Chapter Text
Kiibo was, for the lack of a better word, oblivious.
He wasn’t the ‘unaware of anything that is going on at all times so is just rolling with the punches’ type of oblivious like Kaito, though (thank god). He was definitely one of the smartest and witty of the Inmates.
He throughly explored any new areas the teens would come across, sort through their supplies to see how much they have of what, and–although it (understandably) disturbed some of the interns–monitored their condition, to see if they are well rested, need a break from all the work they’ve been doing or if any sickness is looming amongst them.
He can also call out anyone that claims that they’re not feeling well and need a day off when they are completly fine. If there’s anything Kiibo hates more than not-overly sensitive remarks about his origin, it’s liars, and so he’d try to make that person work twice as much for punishment (a word that the Inmates have agreed to refrain from using, lest they want Monokuma to show up and start prattling on about random facts or mundane life advice).
Maki always stops Kiibo from actually going through with the act, but if the specific person keeps trying to use that excuse, then she doesn’t let it slip and makes sure their assigned tasks are done. Kiibo always looked like a child who successfully tattled on a fellow preschooler in those moments.
Albeit still a bit of a hot-head, he made up for it with his determination and unyielding nature, and was a very useful addition to their “home” (if you can even call a prison where you have to perform penal labor such a thing). And while very serious most of the time, he absolutely does not comprehend jokes, a characteristic that Kaede found oddly edearing. Whenever Momota makes an off-hand joke or pun, he’s used to groans and the occassional snicker (Akamatsu could’ve sworn she heard Shuichi trying and failing to supress a laugh during a certain breakfeast). What he’s not used to is having to explain in excruciating detail how the joke works. And that is exactly what Kiibo always asks him to do.
Kaito’s smile looks crooked and practically screams “help me” everytime he has to do so, but the robot never notices and continues pushing the man on the subject. Kaede felt that the robot asking him about “Gonta really ‘bugging’ him” was good at putting Kaito in line so that maybe he takes himself more seriously, but after spending a lot of time with Kiibo herself, Akamatsu feels nothing short of sympathy for the astronaut.
Recently, whenever the pianist seeks the robot out, she finds him reading a joke book, and a lot of their hang out sessions consist of reading through said book so that Kaede can explain the jokes that the boy doesn’t get (which is a good 96% of the book, including the cover). It’s a pretty daunting task to teach a robot that wasn’t made to be a comedian jokes, not to mention that some of the author’s attempts at humor completly go over both of the SHSL student’s heads. At some point they both wondered if the maker of the book started out with a lot of great ideas, ran out of them halfway through making the book, and rushed half-assedly through the rest in order for it to just get released already.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised.” Added Kaede. “Sometimes, I hit a block like that too. I get a tune in my head, draft it, but then I have no idea what to do with the rest of it, so I just put it off, hoping some inspiration will come. And then it never does and it just sits beneath my desk, taking up dust.” She huffed after finishing her sentence, setting her falling fringe back in it’s place.
“Something like that is called an ‘Artist’s block’, right?” Asked Kiibo, tilting his head.
“Hah. Yep, you got it.” She smiled, but it wasn’t as cheerful as she was hoping she could make it out to be. “It’s funny, actually. Before we came here, I kept hitting a wall whenever I tried composing a new song. But now that we’re trapped in this place, my hands are basically itching to compose an all-out one woman symphony. I guess all I needed is a traumatic experience to get out of the ditch I was in, right? Haha…” Again, that sounded way more depressing than she intended it to sound. What was wrong with her today?
“How does a traumatic experience inspire a person to perform more art? I don’t understand.” Questioned the robot again. “If anything, I thought it would discourage the artist from making more pieces.”
“Not at all!” Kaede suddenly turned to face Kiibo and unintentionally raised her voice and–to her own surprise–making the boy’s cybernetic eyes widen just a bit. She cleared her throat and straightened her posture.
