Chapter Text
“I don’t know if I want to do another game,” Shuichi said bravely as Kokichi walked into his apartment. That bravery disappeared in a flash though when Kokichi turned to look at him. Voice shaking, he raised his hands up and quickly added, “N-not yet anyway…”
He honestly hadn’t expected Kokichi back that night. While unspoken, a sort of routine had developed with the two of them. Kokichi usually came and visited every other night, giving Shuichi at least a temporary reprieve to recover from whatever happened during Kokichi’s last visit. But it seemed as if this time, Kokichi was eager for more as he was already back, announcing he had a new game in mind.
Well, Shuichi was getting out of this if he could.
Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like Kokichi was going to make it easy. Blinking his purple eyes, Kokichi cocked his head and asked, “What do you mean?”
His voice was so infuriatingly innocent that Shuichi couldn’t tell if the vampire was genuinely confused or just playing dumb.
Deciding to answer anyway, in case Kokichi was indeed being serious, Shuichi bitterly said, “I can’t even look at cereal after the last dare.”
It was true. As soon as Kokichi flew away that night, still in his bat form, Shuichi had dumped the rest of the cereal in the box in the garbage. He remembered this morning, when he picked up Kaede for school, he’d seen her eating a bowl of cereal and had thrown up in his mouth a little.
Hell, just the word ‘cereal’ was enough to make phantom sensations appear in his throat. He wouldn’t be surprised if he could never eat a bowl of cereal again.
It seemed like Kokichi wasn’t sympathetic to his plight, however. The vampire just rolled his eyes and said, “Stop being so dramatic, Saihara-chan.” His voice sounded like he was talking to a particularly tedious kid who didn’t realize they were being obnoxious.
Also Saihara-chan? When did that start?
Shuichi bristled at the dismissiveness of it all. He opened his mouth to protest, but Kokichi had beat him to the punch by saying, “Well lucky for you, this game is not a dare, nor does it involve food, so you should be fine.”
Shuichi just sighed. Kokichi had a talent for casually saying infuriating things, only to move on so fast with a new subject that Shuichi forgot what he’d been annoyed about in the first place.
Deciding to let the previous offense go, he wearily asked, “What’s this next game going to be?”
“Glad you’ve asked, Saihara-chan!” Kokichi chirped. Then pointing to a window, he said, “We’re going out there and seeing who can catch the biggest cicada out there.”
Shuichi blinked, before slowly asking, “We’re what now?”
Kokichi’s cheeks puffed out slightly in frustration as he huffed, “You’re not deaf, Saihara-chan. I know you heard me!”
“Well yes, but-” Shuichi began, before Kokichi cut him off.
“But nothing,” Kokichi said definitively. Then gesturing towards the kitchen, he continued, “Now let’s make some bug-catching jars.”
Shuichi couldn’t help but be confused by just how pushy Kokichi was being tonight. In fact, the vampire had been acting off the whole night, even down to the greeting, or lack thereof. Usually, Kokichi greeted him with a grin that showed off his fangs. Tonight though, he hadn’t done that. He just entered the apartment announcing he had a new game in mind. He seemed distracted in a way.
Even now, Shuichi thought he heard a strange urgency in the vampire’s voice. What was the reason though?
Shuichi didn’t have much time to contemplate before Kokichi called out, “Come on Saihara-chan! I don’t have all night!”
Shuichi pushed the thought away. Given how secretive Kokichi had been up until now, Shuichi doubted the vampire would reveal anything if he asked.
Except if he won this game…
Logging that in the back of his mind, he walked to the kitchen to make a bug-catching jar.
Once the two of them finished poking holes on the lids of their jars, Kokichi practically ushered them outside, wanting to start the competition as soon as possible. He hadn’t hesitated to separate from Shuichi either, seemingly eager to hunt his own cicada.
That left Shuichi alone with his own thoughts and all of his thoughts were telling him that this game was rigged.
Kokichi had so many advantages right now, just by being a vampire. For one thing, Kokichi had a bat form. For all Shuichi knew, the bastard could be using his special echolocation powers to nab big cicadas with ease.
Even if Kokichi didn’t go into his bat form, the purple-haired kid still had a whole lot of natural weapons at his disposal. Heightened senses, night vision, and a level of speed that Shuichi swore could make a cheetah jealous.
Meanwhile, Shuichi could barely walk without tripping over his own feet in the dark. The cards were stacked against him.
Shuichi sighed. Oh well, there was nothing he could do about it now. He’d already agreed to the terms of the game. He would just have to do the best he could despite the circumstances.
In an attempt to hype himself up, he reminded himself that he’d won games against Kokichi before and he could do it again.
However, hardly ten minutes into this game, and he was beginning to wonder if he would even have a cicada to bring back.
He’d arrogantly thought that catching one would be a relatively easy task. Little kids caught them all the time and one only had to listen to the cacophony of noise outside for a few seconds to know that there were hundreds out right now.
But despite all of that, the job was proving quite difficult.
For one thing, finding one that was a suitable size was hard. Every one he found was either too small or too average to be winning him any sort of competition with Kokichi.
