Chapter 5: Shadow Self (Daily Life 2)

Kenji sat in a steel folding chair, hands clasped tightly together and shaking slightly. He was taking heavy breaths as he looked over the floor, which was covered in a sea of shattered glass. Kenji sighed, running his hands through his hair when he heard footsteps from the lab hall. He turned to see Naoki walk up to the door frame, coming to a sudden stop.

"Whoa, what have you been doing in here, Kenji? Dancing on glass?" Naoki asked as he carefully swept glass aside with his sneaker-clad foot.

"Oh, hey Naoki. Sorry about the mess…" Kenji said. "I was still a little hot."

"...A little?" Naoki asked, looking at all the smashed glassware littering the floor as he continued to push it aside with each step he took into the lab.

"Shut up." Kenji said with a weak chuckle. "So, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you. See if you're okay after all that…" Naoki said, finally clearing a path to Kenji. "You gotta another chair nearby?" he asked, Kenji pointing to a nearby bench where another steel chair sat, covered in dents and scratches.

"I used that one to help with smashing. I had a wooden chair, but I can't find it." Kenji said, Naoki grabbing the dented chair as he looked around the room. If Naoki had to guess, the wooden chair had probably been thrown against a wall at some point and was now in pieces somewhere in the lab.

Naoki unfolded the chair and sat down, trying to find a comfortable groove among the dents. "If ya keep breaking stuff, you'll run out of stuff to break. Then what? Break someone else's stuff?" Naoki asked, Kenji sighing as he heard the patter of tiny paws on the lab floor, turning to see Kiko walking on the clean parts of the floor.

"Holy shit, what happened in here?" Haru asked through the door frame.

"Hey, Haru. I… had to vent. Hitting people seems to get me in deeper shit, so I guess this had to do." Kenji said with a shrug. Haru walked into the room, standing behind Naoki.

"I think he's outta chairs, Haru." Naoki said sheepishly.

"I'm cool to stand." Haru said, waving it off. "Kenji, you feelin' better?"

"Yeah… I'm probably gonna need to go to the MonoMono Machine to replace all my stuff…" Kenji said, looking over the glass on the floor. Naoki and Haru looked at each other for a bit in silence, Naoki finally speaking up.

"Dude. I've only been here one night and I have to say… we need to stop fighting with Shiro. If he's come up with a plan, it's better than being trapped here the rest of our lives. I don't know what you went through with him but… I get it. He pissed you off, but… Is any plan better than no plan?" Naoki asked.

"Well… yeah, but if it's a Shiro plan, then it can't be what he says it is." Kenji said, knuckles whitening as his hands tightened. "Look. He tricked me, okay? He got me to trust him, and then he tried to kill everyone here. I can't just… ignore that. You know?" Kenji said, folding his arms.

"He wanted to kill me, or get me framed for killing Akami. But… Do you think seven of us could keep him in check? We're wiser now, I think we can see if Shiro's up to any fuckery." Haru said.

"Yeah, and we can have him put away if he tries any funny business. Akira's a cop and this Airi girl seems like she doesn't take any shit." Naoki added. "Like she'll karate flip me out the window like one of those Hong Kong cop movies."

Kenji shook his head. "Problem is, they trust Shiro. They think he's someone who should be trusted, but… I just can't. He lied to me, acted like he was my friend, played like he was sick when he was really just planning a murder. Then he manipulated me into thinking my friends did it. Threw Yukata, Haru under the bus… hell, he even tried to frame Akira for her own friend's murder. He didn't fuck with just me, he fucked with everybody." Kenji said. "And I'm worried that Akira's falling into the same trap I did in trusting him and she's being stubborn about how I need to trust him. How he's 'changed' and is helping us now…"

"But what if he's better than before? Didn't Akira say something about looking after him in the bunker?" Naoki asked.

"So that makes everything he did okay? That just means Akami's murder never happened? I can't just forgive that stuff just because he says he wants to help us now…" Kenji said.

"But what about his missing fingers? Didn't he cut those off to help you solve the case?" Naoki inquired, Kenji shaking his head.

"He probably did that because he wanted to make sure he could live." he answered, Haru bending down to meet eye-to-eye with Kenji, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Kenji, I don't like Shiro any more than you do, but there aren't a lot of options left. I'm not saying we trust him, but just listen to him for a bit and see if he's got a plan that can get us out of here. If he tries any funny business, we'll put a stop to him and if we do get out of this school, we'll walk away and never see him again. Shiro tried to pin stuff on you, he tried to pin stuff on me. We can tell when he's doing bullshit." Haru offered.

