Work Text:
“He wouldn’t risk a murder that would so obviously implicate him.”
When he’d said those words to Tsumugi that morning, he’d wholeheartedly believed in their truth. If Kokichi aimed to win the killing game, committing a murder with so many suspicious gazes in his direction would defeat his purpose. What would the point be then, to kill and then fall as the blackened in the shortest class trial of the entire game? Shuichi felt safe in that certainty. Kokichi wouldn’t make a move so soon after such an announcement, they needn’t worry about that.
That night he returned to his room feeling drained. He didn’t know how much longer he could go on, and how many more friends he could bear to lose. It had to end. Somehow, there had to be a way to make the killing game stop.
He shut the door behind him, wrapped up in his own thoughts. Only then did he notice the oddity, something that didn’t belong. Or rather someone, sitting on his bed and grinning at him with those wicked purple eyes that doused his very core in ice. His heart leaped into his throat, choking off the startled cry before it could escape into the air. Shuichi grabbed for the doorknob on reflex as his mind worked through the situation. Here, in his room, alone.
Suddenly he no longer felt so sure of his own deduction.
“Kokichi—.”
“No need to look so frightened, Shuichi!” He giggled, as if he hadn’t just frightened Shuichi half to death with his presence. As if just the other day he hadn’t admitted to enjoying all of their suffering, and he spoke to a good friend who’d done something amusing. “I’m not going to hurt you, of course! Even though you sure hurt me a whole bunch after the execution yesterday with those mean words!”
Kokichi’s expression morphed into one of anguish, a lie complete with crocodile tears gathered into the corners of his eyes. If not for how overdramatic it appeared, and how prone to falsehoods Kokichi was, Shuichi might believe such an expression to be genuine.
“After all I did for you too, as my partner! Solving the case so that you didn’t even have to do any of the hard work at all, and you still got all the glory for it too. Then you just abandoned me and left me at the side of the curb like a piece of garbage! Do you know how that makes me feel, Shuichi?”
Shuichi remained in stunned silence, hand still on the doorknob, frozen in place with uncertainty. He didn’t know whether to stay or to run, or whether Kokichi’s words could be believed at all. And even beneath all his fear, all the unknown variable presented before him now, he felt a niggling curiosity, a hidden current that drove him to discover what Kokichi wanted and why he’d come to Shuichi’s room, an undertow that demanded the truth and threatened to drown him with it. Even though he denied it, telling himself that he had no reason to fear someone who’d be too suspicious and would have no chance as the blackened right now, a part of him recognized that as a lie.
That tiny part of him wanted to hear him out.
At last he found his voice. “What do you want, Kokichi?”
No sense in asking how he’d gotten into Shuichi’s locked room. Kokichi could pick locks with ease, as he’d exhibited so long ago during Angie’s case; Shuichi didn’t doubt that he could get into any room he wanted without a problem.
So long ago? Wait, no, that case had been just a few days prior to the last. How could that be? Angie and Tenko’s case, Ryoma’s, Kaede’s… They all seemed an eternity ago, but it’d only been a matter of weeks, if that. Shuichi felt a brief wave of vertigo at the realization, and quickly quashed it down with a shake of his head. He had to focus on Kokichi for now.
“Right to the point then, huh? Come sit down with me so we can talk.” All at once the distress vanished from Kokichi’s face, and the tears from his eyes. Kokichi leaned back, all too comfortable on Shuichi’s bed, crossing one leg over the other and tilting his head to regard Shuichi still hanging by the door. When he patted the sheets next to him, and Shuichi ignored the invitation. “You know, that’s what I like about you, Shuichi. No nitpicking, no games, just straight to the meat of the conversation. An admirable trait, really, I think that the others could learn a lot—.”
“Kokichi,” Shuichi cut him off, resisting the urge to heave a long tired sigh. No matter what changed, dealing with the liar’s antics left him bewildered and exhausted. He thought he’d feel more frightened, being in the presence of someone who claimed to enjoy their suffering, but somehow it felt the same as it ever did. That didn’t mean that he’d let his guard down, however, and he hardened his gaze into a glare. The malicious boy wasn’t welcome here. “What do you want with me?”
Kokichi winced as if in response to his biting tone, which Shuichi knew to be a fake gesture by now. “Ouch! How mean, while I was singing your praises too. That’s ok though, Shuichi, I forgive you as always, because you are my beloved partner. The truth is… I don’t actually want anything!”
What?
“What?” Shuichi stared at Kokichi in disbelief, as the latter continued to kick his feet and throw him pleasant smiles. “Why are you here then?”
“I just wanted to see you! Why else?” Kokichi leaned forward, bracing his hands against the mattress between his spread legs. “And maybe I’m thinking that I want you to survive with me to the very end of this, but I don’t think I could convince you to betray your precious ‘friends’ who you ‘believe’ and ‘trust’ in.”
