What if it Repeated? (Oumasai/Saiouma)

Chapter 41- Another Point Of View

Kaede's POV-

Kaede swirled the contents of her cup lazily only half listening to the conversation going on around her. They only had just over a week left and they had found virtually nothing on the truth of what this school was. Everyone seemed to be sharing similar concerns to her except most seemed to be optimistic. She really wanted to be optimistic- and she usually would have been- but nothing seemed to be going right. They definitely knew that they needed to get into that room in the library, but with the keycard needed to open it, it was impossible to get through. Not to mention the door looked extremely sturdy. Kaede pushed back from the table, draining the contents of her tea and waving at the people who had looked up at her.
"I'm going to go check the upper floors again, see if we missed anything." She said and Rantaro nodded at her,
"I'll be up there in a minute." Kaede smiled gratefully at him and left.

What were the chances of her finding anything anyways? They had been searching non stop for the last 6 days. What could she have missed? She walked across the length of the corridor and towards the staircase leading to the second floor. What level should she start on? Just as she was about to climb the stairs she stopped.
"O-ouma?!" She shrieked. The boy turned around with a bemused expression on his face and inclined his head in greeting. Kaede blinked stupidly at him. She hadn't seen him for at least 3 days and she didn't think anyone else had either. Ouma had been the only one to refuse to meet in the mornings and because of that, seemed to somehow disappear. "W-where have you been?!" She gasped, almost scared to approach the boy.
"Hmm? Well it doesn't concern you, does it Akamatsu." He said in a matter a fact tone.

Kaede felt a surge of anger bubble up in her. She crossed her arms defiantly and frowned at him,
"Of course it concerns me, we are all in this together and if someone goes missing-" she broke off as Kokichi seemed to have lost interest in the conversation and had returned to his staring at the wall. "H-hey! I'm talking to you!" She marched up to him until she was standing right next to him. "What's your-"
"Can you stop with all the pointless noise? I'm trying to think." Kokichi's voice was so harsh, Kaede fell silent immediately. Kaede glanced at where Kokichi's eyes were staring and saw that it hadn't been a wall at all, but the girls bathroom door. Kaede turned to glare at him,
"What're you playing at-" she began, but Kokichi interrupted her with a frustrated groan,
"God! If you're going to be so persistent then make yourself useful and help me search the bathroom."

"Search the bathroom?" She repeated, "is this another one of your jokes or-" Kokichi finally looked at her, his eyes filled with hate. Kaede recoiled slightly and broke off yet again, "fine, I'll trust you," she nodded and hesitantly pushed open the door. It looked like a normal bathroom... what was Kokichi playing at?
"Y-you can't come in here!" She cried as she saw Kokichi entering after her. He raised an eyebrow at her,
"Geez you're so uptight, Akamatsu." Kaede blushed and turned resolutely away. How could anyone stand him. He was so rude.

After a moment of silence Kaede broke it again,
"S-so... what are we searching for exactly? We've already searched the bathrooms and found nothing..."
"I know there's something here." Was all Kokichi said before he crossed to the other side of the room and began to examine every corner of the far wall. Kaede huffed, why did Kokichi seem to hate her so much. That look in his eyes before was almost scary. She had hardly any interactions with him and she had definitely done nothing to warrant that sort of reaction. She shivered and started checking the wall by the door for anything suspicious. She ran a finger across the ceramic tiling. It seemed ordinary.

After concluding that this particular part of the wall was 'secret' free, she peered in the first stall to her right. Everything here also looked ordinary. There was just a bunch of buckets and cleaning equipment all piled together at the back of the stall. She was doubtful there would be anything hidden inside any of the buckets, but she decided she ought to check anyway. She picked up a bucket from the ground and examined it thoroughly from top to bottom. Not even a hole or anything. She placed the bucket down and picked up another. Why had Kokichi been so adamant about searching this bathroom? She didn't take him for the pervy sort, but there was no telling sometimes. She glanced down and saw something glitter somewhere deep in the pile. She blinked at it, wondering if it had simply been a trick of the light, but the glimmer didn't fade. Slowly Kaede bent down and reached deep into the pile to retrieve it. When her hand finally touched the object she felt herself begin to tip and finally lose her balance completely.

