The Quest for Humanity

by Heartsden

What if you travel so far down the rabbit hole that eventually there won't be even a glint of what you used to be like left any more? (Heavy themes and some mild sexual tension further down the road)

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

Author's Note: Heavy themes, overused trope, different outcomes, but still enjoyable. I'm sure people don't want to reread things that have already happened, hence why I've altered a couple of things.

Disclaimer: Spoilers and stuff.

The Quest for Humanity
Chapter 01: Time Travel Paranoia

I felt empty.

So, so empty.

How?

How did it all so suddenly just.. How did everything take a one-eighty so quickly? It's not like we were just wasting time in our rooms sleeping away the days as they passed by! We.. we had hope that we would survive, didn't we? We were trying to live, weren't we? We.. believed in each other... didn't we?

I needed an answer. Anything would suffice, I just needed someone, or something to tell me how we lost. How we had failed to actually win against the mastermind behind this whole killing game. Anything would do. I just needed some form of an answer.

Something.

Anything.

… No.

Even if I got an answer, there would be no point. The truth didn't matter here. No matter what the answer was, the outcome wasn't going to just suddenly change like that. Not any more.

All of it..

All of the murders.

All of the truths.

All of the lies.

All of it was for naught.

This whole time our goal had been to get out of this hellhole. But if this was what getting out actually meant, then.. well, we might as well have died during one of our class trials.

Kokichi, he… he told us everything.

It had only been a couple of minutes after we found out what had happened to the outside world when he suddenly barged into the room that led outside with his Exisals and started explaining non-stop what was really going on. Apparently.. he was the mastermind who pulled all of the strings in this Ultimate Academy. Not just that, he was also the leader of the cult trying to kill the last 16 Ultimate Students.

The Ultimate Hunt. It started because of him.

Kokichi was the reason for our suffering.

We hated him. We loathed him. Despised him. And yet, we couldn't do anything about it. He had the Exisals, whereas we only had our own human brawn and wit. We were utterly powerless against him.

But, there was still one thing that felt like a blessing to me.

Kokichi was done and out of the picture now. He had been reduced to just one of the five remaining students left alive in this meaningless place. None of us cared about the killing game any more - we knew about the truth of the outside world. No one else would take another person's life. He was in just as much of a hellhole as all of us.

I cherished that thought. It made me happy.

Kokichi losing.

Kokichi in despair.

Just those words alone were enough to make me joyous. Had it been my younger self- the one before Kaede, then I would have still definitely been blaming myself. But no, the real truth in this case was that Kokichi ruined everything. He was the one at fault for this whole situation. He was the one who really killed everyone. And I didn't waste a single second of my miserable life blaming him. It was funny how easy it was to despise someone. Especially someone like him.

Or... so I thought.

As more time passed by, I found myself slowly thinking less and less about the liar, and more about my own inabilities. In the end, even if it was as shocking as finding out that the entire Earth had practically been blown up, it wasn't enough to change my way of thinking. Eventually, one way or another, I'd end up blaming myself again. That.. made me happy. To me it meant that I was still myself. I was still Saihara Shuichi, the apprentice Ultimate Detective whose first case was finding a classmate's baby alligator.

See?

I hadn't changed. I still knew who I was.

… Still?

What did that mean?

Just a few days ago I was blaming Kokichi. Something I couldn't picture myself ever doing before I met Kaede. I even went as far as to hate him. If I hadn't stopped.. would I have eventually gone even further down the wrong road?

In that case... what would have been my limit?

Assault?

Cripple?

Or.. murder?

These dark thoughts.. impulses, that I felt for Kokichi.. did they mean anything?

Surely not. It was a different matter when we were talking about him. He deserved it. He deserved to be hated by us. He was a rat, a parasite on this now broken down planet. I wasn't in the wrong to hate him.

...

But even though I didn't want to stop resenting the liar, I found it harder and harder to do it as time moved on. The outside world was gone. The eleven other Ultimate Students here were dead. And our lives were now... over. No matter who was at fault, the outcome was still the same.

That's right. It was all pointless now.

There was nothing left any more.

It. Was. Over.

---

Huh?

My eyes peered dimly at the sky above me. It was morning.

But where exactly was I?

Just a few moments ago I was in my own room. Now I was suddenly outside. And not just anywhere outside, but in the courtyard too?

Had I really gotten so out of touch with reality that I was actually seeing hallucinations now? And why the courtyard?

Questions piled up one after another in my head, the most bizarre one of them being whether or not I had just teleported, but, no. The truth of the matter was more than likely that I had just unconsciously walked outside after it had become the morning. The situation felt similar as to when I plopped down onto my bed on the night of Kaede's death - my body moved on its own to places it needed to or wanted to go to without actually asking me for confirmation.

And in this case it looked like my body wanted to revisit the courtyard.

It.. brought up old memories. Memories of Kaito.. and of Maki.. Our trainings, our conversations, our secrets and our lies.

My eyes fell down to the soles of my shoes. And yet no tears came. I couldn't cry.

Useless.

I was... useless. I couldn't save anyone. Not even my two best friends.

Nobody replied to my thoughts, to my feelings. No one agreed, and no one disagreed.

I was alone. In this world, I was completely and utterly alone.

Minutes passed by in silence with nothing happening. Even my thoughts had escaped away from me, leaving only the strange feeling of melancholy in its wake.

It.. it was a bit too painful for me to continue standing there, so I went back to the dormitory area where my room was. I didn't waste any time getting inside and once I did.. I shut myself in. And I slept.

And slept.

And slept.

I didn't exit out of my room even once. Not to get food, not to get drinks, not to talk to others, not for anything.

Maybe it would have been normal to cry in that situation, but I didn't. I didn't feel like crying. I didn't feel like doing anything.

Depression.

I knew I had it, but I didn't register it.

Nothing registered in my brain. I thought of everything as meaningless. It's not like I was wrong, what point was there now that the entire human race was desecrated? Obviously there was no point.

I heard the Monokuma announcements go by. The morning ones, and the evening ones. At first I was mildly surprised to see Monokuma back, but soon enough I decided that Kokichi still wanted to torture us, so I ignored it. In addition to the announcements, I heard my doorbell being rung once in a while, but, again, I didn't answer them.

I…

I wanted to die.

I really, truly, wanted to die.

There was nothing else I wanted right now, absolutely nothing else.

So I decided I would do it.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow was the day I would die.

Determined, my legs wobbled me up and within seconds I was outside looking for a rope. I didn't know where exactly to check, but soon enough I reasoned that the school store was bound to have something similar to one.

And I was right.

Once I was back in the dormitory area with my beloved item, I saw a familiar pair of twin tails looking at me. She was looking at me. I was a bit too exhausted to pinpoint the exact expression on her face, but she was definitely looking at me. No, the correct thing to say would have been that I didn't care about her facial expression. Not any more at least.

I slowly returned to my own room with the sudden meeting just now already long gone from my head.

Thinking back on it.. I must have been quite out of it if I didn't even react to seeing one of my supposedly dead friends alive again.

…

It was time.

I woke up mid day and slowly got out of bed.

