Work Text:
Kaito’s body slumped out of the rocket when the door popped open. His mouth hanging open. A grim, final line of blood spilled over his chin, his body otherwise still as he lay among the ruin.
It was a hollow sort of win, but through gritted teeth the students celebrated Kaito’s ‘victory’. He had died before Monokuma had a chance to kill him. They had watched his choked last gasps from the screens, watched Kaito look at peace in his final moments. It had to be a victory. It had to be something. Everything they had just watched him go through, gone through themselves, and even Kokichi’s sacrifice… it couldn’t have been for nothing.
A flashback light later, the remaining students trying to figure out what the hell had happened in the flash, the students eventually wandered back to the elevator…
…and just in fucking time too, as Kaito couldn’t hold his damn breath any longer.
Sitting up with a gasp, Kaito wiped away the blood with the back of his palm, coughing a bit as he finally let himself take more than a shallow breath. “Holy shit, that worked.” Kaito whispered, looking around the empty trial room where he had been left. Phew. Okay! Okay! Get up, get going, he had no idea how long he had before the monobears would come back to clean up his ‘body’! He had to get going!
After a tense moment of just pacing back and forth in front of it, the elevator came back down, and Kaito rode it to the surface. It was a little tough to run, because he didn’t want to alert any of his friends who might still be wandering around. But after a moment he got down to the sewer, peeking into Despair Road, and…
“Kokichi?” Kaito called.
“Fiiiiinally!” Kokichi sat up, stretching from where he was chilling out in one of the capturing cages. Kicking open the cage door and letting his legs dangle playfully, as Kokichi smiled down at Kaito, “Took you long enough! For a second I really thought you let your execution actually kill you! How lame would that have been!?”
Kaito grinned, relieved to see Kokichi’s half of the antidote hadn’t failed on him over the last few hours. “Please, like a mere rocket crash is gonna take out The Luminary of the Stars!”
“Yeah, yeah, brag much?” Kokichi said, hopping down, staggering a little as he landed on his feet. “Ooooow.”
“Hey, be careful now, that wound in your back is no joke.” Kaito said, reaching over to steady him.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, stop fussing, space cadet.” Kokichi said dismissively, waving Kaito off of him, “Any hiccups to the plan?”
“There was a moment there I thought I was caught,” Kaito admitted, rubbing the back of his neck, “My eyes were closed so I didn’t see it, but apparently there was some sort of sign on the rocket saying my execution had failed?”
“Woah, what, seriously!?” Kokichi balked, before chewing on his thumb nail a bit, “I worried they might have a way of reading your vitals…”
“Yeah, but I don’t know if that’s what happened or not?” Kaito explained, as they quickly headed out, climbing the ladder, “Everyone immediately started talking about me dying before the crash, and that’s why my execution failed? Monokuma didn’t correct them, so maybe he doesn’t know either?”
“Or he’s just playing along for a more ‘interesting’ game,” Kokichi mused, the two hurrying around the building, “Did anyone check to see if you were alive?”
“…no.” Kaito sighed.
“Ha! I told you! You owe me a year of servitude, slave!” Kokichi crowed.
“Shut up! I just did that convincing a job faking my death! Our friends aren’t stupid, I’m just that good!” Kaito insisted.
“Your friends are a little stupid.” Kokichi snickered, “The execution ‘failed’ and no one checked to see if you were actually dead? It’d be hilarious if it wasn’t so worrying for our end game. How are those morons going to figure out who the mastermind is??”
“Shuichi figured out our plan, didn’t he?” Kaito argued, the two heading inside the building.
“Sure, all the bits that we literally handed him.” Kokichi said, slowing down a little on the stairs down to the basement, not arguing this time as Kaito reached out to steady him again on the descent, “How long did you have to drag it out before our beloved detective landed on it being you? Because you were gone foreeeeever!”
“A… a normal amount of time! Those trials are always long!” Kaito insisted, turning to the library.
“Uh huh, sure. Well, at least you managed to convey to Shuichi he had to ‘let’ the secret slip.”
“…”
“…oh, are you kidding!?” Kokichi groaned, rolling his eyes at the slightly sheepish look on Kaito’s face, as they opened the secret bookcase door. “He, what, figured out you had some master plan to stop the game, and just told everyone? What the hell, Shumai!?”
