Chapter Text
"If families resemble trees, as they say, arborescent structures with entangled roots and individual branches jutting out at awkward angles, family traumas are like thick, translucent resin dripping from a cut in the bark.
They trickle down generations."
-Elif Shafak, The island of the missing trees
Kokichi ouma
He wasn't born with this problem, but the constant disapproval from his parents whenever he'd do anything made him hide things from them. To lie.
As he grew older, people would have expectations and opinions on him, and he made sure to always meet them, to make those opinions accurate. He'd change his way of acting towards every person, never really being himself. His true, raw self. He knew who and what he was, and by lying, the other's opinions didn't affect his self view, but it did affect his relationship with people.
All that was beacause when he'd be vulnerable with people, thay'd all say that he was weird, annoying, loud, and so on. But he didn't really know how towards act any other way, even to the people he liked. This had, as consequence, him being insecure.
After all that it was hard to get attached to someone. To like someone and trust them.To be vulnerable with someone. To show affection towards someone. All because he got his ego hurt and that lowered his self esteem. But being insecure would make him even weirder, and he didn't want that. He didn't want people to consider him weak and underestimate his intelligence. He's had people in his life that showed him how important he is, how courageous and smart and pretty and not weak he is, and how much more he could be. He knew all of that. He would lead those people when they were miserable, make them feel better, until he became an expert a professional, an ultimate.But he just didn't like when people considered him weak or weird or dumb. He hated it. But he couldn't for the life of him fit in, be like the others, he never was.
So if people were going to insult him, they were going to insult their own image they made of him, but not him exactly. That was better. It made him feel better. But to make that image he had to lie, because he had the tendency to give too much information about him. So he'd lie to make himself look more interesting, but not really. It was for no particular reason. It didn't make him interesting, but it was nice seeing people wondering if he's lying or not.
At some point it became an addiction. It became so bad, when he'd try to tell the truth, to be vulnerable, people wouldn't believe him. It was an obvious consequence, that he was going to get over. He could deal with his own problems, he doesn't need someone to trust him.
Kaito Momota
His grandparents always told him to care about your familiar the same way you love yourself. He loved them, but they wouldn't always care about him, he wasn't always their first priority, which was ok because they had many things to deal with.
He focused on his studies and met many amazing people who gave him confidence to reach his dreams, to be an astronaut. There were people who thought him to be kind and supportive the way they were to him, even though he saw them as much more cooler than him. They always were his first priority, but he wasn't theirs, and that was ok.
Sometimes, there were people who would consider him dumb and weak, and he hated that. When it would get too bad he'd resort to violence, and he'd always feel bad afterwards, but sometimes words weren't enough for some people to listen, to just- leave him alone.
His astronaut training taught him a lot of things, including psychological stuff, for example how to motivate someone when they're panicking, telling them that they don't have to worry about anything and that everything is on him, and he'd always have to keep that promise.
Whenever he'd get sick , he always tried to keep it a secret from his grandparents. He would take medication by himself, and try to cough as silent as he could. He could deal with his problems himself.
One time his lower back hurt like he'll, and he didn't tell his grandparents until he broke crying in front of them which was embarassing, and when they took him to the hospital they told him he had an infection and he needed surgery. The next 2 months he was recuperating.
...
When they met eachother in the killing game they seemed like polar opposites. Kaito Momota the tall, honest, cooperative, encouraging hero and Kokichi Ouma the short, dishonest, uncooperative discouraging villain. They got in eachothers way, they didn't understand the other's intentions, yet they understood eachother better than anyone else. Under better circumstances they could've been unstoppable together, but not in the killing game.
Kokichi was in front of the hydraulic press, and for the first time he seemed scared. He looks up at Kaito, who is at the panel control. "See you in the afterlife Kaito!" He said as cheerful as he could in that state, with sad eyes. Kaito just looked at him. It was so bizarre seeing Kokichi this vulnerable, watching him face his death, death that Kaito was going to bring upon him. "Let's get this over with." Kokichi said with a stern look now. He couldn't see it, but Kaito's hands were trembling. He was going to kill someone. He was going to kill Kokichi. Even if he was an asshole, he deserves to live just like everyone else. He just wanted to end the killing game. Kaito looks down. He has to work quick. Kokichi gets inside the hydraulic press, now neither Kaito or the camera can see his half naked pale figure, nor his face. Kokichi wasn't making any sound. For a moment it was quiet. Kaito tried his best to stop trembling so he could press the buttons at the same time. He couldn't. He presses the pause button and the hydraulic press, but the video isn't perfect. Now, Kaito is faced with blood. Lots and lots of blood. Kaito goes down, in front of the press, and just looks at the mess he's made. He can feel tears on his face, and breathing becomes harder. Soon he starts coughing, his blood mixing with Kokichi's. Kaito moved away from the murder to avoid vomiting, and continues with Kokichi's plan to end the killing game.
.
Shuichi figured out their plan, and Kaito can see that he wants to go along with it. Shuichi starts saying some stuff about how kokichi threatened to kill him if he doesn't vote for Kaito. Which was an awful lie, because monokuma surely looked through the camera footage and didn't find anything like that, and it would've been weird only announcing it now. But that lie was his last resort. He had to get out and reveal himself. It's time to get executed.