There was weird music playing from the monitor in my room. I had heard it before. It sounded like the one that was being broadcast before our first class trial, during the time limit.

I closed my eyes and tried to force myself to focus on the careful procedure I was about to do. But the 'music' coming out of the speakers was loud, I couldn't even think straight with that blaring out in the background. So, without remorse, my teeth clenched down onto my bottom lip and instead of thinking about the consequences I threw my fist at the monitor to try and shut it up. I failed miserably, of course. It was way too high up for me to be able to use my whole raw power (which Shuichi definitely had after all that training with Kaito, I mean just look at those muscles) against it. But I didn't give up just like that. Since I could just barely reach it with my hands, I decided that a chair would have to be the next closest thing. I hardly had any energy left to move, but even so I lunged the desk chair with all of my might at the monitor in my room. Instantly the music died down and I grinned to myself as bits and pieces of the expensive equipment scattered across my floor. It felt good destroying something like that. I even wanted to yell out 'take that Kokichi', but I reasoned that it wasn't worth wasting my breath on it.

Speaking of, the lack of energy was annoying. It had to have been around five days since I last ate anything. Maybe I should have gone to the kitchen to get some food. Of course, that meant I risked running into Kokichi again and I seriously didn't want to have a chance encounter with him.

My stomach obviously growled sometimes to let me know that it still thought there was a point to all of this. But I ignored it.

Plus it'd all end pretty soon anyway. Even if I was hungry, I'd just have to bear through it for the next ten or so minutes and then, finally, I wouldn't be hungry any more.

Ever.

Around a minute or two passed by with me simply coming to terms with everything.

Did I really wanna do this?

Did I really want to die?

Was there seriously no hope left?

Even if it was a small possibility, could we still survive in this wretched place?

The answers to my questions varied but it all pointed to one single truth – Right now, at this point in time, life here in this Ultimate Academy was meaningless.

I.. was slightly scared of dying. But thankfully, my determination from last night hadn't vanished. So even though my mind was racing with fearful thoughts, I still went over to my bed to grab the rope. Seconds later it was tightly wrapped around the pole extruding from the ceiling of my room where the remains of my TV monitor still resided.

Next up, I tied a noose. As a detective I had seen so many before from attempted suicides that I had already memorized the way it should normally look. Although, knowing how it should have looked like and actually doing it proved to be two different things. But if you already knew how to tie a tie, then it wasn't really that bad.

There was a small table near the corner of my room, so I used that as footing while carrying this all out.

And then, finally, the time came to do it. My eyes were downcast as I set the rope over my head.

It would all be over once I kicked away the table. The last hope for humanity would die.

…

No.. The last hope humanity had left had died off a while ago. We were just the remnants. The remnants of hope.

I took one last breath and then jumped off the table.

It hurt, but I didn't struggle. I lacked both the energy and resolve to struggle.

I knew that it was common for people near death to experience their whole entire life before their eyes again. So I was expecting that, but instead all that was on my mind were the faces of both Maki and Kaito. Even while I was choking on the rope, I still couldn't stop thinking about them. I felt tears threatening the corners of my eyes. I wanted it to end already. I wanted the pain to stop. I wanted everything to just end already. Or so I thought.

"Maki?" Within milliseconds I felt my body tense up. That was Maki! Last night, when I had gone to get the rope, she was there! She was looking at me. She.. She was alive? She didn't die? How did she survive? If she was alive then maybe.. My body moved instinctively towards the exit of my room, but that action was obviously pointless, I was still stuck hanging. I couldn't breathe, I didn't realise how close to death I was until I actually wanted to live again. It was strangling me. I struggled, and I struggled. I tried kicking myself away from the back of my wall and grabbing the ends of the rope to climb up and get some air to breathe, but none of that worked; the rope had already tightened tightly around my neck.

"Khhh.." I didn't want to believe it, but was I really going to die right now? After I witnessed Maki alive again last night? No. I refused to die. Not now. I.. there was still hope. Even if it was just Maki and Kaito. Together we could come up with..

I bit my tongue and with the last ounce of my strength, managed to securely pull the short table closer to my feet. A few seconds later and I was barely, but safely able to stand on top of it. The rope was tight around my neck, but I wasn't hanging any more. I.. was safe. Coughing heavily, but still safe.

My hands rose up to try and remove the red, thick cord from around my neck, but that just made me cry out with a hoarse voice. It hurt, badly. However I didn't give up. With a shake of my head I tried again, this time slower. It.. wasn't any easier. However this time I forced myself to only think about the hope of reuniting with both Maki and Kaito. I didn't care about the pain, I had to- if Maki and Kaito were still alive then this would be a small price to pay.

… I succeeded.

It took me a couple of minutes to really calm down (or at least calm down to an extent where I wasn't clouded with despair) what with me just trying to off myself, but soon enough I was out of my door and running towards Maki's room. My body felt so weak, I could feel myself ready to throw up any second and yet.. hope was quickly filling up every single last orifice of my body.

I pounded on her door and rung her alarm so many times I couldn't even count, but no answer. I clenched my teeth to prevent myself from thinking about the inevitable and eventually decided she wasn't there.

I didn't give up.

Instead I started running, everywhere. Anywhere. The dining hall, the gym, the second floor classrooms, the kitchen, the warehouse, bathrooms. All of them, save for the dining hall, were empty.

I could feel blood in my mouth. Probably from my lip. I really didn't want to stop biting down on it apparently.

I was afraid. Afraid that this time I really did only see a hallucination of the girl.

I searched, and searched, and searched. It felt like I was looking around for hours, but I couldn't find her.

I was so tired, so very tired.

And then, just as I thought that it really was all meaningless. I rushed down the stairs leading into the game room.

And I saw her.

In front of the broken, beaten and bleeding me was a clean, safe and healthy red sailor-uniformed girl. The girl me and Kaito had come to know as Harukawa Maki.

I couldn't believe it. I thought she was dead. I thought Maki was dead. She was- she had been taken away by one of the Exisals there, so how could she be alive? My eyes weren't deceiving me right? It was really her!

She was looking right at me with her usual cold glare.

I felt relieved. In the end, not even an Exisal could go up against Maki! I had to hold back tears. It wouldn't be normal for me to start bawling my eyes out just from seeing her alive. And it was true, I probably wouldn't normally, but if she was alive then that could've meant Kaito was too.

"..."

"Maki.."

Her eyes narrowed when I called out her name. Maybe she was being cautious of me. Or perhaps it was because I gave Kokichi the remote to the Exisal Hangar. I.. quickly shook my head and continued.

"How did you survive the Exisals ? And Kaito, is.. is Kaito okay as well?" My vision was slightly blurry, but I didn't really pay any attention to that. All that was on my mind was Kaito's survival.

"..." I was greeted with silence again, which surprised me. I didn't expect her not to tell me. Or maybe, maybe I was being too hopeful.

"Hey, Maki?" Once again I didn't receive an answer.

Could it be that Kaito.. died? The.. the Luminary of the Stars, Kaito Momota? He.. died? My knees buckled below me. I was happy to see Maki alive, but what exactly was the point if the leader of our group still..

