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Tsumugi looked between the three of them, clearly a bit surprised. “Oh, Rantaro, you’re back… Is Shuichi okay? I thought he was sick…”
“I’m feeling fine,” Shuichi assured her. He’d almost forgotten he’d been sick, all things considered. In all honesty, he wasn’t sure what had been up with him yesterday. His symptoms hadn’t made a lot of sense either-
Oh. Oh. Just… just like Angie… Was it possible that he too had been afflicted with something by M? Did that mean Angie’s symptoms would vanish just as quickly as his did? Did that mean-
Kokichi snapped in front of his face, derailing his train of thought. “Hellooooo, earth to Shuichi! We need to ask Tsumugi for help, remember?”
“Oh, sorry! I just thought of something- I’ll tell you later.” This could be important, after all. If they were connected, M might be able to somehow inflict afflictions? But how…
Right. Tsumugi. One problem at a time. “Can you hack into the security camera feeds?”
“Not so loud!” Tsumugi scolded. “And… yes,” she whispered. “I can get a live feed easy peasy!”
“We need footage from last night, though, not from right now,” Kokichi clarified in a whisper, now sitting on the table.
Tsumugi frowned. “That’s… more complicated. Archived footage is stored on a computer not connected to any network…You couldn’t get to them unless you’re in the room with it. Trust me, I’ve tried.”
Wouldn’t it have to be connected to some sort of network to get to the cameras? Was Tsumugi making some excuse because she didn’t want to get in trouble? Or… was this an excuse for her saying she didn’t know how? After all, being a programmer didn’t automatically mean you were a hacker.
“I understand, thank you anyways!” He was about to walk away, feeling awkward that he’d asked something presumptuous before Rantaro dragged him back.
“Come on, you still need to do detective stuff,” Rantaro exclaimed. “Ask her where she was last night and stuff!”
“Hm? Where was I last night?” Tsumugi repeated. “Not doing anything terribly exciting- I saw Rantaro and then he went to talk to someone and then play some game with Maki, and I worked on a project. Wanna see?”
Shuichi nodded- that lined up with what he’d been told last night by Rantaro. “That checks out- I was the one Rantaro was talking to. He was giving me notes from yesterday when I was sick,” he bluffed. “Then he told me he was going to see Maki. We can check with her to make sure when we meet back up, I guess.”
Tsumugi seemed to disregard his musing and instead opened her computer to show off how she had one of those little shimeji things. “See- I programmed her to be able to identify the original sources of images stolen from other websites! Now I won’t have to hunt down the original artist when I see reposted fanart! Isn’t that cool?”
“Y-yeah, very cool,” Shuichi said. He had no idea what she just said, but feigned a polite interest. It was very… Tsumugi of her. At least, the Tsumugi he thought he knew for most of the game. She couldn’t be the same girl who wore costume after costume while rambling on about a captivating fiction, right? No, this was the girl who lingered in the background, filled with her own passion, surely.
But, as he assuaged his fears about this Tsumugi, Kokichi walked off, honing in on Ryoma. Shuichi followed him with only his eyes, as Tsumugi was still explaining her little desktop friend excitedly.
Ryoma was the Ultimate Yakuza, right? How cruel that seemed, considering his past, but Kokichi had explained he’d defeated a whole gang and became their new leader, so it checked out more or less. He’d just chosen a different path in that encounter, or something of the sort. He wore the confident aura of danger well, glaring at the purple detective as he approached. “What do you need, Ouma?”
“Oh, I just wanted to ask you a few questions is all-” Kokichi was cut off by the intensity of that glare going way up. “Ah- I- I see you’re busy! I’ll ask later!”
Seeing Kokichi of all people run off intimidated was a sight to behold, but he instead went over to Kirumi, who was pouring over a book about crabs. She was the Ultimate Entomologist, just like Gonta had once been, but according to Kokichi, specialized in spiders and other arthropods and was a bit miffed they were lumped in with insects. Considering her execution, this too seemed needlessly cruel. Perhaps the god of this world had a sick sense of humor.
