There was something humilifying about returning home after being sorely defeated, and yet, this was a feeling that Kokichi knew all too well. Even a skilled hunter like himself had been beaten one too many times to count, and those days and nights witnessed him escaping to his little base—bloody, bruised, but thankful for just being alive. Of course, none of those losses stung as much as the one he gained from encountering Shuuichi, but that didn't matter! Just like any other time he lost, Kokichi had to regroup at his base and come up with a new plan.
Only this time, he didn't have his phone with him. He had backups, of course, but he liked the case on his old phone. Yet it remained in enemy hands, and he didn't have time to go back and search for it.
So when Kokichi crashed through the doors of his main headquarters (after bypassing several security measures, one of which included answering twenty general knowledge questions), he breathed at last. His members greeted him, as always, although they were beside themselves in how their leader had temporarily disappeared without contacting anyone. His higher-ups didn't like the fact that he wasn't anywhere to be found, either (Amaya in particular acted too motherly over the fact, while Rio gave him the sternest look he'd received in his life), but they couldn't defy him so easily.
He waved all of them off, and secluded himself to his private room for the time being. It was a large, spacious, modern room with white-and-black accents that were occasionally accompanied by bold splashes of color, too. It had twice the amount of security checkpoints than the headquarters itself had, but Kokichi was lazy and bypassed all of them using his own hacking technique.
Once he got inside, he opened one of the many drawers, and pulled out a back-up phone from its brand new case. He booted it up, and immediately linked all of his old information to it, using a series of passwords and nonsense that nobody else but him could decipher. Of course, his main password was a long string of numbers and letters in a code that only he could ever hope to know, as well, and so his fingers tapped away at the screen using muscle memory more than anything else.
Of all the texts, calls, and e-mails he received, Kokichi only seemed to care about those sent from a particular recipient. As expected, his contact names, notes, and other valuable information were also coded to some extent, and those that weren't coded were password protected for maximum security, instead. Shuuichi had his old phone, but he was probably bewildered by how many notifications had been sent by UNKNOWN. Kokichi laughed at his own little joke.
He laughed because he also pitied his own members. He only let them have the basic key to some of his indecipherable systems, and even then he would never divulge the complete depths of the precious information to anyone. Mizuki asked for the detailed password list many times over, just to be shot down many more times over. Should Kokichi unexpectedly die, then the rest of the members would really be at a loss if they tried to go through his files for anything valuable.
But if they couldn't even unlock his phone, laptop, or access his room, to begin with, then what was there to worry about?
"Jeez, I'm gone for less than a day and everyone's already raving about me...sucks to be so popular," Kokichi lamented, dramatically. He flopped across the bed, and started scrolling through a particular conversation on his phone.
R10A03M30I01: hey kokichi! wyd? having fun?
R10A03M30I01: do you wanna hang out or smthn im so bored like fr
R10A03M30I01: i dont have work for the next few days and my gf has finals so shes busy
K06O24M42A60: wow rantaro, can you have some integrity for once? or self-preservation? i was in the middle of talking with my drug dealer before you rudely interrupted! now i have no chance of getting a discount ( ̄ヘ ̄)
K06O24M42A60: neeheehee...of course that was a lie! but why would i want to hang out with you as a second choice?
R10A03M30I01: i didnt mean it like that! i just finally have free time so i wanna hang out with you if i can! come on baby you could never be my second choice
K06O24M42A60: awwww you care about me after all?
R10A03M30I01: yes, obviously! are you free or not
K06O24M42A60: def free (≧◡≦) let's meet up at the usual place
He liked this friend the most. He was playful enough to match Kokichi's cheer, but serious enough to whine and complain where it counted. And them being super chill was another plus, because Kokichi already dealt with too many solemn people on a daily basis. Even though one of his many rules for the members of DICE included to smile every now and then, the hunters in his ranks were often pressed for joy, faces drawn into ugly sneers.
