The Loveliest of Lies (Oumota)

Purpose

The room was full of boxes.

Small boxes. Large boxes. Cardboard boxes. Wooden boxes. Plastic Boxes.

They were all neatly labelled.

Kokichi pursed his lips and looked at the other side of the room.

He saw a number of things that weren't boxes; a pile of wooden pallets, some large buckets and long plastic containers, and weirdly enough, a sink.

Why does this school have yet *another* storage room? Maybe it's filled with more *interesting* things than the warehouse. He mused.

He paused when he saw Maki and Kirumi.

They were kneeling next to each other in the centre of the room, shifting through the boxes one by one.

Kokichi grinned and stepped forward. This was a perfect opportunity to show up Kaito and his dumb beliefs about friendship and trust.

"Heeeeeyyyyy Harukawa-chan! And Tojo-chan!" He called out loudly, voice dripping with fake joy.

Kaito frowned at him, but Kokichi didn't care. He just wanted to annoy Maki.

Maki stood up and glared at him coldly.

Anyone else would have flinched at the sheer hatred in her eyes, but Kokichi just grinned and waved lazily at her. She didn't faze him at all.

In contrast, Kirumi just shrugged listlessly and went back to searching.

Her reaction warmed Kokichi's heart. She was too depressed to really care about anything.

"What do you want?" Maki asked tersely.

Kaito opened his mouth-

"Did you discover anything... Harumaki?" Kokichi said quickly.

Kaito frowned at him again, his cheeks turning a deep pink.

Kokichi responded with a sharp smirk, showing off his teeth.

Kaito looks cute.

"Some of these boxes are filled with dangerous items." Kirumi said suddenly, standing up and eyeing them warily.

"Yes. We found a box labelled "sharp objects". It's full of knives and similar...implements. I also found a box labelled "cooking supplies" that had nothing in it but matches. So, the contents of this room range from the lethal to the mundane." Maki said slowly.

"What kind of "sharp objects"?" Kaito asked apprehensively.

"Knives, spikes, arrows, scissors.... stuff like that." Maki said calmly.

"Can you show us?" Kaito said.

Maki nodded and picked up a nearby box. It was long and tin and made of wood. She carefully opened it and showed them what was inside.

Sure enough, it was filled with every type of "sharp object" imaginable, except...

There aren't any swords. Kokichi noted.

"This is soooo exciting! I wanna find some murder weapons!" Kokichi declared loudly.

He ran towards a large pile of boxes and kicked it over, before kneeling down and eagerly rifling through it.

He found a box labelled "swimsuits", one labelled "fishing", and even one labelled "comics", but he pushed them all aside and focused on searching for more dangerous items.

In the background, Kaito was busy chatting to Maki. Kokichi ignored them both.

Fortunately, he soon found a large cardboard box labelled "blunt objects".