“Art is heavily influenced by the maker’s emotions, feelings, point of view and desire to let the world know about their opinion on many ranging subjects! A lot of–no, in fact, a majority of artistic geniuses in history use their gift as a coping mechanism or a message to society, a plea to change the world, or have their feelings known to them. Every experience–good or bad, trivial or serious–in their lives has the potential to change their feelings and opinion on a matter, and lets them see things in a new light! Especially one that puts the artist out of their comfort zone! Such a revelation alone can make a bout of new feelings blossom forth, and inspire one to try and make others see and feel what they saw and felt! A lot of artists aren’t very vocal or open or seen as weird in other people’s eyes, but that is because we believe actions speak louder than words! Sometimes, a mere conversation isn’t enough to let out your inner turmoil or desire to jump for joy! So that’s–”
Akamatsu turned to her friend, to see him intently listening. Only when she looked at him did she realize her voice was louder than she intended for it to be once again, and she had her hands over heart. Once again, she tried to calm herself and neatly folded her hands back in her lap.
“…So that’s why I love music. Ever since I was a child, it let me say what I had trouble conveying through words and helped me let out some steam when I was mad or sad or just going through a rough time. It also helped me at school, memorizing sheet music helped me train my memory, and since remembering complicated words, numbers and symbols and such was basically your best friend when it came to a lot of subjects, that tidbit alone helped me survive junior high. It’s not as impressive as, say, Saihara or Iruma’s talents, but it is still very much important to me, and I’m glad to have such a way of expressing myself. I don’t know where I’d be if I never learned to play the piano.”
As Akamatsu finished her speech, she heard a small ‘beep’ coming from Kiibo, and he seemed to wear the same surprised expression as her as he quickly looked away. Akamatsu, however, squinted her eyes at him.
”…What was that?”
”Nothing.” He responded, too quickly and too monotonously for the girl to believe him.
“Hey, I thought I was supposed to be the liar out of the two of us?
“I am not lying.” He was staring straight ahead and his posture was way too stiff, even for a robot.
Just then, a robotic, female-sounding voice emerged from somewhere inside Kiibo’s mechanical body;
”Footage saved.”
Kaede stared. Kiibo put his synthetic face in his hands.
“You recorded me!?” The SHSL Pianist exclaimed in surprise.
“I can explain.” Kiibo straightened up and tried to defend himself.
“So explain, and I just might forget about this.” That was a lie from her side, now. But it’s only fair, right?
Kiibo once again straightened his posture. It was more casual and not as stiff, but he still wasn’t looking in her direction. “Research.”
“On what?”
“Music.”
“That was more my opinion than a lesson, Kiibo. You didn’t have to film me without letting me know.” Kaede crossed her arms.
He slowly turned to look at her. “…You?”
“Yes, me. Who else?”
“No, I mean. Research on you?”
A pause.
“What.”
“Research on you, Kaede Akamatsu. I’m collecting information about you.”
“Why? You’re able to remember things just fine, even better than the rest of us, Kiibo. Why the recording? Or video? Whatever it was you were doing, it was still creepy.”
“…I apologize. You wouldn’t let me do it otherwise.” He looked down.
“I might’ve! You should ask someone before you do anything involving them! I thought you of all people would know that!” Kaede lectured, feeling like Maki whenever she had to scold Kaito or Ouma for doing something stupid at that moment. One of the reasons the blonde liked Kiibo was that he was more reserved and had a sense of personal space, unlike a lot of the other inmates (Kaede liked each and everyone of them, but she got tired of some more than others), but it seems you can’t go a day in this prison without something making Akamatsu uncomfortable.
“…Noted. I’m sorry.” Kiibo tried once again, quieter this time.
The girl sighed. “Apology accepted. But, seriously, why did you film me?”
“I enjoy it when you talk about music, Akamatsu.”
“Really?” Her eyes widened for a second, but then she shook her head and her face scrunched up again. “Wait–I mean, what does that have to do with anything?”
“To the first question, yes. To the second–When you talk about your talent, not only do I get to know more about you and your interests, you also look very passionate whenever we bring up the subject. It’s… very inspiring, in my opinion. Most of the time, you just listen to everybody else instead of talking about yourself, so seeing you so excited while talking about your work is a very special sight. Um, is… that creepy too?”
The Ultimate Pianist had to blink several times at that. They both looked at each other and it seemed like they were about to have a moment, were it not for the awkward silence between them and the human staring at the robot like a dead fish.
“Well, um. Thanks? I still want you to delete that video, though.”
“Of course.” He finally looked away, only to pause, and turn to her again. “On the subject of memory, though, I am also surprised that memorizing music sheets helped you in school. You compare yourself to the SHSL Inventor and Detective, professions in which one of the most needed gifts is memory, but you possess such a talent as well. You’re more impressive than you give yourself credit, Kaede.”