Then again, hunting down monsters and spilling unfathomable amounts of blood was no joyous task. But Kokichi always tried to maintain a cheery disposition, so the other members were obligated to do the same!
Groaning all the while, Kokichi forced himself to get out of bed, and get dressed for today's hangout. There were plenty of other things he should do, instead, like checking the member logs, helping with weapon upkeep, reviewing the map which had all pinpointed locations of nearby vampires, or anything else, really. Kokichi could have done any number of those things, but instead he put on the usual DICE outfit—slipping in some thin knives into the folds of his sleeves—and one strapped underneath his clothes against his inner thigh. Although he was going to meet a trusted friend, there was no telling when a vampire would strike them, or other unsuspecting civilians.
While Kokichi was no hero, the last thing he'd do was stand idle in the presence of those blood suckers.
Of course, now that he knew the identity of the person who killed his parents, he had a face to match up with the words "blood suckers," and he couldn't help but think of Shuuichi Saihara. His eyes were the right color, the only shade of gold that Kokichi encountered in all his years of slaying. Yet the rest of him was unexpected, such as how close in age Saihara was to him, and how airy and breathy his voice was, too. It was almost as if he had no desire to actually harm anyone at all, but Kokichi knew better.
What would have happened if he had stayed at the detective agency? Part of him almost regrets leaving, if only because his curiosity wouldn't have been satisfied otherwise.
Still, Kokichi decided it was better this way. He'd rather choose his own fate than give it up for someone else to decide. Or leave the possibility up to chance. Or better yet, up to his enemies.
He double-checked to make sure that he had everything, then left his domain in a heartbeat, ignoring anyone waiting outside for him, no matter what they wanted.
He stepped out into the fray.
.
.
"Yo, Cockichi. Get a load of this!" One named Miu Iruma called out to him. She was a beauty, alright: long, strawberry blonde hair tousled into messy strands, bright baby blue eyes that put the summer sky to shame, and a curvy body that only supermodels and instagram stars could hope to compare. It was all accentuated by the usual DICE uniform, only she made a point of wearing bright pink in place of black, with sparkling blue buttons instead of the mismatched ones.
Kokichi thought back to the time where they first met. It was early into his hunting days, and there was a girl his age, cowering in an alleyway while some vampire encroached her. They had been on Kokichi's list for a while, but they were surprisingly fast so he could never catch up to them when it counted. But on that fateful night, Miu's eyes glittered in the dark with fear, and her trembling body was the perfect bait to lure out the speedy menace.
Kokichi stabbed the vampire from behind with a silver dagger. Miu's eyes widened even further, but ultimately she was unharmed as the vampire's blood splattered all over her.
The rest was history. Kokichi only wished that she grew up to be as modest as she was back then. Sigh. "Miu, what is it this time?" His voice was coated with disinterest and disappointment. Not that she displeased him in any way, but because he knew that by pretending to be so, her attitude would change completely.
The impish smile on her face fell down, and her body naturally inclined inward, afraid of his sour mood and supposed wrath. "I-I just wanted to show you the new upgrades...y-you don't have to be so cruel…"
He laughed in her face as her duality never ceased to amaze him. "Just joking! You don't usually bother me unless it's important, so I'll hear what you have to say."
"Fucking idiot," she snapped, her confidence returning to her at once. "Don't waste my time and I won't waste yours. Hurry up!"
She strode away, presumably towards her lab. DICE was a huge facility, but Miu stood out in the sense that she had one of the labs all to herself. No one was allowed to come in except for her, Kokichi, and her lovely assistant. Otherwise, it was a secluded paradise filled with everything that an inventor or engineer could possibly want. From the sleek linoleum work tables, to the glass shelves filled with multitudes of materials, all the way to the back rooms which were stocked with various chemicals and equipment. The doors were industrial, too—automatic vaults that only opened when the proper code and identification was given. As they stood before the white slates, a scanner glossed over them with red light, and a small ding resonated as the doors began to part.
