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In Kokichi’s opinion, if your security system was going to be this bad? Then JAXA only had itself to blame for losing one of their rockets to DICE.
Oh, it’s not like Kokichi and his gang moved the rocket outside of the facility. In fact, it was even meant to launch that day! It was barely a theft at that point! Kokichi and his henchmen just, well… weren’t meant to be the astronauts riding inside of it. That honor was meant to go to the three people Kokichi and his gang had left tied up in the JAXA locker room.
Looooook, those three buff nerds would get their chance some other time. Kokichi had a heist he wanted to pull! The prank of the century!!! Or at least the prank of the month, if he didn’t think of something more ambitious before the summer officially ended.
Still, one of his goons—the one Kokichi was actually trusting to fly the damn thing, as his second goon helped him put on his spacesuit—asked Kokichi, “Boss, I really can’t express how dangerous this next part is gonna be. Are you sure you don’t wanna back out now? We can always just say we wanted a joyride on the rocket and that was it.”
“Don’t be boring, I’ve got this. Alright, hold her steady and let me into the airlocks! Looks like we’re coming up to our target!” Kokichi giggled, their destination coming up on the monitors, “Nee-heehee! Thinks she can get away with petty insults for the leader of DICE all the way up here? She had no idea who she’s messing with! HA! HA-HAHAHAHAHA!”
“Alright Boss! Now or never!” One of the minions said, opening up the airlock.
Kokichi leapt into space, the rocket pulling him by his various chords to the ship's safety system. Kokichi cackled madly as he reached out his hand and—
-
Monaca’s back door for her spaceship—an altered van refurnished to allow easy space travel—was open without Monaca needing to wear a suit, because the person she had forced to create the ship for her had been that kind of genius.
She was currently chilling out in the back, letting her legs dangle over the vast vacuum of space, eating a freshly made ramen cup. It was still steaming.
She noticed a space ship flying close, and didn’t think much of it. Space ships happened, in space… but she gasped as she realized that little thing attached to the ship wasn’t some debris caught in its lift, but, like… a guy. Who was reaching out and—
“HEY!” Monaca shouted as the guy in the space suit swiped her freshly made ramen cup out of her hands, “WHAT THE HELL!?”
“HA-HAHAHAHAHAHA! DICE RULES!” the space figure just managed to call out before the rocket raced past, taking its cackling astronaut with it.
“…NO FAIR!” Monaca shouted. Though the rocket was long gone by that point.
Space was her thing! Rude!!
-
Landing the rocket and escaping before the authorities could arrest them was harder than stealing the space rocket—or the ramen packet—had been, but DICE were good at what they did, and Kokichi Oma was the best at it.
Still, the people at Hope's Peak were… something else. So Kokichi almost wasn’t surprised when two of their agents showed up at his hideout the next day. The agents asking about the prank, listening to Kokichi eagerly both brag and lie his head off about it… before offering Kokichi enrollment at Hope’s Peak as an Ultimate.
“Oh yeah? Ultimate what?” Kokichi smirked, looking back at his gang of cohorts, who were all warily watching the exchange between the Kokichi and the Hope’s Peak agents, “Ultimate Prankster? Ultimate Crime-Lord? I have a suggestion, how about Ultimate Supreme—”
The agents told him. Kokichi frowned.
-
Kaito had known from the beginning that falsifying records to take the astronaut exams was potentially going to get him into some trouble. He had hoped… no, really believed, that if he did well enough on them, that even when JAXA inevitably found out what had happened, they’d be impressed enough by his score that they’d turn a blind eye to how he had managed to compete in the first place.
And he had done well! He had been told that he had gotten one of the top scores, ever!! Which would have been an achievement even if he had been an adult with a few college degrees already under his belt. It should have been proof that he was ready to fly, if JAXA was just ready to take him on as part of their astronaut training program!
Instead, Kaito had just been told that JAXA was filing charges, and that it was looking like if he got convicted, that he’d spend his entire high school term in a juvenile correctional facility.
