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Legs dangled in the pool, finally used to the chill night time temperature of the water, Kokichi revered the feeling of running around right under Monokuma’s nose, being the only one to have outsmarted him, feeling triumphant when he knew, ultimately, it would end soon.
Shuichi was crouched down next to him, nervously eyeing the lights inside of the chlorinated liquid. “Isn’t it cold? Not that they’d bother to heat it in the day, but– This whole building is destroyed. How are you not freezing?”
“You’d be having so much more fun if you stopped panicking.” Kokichi told him, not bothering to look at him as he entertained himself with the way the water flicked around his feet when he moved, the way it rippled almost up to his knees, reaching a hand down to touch the surface of it.
“I just– I really don’t think this is a good idea, Kokichi. You know I don’t. Who’s to say Monokuma isn’t watching us right now?”
“He isn’t. I took out the cameras. The Kubs are asleep, they don’t give a shit.”
Shuichi felt his face twitch in discomfort as he was reminded of what Kokichi may or may not have been capable of. He didn’t want to think about it. If he did, he’d never sleep at night.
“Should I ask how you did that?”
Kokichi cackled hard to himself for a second before going completely deadpan. “Absolutely not.”
Shuichi imitated his movement across the water with his own hand, the pads of his fingers dancing across the water surface, still crouching over the edge, his other hand gripping the side of the pool. One thing, understandably, that confused him, was the lighting beneath the pool. Inside the building, it was hollow, and though not as crumbling and decaying as other parts of the school, vines still trailed up the walls, greens growing over the railings, and along the balcony where Shuichi had first stood upon finding the pool there.
“Plus, if he is watching, would make a good sex tape for him,” Kokichi said, so stoically. “Lot of videos out there that take place by a pool, you know.”
Conversations with Kokichi were never boring, that was certain. And even if he weren’t able to discern information he actually needed from him 96% of the time, the rest of it, talking to him, was like nothing else. He always managed to thoroughly disgust Shuichi, terrify him, or force a laugh from him that he didn’t know he still had in him this far into the game.
He opened his mouth for a few seconds, only stutters leaving him, before speaking quietly, his voice somewhat reverberating all the way up to the ceiling. “Why do you know that?”
“I’m a teenager, Shuichi,” Kokichi complained, lifting his head to glare at the other. “Don’t shame me. Everyone gets curious. Don’t act like you’re innocent.”
Shuichi awkwardly laughed, proving to make himself look guilty of what Kokichi was saying, though he didn’t intend it to.
“After all–” Kokichi looked away from him. “It’s always the quiet ones with the wildest fantasies. Who knows what you think about, Saihara-chan.”
Shuichi retracted his hand from the water, almost twitching, turning his head to look at Kokichi. He was more confused and in disbelief than actually mad with him. “Can we– Can we stop talking about this?”
Kokichi hummed, dropping the topic with a grin on his face that faded after a little while. They sat in silence, pure silence, with no other sounds than the water lapping over itself and Kokichi’s legs. They weren’t sure whether they wanted to break it. It was still. Everything was still. Things could go horribly wrong the next day, but right now, it was still.
Finally, without the pressure of being prompted by his ‘friend,’ Shuichi manoeuvred himself to sit down, stretching one of his legs forward as he leaned back on his hands, tentatively dipping his toes into the pool. Kokichi observed and watched quietly.
“You’re acting like it’s going to electrocute you or something,” Kokichi mumbled. “Just put your legs in.”
“Quiet. Be quiet.” He hushed him, letting his leg sink in before putting his other leg in the water, scooting forward to actually sit upon the edge of the pool.
“There you go,” He praised Shuichi, his voice naturally making it sound like a joke, but the emptiness of the space around them seemed to change the weight of his words. It wasn’t performative. “Not so bad, huh?”
“I still don’t want to be here.”
Kokichi smiled. “Yes, you do.”
“Yeah, I do.” Shuichi smiled back.
The cold water began to seem less cold as they sat there longer, Shuichi’s body temperature adjusting as he awkwardly hiked and pulled up his loose grey pyjama shorts a little further so they wouldn’t get wet. The distortion of the water, the movement of it, the moonlight from a little far forward and up above them dove straight into the pool through the glass roof, like it could part the fluid and defy physics.
