The Ultimate Assassin's lab was a stronghold for weaponry. On every shelf sat all sorts of guns, knives, bows, and even grenades. Ornate sickles were strapped on the wall. Cases over cases of bullets were neatly arranged in boxes.
"I think I sort of get why Maki didn't want anyone to come in here," Kokichi muttered. "Sort of ruined her whole cover story, which was suspicious as it was."
"I sort of wish we hadn't found this place," Shuichi ran his fingers over a shelf filled with swords, which had accumulated a thin layer of dust. "Could be a bit tempting to people,"
"We can find Maki's preferences with this," Kirumi added. "The katanas have obviously not been touched ever since the lab has opened, the dust is piling up. There is proof that she handled the crossbows and guns through," She picked one up and weighed it in her hands. "The dust has been disturbed, and there is a crossbow-shaped void. She must have displaced it or moved its location,"
Kaede hadn't really noticed that, but he supposed that it was something that you came to focus on, as a maid. Dust was essential."Nunchucks!" Tenko yelled in glee. Sure enough, in a cardboard box with the label "ASSORTED STUFF" were two shiny black sticks, connected with a short silver chain. "Finally!" Tenko yelled. "Tenko can advance her Neo-Akidio to continue to protect girls!"
"Gonta thinks that we shouldn't take any of the weapons from here! It's too dangerous!"
"I agree!" Kiibo's weird robot antenna perked up, like it was channeling his feeling. "It would be terrible if someone decides to do anything funny with anything here!"
Kaede noticed he was staring at Kokichi particularly, and she secretly agreed. If there was anyone who was and would ever plan to mess around with any of this stuff, it was Kokichi.
"Waaaaah!" Kokichi's eyes filled up with tears. "Kiibo's soooooo mean! I thought we were the best of friends! Bonded together forever! BFFs!"
"Since when?" Kiibo said sarcastically. "You've done nothing but annoy me since Day 1."
"Maybe that's just my way of showing affection, Kiibo-chan! Why not a game of Russian roulette in my room later? I'm a master, y'know..."
"I'll pass."
"Tenko is more worried about that <em>degenerate male</em> getting a hold on this stuff, honestly," Tenko muttered. "Is he still out cold?"
"He was about to wake up when I left him and Angie," Shuichi pointed out, before noticing the problem and paling. "That...isn't a great idea, is it?"
Yes, Shuichi, leaving a possible serial killer with a manipulative leader who has already been responsible for indirectly killing 3 people and brainwashing everyone else to give up trying to escape is not a great idea.
So, with a heavy weight in her heart and praying to all the gods that nothing serious, crazy, or murderous had happened in the cafeteria, Kaede sprinted out of the Ultimate Assasin's lab.
What she found thankfully wasn't very ...out of the ordinary. Angie was still knocking her legs playfully against the chair, but Kiyo had woken up, looking positively bewildered. Kaede would have been worried if he wasn't. He was still in the same position as when he had crumpled, but his gold eyes were blinking like crazy as he surveyed the room.
"W-what is this about?" he asked, and Kaede knew this was going to be a long, complicated day.
"I know this is pretty sudden, but I need you to talk more about your sister,"
"Why?"
The Ultimate Pianist could feel Tenko fuming next to her, like <em>It doesn't matter why, degenerate! You might, no you definitely are a murderer, and we're all freaked out by the sister incident! Just hurry up and spill all your life's secrets to us!</em>
Kaede secretly agreed, but annoying what might be your future murderer was probably not the best of ideas. Going with a more pragmatic approach might help.
Thankfully, Kiyo seemed to notice the subtle change in atmosphere. "Sister...she was here, wasn't she?"
"Wait, Kiyo didn't notice?" Gonta asked. "I thought Kiyo asked her to come!"
Korekiyo shook his head, putting one bandaged hand right on the zipper on his mask. "She is inside of me, constantly. She tells me what to do, how to act, what to say. I remember pulling my mask down, but everything is black after that... "
"Wait," Kiibo made a time-out pose. "You have an inner voice? Me too! It tells me to do stuff sometimes, but it's really confusing."
"It isn't that simple. My beloved Sister is a part of my soul, is a part of me. "
"Wait wait wait wait," Kokichi closed his eyes lightly. "Your <em>beloved</em> sister? As a very lucky and intuitive supreme leader, I've never needed to deal with the hassle of sharing my inheritance and birthright of a large and very evil organization with over 10,000 members with someone born from the same parents, but are siblings supposed to be this close?"
<em>How does that have anything to do with intuition? Nevermind. We don't even know this supposedly large and very evil organization with over 10,000 members exists, anyways.</em>
"Me and my twin sister Kaori used to be really close when we were little, we sort of...grew apart over time. Dad and mom spent a lot of time fawning over me and helped make sure that my career grew as much as possible...both of us had pretty bad grades but my parents never complained about mine nearly as much as they did with her. She must have harbored some pretty sour feelings...because she ran away from home when she was 15."
"So siblings aren't supposed to be this close?"
"It really depends on the case that you're talking about...Kaori and I were sort of a ''don't do this' thing. I still think about if I had made more time to spend with her, or if I had somehow persuaded my parents to go easy on her...maybe she would still be around."
Tenko shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. "No! Kaede did the absolute best that she could have done! There's no point regretting your mistakes anymore! It's time to move forward!"
"The same advice could apply to Tenko! Nyahahaha!" Angie said snidely from in the chair.
"Tenko is going to choose to ignore that,"
"Sister was the person who influenced my passion for anthropology. She enjoyed the topic herself, but being stuck in a bed all the time prevented her from traveling, which means she couldn't do any fieldwork. She was frustrated and envious of me, I suppose, so when she found out that I liked anthropology, she was ecstatic. She pushed me to pursue the topic as much as I could, " Kiyo muttered, squeezing his knees even tighter like he was hugging himself.
"So you were Sister 2.0, in a way," Shuichi pointed out. "You were her second shot at life, and she didn't want it to go wrong,"
"No-"
"Hello, my beloved students!" Monokuma's voice rang out for the second time that day, and Kaede shifted her attention to the black and white robot bear standing imposingly at the cafeteria doors, sort of a feat because Monokuma was only 2' 6". "It's time for the motive! Kuuuuuuuuuubs!"
