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Kaito couldn’t believe his eyes.
The dormitory of the Ultimate Academy had somehow caught fire; no one knows the circumstances, but from what he hears in passing the fire had started in Angie’s dorm room. He hears the artist mumble something about a ritual involving candles, but Kaito can’t be bothered with the specifics - right now his top priority is making sure everyone in the building gets out safely.
Kaito runs through the crumpling entrance doors, but before he can process how he managed to go through a closed door he spots…himself and Maki carefully making their way through the smoke-filled lobby of the dorms with Shuichi leaning on their shoulders for support. Apparently the detective had narrowly avoided a piece of falling furniture, but ended up spraining his ankle in the process.
Looking down at himself Kaito finally notices that his body is translucent, almost ghost-like. “Holy shit am I dead?!? Wait that can’t be right…nah this has gotta be some kinda weird dream then!” No one seems to notice the extra Kaito as he follows the training trio from a safe distance with a confused look on his face. This is enough to verify that he’s meant to be an observer in his own dream rather than a participant.
When he gets outside the building Kaito takes a quick scan of the area: Maki and the dream Kaito are carefully laying a panting Shuichi down on the floor to put less strain on his ankle, Kirumi is bringing blankets and water to some of the students sitting in the field, Gonta had just emerged from the dorms with a dizzy-looking Keebo, and Tsumugi was bandaging a minor burn on Kaede’s arm.
It looked like everyone had managed to make it out safely, however Kaito noticed that one person appears to be unaccounted for. “No,” his teeth clench as his thoughts send him into an overprotective panic “dammit don’t let this be true!!”
“Has anyone seen Kokichi?” Shuichi asks those around him with concern while Maki leans him against the small railing. His question immediately sets off alarms in Kaito’s head.
The assassin only appears to be annoyed at Shuichi’s question. “He probably ran off to the casino to buy that stupid water gun so he could try to ‘help’. That brat is like a cockroach, he won’t die so easily.” Normally Kaito would laugh at Maki Roll’s “jokes”, but even if she was trying to be reassuring (which Kaito still isn’t entirely sure of) he’s still going to worry if his little brother might be in danger.
That’s when the dream Kaito says something that really gets his blood boiling. “Yeah that guy is always causin’ trouble, I wouldn’t put it past him to try and find some way to make a twisted joke out of this!”
How can he say something like that about his little brother so nonchalantly?!?
Then a sad thought crosses Kaito’s mind - what if he and Kokichi don’t remember they’re related in this dream…like how it was in that goddamn killing game? Even if his little bro is a little shit there is no way he’d ever be so unconcerned about Kokichi’s safety.
Resisting the urge to punch his dream self in the face, because Kaito realizes his dream self wouldn’t even feel it to begin with, the astronaut throws caution to the wind and runs back into the burning interior of the dormitory lobby.
Kokichi walks out of his bedroom in the black t-shirt he “borrowed” from Shuichi’s place (which he also “promised” to return to the detective…eventually) and his purple boxer shorts while sporting a bad case of bedhead; trying to rub the last bit of sleep out of his eyes as he lets out one final yawn. “…Kaaaiitooo…you were supposed to wake me uuup for breakfast…” his voice almost sounds sleepy and annoyed at its current volume instead of demanding. He’d never admit it out loud, but Kokichi enjoys when his older brother makes breakfast for the two of them whenever their parents work on the weekends. And not being able to properly start his day with a tall stack of Kaito’s fluffy chocolate chip pancakes really sours his mood.
He makes his way over to Kaito’s door and after noticing the door was slightly open, Kokichi sneaks in ready to give his brother a piece of his mind for letting him sleep in and miss breakfast. Tiptoeing through the room, he eventually sees Kaito still fast asleep in his bed. “Hmph, you lazy ass…”Kokichi whispers as he inches closer to the bed. On his way through the room he spots the class photo of him, his brother, and their classmates at Hope’s Peak laying flat on Kaito’s dresser; he decides to use his one good deed for the day to fix the photo before continuing his previous mission. Once he actually reaches the bed, Kokichi prepares to give Kaito a rude awakening as payback for the lack of pancakes in his stomach right now. But as he gets ready to yell sweet nothings into the sleeping astronaut’s ear, Kokichi can’t help but take notice of how his brother’s face looks right now.
