Why did he bother with all of these useless people?

And why did these useless people, in turn, bother with him?

Kokichi wondered this the first time he met everyone. And by everyone, he mostly meant those that were worth remembering by name, if nothing else. It was a meeting like no other. Because outside of Kokichi's vampire hunting organization, he was a bit of an enigma that was always out looking for naivety in possible fresh-faced recruits.

Kaito Momota, he realized, was one such person. He first met the other at a party, one that he crashed but he wanted to be a part of because he was just bored. And Kaito was so obscenely loud and boisterous, Kokichi realized that his idiocy would be perfect for his group, and that even if Kaito didn't know that vampires existed, he could use his fresh face for his organization's dirty work, and his large social circle to his utter advantage.

Shortly after conversing with Momota, however, Ouma realized that he was really dumb, beyond first impressions and vastly exceeding his expectations. The fact that Kaito was still alive after being reckless his whole life was an achievement in itself. Kokichi made sure to emphasize this when speaking to him, too.

"So, like, you're really stupid and that's all there is to it?"

"Hey, man! I said that hurts, don't call me stupid!" He shouted, garnering the attention of other partygoers. "Who even invited you, eh? I don't remember seeing a snot-nose like you on the list!"

"And why would I be here if I wasn't invited? Don't you trust Akamatsu to be competent enough to take care of a simple guest list?" The lilt and rise in tone in Kokichi's voice was harsh enough to make Kaito recoil thoughtfully, but he didn't stop there. "For some big-shot astronaut-in-training, you talk a weak game. Are you sure you didn't just bribe them to let you in the program?"

"Of course I trust Kaede!" He barked. "Well, why she'd ever invite you is beyond my imagination. But as long as I'm Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars, then I don't care what anyone else says! When I go to space soon, you'll see what I mean!"

"Uh-huh, sure. Space, huh? Say, what about you join my secret evil organization, instead? Then not only could you go to space, but you could knock out some of the heavy lifting for me!" Stars were in Kokichi's eyes as he seemed genuinely pleased by the idea. "You, me, and my other ten thousand followers! Sounds awesome, right?"

"What are you babblin' on about?" Kaito huffed. "Listen, Ouma, I'm not interested in whatever you're sellin'. Everyone knows that you gotta make your own out here. There isn't any point in living by someone else's efforts."

"Is that so…?" Kokichi tilted his head, and put a finger to his lips to seem innocuous enough. But part of him was really, genuinely pondering the idea. "Okay, Kaito! Forget I said that, then! You're really interesting after all!"

"Ha, told ya! After all, I'm Kaito Momota, Luminary of the St—"

"—I lied!" Kokichi yelled. "You're so boring, I might fall asleep if you say another word!"

"W-What?" Kaito stumbled. "Then why bother talking to me? What's up with you?"

Kokichi ignored him as he moved on to talk to others at the party, too. Seeing so many affluent people at once was disconcerting, not to mention highly suspicious. But he doubted that anything truly malicious was going on here, if Kaito's obliviousness was any indicator of such. And people threw names and information out so easily, he could make up lies with second-hand gossip from side conversations all day long. Ouma didn't do this all day, of course, because he had people to observe and meet.

He even met Kaede Akamatsu herself, the hostess of this party and one of the best piano-playing prodigies in the country. The fact that she seemed so friendly and amicable to even him, a complete stranger, said something about her. It said that she was too kind, naive, and friendly all at once. Someone like her could get grossly taken advantage of, so in Kokichi's mind it would be better if he could recruit her for his own nefarious purposes before someone else did so for theirs.

She wasn't too receptive of the idea, either, probably thinking that the proposal to join his secret organization was a joke. "I mean, c'mon, Ouma! A super, secret, evil organization that you're the head of? There's no way that could happen, right? So…"

"You sure about that?" He asked, looking up at her with a starry-eyed expression. "There's definitely been way, way, waaay stranger things happening in the world than that. Do you mean to say that I'm lying?"

"T-That's not it!" She quickly covered up. "I'm not accusing you of lying, I'm just a little skeptical is all!"

"Well, you're right!" He chimed in. "Because I am lying. Come on, Akamatsu! Don't tell me you're that naive. You can't just believe anything anyone says."

She blinked, visibly confused by everything he just said. Her pretty face contorted into something indignant, maybe just worried, but he left before she could say anything more on the matter. He laughed at her as he left, though, and pranced around the party house like he owned it. And on that subject, Kaede vaguely wondered who invited him anyway, as the name Kokichi Ouma hardly rang a bell to her.

