Entertaining a Small Thought

Arc 6 Part 3: In an Unfamiliar World Lies a Chain of Memories

"Damn it, Tenko! Let go of me!" Kokichi shouted as he finally managed to yank his arm free from the Aikido Fighter. "God, you're grip's almost as strong as Gonta's, and Gonta actively tried to hold back his strength to prevent hurting people!"

"If I didn't hold on to you tightly, you would have run away!" Tenko shot back with a huff.

"Yeah. I take issue with being dragged away by someone like most people." Kokichi deadpanned. "Anyway, why did you bring me to Kaito's lab?"

"Like I said. I have a hunch about this place I want to check out." Tenko smiled as she pumped up her fist. "If we were sent away because of the Gopher Project, and if this really is a spaceship we're all in, then doesn't it make sense for something to be inside the Ultimate Astronaut's Research Lab?"

"Well...I can't say your logic is flawed. It's more like the premise is iffy. Then again, what do I know? The more I learn, the more lost I feel." Kokichi sighed. So why did you need me here with you to investigate this hunch of yours?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something." Tenko began as she gave Kokichi a much more serious look.

For the typically loud, energetic, emotional Tenko, the look on her face at this moment seemed almost out of character. Right now, she looked more focused, as well as more somber. Kokichi felt a small pit in his stomach at seeing it. Whatever serious crap Tenko wanted to talk to him about, he would really rather just not.

"I'm not sure what you wanted to talk about, Tenko, but whatever it is, can't it wait until we're done with all of this? We're kinda in the middle of investigating the mysteries of this school and the killing game, as well as Rinny's murder. Do you really think we should be—"

"Rin knew he was going to die. You understand that, right?" Tenko interrupted him.

Kokichi flinched at the sudden declaration. He was so startled by it that he was momentarily at a loss for words, which Tenko took advantage of as she kept talking.

"No. That's probably not right. If I had to guess, Rin knew someone wanted to kill him, and instead of avoiding it like a normal person, he took advantage of that and made a plan that revolved around him dying." Tenko growled as she grimaced at the thought. "That was the sort of person he was, after all. He gladly walked into death traps just to prove a theory he had. Sometimes I wonder if he ever even cared about his own life. He certainly didn't seem to care how we all felt, so he must have thought it was okay to keep doing stuff like this without having to think about how he would hurt us after the fact."

"W-Wait a minute, why are you—?"

"What I'm getting at is Rin probably knew since at least yesterday that he was going to die, and he allowed it to happen." Tenko frowned. "If Rin had made a will and left it in his room, that would be one thing, but the fact that he went out of his way to disguise it so that we could find it like this means he knew this was going to happen all along."

"Yeah? So what? What does that have to do with me?!" Kokichi yelled, visibly getting angrier the more Tenko spoke.

"I'm saying this because I want to know what you're thinking right now," Tenko answered, her voice now softer than before. "You were his...Rin's death hit you really hard. Heck, you might have been the person closest to him at the end. So...I want to make sure you are alright after learning Rin let this happen."

"W-Why would I care?! Rin was always getting himself into situations that could easily kill him, just like you said! T-This was no different, except he actually died! Why would I... Why would I...?" Kokichi started to trail off as he realized he was trembling. He could feel his eyes start to water as he was forced to confront this thing that he had tried to push away for a few minutes.