"Hey." Somewhere next to me, a voice rang out, but I didn't pay any attention to it.

The fact that the ever-so optimistic Kaito died, it.. made me.. no, forced my head to run through the events of what happened five days ago and before that. The outside world. The meteors. The virus. All of it, all of it. I never really forgot about it. But the momentary adrenaline rush I got from recalling Maki's safety gave me hope. The hope was that I could still meet up with the two and somehow.. somehow do something. Maybe we could have planned out an escape and still, I don't know, gone to the moon. Anything really. With the three of us, we definitely could have figured something out. We definitely.. definitely..

As was the theme for today, I bit down on my already bloodied lip and slowly stood up. Apparently Maki had crouched down next to me, since now she stood up as well.

I didn't know what to say.

Maybe it wasn't so much about thinking up a plan to stay alive, but rather just.. thinking about how we could.. die together.

Truth be told I had no clue what we would do once we three got back together again. In fact, even if Kaito survived, what could we do? Just to prove my own point, I forced myself to think of all the possible possibilities we had left. I was pretty tired, my mind was broken enough and I.. must have seemed pretty weird just standing there quietly racking my brain, but I did it anyway. I wanted to prove to myself that there might be something close to hope still.. possible.

I came up with a couple of ideas.

1. We could have continued the human race here in the Academy. We did have enough food and drinks to last us for at least a year or two. We also had a lot of clothes and honestly the power supply in this base was probably capable of serving us for another decade. The only two problems were how much breathable air we had left here and how we could survive once all the food was gone. We could have always asked Kokichi for help, but the chances of him giving us that information was low.

2. We could somehow manage to program this 'spaceship' to relaunch into space and possibly succeed. Maybe re-start our search for a habitable planet. Although the likelihood of there being enough power in the thrusters to do this was very low. Especially so considering this had already been launched once before. That and.. unless we had somehow landed right next to, or on top of a rocket silo, then it would be nigh impossible to blast off again. We also had no clue where the correct room for arranging all of this was, or even if there was a 'correct room'.

3. The virtual world. Perhaps there was a chance we could deliver our consciousness into the virtual world in a manner so that no matter what happened to our real bodies, we'd still survive in the game world. That.. was the most hopeful scenario of the three.. However, whether we were actually capable of organizing such a feat or not, I didn't know. Maki was pretty good with the computer during Miu's case, but did she have enough knowledge to actually help us out? I'd have to ask her. And.. could that really be called hope? We'd.. be the last humans ever, stuck in a-

"Hey." The assassin's cold words were what forced me out of my trance, my hopeful trance. No matter how many options we had, the fact of the matter was that every single solution was either uncertain or highly unlikely.

Hope in this place was just a foreign concept.

My initial goal already broken, I backed away from the assassin before turning my back on her. "Where are you going?"

"To my room."

Did it really matter whether we died together? Maybe just dying in the same place was enough for now.

She didn't give me any chance to climb up the stairs. "… To kill yourself?" I immediately turned around and managed to, for just a moment, catch her eyes peering at the back of my neck. Had the attempt before left a mark? Instinctively I reached out to feel around my collar. Sure enough, it was there, a red shrunken line around the entirety of my throat and nape. And if I could feel it so easily, then it must have been visible from afar.

What I was confused about was why she was asking me about it. Being the Ultimate Assassin she probably already knew what the mark on my neck meant.

She should've understood that there was no point to continue existing here. Especially so because of Kaito's death.

"You already know the answer, right, so why ask?" My voice was hoarse, I didn't notice it before because of how panicked I was, but now that I was calm (or as calm as you can be in such a situation) I could definitely feel it. I hadn't talked much in five full days, and after I had tried to kill myself via hanging, my voice was in a lot of pain.

Her eyes narrowed at my comment and she took a step closer. "What do you mean?"

But, I could never reply back to her. Because at that very moment I heard a loud noise braying from one of the monitors near us.

I glanced over at it and as soon as I did, I heard a familiar, daunting phrase pass out of it.

"Dun, dun, dun, dunnnnn! A body has been discovered! Everyone, please gather into the library."

I felt like my eyes were gonna pop out of my head from how wide they suddenly were. "… Wh..what?" Maki was peering at me, maybe to see my reaction, but soon enough she stood up and slowly made her way towards the library. I couldn't understand, I didn't understand. What was she thinking? Was she really still going on even after we had found out about how terrible the world outside was? Why? What was the point?

"H-how?" My eyes followed Maki's steps. I didn't understand anything. How could someone still die? How could one of us still be killed? We didn't even have-

And then I realised.

Kokichi was still alive. He was alive and well.

After that thought, my mind quickly escalated relentlessly and came up with dozens more.

If Kokichi was alive, then he must have been the murderer. He was the one who orchestrated everything from start to finish anyway. Just one more murder wouldn't be a stretch for him. He was the one responsible for all of this. Everything he did was only damage to us, there was no point for him to be here.

If only he weren't here. None of us would have died. None of us would have had to die.

I felt myself getting angrier and angrier by the second. I detested Kokichi.

He was the mastermind, and the real murderer throughout all of our cases.

My thoughts continued on blaming the Supreme Leader. Blaming him, accusing him of being a killer. Being the mastermind. Being a liar.

I didn't even notice that the words I thought about started coming out of my mouth. At first it was just a random string of them, but eventually they became entire sentences. "Kokichi.." Was the killer. There was no other explanation. He was the killer.

"He's the reason we're all stuck here."

If only he'd die.

If only Kokichi would die.

We'd finally be free.

We'd finally be alone and survive without any complications in this place. He could never hurt us again, he could never take anyone else's life again.

If only he'd die. If only he'd just die.

"I'm.." going to kill you.

My eyes glared at the shoulder length black haired girl in front of me. She was coming closer, no, rather, I was closing in on her.

"..." Her purple irises were so irritating to look at. It felt like even just imagining her in my head powered my hatred towards her. "I'm going to..." That white coat she wore, that black and white checkered scarf she carried, those black shoes on his legs, everything, everything, EVERYTHING about him... was revolting.

"If only you never existed." My eyes never turned away from the boy in front of the library entrance, and without even trying to stop myself, my pace picked up so much so that I was running towards him.

I'll murder you, Kokichi.

And then everything went black.

…

…

…

My head hurt.

"D.. do you really think he'll wake up because of this?"

"Huh? Of course he will! This trick always works in the movies!"

"So you just based it off of a movie…?"

I heard familiar voices. Voices that I hadn't heard in a while. Was this a dream? Because that'd be the only explanation as to why I was able to hear them right now. But if this was a dream, then why couldn't I see anything?

As if someone read my mind, the world quickly came into view. I was looking up at the ceiling of a certain room. My room.

"Ughhh.."My hand rose up to try and subdue my throbbing head, but of course that didn't work. I did, however, find a damp cloth on my forehead.

"What's.."

A few seconds passed by before I slowly sat upright and started looking around my room. "Huh?"

"Told you it'd work." When my eyes locked together with Kaito's, I blinked.

"Kai...to?" He grinned at me and waved a thumbs up.

"Morning!"

"Mor..ning."

This day was just getting weirder and weirder.