Still, she looked at Kokichi with hesitation. “I’m still not letting you bring any of my crysali to your kindergarten substitution stint,” she almost huffed. “They are living beings, not some prop for a demonstration! And, I certainly trust neither you nor six year olds to properly respect them.”
“Wha- no, that’s not it at all! I needed to ask you where you were last night!” Kokichi exclaimed. He was only met with a suspicious glare. “I-it’s important!”
“Sure it is,” Kirumi said, rolling her eyes. “It’s very important to me that you mind your own business, you know.”
Kokichi walked back towards Shuichi and Rantaro, who were both trying to look as if they were paying attention to Tsumugi, but either Rantaro was doing a much better job, or was sincerely interested in it. “Ugh, they’re not listening at all! Shumaaaai, help me out here! Ask Korekiyo for me!” he all but demanded, dragging him out of his seat. Tsumugi didn’t seem to particularly notice or care that her audience was halved.
“Uh, ask him where he was last night? A-alright… Is this how we’re gonna narrow down subjects?”
“Of course it is- if we can’t get the tapes, we’ll go to the source!” Kokichi exclaimed. “Now, just tell Korekiyo something believable. Remember, he’s the Ultimate Traditional Dancer, so like, be polite and shit!”
Shuichi rolled his eyes a bit. He did remember that one, mostly because picturing the strange grace of the anthropologist he knew as a dancer had struck him as rather fitting. He wasn’t wearing the usual mask, and thankfully wasn’t wearing bright red lipstick either, so that was a good sign he was a bit more comfortable with his own beauty instead of just fixating on that of others. He really hoped he was doing well in this world, honestly.
“Um- Korekiyo, may I speak to you for a moment?” Shuichi asked, drawing his attention. His beauty was really striking like this, hair drawn up in an intricate bun with lovely combs and pins in it. Ugh, no, stop getting off track, Shuichi, stop being such a useless homosexual, he told himself firmly.
Korekiyo gave a small chuckle. “What’s wrong, Shuichi, have I captivated you without even taking a step?” Oh, dammit, he was blushing, wasn’t he? Now Kokichi was all annoyed at him, glaring between the two of them with a pout on his face.
“No, you just look nice today,” Shuichi assured him, biting the inside of his lip, trying to will himself to concentrate. “I- I just wanted to ask you if you were, uh, with anyone last night? I… uh, since I was sick, I didn’t wanna miss anything!”
“You certainly shouldn’t ask me out in front of Kokichi, that just seems needlessly cruel,” Korekiyo said with a sly smile. “Unless this is a proposition to see the both of you? In which case, I would sadly have to decline, as I would rather not be the third party between a beauty and a brat.”
Kokichi made a sound like an angry tea kettle, and dragged Shuichi away. “Excuse us-” he called back to Korekiyo before pulling Shuichi into the hallway. “Shu, what the fuck was that? Wasn’t he like, a serial killer or something in your world? Why the hell would you start going all ‘oh are you seeing anyone’ and shit?”
“Th-that’s not at all what I meant to say!” Shuichi exclaimed, covering his face in embarrassment. “I- I wasn’t sure what to say and it all came out wrong! Besides, I can’t hold that against him, considering that was another world and he seems like he’s doing a lot better here!”
Kokichi maintained that glare until Shuichi relented with a bit of elaboration. “Ugh, fine, it also probably had something to do with the fact he’s pretty and I got a little distracted. Who doesn’t occasionally have a gay panic- I’ve never seen him like that!”
“I’m pretty too…” Kokichi mumbled under his breath. “I can wear kimonos and kanzashi… Ugh, now you’re getting me all distracted! So far, I’ve pissed off Kirumi and Ryoma, and you’ve flirted with Korekiyo, and we’ve learned nothing except that Tsumugi can’t help us! What do we do now? We need to like, compare stories and shit if we can’t see the security footage to see where everyone was last night, but how do we ask that without looking totally sus!”
