Robotic Heart

Chapter 13.

--★--

Where was I?

Oh, right, the trial room. It was dark, very dark, but there were lights glowing . . . green, purple, blue, and a glowing teal, except it was closer than the other colors. It was on one of the podiums, Kiibo's podium. It was him. Except, it wasn't Kiibo. His face was dead, no life, no energy, a blank stare was plastered on his face. Nothing distinctive about it besides his two eyes, glowing with a bright teal color.

It sent shivers down my spine, this certainly wasn't the heart warming robot that I knew, this was just an object with no purpose. I looked around, my vision was blurry but I could make out about 3 other people. I couldn't exactly tell who they were, but one of them was laughing? It was a different kind of laughter, not the kind like Miu when she thinks of a witty insult to spit at Kokichi, or the type of laughter like Angie's. It was sinister and filled with evil. It was harsh and cold, psychotic you could even say. The laughter kept going on, getting louder and louder and louder.

It got to the point where it was like someone had put speakers right next to my ears and was blasting this disturbing laughter.

"Shuichiiiii!" The voice suddenly started to say. It said my name in that same psychotic tone over and over and over again.

"Shuichi! Shuichi! Shuichi! Shuichi!"

--★--

"SHUICHI!" I bolted up from my bed, swear dripping down my forehead, my heart beating fast and my breathe heavy. My eyes darted to the person calling my name.

That damn bear.

"Good! You're finally awake, I was calling your name for quite a while you know? Needed to ask you a little question!"

I sighed. What was so important that he needed to wake me up from my sleep?

"What is it?" I asked him.

"Welllllll, a little birdie told me that they saw a certain somebody coming out of your room in the middle of the night, and it certainly wasn't you!" He giggled.

I was confused for a second, but then it set in. Kiibo wasn't here, why did he leave?

"Kiibo and I decided to rest together for the night, I don't know if you are aware but witnessing one of our friends brutally die makes it quite hard to sleep alone at night . . ."

Monokuma shrugged.
"Hmm, you make a compelling point, kid! Anyway, it's time to wake up anyway, we wouldn't want you to get punished for being late to the dining hall, now would we?" The bear giggled one more time before exiting my room, leaving me to be here all by myself.

I got up from my bed and exited my room, making my way out of the building. What a weird strange dream, why was Kiibo like that? And why was that person laughing so maliciously. It couldn't have been Monokuma, he didn't laugh like that . . . now that I think about it the laugh sounded quite familiar, but I couldn't exactly place my finger on where or who I heard it from before.

Maybe I'm just thinking too much about this, after all it could've just been a strange dream without any meaning behind it. But it felt so real . . . and considering the other dreams I've had here and what they've been about this isn't all that surprising. Damn it, and just as I thought I was starting to get actual good dreams.

I entered the dinging hall, it seemed that everyone was already there except one person. Her. Right, I had forgotten what had happened after the trial last night. Kokichi causing problems as always, except this time it wasn't just stirring the pot or causing arguments like he normally does with Miu, he exposed a whole Assassin. I don't know whether this was good or bad. It's good that we are at least aware of the truth, but this event might cause Maki to go crazy, I wouldn't be surprised if she was strong enough to go on a killing spree.

I sat down at the table, Kiibo was sitting at the far end, looking down at the table. He looked like he was deeply thinking about something, a vulnerable and puzzled look was covering his face. Did something happen? Did I do something? I hoped I didn't, I would never want to put Kiibo into any kind of trouble.

"Of course she's not here," I turned my head towards Kokichi as he started to speak, "she's probably thinking of how to choke us all with those long ponytails of hers!" He smiled. Kaito glared at him, it was obvious he didn't care for Kokichi one bit and honestly I couldn't blame him. I too was getting irritated by the short boy.

"She's not planning on killing anyone, and even if she was the only person that would end up dead would be you since you can't seem to leave her alone!" Kaito yelled.

Kokichi scoffed.

"Why are you getting so mad? If anything you all should be thanking me! Like, hello! I exposed an assassin, y'know, someone that could potentially kill us all!" He yelled back.

"Oh shut the fuck up Kokichi! I'll be laughing at your ass when we find you choked out by your own scarf!" Miu chimed in.

A heard a small giggle. It was quiet and seemed to be towards the back of the room. Tsumugi? I felt off, like I heard a similar laugh somewhere else before . . . Tsumugi looked back at me and simply smiled innocently. It was odd, but I turned back to the argument at hand. By time others had chimed in as well.

"Both of you degenerate males need to shut your mouths! Maki would never kill one of us girls!" Tenko yelled at both Kaito and Kokichi.

Suddenly, the doors of the dining hall burst open.

"I won't be killing anyone."

Maki walked into the dining hall, a slightly annoyed look on her face. Tenko yelped and jumped behind Himiko. Maki walked closer to the rest of the group as stood.

"Well well well, why are you so late? Honestly surprised you even showed up." Kokichi snorted.

"It was . . . hard to get out of bed this morning." She replied. Maki had her usual cold and irritated look on her face, but even then, I sensed trouble behind her eyes as she spoke. She seemed . . . sad?

"But I also did some investigating before I got here. It seems my personal lab has now been opened." She said.

"Ooo, that is great!" Angie exclaimed.

"Uh, not great. I'm sure she wants to lure us all in there as a trap!" Kokichi said.

"Will you shut up?!" Maki yelled, her eyes glowing red with the same shadow resuming on her face. "My talent may be what it is, but I refuse to kill anyone here in order to escape. Now, if you guys don't mind can we go to my lab, there's some things in there I'd think could be helpful." Maki said.

The group slowly nodded and went after her. Everyone slowly filed out of the dining hall, me and Kiibo were the last ones to leave. He still had a troubled look on his face.

"Kiibo are you okay? This morning I got a ride awakening from Monokuma, but I realized you weren't there." I said.

He raised his head and turned to face me.

"Oh, uhm . . . you just had fallen asleep so I thought I should've just went back to my dorm for the rest of the night . . ." He said quietly. I slowly nodded, I could tell that wasn't everything and he wasn't telling me something. We continued to walk, a little bit behind the group. It was awkwardly silent as we walked through the dark hallways that were overgrown with greenery.

"Shuichi," I turned to face Kiibo as he suddenly spoke, "I think there's something wrong with me!" He said.

I looked at him confused.

"I'm feeling . . . things I've never felt before, am I malfunctioning?"

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A bit of foreshadowing, ifyky. Anyway enjoy