Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kokichi opened his eyes and looked down at the floor again. So many loops he had been through forced him to try every different combination of deaths and murders there could be. His vision had been coloured pink from the blood that seemed through the ground after every execution. However, this was it. This was the final loop he would go through. The only combination that Kokichi hasn't tried - saving everyone.

Kokichi walked out of his room. Today was the day of the time limit. The day where Kaede's plan would be set into motion. He had to get Kaede and Shuichi away from the classroom. He couldn't go to the library and take down the cameras. That would end in his murder and the start of a new loop. Kokichi didn't want that.

He entered the classroom with the vent, almost knowing the entire room on the back of his hand. Kokichi looked down at the vent. He'd need to get something small enough that would throw off the course of the shot-put, or stop it entirely.

He looked around the room, his purple locks bouncing around as he twisted his head around the classroom, searching under desks and in lockers. And then, he found it. In the top of a locker, there was a thick, hefty book. Kokichi grinned. This deadbeat he had been searching for, and now he had finally found it.

Perfect! Now we can survive the first chapter! Kokichi cheered to himself, quickly walking over to the vent and shuffling in slightly, putting the book far enough in so that Kaede and Shuichi wouldn't see it if they weren't looking for it. He shuffled back out of the vent, dusting off his plain white outfit as he looked at his work. Now, with that over, I need to figure out how to stop the next murder- Ryoma's drowning and Kirumi's execution.

--

Kokichi sat outside of the library, waiting at the side door across from the A/V room. He heard the soft voice of Rantaro mumbling under his breath for something. He watched as a flash of light went off, and Kokichi instantly stuck his hand in the door carefully, making it look like he had gotten it stuck. "Heeeey, Rantaro!" He called out, his cheery persona appearing on his face.

"Help me, Rantaro, I'm stuck~" He spoke again, adding the verbal form of a tilde to the end of his voice, a seductive smirk catching his features.

The green-haired boy turned his attention over to the young gremlin that had called his attention away from the bookshelf. “What is it, Kokichi?” He asked, slight annoyance seeping into his voice as he looked over at the short boy. “And are you sure that you’re stuck? It’s just your arm. You can probably get free if you wiggle your arm hard enough.” He chuckled, quickly putting on the ‘big brother’ persona that students like Kokichi had given him.

Kokichi pouted, his lips quivering as he looked at Rantaro, a tear starting to form in his eyes. “Waaah! Rantaro is so mean to mee!” He cried out, tears slipping down his face. “I can’t believe Rantaro would call me a liar! This is so saaad!” He cried again, before wrangling his arm out of the doorway. “Oh well! You could have at least played along, Rantaro!” he squeezed himself through the doorway, entering the library due to his lithe body.

“So, what are we gonna do now? The time limit is soooo close! We could die at any minute!” Kokichi cried, tears spilling at the corner of his eyes.

Rantaro sighed, walking over to the young boy in front of him. “Well, we could alway-” Suddenly, a bell chimed, and the monitor in the corner flickered to life. Monokuma appeared, his features covered in rage.

“Well, since some, no, ALL of you bastards are too lazy to kill one another, I’m gonna have to execute you all!” Monokuma yelled through the screen, raising a button in one of his paws. “Now, since you’ve all forgotten to kill, I’m gonna press this button!” He called, raising a paw closer. “Say goodbye to your lives!”

Kokichi pulled Rantaro closer, a feeling of terror growing in his mind. Is there really no way that we can win in this situation? He asked himself, wrapping his arms around Rantaro for comfort. Kokichi felt Rantaro trembling beside him, and pressed further into the crook of his neck. “Rantaroo, are we gonna diiiie?” He asked, pushing away from the taller boy.

Rantaro nodded, trembling even more than before. Monokuma’s paw made contact with the button, and a loud screeching came from the monitor. Kokichi shut his eyes, pressing them tighter. Suddenly, there was loud-pitched laughter, and Kokichi opened his eyes, rubbing them before looking back to the monitor.

Monokuma was laughing, the button sitting lazily to the side. “Oh, man! I can’t believe you bastards actually fell for that! Did you really believe that I would kill off the cast almost immediately after the season started! Ha! You’re all stupid!” The monochrome bear cheered, doing a little dance to himself before turning the monitor off.

Kokichi cheered, grabbing Rantaro’s hands and shaking them around. “Yay! We aren’t dying, Rantaro! Can you believe it!” Kokichi let go, walking over to the door of the library, opening it and looking over his shoulder. “It would have been terrible if someone did something extremely drastic and irreversible before the time limit!” He called, closing the door behind him and walking to his room. 

Now I need to prevent Ryoma’s murder. God, this is gonna be difficult. Let’s hope I don’t fail. He chuckled to himself, ready to begin drawing on his whiteboard. Now what was one of the main problems that caused his murder?

