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The Other Shuichi, Butler Shuichi as it might be easier to call him, was clearly a neat freak. Nothing in his room was out of place- not a speck of dust, not an item out of place, not even any pens sitting out on his desk not in a pen cup. The only things that were out of place were the remnants of Kaito and Kaede’s outburst this afternoon, and he didn’t feel like picking that up, so that would remain.
As for the rest… well, Butler Shuichi would have to forgive him. There were plenty of sticky notes to strew about with the information he had gathered about his current predicament over the course of the day. All Rantaro told him, all Kokichi told him, and all he knew from what had happened would be written up and stuck on the wall. It would be easier to keep track of everything like that.
Everyone’s talents, all his memories, all Rantaro had shared, the events of the day- he lined it all up until he arrived at something he’d forgotten about until now. A sticky note reading “Kokichi calling Kaito his brother” remained in his hand, and he frowned at it. What had his exact wording been? “My brother is usually full of shit” or something of the sort?
It hadn’t been ambiguous, he’d definitely referred to Kaito as his brother. And so, time to text Kokichi and ask him if he was still awake, because that was important information to know.
He didn’t get a response for a good while, and was starting to think he was asleep and proceeding to put up more notes. But, he heard a thumping against his door, more like someone kicking it than a knock. Shuichi rolled his eyes and went to open it, having an idea who it might be.
“That wasn’t an invitation, you know,” Shuichi told his unintentional partner in crime. “I just wanted to ask you something.”
Kokichi was struggling under the weight of a huge stack of books. “Y-yeah, I know, but I wanted to talk to you anyways!” He stumbled into his room and plopped the books down inelegantly on his bed. “I was doing some research and- what happened to your wall?”
“Just thought it was good to lay all the information we had out,” he said with a nod. “And something specific I wanted to ask you about.” He took the sticky note in question and poked it onto his forehead.
“Ha, very funny,” Kokichi said, clearly holding back a genuine smile as he peeled it off his head. “Oh- you… was that not a thing? Were we not brothers in your murder world? Or did you just not know?”
“If you were, no one ever thought to tell me,” Shuichi said with a shrug. Nothing he’d heard of their pasts lined up with that- Kaito had lived with his grandparents, while Kokichi… honestly, who knew where he came from other than a group of clowns. Kaito would have mentioned it if they were related at some point, surely.
But… something didn’t add up. In the yearbook, their surnames weren’t the same. Kaito Momota and Kokichi Ouma, if they were siblings, wouldn’t they have the same last name? He raised an eyebrow. “But, your last names… are you lying to me?”
Kokichi paused from opening one of the books he’d brought with him. “I dunno, am I?” he asked with a wink. “You’re a detective, right? Can’t you figure that much out?”
He thought for a moment. They didn’t look a lot alike aside from the shared affinity for the color purple, but they did certainly act like siblings. They were certainly close, and teased each other. “Oh! Are you stepbrothers?”
“Ding ding ding! We have a winner!” Kokichi gave a mocking applause. “Our moms had us before they got married, so we have different last names. Any more questions?”
“A few, yeah…” He wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell him about his discussion with Rantaro yet, especially since Rantaro had seemed so against him telling anyone about this in the first place. But, he might as well press with his one big and important question regarding him in this world. “Most importantly: what is your real talent?”
He expected Kokichi to deny his question, ask what he was talking about, or something of the sort. But instead, he smirked. “See, I knew you were perceptive.”
“Perceptive, and Child Caretaker was Maki’s fake talent,” Shuichi clarified. He didn’t want to give himself too much credit for this. But, yeah, it was hard to believe he was a Child Caretaker. He could see kids liking him, but he didn’t seem very… caretaker-ish.
“Hm. Unfair advantage,” Kokichi said, crossing his arms. “I’ll tell you it’s not my real talent, but I’m not telling you what the real one is. I’d rather see what you can puzzle out, Mister Detective.”
“So you’re testing me…?” That seemed out of character for what he knew of this Kokichi. Someone who’d been willing to trust him from the start, and yet he intended to test his ability to deduce his true talent.
There were two scenarios in which that would make sense: one would be if he had a talent he wanted to hide from him, and the other would be if he was trying to assess his skill as an equal. But, if it were the former, he wouldn’t have been willing to admit was lying, right? No, it didn’t make sense for him to admit outright to lying in either scenario, unless he took into account that it was foolish to expect any incarnation of Kokichi to operate perfectly logically. He was toying with him, regardless of the truth.