When the JAXA employees had demanded Kaito’s phone number for his parents, Kaito had lied that he didn’t have parents. When the police had arrived and demanded the same thing, then Kaito had told them that his parents were living in America and he couldn’t get a hold of them. When the police finally found the records of Kaito’s parents at the station, discovering Kaito was adopted by his grandparents, Kaito had finally desperately begged the police that they not contact his grandparents yet! Not until he had this figured out! It was going to worry them!
The officers had murmured something about the apple not falling far from the tree, seeing Kaito’s parents' prison records, and Kaito, feeling a rush of embarrassed panic, had lied and said he didn’t know what they were talking about. When Kaito was asked where he thought his parents were, Kaito then lied about a car crash. When Kaito was asked about the medicine his parents had sold that had gotten them arrested, Kaito lied about not being sick.
Kaito didn’t know who had told them what was happening, but after being left in confinement for a long time, the police suddenly let into the investigation room two agents from Hope's Peak academy. The agents sat down with Kaito, heard out his explanation of the events that had taken place, before one of them said to the other, “He lies as easily as you breathe.”
The other agent interrupted Kaito’s frustrated offense at that, saying, “I have a way out of this for you, but it’s only going to work if you agree to our terms. Instead of going through the court system, Hope’s Peak academy will take responsibility for you as one of our Ultimates. You simply have to agree to cultivate and let us study the talent we’re enrolling you for. I’d say it's a choice, but if you say no, you’ll very likely go to prison. So I’d be careful if I were you.”
“You want to study my talent… is it because I did really well on the astronaut exams?” Kaito asked, eyes widening with sudden hope, “Are you going to name me the ultimate—”
The agent told Kaito his ultimate title. Kaito frowned.
-
On the first day of Hope’s Peak Academy, two new students got into a genuinely violent fist-fight, right in front of the courtyard where everyone could see.
Hope's Peak, like any high school, had its obvious delinquents and its obvious pillars of society. So, considering one of the boys in the fight was a six-foot muscle-head with fierce eyes and a loud voice, and the other one was 5’1, unbearably pretty, with a habit of giggling? No one was surprised to hear it was the Ultimate Liar who had started the trouble, punching the Ultimate Astronaut in the face.
“Everyone keeps asking me what our fight was about,” Kokichi smirked, walking along the half-wall as he followed Kaito, who was storming to the dorm building, trying to ignore him, “The Ultimate Pianist and The Ultimate Detective took me to the nurses office, and now they think we’re besties! Geee, it’s so refreshing to be so well-liked, all thanks to your temper! That’s so funny… hey, have you made any friends on our first day, Kai-chan?”
“…I’m not supposed to talk to you.” Kaito growled, staring at the ground as he walked faster, still aiming for the dorm, “Leave me the hell alone.”
“Oh, is that your punishment for beating up a student the first day? Booo, that’s lame, they couldn’t think of anything better than that?” Kokichi whined, hopping off the wall to better keep up with Kaito’s power-walking, “You’re not allowed to talk to me? But that’s a punishment for me too! You’re the most interesting talent at this school! Let’s chat, I wanna hear what an ‘Ultimate’ liar has to say!”
“Shut up, I don’t have anything to say!” Kaito shouted, glaring over his shoulder, “If you want to talk so bad, you can go tell the headmaster that you started all of that. You didn’t have to keep saying all of that shit about how I got my title, you clearly,” Kaito grit his teeth, forcing himself to look back forward, away from Kokichi, “already know how I got it.”
“I do. That’s also soooo funny,” Kokichi smiled, though his amusement fell into an unimpressed scoff as they approached the dorm building, which Kokichi didn’t have access to, not assigned to this particular building, “Seriously, are you going to hide from me in your dorm room? Kinda lame move, isn’t it?”
“…my punishment isn’t not to talk to you. My punishment is I have to go to my dorm room for the rest of the week when I’m not in class.” Kaito grumbled, going to scan his badge to the front door of the building.