But even then, that thought disappeared, and she was left to herself as his image—purple, white, black, with some variation in between—disappeared entirely into the background.

Strange kid, she thought. Really strange.

.

.

Kokichi figured that he was wasting his time (but then again time is never wasted as long as he got some amusement out of it all) and that he'd better leave before anything too tedious happened. But as he was about to fade out into the crowd, he felt a smooth hand grab his right shoulder and propel him backward. He faltered momentarily, but quickly covered his missteps as he turned around and faced the perpetrator in the eye.

It was someone he had never seen before. She seemed pretty, with long (like, really long) hair tied in twintails behind her. Her skin was clear and smooth, revealed in some places by a cute skirt and covered up in other places by a long-sleeved shirt. Not to mention her stature—she was taller than Kokichi (but then again, so were most other people) yet not necessarily imposing. It could be a practiced body movement, but she appeared so distant and far away in that moment, despite being no more than a foot's length apart from him.

Most noticeable were her eyes, however. They were crimson red, dark and long-lashed. But they wore an unreadable expression that was only betrayed by the slight scowl her lips had taken to. She looked as if she were trying to stomach the very sight of Kokichi, and he supposed he couldn't blame her.

He had quite a few enemies, after all. She may very well be one of them, although the public space of a party was too crowded to effectively take him out. Would she draw a gun from behind or back, or whisk out a dagger that was secretly strapped to her inner thigh? Would she wildly brandish a weapon for all onlookers to see, or carefully press it against his body so only he was subject to the threat? He wondered about all these possibilities, but more so the solutions to any problems he might face. How could he get out of this unscathed? If he had caught his target and killed them already, then he would have no objections to dying where he stood. But given the current situation, that was far from the truth and in reality, he needed to stay alive.

All of these thoughts circulated within his head in seconds, and he quickly reacted as a result. "You know," he said to her, "a simple 'hi' would have worked all the same!"

She dismissed his jovial words, and continued to stare death into his eyes. He felt unnerved, truly, but masked the discomfort from view. After all, it would be better if he pretended like he wasn't secretly nervous like he was. The hesitation fell out the window, and he picked up the slack. "What, cat got your tongue? How come you just—"

"—You're him, aren't you?" She finally spoke, voice as stoic and stern as the look in her eyes. "What are you doing in a place like this?"

"Huh?" He said aloud, voicing genuine confusion for once. Did he know her from before? He doubted it, because he would remember someone as striking as she was. Not many people could incite genuine discomfort and fear into him with a single stare, and she was fantastically achieving the former, if not the latter. "What are you talking about, lady?"

"Don't play dumb," she admonished. "I know who you are. What I don't understand is why you're here. If you're planning on bothering Momota or anyone else, I'll make you regret it."

"Who would bother with that guy? He's an idiot," Kokichi reassured. "But seriously, I have noooo idea what you're going on about, so if you'll excuse me!" He tried to step past her, but she mirrored his movements so perfectly that he stumbled. Escape wouldn't be that easy, it seemed.

"Fine. You want me to say it, don't you? That's very like you, Kokichi Ouma." His name sounded like a curse word on her tongue. And maybe she was cursing it. "There's no bloodsuckers here, if that's what you're concerned with."

Now he couldn't even pretend that he didn't understand her. After all, when it came to the supernatural monsters that seemed to coexist with humans, Kokichi was the closest thing to an expert there was. He spent years chasing after one vampire, only to amass a large cult following along the way. If some person or another indirectly found out about him, he couldn't just ignore it.

But he couldn't let them get their way, either. He kept a cool smile on his face, hands behind his head like he was relaxed and not at all worried about this strange girl. "Eh? So, you know about them, too? I thought I was just imagining them~ But hey, it's not nice to call all these party people 'bloodsuckers'. I know they're so boring that it makes you wanna die, but you should really keep it to yourself!" Cue laughter, and Kokichi was confident that the ball was in his court now. There was no need to give this girl the satisfaction of a proper answer, after all.

"..." She was less amused by his antics, clearly, and pondered over what she should do before speaking again. "I'm being serious, Ouma. There's no one like that here. So stay away from this place."

"Oh, so are you like a super fan or something?" He suddenly shouted, dismissing the stare or two he got from other partygoers. "Like, do you want my autograph? Not many people can see what I really do, so it makes me wonder! Wait, don't tell me—I've got one of your family members in my super-awesome-evil-and-secret-not-a-lie organization, right? Or better yet, you're actually a bloodsucker yourself, and one of my guys stabbed one of your guys in the eyes with a stake or something!" He was getting carried away again, but sometimes he had to lose himself in the lie. Otherwise it became less convincing.