Kokichi’s eyes were strongly trained ahead at the wall far out of reach. He sat there, his posture awful, slightly slumped forward, but comfortable. His hands gripped the edge of the pool. His hair still stuck up like always. His complexion milky and pale, his brief freckles that were invisible during the day now seen, his eye bags growing darker and deeper the longer Shuichi started. Kokichi knew he was being looked at. If it was Shuichi, he didn’t mind. He knew his entire existence was a mind-fuck. He owed Shuichi a close up look, if anything.
“You ever think about escaping, Shuichi?” Kokichi wondered aloud.
“I have,” Shuichi slowly started to say. “I… I don’t know what will happen. I know the obvious is that we’ll kill until someone escapes, but I just– I can’t believe it. Is it weird thinking I’ve just accepted it? That I’m… I guess, desensitised is the word? Desensitised to it.”
Kokichi shook his head, moving just barely closer to the boy. “I don’t think so. Isn’t that the fun of it?”
“This isn’t fun.” Shuichi was exhausted, and it had hardly been any significant length of time since they’d woken up here. The outside world was so impossibly out of reach now. He’d forgotten what life was like outside of these grounds. Forgotten what it had been like to walk to school, to talk with his friends, who his friends were, to be with his family, who his family was, to go out on the weekends, how to do anything but think, think, think, constantly, about killing, about murder, about the act of taking someone else’s life, how to do anything but wonder, crave, thirst for freedom so much it was impossible not to be driven to carelessly act as such himself.
Kokichi relented, exasperatedly huffing, his shoulders turning inward as he looked down, his gaze settling on his legs. He liked the fun of the game. Probably because he couldn’t grasp the weight of it. Perhaps because Kokichi knew his life would be taken just like the others. To him, you cannot have a conscience or morals if you’re dead.
Shuichi hated it. He hated it. The act of taking someone’s life. Hated that it seemed the only way out. Hated that even though he knew he would never do it, he’d never succumb to that level, because he was better than that – when talking to the others here, it intruded his mind, breaking in, implanting itself for only a lingering moment where he even slightly considered just… brandishing a weapon in a dark place, lights off, delving it into someone’s skin, ripping it out and watching their body fall to the floor, the flesh turning cold and tinting with purple.
“Don’t go crazy.” Kokichi worriedly pawed at his shoulder, apprehensively watching him, laughing quietly, like he could hear the voices in Shuichi’s head.
Shuichi tried to focus on the feeling of the water, letting Kokichi’s voice pull him back up mentally out of the water he was slipping into. “What?”
“I get it too. Those thoughts. It’d be easier if you killed someone, right?”
Shuichi didn’t understand how someone so skilled at bluffing and as crafty as Kokichi could ever see eye to eye with him. Did the night time change him? Did the quietness provoke maturity? Did the emptiness drive out insecurity? Was Kokichi capable of insecurity?
“You don’t deserve to think about that kind of stuff.” Kokichi accused him. “You’re the only one with any sense. You’re a detective.” Following that, he dug his nails into his shirt, and Shuichi tried to ease him by putting his hand atop his.
“I don’t plan on going anywhere–” Shuichi told him. “But I’m definitely one of the weaker links. Physically. I… It’s a horrible thought, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone were to pick me off soon. Especially since I keep– somehow drawing conclusions in these trials–”
“You don’t get to think like that. You don’t. It’s not fair.”
“Kokichi, is everything okay? Where– Where is this coming from, anyway?”
Kokichi did not hesitate before lifting his hand, swatting away Shuichi’s, and shoving him into the water with no warning.
A strangled kind of sound rose from Shuichi’s throat as his hands lurched out ahead of him, plunging into the water, liquid going straight up his nose, eyes screwing shut, his clothes folding around him and bubbles rising from the yell that he let out underwater.
“It is so cold–” Shuichi shuddered as he lifted his head, his hair soggy and sticking to his face. “What was that for?!”
“Get rid of the thoughts? Shuts your brain down, doesn’t it?”
Shuichi breathily gasped a couple times. “..Yeah.”
Shuichi paddled closer to the edge again, hand placing itself on Kokichi’s knee, who looked down in amusement. His other hand reached for one of Kokichi’s, and in one motion, he pulled him in with him.
After pushing him in, he knew it was inevitable he’d be taken too, but he was still startled, and threw his arms around Shuichi’s midsection.
“You’re–” Kokichi shook his head of water when he managed to lift his head too. “You’re the only one who has a real chance of getting out of here. That’s why you don’t get to think like that. It’s stupid.” He scowled.
“What about you?”
“Who knows what’ll happen to me?”