Nostophobia

Momota Kaito

Momota = in-game.
Kaito= child.

-•°•❀•°•-

As per their usual routine, everyone ate breakfast in the dining hall. They all looked up when Shinguji entered, adorning his normal mask and speaking in his regular voice when greeting everyone. Everyone returned the greeting, but only one was brave enough to ask the question haunting all of them. "What are your pronouns today, Shinguji?" K1-B0 asked.

"I am a male and prefer he/him pronouns," Shinguji explained as he took his usual seat. "Please behave as if nothing occurred yesterday." Despite finding the situation a little confusing, everyone decided to agree. None of them wanted to harm Shinguji by not respecting his wishes. It wasn't hard to use someone's preferred pronouns, after all.

Despite eating calmly in comfortable silence, an unasked question lingered in the air. Who would be next in this childhood trauma motive? Everyone's eyes landed on the door now and again, all worried about their turn. Even the people who already went through the experience were nervous.

K1-B0 gasped, startling everyone as he jumped to his feet. "I hear crying."

Everyone glanced at each other, putting down their cutlery so they could bask the dining hall in pure silence. All they could hear was the soft breeze rattling the tiny windows and overgrown foliage. No one could hear anything, but they trusted their robot friend. He had never lied to them. Maybe a child had appeared in the school?

"We know it's not a guy this time!" Momota declared with a wide, ignorant grin. "Boys don't cry!" Despite the irate glares, Momota didn't seem to notice anything wrong with his words.

Ouma scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Men don't cry. Men strong. Men superior. Ooga-Booga! Speak more caveman please, we're very interested."

"Typical degenerate males," Chabashira scoffed.

Harukawa stood up and began to walk away with K1-B0. "We'll look for the child."

"I'm coming!" Ouma called, much to Harukawa's disgust. K1-B0 sighed but didn't argue the inevitable.

"Good luck," Hoshi muttered. K1-B0 smiled at the short tennis player before leading Harukawa and Ouma toward the crying that they still couldn't hear.

"Why do you care about a crying child, Ouma?" K1-B0 asked as they walked through the dark halls.

Ouma huffed and crossed his arms. "I'm the Ultimate Child Caregiver, duh!" Harukawa raised an eyebrow but didn't call out his adoption of her ultimate talent. "I took care of all the kids in the orphanage where I grew up, you know! If anyone can handle kids, it's me!"

K1-B0 softly smiled at the boy, choosing to believe him out of the goodness of his heart. If Ouma was telling the truth, why would he want to talk about it? Despite this, he couldn't help but ask. "You're an orphan?"

"No shit, Sherlock!" Ouma laughed. "Where else was I supposed to go after murdering my parents?!"

The robot just stared at him for a few seconds, trying to process everything. "Uh, prison?"

"Nope, because I'm lying!~" He turned around and walked backwards, smirking at the two. "I only murdered my older brother!~"

Before K1-B0 could reprimand Ouma, the humans seemed to freeze and look toward a nearby door. They must have been able to hear the child now. Everyone slipped into the library to find a child crying in the corner. The plum hair stood out to them and Ouma began rubbing his hands together. "Oh, I am so bullying Momota about this after that misogyny bullshit." K1-B0 just sighed; he knew he couldn't talk Ouma out of it.