Chapter Text

Kokichi looked at the whiteboard in his room, studying the words he had written under Kaede and Rantaro’s names. He had found out through the game that usually the next murder would progress unless someone from that ‘chapter’ had died earlier. He remembered the time loop where Kirumi had died first, and had the chapter thrown off. However, things were perfectly fine immediately after, replacing Ryoma’s murderer with Maki instead and moving forwards. That was a weird timeline. Who would have thought that Rantaro would have survived the game?

Kokichi shook his head. He needed to focus on saving Ryoma, and stopping Kirumi from being executed. He walked to Ryoma’s lab, noticing how quiet it was at nighttime. Currently, it was only a few hours before his murder, having set up everything up that he needed to in preparation. Having already asked Tsumugi for sewing lessons to help benefit him for ‘when he had to fight another organisation and patch himself up’, Kokichi had found the curtains that Kirumi would use for the magic show and set them up that morning.

He entered Ryoma’s lab, walking to the bathroom and taking the handcuffs. The first thing I need to get rid of is taken care of. He cheered to himself, thankful for the small victory as he left the showers, walking over to the sink and crouching underneath it, wrapping his hands around the pipe and pulling on it. He tugged again, feeling something pull in the pipe. Guess I have to use something harder. Kokichi thought to himself as he walked out of the bathroom, surveying the room for something he could use.

There, in the corner, was an old tennis racquet. His eyes lit up as he jogged over to the makeshift weapon, re-entering the bathroom and crouching under the sink again. He pulled the racquet back, and slammed it into the pipe over and over again, watching with satisfaction as slight dents and cracks began to appear in the plastic. He swung the weapon again, splitting open the pipe enough so that water wouldn’t get to the sink basin. He left the bathroom, opening his arms to the wide tennis courts before freezing. I don’t have time to waste. I need to stop the next murder.

He walked to the tennis cable, untying both of the knots and pulling the cord out from within the net. Great. Now Kirumi can’t get to the gym with Ryoma’s body. He smirked to himself. This was it, he only had two more things to do, both of which would have to be done in the morning. He walked out of the Lab, walking back to the dormitories with a smile on his face. Now I can focus on stopping Angies’ and Tenkos’ murder. He opened the door, spying his white board and grabbed his marker. Let’s do this.

--

Kokichi ran down the hallways, spying Ryoma on his way to the dining hall lab. “Heeey, Ryomaaa!” He called, running behind the short tennis pro as he sprinted ahead, turning around in front of Ryoma. “Ryomaaa, I want to playyyy!” He dragged on his sentences, jumping up and down as his eyes lit up. “C’mon! Let’s play tag! You’re it!” Kokichi tapped Ryoma on the shoulder, running away from him and resting his hands behind his head.

Ryoma looked at him with annoyance. “What the hell are you talking about?” He asked, raising an eyebrow and pulling out a candy cigarette. “Besides, why the hell are you talking to me about this? Go play with Shuichi, or Kaede. They can tolerate you, and you’ll probably have fun torturing them. Hell, even Himiko can probably be more enjoyable than me.” He let out a sigh, walking further down the hall and past Kokichi.

“Nooo, I want to play with Ryoma! C’mon! Use those leg muscles you’ve developed through your tennis years!” He called, running in front of Ryoma again. “Besides, you look upset. Did something happen last night? Maybe someone traded their motive video with someone?” He asked, looking at Ryoma as his eyes narrowed. “Or maybe there was a hint of…” He paused for dramatic effect, letting out a gasp and raising his hands to his cheek, mouth gaping. “ Blackmail?! ” He cried out, tears threatening to fall from his eyes.

A brief hint of anger flashed across Ryoma’s eyes, and he darted towards the taller boy. “How did you know about that?!” He asked, looking around to see if there was anyone watching the duo before taking a menacing step forwards.

Kokichi stepped back. “Nope! I had absolutely no idea!” Kokichi paused for a minute for dramatic effect. “That is, until now ! Your reaction told me everything!” He jumped up and down like he did in front of Rantaro. “The one who swapped motive videos with a special someone is Ryoma Hoshi, the Ultimate Tennis Pro!” Kokichi pointed at the boy in front of him, taking a stance equivalent to one he had seen Shuichi perform during a trial in another loop.

Ryoma let out a sigh, lowering his cap over his eyes. “Fine, I’ll play whatever game you want me to play. Just don’t tell the others that I went out to get my own motive.” Ryoma walked after Kokichi, who was bouncing energetically in front of him, eyes still shining with faux enjoyment.

--

The duo played until after nighttime, stopping in the kitchen to have dinner with the others before Kokichi dragged Ryoma away again, choosing to play hide and seek around the school. With Kokichi having hidden himself within a small nook inside the library, he looked around for anything he could use to help him stop Angie and Tenko’s murders.

