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All around him, Kaito saw darkness.
A dark, quiet abyss that embraced him, and the drill he was in, gently.
He recalled all of his astronaut training. Where he would physically or mentally prepare for traveling throughout space.
“The simulations in training were never as beautiful as this.” He thought to himself, before another thought forced its way through.
“Simulations.”
“Simulations?” He continued, contemplating the word, and why it bothered him.
Deep down he knew what he was thinking, but he wanted to be clueless and forget. He had finally reached the stars, it was not the time to be grimacing over the past. But for some reason, he couldn’t control his thoughts.
Flurries of memories started to fill his head. And more were rushing in by the second. The view, which was so peaceful a minute ago, was now suffocating him with memories of immense pain.
The once realistic nothingness of his dreams was now a poorly done imitation.
The endearingly cold black sky, with Earth far behind him, was now replaced with a purple one. Reminding Kaito of his childhood drawings of space. Stars were now all around him, all with five pointed tips, and no real light emitting from them.
The moon and Saturn were unrealistically close to each other. And had odd faces painted on top of them. Smirking at him, with an expression of despair.
He felt the drill, (which is apparently a makeshift rocket too, huh?) slowly start it’s engines. Ready to follow through on the rest of his execution. But before his heart could drop at this frightening factor, something else began to pain him.
He could feel the warmth in his throat, as he knew blood and bile were rushing up.
He gently touched his throat, and could now feel just how much he was sweating. He longed for the original calming cold that he felt from the metallic insides of the rocket.
Now though, the rocket eerily promised him his demise was soon to come. With the buttons and control panels all flashing a concerning scarlet.
A small pixelated Monokuma appeared on the screen. Wearing a construction worker’s helmet, and holding up a red sign, with the word “DANGER” written on it. The alert told him that the engines had a “teeny weeny lil’ chance that they’ll spontaneously combust.”
Kaito would’ve criticized its wording with a scoff, but rather a choked out cough came out instead.
Kaito opened his eyes just for a second, only to find his own blood pooled in his hands, and splattered on said control panel.
“Ha! Is that supposed to scare me? I’ve seen more blood than this before, Monokuma!” He boasted in his head, trying to not think about the excessive pain flowing through his lungs.
“I killed Kokichi with that press, remember? You think I can’t handle blood?” He continued, now filled with another type of pain, grief.
But grief is unimportant when your about to choke on your own insides.
He coughed.
He wheezed.
He hacked.
He gagged.
And for a split second he felt his body go numb. And felt the approach of a deep pain.
Which unleashed as he choked once more.
___________________________________
Kaito woke up, and he was hyperventilating.
He immediately got out of bed and sprinted to the bathroom. He didn’t want to wake up any of the people in neighboring apartments, so he tried to run quietly. Truth be told, he just couldn’t hear his footsteps over his laboring breaths and heaving coughs.
He thought he was gonna be sick.
He coughed up all he could to get it out.
He wanted this stupid disease gone already! This disease made Maki and Shuichi worry about him, it made Maki almost murder, it made Kokichi choose him to help in his plan, it made Maki cry, it made Shuichi cry, and hell, even if Kokichi didn’t cry about it, he clearly didn’t like it!
So he wanted it gone.
For his sidekicks, for the boy he killed, he wanted it gone.
After coughing like he was going to die for about ten minutes. He decided to see how much he’d gotten out.
He looked down, and all he saw was saliva and a small amount of bile.
He gritted his teeth,
“Not enough at all!” He said, forgetting his earlier sentiment, that he didn’t want to wake up the neighbors.
At this point, (about a month after the game,) the doctors had given him an antidote for his illness, which had still been in his lungs slightly, after getting out of the virtual reality.
Right now his illness is slowly decreasing, according to the doctors it should be gone in a week. But still, he wanted to hasten the process. His lungs and his throat burned, now that he was panicking and breathing heavily.
It made him want to cough it all up until it went away. That would make it all go away. Or at least that was what Kaito’s frantic mind thought during these frustrating moments.
So, he kept on coughing into the sink, trying to force the blood out.
But none came.
Truth is, his illness was a lot better than it was in the game. At this point, the coughing was just making his throat sore and making him breathe even harder.
After a while, he decided to stop.
Wiped all the saliva and bile off his mouth and chin, washed his hands, and turned to leave the room.
Upon his exiting, he tripped over a lump on the floor. And plopped onto his
galaxy-print rug next to said lump. He looked up to find Kokichi Ouma, propping up the side of his face with his knees, head slightly buried in them. He must’ve just gotten up, because he was wearing pajamas and his hair was extra curly and unbrushed.
He looked at Kaito with a cold stare, almost a pout. His usual dark eyes, beaming with childlike happiness and lies, were now brightly reflected by the glowing star stickers on the ceiling. Giving them a frozen, almost transparent shade of lilac.
“Why’re you here?” Kaito said, hoping he didn’t see all of his tantrum.
“Heh, you’re not gonna ask how I got in first? Aw man, I really am becoming predictable and boring huh?” He responded, still seeming spaced out, despite his words.
“You’ve got a lotta tricks, ‘Kichi.” He responded, almost fondly.
(Ew-no, don’t do that..)
“I just know you probably broke in, what I don’t know is why. So, why’re ya here?”
“Wow Kai-chan!” He said, placing his cheerful mask back on. “You’re actually thinking before you speak? I’m impressed.” Admittedly, this made Kaito smile.
“Go ahead Kokichi,” he thought to himself, “you should just tell me all about your ‘evil plans’ and my stupidity, and forget about what you just saw.”
“Please forget about it...”