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Tropical Land Front Gate - Dream And Fairytale Land - 8:40am
After waking up in a bush near a large, gaudy front gate to an amusement park. Kokichi realised he wasn't in Hell.
At least not yet.
Why would Hell be an amusement park.
He at least thought it’d be blistering with fire and brimstone.
The cliche shit.
Not some happy-go-lucky-fun-land.
He groaned, wondering what madman would him here.
After getting himself up from the bush and dusting himself off of leaves and twigs he decided to take a look around.
He found some of his classmates from the Ultimate Academy; who he knew were meant to be by all purposes as dead as him.
But that wasn't all.
Apparently from what he heard there were people here who knew about this location. They were also people they had never met before. So, they were never at the Ultimate Academy with them.
It was Rantaro; who had found him and explained to him that some of their classmates were here. And that he had come across a few others that he didn’t recall from the Academy.
That’s not suspicious at all.
So, the leader decided to look for the people to investigate them.
He had a feeling that there may be a reason why they were gathered here and he didn't like it.
The sky looked just as fake as the one from the Ultimate Academy which meant that they were trapped in a giant dome.
Again…
What was with it with domes?
He made his way through the amusement park, catching a brief glimpse of a map sign nearby a food stall with Miu and Kiibo hovering near it. He also noticed the name of the park was called 'Tropical Land'.
'What kind of name is that for a theme park', Kokichi mumbled to himself.
He made his way down the pathway, passing by the chattering group of Tsumugi, Kaede and Tenko.
A shiver went down his spine at seeing the latter two.
Tsumugi was still alive when he died along with Kiibo, so something must’ve happened after his and Kaito’s trial.
He narrowed his eyes at the cosplayer, but just continued walking by them.
He could think on it later.
However it really surprised him.
He thought he was in some weird time-loop at first until he found out not everyone was here and he wasn’t at the Academy.
No Shuichi, Maki or Himiko.
No Ryoma, Angie and Gonta either.
It almost felt like they were cherry-picked for a reason, but why?
As Kokichi finally made it to the castle in the middle of the central island all of them were currently on he noticed two people standing in front of it. One he recognised immediately as the idiot; who he had to force to go along with his plan while the other must've been one of the new people that be heard about.
He really was in Hell if Kaito was here with him...
The other boy wore a black school uniform that was done up until it reached his collarbone. He had messy brown hair and mischievous blue eyes that seemed to sparkle with something else in them.
As if he's seen some things he shouldn't have.
And Kokichi understood that all too well.
"Hey, Kokichi!" The Ultimate Astronaut shouted towards him, causing him to stiffen and glower at the taller boy. "Guess what? This guy has the same name as me!"
The guy beside Kaito looked a little affronted by what was being said. "So what ... there's two idiots with the name ‘Kaito’ now?" Kokichi asked, frowning as he finally pulled up in front of them.
"Hey, how many times do I have to tell you I'm not an idiot?!"
Kokichi let a small smirk play across his lips at how easy it was to get under the taller boy’s skin.
His eyes drifted to the other when he heard a light snort.
It was almost too small to notice, but Kokichi noticed the other Kaito let out a small chuckle. "Kaito Kuroba..." He put his hand out for Kokichi to shake. "...magician extraordinaire."
Kokichi seemed to eye him for a while before a large grin spread across his face. “Kokichi Ouma!” His smile seemed to widen as he grasped the magician’s hand, tightly. "Are you sure that's you're only talent?"
The magician seemed to stiffen, but laughed it off. "Of course it is. Why would I need another talent when magic is the best thing there is."
They let go of the handshake, but Kokichi’s eyes never left Kuroba.
Never left the mask he called a face.
The leader just didn't buy it and kept his grin on his face which caused Momota to become increasingly concerned about Kuroba's safety.
He knew what Kokichi was like and was afraid he’d do something to the magician.
"I don't believe it is!" Kokichi exclaimed, sounding almost too happy. His expression suddenly changed; twisting into what could be described as a calculating smirk. "A liar knows a liar after all."
Kaito seemed taken aback by the personality shift, but only briefly as he seemed to shove his hands in his pockets and smiled back. "Oh, and what pray tell is this other talent of mine that you believe I have?"
Kuroba was intrigued.
He had never had someone call him out like that a part from Hakuba.
It felt like a challenge to him.
And boy, did he love challenges.
Kaito looked back and forth between the two.
Almost scared to say something.
'What the hell am I even watching...?'
"I don't know!" Kokichi exclaimed, putting his arms behind his head in a relaxed manner. The opposite of how he was just before. "You could be selling drugs or a murderer for all I know! Maybe you're even a thief; who steals priceless jewels!" Kokichi laughs at that.
Kaito let out a tiny chuckle as well, but was still unnerved by how well Kokichi picked a part Kuroba.
The magician had gone a slight shade paler and swallowed before putting his pokerface back on and smiled, sounding slightly frustrated. "Come on, I get this enough from my classmate."
"Well, maybe don't act so suspicious."
Kuroba scoffed as if it was funny that Kokichi found him suspicious. “You think I’m suspicious. You should see my classmates. One’s a detective and the other calls herself a witch. That’s suspicious.”
The leader raised an eyebrow at that retort, but found what was said intriguing.
‘A detective and a witch, huh…’
The only person who didn’t was the astronaut; who had gone pale after hearing the word ‘witch’. “W…Wha? S…She doesn’t resurrect the d…dead, right?”
Kuroba seemed to look like he was in thought for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. “I don’t know. She did try to kill me once. She used some weird voodoo magic or whatever.” He folded his arms and scoffed. “It was such a petty reason I could laugh.”