"Yeah but.. His plan is to be as vague as possible. How am I supposed to not suspect him?" Kenji asked.

"Maybe he thinks whoever was in the video might be able to listen to u-" Haru offered, Kenji shooting up from his seat.

"Bullshit, Shiro made that up!" Kenji shouted.

"On the contrary!" Monokuma said, popping up with shards of glass atop his head, brushing them off. "Yeah, yeah, I know I said Emi killed Rio. But there was someone in a mask who chased him up the stairs! Stupid Shiro, bringing up stuff he sees instead of being vague about it. You're supposed to go mad from the revelation and get super murderpowers, not just explain what happened to everyone! How else are creepypastas supposed to work!?" Monokuma cried out, everyone just looking lost from his complaining

"Creepywha-?" Kenji asked, scratching his head.

"Uhh.. I think it's those dumb stories you read on the internet. I guess Monokuma likes those." Naoki explained.

"I am well versed in the lore of the thin guy! That one dog who is happy! Jeff!" Monokuma shouted.

"...Jeff? Just Jeff?" Haru asked.

"Yes. Jeff!" Monokuma exclaimed. "Jeff! The worst of them all! I wanted Shiro or Yukata be Jeff from their insanity! But now Yukata's dead and Shiro's just.. I dunno.. Slightly less of a jackass? Go figure." Monokuma muttered.

"Okay, now you're just spouting nonsense." Kenji said.

"Jeff can fuck off." Naoki added, adjusting his baseball cap. "What does any of this have to do with what Shiro saw?

"I was going to spout off the whole 'there's an extra student you don't know about!' twist… But that was just Naoki. And then I was going to go with the 'one of the students ISN'T A STUDENT!' twist but you know that's just Airi. So I came to explain a different thing." Monokuma began. "Every single student you've met, are the only living people in this building. I'm indeed a machine, and ONE of the students is piloting it! Shiro caught wind of this little theory, so watch out who you talk to, boys n girls!"

"What…?" Kenji asked.

"Just letting you know there's not some 30 year old web developer wanting to play God by hosting a killing game, or some kind of serial killer with little to no backstory, like Jeff." Monokuma said.

"I thought you liked Jeff?" Naoki asked.

"You talked me into hating Jeff, Naoki! Go you! You ruin everything with your stupid... Birdy baseball cap!" Monokuma complained.

"How did you become more annoying? Did I miss some kind of annoying firmware update that made you more annoying?" Kenji asked. "Can you get to the friggin' point?"

"It's the Chiba Marines… You jerk. I love that team." Naoki said under his breath.

"Not the time, Naoki! This isn't baseball!" Kenji snapped. "Sorry. Still kinda heated."

"I'm being controlled by one of the students in the school! There may be no motive, but watch your back, Kenji. Ya never know who's gonna hear it!" Monokuma warned.

"Could be Setsuki, could be Yukij-eh couldn't be Yukiji, he's too sleepy to run a bear 24/7. And ya still don't know who Airi works for!" he said. "Oooh~ Maybe it's Akira~ You ever think of that? Isn't she the center of most class trials? Maybe she's using this whole thing to stroke her ego and make herself feel special~?" Monokuma taunted.

"Get out." Kenji said. Monokuma cackling at him.

"Haaaah? What's with you, Kenji? I thought you'd be thinking that too. Akira's the one who got your friends killed, right? She probably set up your girlfriend to die, right? And she probably kept you far from Shiro long enough for one of your friends to snap and try killing everyone. Maybe she's been planning this while trying to play good cop, but she was really bad cop! Puhuhuhu~" Monokuma said, Kenji reaching for the nearest thing to throw at the bear.

"I said get out!" Kenji shouted, grabbing a crowbar and chucking it, Monokuma doing another style dodge to avoid the crowbar.

"Sashay! Style Dodge! Ha ha! Now that's the Kenji I like! Got a fire in your belly!" Monokuma said enthusiastically. "Now take that fire and do somethin' with it!" Monokuma said, dipping out of the room.

"Fuck it, I've had it with the slapstick. I'm ignoring him." Haru said, clenching his fist as he reached down to pop his dog onto his shoulder. "Kenji, I might not be a smart dude, but I have your back if Shiro turns sour on us! I'm pretty damn sure Naoki has our back too, since he seems like a pretty cool guy, and we've been friends before when we had our memories!" Haru said, looking to Naoki.

"Yeah… If Shiro's idea gets us out of here, cool I guess. But if he's going to be a dick, I think the three of us can stop him from killing anyone." Naoki said in agreement. "We gotta play with our cards to our chest. Stay neutral to Shiro and just watch him to see if we can figure out what his plan is before he completes it. If his plan is to help us, then we'll help too." Naoki offered, taking off his hat and trying to fix his hair.