“Hah. Found you.” Ryoma smirked from where he stood, looking over Kokichi’s hiding place with satisfaction in his eyes.

Kokichi pouted, resuming his cheery persona as he bounced into the more open space of the library. “Aww, Ryoma already found me! That’s too bad.” Kokichi sniffled for a minute, tears playing at the corner of his eyes. “Anyway, enough of that. I’m exhausted , and I don’t wanna play anymore. Your secret is safe with me, Ryoma!” Kokichi giggled as he ran out of the library, making sharp turns as he ran to his dorm.

And now to prevent the next murders. He glumly thought to himself as he pulled out his marker, walking back to the whiteboard and moving the pictures of  Ryoma and Kirumi to Rantaro and Kaede’s. Joy.

--

Monokuma swiveled in his chair. “That damn brat is up to something. Neither of the motives are working on the intended victims!” Monokuma slammed his paws down on the table in front of him. “Well, I’ll just rename the Necronomicon to something else and change up the specs a little bit. Easy peasy!” The bear chuckled to himself darkly.  The audience is gonna love this!

Chapter Text

Kokichi looked around at the students that had gathered in the gym, the numbers much larger than what he had seen in any other loop. Good. I'm getting through this. Just need to stop Korekiyo. Kokichi grinned to himself, looking around the gymnasium. Now, this is time for the next motive.

Monokuma jumped onto the stage, his large grin spreading across his face as he looked across the room of students. “Ahh, my dear students, what a wonderful time we’re having at this academy, huh?” He asked, red eye glowing with a malevolent tint.  “Well, it’s time for another motive, since none of you bastards are killing each other!” Monokuma shouted, his voice growing in pitch as he raised a paw.

“So now, I’m introducing the next motive with hopes for someone to take the hint and start the killing game!” Monokuma let a lazy eye run across the audience, his eyes landing somewhere in the middle of the group before moving on.  “Now, I introduce the Re -necronomicon!” The bear cheered out, raising a brightly coloured book that had been painted over messily. “This bad boy right here can bring in any student from one of the other killing games to join you! Think about all the ‘help’ that this can bring!”

Kokichi rolled his eyes, looking at the bear with boredom as he sighed. “Yeah, yeah. I don’t think that this is gonna work.” Kokichi flopped onto the floor, lying on his back on the gym floor. I wonder how they’re gonna react to this. He thought to himself. I’ve never done this before.

Monokuma jumped off of the stage, his plush feet tapping lightly against the wood. He stood over Kokichi, face covered in anger as he looked to the supreme leader beneath him. “Why, you-!” Monokuma’s voice began to rise.

Kokichi smiled a little. Never had this happen before. “Well, you see, Monokuma, you can’t hurt me - it’s against the rules!” Monokuma walked back to the stage, taking in a few breaths to cool himself down.

“Well, why shouldn’t you use this motive? Isn’t it just so exciting?” Monokuma asked, glaring at Kokichi as he did so.

Kokichi grinned again, his smile stretching wider across his face. “Well, Monokuma, why would we need to bring anyone else into this game? I mean, there had to have been at least one other game before this, so that means there would be, like, six other killers. Why would we run the chance of summoning a murderer into the killing game?

“Really, that would just be stupid. Besides, there’s probably a serial killer among that game to spice it up or something. As such, there is no reason to add another student to our game.” Kokichi paused for a moment. “You must be getting desperate, Monokuma. Your ideas are getting stupid.” Kokichi stuck his tongue out of his mouth, walking over to the gm doors. “Adios!” He called behind him, running back to his room to stop the next murder.

--

“I know Angie’s gonna try to do this. She won't take no for an answer, so I need to stop this. I know she goes to one of the rooms, and Korekiyo will try to kill either Himiko or, if Angie dies, Tenko. I need to get all five of us together before Angie tries to take the candle.” Kokichi muttered to himself, walking to his whiteboard and writing a few notes down.

--

Kokichi sat down in the middle of the room, looking at the other four people in the room. “So, is there something we want to do so we can be friendlier with each other? Maybe if we talk enough, we can upgrade our social links!” Kokichi jumped up and down a little bit, hopping from toe-to-toe.

Tenko shuddered a little, shifting closer to Himiko so that she was further away from Korekiyo. “What do you want, degenerate? I bet you only brought us here so that you could take Himiko from me!” Tenko raised her arms in front of the magician, who was currently asleep on Tenko’s shoulder. “Look at how cute she is! I can’t believe that you would try to take her from me!”

Angie gave Tenko’s shoulder a small pat. “Well, that doesn’t matter! They haven’t done anything yet, so Atua thinks that they are fine right now!” Angie cheered, stroking both of the girls’ hair as she did so. “So stay calm. I’m sure that you would be able to take them both on anyways!”