“I kinda thought he had figured it out for a second there, but then at the absolute last second he backpedaled hard, and I realized he was gonna start trying to convince everyone it was actually you and, like, I don’t know what he was thinking, man, I think Shuichi just got caught up truth hunting and forgot there was other shit going on, ya know?” Kaito sighed, keeping a lookout as Kokichi popped the paneling off the door, messing with the wires inside, “I’m still really relieved no one took a hard look at the antidote bottle. I mean, if they had realized there was enough for both of us…”
“Pfff, Maki could have given us a gallon of the stuff and they’d still have believed one of us had guzzled it all down alone.” Kokichi said, sticking out his tongue a little as there was a small little fizzing sound inside the panel and, “Ow! Also, yes!”
“You alright?” Kaito asked, watching Kokichi suck on his forefinger a little as he straighted up. “Seriously, man, you’re so injured still, don’t screw around on me, I’m not watching you die after all of this.”
“Don’t wet your pants, Kaito, your beloved supreme leader is fine.” Kokichi said, pushing at the door, smiling wide and sharp as it opened easily, “Nee-heehee! Aren’t you so lucky to have such a capable master!?”
“You’re only getting away with the ‘master’ bit for as long as I’m in a good mood. Surviving almost certain death three times in a matter of a few hours is a rush! I’m full of adrenaline! I am absolutely going to pass out at some point!” Kaito laughed, following Kokichi inside.
“Three times? I know the poison, and the execution, what’s the third?” Kokichi asked.
“Man, the press coming down on me was an experience. You have no idea. I had no real idea if you were gonna stop it in time or not.” Kaito sighed, “I mean, I figured you weren’t tricking me, after what a pain in the ass it was collecting all those bloodbags from the warehouse—”
“Right next to the meat section!” Kokichi keened, still delightfully freaked out by that.
“Yeah, I don’t want to think about the implications. Anyway, I trusted you would, but still, it felt like a near thing…”
Kaito and Kokichi stopped in the middle of the masterminds room. It was Kaito’s first time being in here, as he looked at the massive monokuma head, and the screen on the side of the room, showing different camera angles throughout the school. On one screen, all of his friends were in the courtyard, training together under the moonlight. Looking in better spirits then when they had left him… his heart warmed at that, even if it made him wish he was out there with them. That trial had been hard. The last few days had been hard.
“Yeah, yeah, like I was ever gonna squish you. I’d have been found out immediately, it’d have been the quickest class trial in history. No way I could have done a decent impression of your annoying ‘hero schtick’, I’d have ended up being waaaaay too sarcastic, way too early. It’d have been obvious.” Kokichi said, ignoring the Monokuma head and heading towards the computer.
“Well, whatever your reasons, I was ready to trust it…” Kaito watched Kokichi fuss over the keyboard, before saying, “Hey, Kokichi, before we do this…”
“Take over Monokuma, open all the doors, grab all the cameras, and force another class trial without a murder to specifically out the mastermind, ending the killing game?” Kokichi asked, glancing over his shoulder, “Sorry, do you have something more important to do?”
“…kinda, yeah?” Kaito said, clenching his fists. His expression stern as he stared at Kokichi. “…I don’t believe what you said just now. I think if you had killed me, and gone to a class trial, you probably could have gotten out yourself. You’re a real pain in the ass, I think you could have pulled it off, if you had decided to…”
“I am a nigh all powerful supervillain, yes. It’d be far from my first successful murder” Kokichi smirked, “Though for legal reasons, that totally a lie. Sooooo?”
“So…” Kaito clenched his teeth a little, something uncertain running through him, “…you didn’t really need me to do this, to make your ‘fake execution’ plan work. You could have survived alone. It might have even been easier. I’m still sick, I know I’m a liability.”
“And I have a hole right next to my spine, what’s your point?” Kokichi sighed, looking tired.
“You killed Gonta and Miu, who both made the mistake of trusting you.” Kaito said softly, “I trusted you. Why am I alive?”
“…” Kokichi turned around, leaning against the computer keyboard. Tapping his foot on the ground rapidly, frustrated and annoyed, “…what do you want me to say? Do you want me to say you’re special? And that’s why you’re alive and they’re dead. Would that make you feel good? That I’m just such a bastard that I play favorites, and damn, I get real horny for that ‘friendship is power’ moron guy drowning in his own blood half the time! Time to risk everything to save him after leading all my other minions, who were smarter, and stronger, and waaaaaay more useful to me, all to their deaths? Muwa-ha-ha-ha?” Kokichi asked dryly, “Would that endear you to me, beloved Kai-chan? If I’m really that selfish?”
