The Liar And The Detective

Chapter 2

Soon the detective reached the entrance doors of the cafeteria, he took a few deep breaths to calm his anxiety. He pushed open the doors and walked in. When he entered the room he could instantly feel all of the eyes of his peers collectively locked onto him. He paid them no mind and simply walked over to the table. He refused to feel embarrassed, he knew that if he acted like nothing was different than the others would also most likely leave him alone about it, and he didn't really feel like giving them an explanation. Most of them soon went back to what they were doing whether that be chatting to one another or simply eating food. Kirumi soon approached him and asked him what he would like to eat from what she had prepared. 

“I- um, I'm not really hungry Kirumi, I just came to meet up with everyone. Thanks anyway though” Shuichi tells her, trying to mask his nerves. 

“Okay, that is fine” she replies in her professional tone she always seemed to have. “Oh, and Shuichi?” she says as she leaves.

“Yeah?” 

“I think you look better without the hat” she says kindly before walking away, most likely to reprimand Kokichi who had arrived some time during their conversation. As Shuichi began thinking of what he could do to help them get out of here his thoughts were interrupted by a loud voice calling out his name

“Hey, Shuichi!” kaito’s loud voice boomed as he sat across from the blue haired boy. 

“Oh, hey Kaito” Shuichi replied as he gave a small wave.

“You doing okay? I know you were pretty shaken up after yesterday.” he asked, a concerned look on his face. Shuichi knew it was supposed to be comforting and make him feel better but he couldn't help but feel annoyed, he wasn't a child who needed to be coddled and he really didn't feel like reliving all the emotions from the day before.

“Im fine” he snapped “and even if I wasn’t I wouldn't want to to talk about it so drop it.” he said, his brain to mouth filter failing him in the moment. Kaito looked at him surprised, and Shuichi immediately realized what exactly he had just said. 

“Right, sorry for bringing it up,” Kaito said as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

“Oh god, Kaito, I'm so sorry, I don't know what came over me, I didn't mean that I'm sorry. I'm just really tired, and stressed” Shuichi began apologizing.

“Nah man, don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault, I can't really blame you anyway I’m pretty stressed too, emotions are running high for all of us” Kaito told him understandingly. “But if you ever do want to talk, my door is always open for you” he says, giving Shuichi a comforting smile. 

“Thanks Kaito, I'm still really sorry but thanks,” Shuichi said, giving Kaito a small smile. 

“No worries! Anyway, we should probably talk to the others for a bit just to see how they're doing. If you're feeling up to that?” Kaito suggested. 

“Not really sorry, I sort of only came here so you guys wouldn’t worry about me. I’m just going to head back to my room for a bit. I’ve been trying to think of ways for us to get out of here so I’m going to keep doing that for a bit. Maybe later” Shuichi told him, his hands fidgeting nervously with the ends of his sleeves under the table.

“Okay well, just don’t stay in there for too long, remember you don't have to do everything yourself. I believe in you Shuichi!” Kaito said, giving him a pat on the back before going off to talk to Maki despite her protests. 

Shuichi stayed in the cafeteria for a bit longer and ended up talking to a few of the others before he left to go back to his room. He opened the door and walked in, closing it behind him before sitting down on the bed. He decided to think back on everything that had happened yesterday now that there weren’t as many emotions clouding his mind. He knew logically that there was a large chance that another murder would occur before they found a way out so for now he needed to focus on how he could make sure that if there was another murder that he wouldn’t have to rely on contradictions in the statements as there was no guarantee that the killers would accidentally forget or leave evidence that would give then away enough to identify them. As he rode this train of thought, his mind wandered back to his conversation with Kokichi from earlier, he knew that he had surprised him. There was no way he didn’t. How was it possible that he, the same shuichi who could barely look people in the eye, could know so much about a skilled liar like Kokichi. It was simple really, what Shuichi had told him before he left was true, no matter how he acted he was still the ultimate detective and while he couldn’t lie to people very well, or even tell when or if people were lying to him, he knew enough about psychology that he could knew what certain behaviors meant in certain people. It was actually the persona Kokichi put up that ended up telling him the truth. Suddenly he was struck with an idea, he wasn’t sure how or if the person in question would even accept his idea but it was worth a shot. He quickly got up and left his room, his eyes scanning the plaques above to other rooms until his eyes landed on the one he wanted. He walked up to the door and knocked, hoping the person it belonged to was inside. He waited a bit before the door opened. 

“Oh, Saihara-chan? What are you doing here? Did you really miss me that much?” Kokichi asked, the door was only partially open, allowing Shuichi to see only part of Kokichi’s messy room.

“I need you to teach me how to lie,”

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Sorry this is really short but nothing I can really do about it, at least it's over 1000 words so that's something ig. I already have most of chapters 3 and 4 written so hopefully I can update those soon