Even when he found sizable ones, there then came the problem of catching them. Shuichi didn’t own a net. He never had much interest in catching bugs like other kids did, finding bugs too scary and gross to want to have. So that left Shuichi with only his jar and his bare hands as his only tools, which didn’t make the process easy. He had watched in despair as over and over again, his catch got away because he couldn’t drop the opening of the jar on them fast enough.
The second thing that complicated things were his own flaws as a human being. His footsteps, for example, seemed loud and clumsy no matter how hard he tried to make them otherwise. His feet just seemed magnetized to every twig on the ground, probably alerting every animal, cicada, or otherwise, within a mile radius of his presence.
Kokichi meanwhile probably wouldn’t be having this problem. The vampire was a natural predator. Shuichi noticed long ago that the boy’s footsteps were light and silent, like a cat’s. He was probably walking with a lot more grace than Shuichi right now.
But despite all of this, Shuichi was still refusing to give up without a fight. He was at least going to catch one of these damned things. Sure they had wings and speed, but their brains were small. Surely he could manage to outwit at least one?
Thankfully, his hope wasn’t misplaced. It took several more foiled attempts, but he eventually got the jar over one by sneaking up on it. When he closed the lid, he actually had to resist the urge to jump up and down in cry out in triumph like a child. He didn’t want to wake his entire apartment building up.
Besides, he wasn’t sure he could lambast in victory yet. He had yet to see Kokichi’s cicada. For all he knew, he’d caught a better one. He would have to see.
Kokichi was already waiting for him in their agreed meeting spot. The vampire was also clearly peeved with him, as the first thing Shuichi heard from the vampire when he arrived was, “What took you so long, Saihara-chan?”
Shuichi resisted the urge to snap back. What the hell was Kokichi’s deal? Looking the vampire up and down, he just muttered, “Sorry we can’t all be super-humans like you.”
Kokichi rolled his eyes and grumbled, “Whatever.” Then holding out his hands, he said, “Let me see your bug.”
Shuichi’s anger was once again forgotten at this moment. This was it. The big moment. Handing his jar over, Shuichi watched Kokichi look at the bug with an expression of disgust, as if Shuichi had handed him a booger instead.
“Eugh, gross,” Kokichi said, before setting the jar down next to him and shrugging, “It’ll do though, I suppose.”
‘You suppose?’ Shuichi thought, not liking Kokichi’s dismissive attitude.
“So do I win?” Shuichi asked, trying not to sound too eager. Looking around, he said, “Where’s your bug at?”
“Oh, I didn’t catch one,” Kokichi said.
…
What?
“WHAT?!” Shuichi practically screeched. All that worrying, all that hard work, and Kokichi didn’t even catch a bug of his own?
Kokichi at least had the humility to look somewhat guilty as he said, “You must understand, I hate bugs. I find them quite repulsive.”
Shuichi then asked the natural question. “So why did you make me do any of this?”
Kokichi looked at him for a moment, and Shuichi feared the vampire would say it was none of his business. But after a moment, Shuichi had an idea. Taking a step forward, Shuichi used his trump card, “I use up my question I just won to know.”
Kokichi sighed and said, “I suppose when you put me in that position, I have no choice but to show you.”
Shuichi paused. Show him? Show him something that somehow involved the bug? Now that was intriguing.
Suddenly, he felt a flash of fear as a grotesque thought entered his head.
“Oh god, you’re not going to eat it, are you?” Shuichi cried out, his stomach queasy at the thought of witnessing such a thing. It made sense in his mind. Kokichi had a bat form. Who knew if cravings from that body carried over to his regular form?
Kokichi looked so affronted it was borderline humorous.
Hissing in a way that revealed his fangs, he bit out, “No Saihara-chan, what part of I don’t like bugs did you not understand?”
Suddenly feeling dumb, Shuichi stammered, “W-well I thought-”
Kokichi interrupted him. “Shut it, I don’t care to hear your reasoning. Do you want to see or not?”
Shuichi was once again put off by Kokichi’s attitude. He considered defending himself, but Kokichi was already getting up with the jar, clearly preparing to walk away. His message was clear: either Shuichi caught up with him or he was leaving him behind.
Quickly jogging to catch up to the vampire, Shuichi followed along curiously.
That curiosity soon morphed into worry as Shuichi noticed Kokichi leading him into a more wooded area. A wooded area that was infamous for strange happenings. He found himself keeping closer to Kokichi for safety.
As he nervously eyed the trees and shadows, his mind began contemplating what exactly Kokichi was going to show him. Was he going to meet another vampire? If so, why bring the bug? Was the bug competition all an elaborate trap to trick him into wandering into the woods to be dined on by vampires?
Right as Shuichi was beginning to think about heading back where he came, Kokichi suddenly stopped. Turning his head to look at Shuichi, he said, “We’re here.” Shuichi noticed his eyes glowed in the dark, much like a cat’s would.
Well, it was officially too late now. If there was another vampire nearby, Shuichi had no hope of escape. Vampires could move incredibly fast. He’d get two steps in before the other vampire would pounce and feed on him.