“I think I have it narrowed down to two possibilities,” Shuichi admitted. “But, I would like to continue to observe this and see which is correct, as they seem equally likely at the moment.”
Given the way he smiled, he presumed Kokichi found that to his liking. “Alright, I look forward to seeing what you arrive at,” he said with a nod. “In the meantime, I wanted to show you my own findings.”
“Which is-?” He had a heavy book dropped in his arms, cover facing him. It looked to be a rather weathered book, giving off an imposing air even with a few colorful bookmarks hanging out of it. But, it was the title that worried him, not the length or age.
“The Killing Game of Despair and Students of Hope, Volume One, by Junko Enoshima,” he read out. “Is this-?”
Kokichi shook his head. “It’s a little different from what you described to me, but the same basic premise. Fifteen students are trapped in a school and forced to kill each other and all that. There are a few more like it- one where they’re on a deserted island, one where the people who survived the first one get put into another one, one with a city that got taken over by a bunch of kids, and a few prequel things. They even have that weird black and white bear you mentioned.”
Tsumugi’s words echoed in his ears. Fiction, all of it was fiction, even them. But, if it was fiction, then why was his pain still so real? “Tsumugi… It’s like what she said…”
“Huh?” Kokichi’s eyes lit up at the mention of Tsumugi. “Oh, right! Meant to tell you, Kaito told me Tsumugi wasn’t in class today- she was your mastermind or whatever, right? So it’s kinda a weird coincidence she wouldn’t be there.”
“W-why didn’t you tell me that first?” Shuichi felt cold at the information. With the confirmation Rantaro still knew what had happened to some extent, that meant anyone could, and that very well would apply to Tsumugi. “We have to question her! I had disregarded her with the assumption that I only remembered because I didn’t die there, but knowing that isn’t necessarily a factor, that leaves her as the most prime suspect!”
“What do you mean, that isn’t a factor? When did you rule that out?” Kokichi approached his wall of sticky notes, looking closely at it. “You know, if we’re gonna be working together, you’ve gotta share your data with me too!”
Ah, so it was already time to decide if he was going to regard Rantaro’s wishes to keep everything between the two of them as excluding Kokichi. Well, all things considered, it was a little too late to reverse his decision to tell Kokichi at all, so might as well just put all his trust in him while he was at it.
“Rantaro also remembers some things,” Shuichi reported. “I talked to him a little bit ago. Seems like he’s remembered things for a long time, and a bit differently from how I did. He wasn’t happy I’d told you what was going on, he’d rather have kept it a secret, but it’s a little late for that.”
Kokichi scanned the wall, looking at the sticky note that said “Rantaro’s memories are scrambled” with a concerned frown. “So that’s what’s up with him… I always sort of wondered, but… Well, if he isn’t on board with me, you can just be our liaison! Or he can just join our little investigation duo and make it an investigation team. I’m fine either way. He’ll be a good way to get in touch with Tsumugi if she’s still M.I.A. tomorrow.”
“He would be-? Oh, right, they’re friends here, aren’t they?” That would explain why he’d borrowed her jacket, according to his hand notes. “Considering she murdered him, that’s a bit weird, isn’t it?” He did seem to have some memory of the events of his death he shouldn’t have had, after all. Did he know Tsumugi had really killed him? He had to have, since he’d worded it like he knew it hadn’t been Kaede.
“Maybe it isn’t Tsumugi,” Shuichi said more to himself than to Kokichi. “If Rantaro still trusts her after knowing all this time, wouldn’t that mean she’s cleared of suspicion?”
“Unless Rantaro is in on it,” Kokichi suggested. “You said he’d remembered your other world for a long time, so maybe he’s why you’re here or whatever?”
He shook his head. “No, he was surprised that I remembered,” he recalled. “And he didn’t seem to really know what was going on either. He could have been lying, but I don’t think he’s behind this.”
“It’s worth questioning him, at least,” Kokichi posited. “But like… in the morning. It’s late, and we still have that whole exorcism thing you agreed to. And like, school, if you’re not actually sick.”
He groaned. He’d forgotten about Kaito’s exorcism plans. He was still honestly a bit worried about that, especially considering how the last occult ritual he’d been involved in had turned out, but there wasn’t really any getting out of it if it would ease Kaito’s fears. “Right… well, I won’t keep you. Can you please move all those books from off my bed?”