"Yo, Keebs!" Miu shouted out. "Show him the new stuff!"
"Got it!" The one nicknamed "Keebs" (real name: Kiibo Idabashi) called out, although visually, he wasn't anywhere to be found. Kokichi was rather fond of Miu's assistant, too, mostly because he was so much fun to tease.
Idabashi was a rather recent recruit, only joining DICE since the past four years or so. Kokichi met him at the college he used to go to (for a short time, only to snatch a quick degree in programming in order to fulfill a certain goal), and the two of them were in each other's classes often enough. They were lab partners in physics as well as lecture buddies for their calculus classes. It was there Kokichi learned that Kiibo was majoring in Robotics Engineering, and his dream was always to help create robots that would assist in healthcare—little machines that could take care of the elderly, disabled, or any other person that needed its services. It was a noble goal inspired by his own father, who was a civil engineer before him, but always managed to stay interested in robotic affairs, anyway.
So when Kiibo's father, Dr. Idabashi, was found murdered in cold blood by a vampire, Kokichi found it to be his obligation in order to avenge his new friend's father. Kiibo learned about Kokichi's true nature and occupation in this way, and after the two of them graduated from university (and received degrees in their respective fields), Kiibo went back to DICE Headquarters with Kokichi, entirely in his debt, and dedicated to the cause of stopping the blood-sucking fiends from killing any more people.
From destroying any more families.
Kokichi remembered all of this as he saw Kiibo, wearing a white lab coat over a standard DICE uniform (the difference being that his buttons were all black, and he had green accents instead of black ones on his membership bandanna, and "friendship bracelets" that Kokichi had given him all those years ago), emerging from one of the back rooms with a smile on his face.
He was holding a gun.
Kokichi nearly laughed. "What'cha got there, Kiibaby?"
"A smoothie," he jokingly answered. "Ah, but seriously, Kokichi, this is no time for jokes! Miu and I think we've found a way to make the silver bullets work better."
While Kokichi was clearly a fan of knives, he knew that guns were realistically better, faster, and deadlier weapons of choice when it came to dealing with vampires. But an incident with an arms dealer in the past almost got DICE put on the radar, so out of fear of being discovered by prying eyes, Kokichi limited the usage of guns, which greatly hindered the attack power of his organization.
Kiibo and Miu's most recent project—one that had been ongoing for over a year now—was to make their own form of ammunitions, in hopes that they could bypass normal security, and still maintain the silver-metal nature, that which was poisonous to vampires as a whole.
The result was something that looked like a gun, but Kokichi knew his tech team better than that. He knew that it was more than a simple revolver, but he didn't know how it was different just yet.
Miu looked all the more excited to explain. "From first glance, it just looks like a normal revolver. The sleek black-and-white is a design choice made from yours truly."
"Okay…?" Kokichi hummed. "And what about it?"
"The problem with guns is that their shape stands out, even when you conceal them," Kiibo began to explain. He offered the revolver to Kokichi, and Kokichi looked it over a few times before handing it back to him. "We'd get in trouble with the police and the government if we were seen just holding guns for no reason."
"Yeah, which is why we went old-fashioned with the knives and stuff," Kokichi reminded him. "Although I was secretly hoping you'd make me shoes that were also guns, like in Bayo—"
"We already told you that's impossible," Miu cut in. "Not 'cause it wouldn't be sexy, since it would, but because it's too dangerous for even our members to handle. They lift their leg to fire and the next thing you know, they're blowin' their fucking brains out!" She sighed tiredly, and leaned against one of the white counters for support.
Kokichi kept notice of the clutter on there, as well as half eaten food that was abandoned midway through.
They were really some of the most hardworking people he knew.
If only he could live up to their diligence, too.
"But what if we were to change the shape of the gun," Kiibo offered with a smile. "What if the gun was compact, could fold in on itself, and be used at a moment's notice?"
"Then we'd be in business!" Kokichi cheered, rocking back-and-forth on his heels. "Then we could go on vacation, for real."
