2021 Onseshot Book!

Saiibo: Dead, But Not Gone

(A/N): This is a request from Flaming_SaiiboAce

Warnings: mentions of death (and brief mentions of violence/gore), self destructive habits

When was the last time Shuichi had slept? He wasn't entirely sure.

The only thing that barely distracted him from his Danganronpa experience was his work.

His uncle called every few days to check up on him, but he was overseas visiting Shuichi's parents for the next month, so he was powerless to stop Shuichi and his destructive habits.

Since his uncle had left, Shuichi had only gone away from his desk (he worked at home) to visit crime scenes, where he was often only accompanied by a corpse and a few other investigators.

Shuichi didn't have large reactions to seeing the dead bodies anymore, Danganronpa desensitized him to the sight of blood and guts. And that scared him. He worried that he was becoming inhuman because he had pulled through Danganronpa... or worse yet, maybe he was always inhuman and Danganronpa just exposed his true nature.

Shuichi shook his head. Thinking too much only brought him confusion and pain. He needed to distract himself.

So he put his head down and absorbed himself in his most recent case.

***

"Saihara-kun."

"Saihara-kun." That voice... sounds a bit like Kiibo-kun. Shuichi thought to himself.

"Saihara-kun!"

Shuichi's head shot up. He saw Himiko staring down at him with a frown.

"Yu... meno-san?" Shuichi asked as his mind slowly woke up.

"Harukawa-san and I got worried. You haven't been responding to our calls." Himiko explained.

Shuichi didn't bother questioning how they got into his apartment, they had all given each other their house keys for circumstances like these.

"Oh... well, I'm fine, so you don't have to-"

"What's with the picture?" Himiko stared at a framed photo on Shuichi's nightstand. He had turned it over, but Himiko must have grabbed it anyway.

"Ah... I don't remember..." Even after the game, the survivors had barely any memories. Shuichi barely remembered anything before waking up in a locker by Kaede. The sheer reminder of such made him forget what he was saying previously.

Himiko looked at the picture for a bit longer. "Huh..."

"W-what is it?" Shuichi asked, anxious about what she found.

"The shorter guy in the picture looks familiar, did you notice that?"

Shuichi blinked. "No... can I see it?" He had turned it over without much thought, after all. He barely remembered what the picture looked like.

The magician handed the frame over to him.

Shuichi's eyes widened. He was staring at a picture of himself kissing none other than a human Kiibo.

***

"I don't know about this Akamatsu-san..."

"Oh come on, Kiibo-kun! Shuichi-kun won't listen to anyone else!"

Kiibo pursed his lips pensively. "What makes you so sure?"

He felt like rolling his eyes when the pianist wordlessly smirked at him and just shrugged.

Kiibo sighed in exasperation. "I can't believe I'm agreeing to this..."

***

After about an hour, Maki and Himiko left Shuichi, allowing him to continue hyper focusing in his work.

As the sun began to set and the natural light of his office was replaced with that of his desk lamp, Shuichi began to feel like something was... off.

He wasn't sure why, but his office felt colder, but somehow less lonely.

The longer he ignored the shift in atmospher, the more pressing it became, until around three in the morning, he heard a loud clang, like someone dropped a pan in his kitchen.

Was he being robbed or something? Only one way to find out.

Shuichi weakly rose from his desk chair and crept into the hallway.

He heard faint humming. He recognized the voice and instantly tensed.

No... I'm just imagining things again... it can't be-

The humming abruptly stopped.

Right in front of Shuichi, a dimly glowing figure appearedShuichi met the cobalt blue eyes he missed so much. "K... Kiibo?" He whispered, passing out from shock immediately after.

***

Shuichi woke up still on the floor, but with a humanoid Kiibo worriedly leaning over him.

Without much of a thought, he inhaled sharply and bolted up. It took him a minute to process that he didn't hit anything... wasn't Kiibo looming over him?

He turned around to see Kiibo, looking rather unsurprised.

Shuichi blinked. "How..."

Kiibo looked down at his hands. "I'm... not entirely sure myself." He admitted. "After my... erm... passing, I found myself tethered to you. I've... been this way since the game ended."

Sure, Shuichi occasionally felt like he was being watched, but he always assumed that it was just his anxiety. He wasn't expecting the ghost of his crush to be watching over him.

When Shuichi said nothing, something in Kiibo seemed to tighten. He clenched his fists and continued. "Shuichi, I'm worried about you." He revealed, making Shuichi blush bashfully. "I don't like how you've been overwhelming yourself... I mean, it's gotten to the point where I've found the willpower to materialize."

Shuichi stared at him. Was he really that bad?

"But now that I can actually interact with you, I have decided that I can watch you do this to yourself no longer; I'm going to help you!"

Shuichi couldn't help but wonder if Kiibo's cheeks had always been so pink.

"It really is you." Shuichi couldn't help but smile. It was his first smile since he, Himiko and Maki had broken free from the killing game.

Kiibo blinked, surprised by Shuichi's words. "What made you switch your view so fully?"

Shuichi blushed. "You really appeared just to help me... your compassion gave it away."

(A/N): Sorry this took so long! Writing this was a STRUGGLE for whatever reason. That's why it may not be quite as good as my usual writing (at least, to me).