Chapter Text
As Kaito Momota assembled the the crossbow, many scenarios played through his mind. In some, he managed to take out Kokichi and escape, while in others he remained trapped. The goal was to diffuse the volatile little bastard without killing him, but dissembling a bomb with a crossbow was going be difficult. Perhaps if he at least got out the door, he could get aid from his classmates— but he’d like to capture Kokichi, not just harm him. It seemed a herculean task, but he’d have to try his best and storm through the odds. Not to mention, his new illness was a dangerous variable. But for some odd feeling, he’s got a good feeling about this, like the odds were in his favor tonight.
Doubling checking his work, he’s pleased to note the complicated setup was carried out correctly. He twangs one of the strings before standing, readying the sights where Kokichi will come through at the bathroom door.
“Oohhhhhh Momota-chan!” Kokichi, kicking open the door, enters the room singing. “I brought some snack bars, I thought you might be hun-” Upon seeing the crossbow aimed at him, he stops dead in his tracks. Still frozen, his eyes flit up and down an angry Momota, and he chuckles nervously. As the tall boy takes a few steps forward, he shrinks back and slowly raises his hands, opting for diplomacy with a shaky grin. “C’mon, I’ve got the remote for the Exsials, remember? I mean, I knew you were dumb, but you can’t seriously be attempting to take down the mastermind with just a crossbow.”
Momota bites his lip and presses forward, finger on the trigger. Kokichi keeps his distance, backing up out of the bathroom. “Hey, you can’t kill me, either. It would be too obvious! Believe me, you don’t wanna get executed, that’s a gnarly way to go.” As they back out into the middle of the room, Kokichi slowly lowers his left hand, reaching for a remote. Momota squares his jaw and lets the bolt rip free, aiming for the sinking arm. He knew he couldn’t believe in the little nutcase.
Kokichi lets out a shriek of pain as the bolt pierces his flesh, and Momota rushes forward to disarm him of the remote. The tackle knocks both of them to the ground. Lashing out, Kokichi gets a hand on the larger boy’s face and pushes with wild fervor, but Momota has him pinned. For a few seconds, they shove and wrestle, and the smaller boy again desperately reaches for the remote. Triumphantly, he pulls it out successfully this time, but makes the mistake of raising it in the air. Seeing the tool, Momota, in a panic, clamps down a firm hand on Kokichi’s new wound and presses hard. Letting out another cry of pain, the smaller boy is forced to release the remote, and Momota takes the opportunity to snatch it up before leaping backwards a few steps. Not knowing what to do with the remote, he warily watches his opponent.
Kokichi is slower to rise. He shivers on the ground before rising, clutching his wound tightly. His hair falls across his face, so his eyes are a bit hard to see—but Momota shivers at the sight. They’re laced with anger and teary with pain. The small boy pulls out a pocketknife and points it at Momota. “W-wait!” Calls out the larger boy. “I-I’ll use the Exsials!” Pointing the remote at the nearest red machine, he presses a few buttons only for it to spazz out. Kokichi looks horrified.
“Don’t, you idiot!” The smaller boy yells out. “They’ve got some kind of kill-all setting, dumbass! You can’t just button mash it, you’ll kill us both!” He trains his eyes on the Exsial now, wobbling backwards, but keeps his knife pointed at Momota. He raises his other hand to bite furiously at his thumb, and begins glancing between both of his enemies. Momota can see the gears turning in his enemies head. Frustrated, the liar calls out again. “Just point it at the hanger door and press the center button, that’ll open it!” Momota complies, and the heavy door screeches open.
Momota dashes out into the fresh night air only to see Maki, an Electrohammer raised over her head, facing down and Exsial. She turns her head in confusion, and looks at Momota like she’s seeing mothman for the first time. He shouts to her, and gestures vaguely to Kokichi, who’s still standing in the hanger. The small boy turns his back her to run, but only gets a few steps before she bolts across the courtyard and into the hanger, taking him down with a solid knee to his back. Maki pins him to the cold hanger floor with a clang.
Returning to the hanger, Momota finds Maki patting Kokichi down, pulling out all the pocketknives she can find. A solid 3 have skittered on the floor already, a few meters away from them. She pulls out a forth from another hidden pocket on Kokichi’s jacket, and hands it up to Momota, who flips it over, inspecting it. “Check his shoes.” The assassin orders, and Momota complies, unlacing them and shaking them out. He’s surprised to find yet another compartment with a blade in the sole, while Maki tosses another from his jacket’s sleeve across the floor. Kokichi begins to speak out in objection, but the assassin quickly grabs a fistful of his hair before quickly and cleanly bashing his forehead into the ground with a loud bang. She opens up an old wound, and blood begins to drip down the liar’s face. Momota grimaces.
“H-hey, Maki Roll. No need to be cruel. ” She narrows her eyes, and gets off the dazed Kokichi to only to quickly flip him over and feel down the front of his jacket. Frowning, she passes Momota two more knives and a small note book tucked into his jacket.