Something happened then.
It was small, and wouldn’t really surprise Kaede if it came from anyone else. But for some reason, that unfortunately Kaede knew all too well, it made her feel like time has stopped in that moment.
The girl was all-too familiar with the term “smile that could make flowers grow”, but she was never really sure if something like that existed.
Until now.
Kiibo gave a soft, but genuine smile. One that the pianist believed could make the greenery in the whole area they were trapped in bloom into thousands of beautiful flowers she could only dream of seeing with her own eyes, and not in some stock photos.
At that moment, two parts of Kaede’s mind started arguing among themselves.
One part of Kaede, which was the more sensible one, helping her during disputes among her peers, was about to question Kiibo if he was buttering her up because he did, or was about to do something terrible.
Meanwhile, the second part, the one that Kaede always tried to forget the existence of, the one that wanted to laugh loudly at Miu and Kaito’s jokes and play Tom Lehrer songs while singing her heart out, wanted to do something that Kaede was sure she was going to regret five seconds from now.
The second part won.
“Well, haha…”
‘Stop it.’ warned her sensible self.
“If you think I’m good at memorizing sheet music…”
‘Stop.’ it tried again, to no avail.
“…Just think about what I can do with your body.”
Only a milisecond after she said it, Kaede wanted to jump through the nearest window and run away as far as their closed space allowed them to.
Two parts of her mind were in different states. The first was crying in shame, and the other was nodding approvingly with a sleazy look on its face.
Kaede herself just started sweating buckets and put on her best fake smile while thinking up all the ways she could escape this awkward situation.
Meanwhile, Kiibo had a look on his face that was a weird mix of annoyance and confusion.
“Well, my body is very complicated, and I have a lot of parts with names even I am baffled by, but I’d rather you get to know me through conversation than by dismantling my body. Please. I’ve already made up every excuse I could in order to avoid Miu Iruma performing unnecessary ‘maintenance checks’ on me.”
“…Yeah. Of course.”
Akamatsu really didn’t know if she was supposed to be relieved or dissapointed.
She settled on wanting to set herself on fire.
——————————————-
For the lack of a better word, Kiibo was oblivious.
In this context though, Kaede was talking about possibly one of the worst types of ‘oblivious’ a person can be. One that no matter how hard she tries not to, she can’t help falling for, even when she knows full well about that little tidbit before she decides to try her luck.
Ever since energetic Midori first offered to be her gym partner in elementary school, she tried to drop many hints–some very subtle, some impossibly blunt–and shared the occassional breakfast she packed for herself when the other child forgot theirs. And even when they were on their last day of elementary and having the last conversation they’d ever have, the soon-to-be teenager still took Kaede’s confession as an exclamation of how much she’ll miss being friends with them.
Kiibo was the ‘has no idea how flirting works, therefore is completly unaware of any advances someone might be trying to pull on them’ type of oblivious.
And of course, she had to fall for him too.
Sometimes she wonders if the universe just hates her.
——————————————-
In hindsight; flirting with an easily-offended robot who takes metaphors literally and jokes seriously? Not one of the best ideas of Kaede’s life.
But there was no way she was going to outright say to Kiibo that she would like to smooch his adorable synthetic face over and over and hold hands with him during their actually romantic instead of unfortunately platonic dates.
So, indirect expression of interest through awkward pick-up lines it was.
“You know, Kiibo…”
“Yes?”
Flirting was not exactly Kaede’s forte(pian, hahaaa), but she was confident in expressing her opinion, so she thought hitting on others would be a piece of cake.
But whenever the robot laid his blue, slightly glowing eyes on her, she realized how wrong she was everytime.
Was he always this pretty? She could’ve sworn he was not above a 5 or maybe a hard 6 by Kaede’s standards just a few days prior. Now, it seemed like she just found the perfect 11 she never thought actually existed and she didn’t realize it until she properly focused on him.
“I… I bet I can decript your code.”
He tilted his head. Like a cute little puppy, he did that whenever he was genuinely confused or curious, and whenever he did that, the musician gained a strange urge to pinch his cheeks, whatever they were made of. Or really, just put her hands on his face. Or anywhere on him.
“Are you sure? Even a SHSL Hacker would have trouble figuring out how my system works. It took many years to put the code together, my body itself took the most gifted robotics expert to make, and–”
“Y-Yeah, no, you’re right, nevermind. Anyway, what do you think this one means?”