“What? Pffff,” Kokichi rolled his eyes, smirking at Kaito’s glare at that, “Uh huh. Yeah, I’m pretty sure a school can’t ground you, Kaito. You can ignore that. Who even told you such an obvious lie, the creepy headmaster?”
Kaito gripped the handle of his door, hesitating… before he huffed, “I’m tired, that’s why I’m going into my dorm. So leave me alone, I need a damn nap.”
Kokichi tilted his head, suddenly more curious as Kaito slammed the door, locking it.
…huh.
That had sounded like a lie.
-
For the rest of the week, Kaito did exactly what he had been told. He went from his dorm in the morning, to class, back to his dorm for the rest of the day. He never came out.
For most of the week, Kokichi didn’t bother Kaito. Kokichi was finding his time annoyingly overly occupied with classmates and curious other students, drawn to not only the Ultimate Astronaut title, but wanting to hear about the frankly insane story of how he had earned that title. Kokichi lied about how it had happened almost every time someone asked, but another student was always quick to step in and undo Kokichi’s lie, regaling the curious students with the incredible tale of Kokichi proving his astronaut abilities by running an entire unauthorized flight by himself!
Kokichi, when he felt like it, corrected them that he hadn’t ‘run a flight’, but conducted a heist. The other students didn’t seem to know how to reconcile that fact with the small, big-eyed Ultimate in front of them. Most of them ignored that detail, just calling it a ‘proving test flight’.
It was annoying to not be recognized as the leader of DICE, just because of his title. Kokichi wondered if any of his fellow students had done the research on how the local delinquent Kaito Momota had gotten his Liar title. Kokichi had thought it was hilarious at first, but over time the idea irritated him more and more; to give a title like Ultimate Liar for just lying to take some stupid astronaut exams? Hope's Peak really did just throw darts at a board, for who got what title, huh.
Kokichi wanted to pester Kaito more about his title and just in general… but Kaito, as said before, was never around outside of class-time. Sticking to that dumb rule Kokichi knew there was no way the school could actually enforce. And when he was in class, Kaito just stuck to the lessons and didn’t talk much to anyone. Probably because all anyone ever wanted to ask was what was up with his Ultimate title, and why had he punched someone the first day.
Kokichi had overheard that Kaito had tried to answer the questions to at least a few of his classmates. Apparently, they hadn’t been sure if they could believe him. He was the Ultimate Liar, after all…
On the first day of the second week, Kokichi had been surprised to hear that Kaito, in his first lunch period that he hadn’t gone back to his dorm room for, had gotten into another fight. This time apparently him freaking out and shouting down the Ultimate Anthropologist, who had sat with Kaito in the dining hall. The Anthropologist had said he had just been sharing notes about what he had been studying lately. That he hadn’t realized Kaito was becoming upset until Kaito had shouted and stormed off.
Kokichi had thought that sounded like a lie. The Anthropologist looked a touch too pleased with himself when recalling the incident, like he had thought Kaito’s distress was fun. It made Kokichi feel oddly possessive. That was his schtick.
Kokichi waited outside of Kaito’s dorm building for a while, hoping to catch him on his way back from class. Kokichi had spent more time observing the dorm building—one of many for the school—really looking at it for the first time as he waited. It was a weird building. It was hard to notice at first glance, but at a second look, it was obvious the building didn’t have any windows where a dorm-room could use one. That was weird. Like the occupants were boxed. None of the other dorm buildings were designed that way.
When Kaito showed up, looking tired, Kokichi called, “You grounded again?”
“…yeah,” Kaito said, heading to the front door.
“Why are you listening to them? They can’t enforce it. You’re a student, not a prisoner.” Kokichi frowned, squinting at the dorm building. He had been there for an hour, and only seen one other student come in and out. Ryoma Hoshi. “Right?”
Kaito hesitated as he badged his way into the front door. Like he was debating with himself… before he shrugged and looked back over his shoulder, “I’m actually kinda surprised you haven’t dug that info up yet, so whatever, you’d find out eventually. The school has guardianship over me while I go here. So yeah, the headmaster can ground me. It’s a whole legal thing.” Kaito hesitated, before adding in a touch defensively, “I’m not the only student like that here.”
