Motive Gone Wrong (Danganronpa V3)

Chapter 12: Nightfall

Everyone tries to get over the memories which were revealed to them and Kokichi goes missing...?

The memory faded and Shuichi was brought back to reality.

"Arghhh!!" The detective screeched as he crashed off his chair and landed painfully onto the floor. Yet nobody around him even dared to turn to ask if he was ok; it looked as though they were going through the same sort of dilemma he was.

Everything hurt and Shuichi picked himself back up and limped back onto the chair. Once he had settled back down, his eyes scanned the room for Kokichi. The leader had apparently disappeared, but he couldn't have gone too far. He was most likely in the kitchen...

His eyes then landed on Kaito, who, bluntly put it, looked horrified. His face had turned a whole new unnatural colour. Beads of sweat lay on his forehead and around his eyebrows. Shuichi wondered if they had both seen something similar.

"W-was I really like that...?" Tsumugi murmured, trembling all over. This confirmed Shuichi's theory.

"Did you guys see yourselves in your memory?" He hesitantly asked. Each ultimate nodded while looking shaken up. Their expressions ranged from anxious to distraught.

"Is this what it's like to go through menopause!?" Miu cried as she dramatically gripped onto her hair.

"That remark was highly unnecessary..." Korekiyo grumbled, even though Shuichi was sure he was one of the more uncomfortable ones out of all of them. He kept clutching onto himself, curling inward while faintly muttering something about his 'sister'.

"Ugh SHUT UP!!! Get me outta here!" Miu screamed.

Maki looked stoic as usual. Clearly, whatever she had seen hadn't affected her much. That, or she was having a hard time showing it. Shuichi wondered what the backstory of an assassin would be. Most likely, she'd lived a life full of hardships and tribulations, almost a completely different world to the one he was in, yet it was clear he had his own problems.

"Everyone calm down!" Kaito yelled over the confused mumbles and murmurs of the groups. "It's just a memory! We shouldn't get hung up on the past!"

Can people really change? Shuichi knew Kaito now. He was impulsive, sometimes overconfident, but not a bully. To take advantage of someone else's physical state; that wasn't his best friend.

And Kokichi. Was his existence really just one big lie? The boy from his memory lacked all the confidence Kokichi had. He lacked the harsh humour and the lies the leader constantly came up with. It also looked as though he lacked the self-esteem to stand up for himself, and instead, cowered in the face of danger. Not a known trait of Kokichi. Then again, there was a lot he didn't know about the boy, and he was slowly beginning to realise that.

"Kaito's right." Shuichi agreed. "Whatever you just saw; it all happened in the past. Right now, we should be paying attention to what's happening in the present." He shook away the nauseous dizzy feeling which had been hanging over him.

"That's pretty inspirational!" Kaito beamed at him. "I expected nothing less from my sidekick!"

The rest of the evening progressed relatively smoothly. Most of the girls spoke amongst themselves in the dining room, excluding Maki who had sat alone and Miu who had carried on with her invention. She was being helped by Kiibo, who frequently passed her various tools and occasionally food after she had crudely ordered him to fetch it.

Korekiyo was writing in some sort of ancient book. Surprisingly, Kokichi wasn't in the kitchen either, which meant the only place he could be was the storeroom. He really had no reason in there apart from to be alone so Shuichi resisted the urge to check up on him. Shuichi and Kaito chatted most of the evening, and eventually, Kaito forced Maki to join in with them.