She flailed her arms and managed to bridge herself over the cleaning equipment and the back wall. That had been close. Her relief was suddenly whipped away from her as the tiles she had been depending on for stability began I rumble quietly beneath her fingers. Kaede heard the sound of Kokichi skidding on the tiles behind her, obviously in a hurry to see what had caused the rumbling. "No way..." kokichi mumbled, his eyes wide. Kaede collapsed into the pile of clutter as the wall completely moved out of the way and opened up into a clean white passage. Kaede winced as oddly shaped objects dug into her from all sides.

Kokichi regarded her with an upturned glance and then his attention flicked solely to the passage. Kaede gaped. How rude could this guy be?!? She clambered out of the array of objects with immense difficulty and stumbled to her feet, glaring at Kokichi the whole time.
"Can you move?" Kokichi said in a low voice as if she was somehow getting on his his last nerve. Well that had been the final straw for Kaede. She placed her hands on her hips defiantly, throwing Kokichi the dirtiest look she could muster,
"What's your problem?" She huffed through gritted teeth. Kokichi met her gaze with half lidded eyes.
"My problem? I have no problem."
"Well you obviously do!" She retorted hotly, "why do you hate me so much?!" Kokichi screwed up his face in what seemed to be suppressed joy,
"Oh, I can think of multiple reasons Akamatsu," Kokichi's voice was dark and it sent a shiver up Kaede's spine.

"Oh, you can go now by the way" Kokichi added lazily, "I don't need you anymore." Kaede was beside herself. Kokichi hadn't even told her what she had meant to have done to him! "Let me rephrase that, go away."
"No." She replied, her face and mind set.
"No?" Kokichi asked with a raised expression, "why not? I dare say you're not a huge fan of me either, so why bother staying?" Kaede clenched her jaw hard in order to keep herself from saying something she knew she would regret,
"I never said I wasn't a fan of you..." Kokichi's expression did not falter whatsoever at her words,
"Nishishi~ just me then?" Kokichi said with a small giggle.

Kaede's frown deepened,
"Why do you hate me so much?" She said more forcefully this time, pushing out her hand to block the passage entrance even more thoroughly. Kokichi's eyes met hers, they seemed to hold something she couldn't quite put her finger on.
"What do you think of Shuuichi?" Kokichi asked, seeming to completely ignore her question. What did Kokichi mean? Shuuichi? Who...? And then it clicked.
"Saihara?! The mastermind?!?" Kokichi simply stared at her for further response. "I-i dunno..." she said truthfully. Kokichi had sprang the question on her so suddenly she had no idea how to respond. It was true that she didn't know exactly how she felt about him. The way they had first met... "he seemed nice... I guess it was all an act. But didn't he stop monokuma from starting the killing game?"

Kokichi scrutinised her with squinted eyes and then chuckled slyly.
"If you think him stopping the killing game was in good intention you are sorely mistaken, he has full intentions of making us fail." Kokichi grinned, "you never wondered why we never found anything up until this point? Bet you hate him now, right~?" Kaede felt her hand slip slightly down the wall and Kokichi seized that opportunity to slip passed her and into the newly formed passage. Kaede span around to catch up to Kokichi,
"O-ouma! What do you mean by that?! This Saihara is purposely obstructing us from finding clues...?" Kokichi made a throaty noise in response and continued speed walking down the passage, "but what about this place?!" She continued, looking around at the walls as they sped through, "how did you-"

"Well I obviously overheard him talking with Monokuma! Duh!" Kaede let out a little "oh". Was this the truth?! She knew Kokichi liked to lie and play tricks a lot so this could easily be a lie... but why would he? This wasn't something that someone needed to lie about. It also seemed probable. Kokichi had also said that Saihara meant for them to fail? What was the point of having them do this from the start if they were going to inevitably come up empty handed? Was this simply for the amusement of Saihara and the bears? That definitely seemed likely. She hoped Kokichi could be trusted this time around.

Kokichi had already gotten at least a couple of meters ahead of her while she had been deep in thought and was already making his way through a door at the end of the hall.
"Wow~!" She heard him exclaim in delight. Only when Kaede and closed the door behind her did she see what had caused the reaction. "I wish I was the mastermind~" Kokichi moaned longingly as he stared around the room finally his eyes fixed on the standout feature of the room. Kaede felt a wave of disgust rush through her. She backed herself up to the nearest wall and stared in anticipation at the structure in the middle of the room. What the hell is that?!