Even though I had literally just woken up, my mind was already turning its rusty gears

How did I get here? What happened to Maki? And...

He was alive.

It didn't make any sense. How come Kaito was here now? And where was Maki? Did I maybe pass out? Even so, someone coming back from the dead was-

Wait. That's right, there was never any evidence that he had actually died in the first place. He was only taken away by Kokichi, not killed.

"I'm glad you're alive Kaito." I tried holding back my tears, but I couldn't. They just started pouring out after I saw him well and healthy next to my bed. I was happy. Despite everything we had to go through, then at least we were granted this one last wish. We could now.. the three of us could now, finally, die together.

"Wh-whoa man, calm down! Of course, I, Luminary of the Stars, Kaito Momota would be fine! Why wouldn't I be fine?"

"..." I didn't dare try and reply back, I was afraid my voice would break. Which it probably would.

Though eventually, once I was more composed, I had to open my mouth to reply back. But that was well over several seconds later.

"Where's everyone else?" Himiko, Tsumugi and Kiibo should have been somewhere around here as well, but I didn't see them.

"Hmm, well... we decided to take turns looking after you. At first, some were against it, but eventually everyone agreed. You just happened to wake up to both me and Kirumi looking after you."

"Ki..rumi..?" My head swayed a little and as it did, I could make out the thin outline of Kirumi's maid outfit behind Kaito. A cold chill ran up across my spine.

She was here.

"H..how?" My voice shook, I was clearly taken aback by this. How did she survive? How was Kirumi alive? Unlike Kaito, there was clear evidence and proof that she definitely died. So how was.. how? How could something like this possibly happen?

"I will go call the others." With that said, Kirumi left the room. I looked at her retreating back and found that she.. didn't have any injuries from the execution.

I made sure to wait just a couple of seconds before turning to my friend again. "H-hey, Kaito? How come Kirumi's alive?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" The astronaut stood still for a moment. And then awkwardly rubbed the back of his head.

"Speaking of which, what's gotten into you man? No one had even seen you until yesterday, and then you suddenly popped up in front of the library?" His voice trailed off. "None of us had met you before, but you know our names. You never answered your door when we rung for you. You were bleeding from your mouth once we found you. And you haven't even eaten anything since we came here. All of that.. and.. from the looks of it.." He gave a nod towards the broken monitor at the corner of my room. "You were about to do something pretty irreversible."

At that moment the door to my room swung open, and in walked 13 happy and healthy students. My jaw fell down to the floor.

"Wh.." I couldn't speak. I didn't understand what was going on, things were progressing way too fast.

Tenko, Himiko, Tsumugi, Kiibo, Miu, Maki, Korekiyo, Angie, Gonta, Kirumi, Ryoma and.. Kokichi. All of them walked into my already cramped room. I didn't know how all of this reflected on my face, but no one was visibly acknowledging my confusion, so maybe not that badly.

"Hello! You seem to be doing a little better." Kiibo was the one to spoke up first.

Better? I didn't feel any better.. I felt worse. My head was absolutely killing me. What was going on? How could these people be alive? How could they..

Everyone gathered around my bed and looked at me. I didn't understand anything.

"We were worried about you, you know." Kaito spoke up. "Did Monokuma's announcement really beat you up that much?"

"Says you. I wasn't even a little worried about this pissant virgin here."

"Show some tact! You.. you… degenerate!" Looks like Tenko's degenerate comment worked both ways when it came to someone like Miu.

I decided to only focus on Kaito's question. Although I really couldn't even form proper sentences in this situation so it didn't matter who exactly I would respond to. Yet, now that I thought about it, Kaito was still the only one I could actually look at in this situation. Were it anybody else and I'd probably lock up. Because the 'anybody else' I was referring to meant everybody who had died.

Everyone really had come back to life. How?

No, wait, not everyone. There were two missing, the two from the start. The two who..

I couldn't even stop myself from blurting out the next few words. Since everyone else was here already, then there was a possibility they were still alive as well. I mean, why not? If nothing else made any sense anyway, then why not just go all out. "Where are Kaede and Rantaro?"

My eyes trailed off the faces of everyone there, until I got the answer I didn't want to hear.

"That's right.. you were unconscious for the entire trial. Kaede killed Rantaro, she.. thought the way he was acting was suspicious and went in for the kill. We.. didn't want to believe it, but it happened. Sorry, man."

Kaede killed Rantaro? But that..

I bit the inside of my lip.

What was going on..? Kaede's and Rantaro's death happened ages ago now, what did they mean just yesterday?

Had I really.. Had I really dreamt everything? Was it just.. a dream? In that case.. I turned my head towards Maki and was already about to ask her about her true identity, but then, at that exact moment, I caught the voice of a person I was hoping would never hear again.

"Hahaha! Looks like our Ultimate Sleepyhead is still a little bit out of it! But wow, I was wondering if there was gonna be someone actually interesting here, and hey, I'm not disappointed!" My head turned so quickly away from Maki I could have sworn I heard a crack.

Kokichi quickly feigned shock. "Wh-whoa! Those are some scary eyes right there! What did I even do!? Help me mommy!" After hiding himself safely behind kirumi, his tone lifted to a more playful, upbeat one. "Nyeheheheh.. Are you gonna kill me now? That'd be a pretty quick class trial y'know. At least wait until everyone's gone before doing it." The more he spoke, the more I wanted to shut him up. But I had no such luxury. I was barely able to even sit upright like this.

My stomach growled, which prompted my head back away from the liar. I looked down at it as if to tell it to shut up. But that obviously didn't work. Though I was surprised to see myself wearing fresh new clothes. Had someone taken care of me?

"Looks like you're hungry after all." Ryoma was the one to speak this time.

"Huh?"

Kokichi took over from Ryoma. "You're hungry, right? We all thought you were like Kee-boy here, couldn't eat anything other than humans."

"Wh- are you basing your logic off of a classic stereotype?! Robots do too have the possibility of eating food!"

"So you're not denying that you eat humans..?"

Ryoma ignored Kiibo and Kokichi's antics and nudged his head towards Kaito and Kirumi.

"Those two took care of you. I've even seen them leave food in front of your room." Some of the others nodded.

"That's right! A degenerate male like you should be glad that we're taking care of you like this!"

"Maybe you're the one who should show some tact.." Tsumugi perked up with her own plain reply.

"As a maid, it is only my duty to help those who are in need of my services."

I felt my stomach growl once more, this time much louder. It was embarrassing, I could feel my cheeks flushing pink. "Thanks for.. taking care of me. But you shouldn't have."

Kaito pat my shoulders. "Don't say that man! We thought we'd lost you. Three people in one night would have been hell! That's why we prioritized taking care of you as soon as we returned from the class trial."

"Gonta worry too! Gonta take you out to see if bugs wake you up, but there no bugs around so you keep sleeping.."

"H-huh? Bugs?" I was reminded of the meet and greet incident with Gonta and almost cracked up a smile, but I refrained.

.. Gonta was alive. Everyone was alive again. Everyone besides…

I lowered my head and shook it a little. "Thanks everyone. I'll.. you should go search around the area and look for an escape. I'll follow you all later."