"So by using the same methods I've used to minimize the amount of space in robots, I've applied it here!" Kiibo showed a small switch in the side of the gun's handle. Kokichi watched him as he pressed it eagerly.
At once, the gun transformed. The bullet chamber dislodged itself, spun around—revealing the loaded bullets for all the world to see—and the cylinder folded in, clinking as the metal went against itself in staggered movements. Then the cylinder was obscured in view by the handle, as the revolver essentially bent in half, and then bent again in quarters, until there was nothing left of the gun except for a small rectangular shape, with a protruding outer roundness that could only be the cylinder of the gun.
But if it was turned around, it could easily look like a cellphone, or a calculator, or a tablet, or anything small and rectangular enough to fit in a pocket. Better yet, it could be hung around a snappable lanyard, and yanked off and transformed into a gun at a moment's notice.
Miu displayed these traits herself, as she took the new "folded-in" gun, and clicked the same switch as before with a decisive smirk.
The rectangular object folded back out, and in less than twenty seconds (because Kokichi counted for sure), it became a revolver once again.
Kokichi smiled. "Well, well, well! Looks like all the money I dumped into this place is paying off, after all! Still won't do us a drop of good past metal detectors, though."
"Wrong," Kiibo corrected. "Actually, the type of metal we used for it has special properties. That's the part that took the longest—making some sort of material that wouldn't get caught by metal detectors." He scratched as his hair, ruffling the white strands precariously as he did so. "Trade secret, y'see."
"Oh yeah? Put it to the test, then." Kokichi pointed at one of the metal detectors by the door they had just entered through, though its lights were turned off as the machine was not currently in use. He skipped over to it, plugged it in, and watched the way the sensor lights beamed like the headlights of a car. Then he glanced back at Miu and Kiibo with a smug look on his face.
"Let's see it."
"Sure. Keebs, c'mon."
"Okay," he agreed, and walked up to the metal detector. Then, without hesitation, Kiibo passed the gun in front of the sensors.
It was less like holding one's breath, and more like anticipating the airless fear, to begin with. It was diving headfirst into the deep end, unafraid of the chance of dying, unaware of the true depths of the water. Yet when Kiibo swiped their newly designed gun by the sensor's light, he smiled as the alarm didn't go off, and neither did the lights indicating something metallic was nearby.
He even went as far as to do the same demonstration with the gun in "folded-mode" (Name still pending, or so Miu said), but the results were the same.
Kokichi's smartest minds managed to create a portable gun, as well as a gun that wouldn't be detected by commercial and industrial metal detectors alike. And the best part is its appearance, which wasn't entirely intuitive, so if in combat with a vampire, Kokichi could use his favored knives as the primary means of elimination—but if in a pinch, the gun would be there, and he'd use it to blow the tops of their heads off in the same fluid motion.
"I'll be the guinea pig," he gleefully offered. "It's loaded, yeah?"
"Yup. Only the finest silver bullets in this baby." Miu giggled salaciously as she stroked the gun's cylinder, fingers trailing over the bullet chamber with too much fondness. "We worked our asses off, y'know! A little thank you is in order."
"Thanks so much, Miu and Kiibaby! It's like your purpose on Earth has finally been fulfilled!" Kokichi lied as he took the gun from her, minimized its size, and placed it in his back pocket as if it were his phone.
He ignored the stinging frustration of one of his old phones being held in enemy hands. It wasn't as if they could decipher the password by any means, but Shuuichi having some of Kokichi's possessions in his custody wasn't an idea he'd like to entertain.
Nor was it a reality he wanted to deal with.
Kokichi merely sighed. "I'm going out to meet with someone now. Don't let anyone else bother you, and don't start handing these out yet. I have to see if they're good, after all!"
The unsaid meaning of I can't trust all of the members yet was clear enough. Kiibo and Miu simply nodded.
