Chapter Text
The day was pretty usual for the town. The sun shone high and bright as the scene below bustled with noise and movement.
A bar, filled with music and laughter, drinks and merry folk is where we begin our story.
“Here ya go!” A cheerful, pretty barmaid sing songed as she placed down a pint of frothing beer. “Thanks Kaede.” Came a quiet reply from a boy in a sheriff’s hat. The chubby girl smiled and leaned down onto the table with one hand. “So Shuichi,” she began, smiling at the boy she’d just served. “Did I ever tell you the story of these two hero’s my grandfather was best friends with?” She said unexpectedly. Shuichi tilted his head slightly. “No,” he replied “I’ve never heard of that before”. Pulling up a chair, she pointed a black and white photo of three men hanging on the walls of the bar, next to a picture of the owner of the place Kaede’s uncle.
The two men Shuichi didn’t recognize were accompanied by two of the three names at the bottom, ‘Kokichi Ouma and Kaito Momota’. One tall, muscular with spiky hair, grinning widely with his arms around both Kaede's grandfather and the other mystery person. He looked so genuinely happy, despite the scar over his right eye. The one mystery person had darker hair, and was much shorter that the other two. He had a mischievous look in his eye, like he was plotting a scheme or creating a plan whenever he had the chance. “The taller one is Kaito, the other is Kokichi.” The girl explained happily. “And, believe it or not, they’re the ones who saved this town from Junko.” Shuichi’s eyes widened. “But- I thought it was a mystery as to how that happened! Wasn’t it about two mysterious-“ the sherif gasped. ‘The two nameless and faceless figures in the town myth. Kaede’s grandfather knew them? No, not just knew them, it seems like he was a part of the adventure too!’ He thought in mild disbelief. Clearing his throat, the sherif asked “could you tell me the story?” The girl grinned. “Yeah! In the end they were celebrated as heros you know! But it wasn’t always like that. No. In the very beginning, Kokichi was an outlaw and Kaito was a deputy. Which was weird because-“ she blushed. “I’m getting ahead of myself. It all started on a day just like this,forty years ago…”
“AND STAY OUT!” Kokichi’s body flew through the air as he crashed into the gravel below. He looked up to see the door being slammed behind him. “...well fuck.” He sighed, dusting himself off and picking bits of dirt out from his dark purple hair. He then smirked, pulling out two thick wads of cash from his back pockets. “They never see it coming.” The boy stood at only 5”1, and was skinnier than a skeleton on a diet. He skipped, hands behind his head towards the trash cans where they’d tossed his hat. God did he love his hat. He felt like he was some sort of action hero from a kids story book. He smiled fondly at the memories of those hand drawn illustrations done in watercolour that he’d seen on the bookshelves in libraries. The bar would still be open, hopefully they wouldn’t ID him this time. He began walking, now with shielded eyes from the sun, and the gravel crunching beneath him. Dusty roads went on for miles, lining businesses, homes and stores.
The closest bar, which also just happened to be his favorite because it was one of the only ones he didn’t get his shit rocked in, was “Jimmy drunken jones”. Inside was stools, dreary music and an atmosphere like someone had just walked in with a dead body and everyone else refused to talk about it. Bursting through the doors, an extremely cheerful “hey uglies!” Seemed to snap everyone out of their afternoon routine of drinking till they get liver failure. There stood Kokichi, crooked teeth and all. One singular gold eye to mismatch his other purple one. After a moment of awkward silence, the mumbling and talking continued and the twenty two year old happily skipped to the front of the bar. “Hey! You there! You’re new huh? Jesus I’m sorry. Welcome to the “I have terrible skin, no idea how to have fun and hate doing anything sober” club!” He snarked. The bartender chuckled. But Kokichi’s remark did receive some rather scary glares. “Better watch it kid.” He warned lightheartedly. Kokichi scoffed. “Oh like they’ll actually do anything. Besides! They’re way too scared of my epic fighting skills that I used to kill fifteen men!” He proudly exclaimed. The bartender shot him a look. “Ok, ok. That’s a lie. It was actually thirty! Oh oh! And I was unarmed and they all had guns!” He giggled. Rolling their eyes, the barman stuck out his hand. “‘Names Jimmy, I actually own this place.” Before Kokichi could think “ oh shit .” He realized something. He was too serious. He looked like he was almost focusing on making sure he sounded sincere rather than actually being sincere.