“…weird,” Kokichi hummed, “Okay, well, guardianship or not, can’t you just sneak out anyway? You live alone in your dorm, right? Who’s keeping track?”
Kaito tsked, scoffing the heel of his slippers into the concrete a bit, like he wasn’t going to say… before seeming to change his mind, showing Kokichi his badge, “This is how. I badge in at the building door, and I badge in at my dormroom door after that. I also badge out when I leave. They keep track of when I’m coming and going this way. If something doesn’t look right, they can confirm if I was here or not using the cameras,” Kaito said, nodding above them, pointing Kokichi’s attention to a camera that was pointed at the door, “And yeah, it matters if they catch me. I’m not in prison because I’m essentially serving my sentence here. If I don’t follow the rules, I’ll be kicked out of the school, and I’ll have to serve my time in juvie.”
“Wow, they were not playing around over just a little bit of fraud, huh? Seems kinda excessive. I’ve done way worse, and I’m not dealing with any of this.” Kokichi smirked, “I guess that’s the difference between being caught by the authorities or not. The police still can’t prove it was me who stole that rocket, despite the fact my Ultimate title is based around that heist. Funny, right?”
“Hilarious.” Kaito said dryly, looking back to the door… before glancing back at Kokichi, “…What was it like? I heard you did a space walk while you were up there.”
“A space walk?” Kokichi asked.
Kaito winced, like the fact that Kokichi didn’t even know the term was eating him up inside… before he took a breath, calming himself, “You put on a suit and were out of the rocket, at some point. In space itself? That’s… pretty incredible…” Kaito stared at Kokichi uneasily. Swallowing. “…what was it like?”
“Oh… I don’t know,” Kokichi shrugged, “Didn’t think much of it when I was doing it.”
Kaito ground his teeth together, before turning back to the door. Swiping his badge and storming inside.
-
Kokichi didn’t understand how Kaito had earned his Ultimate Liar title until a few weeks later, when he overheard two of the other students ask Kaito about the lack of windows in his dorm building.
“Oh, that?” Kaito had asked, doodling little images of shounen heroes onto the side of his textbook, the equations inside having been filled out and finished before class had started, notes clarifying the formulas on the edge of the pages bordered by little images of Naruto throwing knives at Goku, Superman floating nearby to watch, Kaito drawing Daredevil to accompany the DC hero, “…it’s to improve our senses.”
The two who were asking were the type that weren’t classified as bullies by stereotype alone. The Ultimate Mathlete and the Ultimate Debater: The two were considered some of the smartest students in the school of prodigies… if by no one else other than themselves. They were the type that prided themselves on their intelligence and wit, all, of course, well above average.
So having someone with the weird title of ‘The Ultimate Liar’, and have him be an infamous, overly loud delinquent with two fights under his belt in the first two semesters already… easily answer the math and reasoning based formulas for this class? Every damn time he had the opportunity to? Had been notably driving the two Ultimates more and more crazy as every week went by. And it looked to Kokichi like the two were finally ready to vent some of that stress, as the Ultimate Debater huffed out a near offended scoff, asking, “What? No, no, explain that one.”
“What’s there to explain? It’s an experiment the school is trying with a few select students.” Kaito said easily, glancing up at the two students before uneasily looking back down to his textbook, shading in Daredevil, “You guys do know that Hope's Peak uses its students to test how to improve the human condition, right?”
“Of course,” The Ultimate Mathlete said, her lips thinning in distaste, “Something clearly the ‘Ultimate Liar’ would be helpful in. Obviously.”
“It was probably random. Some of us got picked to live in Dorm Building F to see if removing outside stimulus would sharpen our senses, help us focus.” Kaito blinked before adding, “I was picked because I have experience with doing sensory deprivation training, for when I was training myself to be an astro—”
“You just said students were picked randomly,” The Ultimate Debater reminded him.