He was their leader, after all. And although they bantered like children or good friends (which, to some extent, was true), there was an unspeakable divide between them. There was an air of power around Kokichi that neither Miu or Kiibo could ever hope to have, let alone imitate. And although DICE was Kokichi's organization—one that he brought up from the ground itself—they both knew that it was always possible that some of the members and higher-ups were displeased with Kokichi, and secretly sought out his destruction.
So long as that threat remained, Kokichi couldn't possibly arm all of his members with guns.
"Here's to hoping you don't need to use it yet," Miu called out to him as he left. "We haven't tested it live!"
"Why do you think I'm going out?" Kokichi mockingly sang over his shoulder. "Someone's gotta do the hard lifting around here!"
.
.
"I hate how into 'rock-paper-scissors' you are," Rantaro begrudgingly admitted. The disappointment on his face and in his eyes were as clear as the day. "Now I have to pay for lunch, huh?"
"Yup yup!" Kokichi chirped. "As per the rules of our game. Whoever loses has to pay. That's just how the world works, Rantaro."
"You're lucky I got paid recently," Rantaro muttered. "C'mon, let's go grab some ramen."
"Okay."
The two of them met up at the "usual" meeting place, which was nothing more than in front of the Daiso store in Rantaro's neighborhood. He lived in the suburbs just outside of the city line, but it was still crowded and lively as if it were in the center of the city, instead. The two of them melted into the large crowd as they headed for one of their favorite places to eat.
Shiki's Ramen Place: a little hole-in-the-wall establishment that served the best ramen Kokichi ever ate in his life. Most people didn't know about it, and those that did were longtime customers that became regulars in no time. Between the charming servers and the tasty ramen, there was nothing that Shiki's was incapable of.
It also helped that the owner was one of Rantaro's sisters, but that was beside the point.
She smiled at the two of them as they entered the threshold. "Well, if isn't Ran-Ran and Ko! What can I do ya for?"
"Shiki," Kokichi greeted her. He sat at one of the open seats at the bar, and Rantaro followed suit. "Oh, y'know, the usual~"
"Maybe I'll try the tonkotsu this time," Rantaro said. Neither of them bothered looking at the menus as they passed it back to her. "Just water to drink, too."
"You're boring," Kokichi groaned. "I'll have some beer. Whatever's cheapest."
"You got it," Shiki said as she put their menus away. "Be right back, boys."
When she disappeared, Kokichi sighed and collapsed into the bar. "Man, I'm tired," he said. "Are you tired, too, Ran-Ran?"
"Don't call me that," he cooly admonished. "And no, I'm pretty energetic myself. You've always been tired lately, though." Rantaro's eyes were beautiful, green, and completely worried as he gave Kokichi a once-over, making him feel completely insecure with a single gesture. "Don't push yourself too hard."
"Too late for that," Kokichi muttered. "But, hey, what if I work so hard that I die? Will you promise to throw a funeral for me?"
Rantaro's brows quirked up. "You never struck me as the funeral type."
"Haha, that's a lie! I'd rather be buried at sea. Or better yet, a natural burial." Kokichi played with some wooden chopsticks out of boredom, eyes trained on the splintered division between the two. "I'd hate to be stuck in a box forever."
"You wouldn't be stuck in the box, though," Rantaro pointed out. "Your body would."
"So you're saying that once we die, we leave our bodies and go elsewhere?" Kokichi mused. "More reason why I don't need a classic funeral. I'll get stuck in the box and I'll only be free once someone robs my grave."
"I don't know what happens to us when we die," Rantaro admitted. "But there's one thing I'm sure about: some people are going one place, while others are going another. I guess where you go depends on you, doesn't it?"
Shiki returned with the drinks and winked at Kokichi, her eyes just as stunning and long-lashed as her brother's. "I topped you off with a little of the good stuff, okay? Don't drink it all in one place!" He returned the favor by winking back, and she giggled loudly before disappearing into the kitchen.
When she disappeared, Rantaro carefully traced the rim of the glass with his thumb, and continued to speak in a hushed voice. "Where do you think you'll go, Kokichi?"