Although he was convinced he was right at some point, if the glare he received from her was any indication. She huffed angrily. "Neither of those stupid theories are correct, y'know. You make a lot of noise for someone whose organization is supposed to be secret." She stomped a bit on her right foot, crossing her arms and looking generally annoyed. But despite this assertive behavior, her invasive eyes couldn't stay locked on his, and thus they strayed wayward.

Odd.

"Oh, so you're just some passerby that knows about me, then? That won't do at all, you know I'm always looking for fresh faces to serve my army! If not, then I'll have to kill you, y'know? Can't have this knowledge leak out into the general public anymore than it should!" He said cheerfully, smiling widely like he was complimenting her and not threatening to kill her.

She was unafraid, but entirely riled up as pure hatred seeped from her bloody irises. Perhaps her patience was wearing thin, because she kept tapping her fingers along her side or stamping her foot. Any minute now, she would reveal her true intentions to him—she had to, otherwise this conversation would keep going nowhere.

Finally, she gave in. "No...it's not a random occurrence." She glanced around their surroundings (So silly, Kokichi thought, you should have been paying more attention from early on!) to make sure that no one was really listening in to them, and then she stepped forward. "...Your kind saved an old friend of mine from an attack one day."

"Your friend—?"

"—She ended up dying in a car accident, anyway, but she never forgot what you did for her. And I won't, either. I don't trust you, Ouma, but I'm letting you know that I'm...aware of what you're doing. And, so…" She searched for more words to say, but found none. In fact, every word up to now has been rather chunky, misplaced, and haphazard. Was she not used to talking to others?

"Sooo?" Kokichi echoed her. "Soooo….what?"

"So, I'm not obligated to you or anything. But I'm letting you know what I know. There's no one here worth looking into. Myself included, we're all...incredibly human." She sighed out, finally pleased that she was able to make a coherent sentence. Either she didn't like small talk, or she didn't like Kokichi. Maybe it was some awkward mix of the two. Still, she continued.

"And I'm warning you right now, just stay away from the people here. They're all good...nothing like you, so just leave them alone. If you've got a problem, then you'll have to face me."

"Ha!" He giggled. "That's all? Come on, why're you so worked up over it? You make it out to be such a big deal, but you're a real softie, I can tell." Disregarding her scowl, Ouma continued. "But relax, relax. I hate lies and murder too, y'know. I'm not a bad guy here."

"That's…"

"...A complete and total lie." He paused for a moment. "I was lying about being a bad guy, not that I hate lies and murder. Everyone hates something, right? Well, I really hate lies! Really, I do!"

"..."

"Okay, okay. I'll be honest, I was a little curious about this place. Any large gathering has potential to attract them. Not to mention that, like, since people go in and out of rooms constantly during parties, there's a greater chance of someone getting abducted between all the madness. Then the bloodsuckers do what their name says, and bam—" he clapped his hands together, emphasizing the smacking sound they made when doing so— "that person they just kidnapped? They're dead."

Silence again. He took this as consent to resume his end of the conversation.

"But, since you're so obsessed with everyone here, I don't think something as big as an abduction would go under your nose without difficulty! So, again, relax, lady."

"Stop calling me lady," she insisted. "I have a name."

"Yeah, which you didn't bother to tell me~" Ouma reminded her. "But you know about me, so it's only fair that I know about you, right?"

"I was going to tell you anyway, so don't make this out to be so important when it's not," she said, meeting eyes with Kokichi once more. The raw malice disappeared from her expression, but she still withheld a look of utter contempt and distrust. But it was tame enough that she felt inclined to introduce herself to him. "I'm Maki Harukawa. And don't be mistaken—we aren't friends."

To this, Kokichi simply laughed at Maki, and made sure the sound resonated like some sort of death bell. Then he practically sang in her face. "I wouldn't dream of it!"

.

.

Maki was certainly the most terrifying person at the party in Kokichi's eyes. She was easily the most interesting, too, as everyone else appeared to be naive, youthful souls enjoying the party for the party's sake alone. It made him wonder why he bothered so much with vampires, but the realization came and encircled itself—vampires would take advantage of human ignorance, to the point where their existence was widely questioned but never universally accepted. And at some point in his life, Kokichi wanted to make their existence a public service announcement of sorts, showing everyone that these were real monsters running amok on the streets alongside them.