"And if he tries to pull a fast one, we chain him to a support beam and leave him in the school!" Haru added.

"...Thanks guys. I guess I've just been.. Too pissed off to think things over. It might be better to just wait and treat things like normal for now. At least as normal as having Monokuma badgering me can be." Kenji said.

"Even if he said one student might be Monokuma?" Naoki asked.

"We'll deal with that when we have a better idea of who that could be. If we go around accusing people I'll just sound like an asshole again." Kenji said, looking for a broom. "I'd better clean up all this glass…"

Kenji soon found brooms, handing some to Haru and Naoki while Kiko carried the dustpan. The three soon got the floor sweeped up, leaving Kenji's lab and walking around the halls. "So, Naoki, anywhere you wanna go? Probably a lot's changed when you got locked up in there, right?" Kenji asked, Naoki grabbing the the brim of his hat as he thought.

"Well, it'd be nice to see the labs again. Most of them have stuff to do in them, anyway." Naoki said. Kenji nodded and thought about which lab to take him to.

"Hrm… how about Setsuki's?" Kenji offered, Naoki smiling and giving a thumbs up.

"I'd join, but Kiko looks like she's needing a nap." Haru said Kiko letting out a prolonged yawn. "I'll see you guys in a bit."

"Seeya, Haru." Kenji said as he and Naoki headed for the second floor. They made it to Setsuki's lab, Kenji knocking on the door. "Hey, Setsuki! You in?" he asked, hearing the sound of wheels rolling against the floor. Within seconds, Setsuki opened the door.

"Keeeeennnn!" she exclaimed. "You… you're not still angry, are ya?" Setsuki asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

"Nah, I've cooled down. Naoki wanted to check out the labs and I thought it'd be fun to hang and do a bit of skating." Kenji said, Setsuki cheering pumping her fist in the air.

"Aww, yeah! Come on in, grab a helmet!" Setsuki said, rolling off on a pair of lime green rollerskates with bright purple lights glowing underneath. The boys each grabbed helmets as Setsuki lead them toward the boards.

Suddenly, Akira slid in front of the two of them, face first on the ground, despite having a helmet. Coming down crashing after her was a skateboard she was riding as she crashed off a halfpipe. Naoki and Kenji took a step back, startled by the sudden crashing.

"Setsuki… Why does this have to be so damn hard?" Akira whined, checking her elbows to see if she skinned them.

"Akira… You're… skateboarding?" Kenji asked, Setsuki leaning down to grab Akira and haul her back onto her feet.

"Trying to skateboard." Setsuki quipped, Akira puffing her cheeks in frustration. "Jury's out on if she's successful yet." she said with a little giggle. Akira dusted herself off, before adjusting her tie.

"You all keep saying I need a hobby, so I took up Setsuki's. I haven't landed a single trick yet." Akira complained, pouting childishly as Setsuki smiled, bumping her side with her elbow.

"You act like you can nail hardflips n' feeble grinds as fast as you can drink coffee. Gurl, I've been doing this shit for years and I still crash about 50% of the time." Setsuki continued to tease.

"Hard flip?" Naoki asked, as Setsuki ran over, grabbing the board Akira fell on and spinning it in her hand to reveal the 'Dog Police' deck she had on the underside.

"Wanna see one, Naoki? I'll totally do one for ya!" Setsuki announced, slinging the board over the back of her head as she started to scan around the room.

"Cool, I guess. I'll watch. Is a hardflip… hard?" Naoki asked, scratching the back of his head. Setsuki chuckled again, Kenji starting to smile from seeing her being positive again.

"It's more... Medium difficulty. But I'll make it a 'hard' one!" Setsuki said, running over to a nearby wall, and grabbing four folding chairs and tucking them underneath both of her arms. "Alright, Kenji, Naoki, set up these chairs like.. Four in a row. And I'll hardflip over them, okay?" Setsuki requested, the two boys grabbing the folding chairs as they began to set them up. Setsuki kicked off her roller skates, switching back to her boots as the boys unfolded the chairs.

Setting them in the center of the room, pushing a couple of the mini ramps and rails out of the flat part of the room to give her a clearing, the four chairs were sit beside each other as Setsuki ran up to the top of a quarterpipe and sitting on top of it.

"I wish we had a camera, or something. I would love to send in some videos to a few more sponsors." Setsuki said, setting the board on the lip of the ramp, standing up and pressing a sneaker against it to get ready for a drop in.