Kaito has sweat dripping down his forehead, and every so often he lets out a small grunt while keeping a look of either fear or worry – Kokichi can’t really tell – on his sleeping face. Kokichi immediately knows that whatever his brother is dreaming of isn’t filled with thrilling space quests or dreams of a domestic life with a certain assassin in their class. Abandoning the initial quest of whining at Kaito long enough to get him to make the two of them food, Kokichi lowers himself to the floor and sits by Kaito’s bedside. Kokichi rests his head as he lays his arms on the bed, carefully observing Kaito and waiting to see if his big brother can fight whatever’s tormenting him in the dream.
“Ki…Kichi…” Kaito’s mumbles initially make Kokichi think the older boy had woken up and spotted him, but Kokichi disregards the ten different responses he had prepared for himself in that scenario when he spots a faint tear on Kaito’s distress face.
Kokichi looks at his troubled sibling with genuine worry on his face. “Big bro…” he whispers in concern “what’s going on in that normally positive head of yours?”
Kaito re-enters the lobby area that has slowly become more and more engulfed in the flames. Dark smoke clouds and debris litter the area, but thankfully the stairs leading to the upstairs areas haven’t been completely destroyed yet. Even in his spirit form – or ghost or whatever the hell you’d classify his situation as – Kaito wasn’t entirely sure if he’d be able to float up to the upper floor if the staircase had been destroyed. All he did know was that he could phase through stuff and that the fire doesn’t seem to be affecting him.
“Kichi, I swear to God you better be ok!” He yells as he dashes up the stairs to Kokichi’s dorm, thankful that he didn’t immediately phase through them. Reaching the door that now held a lightly charred, dangling portrait of Kokichi’s little pixel character, Kaito dashes into the room.
He’s greeted by a sea of flames. Kokichi’s bed is on fire, his shelf has fallen off the wall, and several pieces of his furniture as slowly being devoured by fire. Even parts of the ceiling are beginning to fall off.
But the Ultimate Supreme Leader is nowhere to be found.
“KOKICHI! KOKICHI!” the astronaut yells at the top of his lungs hoping for a response, trying to ignore the fact that no one in this dream has been able to see or hear him. But this doesn’t discourage Kaito from trying. “Little bro…please…ANSWER ME!”
Just when he thinks all hope is lost, he picks up the sound of faint whimpering somewhere in the room. “Kokichi!?!” Kaito all but shouts into the burning space. He starts to follow the sound with no hesitation in his steps given how he doesn’t have to be cautious of his environment. Eventually the whimpering becomes its loudest when Kaito reaches the closet doors, the piece of furniture isn’t entirely engulfed in flames, but that won’t remain true for long.
He knows for certain Kokichi is hiding in there and panicking at the situation, but because of his current form in the dream Kaito is unable to open the closet doors to free his little brother. Wanting to at least make sure Kokichi is safe, Kaito decides to test something out; approaching the door of the closet, Kaito leans his face in closer and – just as he expected – his head manages to get a glimpse into the closet. But while he certainly expected what his abilities in the dream were capable of, he was not expecting to see what he did in the closet.
Sitting on the floor of the closet cowering in fear, with his arms wrapped around his knees was in fact his little brother Kokichi. However, this dream Kokichi was a child – literally. Even his D.I.C.E uniform was shrunken down to match his smaller frame, which was already pretty small to begin with. Kokichi looks at the closet door with wide, panicked-filled eyes that look even bigger now that they are on a smaller body. Kaito feels his heart clench when he notices that his little brother is shaking in fear, and that tears are streaming down his puffy cheeks as he continues to stare at the door.
“B-Big brother…” the child Kokichi manages to choke out through his tears “w-where are y-y-you…I-I’m so scared….” A few more sobs escape the smaller Kokichi as he buries his face in his knees. “P-Please save me…” his voice was barely a whisper.
