Kaito patted her shoulder. “I have my full faith in my sidekick… and Kaede too.”

“I believe Shuichi on this one, he hasn’t been wrong before.” Maki stated.

Tsumugi looks frightened. “Nobody else here thinks that, right?” She frantically looked around.

The room was quiet as everyone else avoided her gaze.

“What the hell was the team thinking?!” Tsumugi threw her glasses against the ground, the lenses shattered everywhere. Everyone stood back as her demeanor rapidly changed.

“T-Tsumugi?” Kaede gaped.

Tsumugi was fuming.“I put all of my work into our script and they just decide that this season’s challenge for the mastermind was having the ultimate detective out of everyone else be able to see deceased characters?! What the fuck!? This ruins all the character development I had planned!”

Kaede stared blankly. “Seasons? Characters?”

“I’m done, I’m out. This season was doomed from the start, I can’t imagine any mastermind pulling this off. It’s not like we’re prime time anymore anyways.”

“Are you saying this is all just… a TV show?” Kiibo asked in disbelief.

“You’re all fictional, you’re on Danganronpa, yada yada. I’m closing the set, I should’ve known the team would’ve pulled something like this. This show stopped being any good since season 42.” Tsumugi took a hidden earpiece out from behind her ear and dropped it on the ground.

Maki stepped towards Tsumugi. “you’re not going anywhere. Not until-”

Chapter Text

Kaede wheeled into the hospital’s cafeteria. Some of her friends were already there having breakfast.

“Oh hey, mornin’ Kaede!” Kaito loudly called out while Shuichi winced next to him.

“Good morning, are they serving anything good today?” Kaede asked.

“They made pancakes, they’re okay… And um, good morning.” Shuichi said.

Rantaro stood up, “I just finished mine, I can help you bring a tray over, if you want.” He offered.

“Sure.”

Kaede picked out some food while Rantaro carried the tray for her. When she awoke from the simulation, the lower half of her body still felt numb. Apparently, the killing game was part of a series called Danganronpa and was one of the few shows to use simulated realities. So, her brain fully thought the nerves to her lower half were disconnected for a long time while in-game, which lead to her not being able to currently walk. She started physical therapy and she will have to likely continue it for many years. But she’s just glad to be alive again.

Kaede parked herself at the table and Rantaro put the tray down in front of her, also taking a seat at the table.

“Any new plans on what to do when we get out of here?” Kaede asked.

Kaito took a large bite of his pancake before talking. “You know me, I’m still planning on becoming an astronaut. Since I never took the test for real and I don’t have any connections now, I gotta actually get my degree and stuff. I’ve sent in some applications to several schools, but in just a few years I’ll be in space, just you wait and see!”

“That’s nice, how many schools have you applied for?” Kaede took a bite out of her own pancake.

“A hundred and fifty-nine, but I might apply to a few more, who knows.” Kaito waved around his fork.

Kaede blinked. “I see…”

Rantaro leaned his arms against the table. “I think I’ll travel for a while personally. See what this world is about.”

“Traveling around all the time sounds so tiring. I can’t see how anyone could do it for fun.” Kaede jabbed lightheartedly.

Rantaro rolled his eyes. “What are your plans?”

Kaede poked her pancake with the fork. “I’m not sure, I’ll definitely keep playing piano for myself, but I don’t think I’ll do any performances for a long time. I don’t think people would attend for the music, it would just be the fans of that show watching their character on stage.”

Kaito sighed, “That’s understandable, I’m glad you aren’t giving up your passion though.”

“Yeah… What about you, Shuichi?” Kaede looked over to him.

“Oh…. Um, I’m not sure. Would it be okay if… I stayed with one of you guys?” Shuichi asked nervously.

“Well, I could certainly use the company.” Kaede smiled. “Maybe everybody could all buy one giant house. We have the show money to pool together for one easily. Then I’ll never miss out on the drama.”

Shuichi tilted his head at her. “You want more drama?”

Kaede laughed. “What else am I going to do all day? Just sit around like an old fart? Don’t you find this place boring?”

Shuichi shook his head. “I am relieved about how boring this place is… I am so glad I never have to see dead people walking around ever again in my life.”

“We’re not in that type of hospital, but I see your point.” Kaede said. The place they were in was more of a recovery center. They still had a couple weeks to go before they were released.

Kaede spotted Maki walking by with a tray of food. “Maki, Good morning! Come sit with us?”

Maki looked a little surprised, she walked over and sat down at the table. “Morning.”

“Mornin’ Maki-roll! Any plans on what you’re doing after we get out of here? Kaede said she’d like to get a big house with everyone in it and Shuichi has already agreed to it.”

Shuichi’s eyes widened. “I didn’t- I would like to stay with her if she didn’t mind… but the giant house thing…”

Maki paused. “You’re staying with Kaede? Like… as friends?”

“Yep! We’re inseparable.” Kaede nudged Shuichi. She looked back at Maki. “But you can stay with us too, even if we don’t end up getting a large house or anything like that.”

“Hm. I wouldn’t mind living with you two… but are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure. Right, Shuichi?”

“Yeah… I know you um… didn’t believe me about the ghost thing… but you were never actually mean about it. You were just worried about me. So, um, I forgive you, and I would like it if you stayed with us too.”

Maki blushed and looked away. “Okay.”

“And don’t worry about me. Even though I’ll be living on campus, I’ll make sure to visit whenever I can.” Kaito gave them a thumbs up.

Rantaro smiled. “I’ll try to visit you guys once in a while, but I could mail some souvenirs more regularly.”

“Alright! We have everything figured out.” Kaede smiled at her friends.