Korekiyo nodded. “Besides, I’m not here to harm anyone. I don’t really care for that kind of thing. If you want an explanation, just ask Kokichi what he wants. I shall just watch for now.” Shinguji smiled beneath his mask.

Kokichi raised his hands, looking as though he was holding onto a bottle of Panta. “Well, I brought us all here so that we could play a few games of never have I ever!” Kokichi held up ten fingers, and the rest followed suit. “I’ll go first - Never have I ever… committed a murder!”

Kokichi took a peek at Korekiyo, gauging his reaction as he spoke the last three words. Korekiyo froze for a moment, looking at Kokichi as the younger boy looked at the three girls. None of them lowered any fingers. Kokichi smiled. “Good! Now, I don’t want any of you to lower your fingers! Let’s promise to keep them all up, alright?” Kokichi asked the others, smiling at them in glee and holding out his pinky finger. “Pinky promise!”

Tenko looked at Kokichi, and slightly nodded, but was still wary. “Alright. That does sound like a good promise, and I don’t want Himiko or Angie to do anything drastic.” Tenko also raised her pinky finger, locking it with Kokichi.

Angie nodded as well, raising a finger to meet with the other two. “Yep yep! Atua tells Angie that murder is bad, so Angie’s gonna stay away from killing anyone!” Himiko did the same, muttering a small line of agreement and raising her inky finger, and eventually asking Tenko to hold her hand there for her because she was too tired.

Korekiyo also raised his hand, interlocking his bandaged pinky with the other four. “I, too, will agree on this promise. Besides, I won’t be able to complete my sister’s promise if I do anything while I’m still here, so I shall keep our promise.” The anthropologist pulled his pinky in tighter, making sure that everyone would lock in their promise.

Kokichi smiled, waving his hand to Tenko. “Anyways, it’s your turn, Tenko!”

--

Kokichi sat in his room, looking at the whiteboard. Now, I just need to stop Miu from starting the Neo World Program. Kokichi let out a sigh, moving four more photos to the ‘Safe’ half of the whiteboard. I wonder how I can do this…

Kokichi flopped down onto his bed. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to think about it tomorrow. Can’t save people’s lives without a good night’s sleep! I wonder if I can get Kirumi to make me something sweet tomorrow. That would be nice. Kokichi smiled to himself, closing his eyes and walking into dreamland.

Chapter Text

Kokichi jumped out of his bed and looked around his room. Alright. Now Miu’s gonna send us into the Neo World Program. I need to tell Gonta which wires go where. Or just avoid it all together. I’ve already stolen the key card, so maybe I should just break it. I’ll pull an Angie!

Kokichi walked out of his dorm, skipping his way to the dining hall where he suspected everyone would be. He walked for a moment more, pushing open the door with a faux smile on his face. “Heeey, everyone! How’s it going?” Kokichi asked, lazily hanging his hands around the back of his head. “We doin’ well?” He followed-up, a grin spreading across his face as he continued.

A few responses were heard from the rest of the room, but Kokichi paid them no mind. “Yeah, yeah, that’s great and all - listen, you guys know how Monokuma introduced that new motive?” He asked another question, trying to gauge the reactions of the dining hall. Again, he didn’t wait for a proper response, but now had more people looking at him. Good, good. Look at me. Keep your attention on me.

“Well, what if we just didn’t ?” Kokichi asked, glancing at his nails. Again, a few more people looked at him, specifically Himiko and Maki.

“What do you mean by that? How can we just ‘not’, when the mastermind is among us? They’ll just kill someone and frame it on someone else if we don’t react to the motive.” Maki complained, tapping her nails against the table.

Kokichi smiled, his face growing darker as he looked to Maki. “Well, Makiroll-” Kokichi was cut off with a “don’t call me that” before he continued. Kokichi pulled out the motive he had snatched, and showed it to the group. “Well, why don’t we just don’t?” Kokichi snapped the card in half, before snapping the halves into quarters, and repeating a few times with each snapped piece.

“Boom! Now there’s no reason for any of us to commit a murder! Besides, we can just stay in groups of eight or something. It’ll be like a giant sleepover!” Kokichi was grinning, jumping up and down on the spot. He looked around, noticing that Tsumugi was grimacing slightly as she glared at him.

Kokichi just smiled. “Awww, Tsumugi, you look soooo mad! Why is that? Are you, like, the mastermind or something?” Kokichi asked, fake concern in his voice. Tsumugi froze for a moment, her eyes growing wide as everyone turned to her. However, she quickly regained her composer, stuttering nervously. 

“A-ah, no, I’m just plainly worried that you’ll get in trouble for ruining a motive…” Tsumugi muttered, raising her hands to protect herself.

Damn, she’s good. If I didn’t know any better, I’d believe her. “Yeah, I know. But! Don’t worry. Monokuma hasn’t made that a rule yet, so it’s perfectly fine!” Kokichi grinned at Tsumugi, happy that he was slightly pissing her off with each motive he destroyed.

