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So Kokichi’s true talent was Ultimate Detective? To be honest, Shuichi had suspected as much. It was either that or Assassin, judging by his actions. While he couldn’t say he’d been approaching Angie’s case exactly as he would have done, he was being pretty detective-minded about the whole sordid affair.
It seemed only Tenko was surprised by his revelation, judging by her astonished gasp. Himiko not reacting wasn’t much of a surprise- she had only been awake for an hour and this was probably the tamest thing she’d seen. Kaito also definitely already knew, as did Maki judging by her accusations and smug smile.
Kokichi turned to Shuichi with a sheepish smile. “Sorry I didn’t get to let you finish your guessing game, it seems like someone didn’t want to play. But, would you have got it right? Come on, be honest!”
He couldn’t help but laugh a bit at Kokichi telling him to be honest, but it was fitting enough for this version of him to do. “It was either that or Assassin, and I was leaning more towards Detective,” he admitted.
“I’ll count that as your win. You can cash in your prize later,” Kokichi said with a wink. Out of the corner of his eye, Shuichi saw Tenko miming throwing up and Maki rolling her eyes. “But, we need to focus right now. Maki, please can we just call a truce for now?”
She turned away from him pointedly. “Fine, whatever, I guess. But, I’m not counting you out as a potential suspect, because everyone needs to be investigated, even the people in this room. M has given us fifteen suspects, and we need to thoroughly vet them all.”
“Can we really count out Angie somehow doing this to herself, though?” Kaito questioned. “Like… M could have brainwashed her into knocking herself out!”
“Nah, you can’t build up enough force to knock yourself out with a punch to yourself,” Kokichi said. “So, it couldn’t have been her own doing.”
“The force of the punch,” Shuichi mumbled to himself. Wait, the scale of her injuries didn’t match the series of events- there was just a bruise, no real external bleeding. If she’d really been knocked unconscious by a blow, wouldn’t it have been enough to also cause some bleeding in her mouth or on her face? “One second, let me check something.”
He bent down to examine Angie closer. There wasn’t any blood on her clothes, nor in her mouth, and no teeth were missing or loose. Such a heavy punch as to knock her out should have left more than just a bruise. Therefore…
“The punch wasn’t what knocked her out,” Shuichi reported. “It seems more likely she was drugged.”
“So the puncher didn’t necessarily knock her out?” Himiko asked. “Then, who is it we’re looking for?”
“Whoever was in the library last,” Maki said with a nod. “Whoever was the last one other than Angie to enter and exit it before Rantaro and Kokichi found her would have been the one to do it, or at least an accomplice.”
Kaito snapped his fingers, and quickly flung the door open and rushed outside. A loud “boo-yah!” could be heard coming from the hall shortly after, and he ran back in. “There’s a security camera outside!” He exclaimed. “So, if we look at the footage from last night, we’ll know who did it!”
“Yeah, but how are we supposed to get that?” Kokichi asked. “The note said we couldn’t ask any of the teachers for help, and I can’t exactly just go ‘hey Headmaster, can I see the security footage for outside the library from last night?’ or whatever.”
“Oh, yes you could,” Maki deadpanned. “And if you can’t, just have your mommy buy the school back or whatever.”
“Stop! Fighting!” Kaito exclaimed. “Maki, look, I know how you feel about all that, but this is not the time to be petty.”
Maki looked away from him, nodding. “I… you’re right, I’m sorry. I need to stop letting my emotions get the best of me. Still, that doesn’t solve the matter of how to get the security footage.”
“Couldn’t we ask Tsumugi for help?” Tenko asked, raising her hand like in a classroom but blurting it out anyways. “I mean, I’m sure she’d want to know what’s going on too!”
“What are you asking Mugi?” asked a familiar voice. Rantaro walked into the room, accompanied by a far more frantic looking Keebo, who rushed to Angie’s side and began scanning her with all sorts of weird devices.
After a moment, the medical robot let out something close to a deep sigh. “By all accounts, her state doesn’t make sense,” Keebo asserted. “She’s unconscious and not just asleep, but her injuries don’t match…”
“That’s what I said!” Shuichi exclaimed. “Can you scan her for any trace of any toxins or drugs?”
“I… lack those capabilities,” Keebo said, shaking his head. “But, I doubt someone would have drugged her, it’s more likely she has some unknown malady.”
Shuichi glanced towards the note. Should he tell him and Rantaro-? No, it was better not to openly announce what was going on to as many people as possible. “Ah, yeah, that was a bit of a silly question,” Shuichi lied. “Anyways, Rantaro, you and Tsumugi are friends, right?” What was her talent again? Programmer or something, right? That would be able to help, surely.
“Yeah, we’re good friends,” Rantaro asserted. “But I dunno what she has to do with this all.”
“We wanted to check the security cameras to see when Angie came in here last night!” he exclaimed, improvising. “We thought knowing how long she’d been out might help us figure out what was going on with her. And, I figured the teachers wouldn’t love students just poking around, so if Tsumugi could discreetly hack into them…”
“That’s a decent idea,” Rantaro agreed. “I’m sure she could do that if we asked.”
Keebo, now picking Angie up, gave them a strange look. “It is, but why would you need to hack into the cameras for that? Wouldn’t it be simpler to just ask, if it’s for medical reasons?”
“Um…” Shuichi couldn’t explain that he couldn’t ask the adults for help or risk having to explain the truth, because he didn’t know how strict the rules they were given were.