“Sorry. I just couldn’t stand to hear his voice.” She glares icily at the small boy beneath her, who stares blankly back, eyes unclear. “If it were up to me, he’d be dead by now, but I figured you wouldn’t like that. Kokichi blinks a few times before clarity returns to his expression. His eyes wander the surroundings, before settling on the red notebook in Momota’s hands. Suddenly, he begins struggling again, and a voice gurgles in his throat only to die back down when the assassin firmly presses his head against the ground. Momota sighs, looking away.
“I’ll get some rope and wake the others. Looks like this episode of our nightmare is over.”
_______________
Above all things, Kokichi wanted least to be left alone with the awful murder girl. How the hell she got away with everyone liking her with a Ultimate like that, he’d never know—and he doubted there’d ever be a time he’d despised her more then right now. Silently, she pins his arms behind is back. Kokichi scoffs, and wonders where that awful ringing sound is coming from. It’s persistent, like some kind of alarm. Perhaps then, he figures, it’s the “everything has gone wrong” alarm. Then, to silence this alarm, he’d have to get out of the situation, but even thinking about that hurts like hell. It must be his pride that’s hurting, yeah. He glances back up at the murderer above him, and she gives him her most poisonous glare and shoves his face to the side, cheek pressed into the hard metal beneath them once more.
Not before long, he dimly hears Momota returning with several other footsteps. It’s impossible to see anything but Yumeno’s shoes from this angle, but can hear the students gasping and murmuring. He feels his face heat up in humiliation as Maki releases him, and Momota rushes down to put him in handcuffs. Kokichi tries to say something about something kinky or along that line, but it just comes out as a pathetic squeak. Then, Momota and Shuichi (his sweet, clueless darling Shuichi, he’s surprise to hear that voice again, he thought he’d heard the last of Shuichi) begin arguing about something or other. Frustratingly, it’s a bit hard to hear over the damn ringing, so he only gets bits and piece of it. Kiibo(the dumb useless robot, the sinister useless object that shouldn’t be touching him) grabs his back and helps him sit up. Kokichi turns his head to hide his face from the others—they have no right to see him like this. Shame and frustration swim in his head, but overall they’re drowned out by that damn ringing. Glancing at Kiibo, he sees mock concern on the robot’s face and he throws his best grim smirk at the robot, who predictably shrinks back.
Momota and Shuichi seem to be coming to an agreement, the yelling’s died down. Both of them are giving orders. Then Kiibo’s trying to lift him to his feet, and the world goes up in a rush. He’s slumped on the damn robots shoulder, and moving his legs about now seems far beyond his ability. He feels dizzy, hellishly dizzy, and he sees Yumeno again. For a moment, he pauses the hell is up with Yumeno? She’s such a dumbass, there’s no way she should’ve gotten to live this long. What the hell? Kokichi focuses his spite and anger and attempts to take a step forward, only to come crashing down. Or at least he would’ve, if the damn robot, face all creased up with concern didn’t barely catch him. Then his classmates are arguing again, Shuichi’s gesturing to Kokichi’s forehead and Momota comes forward to try and pick Kokichi up. Like hell. In desperation, the liar shoves the larger boy away, though it the attack just kind of falters. Nevertheless, Momota gets the message and backs off saying something snarky to Shuichi, and the detective, sighing, tensely walks over and takes up Kokichi’s other shoulder. Everyone looks tired and frustrated. It’s the middle of the night goddammit, why is anybody even up? Oh, right—everything is falling apart. That’s what the ringing is about. The reality sinks in when he’s carried past Momota and sees him open up Kokichi’s notebook.
Shit. Well, the book was meant for Momota eventually, just not so soon. The astronaut carelessly flips through the pages. His emotions range from curiosity, at first, before the boy covers his mouth as if to gag. Kokichi reads a mix of contempt, disgust and pity in the next glance Momota throws him. Running through his plans, he comes up blank with each and every carefully crafted mechanism. He curses under his breath and Shuichi rolls his eyes. What the hell did Gonta die for, then? For this failure? His face heats up up and his eyes water with pain and shame but he swears to Atua or lying or DICE that he’s never going to give them the satisfaction of seeing him really wail, of seeing him really broken.
Kiibo and Shuichi take Kokichi back to his room, and Yumeno fiddles with a set keys taken from Kokichi’s pocket to open the door. They leave the lights off. set him down on the bed, turning on a nearby lamp. Shuichi immediately gets to work barking orders at them. Yumeno pulls out a first aid kit, and they begin going through it’s contents. Kokichi feels an odd sort of pride in Shuichi’s assertiveness—actually, he just feels pretty odd in general. He’s still in quite a bit of pain, and though the ringing has died down, it still persists. But somehow it feels alright, the world feels dreamlike. His eyes wet, but it doesn’t feel like crying.