Kokichi heard a small grumble from a monitor, before it clicked off and the dining hall went silent. Anyways, let’s get going on our 8-person sleepover! Or, there may be something else we could do… ” Kokichi trailed on, looking to Miu and raising his eyebrows suggestively.

Miu stuttered, looking at Kokichi as she did so. “Well… I was working on something a few days before this. Here - follow me. Besides, you shitfuckers had better be grateful when I show you this. Hell you’re probably gonna cream yourselves!” Miu chuckled, opening up the dining hall and storming outside before any of the others could stop her.

“Well, let’s follow the cumslut! She’s probably gonna get herself killed if we don’t make sure she’s okay.” Kokichi walked out of the dining hall, darting up the stairs behind Miu. “Let’s go!”

--

Kokichi looked around the room, having been in the room at least ten times. “ Woooow, Miu, I can’t believe this is all you had to show us! Are you this bad at your Ultimate Talent?” Kokichi asked, walking up to the machine, grabbing his hand. Every time I’ve been here I’ve been able to get a closer look at this thing. Hell, I even helped Miu build it one time. I practically know this thing inside out.

“Look at this! You’re supposed to be an inventor, and I’m pretty sure that I can destroy this thing with the tap of a hand!” Kokichi looked around the box, before finding an exposed wire. “See?” He asked, slapping his hands against the cords, which caused something on the inside to start smoking. “As an inventor, you should be able to protect your stuff!”

Miu started screeping, which Kokichi decided to call a mix between a screeching and weeping. “W-w-what the actual fuck , Kockichi?! I worked hard on that bitch!” Miu fell to the floor, crying harder.

Kokichi almost felt bad, before he remembered that Miu would have killed him if they did this. However, that didn’t stop him from feeling bad for destroying something she had worked so hard on. Kokichi watched as the others left the room, muttering something about how disappointing it was.

“Listen, Miu, I’m sorry about that, but think this through. The mastermind probably knew you were going to do this, and would have used this to her advantage. They probably would have just stayed out of this thing to kill someone. We wouldn’t have any idea, and she could just say they were having troubles getting in. This wouldn’t have done anything.”

Miu looked at Kokichi. “Wait, what the hell do you mean when you say ‘she’? Did you like, slip up or something?”

Kokichi looked at Miu. “Well, I was gonna save this for Kaito, but.... Tsumugi’s the mastermind!” Kokichi blurted out, before he began to explain the situation to hopefully keep Miu quiet. “Listen, I’m stuck in a time loop - I’m trying to save everyone this time so that I can escape, and I’ve tried everything else. I’ve been through this thing at least 100 times. You need to keep this confidential, because if Tsumugi finds out about this, she’ll kill us both. The next problem is Kaito’s illness. He’s been keeping it quiet and in a normal loop, it would get worse after every death.

“Although, I haven’t seen anything about it, so I’m not sure if he’s just been hiding it, or it grows from stress, or the mastermind hasn’t given it to him yet, but I need to save Kaito as well.”

Kokichi took in a breath, giving Miu an opportunity to speak. The inventor looked back at him, wide eyes shaking before she calmed down. “Well, what do you plan to do about it?”

Kokichi smiled. “Great! Now, you’re my slave to help save everybody!” he chuckled, looking at Miu. “Your talent is gonna be suuuuuper helpful!” He took Miu’s hand and ran back to his room. Now I just have to keep Kaito alive! I can do this. Kokichi’s mind paused for a moment after the last thought ran through his mind. Fuck. Kaede’s rubbing off on me. Stupid penis.

Chapter Text

Kokichi opened the door to his room, letting Miu go before him as was expected. He watched as Miu studied the room for a moment, walking to the whiteboard against the wall and peering at it. "So, Miu, I'm almost sure that the mastermind’s preparing to kill Kaito in some way. They've probably activated his illness already so that the season doesn't completely flop. What do you think we should do?" He asked, walking to the board and grabbing a marker, scurrying down a few notes on it to remember them.

"Well, there isn't much that we can do. Unless we break into Shuichi's lab or something, we're pretty much going to lose the cuck." Miu walked to the board lazily, taking a marker and drawing on the sides and photos of the Ultimates.

Kokichi's eyes widened as he looked at the inventor in disbelief. "Miu, you are a mother fucking genius and I love you. Full home though." Kokichi grabbed onto Mius hand and dragged her out the room, darting upstairs as quickly as he could, all the while Miu kept complaining.

Kokichi didn't stop however. I have to do this as quickly as possible if we want to save him.

--

The two darted into Shuichi's lab, quickly searching around the shelves before they found a few bottles. "Booyah! We can just mix these together and dump it in Kaito's drink or something!" Kokichi grabbed as many bottles as he could, carrying them all in his arms to carry them easier. "Listen, we need to go to your lab and start mixing these together. It's the only way that I can get out of here with everyone else alive." Kokichi rambled, running back to the door a bit more carefully.