“Hm…” An interesting quandary, but had Shuichi the need to ask people for their stories without alerting them to if something was wrong, what would he do? “Well, if I were in your position, I would tell everyone it’s a project related to my detective talent- oh, but they don’t know about that. So that’s not…”
Eyes suddenly filling with an eager light, Kokichi turned back towards the cafeteria. “No, no, you’re onto something,” he said with a nod. “Here-” he shoved a bunch of coins into his hand. “Go to the vending machine over there and buy all the powdered donuts. Then meet me at Kaito’s talent development room. Mine is right across the hall from his.”
“O-okay?” He couldn’t quite follow his plan, but he wasn’t about to say he had a better one. “What are the powdered donuts for?”
“Gonna bribe everyone to come help with food. You’ll understand when you get there, just hurry and get them.” Kokichi ran off before he could explain more. Shuichi, uncertain of what exactly to do, ran over to the vending machine and started putting in the coins and code for the powdered donuts over and over again. By the time he had gotten them all, he wasn’t sure if he could carry them all! This school sure stocked a lot of them, how popular were these things?
He tried to get the armload out of the vending machine, but found them falling out of his arms as he got them out. Maybe if he used his shirt to help carry them? But, before he could ponder whether it was worth taking his shirt off for this, a familiar voice laughed behind him. “Need some help, Shuichi?”
Kaede had picked up some of the dropped donut packages and was smiling. Shuichi let out a sigh of relief. “Yes, thank you! Kokichi told me to bring all of these to his talent development room.”
“Alright? I’m a bit confused as to what’s going on, but I’ll do my best!” Kaede exclaimed. “Maki left me some note saying Angie had gotten hurt so everyone was abandoning the exorcism, and then I tried to find everyone but they weren’t in the library anymore! Can you explain?”
He was about to, before a chirp of doubt squeaked up in his mind. Kaede could have been late because she’d gone to the library beforehand and not because she was on a morning run, right? He couldn’t trust her right now, as much as he wanted to. He hadn’t even seen Maki’s note, so for all he knew, mentioning the library could have been a dead giveaway.
So, he couldn’t really explain. He’d just shrug it off. “Not too sure myself,” he lied. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”
Kaede frowned a little, as if she could sense his hesitation, but nodded. “Alright. Kokichi never lets anyone in his talent room, so I can’t say I know why he needs all these powdered donuts.”
“He did not explain that part,” Shuichi mused. “Uh, is this the place?”
The door was cracked open, and all of their classmates from the cafeteria were gathered, sitting either on the floor or on hefty black tables. Kaede’s eyes widened a bit. “Why does the Child Caretaker’s lab look like… well, a lab!”
“A forensics lab,” Shuichi muttered under his breath. He’d recognize this kind of place anywhere. It was certainly a lot different from his mostly cozy Ultimate Detective lab, but still definitely fit the theme. “Let’s see where he’s going with this.”
He and Kaede set the donuts down on one of the tables, where Miu was sitting and staring blankly at Kokichi, who had a whiteboard in the front of the room. Her blank stare turned to an excited grin as they set them down. “Sweet, there’s the promised snacks!”
“Yep! Like I promised, you guys help me test my fancy new toy, and you’ll get donuts!” He pulled out a little clip that looked like it was meant to go on someone’s finger. “The all new Ultra Portable Polygraph!”
Shuichi was… unamused. He’d seen polygraphs before, and not only were they bullshit, but they looked nothing like that. That thing was probably just a pulse oximeter from the looks of it, but everyone else seemed convinced.
“Why do you have a polygraph, anyways?” Ryoma asked. “Aren’t you a babysitter?”
Kokichi giggled happily. “Weeeell, lemme show you, and I’ll demonstrate its functioning while I’m at it!” He clipped the thing on his finger. “I am the Ultimate Child Caregiver.”
The device beeped- Shuichi was pretty sure that he’d pressed a button on it to make it do so. “See? That’s a lie! My real talent is… Ultimate Detective!”
He didn’t make it beep that time. Everyone seemed pretty impressed. “Noooow, as the Ultimate Detective, I need to test my little friend here, so I’m gonna ask you all a series of questions I need you to answer truthfully! Who wants to go first?”