"That's true, now that we know he is alive and well, we should probably prioritize looking for a way out of this hellhole." I was really tired.

"No way, we need at least one person looking after him at all times!" Kaito, unfortunately, was the one to say that.

"Huh, why? That's such a pain." I wasn't surprised to hear Kokichi whine about that.

"Because, if we don't... Well.. something might happen." There was an awkward silence. I bit down on my tongue and hoped for the best, but that never came.

"Then why don't you look after him?" Tenko's voice rang out in the room.

"'Course I will, but I need other volunteers as well! Let's see… Kiibo, Gonta, Kirumi, Maki, and.. Tsumugi. We six should take turns looking after him. Every four hours we switch."

"You just said you need volunteers, but then chose everyone yourself.."

"I fail to understand your logic, why would you let me be the one to look after him at this time? Me and him haven't even conversed."

"Hm.. well, I just think it's right."

"In other words you just felt like it.."

"Then what about me?"

Kaito looked at Maki for a brief moment. "Well.. you were the one who found him, right? You said he was looking for you. Since you two already know each other, then you're good in my book." Maki glared at him.

"Anyway, how 'bout Gonta takes the first shift?"

"Hm? Oh, sure! Gonta not mind. Gonta not good with investigating anyway."

"Sweet, let's go in the order I mentioned then! Kirumi will be next!" I heard a few sighs, but everyone still agreed and soon left.

"Don't do anything brash!"

Once Kaito left, I brought my attention over to the muscular man slowly taking his seat by my bed.

He was looking back at me with a warm smile. Gonta, the most lovable person in this whole entire school. The person who cared, trusted and even abandoned his own life for us. He was once again alive, and looking at me.

He thought of us as friends. Even now he probably considered me a friend despite the fact that we hadn't talked yet.

But even if he was the nicest person ever. He tried to kill us. I thought that no matter what we'd see, no matter what the truth of the outside world was, there would be no way that someone like Gonta could ever kill.

But now.. Now that we'd all seen it… I was speechless. Even up until the end, Gonta was trying to save us. He.. was willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of taking care of us. I.. I didn't want to live in a world where someone like Gonta would be forced to kill.

So I decided that I would find a way to kill myself.

In the end dying together was never going to work out. Now that I'd had seen them both alive and well again, it was obvious. Maki and Kaito were both way too positive, they believed that there was still a way for us all to survive.

Not to mention they also had each other. Maki liked Kaito, and he probably liked her back. It would be much easier to go through this hell if it was with someone you loved. So

But I wasn't as easy-going. I had lost Kaede. Even after everyone came back from the dead, she didn't. I knew there was no hope here. Not for me.

So I started thinking up ways to pull the plan through. For example, I thought about attacking Maki and forcing her to defend herself.

But of course I threw that one aside immediately. If they managed to figure out what had happened, then Maki would be the culprit and she'd be executed. There was no way I would allow myself to be the reason for Maki's death.

Then the next option was to trick Gonta and get past him to find something sharp. That was a good idea, but one that I didn't have the heart to pull off. Gonta would never stop blaming himself. He..

My heart ached as I looked at him.

"What the matter?"

"Nothing. How are you, Gonta?"

"Gonta well." He replied. "But you should worry about yourself. Gonta not really understand what going on, but Gonta still want to help." He placed his huge hand on the left side of his chest as assurance. "Gonta strong, but not smart." His wide smile was almost blinding to me.

"Although... Gonta wonder, how you know Gonta's name. But Gonta not know your name."

"Hm? Oh.. I'm... the Ultimate Detective. Saihara Shuichi." I dodged his question. Would it be any other person then they'd probably consider that suspicious. But since it was Gonta, there was no need to worry.

"Ultimate Detective! Then Shuichi is brain and Gonta is muscle!" I.. couldn't help but smile.

"Don't you mean brawn, Gonta?"

"Oh! That's right! Shuichi can ask for Gonta's brawn for help anytime he want! Gonta will try his best!"

The smile I had wore off slowly as I let his words sink into my head.

I inclined my head away from the Ultimate Entomologist. Gonta couldn't help in such a grim situation. No one could.

"Thanks Gonta.."

…

Time passed by slowly and unbearably.

My stomach growled occasionally. When it did, Gonta asked if I wanted food, but I replied with a shake of my head. If, on the off chance, I couldn't kill myself the normal way, then starvation would have to be the thing that did me in. And although not having Maki and Kaito by my side as I did that was a little bit disconcerting, I had already accepted that as fact.

There wasn't much Gonta and I could talk about, so that allowed me more time to reflect on my current situation. It's not that I didn't want to talk to him, no, I definitely wanted to, I wanted to figure out what was going on. But I had a feeling that asking him wouldn't be of much help.

Everyone, besides Kaede and Rantaro were alive. Seeing as those two were dead, it was pretty obvious that we were still in the killing game. Which meant that the first class trial had already been solved. At first, I reasoned that it was all a dream. However, if it was a dream, then how come I remembered everything so vividly? In fact, I even learned new facts about people; Kaito's disease, Maki's ultimate talent, Kirumi's position as prime minister, Kokichi's secret about being headmaster and more. If it really was all a dream then I must have been sleeping pretty heavily. It.. was hard to believe that it was all just a dream, but the possibility was there.

What made things harder was that I couldn't exactly make any assumptions without concrete evidence or proof. Which meant I'd have to ask someone about the things that happened in my dream. The first person that came to mind was obviously Kaito, and for good reason. He didn't kill anyone. He didn't lie to any of us. And he was my best friend during this whole ordeal. But something at the back of my mind nagged at me. Kaito was suffering from a disease. He would die. No matter what happened in the near future, Kaito's death would be inevitable. I hated myself for thinking that way, but that was.. probably the truth.

So what?

Even if Kaito would die, that didn't mean I shouldn't tell him about everything that happened in the future.

…In the future? Where did that come from?

I.. brushed that thought aside and focused back on the matter at hand.

It was.. probably safe to tell both Maki and Kaito about everything. Although.. maybe, not everything everything.

Maki.. she didn't kill anyone, just like Kaito. Even after Kokichi revealed her true ultimate talent, Maki didn't kill him (although she was probably very close to doing that.) In a way, she was pretty kind for letting him live.

"Pfft." Without even thinking, I let out a chuckle. She was kind for not killing someone. That's ridiculous.

"Hm? Did Gonta do something weird?"

"No, no. You're fine. I was just... remembering something."

I reasoned that once Kaito's and Maki's turn came to look after me, I'd tell them about everything. This room was safe after all. I destroyed my own monitor, which more than likely had a recording function in it, or some sort of camera programmed inside the screen or something else, something that allowed Kokichi to see us at any and all times.

Putting that aside for now, I had my answer. I'd tell them both about what happened in my dream. But for now I'd focus more on what exactly happened to me. It's not very normal for people to just find themselves back in time with most of their friends alive again.