"Uh, hold the motherfucking phone  Cockitchy, we’re gonna make my inventor's lab a meth lab? Miu screeched at him, making Kokichi flinch slightly but still turn around.

"Well duh! Do we want to make it out of here alive?" He asked back, trying to push open the door by himself.

"Can't we just kill Tsumugeek or some shit? If she's the mastermind behind all this, then killing her should end the game, right?" Miu was shaking now. "Besides, isn't a meth lab illegal?!"

Kokichi smirked, turning to Miu. "For your first question, I tried killing her on the first day. It didn't work, and I still got executed. Do you know what it's like to be electrocuted? It's not pleasant." Kokichi paused for a moment before returning his attention to Miu. "And besides, we’re in an academy for juveniles. You may have been a meth producer before you came here!"

Kokichi pushed against the door, slipping into the hallway.  "Besides, if you're not gonna help me, then you'll have to catch me!" He called behind him  already on his way down the stairs to the lower floors. "C'mon, Miu!"

--

Tsumugi let out a scream, slamming her fists against the table she had sat at as she did so. Why the fuck did that brat know how to stop every motive that she had given the group? It had been almost impossible to try and sway the group into doing something different, with how plain they had considered her, but Kokichi would just ruin whatever the producers had planned.

Tsumugi slammed her fist down on the table again, her hands growing red as the blood rushed to her palms. "That fucking bitch." Tsumugi muttered aloud, trying to calm herself by taking in a few deep breaths. There's still one more thing that I can try… Tsumugi smiled to herself, pulling open a panel and pressing a button. "This is bound to work for sure!" She giggled to herself, pressing the button a few more times for good measure.

They're going to love this!

--

Kokichi had been busy mixing two of the antidotes together when he felt it - a sharp stinging sensation stabbing its way through his abdomen. He bent over, clutching his sides as he fell  to the floor. He let out a scream, and immediately Miu ran over.

"Cockitchy, what the fuck just happened?!" She asked, holding Kokichi by the arm and bringing him to a seat, still holding onto him tightly.

Kokichi tried to flameless, he really did, but all that came out was a strained laugh. "Nothing, Miu. A ghost of time loops past just punched me! My insides are like jelly now!" Kokichi curled up on himself, sitting still for a few minutes before jumping up again, his stomach perfectly fine again.

Kokichi coughed a few times, before walking towards the bench. "Now c'mon! We've got an antidote to make!"

--

This time it happened while Kokichi was in the dining hall. He had been sitting down normally when something stabbed through his lungs. He coughed, closing his eyes and felt a spurt of blood making its way through his throat. He coughed for another minute, before moving his hand away and looking at it.

Bloody would have been an understatement. His vision made its way down to the table and his empty plate, which were now both stained pink with his blood. He let out a giggle. "Wow, Kirumi, I can't believe you'd try to poison me like that! This is so sad - Kiiboy! Play Despaircito."

Kiibo jumped back in his chair, seemingly ignoring the robophobic remark as he looked at Kokichi. "Ah, Ouma, are you alright?" Kiibo asked, his face somewhat blue.

"Yeah! I've just been poisoned! Can you believe it?" Kokichi cried. If I remember correctly, didn't Kaito cough blood when he had the infection? Kokichi thought to himself for a moment before his eyes widened in realisation. No. No fucking way. This wasn't supposed to happen. I can't have the disease!

--

Kokichi sat in Miu's lab, hunched over his own creation of antidotes. I don't have much time left. Tsumugi gave me the disease at least two days ago, and it's fast-acting. I need to at least try this concoction. Maybe I'll be able to try again in another loop- Kokichi shook his head, trying to get rid of the thoughts. If I can't win this loop, I'll give up. I need to be correct. But… I don't have time. This thing I've made is now or never.

Kokichi grabbed the vial, raising it to his lips as he did so. This is it. I'm sorry, Miu, but I can't wait for this any longer. Goodbye.

Kokichi tilted his head backwards, drinking the contents of the vial immediately. He waited for a minute with baited breath. Then he waited another, scared to think of what would happen if he were to open his mouth. Finally, Kokichi took in a breath, and let out a sigh of relief when he realised that he wasn't dead. He cried, raising a hand over his head and pulling it down, punching the air a few times before he turned to the camera and gave his signature smirk. Now I just need to face Tsumugi - the one who started this thing in the first place.

Kokichi walked out of Miu's lab, and walked back to his dorm room, again covering his features the entire time. The courtroom mockery. My favourite!

Chapter Text

Kokichi stood in the elevator and looked around at the rest of the students, a small smile creeping onto his face. It's time for us to expose Shirogane! Kokichi told himself, taking in a deep breath before walking forwards together in front of the group. "So, everyone, are we ready?" He asked, spinning around in front of everyone.

