Alternate (Shuichi Saihara x fem reader)

Chapter Six: Part Two

I fumbled with the light to make sure it was a one-time-use thing. It was. Regardless, I smashed it under my foot, and put the scraps back into the box. I considered destroying the box after that, but decided against it. No one could open it, anyhow, so it was good enough for me. After that, I took a quick look around Rantaro's lab first, but didn't find anything worth mine or anyone else's time. So I went back down the stairs.

Kaito's lab on the sixth floor was only accessible from the first floor, so I went down to go up. And along the way...

"Heyyyyy! Are ya goin ta Kaito's lab?" Kokichi, who was searching the first floor, caught up with me. "I finished searching here ages agooo! Take me with you!" I didn't have a reason to say no, so I let him. We went up the spiral staircase, and into the lab.

"I don't see anything special here," I said, after only a few seconds of searching. I wanted to go swap notes with Shuichi in preparation for the trial as soon as possible.

"Me neither," Kokichi said, looking me dead in the eyes. "Except for this wall indentation. Come on." He pushed on the indentation and opened a hidden door in the wall. "Oooh! Looks like some weird shit!" He went in without hesitation, so I followed. There were a bunch of chambers. What purpose they served, I had no idea, but they felt familiar. "Hey! Have you heard of the Gofer Project?"

"The what?"

"After the apocalypse, humanity sent a bunch of talented, ultimate teenagers—us—into space as humanity's last hope! So we avoided the end of the world, and are ready to make a new one!" He gave a very brief explanation. "I bet these were the pods we were in to secure that destiny. I bet we're in space right now, getting ready to land back on Earth!"

"Who would want you to reproduce..." I muttered to myself. He made a disgusted noise in shock.

"Really? We're on a spaceship to save humanity, the last survivors of the human race, and half of us have killed the other half, and you're gonna make pathetic jokes like that? Honestly, you've spent too much time with Miu."

"Sorry, sorry, it's just a bit too hard to believe. How did you even discover something like that anyway?"

"There was a report on it in my lab! Pretty cool, right?" He beamed.

"Well, whatever. Does that have to do with the killing game?" He looked stunned for a second.

"I dunno! Let's ask Shuichi! I can't imagine it doesn't, so maybe he can connect the ties for us!" As soon as we left the room, Monokuma gave the announcement that the trial was about to start. Kokichi and I hurried to the shrine first, then everyone else filtered in—Miu looked tired, but huffed her chest out as soon as she saw me, as if to boost her own confidence, Tsumugi was holding Keebo's laptop with her very life, shaking, Himiko was nervously hiding behind an also nervous Tenko, and Shuichi looked...different. He had his head held high, as if he was certain about something. Was he certain about the mastermind? About ending the killing game? No matter what, he was certainly more confident than the shy boy who I had met before. How had I gotten weaker and he got stronger?

No. I was confident, too.

The gates opened, and we stepped in. Our final class trial. Our final test. Our graduation. All we had to do was earn it.

•••

"Shuiiiichiiiiiii, can I make the first poooooiiiiiiint?" Kokichi whined. Unfortunately, he was the only one speaking up, so we had to hear him talk. "Y/n and I were just talking about this before the trial began! In my lab, there was a report on the Gofer Project, and there was a place in Kaito's lab that led to the chambers we must have been kept in! Soooo I think that's related to the killing game, but I don't know how! Thoughts?"