But then he'd have to play the role of the dictator, and while it was easy to lead around the bunch of idiots that he had under his control, he knew he wasn't totally invested in the idea of making every single vampire pay. In fact, he only cared about one vampire in particular. One that he had not seen since he was six years old or so. One that scarred him in places that would never manifest physically. One with golden eyes and a quiet disposition—one that slipped out of the window like sand between his fingers.

Yes, as long as he had his target still, he couldn't make any foolish mistakes. Although it helped to find interesting people to talk to. Even if Maki was less enthusiastic about making Kokichi's acquaintance than he was about making hers, she still proved useful. All those people (whose names Kokichi memorized after sneaking pictures of the guest list) were utterly human—complete dullards without knowledge of the greater things happening around them.

He vaguely wondered if he should just ask them if they know anyone with golden eyes while he was still there. Of course, there was excitement and beauty in chasing this phantom around for all this time, but there was also the impatient nature that Kokichi couldn't deny he had. If he didn't start getting better at finding his target, he'd be dead by the time he actually found them.

So he asked Maki, seeing as she was the most interesting person there, but also because she was the only one that actually knew what the hell he would be talking about. "Hey, Maki Roll. Do you know anyone with golden eyes?"

"Who said you could call me that?" She barked at him, shooting his gleeful smile down with a harsh glare. "How did you even know to call me that?"

"Anyone with hearing knows that Kaito calls you that at least, like, five times every hour!" he reminded her. "What, don't like it? Then how come Kaito gets to call you that and not me?"

She blushed involuntarily. "T-That's…! That's none of your business, Ouma!"

"Whatever, whatever. All that Kaito stuff is boring, anyway. I'll ask again for you, since I'm just so nice. Do you know anyone with golden eyes?"

"Golden eyes…" she muttered this beneath her breath, then glanced at him. "No, but I'm sure they exist out there somewhere. Why do you ask?"

"Why do you think I asked? It's pretty obvious why I asked," he said, rolling his eyes for added effect. "Jeez, Momota's idiocy must rub off on you sometimes, huh?"

"Stop bad mouthing him or I'll stab you," she threatened, with wholehearted sincerity. He tried not to look perturbed by this. Normally he would give some of his fake tears in response, but he had a feeling they wouldn't work on Maki.

"That was a lie, y'know. C'mon, you can't just believe everything you hear. Then again, maybe that's what you would expect of the leader of DICE." He stared at his fingernails like they were more interesting than the girl in front of him (far from it, actually), and then gave a half-interested look in her direction. "But I'm serious. If you know something useful, I don't want to go over the long list of reasons why you should tell me."

"I'm aware," she answered vaguely. "I don't know...you talk about gold, but don't you mean just yellow? Sometimes gold can appear to be yellow and vice versa…"

"Okay, then, Miss Irrelevant." He glanced at her, scoffing beneath his breath. "Someone with gold and or yellow eyes."

"I can only think of one person," she answered truthfully. "But I doubt they're the one you're looking for."

He had the same doubt, because in all his years he had never seen a vampire with golden eyes. He saw his fair share of humans with that eye color, but never one of those murderous monsters that put holes in mothers' chests and cave in the sides of fathers' heads. Not one of those creatures that stalks the shadows, and disappears behind broken glass like sand disappears into the wind. Not one of those foul, black-hearted beasts that did nothing but make children miserable, and ingrain their ferocious eyes into the memories of those left behind...

(Oops, was he getting too caught up in the past again? Silly Kokichi.)

"Tell me, anyway. Maybe they can be useful, too."

"His name is Saihara," she said, "and he's an acquaintance of mine. He was actually supposed to show up today, but got sick at last minute. Figure out the rest yourself."

"Oh? Why so defensive, suddenly? Is it because you're worried that this Saihara is actually a vamp—"

"—No," she cut him off. "No, I'm just tired of hearing your voice. I only cooperated with you this far as a form of repayment for what you've done for my friend. We're not allies, Ouma. After this, don't look for me anymore."

"I don't have to look for you. You look like the nosy type to get in the way of things, so I'm sure I'll see you without meaning to in the future." Before she could protest his words, he laughed at her and made his way towards the exit. "So, thanks for the info, Maki Roll! I'll let my people drop off a thank-you present at your home as a reward! Catch you later!"

He hardly heard whatever gritting insults she had to throw at him, and his laughter blocked off the white noise of the other people in the building. In the end, Kokichi only managed to hear a single sentence bounce after his light footsteps.

"Stop calling me 'Maki Roll'!"