He received a half-assed response from some of the less enthusiastic members - Maki and Ryoma - while he got a few cheers from the others. He looked over to Tsumugi, and almost laughed at how pissed she was.

Tsumugi furrowed her brows in his direction when she noticed him, and snarled, making sure to hide behind her hand so that the others wouldn't see her hatred. Kokichi smiled again, bringing a finger to his lips as the elevator doors opened.

The students walked into the spacious trial grounds, and took their places, stumbling around them until they found their own name plaques. Kokichi stood at his podium, smiling at Miu who was a few spaces down.

"Alright, everyone! Let's cut this short. It's Tsumugi!" Kokichi held his hands behind his head  smiling at Tsumugi as he did so. "Me and Miu saw her enter the girls bathroom, and then she's suddenly in the library! Crazy coincidence, right Miu?" Kokichi blatantly lied, trying to get Miu to follow up on it.

“Uh, hell motherfucking yeah!” She cackled, raising a finger to her chest. “Tsumugeek was probably high or something, and didn’t realise the two of us were just casually strolling by! What a dumbass, am I right?” Miu was hysterically laughing again, doubled over in her podium before straightening herself back up. “But yeah. She’s the Mastermind. Woo-hoo.”

Tsumugi's hands clutched the trial podium, and she lifted her head, her face distorted with anger as she glared at the  duo from her stand. “Shut the fuck up! Both of you are lying to me!” Tsumugi screamed, slamming her hands on the wood podium hard enough so that she was able to leave splinters. “I don’t care what you saw. You’ve ruined everything for me!”

Tsumugi was still slamming her hands on her podium, making even the likes of Korekiyo lean to the side and away from her. “How the fuck did you stop everything when it was going so smoothly?!” Tsumugi stopped slamming her hands against the broken wood, looking at her bloody hands in almost glee.

“Well. You caught me. I’m the mastermind. I set everything up. Congratu -fucking- lations, Kokichi. Do what you will. We still need something of a proper trial for the viewers.” Tsumugi was smiling, her grin stretching from ear to ear. “Now, why don’t we have our first Argument Armament, Monokuma?” Tsumugi flicked her hand upwards, and the trial room morphed into that of a studio set.

The walls were coloured a strawberry pink, with simplistic fish designs covering the walls in a contrasting blue. Clothes hung on chains and bright red ropes in the corner, sitting limply on a clothes rack. Tsumugi herself was covered in… Everything?

Kokichi rubbed his eyes, looking to the other 14 students to see if they saw what he did. They were all there, staring in disbelief at what they saw. Kokichi brought his attention back to Tsumugi, and gazed at her outfit  a bit more closely. She was covered in one article that each of the students would be wearing. A musical note hairpin in her hair, chains, armbands and rings ,A bug cache was sat carelessly on the side of her hip, and she was wearing one of Kaito’s slippers. He looked around, and finally found his checkered scarf wrapped around her left wrist.

Kokichi looked down at himself, and realised that his scarf wasn’t affixed to his neck. Ah. So that must mean she took something from everybody. Guess I’ll have to do this the only way I know how.

“Okay, you multi-coloured cosplay reject, just because you failed setting up a killing game doesn’t mean you can just steal my look. That cost me a lot of money!” Kokichi called to the cosplayer, watching as the scarf disappeared from her wrist and reappeared on his neck. “See? You can’t even keep up a simple minigame!” Kokichi was smiling to himself as he looked to the rest of the students.

A few of the others stood forward, Rantaro deciding to speak first. “Yeah, if you’re the Mastermind behind all this, you did a terrible job of setting it up.” He muttered, looking at Tsumugi and watching as his rings returned.

Kaede stepped up next, grabbing her backpack with confidence. “Definitely. Now that I think about it, your plan failed the second the first motive failed!” She grinned to the rest of the students, showing her pearly white smile as she did so.

Tsumugi collapsed a little. The hair clip disappeared, and Tsumugi stumbled a bit, taking a shaky step forward as she did so.

Ryoma also moved forwards, grabbing his candy cigarette to console himself from his missing hat. “You’ve still got a ways to go if you’re stealing things that belong to us.” Ryoma mumbled, reaching up and feeling his hat as he did so.

Kirumi peered at the cosplayer in front of the group. “I must say, your efforts to continue the killing game were quite trivial.” She reached up, tugging on her now replaced gloves and bringing them down her arms.

Angie and Tenko both took a step forward, displaying a burst of confidence in their strides. Tenko’s hair was let down, and Angie had been missing her paintbrushes from where they normally sat. “Yep-yep! Atua tells Angie that he is very disappointed in Tsumugi! However, if you give him a blood sacrifice he might forgive you~” Angie let the end of her sentence ring out, and watched as Tsumugi collapsed onto the ground.