Looking away from the closet in anger, Kaito yells in the direction of Kokichi’s door. “Dammit other me can’t you hear him?!? What kind of hero ignores the safety of someone just because they cause a lot trouble?!?” Kaito keeps looking back and forth between the door and the closet, as if debating whether to rush downstairs and try to grab his dream self, or stay in the room and try to find some way of rescuing Kokichi.
He desperately tries to reach for the handles of the closet, but each time only results in his hands phasing through the door. Growing more and more frustrated with each passing failure, Kaito eventually falls to his knees and repeatedly smashes his fist into the ground in pure frustration.
The room slowly becomes more drowned in the flames…eventually those flames are going to completely cover the closet…and Kokichi will- “DAMMIT! There has to be something I can do!” Kaito shuts his eyes and allows a single tear to fall to the ground by his transparent hand. “Please…please…JUST LET ME SAVE HIM!!”
Kaito is so distracted in wallowing in his disappointment and having his tears blur his vision, that he fails to notice his hands slowly becoming more solidified. It isn’t until he feels the strong heat of the floor against his hand that Kaito snaps out of his raged-induced panic attack. Within a few seconds he regains a physical body and he’s made increasingly aware of just how hot it is in the room when he begins to sweat profusely. Choosing to ignore the ever increasing heat in the room, Kaito runs off to the closet and swings the doors wide open, startling his kid brother hiding inside. As Kaito bends down the child Kokichi leaps into his chest and Kaito can feel a sudden dampness on his shoulder. “Buh…Big brother! I was s-so scared of the fire…” Kokichi does his best to try and wrap his small arms around Kaito’s back, but they only reach about halfway across the older boy’s back.
While Kokichi continues to cry out, both in relief of being rescued and from his fear of the ongoing fire, Kaito wraps his hand around his kid brother’s back and uses his free hand to bring Kokichi’s head to rest on his chest. “It’s ok little bro…I’m here now, and I’ll never leave you behind.” He has to hold his tongue at the cruel irony in his own words, and prioritizes getting Kokichi out safely over anything else. He tells Kokichi to grab onto his torso as tightly as he can, and once the boy clings onto Kaito’s front and wraps his legs around the astronaut’s waist like a frightened koala, Kaito adjusts his jacket so that it protects Kokichi from the smoke and any falling debris. “Hold on tight Kichi,” Kaito warns the smaller boy as wraps one of his arms around tiny leader’s back “we’re getting outta here!”
Letting out a powerful roar Kaito darts across Kokichi’s room and as he gets closer to the door Kaito turns on his side to shoulder bash the door open, he feels Kokichi’s grip on his shirt tighten and he mumbles out a quick apology for his brashness as he makes his way down the stairs. The smoke is extremely thick in the lobby, forcing Kaito to use his one free hand to cover his mouth and prevent his coughing from slowing him down. Fiery planks from the ceiling come crashing down, and Kokichi screaming as each of the panels breaks onto the floor only strengthens Kaito’s drive of getting the two of them out quickly and safely.
As the brothers inch closer to the entrance, Kaito lets out a scream of pain when he feels a small plank sear the back of his leg, halting the progress of their escape.
“K-Kaito!” he hears the child cry out.
“It’s nothing Kichi, we gotta go!” grunting through the pain, Kaito holds his little brother close to his chest as he makes one final dash towards the exit. Going full throttle toward the doors, Kaito musters up all his might to crash through the burning doors, catching the attention of the other students as he and Kokichi briefly skid across the tiled sidewalk. He and Kokichi start coughing the smoke out of their lungs as Maki rushes over to check on the dazed astronaut.
“Kaito are you ok?! You blindly ran back into the dorms without telling us anything – what happened?” Maki asks, her face showing the genuine concern that she is so accustomed to hiding.
“Hmph, guess the dream me musta went inside and…merged with me or some shit like that?” He was beyond confused with this whole scenario, but with Kaito being Kaito he knew had to play this off somehow. “Sorry I made you worry Maki Roll, but I couldn’t shake the feelin’ something was off so I went back inside. Sure enough I found Kokichi trapped in his room so I had to help him out!” Even if his bro was regressed to a kid in this dream, he didn’t want to damage Kokichi’s pride by saying he was hiding in his closet. His small lie seems to convince Maki though and she ends up apologizing for making light of Kokichi’s safety earlier.