The first possibility that I had already considered was that everything before two days ago was a dream. But then how about we look at it from a different angle. What if everything that happened after two days ago was a dream? In other words, everything from the time I went to bed on the night Kaito and Maki were taken away, up until now. At first I had neglected this possibility - it didn't make any sense. I had hurt myself so many times following me coming here, even passed out once. It'd be a bit weird to assume I was still dreaming after all of that. But of course, the possibility was there. Maybe it was a special type of dream where no matter how much I was in pain, I wouldn't wake up? Who knew.

But then which was it? Was the current me dreaming everything.. or was the 'past' me dreaming everything.

.. Before? Or after?

I had to find out.

My hands gripped the fabric covering my body.

If everything that happened in the future was a dream, then that meant there was a possibility Earth wasn't a desolate place any more. A possibility that Kaito.. wasn't sick..

There was something I could feel in my chest. Hope. It was probably misplaced, but I still felt it, for the second time around now. I took a deep breath, and then waited. Waited for Kaito. Waited for Maki. They'd come.

And they did, but only after Kirumi's turn was up. She came in the room after the correct amount of time passed and then took Gonta's seat. I could have sworn her face was just a little bit pink when she walked in but maybe that was just my imagination.

Gonta in turn thanked Kirumi and me, before leaving.

We sat in silence.

Kirumi had brought with her a plate full of food. Probably a request from Kaito or something. Either way, I didn't touch it.

Unlike with Gonta though, I was embarrassed whenever my stomach growled. She didn't pay as much attention to it as he did, however she did say that if I didn't eat anything I'd eventually die.

I didn't reply back, and she probably took it as a hint.

Since there was nothing else to do, my mind raced back to everything that happened in my dream. And I realised something.

Kirumi killed Ryoma. Which meant that if this world was the same as the one in my dream then she'd definitely kill someone during the next few days.

Or maybe.. Maybe she'd try to kill someone even sooner.

She was in the ideal position to kill me right now. Soon after thinking that, I started sweating. What if.. she did actually kill me? It's not like I could resist, she knew I was weak at the moment.

I could feel my lips dry up.

How much time had passed since Monokuma delivered the motive videos? This was the first day after Kaede's trial, so everyone was probably searching around the place. But when exactly were the videos placed into our room?

Damn it, I couldn't remember if the motive videos had already been placed or not. Had she already seen her video? Was it too late?

The more time passed in silence, the more anxious I got. I couldn't die now, not after finally getting just a little bit of hope back.

I bit the inside of my lip, it was already broken enough, but I didn't care. It hurt, felt real and painful, and that in turn made me want to believe that everything that happened.. no, might have happened in the future, never actually happened at all. The Earth that we knew as home, was still a shelter to 7 billion people and everybody outside of this place was very much safe. That was the last straw that was still keeping me alive.

Time passed by slowly. I dared to look at Kirumi a couple of times, and every time I did, she was looking straight back at me. It felt creepy. Her motive for killing Ryoma was that he didn't have a reason to live. And right now, to her I must have seemed like an even better target than him.

Either she noticed that something was off or she simply wanted to check up on me, but at one point she got closer to check my temperature.

I tried to change the subject as her hand pushed the cap on my head aside. "Kirumi.. right? We haven't met before?"

She pulled her hand away and sat back down on the chair after straightening her dress. "To my knowledge, today was the first time. Although it is a bit peculiar that you know my name, and yet I don't know yours."

I couldn't pull the same card on her as I did on Gonta. "I've heard about you before. The Ultimate Maid. You're pretty popular. Most of my classmates knew about you." I gave her a calm, collected answer, despite completely panicking inside. What I said also wasn't a lie, which was why it probably had a lot of conviction. Although it is true that I didn't know what she looked like until we all met here. "I'm Saihara Shuichi, the Ultimate Detective."

"I see. I suppose for a detective it would be weird not to know about everyone here. Your help would have been greatly appreciated in the class trial." I.. lowered my head.

After that, we stayed silent.

Once my stomach growled again, Kirumi pushed the plate of food closer to the edge of my cabinet and I decided I should probably.. eat. If it was anyone else, then I would just ignore them and not eat. But Kirumi.. she.. I was slightly afraid of her.

Actually no, it didn't matter who it was that offered me food now. Because if it was all a dream then there'd be no need for me to die any more. I was betting everything on this sole thought.

Time passed by quickly while I ate, mostly because of how good it was.

"It tastes good. Thank you, Kirumi."

"No need, I'm simply glad you're eating something I made."

It.. was really good, I could already feel myself lighting up with energy more and more as I continued eating. She told me she'd bring some extra just before night time to which I was grateful for.

For just a moment I thought that if she wanted to kill me, then poisoning my food would be a perfect way to do it. But that idea was quickly buried. Since this was definitely before the second case, then my lab, which contained all of the concoctions in the school, wasn't open yet. She wouldn't have access to poison.

Eventually, the time came for Kirumi to switch. I heard a knock on the door which prompted my eyes to look towards it. Kaito was there. I was expecting Maki, but nevertheless, I gave him a smile.

Kirumi decided to voice my thoughts, "Where's Maki?"

"I told her I'd be next, and then she'd go after me."

"I see.. In that case I'll leave our sharp detective into your hands." The ever-so-professional maid bowed before slowly making her way out of the room with my dirtied plate.

"Detective..? Ah, thanks Kirumi!" Kaito waved his hand at Kirumi as she closed the door behind her. "What did she mean by that?"

I guess I'd have to introduce myself to everyone again. "My name is Saihara Shuichi. I'm the Ultimate Detective."

Kaito gaped at me when I said that, was it really that surprising? "Seriously man? You had such a cool talent?" His steps led him onto the seat next to my bed. "I didn't expect that. There are some pretty weird ones here with us y'know, so I thought you would be among one of them, but I guess I was wrong." He let out a small yawn. "I mean seriously, the Ultimate Supreme Leader? And the Ultimate Robot? Who comes up with this stuff? Buncha' idiots."

I wondered if his goal was to make me laugh, cuz if it was, then it worked.

I remembered once reading a study that said a healthy person should laugh at least twenty times a day to stay healthy. This.. was definitely my first time laughing in at least a week.

Thinking back on it, when was the last time I laughed? It had to have been a while ago, definitely before this entire killing game started, it's not like there was much to laugh about here anyway.

And as if on cue, a few perfectly timed images of me, Maki and Kaito sitting together in the courtyard flashed through my head. That's right, we all laughed that night.

I guess I was wrong. There were things to still laugh about here. I wonder if.. we'll laugh together again like that. I.. I'd like that. Being friends with both Maki and Kaito was definitely the most fun I'd ever had, even if it was in such an extreme environment.

"Hey, Shuichi." My eyes rose, I could barely look at Kaito through the gaps in my hair. Did he always seem so.. hidden? "I'll get straight to the point. Why'd you try to off yourself?" He was averting his eyes from me, was he uncomfortable talking about it? Well, that's only normal.

"It's not important, moreover I have a few things I wanted to tell you. Or rather.. ask you." I.. felt my heartbeat quicken. I was really hoping that everything that happened in my dream was just that.. a dream. That it wasn't real. Because knowing beforehand that the Earth was reduced to rubble and we'd be the last bit of humanity left was just way too cruel.

But that's why I also had to find out. I had to find out, was I dreaming? Or..