Kaito blinked, processing… before he grinned up at them, “Most everyone is picked randomly, sure! But I volunteered when I heard about it, because it sounded cool!”
Oh, Kokichi realized, watching this from the back of the class, ignoring his ‘friends’ who were discussing the equations together during the class's group study time, This is why.
The Mathlete and Debater both gave each other amused, bewildered looks. Kaito, seeing their skepticism, doubled down, as he continued, “Right, I overheard them telling someone else about the sensory deprivation building and it made a lot of sense to me! Limiting stimulus to make it easier to use your brain to its full capacity!”
“Uhuh.” The Debater said skeptically, “Is that why you’re always ahead of the rest of us in the textbook?”
“I just have a lot of time on my hands,” Kaito said, glancing down at his textbook, before brightening up, “But also, yeah! I guess this is just proof that it’s working, right? Besides, you have to be ready to deal with slightly dull visuals to enjoy the thrill of what you’re actually accomplishing in that environment! Like the bottom of the ocean, right? For people, going down there tends to mean being cramped in a really small, bleak environment, only able to see out through a camera. But does that stop people from venturing down!? No! Because it’s passion that drives us to seek out the impossible—!”
“I’m curious how you’re cheating,” The Mathlete said plainly.
Kaito stammered, clearly caught off guard, “…huh? Cheating?”
“Same. The school puts a lot of resources into making sure we all can’t just look up the answers to these questions. Hope's Peak is a school for the societal elite, it degrades the entire academy and everyone in it if someone’s managed to just look up the answers to their texts somewhere.” The Debater frowned, “How are you doing it?”
Kaito grit his teeth, “I’m not cheating!? I’ve never cheated!”
“Oh? Well, that’s my mistake. I mean, if I can’t take the word of the Ultimate Liar,” The Ultimate Mathlete smirked lightly, “Who’s word can I take?”
Kaito’s hands gripped into fists, glaring at the two Ultimates from his seat as the two loomed over him, “I’m not a… I’m not a cheat! I do the work! I study hard! When I took the astronaut exams, I got one of the best scores they ever had!”
“Uh, no kidding,” The Mathlete scoffed, “Because you cheated.”
“That’s why you got the title that basically means ‘cheat’,” The Debater agreed, a mean, somewhat strained smile crossing his face, like it was an expression he wasn’t used to trying, “They should have been less polite and called you what you are, which is Ultimate Idiot—”
“Hey, hey, Damon! Question!”
Damon and Eva—the Ultimate Debater and the Ultimate Mathlete—both tensed as Damon was called out to. Not just because of the reputation of who had called to them, people at this point finally coming to grips with that, actually yeah, Kokichi Oma the Ultimate Astronaut was kind of an asshole… but more than that, because Kokichi had shouted across the classroom. Not just getting their attention, but everyone’s attention as Kokichi waved his phone at them, “Where’s your main social media account! Your real one!”
“…my accounts are just under my name and Ultimate title. What do you mean my ‘real’ one?” Damon asked warily.
“Huh? Really?” Kokichi frowned, giving his phone a bewildered few taps, “That can’t be right. Ultimate students are basically micro-celebrities, at least in their own fields. But everything I find under your name has only a handful of followers…most of these look like bots too. Clicking on some shady channels?” Kokichi asked curiously.
Damon glowered at Kokichi, biting his inner cheek, “…I don’t bother trying to interact with a bunch of randoms online—”
“You know, maybe it’s a clone account!” Kokichi realized, showing his phone to Miu beside him, who squinted at it before shaking her head. Kokichi ignored her, tapping at his screen, “I’ll find your real one through Eva’s main—oooooh,” Kokichi winced, giving Eva a pitying grimace, “Only one follower on your main account, and I’m pretty sure that’s your mom. You post too! That’s so sad… not even your friends follow you? Damon, you couldn’t give her a pity follow?”