“I knew he hadn’t made it out yet,” Shuichi says as he starts limping toward the astronaut “is he ok?”
Kaito scoots himself off to the side as he unwraps Kokichi from his jacket; to say he was surprised seeing that Kokichi had returned to his teenage self would be an understatement. His little bro’s crisp white uniform and face are lightly covered in patches of ash; Kaito shares a concerned look with Shuichi when he sees Kokichi cough out the last bit of smoke in his mouth. Kokichi turns his head to the side as his eyes slowly begin to open, a set of purple eyes a shade lighter than his own look back at him relief almost like they were saying “I’m so glad you’re safe.” The Ultimate Supreme Leader offers a genuine smile in response. “You did good spaceman…you did good…”
Together with his little bro and the rest of his classmates, Kaito watches as Monokuma orders the Monokubs to start putting out the flames from the dormitory before it spreads to the rest of the Ultimate Academy. And the dream world around him slowly begins to turn hazy.
Kaito feels himself beginning to wake up from his rollercoaster of a dream when he feels something warm pressing against his chest, something he likely didn’t notice initially from his grogginess. Pulling off his galaxy-print blanket Kaito spots a familiar head of messy purple hair clinging onto his chest, when the head looks up Kaito is met by a pair of violet eyes staring at him wide-eyed. What was Kokichi doing in his room and why was he in Kaito’s bed? “Kichi? Whatcha doin’ there little bro?”
His younger brother is uncharacteristically silent as he rests his head back in Kaito’s chest and clutches him tighter “…you ok?”
“Huh?”
“I said ‘are you ok?’…I came in here to whine about the lack of breakfast, but then I saw you squirming in your sleep. I figured you were having a nightmare…” So Kokichi was actually worried about him this whole time. Kaito can only assume the only reason he was able to save his dream Kokichi was due to his little brother’s assistance in reality. He can’t help but chuckle at his little bro’s consideration, and brings the small supreme leader in for a brotherly hug – which of course Kokichi tries to squirm out of, but Kaito’s size advantage allows him to pin his baby bro to his chest with ease. “Hey, let me go you big idiot! I was only cuddling you so you could wake up and make me breakfast, so don’t go getting any ideas in that empty skull of yours!” And there he goes with the petty insults to try and cover up his real intentions –he may have forgotten how to spot his little brother’s tells when they had their memories wiped in the simulation, but every since regaining their memories Kaito won’t let himself misjudge Kokichi’s lies anymore.
“Yeah, yeah whatever you say ya little shit!” Kaito chuckles as he ruffles Kokichi’s hair, messing it up even further. “Now come on, I’ll go make us a late breakfast!”
The astronaut attempts to get out of bed, but is tugged back onto the mattress by Kokichi. “Five more minutes...please…” the smaller boy yawns out as retakes his position on Kaito’s chest.
“Haha, sure thing little bro…” he wraps an arm around Kokichi’s back, not failing to spot the faint smile on Kokichi’s face.
“Hmm…thanks….Big Brother…” before Kaito can address that term of endearment he starts to hear the soft snoring of his little brother.
As Kaito goes along with his brother’s idea of taking a (likely more than) five minute nap, he can’t help but feel the urge to let Coach Nidai know of the steady progress with his little bro once they return to school on Monday. Although he strikes that thought when he realizes Kokichi would probably hold it against him for the rest of his life, and it’d likely end up with them making a scene at school.
And the last thing he needed was for him and his little bro to get a scolding from Mrs. Kirigiri for the third time this month.
So he’s perfectly contempt with keeping these rare, private moments with his brother to himself for the time being if it avoids an unnecessary fight. Whenever Kokichi is ready to be more brotherly in public Kaito will always be there waiting for him.
And whether it’s in a dream or in reality, his number priority will always be to keep his little brother safe and sound.