The boy’s gaze lingered on her for a moment, before turning his attention back to yet another joke book they found and tried to decrypt. “That humans like to make fun of terrible things such as canniballism or dismemberment, but when it actually occurs, they’re horrified, and it’s not so funny anymore.”
———————————
During cleaning duty, as Kaede and Kiibo sorted through their supplies, the girl tried again while no one was in ear shot.
“Um… Are you a magician? Because, when I look at you–everyone else dissapears!” She gestured vaguely and laughed nervously. Kiibo looked at her, behind him, and squinted back at his friend.
“…I don’t think Yumeno heard that, Kaede.”
Akamatsu’s smile faltered when she looked behind her to find Himiko performing some kind of trick with the cleaning rag, with Angie and Momota (who she could’ve sworn was looking in their direction just now) as the audience. She waved it around, and the rag suddenly dissapeared, making Angie yelp in surprise. Before she could see how the small performance ends, however, the robot spoke up.
“Are you not going to repeat that–”
“No! No!” The girl suddenly interrupted him and stood up in order to avoid embarrassing herself further in front of her crush (she had a crush on a robot and she was acknowledging it. God.), and walked over to the group on the other side of the room. “Hey! Quit slacking off! Get back to cleaning, you three!”
——————————–
“You made all these yourself?” Kiibo was currently in Kaede’s room/lab/research facility/whatever you want to call it upon the robot’s request, and she allowed him to look through the music sheets she was stacking up under her desk. She took a seat by her piano, while Kiibo seemed comfortable standing up for now.
“Yeah. I keep getting tunes in my head, and I think I’ll be able to string some of them together into one song.” She responded while taking the sheets stacked on the large instrument, handing them to the robot boy. “This is the piece that I’ve made most progress with. I just need to think up a way to end it and I’m set.”
“Can I help somehow?”
“Thanks, but I’d rather make the pieces myself. Appreciate the thought, though.” She smiled up at him. “But, if you want to, we could try making music on my–sheets.”
Only at the last second did she realize her mistake.
Oooookay, that was way too forward. She tried really hard to not make this awkward, what, with the target of her affection being in her room for gods sakes, but it seemed it was all fruitless, as that little fact just fueled her mind without her even realizing it.
Was he even capable of…
“My knowledge of music notes is very limited, so I’m afraid I can’t help you there. Apologies.”
…
Seriously?
“N-nuh-no, it–it’s okay, really! Hahah… ha…”
A pause, as the white-haired boy continued staring at the nervous, stammering mess that Kaede currently was.
“…A-anyway, wanna hear it? It’s still unfinished, so don’t get your hopes up, but–”
“I’d love to!” He smiled, excitement clearly evident in his voice.
That smile was going to be the death of her.
Holy shit, she was in deep.
————————————-
Everything spiraled from there.
Kaede tried every bad pick-up line she could come up with, whenether they were alone, or at worst, when no one was looking at them.
“You must be a broom, because you swept me off my feet!”
“I want to play you like a piano.”
“I bet i can make you hit all the high notes!”
“You can call me the piano woman, cause you’ll love the way I tickle your keys.“
“How about we duet all night long?”
“So… Uh… Come here often…?
And each time, Kiibo was oblivious to every last one.
“Toujo is three rooms down from here, Kaede. I doubt she can hear you.”
“For the last time, I may have various gadgets installed in my body for everyday purposes, but a synthetic piano is not one of them, Akamatsu.”
“I have a voice pitch setting, but I assure you, you don’t want to hear me at my highest setting. Doing damage to the SHSL Pianists hearing will not make their career any easier.”
“…Everyone calls you the piano woman, Kaede. That’s your talent, Kaede.”
“I don’t have the best singing voice, but Iruma and the others are planning to have a karaoke night sometime soon, I hear.”
“Well, this is my room…”
It was both frustrating and cute to her at the same time and she had no idea what to do.
Suffer in silence and scream into a pillow until she gets to courage to confess, she guessed.
Until then, Kiibos adorable smile was going to haunt her dreams.
And thoughts.
And almost every hour of her day.
Ugh.
If she weren’t afraid of her other classmates making fun of her for not only being attracted to a robot, but having trouble flirting with said robot, she’d ask Gonta to get out all the butterflies in Kaede’s stomach.