Eva’s expression was bright red, and she kept glancing nervously around at the rest of the students, notably sweating beneath her bangs…
Kokichi’s pitying look turned into a sneering smile, “Oh no. Are you two not even friends with each other? Oh noooooooo! You’re the only ones I’ve ever seen either of you talk to.” Kokichi giggled, “That’s soooooo pathetic. The top of your fields, and you still can’t make any friends? In your position, I think I’d wanna di—”
“Hey, Kokichi, that’s enough!” Kaito shouted, slamming his fist onto the table, “That’s too far! Don’t be a dick!”
Whatever spell Kokichi had the class under seemed to break at that, Eva and Damon’s wide eyes clearing up as they composed themselves, looking embarrassed as the two muttered rebuttals that no one else in the class could hear over the sudden murmuring among the groups. The professor, who did not care about any of this student drama, told the groups to focus on their studies, and Shuichi and Kaede were both quietly scolding Kokichi for humiliating their classmates.
“Even if they were kind of asking for it,” Kaede admitted, giving Shuichi’s surprised look a sheepish smile back, “What? They kind of were! I know Kaito’s kind of weird, but I don’t think he’s cheating when he’s answering questions. Some of the questions the professor asks aren’t in the textbooks and Kaito still always knows the answer. It’s surprising! But I think he might just be good at math. They were being mean.”
“Saying they’re friendless losers who should die is still going too far though.” Ryoma, sitting on the desk on the other side of Kokichi’s, having just been reading his own textbook, piped in grimly, “Never know who’s going to hear that and take it personally.”
“Exactly. Too far, Kokichi. I’m glad Kaito stepped in… why is the professor talking to Kaito?” Shuichi asked, frowning as he saw Kaito standing at the desk, listening to the professor speak sternly to him, “They’re not blaming him for this, are they?”
“Tsk, the professor didn’t even notice anything was going on until Kaito shouted,” Miu said, loudly popping some bubblegum someone had made the grave error of offering her earlier, “They probably thought it was under control until then. Know what they fucking say. No good deed doesn’t get you rammed in the fucking ass!”
“They don’t say that.” Keebo said.
Kokichi sighed, irritated.
-
“Would you just leave me alone,” Kaito said, heading to his dorm as Kokichi followed, “You know, half the time when I’m under restrictions, it's because I’ve been in a fight with you? You’re turning me into a damn hermit. I’m literally losing muscle mass over it.”
“We didn’t get into a fight today.” Kokichi said, arms behind his neck, his posture casual, even if he had to walk a little fast to keep up with Kaito.
But Kaito suddenly stopped, staring at the path ahead… before taking a breath, looking back at Kokichi, “You’re right, we didn’t get into a fight. And… you were an absolute dick about it, but… I guess I should thank you for stepping in. I don’t know what I did to piss those two off so much, but they’ve been taking shots at me for weeks now. Nothing like today though…”
“I wouldn’t overthink it.” Kokichi scoffed, “I know those types. Wannabee villains. Both of them think they’re ‘cunning’, which means they spent the last week stewing over whatever hurt their massive egos, conniving over how to get their revenge in their spare hours, all to come to the same exact plan they would have made the first day they were upset because it’s still the one that makes them ‘feel’ the best. Calling them pathetic wasn’t an insult, it was a description.”
Kaito laughed at that, before covering his mouth and looking away. Clearly conflicted over having laughed, brow furrowing as he let his hand fall, “You shouldn’t have told them to die. That was messed up.”
“I’m a villain too. Thankfully for them, our local hero stepped in to save them from my evil, vicious words.” Kokichi said dryly… before his eyebrows raised slightly. Tilting his head to get a better look at Kaito, whose ears had suddenly turned red, “…you liked that. You got a thing for being called ‘hero’?”
“Shut up! It’s a compliment, anyone would be flattered!” Kaito growled, the red spreading to the rest of his face as well, “I don’t understand why you’d want to call yourself the ‘villain’. Being the hero is way better!”
“Being the hero is boring,” Kokichi said, his expression just amused now. Watching Kaito as they approached his dorm building, “Well, maybe less so if they have a good villain to bounce off of. But by themselves? Boooooring.”