“…” Kaito frowned, “Are you?”
“What do you want me to say?” Kokichi asked again.
“…a lie I’d understand.” Kaito said.
“A lie you’d understand. A lie you’d understand,” Kokichi repeated, staring at the ceiling a bit. Tapping his heels on the floor, each tap a little click, click, click noise. Like a timer counting down. Though for who, Kokichi or Kaito, who could guess. “A lie you’d understand…”
“…” Kokichi looked down. Staring blankly at Kaito, “…sometimes I daydream about what it might have been like, if you had been standing beside me when I opened the door to the outside the first time, on my own. I think of all the stupid things you might have said, to make me feel better about the destruction of everything we’ve ever known. I think about how I would have laughed in your face, before I realized this had to be a show, that nothing else made sense… trying to find hope in this terrible, hopeless moment.”
“Sometimes I just wish you had been with me,” Kokichi said softly, crossing his arms and looking away, “Maybe that’s why I stole you in the first place, the second time we opened the door. I just… couldn’t trust myself to be alone again. Because it went so badly the last time. Because I couldn’t keep it together.”
“…” Kaito took a step forward, “Kokichi—”
Kokichi spun on his heels, looking back to the computer, “Of course, that’s a lie! The fourth class trial went exactly how I wanted and expected it too, because I was in full control the entire time! Like always! A supreme leader of evil doesn’t get to just slack off and go crazy, y’know? Too many responsibilities! Too many irons in too many fires—!?”
Kokichi froze, Kaito’s arms going around his shoulders, over his chest. Kaito was going to strangle him, just like how Miu… how Gonta… Kokichi could barely finish the thought, as he felt his back pressed against Kaito’s stomach and chest. His stunned shocked fading a little as reality set in. Oh. He wasn’t being strangled in revenge. He was being hugged.
Which was maybe worse.
“I’m not ready to say that you going crazy justified anything that happened.” Kaito admitted, holding Kokichi, the two watching the screens together. Watching their classmates train and chat and smile in the courtyard, like everything was going to be okay, “But…if I had been allowed to choose? I would have wanted to be there too. You didn’t deserve to go through that alone.”
“Well, I sure made it hard for anyone else to follow me, literally running from you every time you tried to figure out where I was going.” Kokichi muttered, stiff and uncomfortable in Kaito’s hug. Not pushing him away.
Kaito scoffed at that, “Man, you think I wouldn’t have opened that damn door too, if I thought I had a flea in hells chance of getting through that damn booby-trapped hall by myself? The only difference between you and me in that regard is you figured out a way and I didn’t. I’d have been all over that exit if I could have. I’d have opened it alone too, just in case. And I…” Kaito sighed, “I get how hard it is not to spiral, when you have too much time alone to think about it. I guess I was just lucky to have ‘escaping from a weird-ass bathroom’ as a goal to distract me.”
“…sorry.” Kokichi said.
“But that’s a lie?” Kaito filled in with a small, tired laugh.
“No,” Kokichi said, “I’m just sorry. I guess I did isolate you, right after telling you the world was over, not wanting to be alone myself. So, just… sorry.”
“…thanks Kokichi.” Kaito said quietly.
“Gross, thank me when I’ve actually done something worth thanking over.” Kokichi said, finally shaking Kaito off, “Alright! Enough screwing around! We have a super boring killing game to ruin!”
“Right,” Kaito said, leaning against Kokichi’s shoulders, looking over the screen, “Where do you want to start?”
“Wellllll, let’s start with a pet-theory I’ve had since the very beginning! What do you want to bet Keebo’s settings are in here somewhere?” Kokichi snickered, typing away.
“Actually, I’ve been looking at this silhouette, and that looks like him, right?” Kaito said, pointing to the far end of the screen, “It looks like some sort of ranged communication he has might have been damaged though, if I’m interpreting the warnings right. Can we find him?”
Kokichi tapped his way through the menu, before, “Bingo, there he is!”
“He’s trying to get into Miu’s lab,” Kaito said, watching Keebo fussing with the locked research door, trying to pry it open, “I wonder why.”
“I don’t know. Hopefully something not super boring… you know what?” Kokichi smirked, clicking through the screen, “I say we let him in.”