“Nope- I carried them all the way in here. They’re your problem now,” Kokichi reported. “Anyways, sleep tight, Shumai!” He hugged him as he left, lingering just a bit too long. It was the least he could do to return the hug. He couldn’t forget that he’d all but erased a close friend of his and yet he was still helping him, after all.
“Thank you, and sleep well,” Shuichi said softly before he left. He couldn’t tell if he’d been heard, but he hoped he had been.
He sat back on his bed, looking at the stack of books he’d been brought. They could potentially tell him something, if they were indeed reflecting the events of the other world, right? If that world was one of fiction, was it that weird for books here to contain parts of it? It could give him a better idea of how the two worlds fit together, maybe.
To be honest, he didn’t learn much from it. The plot seemed similar to the previous killing games he knew about, but the names were all different. Masuyo Nakamura, Haru Hinawa, Kotone Nakamura, Yusuke Murakami, Risako Okata- none of these names rang a bell. They were kind of similar to the ones he knew, but not close enough for him to be certain he wasn’t just reading a very similar book most of the time.
Monokuma was the only thing keeping him certain there was a connection. It was definitely the same Monokuma, even without the Monokubs there too. There was a bunny called Monomi in one of them, but none of those little brats. This was another story, but told in a way that made him certain there was some connection. Plus, the author, Junko Enoshima, wasn’t she the alleged originator of the Killing Games?
For a moment, he wondered if he should try and contact her, but the publication date alleged that these books had been written many, many, years ago, to the point she was almost certainly long dead. But, out of curiosity, he decided to look her up on his phone, at very least to see what kind of person she had been.
Nothing turned up for her name. A few scattered mentions of other Junko Enoshimas who had social media pages, but no authors by that name. He looked up the book title itself. Again, a resounding nothing. It was as if the book didn’t exist, and yet it was right in front of him.
By the time that mystery had come up, though, he was too exhausted to care. It wasn’t as if he had a time limit to solve this, so it was better to sleep. He passed out in his clothes next to the pile of books, and awoke to the sound of an annoying beeping alarm feeling as if he’d somehow gotten negative sleep.
He cracked his back as he stood up and checked the time. 7:45, he should get moving for that dumb exorcism thing. He felt sore as all hell, but he wasn’t in the mood to stare at books or sleep more, so he just got up, ran a hairbrush through his hair, and asked Kokichi where the heck this thing was supposed to take place.
A set of directions later, he arrived half awake at a room that pretty closely resembled one of those Talent Development rooms back at the other school. If he had to guess, it was just that for Kaito, as it was filled with crystals and candles and all sorts of weird magic-looking stuff. There were four people already there- Kaito preparing some circle of candles and dried flowers, Maki sitting on a table and watching him do so, Kokichi looking at something on his phone, and oddly enough, Himiko, who was asleep on a fancy looking velvet cushion on the floor.
“Why is she here,” he asked, gesturing to the princess. “And where is Kaede?”
Instead of an answer, Maki gave him a concerned frown. “Fuck, Kaito, he looks awful, are you sure you have to put him through this?”
“I’m healing him,” Kaito insisted. “And to answer your questions, Kaede is still on her morning run, and we needed four people for the ritual, and since Kokichi is potentially compromised, we had to look elsewhere-”
“As if I would have even agreed in the first place,” Kokichi interrupted. “Also, morning, Shuichi.”
Kaito rolled his eyes. “Anyways! As I was saying! Himiko expressed interest in participating in such a ritual, so she volunteered herself to help. Though, I’m starting to wonder if she will be awake in time for this. She came in an hour ago saying she would help me set up, and then fell straight back asleep.”
Shuichi couldn’t help but smile. It was nice to know some things never changed, and Himiko being a perpetual sleepyhead was one of them. “Well, as soon as you’re ready, I can wake her up.”
Eyes scanning the scene, Kaito fiddled with the positions of a few flowers before nodding. “Yeah, go ahead. We can get in position, Kaede should be back in a few minutes, anyhow!”
Walking over to the sleeping princess, he shook her awake. “Himiko, it’s time to wake up,” he said, trying to present a friendly smile.
Her eyes opened slowly. “Huh-? Shuichi, what are you wearing?” She asked with a small yawn.
Before he could apologize for coming in the same clothes he’d slept in, Kaito came over. “Great, now, Himiko, if you could-”
As soon as her eyes met Kaito’s, an expression of shock settled over Himiko’s face. Her breaths grew uneven as she stared at him with abject horror, her face growing pale. Kaito opened his mouth to say something, but was met instead with Himiko’s blood curdling scream.