He raised his hands, bending his fingers in mocking air quotes around each of those words. It stirred up something in Shuichi’s chest, a feeling somewhere between annoyance and anger. Kokichi paid the flash of emotion across his face no mind, returning his hands to their former spot and continuing to kick his feet.
“Mostly I wanted to just see you, though. That’s not a lie, either. This being the big bad guy around here makes that a bit difficult! I don’t think I could get close to you like this, let alone get you in private! That idiot might go and try and punch me again, and we all know how well that worked out for him next time!” Kokichi finished with a giggle as he imagined the very scene he referred to.
The feeling in Shuichi’s chest jumped father from annoyance and closer to anger.
“Why though?” he found himself asking. He couldn’t understand why Kokichi would even want to break into his room. Although he suspected him of a lie, Shuichi didn’t know any other alternative, but he guessed that it must be something nefarious. Perhaps to make himself sympathetic to Shuichi, and trick him into unwittingly helping Kokichi out with some terrible plan. Maybe. There had to be a plan hidden somewhere among these words, if the detective could only sift through them to find the kernels of truth. “I’m not going to help you with anything, if that’s what you want.”
“’Why’?” Kokichi repeated, blinking at him with those wide unreadable eyes, before he gave Shuichi a smile that on someone else might’ve dazzled him. On him however, it created a strange mixture of emotions in Shuichi’s chest. He laughed the question off, his voice as light and playful as ever. “Do I need a reason to come and see my favorite detective? My most beloved partner in the whoooole wide world?”
Well, that had to be a lie anyway. Shuichi sighed. “It’s obvious that you wouldn’t come here just to see me. I told you after the trial—no one would ever stand by you. So why are you here in my room now when no one else is around if not to kill me or trick me into helping you somehow?”
Something flickered across Kokichi’s face, a crack in that carefree mask that smoothed over too quickly for Shuichi to garner any sort of meaning from it. The dishonest smile seemed even bigger than before.
“You wound me, Mr. Detective! But you’re right, actually! I did come here for a reason.”
That cheerful grin vanished in an instant. With a fluid motion, Kokichi rose from the bed and strode across the room toward him. Shuichi backed up on instinct, until he hit the wall behind him and he had nowhere to run from the approaching boy except to press up against it and wish that he could somehow phase through it. Kokichi stopped when they were mere inches apart, close enough for Shuichi to feel his body heat. Or maybe that was his own; for some reason the room felt warmer than before. Despite how much shorter Kokichi was, when he stared up at Kokichi with that intense, unknowable expression, it made him feel nervous. Shuichi swallowed, wondering if he’d pushed too far.
Kokichi did nothing for a minute, only stared as if considering Shuichi’s reaction. Then he said, voice much lower than before, “Don’t worry. Like I said, I’m not going to hurt you. That wasn’t a lie you know.”
Shuichi opened his mouth, except nothing came out. Why are you here, he wanted to ask again, but words failed him when Kokichi remained so close. He couldn’t think like this.
Fortunately, Kokichi seemed to read his mind. “The answer’s obvious, isn’t it Shuichi? I just wanted to see you. Once more after the trial anyway. I know I acted pretty… well, unbecoming of a leader of a super secret organization, so I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea about me. The truth is…”
He paused, until the silence poured into Shuichi’s chest and filled it with unease. If not for the fact that he hung onto every word at his point, he would’ve pushed Kokichi away just to get the space to think and to break that awful tension building in his shoulders. Kokichi smirked, leaning forward until they were almost touching.
“I love you, Shuichi.”
The words felt like a punch to the gut. He clenched his hands into tight fists, the rounded tips of his nails diffing into the palms of his hands. Impossible. He knew that Kokichi had some horrible plan to trick him into going along with it. Shuichi didn’t believe those words for a second, delivered dripping with honey, and it made him sick that Kokichi thought it alright to lie about something like that just for his evil schemes. He wanted to grab Kokichi by the straps of his uniform and shake him until the lies that filled his conniving head rattled with the force of it. Did Kokichi think it hilarious to espouse words of affection? Did he have any ounce of shame in that tiny lying body of his. That wasn’t funny; Shuichi wasn’t laughing, now less than ever.
He managed to keep his composure and his hands to himself.
“I know that’s a lie, too. I’m not falling for something as ridiculous as that, Kokichi. And you can just leave if you’re going to be bringing up tasteless jokes like that.” Shuichi set his jaw, glowering down at the menace still invading his personal space.
“That’s so cold, Shuichi! It’s not a lie at all, who would like about something like love? That’s so despicable! I hate lies like that!” Kokichi protested. Yet he bounced back a few steps, tucking his hands behind his head and finally giving Shuichi a chance to breathe. If not for everything that had happened recently, it could be just another confusing day with Kokichi, another stew of lies and truths, another puzzle for him to sift through. Now though, Shuichi had no patience for his twisted games. “I really do love you, Shuichi, and that is the honest truth.”
