Chapter Text
"Hey, Sou." A knock at Sou's bedroom door startled him and Kanna, who had just woken up. It was the morning of the second day of the sub game; Sou had brought breakfast in for him and Kanna, wanting to stay away from the others as much as they wanted to stay away from him, but of course the goddamn 'detective' couldn't just leave him alone.
Trying to keep his irritation out of his voice and expression, Sou called out. "Ah- Keiji? What is it?"
"I need to talk to you about Mishima's monitor." At this, Sou and Kanna exchanged confused- no, Kanna's glance was more distressed. Naturally; she was the one to corroborate Sou's alibi last night, so in her mind, still doubting him meant a lack of trust for her. Sou felt himself getting angry.
"His monitor? Am I really still a suspect...?" Can't let that show, though. He's not necessarily expecting Keiji to fully believe he's lost his memories, but for now, he still needs to act as non-threatening as possible.
"No." Keiji replied. "You aren't. This is an apology." Okay, now Sou and Kanna were both confused. Hesitantly, Sou got off the bed, making his way to the door and opening it to see Keiji, hand on his neck and expression neutral.
"...An apology?" Sou repeated back, still shocked, and Keiji nodded.
"Yeah. I know you didn't break that monitor," 'that monitor', "but when accusing you, I phrased it as the truth, rather than just a possibility." 'Doesn't that imply you know who did it, since you had no other way of knowing it wasn't me at that time?'
Sou waits for Keiji to finish, then, realising he isn't going to actually say sorry, awkwardly coughs into his fist. "Ah, well, that's understandable. Even though I don't remember, it sounds like I did some pretty horrible things, so... anyway, if that's all, then-" He moved to close the door, but Keiji held it open.
"Actually, that's another reason I'm here. You've only been able to do attractions with Kanna, right?"
Sou bit his lip, nodding.
"And Kanna's done attractions with other people," Keiji turned his head to look past Sou, "right, Kanna?"
Kanna nodded, before gasping. "Oh- oh no, if... if nobody else does attractions with him, then-!"
"He won't have enough Clear Chips to survive." He looked back at Sou, smiling in a way Sou hated. "No point in anyone dying now, so I'll help out a bit."
'You just want an easy pick next time we need to vote someone to die', but Sou forced himself to smile back. "Wow, you'd really do that for me? Thank you!"
Keiji nodded. "Let's go, then."
'...Wait, now?' With no time for protest, Keiji grabbed Sou's hand and dragged him along with a quick goodbye to Kanna, heading towards the attractions.
"Any preferences?" Keiji asked as he briskly walked ahead, Sou struggling to keep up.
"Well, I'm not very good at- at arm wrestling, so, maybe-"
"Sorry, but I've already done that. If it's something you're bad at, then how about Memory Dance?" Keiji smirked back at him, and Sou was about to protest, saying his memory was great, actually, before realising 'Oh yeah, I'm faking amnesia', and he bit his lip to suppress a laugh before frowning.
"Tha-that's- really mean, Keiji, wasn't this to apologise?"
"You smiled a bit."
"Irrelevant." It was annoying, really, if Keiji was going to try and make him mad this entire time (because that's surely what he was doing), but Sou DID need Clear Chips, and slipping up in front of someone who probably already knew was better than slipping up in front of someone who didn't, so he held back any protest until they reached the Memory Dance room.
"You wanna go first?" Keiji asked, and Sou shook his head.
"No, it'd be best if you could go start to finish. My stamina isn't very good..."
Keiji tilted his head. "You've realised the attractions get harder later on, right? You're not worried about me failing part way through and having to do the tough part yourself?"
Sou shrugged. "Not to be rude, but if you fail the easy bit, there's probably not much hope in you doing the hard bit. And as an active policeman, I'm sure you've got the stamina to do it without breaking a sweat." Keiji looked taken aback for a second, and Sou mentally chastised himself for going too far before Keiji gave a short, loud laugh.
"Can't really argue with that logic! Yeah, you are pretty good at comebacks, huh?" He turned to walk in, giving one more look at Sou over his shoulder. "Sure would like those smarts on my side."
"They are." Sou immediately replied, but Keiji ignored him as he entered the room, Sou following after a second.
He wasn't lying with that - the only people he was against were the kidnappers, which, with Kai and Joe dead, only included Sara out of all the participants. How else was he supposed to interpret those emails? While Keiji was suspicious, it was clear to Sou that he - and many of the others - were simply being manipulated by Sara in order to raise her own survival chances, so, even if he didn't realise it, Sou was absolutely on Keiji's side. He just needed to get Keiji on his.
Sou found Keiji waiting by the machine, reading the rules. "Yeah, seems simple enough." Keiji said. "Doesn't appear to be a time limit, and it's all directional... so stamina probably doesn't even matter." Rubbing the back of his neck, he gave a short chuckle. "Guess that's my own fault for making us decide before reading the rules. Oh well." He turned to Sou. "Ready to start?"
Sou nodded. "I'm not going first anyway, so... whenever you're ready."
Keiji nodded back. "Great. Start up the machine, then." Sou raised an eyebrow. "I'm bad with machines."
Sou looked at the machine, then back at Keiji, expression even more incredulous .