"You ready, Setsuki!?" Akira asked, walking over to sit on one of the boxes Kenji and Naoki pushed to the back wall of the lab.

"I'm always ready." Setsuki said, leaning on the edge of the ramp as the acrylic wheels began to loudly roll against the wood of the ramp. Her movements were lived in, and natural like she's done this hundreds of times, bending her knees to absorb the shock of rolling down the ramp, and getting ready to leap.

She leapt into the air with a clack of her board hitting the smooth concrete, kicking her board and making it do a flip as she flew over all four chairs. She kicked her feet against the board again right before she landed, hitting the ground with an echoing thud as she nailed the trick on the first try.

"See?! Hardflip nailed!" She said, sliding to a stop and kicking the board back into her arm so she could hold it.

"I guess that was kind of hard." Akira said, scratching the back of her head, when suddenly the door opened to reveal Shiro, his injured hand in his pocket as he looked over at Akira and Setsuki.

"Oh, does Shiro want to skate?" Setsuki asked, Shiro just sighing as he walked up to the group. Kenji clenched his fist, Naoki tucked his hat down over his eyes, Akira just calmly removed her helmet, and Setsuki looked nervous.

"No, I just needed Akira. And… Actually, I could use you too, Setsuki. I want to talk to you about something." Shiro mentioned, his tone was still... fairly stern, but trying to sound friendlier to the group.

"...Why?" Kenji asked, brows furrowed, Shiro glanced at him for a second, before turning back to the person he's had more success with, Akira.

"I need to talk to her about the plan, but we have to use one of the places Airi's scouted to have little or no cameras on us. If you two want to skate here, I'm pretty sure Setsuki would be fine with it." Shiro explained, Setsuki tucking her hands behind her back and looking away.

"Do you want me to come with you, Setsuki?" Kenji asked, concerned at how nervous his friend was. Shiro softly moved a hand between them as he spoke.

"Sorry, Kenji. I need as few people as possible to know parts of this plan. I'm trusting on all of you to do your parts when they come up, and not worry about the parts I need Akira, or Setsuki to do." Shrio explained.

"A-are you sure you really need me f-f-for this? I mean, Akira's p-pretty smart and all and I was getting into m-m-my hype…" Setsuki said, looking away from Shiro.

"Setsuki, you don't have to go with him if you don't want to." Kenji said reassuringly.

"I need Setsuki for this. Each of you have your own individual talents, and I need Setsuki, and possibly even Haru for this." Shiro elaborated.

"Why not Haru, then?" Kenji asked, giving a scrutinizing look to Shiro.

"Haru's agreed to help me already, He was walking Kiko back to his dorm. I need Setsuki, or Monokuma won't be where I need him to be." he said. Setsuki shaking her head.

"L-look, I'm s-sure this is important, b-b-but…" she stammered out, Akira sighing and taking her hand.

"I'll talk to Setsuki. C'mon, we're gonna have a chat in my lab." Akira said, dragging Setsuki off along the hall to the left hall. It was a straight walk to Akira's lab as she brought Setsuki in.

"You're n-not gonna, like, put me in j-jail until I agree to Shiro's p-plan, are ya?" Setsuki asked, shaking slightly. Akira shook her head, looking around her shelves.

"No, I'm going to get you something to help you calm down. Let you figure out your feelings, then we'll go talk to Shiro." Akira explained, finally grabbing a mug. She took a nearby pitcher and poured water into the mug. She went to hand it to Setsuki. "Here, have a drink-" she said, Setsuki letting out a scream and slapping the mug right out of Akira's hand.

"Wh-what did you put in th-that mug?!" Setsuki sputtered out, looking at the broken glass on the ground in a puddle of water.

"What?! I didn't put anything in that! It's just water!" Akira said as Setsuki backed away, heading for the door. Akira tried to stop her.

"Y-you said you were g-gonna give me something! You were trying to p-p-poison me!" Setsuki shouted, shoving Akira back and sending her falling to the ground.

"Y-you're gonna betray me! I knew it! I'm next! Hana was first and I'm next!" Setsuki said with an accusing finger.

"S-Setsuki!? What's wrong!? I'm not doing anything… Why did you shove me?" Akira asked, confused.

"Don't lie to me! DON'T LIE TO ME!" Setsuki screamed out as she started to hyperventilate uncontrollably. "I DON'T WANT TO DIE! You can't poison me! I WON'T ALLOW IT!"

"Setsuki, please…" Akira said, getting back onto her feet as Setsuki threw another glass her way, crashing it against the back wall.