"Kaito, do you have an illness?"

"Wh-what? Where did that come from?" Although it was already getting dark outside, I could see Kaito's face growing paler and paler. He.. was shocked to see someone reveal his secret.

The truth.. was out.. He really was suffering from it. The disease that the meteors brought down on Earth. "I.. see. So you are."

My eyes fell back down. I was strong enough to find out the truth, but I wasn't strong enough to actually do anything about it now. "Kaito, you're going to die in a few days because of this illness huh.. No matter what happens in this killing game, no matter if we get out, survive, or die. The outcome for you will be the same for all three cases. You'll di-"

"What're you talking 'bout, Shuichi? I just got a bit of a cold. Man you said you were a detective, but I didn't expect you to actually know about me having even a small fever. So once you said that I was shocked." He forced on a grin as he looked at me. "But it definitely isn't as bad as you're describing it to be. Honestly at the moment my throat only hurts."

"What?" Immediately, instantly, my eyes shot up to look at the Ultimate Astronaut. He.. was fine? He was healthy? What? Did.. did that mean..? "You're not.. sick?"

"Course not. Well I am, but not with whatever it is you're talking about. Where'd you get that idea from?"

It was like a weight was lifted from my heart. I had never been so relieved in my entire life. Kaito was okay, he wouldn't die. "N..nothing, nowhere. In that case, I'm... glad you're alright, Kaito." Could it be that the Earth then..

"Don't sweat it. More importantly, I brought you some stuff for when you feel better. Here." Without asking, the astronaut plopped a bunch of weird items onto my table. They.. looked like the ones that unlocked all the secret locations after the first class trial. Did they not know how to use them or what?

"You know where they might go?"

I even got out of bed so I could inspect them closer. I had forgotten the exact way they looked like in the dream, but now that I was once again holding them in my hands I could feel and see that they.. were the same ones. Not even a speck of difference.

And just like that, my suspicions returned to me.

You're not lying to me, right Kaito? To not make me worry. He never lied to me back in the other world, but he definitely did keep secrets.

.. No matter. "I think I might have an idea as to where I could use them, if I take a small look around outside. But I'm afraid I'll collapse again if I actually leave right now." That was.. partly a lie. I had no doubts I could probably manage without resting, however I did want to talk to Maki as well. Her reasoning for not telling us about being an assassin was that she thought we'd try to kill her. But since I already knew about it and hadn't tried to kill her. Then there was no point for her to hide it. Unlike with Kaito.

"Then how about we go together tomorrow?"

"… Sure, Kaito."

After that, time passed by quicker than with Kirumi and Gonta.

We talked normally. I felt myself relax more and more with each passing word we uttered. We really did click, like two inseparable brothers. Despite my silent accusations at Kaito from before, I was still laughing at his jokes and throwing a couple of my own past stories into the mix (some of which he should have already known).

I didn't even realise it was his time to leave until someone actually knocked on the door. And from the looks of it, neither did Kaito.

"It's already time, huh? Didn't think it'd go by that fast hahaha." He gave my shoulder a pat and stood up. "Well, see ya tomorrow."

"Yeah, good night Kaito." The Monokuma announcement hadn't come yet, but I could tell it would turn night time any second now.

"Rest up and remember, don't do anything brash." I grinned at him and he took that as his time to leave.

"Oooh, you came! Sweet!" Maki ignored Kaito's comments and walked into the room with a very noticeable scowl, or maybe that's just what she always looked like. "Well then, I'll leave Shuichi in your hands."

"..." Maki only responded to his words by sitting down on the chair in front of my bed.

Was she glaring at me?

"Y..you don't have to be here if you don't want to, you know." I laughed awkwardly and nudged my head away from her.

No reply.

So it was a monologue, huh. "I should probably.. introduce myself. I'm Saihara Shuichi. The Ultimate Detective." I kept forgetting that people didn't know who I was here. "You're.. Maki Harukawa.. right?"

She offered me an annoyed glance before eventually sighing. "Yes. How did you know my name?"

Thankfully, before I could answer, someone knocked on my door. It was Kirumi. She excused herself like normal and then placed the plate of food which she had promised to bring earlier on my cabinet. Apparently she also brought me my usual uniform, but already washed and cleaned before strutting back out. Right as she did, the Monokuma announcement blared loudly in the hallway of the dormitory and notified us of the sudden shift to night time.

Maki, of course, showed no signs of leaving or getting flustered from being alone in the same room with a boy at night. That was probably due to all the assassination work she used to do.

Maybe this was actually like child's play to her. I couldn't imagine an assassin not having to stalk their prey and always looking at them. But then in that sense.. wasn't I the prey here?

Just to distract myself from her, I took the plate of food on my dresser and started eating.

It was bad manners to eat in the bed (and especially bad manners to eat in front of someone while they just looked at you), but really, at that moment I didn't care even the slightest. I was hungry and the food was filling me up so I couldn't ask for more. My original plan of starving to death was long gone from my head.

But.. something was off, the food tasted a little weird. It was good, but there must have been a seasoning to the side of it that I hadn't tried yet, it didn't quite fit well with everything. Well, either way, it's not like I was complaining, it was still good despite that.

I think it took me around five minutes before I finished eating and actually opened my mouth again. "Hey, Maki. Could you tell me about how Kaede killed Rantaro?"

I could barely see through the darkness, so I couldn't exactly tell what her expression was. But considering I asked about the death of one of our classmates, something must have changed about her.

"I'm not sure how. She never told us. She just said she was the one who killed him. We trusted her judgement and voted her as the killer. We asked, but she never answer."

"I see.." So even in this world Kaede still thought about everyone else first. She wouldn't let everyone die just because of her own mess up.

"We were set on voting you as the killer before she spoke up."

"Huh?" I blinked.

"Since you hadn't shown up until that point we reasoned that the timing was way too perfect for it to be a coincidence. So we decided to vote you out as the killer. But at the last moment, Kaede spoke up and revealed everything. I guess it really was just a coincidence that you appeared before us then."

"Ah, I'm.. sorry." It did make sense for them to accuse me.

"There's nothing for you to be sorry about. How about you explain what's going on instead? It's pretty abnormal for you not talk to anyone since coming here, and yet still know everyone's names. Even a detective has limits." Her expression from before had changed to a more tense one. Was she interested in what I had to say? "At least, I'd say you should have more of an idea on what's going on around here than we do."

"… Yeah. You're right, but first, let me confirm something with you." My hands slid over to the cupboard to place the plate back down. I was actually really afraid of Maki doing the same thing to me as he did to Kokichi, so I quickly added. "D-don't attack me though. I'll explain." My neck still hurt.

I could barely make out any difference on her facial expression what with it being so dark and all, but as much as I could see, it looked like she was at least a little bit tense.

"Are you an assassin?" Just as a precautionary measure, I leaned back in my bed to keep some distance between ourselves. But there was no need. She didn't attack me.

I heard a sigh. "Well, I was somewhat expecting you to already know about that, considering how weird you have been acting." Her voice was calm, I couldn't spot any trace of venom in it. Looks like she really wasn't going to choke me. "So, how do you know?"