”V…Voodoo….” Kaito looked even paler and possibly looked like he was about to throw up.
”There's no way magic is real…”
Kokichi was cut off by Kuroba letting out a laugh. “Yea, I can understand it's hard to believe. What I do is tricks, but what Akako does is real. I’ve seen her do all that voodoo and magic circle stuff.”
Kaito looked like he was about to faint and Kokichi narrowed his eyes.
There was no lies he was detecting from the magician.
The only time he did was when he said he was just a magician.
He’s always been good at detecting lies, but now faced with someone whose just as good as him at lying … how can he find the lie hidden within that truth?
He hated it.
”Umm … what about you’re detective classmate?” Kaito spoke up, wanting to steer the conversation away from the witch.
Kokichi lowered his eyelids and chuckled at the obvious fear radiating from the astronaut.
”Hakuba…?” Kuroba seemed a little disgruntled with the question.
”Yea, how good is he? My sidekick is a detective too!” Kaito exclaimed, finally getting back into his old groove.
”Uh huh…” Kaito thought for moment before a snort escaped him. “Annoying, that’s what he is.” The two blinked in surprise, but got an even bigger shock when Kuroba brought out a watch from out of nowhere. “So, I took his pocket-watch to mess with him!”
”You mean stole?” Kaito asked, eyeing the watch with wide eyes.
Kuroba tsked and allowed the watch to disappear again. “No. I borrowed it. There’s a difference, you know.”
“Without his permission?” Kaito frowned.
”Exactly!” Kuroba exclaimed, proud of his achievement while Kokichi just gawked up at him in awe.
”B…But stealing…” Kaito tried to think of something to say.
”Kaito, it’s just a prank. Let it go. I took Shuichi’s hat once and he chased me over the Academy to get it back. It was fun though!” Kokichi explained to the astronaut.
Kuroba nodded his head in agreement. “Hakuba is my main target for pranks. He kinda has it coming after all.”
”Why…” Kaito swallowed. “…do you have it out for him?”
Kuroba stared at Kaito for what seemed was a very long time and seemed to put the astronaut on edge before he turned his head away. “No comment.”
Kokichi frowned at the way Kuroba had stared at Kaito, but played it off. “Whhhaaaat!!”
”How good of a detective is your classmate?”
Kuroba shrugged his shoulders. “Average, I guess.” He wouldn’t admit that Hakuba being the first to figure out his identity was admirable, but he was annoying in the way he went about it. “He mainly does thefts not murders. That’s Kudou’s area.”
”Man, he sounds boring…”
Kuroba snorted at that.
If only he knew.
”I hate to agree, but Kokichi is right. Shuichi sounds like the better detective.”
Kuroba snorted again.
Did this Shuichi figure out the identity of a culprit after first meeting them?
He’d have to learn more about him, but Hakuba figured him out straight away.
That's what annoyed him about Hakuba and why he was the subject of his pranks.
He will continue to deny Hakuba’s claims until he has physical evidence to get him locked up.
Until then it’s just conjecture.
”Shuichi isn’t that great, Kaito,” Kokichi said, almost flippantly. “I had to point out to him on multiple occasions who the culprit was. He’s not a very good detective.”
”No, you just messed everything up by lying all the time!”
”They were white lies, Kaito. It’s not my fault you can’t distinguish truth and lies.”
The two seemed to start arguing and Kuroba blinked not knowing how respond to this kind of situation.
Especially between two people he had only just met in a Tropical Land that didn’t look all that recognizable.
He recognized the layout and the areas, but what was with dome?
There was something wrong here?
"Seriously, Kokichi, that doesn't say much coming from you," Kaito growled out with a roll of his eyes.
"How mean, Kaito!" Kokichi exclaimed, rounding on the taller of the three and suddenly crocodile tears started falling down his cheeks. "You're such a bully to me! WAAAHHH!"
A puff of smoke caused Kaito to turn his head to the magician as he suddenly had a pure white dove in his hand. The magician let the dove fly off of his hand and land on Kokichi's head, causing him to cease his fake crying for the morment.
"I can tell you were faking those tears...." Kuroba said, causing Kokichi to only briefly widen his eyes. "....and sometimes the more you have on masks the harder it is to remember who you are."
Kokichi blinked, staring at the magician as he gave the short leader a smile.
The leader opened his mouth to respond when Kuroba seemed to look past him, frowned and groaned. "Great. Here comes the detective cavalry." He turned his attention to Kaito then back to Kokichi. "Anyways, it was nice to meet you both. I gotta run, but you can take care of Wingspan til I lose the blondie."
And just like that he was off, leaving two bewildered Ultimates behind and a dove nestled nicely in Kokichi's hair.
It wasn't long until a black and yellow blur ran by them, shouting at Kuroba. "Kuroba! Give me back my pocket watch!"
All he got in response was chaotic laughter from the magician. "Never! It's mine now, Hakubastard!"
"I’m guessing that was Hakuba just now?" Kaito spoke, turning his head away from the running duo and back to Kokichi; who was quietly petting the dove on his head.
Kaito blinked and let a small smile spread across his face at seeing Kokichi actually care for something other than himself for once.
The leader realised eyes were on him and growled at Kaito, "Piss off!" He turned on his tail and stalked in the opposite direction to the castle, hand still petting the dove as it nibbled his fingers.
He let out a soft sigh, realising that this may be a similar situation to the Killing Game.
And since they’re in an amusement park everyone might become complacent which would be a bad thing.
Monokuma or whoever is behind this has yet to appear.
But whatever happens ... he can't afford to care.
If he does it'll hurt more when those around him die....