“Can’t lie to a liar.” Laughed the shorter boy. The barman snorted. “How’d you tell?” Grinning, Kokichi began swinging his legs back and forth. “You were too serious silly! You’re face went all stoic and dark, like a villain! Or like you’re heading into a fight! So, what’s your real name?” After cracking his knuckles, the man spoke up. “Shinichi” he said after a while. “ Shinichi akamatsu .”
Shuichi held up his hand. “Wait, that’s how they met? In a bar? I didn’t know your grandfather ever worked at a bar.” Kaede laughed. “You don’t know everything, silly. Now hush! And let me get back to my story.” After relenting, Kaede took a swig of Shuichi’s beer. “Hey!” He called out in mock offense. She laughed and continued.
“I’m Kokichi Ouma! Nice to meet ya!” He shook the man’s hand. He was about five or so years older than Kokichi, or at least looked it, with heavy frown lines and a stoic resting face. His hairline was already slightly receding and fading from blond to grey. His knuckles were red and dry, which was strange considering his hands felt smooth to the touch apart from that. “So Kokichi, where did you get that money from?” He asked. Kokichi put a finger to his lips. “Shhh! I’ll give you a cut if you promise not to tell anyone.” He offered. “Deal.” Was the reply, and Kokichi handed him a singular dollar bill. Before he could protest, and as the clock struck twelve, two new faces strolled into the bar. One, a green haired man with heeled boots and a long sleeved T-shirt, slender and tan. The other, tall and muscular, with reddish olive skin. And completely ridiculous hair. We’re talking the length of his head, bright purple and stiff as anything.
“Kokichi Ouma!” Yelled the green haired man. The criminal in question groaned. “Ugh! What the fuck do you even want, Amami?” He questioned. “Hey now. There’s no need for that. We just wanna talk.” Amami spoke, laughing a little and Kokichi’s impatience. “But I’m busy robbing this guy!” He whined. Shinichi gave him a worried look. “Robbing who now?” He questioned, unable to shake off a slight waver in his voice. “Neeheehee! That’s a lie, of course. But in any case, I’m busy!” The man, who looked to be the sheriff, along with the other man as his deputy, walked over to Kokichi, both giving him a non believing look, Amami’s softer than his partner’s. “Rantaro, You brought Kaito? Seriously? What’s he gonna do, inspire your enemy to death?” He scoffed and began laughing. Kaito growled. “Hey! I can fight, you little shit! It’s not my fault you don’t know crap about raising people’s spirits.” The criminal rolled his eyes. “Uh, yeah? I totally do. I just chose not to because I’m evil. Duh.”
Rantaro put his arm between the two men bickering, indicating that this was serious. “You two. Cut it out. This is serious ok? It’s about Junko.” Wow. Now that got their attention. “What did she do this time? Oh! Did she create another financial crisis? Make someone else go missing?!” Ouma’s eyes lit up with childish excitement. “The latter.” Rantaro said. Sighing, Kokichi inspected his nails. “How boring. If it wasn’t anyone I know then I don’t care.” He yawned. “You damned brat, it is!” Kaito angrily swore. Kokichi tilted his head and scoffed. “Oh yeah, like who?” Rantaro sighed to himself. “It’s Angie, my friend. And we have no idea if she’s ok.” Kokichi studied their faces for any traces of dishonesty. Only to find pity, sadness and annoyance all mixed into one.
There were certain times, as a criminal, Kokichi had a reputation to uphold. A negative one at that. He would constantly push others away to work without trouble and protect them from his jobs. But now? If Angie wasn’t ok, then that was bad. Really bad. Angie was one of the only people who he hadn’t pushed away. Maybe out of selfishness or loneliness but regardless of what it is he loved Angie like a sibling, and she loved him the same. God he hoped she’d be ok.
“Not that I really care, but I saw her three days ago. Are you sure she’s not at home?” He asked. Kaito nodded “we checked, the whole house is empty. Weird thing is, when we asked around and got to Junko, she completely shut down the topic. Suspicious if you ask me.” He nodded. Kokichi considered this for a while. “That’s weird. Hmm. And you checked everywhere?” They nodded. “Fuck it. Let me go and do something. Tomorrow, at high noon, I’ll meet you guys outside of this place. I’ve got shit to arrange.”
After the night passed, Kokichi waited for about twenty minutes for the other two to turn up. When it turned out to be just Kaito, he raised an eyebrow. “It’s-its Rantaro!” The deputy exclaimed. “What about him?” Kokichi asked. “What, did he find Angie?” He said in an uncharacteristic moment of optimism. “No it’s- Kokichi, he’s missing. ”
“Oh fuck.”