The Ultimate Outlaw

Can You Keep a Secret?

       A/N: This one is on the shorter side!

A little past noon as Miu makes her way back towards the newly revealed computer room, both Niles and Maki stop the blonde in her tracks. With an irritated sigh and small whine, Miu begrudgingly follows the two to a classroom on the second floor. Able to tell that this was something serious, Miu takes a seat on top of one of the desks while Maki and Niles look around to make sure that no one outside of their little group was lurking nearby to eavesdrop. Once both were satisfied with their quick search, the two enter the room, Maki walking over to the teacher's stand and leaning against it. Niles, on the other hand, leaned against the doors after closing them shut and holding them shut and an ear pressed against the wood. When neither spoke, Miu swallows a bit before finding her voice suddenly a bit intimidated that she was now locked in a room with two of the most intimidating members in this fucked up game.

"Soooooo why'd you bring me here?" Miu asks, glancing between the two. She notices that Niles just motioned for Maki to spoke. Her blue eyes then move back to Maki.

"Can you keep a secret?" Maki asks, locking her red eyes with Miu, making the blonde squirm a bit at the intensity.

"I'd like to think so," Miu answers. "What's this all about?"

"Since you're apart of our little group, we've decided to share a secret with you. But this being a secret, you cannot tell anyone - including Kaede and Shuichi."

"Well I don't talk to Pooichi or Kaeidiot and I only trust you shitheads. But why's it so important that this not get out..?"

"Fair enough. And it's important it doesn't get out because my Ultimate is not Child Caregiver. It's Assassin. And should things get wonky during a trial, the more people that can come to my defense should I be wrongly accused, the better."

"Oh shit- for fucking real?? You're an Assassin?"

"Yes. Now please keep this secret. I don't want people we don't trust to use this against me," Maki says.

"Yeah no, I'll be keeping my mouth shut. I won't be leaving the computer room too often anyways," Miu says. "Fuck I thought you two were going to do something freaky here with both of you locking me in this room as some sort of initiation thing," she says, causing a laugh to emit from Niles.

"No offense to either of you, but while I may be bi, neither of you are my type for females," Niles states.

"And I'd shoot you before you even laid a hand on me in that regard," Maki retorts as she looks at the lone male. She then returns her gaze to Miu. "But that was all we wanted."

"Toodles~ We'll be watching~" Niles says with a sadistic grin that was clearly a warning to Miu to not fuck up and say anything. He then turns around and leaves the room, disappearing around the corner. Maki was then next and she hurriedly makes her way to her Research Lab since she wanted to doubly make sure that no one got into her Lab while she wasn't there. With a few blinks, Miu then hops off the desk and walks out of the classroom, making her way back towards the computer lab. As she reaches the stairs, she was stopped once more causing the Inventor to turn around with a groan.

"What?!" Miu snaps at Kaede and Shuichi when she spots that it was these two that stopped her. Shuichi flinched a bit from her tone.

"What's up Miu?" Kaede asks nonchalantly and with a relatively contained smile.

"...Going up to the computer lab. What do ya want Kaeidiot?" Miu answers with a frown.

"Oh we were just curious where you were going on your own!" Kaede responds.

"I don't buy that," Miu says, arms now folding over her chest as she looks between the two. Kaede and Shuichi glance between each other and both sigh.

"We saw you leave a room after Niles and Maki and wanted to make sure that they didn't do anything or threaten you," Shuichi admits. This causes Miu to bark out a laugh.

"Awe were you worried for busty, beautiful, blonde genius me Pooichi~? How disgustingly sweet of you," Miu grins. "But I'm fine. They just wanted a little talk with me."

"About...?" Kaede asks, leaning a bit closer with a persuasive look. Miu's blues dart around real quick on instinct but then shook her head.

"None of ya fuckin' business that's what," Miu answers. "Now if you have nothing actually important to ask, I'll be heading up to the computer lab," she says before turning around and continuing upwards before she could get stopped again. Kaede and Shuichi both visibly deflate when they didn't get any information out of Miu. The two then make their way back towards Kaede's Research Lab for the time being, unaware of the Outlaw that had hidden himself from all of their sights. The two were also unaware that there was a shadow following them to their destination. The two slip into Kaede's Research Lab and Niles pauses for a moment, waiting for the door to click shut. Glancing around to make sure no one was watching him, Niles goes up to the door and presses his ear against it to eavesdrop on the Pianist and Detective. Their voices were muffled but Niles had sharp enough hearing to make the words out.

"We were so close! Clearly Maki and Niles told Miu something important!" Kaede sighs.

"I know Kaede. But all we can do is keep trying to find out information," Shuichi says. Niles could hear Shuichi's footfalls move further from the door and concludes that he went to be by Kaede's side.

"This is really hard being neutral... But it's hard to believe that Niles is innocent when there are too many unknowns about him! I don't think he's truly evil... An asshole for sure, but he has no reason to kill any of us..."

"I know. But if we pick his side without finding out the truth, then things will get more complicated with the Anti-Niles group when the unfortunate and inevitable murder."

"I wish that wasn't expected. I wish all of us could live peacefully and find another way out of this... this shitty place that we've been trapped in!"

"Me too Kaede... Me too," Shuichi sighs. The Outlaw hears some ruffling of clothes and a faint thud of someone taking a seat on a piano bench.

"Do you think we can achieve that? A way to get the rest of us out?"

"Possibly. But until we can prove that Niles can be trusted and won't cause issue, that won't happen."

"Like I get it to an extent why Tenko is so suspicious of Niles, besides him being a male. But to be fair, none of us truly know each other and those Flashback Lights only do so much... After all, we only know that we once discarded our Ultimates to avoid the Ultimate Hunt!"

"...Now that you bring up the Ultimate Hunt again... I have to ask you a question regarding the beginning of this game... Do you remember Rantaro asking something about the Ultimate Hunt before we got our Ultimates back?"

"Oh! That's right! I nearly forgot that we all met up before we got our Ultimates back-! But wait- Where was Niles??"

"That's what's been bothering me this entire time... And why I'm pretty sure that Niles and Rantaro know more than they're letting on," Shuichi says. He jumps as the door opens to the Lab, both his and Kaede's heads snapping up from the piano to look over. Both Shuichi and Kaede look up with widened eyes.

"Oh- uh hi Niles! What's up?" Kaede asks, her voice and smile both full of nerves. Niles doesn't answer right away as he steps completely in and shuts the door behind him. He motions for the two of them to stand up from the bench. Shuichi and Kaede get up from the bench slowly as to not alarm the armed Outlaw. Neither make a move as Niles then walks over to them, humming gently, and picks up the bench before walking back towards the door. Niles props the bench such that no one else could enter the room. Shuichi and Kaede were grasping hands with each other to keep them both grounded as Niles had yet to speak. Finally the white haired male turns around with a smirk, leaning against the wall next to the door with his arms folded over his chest.

"Can you keep a secret~?"