Brats & Brains (Shuichi x Kokichi)

9 - The Moon Is Beautiful, Isn't It?

~ Shuichi

"Well fuck," Kokichi groans—he genuinely sounds upset, which contradicts his claims about loving this killing game. Due to his tear-stained face earlier, I think it's all a facade. It's his way of coping with this chaos.

Yet another body announcement discovery plays on the monitors, so we stack another investigation on top of Angie's—it's entirely possible that they share the same killer, but Monokuma makes it clear that Tenko's killer won't be executed, so it doesn't exactly matter anyway. Kokichi joins me in my investigation like he always does; Kaito has started investigating with Maki instead of me, so that gives Kokichi and me more alone time.

"The floorboard is broken," I say to myself during my investigation. I turn around to investigate the rest of the room and I hear a loud crash behind me—I turn back around at lightning speed to see Kokichi lying face-down on the ground.

"Kokichi!" I shout frantically as I run over to him. Blood starts seeping out from under him and I start panicking as I shake his unconscious body—was his fall that fatal? Is he actually... dead? He's not breathing...

After a few seconds of urgently attempting to shake him awake, Kokichi looks up at me with blood dripping down his face. He grasps his bearings and flashes me his signature grin as he exclaims, "It's a lie!"

I sigh in frustration with a touch of relief. "So you were fine that whole time?" I annoyingly ask him as I help him to his feet; he sways back and forth, struggling to keep his balance.

"Not really," he groans. "My ears started ringing and my head was spinning, but I figured you thought I was dead, so I decided to fuck with you a little."

I roll my eyes at him, not jokingly this time. "Don't do that!"

He lets out a troublesome snicker. "Sorry, Shu," he says, wiping his blood-stained face.

I blush at the nickname he gives me, but I shake the thought out of my head and quickly get back to work after bandaging Kokichi's bloody head; we only have so much time left, and I have not one, but two murders to solve for this trial—despite not needed to solve the second one, I investigate anyway. Instead of investigating, Kokichi sits in the corner of the room, drinking water and groaning in pain.

The information I gather during the investigation shows that Tenko was stabbed in the neck with a sickle, and that she likely never left the cage, so whoever killed her may have either crept underneath the floorboards, or set up some sort of trap beforehand. It would make sense for Korekiyo to set up a trap since he suggested the seance in the first place, but I can't pin it all on him until I learn everything.

"I think Kokichi killed Angie and Himiko killed Tenko," Kaito blurts out as soon as the trial starts.

Kokichi gasps in shock. "What did I do?" he asks, fauxly offended. I can tell he's faking it by the tone in his voice—he's being sarcastic. I've noticed that in high-stress situations, he's able to remain calm by being sarcastic and rude with everything he says.

"You're the only one who coulda gotten into Angie's lab!" Kaito accuses. "He can pick locks, so he probably picked the lock to Angie's lab and gotten in that way!"

Kokichi starts laughing like a maniac, still remaining composed—for the most part. "What motive would I have to kill her? She was trying to bring back Rantaro or whatever, even though nobody was able to get to know Rantaro enough to have any opinion about him!"

"That's really insensitive, Kokichi," Himiko whines. "You don't care about anyone here but yourself."

Kokichi gives her one of his terrifying, sinister grins. "That's the only way to get by in this game, poor Himiko. Make relationships with people and you become vulnerable; you also become emotionally attached, and you can't become attached to someone in a killing game."