Chapter Text
Cat's In The Cradle
Act I: My Child Arrived Just The Other Day
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man in the moon
When you coming home Dad, I don't know when
But we'll get together then
You know we'll have a good time then
Kyoko Kirigiri had one reason for coming to Hope's Peak Academy- to settle things with her father.
As far as she knew, her father believed that running a school was more important than continuing the family's tradition of being detectives, or raising his daughter.
So Kyoko knew what she had to do. Using her talent for detective work, she planned to gain admittance to her father's school and cut ties with him.
With laser focus on the task at hand, Kyoko achieved her goal. She'd learned the hard way that letting her emotions get the better of her could cost her dearly, and since she was reminded of that mistake every time she looked at her gloved hands or the burn scars underneath, she had no intention of repeating it.
After the opening ceremony, the fifteen students of Class 78-C went around introducing themselves to one another, giving their names, their talents and any other details they saw fit to provide to their new classmates. Some were talkative, while others kept their cards close to their chests, and Kyoko was firmly in the latter category.
An average-looking boy walked up to Kyoko. Kyoko had seen him making the rounds and introducing himself, but was surprised that he seemed specifically interested in her.
"Hello," the boy said. "My name is Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Lucky Student. What's yours?"
"Kyoko Kirigiri," Kyoko said, "the Ultimate Detective."
Kyoko was almost tempted to only provide her surname, since it seemed unlikely that she and Makoto would ever get onto a first-name basis, but felt it was good to respond in kind.
"Nice to meet you, Kirigiri-san," Makoto said, as they exchanged bows. "I didn't see any information about you when I searched for information about our class, so I'd like for us to get to know each other a bit better."
"I'm not surprised that not many people are talking about me online," Kyoko said, "since while many Ultimates were famous beforehand, I'm not like them. It was extremely unusual for me to stand out."
"Oh, I see," Makoto said. "Personally, I don't have any talents I could claim as my own, and was only selected by chance."
Kyoko nodded, and listened to Makoto talk about himself for a little while, trying to get her to join in.
"If you don't mind my asking, Naegi-kun," Kyoko said, "why are you telling all this to someone you just met?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Makoto said. "After all, I'm hoping we could become friends."
"Friends, is it?" Kyoko said. "It's rather bold to suggest this to someone you just met. I would assume it's a ploy to gather information about me, but so far, you've been the one offering information on yourself."
"Is that a bad thing?" Makoto said.
Kyoko paused and shrugged.
"Not necessarily," Kyoko said. "Any information you give out, both from what you tell others outright and what you show them in your actions, can be used against you. However, there seems to be no apparent ulterior motive behind your offer of friendship, so you're honest, if nothing else."
"Thanks, I guess," Makoto said. "I guess you mean it as a compliment, but it doesn't feel like one."
"My apologies," Kyoko said. "We merely come from different walks of life. Each of us, as well as our thirteen classmates and other schoolmates, has our own specializations, our own backgrounds, so I believe few of us will find much common ground."
Makoto shook his head. Perhaps some of his classmates had different talents, from athletic ones to intellectual ones, from traditional arts to new fields of expertise, from practicing respectable professions to committing crimes, but he didn't see them that way. All of them were young people in the same age group who went to the same school and spoke the same language, so he had no doubt that they could form connections with each other if they had open minds and open hearts.
"Maybe not," Makoto said, "but who says you can only be friends with people who are just like you? Befriending different people can enrich your life."
"I'll take that under consideration," Kyoko said. "I suppose each of us has people we haven't introduced ourselves to yet, so I'll let you get to it. It was nice meeting you, Naegi-kun."
Kyoko parted ways with Makoto, amused and slightly touched by his honesty. As she overheard him talking with Sayaka Maizono, the Ultimate Pop Sensation and a former schoolmate of Makoto's, and saw that they weren't completely strangers to each other, something else stirred within Kyoko, but it would be a long time before she truly understood that feeling.