Loveit? (Pregame Oumasai) (Danganronpa)

Your Bones and Blood made a Mess

Not a word was said as Shuichi and his uncle ate dinner, his uncle too busy multitasking between eating and typing something on his laptop. Though the action wasn't anything special, every dinner being like this, Shuichi still watched intently. With eat piece of meat his uncle ate, a part of Shuichi felt overjoyed. He always put a lot of effort into their meals, the only thing his uncle ever complimented him on. Everything else always held criticisms. If his teachers didn't find anything wrong with his essays, his uncle would. If Shuichi rescrubbed each plate he cleaned ten times, his uncle would complain they didn't look clean enough. If Shuichi got all the chores done in record time, his uncle would insist he could've worked faster. Nothing was ever good enough for him except Shuichi's cooking. That made this whole situation funnier. As his uncle typed away on his laptop, Shuichi knew fully well what it was about.

There had been disappearances happening for a few years now. Specifically, a year after Shuichi moved in with him after his parents died. It was as if these people disappeared off the face of the earth, no remains to be found. At first, this didn't raise many alarms as out of the ordinary. But far too many people were now gone, making the public begin to question if Shuichi's uncle's detective agency was any good. Years to investigate and yet they didn't even have a reliable list of suspects, beginning to interrogate anyone in hopes they'd find something. His uncle barely looked up from his computer these days, leaving all the housework and cooking to Shuichi. As annoying as that was at first, it was worth it to watch his uncle cluelessly eat the very person he's looking for. Without a single complaint. Shuichi never got tired of this feeling. It was like a mix of pride in deception and gleeful revenge.

His uncle sighed, shutting the laptop and strictly focusing on the food, much to Shuichi's confusion. But Shuichi knew better than to speak unless spoken to, continuing to eat as well. Pushing aside the joy he got from seeing his uncle eat, personally today's target wasn't all that appealing. It had to be a wrong time and place type of person, dampening the taste and mood. But it would be satisfying for now.

"Are you listening to me," his uncle asked, raising his voice.

"Sorry," Shuichi said, dropping the fork to give his uncle his full attention. "What were you saying?"

"I said that Kaito told me you were slacking off in class today. Care to explain yourself?"

Shuichi wanted to scoff, not at all surprise Kaito carried this issue into his home. Instead, he tried to remain neutral as he spoke. "It won't happen again."

"That's not what I asked for. Kaito said this was about a new guy in your class."

This angered Shuichi more, knowing exactly what his uncle was getting at. "I simply wanted to make a friend."

"Not if your grades slip. And that better be it. I don't want to hear any more about this girl either. Understood?"

Shuichi nodded, just wanting this conversation to be over with. Dating had been off the table for a while under his uncle's house rules, not that Shuichi was pursuing a relationship anyways. His uncle dropped the discussion there, the two finishing their meal in silence before his uncle left for the night. Shuichi made quick work of cleaning the dishes before heading out as well. Wearing all black, a mask covering his mouth, and bulky glasses covering his eyes, he made his way to an abandoned store that was in the next city over. He had the hood of his jacket up, showing a small pair of bear ears. A way to feel like a remnant of despair on a budget.

The place was so runed down that you couldn't even get into it through normal means. Shuichi managed to craft a small, secret entrance just for himself, making this the base of his operations. As he crawled through the tunnel under some rubble, his phone began to vibrate, the sensors alerting him of his own presence. There were a few others around the building to keep Shuichi aware at all times if anything else ever came in. If it ever showed someone was here when he wasn't, he had bombs at the ready to get rid of all evidence immediately. Fortunately, it didn't seem it would ever come to that. While not knowing a whole lot about this town, he knew enough to know not even rebellious teens got in here. Aside from the fact that there was only one entrance currently, it absolutely reeked. Not from the blood, of course. That would just lead to suspicions. No, he made sure to surround the building with other bad odors, such as once leaving a dead skunk's body inside or leaving a bunch of dog poop outside the place. Meanwhile he did his best to keep his actual room in the building from smelling too bad.