The best he could do was stay close to Kokichi and pray the other vampire wasn’t lying about being friends and would keep him safe.
“Hey!” Kokichi called out, “We got your bug!”
Silence was all that followed that.
When the silence lasted for a little while, Shuichi felt an inkling of hope. Maybe the other vampire wasn’t here.
Kokichi wasn’t satisfied at leaving it at that, however. Cupping his hands over his mouth, he shouted even louder, “Gonta-kun! Come out! I can hear your trampling from here.”
Wait. Gonta? Shuichi recognized that name.
Before he could place a name to a face however, he heard rustling and snuffling. The noises coming from whatever the hell was coming were so loud, that Shuichi braced himself. Whatever was coming was clearly humongous. He found himself unconsciously pressing even closer to Kokichi, to the point they were practically touching.
He had all sorts of horrible imagery in his head of what the creature could be, but it didn’t even compare to what he saw.
A large, thick-furred, bipedal creature who was a good six feet tall came out from the shadows, its blood-red eyes glowing in the dark.
Shuichi couldn’t help the scream that escaped his throat. His scream didn’t last long as Kokichi placed a hand over his mouth, muffling him, the vampire saying, “Calm down, Saihara-chan. Gonta-kun isn’t going to hurt you.”
Shuichi had to disagree. He could see the claws on this thing, which looked like they could eviscerate him with ease. Not to mention the bulging muscles, that showed this thing clearly had the strength of an ox.
He expected a growl or a snarl or an animalistic noise of some kind to escape from this thing, but instead, the thing actually spoke, “Yes, Gonta doesn’t want to hurt Shuichi-kun! Gonta is a gentleman, even in this form.”
The voice was friendlier than Shuichi expected. It also sounded… familiar. Too familiar. Also, how did the thing know his name?
Suddenly, it all hit Shuichi at once. Looking at the creature, he said, “G-Gonta? As in Gonta Gokuhara?”
Gonta was a student at his school. A Super High School Level Entomologist. Shuichi didn’t know too much about the kid, but they’d bumped into each other a few times in class and had a conversation. The large boy seemed rather simple, but friendly in the few times they’d talked.
Never, in a million years, would Shuichi have guessed that Gonta was also a werewolf.
Upon further looking at the creature, he could see nothing but Gonta. Sure he was covered in more hair than usual, but the kinkiness and length of the fur was clearly Gonta’s hair. Sure he had a muzzle and sharper teeth than normal, but the smile was clearly Gonta’s.
Raising a paw in greeting, Gonta said, “Hello Shuichi-kun. I don’t know why Kokichi-kun brought you here but would you mind not telling others Gonta is a werewolf? I want to keep it secret.” The werewolf looked practically sheepish, something Shuichi never imagined a werewolf looking like.
“Uh, sure…” Shuichi said, not sure who would believe him anyway. He didn’t even know if there was anyone who would believe him that a vampire was visiting him at night.
Despite how lame his answer sounded, Gonta beamed and said, “Thanks!” and patted Shuchi roughly with his paw, nearly causing Shuichi to fall over from the force.
Realizing the situation, Shuichi looked at Kokichi and said, “Wait, you two know each other?”
“Yes! Kokichi is Gonta’s friend!” Gonta said, wagging his tail. Kokichi gave an expression that this wasn’t exactly the case, but Gonta didn’t seem to notice.
“Yes, yes, best of friends,” Kokich said hurriedly, before thrusting the jar in front of Gonta’s face. “Here is your bug by the way.”
Gonta’s eyes immediately lit up with excitement. With gentle care, he picked up the jar and looked at the bug inside. Nodding, he said, “Yes, yes, this is a nice bug. Thank you very much, Kokichi-kun.”
Looking at Kokichi, Shuichi asked, “You caught a bug for Gonta-kun…?” But why?
“Gonta-kun had a pet cicada that lived in these parts of the woods. But one day, Kokichi-kun he… he…” Suddenly a growl began rumbling out of Gonta’s throat at the memory, his eyes filling with rage and tears as emotion seemed to overtake him. Shuichi felt a flash of fear at the bloodlust that suddenly appeared in the werewolf’s eyes.
A look of panic came over Kokichi’s eyes as he said, “But I agreed to get him a new cicada…” He tapped the jar in Gonta’s paw, as if to remind him it was there.
Gonta’s eyes seemed to clear and he relaxed all of a sudden, going, “Yes. Yes, I have a new one now, thanks to you.”
Shuichi and Kokichi both sagged with relief at the same time. Shuichi was beginning to think they just escaped becoming werewolf victims right then and there. Shuichi suddenly realized right there and then why Kokichi was so urgent in his mission tonight and why he had been so impatient.
The two of them chatted with Gonta for a few more minutes, before the werewolf left insisting that he needed to introduce the cicada to its new home.
As Kokichi and Shuichi walked back home, Kokichi grumbled, “This is why I can’t stand werewolves. Too emotional for my taste.”
Lesson learned: Vampires, or at least, Kokichi, did not like werewolves.
Another lesson learned: Werewolves apparently existed as well.