“Aw, come on, where’s the fun in that!” Kokichi blurted out before Shuichi could come up with a good excuse for Keebo. “We never get the chance to do cool questionable stuff without risking getting in trouble!”
“You would get in trouble!” Keebo exclaimed. “Just because you’re doing it for a good reason doesn’t mean you’re not going to get both yourselves and Tsumugi in trouble! Besides, what would Angie say if she knew you were doing such things for her sake?”
Rantaro gave a light laugh. “Aw, come on, Keebs, Mugi would love doing that! She loves a good challenge.” It still gave him a weird sense of unease to hear Rantaro refer to his murderer in such a casual manner, but he supposed that if Rantaro knew that and chose to trust her anyhow, he couldn’t be too upset by that. “You and the others can work on getting Angie settled in the Nurse’s Office or whatever, I’ll take Blueberry and Shortstack to go find our favorite hacker.”
Kokichi huffed indignantly as Rantaro dragged the two of them out into the hall. “Shortstack? Real mature…” He muttered under his breath. “Is everyone just gonna bully me today? Between you and Maki…”
“Yeah, what was that all about?” Shuichi pressed. “She said something about mommy… buying the school back?”
Rantaro glanced at his writing covered arm. “Uh… I don’t know what you’re talking about, was this something that I forgot while we were talking or-”
“Nah, it was while you were gone to find Keebo,” Kokichi explained. “Maki’s just not a huge fan of mine because… you know, reasons I’d rather not go into. Rantaro, don’t write this down, I’m just telling Shuichi this, so please forget it- Maki gets annoyed because the headmaster is my godfather so she thinks I get special treatment.”
“Oh?” He did talk pretty casually about him earlier, that would explain it. “So you and Kaito…”
“We keep it under wraps,” Kokichi explained. “That’s why we don’t go around saying our names are Kaito Kirigiri and Kokichi Ludenberg- Kaito’s grandfather used to run the school, but his mom handed it over to her close friend because she didn’t want to perpetuate her dad’s legacy.”
“Kokichi… Ludenberg?” What kind of a name was that? It sounded foreign, but Kokichi really didn’t seem foreign…
“Well… Kokichi Yasuhiro, but mama isn’t a fan of that name,” he elaborated. “I guess you wouldn’t know about Celestia Ludenberg, first Ultimate Detective, famed for hiding everything about herself.”
Wasn't Kyoko Kirigiri the first Ultimate Detective- oh, right, other talents would have been swapped too, huh? “So you got your talent from your mom?” Shuichi asked.
Kokichi’s face darkened. “I… really don’t like it when people put it like that. That’s why I have a fake talent and don’t use my real last name- I don’t want people to think that I’m just here play-acting at my mom’s talent. I know I’m only in my position because of the privilege I was born into, but I want to become more than that. That’s why I don’t want to be known as the second Ultimate Detective until I’m more than worthy of the title on my own. Solving a few murders while mom was busy is hardly worthy of praise…”
Stopping in his tracks, Shuichi put his hand on Kokichi’s shoulder. “Kokichi, I never realized how similar we were,” he admitted. “I never felt worthy of my title either, I felt like I only had it because of my uncle. But, even just watching you investigate what happened to Angie, I can tell, you’re much better than you think you are. You are the Ultimate Detective, whether you feel like it or not.”
Kokichi’s eyes widened, a soft smile covering his face. “Shuichi… that means the world to me, you know?”
“Of course I know,” Shuichi affirmed. “Because it’s the thing I always wanted to hear others say to me. It took me going through hell to prove to myself I was enough, and I still doubted myself constantly. But, we don’t have to go through hell to find the truths in ourselves, because sometimes all it takes is someone you trust telling it to you.”
His fellow detective was getting a bit misty-eyed. “Thank you, really. You know, the truth is, even if you’re not the Shuichi I knew, you’re still Shuichi, and you’re-”
“Heeey, uh, should I go?” Rantaro interjected. “You two seem to be having a… moment, and like, if you’re busy, I can go find Tsumugi-”
Shuichi’s face began burning in embarrassment. “Sorry, sorry! I- uh… got distracted…” He’d honestly forgotten Rantaro was even with them… “We do need to go find Tsumugi, sorry! Uh, where are you taking us, anyways?”
“The cafeteria,” Rantaro said with a smirk. “That’s where Kokichi found me, talking to her, right?”
“Oh yeah, forgot about that,” Kokichi said. “You were talking to her when I grabbed you. She’s probably still eating breakfast, right?”
“Probably? I think it’s still breakfast time so she should at least still be in the cafeteria,” Rantaro mused. “It isn’t too much farther, so like, don’t have any more heart to hearts before we get there.”
“So meaaaaan!” Kokichi whined. “Shumaaaai! Everyone’s bullying me today!” He clung onto his arm with a cheeky wink. “You’ve gotta protect meeee!”
Shuichi laughed a little. For a moment, he could imagine this being a regular school day, where he was going to class with two friends who were playfully bickering. He could pretend like his slept-in uniform was just from studying too late, and Rantaro’s frantic notes were just him trying to cram for a test.
But, as they entered the cafeteria, he couldn’t eliminate the sense of dread falling over him as he locked eyes with Tsumugi. She looked perfectly normal, hair in braids pinned up, slunk into an oversized hoodie. But, she was still the one who acted as the mastermind to the tragedy he’d been caught up in, even if ultimately her power in the situation was debatable.
He approached her, hands shaking. “Tsumugi… can we talk to you for a moment?”