"Based on my actions in this life?" He laughed. "To be honest, I don't know. Wherever I go, I hope I get to see you, Rantaro. You always make things more interesting."
Rantaro smiled, but his expression was obscured by the steam of a fresh bowl of ramen placed before, eyes clouded over with hunger and cunning.
Yet, the smile bled into Rantaro's voice, and it was evident as he spoke.
"That's the thing, Kokichi," he hummed. "I'm not planning on dying."
.
.
Kokichi sat on the rooftop of an abandoned building. He was grateful to things like that, because it meant he could be indiscriminately violent, and hardly anyone would notice. He chased countless vampires alike on these heights, throwing knives, wires, dust—anything he could if it meant hurting them and bringing them one step closer to death. While some vampires evaded him the first time, he always got back to them the second time around.
Would Shuuichi be the same? Or would he die so easily to silver bullets, the next time that Kokichi encountered him? Part of him would be so glad, so grateful to put an end to his parents' killer once and for all. That part of him jumped for joy at the revelation his best scientists made, the creation of a stealthy gun that could hide beneath the facade of everyday wear. That part of him relished in what would be bloody, obstinate, obtrusive death.
The other part of him was worried. Shuuichi was no ordinary vampire, because he lacked the killing intent, and even decided to save Kokichi, when the obvious choice would be to let a vampire hunter fall to their death. Yet, Kokichi was alive, and he lost some of his possessions to prove it. For as long as he knew them, Kokichi never met a merciful vampire. They were all murderous, violent, bloodthirsty fiends that didn't care if they were ruining the lives of adults or children alike. They never showed remorse for any of their actions, and so Kokichi acted in turn.
But Saihara was different, as much as it pained him to admit. Although their fight on the rooftops was short-lived and shaky in his mind, Kokichi understood that Shuuichi had every opportunity to kill or injure him, but he never did so. He never did what would have been so obvious to every other vampire on the planet. And for what reason?
It couldn't have been due to their bond, because Kokichi hated the ever-loving shit out of him, and Shuuichi claimed to have never known Kokichi beforehand. They had no stable two-way relationship, and so there was no reason for prior relationships to make the outcome of their fight the way it was.
Could it be? Could Shuuichi be that kind and selfless of a person, to let his enemy live, and even thrive after an event that should have killed him, instead? Was he actually the soft, sweet, nerdy person he seemed on the outside? Was there a real reason for Maki Roll having defended him at the party earlier that week, because he truly wasn't a threat?
Whatever the reasons were, Kokichi knew that his feelings didn't matter. Thoughts like madness escaped his head, thoughts which tried to convince him that, for some odd reason, part of him actually didn't want to kill Shuuichi. Those intrusive moments were silenced by the sheer facts, however.
Fact 1: The vampire that killed—or at least, taken part in killing—Kokichi's parents had golden eyes. They were such a distinct color that Kokichi never forgot them, and it was the only clue he had going for him all these years.
Fact 2: Shuuichi Saihara is a vampire with golden eyes. Not to claim that causation and correlation are the same thing, or something like that, but in all his years of hunting, Kokichi never found someone with the color eyes he was looking for. Yet, all of a sudden, Shuuichi emerges, and the color is too pronounced and too terrible (and lovely) to be mistaken for something else.
Fact 3: Hunters and vampires are destined to hate each other. Kokichi brought up this concentrated group of anti-vampire humans together, and they all hated vampires, so it made sense that the vampires hated them, too.
Finally, fact 4: Shuuichi Saihara, a vampire, had multiple chances to kill Kokichi Ouma, a vampire slayer, yet decided not to.
Then the rest of the facts preceding fact 4 did little to argue for or against it, but one thing was certain: Kokichi Ouma was destined to avenge his parents, one way or another. Despite all the inner turmoil he had on the fact, he would never let the kindness that is Shuuichi Saihara get in the way of that.
And he knew that for a fact.