“Why are you telling this to me? Why are you trying so hard to convince me?” Even on the slight chance that it was true, Shuichi neither wanted nor returned Kokichi’s affections. He wanted nothing to do with him or his plans. None of this made any sense to him, and he didn’t know if Kokichi had the capacity for love at this point. “Why would you love me anyway?”
Kokichi shrugged. “I just felt like telling you! You know, being honest for once? And haven’t you heard, my darling partner? You can’t help who you fall in love with.”
“Well at least I know it’ll never be with you.” The harsh words were out of his mouth before they even registered in his mind. He didn’t take them back however, not when Kokichi insisted on messing with him like this. ‘Despicable’ he called it, but that was just another lie, right? “Just leave, I don’t want anything to do with whatever you have planned.”
A cold silence followed his words. Kokichi dropped his arms to his sides, staring at Shuichi with another expression that he couldn’t parse. Shuichi couldn’t guess at what was going on inside Kokichi’s mind. Maybe some other plot to trick Shuichi into killing off yet another one of his friends, to pin the blame on him and eliminate another pair of them. After Gonta’s execution, the Ultimate Supreme Leader needed yet another pawn to shove around on the chessboard. Unfortunately for Kokichi, Shuichi refused to be played like that. He had a sharper mind than Gonta, and keener senses to see through the lies.
Another moment passed, and doubt began to settle on his shoulders. Shuichi worried that he’d said too much too firmly. Kokichi enjoyed their suffering and he’d announced that he’d be the winner of the killing game. Boldness might get him killed in private as they were now. He swallowed again, throat dry. Despite his efforts to keep calm and his face blank, a flicker of fear crossed his expression.
The moment it did, Kokichi laughed, and the tension broke.
“Ya got me again, Mr. Detective!” Kokichi exclaimed with an almost aggressive cheer, turning his face away. Another step back returned a bit more personal space to Shuichi. He didn’t comment on Shuichi’s frightened attitude, made no jokes, did nothing except grin wide and stare at the doorknob. “Darn it, and here I thought that I could fool you! Too bad you’re too smart and too wary, even a natural born liar like me can’t keep up.”
A pause, but before Shuichi could say anything, Kokichi barreled on without giving him the chance.
“But actually… that wasn’t a lie this time. I really do love you and I wanted to see you, and I hate it because you’re gonna die here because you trust all those others way too much. You’re too smart, and you’re gonna be taken out cuz of it,” he said, shrugging. “Or maybe that’s the lie? Who knows? Anyway, don’t tell anyone that I came in here tonight. I might just have to kill them for knowing my embarrassing secrets if you do, and it would be all your fault! Nee-heehee!”
He flashed Shuichi a crooked smile, as if to tell him that even that was a lie, and before Shuichi could react to the threat, Kokichi jerked open the door and slipped out into the darkness. Shuichi’s head spun, trying to make sense of which of Kokichi’s words were lies and which were truths.
Shuichi shouldn’t be so trusting, huh? Kokichi made that easy for him; he’d start his mistrust with that evil leader. None of what Kokichi said could be trusted, least of all… those words. Of love for… for Shuichi.
The liar couldn’t have room for it in his dishonest, negative heart anyway; it’d be choked out by the lack of light he let into it. He definitely must’ve had some plan to throw Shuichi off guard and enact some evil scheme of his. He’d have to keep an eye on him… and on his own room, for that matter. Despite knowing that Kokichi could pick locks, he still didn’t like that he could break inside so easily. He should probably check to see if any of his belongings were missing.
Yet before he could begin his search, his doorbell rang. He jumped at the sound, his heart nearly leaping from his chest for the second time that night. Pressing a hand over its wild beating, he took deep breaths and willing his heart to slow. Nothing to be frightened of, just a late night visitor. What sort of nefarious villain would ring the doorbell? Clearly they broke in to wait on his bed for him.
Maki stood at his door when he answered. The sight of her relieved him.
“…Do you have a minute?” she asked the moment his door swung inward.
For a moment he thought about telling her of Kokichi’s visit. Had she seen him when she came up here? He’d left just moments ago, so they had to have crossed paths. Yet scanning her face, he saw no sign that she’d run into anyone unsavory on her way here, although an air of urgency hung around her.
Kokichi could wait. For another time, of course, and not because a part of Shuichi was genuinely worried that Kokichi would follow through on his threat, although he really didn’t know when Kokichi was being serious and when he was lying. Whatever brought them the most pain, he figured, and so Shuichi decided to keep quiet on that for now. No need to alarm Maki when she already seemed concerned about something.
But only for now.
“Maki? What’s wrong?”