"Look, I'm not trying to trick you into going first. I'm pretty sure whoever goes first is the one that gets on that stage over there, not whoever starts it up."
'That's not why this is weird...' Sou thought, but didn't protest as he walked over and pressed the big green button labelled 'Start'. The moment he did, the room darkened, and two spotlights illuminated the stage as music started up and the first doll made it's way up.
'That looks fucking gross' Sou thought at the same time Keiji said "Wish me luck." and made his way up too, Sou sitting on the floor in front.
The first two dolls were over fairly easily, with only one mess up ('...Uh, Keiji, it was right-left, not left-right...' '...Ah. Whoops.'), but the third was faster, with more moves than the others, so even with Sou's help, Keiji ended up failing. At the start, Keiji simply pointed in the directions he had to, but started properly dancing as he got more into it; Sou would've found it funny if not for the fact that his 'Up' move was stretching his arms above his head, and his 'Body' move was crossing his arms over his body so his hands rested at his waist. It was distracting, and therefore harder for Sou to remember the moves for him.
(Keiji's 'Down' move, however, was crouching down like he was inspecting the floor at a crime scene, which was pretty dorky)
So now it was Sou's turn. Which was fine, he did actually have a great memory, but since Keiji started properly dancing, he... kind of wanted to do that too. Meaning he needed to come up with some moves.
Luckily, the doll repeated the dance Keiji had just failed at, making it easier to remember. 'Okay, so...' Sou moved as he thought, trying to go as fast as he could, 'stick leg out to the right... drag it across the floor in front to left? Yeah, then... back round the other way to right again... crouch down...' Now it was 'Up'; from his crouched down position, Sou jumped in the air, briefly tucking his legs in...
...but when he went to land, thinking about what to do for 'Body', he lost his footing, falling onto the stage, and he heard a snort from Keiji as he groaned in mild pain.
Pouting, he lifted his head to glare at Keiji, who seemed to have no shame in laughing at him, though to his credit he did start looking more apologetic as he was finishing.
"Ah- haha, sorry, that's- that's not really funny, it, uh," he tilted his head to a nearby screen, "it registered as 'Down' instead of 'Body', so we're kind of screwed if you mess up two more times. No pressure."
'Fuck' Groaning, he lay his head back on the floor, and heard footsteps approaching him before Keiji put a hand in his hair to make him look up again.
"You need help getting up? Doesn't seem to be a problem with me being on stage with you, so I can help with the dancing too, probably." He stood up, reaching a hand down to Sou, who blinked up at him.
'He wants to help me? Why?'
'No he doesn't, he just doesn't want to die'
'Oh, right' Again, though, he smiled at him regardless, taking his hand. "Thank you, Keiji. It would be good if you could help me with the dancing..." wait, no it wouldn't. Why did he say that?
Can't take it back now, though. Keiji nodded at him, smiling, before standing behind him on the stage. "I'll be right here."
'Great' "Great! Thanks!" Okay, if Keiji couldn't tell how painfully fake that was, Sou would have to call bullshit on him having ever been a detective. Judging by the smug look on his face, he didn't have to worry about that.
Again, the doll repeated the same dance, practically burned into Sou's memory by now, and Sou repeated the same moves up until he crouched down. 'Jumping again would probably be a bad idea'
'>Implying it was a good idea the first time'
'Shut up' Before he could decide what to do instead, he felt hands on his waist, and barely had any time to register them before he was tossed in the air.
"Wh-ah!" Not too high, or for very long, but he felt his pulse speed up, and his heart refused to calm down when Keiji caught him after, the two actions registering as 'Up' and 'Body'. Turning his head, he saw Keiji still grinning at him, looking like he was laughing on the inside, and Sou...
...well, he doesn't think he's seen Keiji as happy as he has been since they entered the attraction. He'd find it nice, maybe sweet, maybe cute, if he could ignore his mind screaming otherwise. As it was, though, he simply looked away, hiding his reddening face and wriggling out of Keiji's grasp to finish the dance as Keiji backed up again.
Thankfully, it was the last one, and once completed, the doll fell to the floor, the music stopped, and the lights came back on. When Sou turned around again, he saw Keiji collecting the Clear Chips from the machine, expression once again neutral, and Sou frowned as he made his way over.
"Here." Keiji said, holding two out, and Sou took them, trying to brush against his hand as little as possible. Keiji then started to walk towards the door, and Sou called out after him.
"Hey!" Keiji stopped, tilting his head slightly towards him, and Sou gulped. 'Calm down. Why are you even so wound up?' He relaxed his body, and smiled. "Thanks for the help. It's... too nerve-wracking to ask someone other than Kanna, but this was... nice." There. Total honesty. His head screamed at him, impossible to ignore in the silence that followed, about hiding, about manipulating Keiji's feelings, but the man in question simply faced him properly and smiled once more.
"No problem. And hey, you did your own little bit of helping me there, too. I'm not opposed to working together again."
Sou tugged at his scarf. "...I'll think about it." 'You'll think about it? If you're going to say you enjoyed it, just say yes, idiot!'
But Keiji's smile didn't waver. "Sure. I'll be waiting for you to come to me, then." With that, Keiji walked out the room, leaving Sou to think about his feelings by himself.
'...I really need to work on my act more'