"I.." Her question was much heavier than it first seemed. So this wasn't a dream. Kaito had simply lied to me. Probably to keep myself from worrying about him. Did he want me to focus on myself for the time being?

… Maybe… maybe it was a bit too quick to judge. There was still a chance that everything that happened to us before was a dream. Just.. some bits were accurate, and some bits were not. There have been countless cases of prophetic stories with 50 or 60% accuracy. Who was to say I knew the truth? Maybe I only knew 50% of it.

"I'm… not quite sure myself, actually." I held my eyes down in my lap as I spoke. "Something weird is going on. I don't know exactly.. how, but I know things about you and Kaito." Should I tell her.. about the future? "No, not just you two. Everyone." Maybe… not just yet. "I think.. you shouldn't worry about people going to try and kill you once you reveal your talent."

I swallowed the saliva that had collected in my mouth. Apparently my heart was beating pretty loud, because I could feel the thumps up to my brain.

Maybe.. ask one more thing to make sure.. "Uhh... Can I ask you one more thing? Was your first assassination about killing someone who went to cosplay conventions? And did you fail it because people on the streets thought of you as a cosplayer?"

I didn't get an immediate answer. She was quiet, no reply. I bit down on my lip anxiously and then prepared myself for the answer she'd give. But she never did give me one. Instead she stood up. "M.. Maki?"

"How much do you know about me?" I never realised how tall she was until I was actually looking up at her from my bed. It was somewhat menacing.

Her silhouette reached forward, towards me, I could see her cold, pale hands slowly closing in on my neck. What was she..?

"H-hey, Maki." I couldn't form proper sentences. I was panicking.

"No matter how good of a detective you are. There's no way you could possibly know about something like that." I felt one of her hands slowly grip tightly around my neck, but I didn't even try to move from my position.

Immediately I felt my old wound flare up with pain. I could still breathe, but it was difficult.

Maki? Killing me? That.. didn't make any sense. "You're not.. going to kill me, right?" I forced out an awkward laugh, but immediately regretted it. Her other hand was now suddenly clutching my neck as well. And just like that my breathing was cut off. My hands rose up to try and tear hers away, but of course there was no use. I didn't have enough strength or energy to go up against a real assassin.

"Have you been stalking me, Saihara Shuichi? Do you wanna die?" Her usual habit had turned into a threat.

"Khh.." It felt like she was going to snap my neck any second now. "W-wait, wait... Maki.." My voice was cracking, but I could still speak, barely. "You.. told me all of that! You were the… the one who talked about it." My sentences were breaking down. I couldn't breathe so I needed to pause in-between words to gasp for air. "To both.. me... and Kaito."

"That's not possible. You think I wouldn't remember telling someone else about my job?" I heard something cracking in my neck, she was going to kill me. I had to tell her.

"That's cuz.. it… hasn't happened... yet."

"What? That doesn't make any sense." She didn't believe me.

I have to.. something… I can't.. breathe.. "M.. Maki.. l..let, go.." I felt my nails dig deep into her fingers, but she didn't budge. "I-I'll.. tell.. evryhhhin..." I couldn't see anything, my eyes had retreated to the back of my head. "M...Maaaa..kiii.."

I didn't know if at that moment Maki had snapped my neck in half, or if I passed out on my own, or if some other third factor caused me to go limp in Maki's hands. But all I did know was that I wasn't conscious any more.

---

WHAT DID KAITO DO THIS TIME?

The time was something around 11:30 am. Kaito and Kirumi were both in Shuichi's room, looking after him. Or at least trying to. He wasn't awake, so it's not like they could do much.

"Hey. We can't really do much of anything by just standing around here."

"I agree, however the reason we're here is to prevent anyone from killing him, right? That's what Ryoma suggested. I feel as if that's reason enough for us to stay here."

Kaito wasn't having none of it. "Sure, but don't you think there's a way for us to actually speed up his recovery or somethin'?"

Kirumi cupped her chin as if to think up 'somethin' that could satisfy Kaito's question. "There's.. not much that comes to my mind which could help."

"Wha-, seriously?" Kaito grimaced as he looked at the sleeping boy's posture. Right now he was so peaceful, but just a day ago he had tried to kill himself. "No, I bet you're just overcomplicating things. I got a solution." He stood up and directed his gaze at Kirumi.

"Do you still have his dirty clothes somewhere?"

Kirumi looked a little taken aback, but eventually nodded. "Yes. I do. But w-"

Kaito didn't give the maid a chance to ask questions. "Bring them to me. All of them."

She gave him a weird glance before sighing and walking out of the door.

A couple of minutes passed in silence, before the Ultimate Saviour was back to deliver what Kaito had asked for. He didn't let a second go to waste and quickly started rummaging through Shuichi's clothes. "Huh? No socks?"

"I already finished washing them, but I wasn't able to clean the other ones yet because you interrupted me at that moment to have a meeting in the dining hall." She gave a quick look towards Shuichi. "I was planning on washing them after this."

"Well, whatever. This works." He picked out the underwear and for just a small moment looked at them. "Yeah, this definitely works. Hey-" Once more, Kaito turned around to look at Kirumi. "how 'bout you do it."

Whatever Kaito's plan was, Kirumi already didn't like it. "Do what? I hope you're not going to say anything indecent."

"No way man. I mean I want you to hold these underwear right above his face so that he'd smell it and wake up."

"Wha-" before she had the chance to retort, Kaito showed the boxers into the maid's hands and then backed off.

"It's not a big problem is it, I mean you got gloves on anyway."

"That's.. not the issue here." It'd be safe to say that Kirumi was just a little bit shocked from being requested to do something like this. "… Are you sure this works?"

"Totally! Trust me!"

She wasn't sure if she should, but in the end there was no going against someone like him. "If it's going to wake him up, then I'll do it."

"Sweet. Good luck."

The maid bent over the bed just a little bit and rose Shuichi's boxers up above his head. The only problem was that as she did that, the smell on them puffed up and blew into Kirumi's face as well. It was definitely the scent of his..

"W-what?!" She found herself slightly reddening at the situation she was in. She couldn't believe Shuichi had something like that up his sleeve, or rather, in his boxers. Yes, he was a man, but normally something like this was completely unacceptable.

In fact, she couldn't even hold himself back from quickly whacking the sleeping student on the head. "H-hey!? What are you doing, Kirumi?!" Kaito quickly ran back over to the girl just in case she'd try to do that again. "He didn't do anything man."

She only blinked and quickly turned around to make some space between Shuichi and him. He should have at least bought her dinner first before doing something like that.

"D.. do you really think he'll wake up because of this?"

"Huh? Of course he will! This trick always works in the movies!"

"So you just based it off of a movie…?"

...

...

...

Escapism.

To be continued

Author's Note: I wasted an hour of my life writing and perfecting nearly 700 words about how Kirumi sniffed Shuichi's underwear.

Were the characters acting in character? Or did they behave in a manner that you wanted to bleach your eyes out?

Class trial next chapter or nah? Even one vote is fine, but if there are none, then I'll choose myself.

Bonus meme: My autocorrect wanted to change the title of this story to "The Quest for a Forehead"