Working together, they tear off his sleeve at the shoulder, and Shuichi inspects the arrow wound. Soon, Tsumugi shows up some time later with a tray full of hot, warm water, and a few glasses. He notes Shuichi giving the girl a faint smile and a nod to dismiss her before getting quickly to cleaning Kokichi’s forehead with the warm water and a soft towel from the bathroom. At first, the small boy flinches at the touch, and he shivers as the detective carefully sweeps the liar’s sticky, bloody bangs aside, and dabs away at the blood. Yumeno stand stiffly to the side, nervously glancing at each other, before Shuichi asks one of them to pass him a bandage roll. Kiibo helps prop Kokichi up on the bed as Shuichi wraps the clean, white bandages around the liar’s forehead. All of it’s beginning to feel more distant, like it’s happening to someone else, even though the ringing is getting louder. But it’s kind of soothing, like a song.
Shuichi comes around with a glass of water. The detective sits at the edge of the bed, and tries to give Kokichi another one of his soft smiles(too bad it’s certainly a lie, a lie). Moving slowly, he shows Kokichi the bottle, rotating it in his hand.
“P-pain pills, ok? We need to move fast and we want you to be comfortable, ok?” He nods, trying to meet Kokichi’s eyes with an even, steady stare, but the smaller boy obstinately looks away with a pout. Disappointed, Shuichi sighs and places the pill in Kokichi’s mouth, but the smaller boy spits it out. At first, he’s not really sure why he did that, then he remembers that it’s probably poisoned. That’s right, everyone hates him, even is beloved, sweet Shuichi who never would understand him. Poor, confused Shuichi.
Shuichi tries two more times to little success, before Yumeno comments that it’s a lost cause. Kokichi smiles and laughs at that, causing Kiibo to flinch. Grimacing, the detective stands back and leaves the uneaten pill on the bedside. He then uses a knife to remove one of the straps from Kokichi’s pants, and places between the liar’s teeth. Kokichi is confused before he sees Yumeno(shaking badly) pick up the bandage, Shuichi brace the injured arm against the bed, and Kiibo, still flinching, wrap his hands around around the shaft of the arrow. Eyes screwed shut, the robot yanks it right out and suddenly the world is moving in fast motion again, he’s bleeding and Shuichi is applying more pressure to the wound for some damned reason and then quickly wrapping and wrapping until nothing but white bandages can be seen on his arm, not the red, painful wound that’s bleeding below it. Kokichi spits out the strap in his mouth and sees that it is deeply grooved with the impressions of his teeth. The ringing comes back with renewed strength.
Shuichi sighs, and collapses back into an extra chair in the room. He washes his hands in the warm basin that Tsumugi brought, and thanks Yumeno and Kiibo for their help. Rubbing his eyes, the detective opens up an dusty compendium he brought in, while the duo leaves. The boys sit there together for a few minutes in silence, Shuichi reading, Kokichi bleeding. Shuichi’s nodding, doubling checking the way the bandages are wrapped. He gets up and walks around the room, and for the first time sees the wax Amami statue, and jumps backwards with a faint yell, tripping over Kokichi’s whiteboard and knocking it down with a loud clang.
Kokichi summons his most withering stare to glare him down with when the detective gets back up. Seeing it, Shuichi shrinks back. Momota barges into the room, checking up on Shuichi who sighs and clears up the misunderstanding. Momota gives the Amami statue a long, hard look, and Kokichi snickers. Griping about sleep, he wanders off back to his room.
Kokichi wonders at it all. His ruined plans, the hectic night, and the strange looks on everyone’s faces. Momota’s disgust(he still had his book, didn’t he), Shuichi’s pity, and Maki’s cold, terrifying rage. He closes his eyes, tight, but he feels like he can still feel the heat of their stares. Their anger had been easier to deal with then this damned pity. He wishes they could’ve stayed hating him until he died. He wishes he could’ve kept up his masquerade, keeping everyone at an arms distance with continued taunts and insults. Hadn’t Shuichi assured him he’d always be alone? What had changed? His throat is dry and scratchy, making it difficult to speak, so he decides not to. He fixes his eyes on Shuichi’s faint silhouette in that’s swimming in his vision. The boy turns and drops to his level, getting close to his face. He can read his lips moving, and faintly going by that, tries to figuring out what he’s saying. Shuichi is asking him if he’s hurt anywhere else.
Kokichi wriggles into a sitting up position to answer. His hands are still bound in the handcuffs, up but he indicates to his head. He only manages to cough a few words about the ringing before things start to get really dark, and the buzz gets really loud. Kokichi closes his eye, just for a second to relieve himself of the sight of Shuichi’s increasingly panicked face. The detective must be so frightened for Maki, the liar wonders. If he doesn’t wake up from this, then she’s gonna be executed. Suddenly, all the care makes sense. Eyes still closed, Kokichi smiles with this newfound understanding. And luckily, the dammed ringing drowns Shuichi’s faint, distant yelling out, so Kokichi can peacefully go to sleep.