“Tsk, like a villain by himself is any better! Without a hero to compare to, villains are just bullies beating up random people on the street. We make you look actually cool, rather than just jackasses!”
“We?” Kokichi asked, as they stopped at the door, Kaito digging out his badge, “Funny thing for the Ultimate Liar, to consider himself the hero of the story.”
“Well… sounds just as wrong as the Ultimate Astronaut saying how fun it is to be a villain. Astronauts are amazing. Strong and proud and adventurous… exploring farther than man has gone before…”
Kokichi watched as Kaito’s hand clutched the badge. Staring at the building door in front of him with clear dread. The door leading him to a building with no windows, where he’d be for the rest of the day, locked inside as sensors chained his movement down to one small box…
“Grounded again?” Kokichi guessed.
“It’s my damn title,” Kaito said, staring at himself on the badge in his hand. His face grinning above the title Ultimate Liar, “Everytime something happens, the professors just assume it’s my fault. I can’t argue on my own behalf: they just say I’m lying.”
“You do lie a lot. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t make a mistake, making you a villain and me a hero.” Kokichi mused, staring at the badge too… before he smirked, pulling out his own badge, “It makes them suuuuper unprepared to deal with me, for one. Trade ya!”
“Hey!” Kaito startled as Kokichi grabbed his badge, Kaito trying to grab it back from him and, somehow, finding himself holding Kokichi’s badge of Ultimate Astronaut instead, “Kokichi, give that back! Seriously, I have maybe five minutes before I’m officially late, I have to badge in!”
“You will,” Kokichi said, putting the badge’s lapel around his neck, smirking as he wore the title of Ultimate Liar, “Or, I am. You are going to sneak into the schools administration office and print out for yourself a badge that locks and unlocks your doors without notifying the Hope's Peak systems of it.”
Kaito gave Kokichi a bewildered, tense look, “…what—”
“You’re smart, you can figure it out,” Kokichi said, smirking as Kaito’s eyes lit up a bit at that, the guy easily pleased by compliments. Pff. Dork. “The entrance to my research lab is connected to the headmaster's wing, because it’s at the top of that stupid phallic looking tower in the center of the main school building. My badge lets me into that area so that I can get to my lab’s entrance. But you could also sneak into the administration offices from there. Come on, Kaito, I don’t need to spell this out for you.”
“…but if they notice something's wrong, your name and badge will be the one going in and out,” Kaito said, frowning, “You could get into trouble if that happens.”
“Then you better do a good job not getting caught. And beeeesiiiides, you being in trouble all the time and me being the Golden Boy is so dull. ‘Bout time we shake things up,” Kokichi smirked, swiping the badge at the dorm building, “I’m gonna go look through your stuff. Come back and let me out when you have your new badge made.”
“Kokichi, don’t look through my stuff! I have private things!” Kaito bulked, before suddenly insisting in a panic, “Just don’t look in the nightstand drawers, okay!? Seriously, for real!”
“Nee-heehee~ You make it waaaay too easy, Kai-chan,” Kokichi snickered, opening up the door, “I’ll give you an hour, if you’re not back by then, I am so looking.”
“Kokichi, I’m serious—!”
“And, hey, with your new freedom? Let’s go do something fun tonight,” Kokichi said, looking over his shoulder at Kaito with a smirk, “How many laws do you wanna break today? I know a place that doesn’t check ID if you want to break some drinking laws today. You’d look better with a few drinks in me.”
Kaito blinked, holding the Ultimate Astronaut badge tightly in his hand as he stared round-eyed at Kokichi, “… I’d look ‘better’? Like… like do I already look good, or…hey, are you calling me ugly!?”
Kokichi giggled, before letting the door close and lock behind him.
Kaito stared at the closed door, eyes distant, head in the clouds… before he remembered, “SHIT I HAVE AN HOUR!”
And the Ultimate Liar ran off to break a few laws, while the Ultimate Astronaut did indeed immediately look into some dresser drawers. Laughing at what was inside, before admiring the stars stuck in the ceiling. Both of them looking forward to that night.