“Yeah! I’d think that a degenerate would do something like this, but you let me down, Tsumugi!” Tenko raised her arms in a defensive stance, ready to fight off Tsumugi if she suddenly jumped up from the floor.

The others stepped forwards too - Korekiyo mumbling something about how disgusting she was and getting his mask back, while Miu kept cursing her out until Tsumugi had collapsed. Gonta, unlike the rest of the students, just walked forwards and grabbed his green plastic bug cache that was laying limply next to Tsumugi.

Kaito kept yelling at Tsumugi, slamming his fists together for stealing his cape and making him less cool in front of Maki. Robo-dick had started berating Tsumugi in  a somewhat soft voice, as though he were afraid of yelling too loudly and being told off. Finally, Shuichi, Maki and Himiko all stepped forwards, looking at the sham that was the cosplay-cat-criminal.

Himiko tried to walk over, grabbing her hat from Tsumugi before promptly collapsing next to her, a bubble already forming from her nose. Maki glared at the woman, letting out a slight curse and muttering something about killing Tsumugi when they had escaped. Lastly, there was Shuichi, who just stood silently and stared at the cosplayer in front of him. He opened his mouth, his eyes pried down at her. “You’re alone, Tsumugi, and you always will be.” He muttered, taking his cap and fastening it back on his head before turning around and walking back to the group.

Tsumugi fully collapsed now, wailing down on the floor as she opened her mouth. The rest of the group smiled at one another, happy that they had beaten the final boss. Weird, the bass hasn’t picked up at all. Didn’t even give us some epic music while we were fighting her. Kokichi thought to himself, smiling at the rest of the group as they all stood around for a moment.

Suddenly, Kokichi felt the world shattering, and he looked back down as he was brought back to his podium. He looked at Tsumugi, who’s eyes were filled with red spirals, making her seem like the demon at the foot of his bed every night.

“Ahah! Look at that! You even beat me at a game that I created for this season! Doesn’t that just fill you with despair?” She asked the rest of the students, locking eyes with each of them for a second before moving to the next student. She let out a sigh, collapsing against her podium as she did so. “Oh, well, that’s it. I guess it’s… PUNISHMENT TIME!” She screamed the last part, grabbing Monokuma and one of his paws, pulling a mallet out from under her podium - How did she do that? - and slamming it down on a red button that Kokichi was all too familiar with.

Kokichi let out a scream, raw and feral and charged at Monokuma, who was halfway through the action of dragging Tsumugi along the ground to her doom. I’m not gonna go through this hellhole again! Kokichi  kept running, the other students watching in bewilderment as he charge at Tsumugi, grabbing Monokuma and throwing him to the side like he was a plush toy. Well, he kind of is…

Kokichi shook his head quickly before returning his attention to the woman who was being dragged away tantalisingly slowly. He pushed his legs further, trying to run faster than his short legs would allow him to. He kept running, his sides aching despite how little amount of time he had been running for. The courtroom seemed to stretch on for forever, and he looked at the blue hair that was being pulled through the split walls.

Kokichi leapt forwards, reaching his hands out as far as he could and latching onto whatever he could grab while he closed his eyes, terrified of the prospect of not touching anything but the smooth floor. He latched onto something, and slowly opened his eyes, a haze of blue in front of him as he rubbed his eyes. There she was - Tsumugi was lying down right in front of him, an almost peaceful smile on her face. Her eyes were closed, but Kokichi could tell that she was breathing. Is that a tactic that she did so she wouldn’t feel her execution? Smart.

Kokichi pulled Tsumugi along, holding her by the collar and dragging her back to the trial stands, kicking away the metal cuff that slipped off of her neck. “Listen up, Monokuma. I’m tired of this game - let us out already!”  Kokichi screamed at the monochrome bear. “We’ve already beat your game, and an execution for Tsumugi would just be useless!” Kokichi held Tsumugi by her arms, both protecting her and himself at the same time.

Monokuma grumbled, throwing the button against the floor and smashing it. “God, we couldn’t even get to the final reveal!” Monokuma let out another grunt of anger, before stomping behind the throne. “Just get out of here!” He pressed a button, and a loud clicking could be heard before the elevator opened. “Go on!” Monokuma flopped back on the ground, deactivating fully and becoming a lifeless husk.

The students all let out a cheer, running towards the elevator in satisfaction, proud for having finally beaten the ‘last boss’. Kokichi lugged Tsumugi’s body, jumping into the elevator and having it close behind him and the rest of the students. They sat in the elevator for a few minutes, celebrating and reveling in their victory. The elevator gates opened, and the bright lights ahead of the group were blinding. Kokichi took a step forward, and let his eyes close as he embraced whatever happened next.

--

Kokichi opened his eyes.