"NO!" Setsuki shouted, cutting her off. "I-I can't open doors! I can't trust my friends, I can't DRINK WATER! Monokuma's in everything! Everything is his plan! Everything's out to kill me, Akira. I don't want you here! Leave! Just LEAVE! Fuck your water!"

"SETSUKI! STOP!" Akira shouted, shoving her against a wall, causing Setsuki to freeze like a startled deer. Akira locked eyes with her as she felt tears stinging her eyes.

"I… I can't do anything, Akira. All I'm good for in this is dying… I'm a statistic. Someone's going to kill me, no matter how hard I try. I'm not… I'm n-not good enough for this, Akira. A-all I do is see everyone die… How the fuck did I make it through f-four class trials when I don't do anything? I just.. I just thought of s-stupid shit, because I thought it was still a game. But… Hana's dead, dude… All the people I thought were too kind to die and fucking Hana died. And I was u-useless. Again." Setsuki said, wiping her tears on her sleeve. "I'm stupid enough to die drinking a glass of water… Hana didn't deserve that. No one else deserved that but me, the fuckin' idiot of the g-group." Setsuki said, clenching her teeth and gripping the side of her own head.

"Setsuki…" Akira said, taken aback briefly. "You really think that…?"

"I'm so useless, Akira… I'm sorry I lived instead of someone fuckin' useful, like Emi, or M-Miho… I just make everything harder for you guys. But… I don't want to die, I d-don't know what I'm supposed to do besides die! I can't kill anyone, and I'm not smart enough for a plan, so all I can do is d-die, and when that happens, I'll have no control over it."

"Then why are you against Shiro's plan?" Akira asked.

"Because I'll fuck it up, and Sh-Shiro will kill me for it. Or Monokuma will kill me for it. Or Shiro will k-kill someone else. Or K-Kenji will kill Shiro if he thinks this plan will go sour. Anything involving me will turn to crap. I-I can't do this, Akira…" Setsuki said, head dropping.

"Setsuki… You don't have to be good at everything to justify existing… We all have things we're supposed to be good with… and things we fail with. I'm not telling you to not use your head and think your hardest… but.. Just being here, you support us in your own way?"

"What, getting things wrong so someone can correct me?"

"No, you… you make us happy. You're usually really chill, or have a good joke, or come up with something fun, or silly to do. It's not good in an investigation, but… It keeps us from being constantly in this mire of sadness all the time. It's kept us alive for longer, despite the tragedies we've been going through. Even Kenji is coming back around. And who did he come to?" Akira asked.

"...M-me?" Setsuki asked.

"Damn straight! You broke through Kenji's wall of 'fuck Shiro' and actually got him to do something again. Even if it is something stupid and dangerous like trying to skate. It's something that gave him hope. And who else here is equipped to do that? Haru broke down during the last trial, and I was occupied with Shiro."

"Uhm…" Setsuki said, slowly lifting her head.

"Is Airi funny? I like her, but I don't think she's funny at all." Akira continued. "I think the day she cracks me up, the moon will crash into the earth. And Shiro's been a lot better than before, but he's as funny as burnt toast. You helped Yukiji when he was in despair of Wakako's death."

"I still don't think I'm helping you guys…" Setsuki said, doubt in her voice.

"Did you notice that Kenji only got antagonistic of Shiro the moment he felt concern from you? His biggest strength, and maybe his biggest weakness is him being protective of others. You're our ballast, the moment he felt you starting to waver, he flew in to protect you. That's because your mood sets the mood for the rest of us, so your kindness, and your levity are constantly helping us get over all this grief we're feeling." Akira said, putting her hands on Setsuki's shoulders and pulling her in for a hug.

"You're fine, Setsuki. There's a reason everyone's your friend. And right now we need you more than ever..." Akira said, Setsuki wrapping her arms around the Ultimate Police Cadet.

"Th-thank you, Akira…" Setsuki said, voice cracking slightly.

"Just… Let yourself breathe, Setsuki. You're winding yourself thin with fear. Just.. trust in me, and I'll trust in you." Akira said, letting Setsuki hold onto her for a bit longer. "And drink some water, dammit. You'll get sick if you don't."

"O-okay…" Setsuki said, holding on for what felt like ten minutes before finally letting go. "So, guess we gotta go meet up with Shiro."

"I won't let him do anything. If my trust in him fails, I want it to be my fault. Not Kenji's, not yours… This will be my responsibility. As a cop, as a student, and as your friend." Akira said, Setsuki smiling. "Now, let's get going. We kind of left Kenji and Shiro in the same room together."

"Lead the way, KiKi." Setsuki said, Akira smiling back and heading out of the lab.