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Kokichi was used to hating people.
He had a short fuse and a lot of pent-up anger, so he found it extremely liberating to take it out on anyone within a fifty-mile radius. The mailman, the old woman in the apartment next door, that useless bitch at the fast food joint who always judged him for buying a double burger at 1 am (mind your damn business and just take his money already).
But he’s never hated anyone as much as he hates Kaito Momota.
If there’s one thing Kokichi isn’t, it’s stupid. And it’s glaringly obvious what Kaito is supposed to be in this story- a foil. He’s the light to Kokichi’s shadow, the hope to his despair, the soft pillow to his bloody garden of thorns. He’s the hero brandishing his weapon for chivalry and justice and so forth, while Kokichi is nothing but the lowly villain destined to fall at his hands. Kaito’s only destiny is to be Kokichi’s undoing.
Nobody else seems to mind, trailing after him like a pack of dogs and letting themselves be pulled into his orbit. He welcomes them all with open arms, blindly believing that not a single one of them would dare to stab him in the back, while condemning anyone who notices a blood-soaked knife clutched in a ‘friend’s’ hands. At least Kokichi has the sense to stab them first.
It’s all a show, the two of them, and if that’s what the audience wants, Kokichi is happy to oblige. He’ll put on a pair of plastic horns and show them just how devilish he can be. He’ll parry Kaito’s strikes with his own sword, he’ll bite at the hand he extends until he scurries away with disgust, he’ll dance around him until his feet bleed and he doesn’t know what song is playing anymore. If Kaito is meant to be his downfall, then Kokichi isn’t going to go down without a fight.
But in the end, when the curtain is pulled back and the blinding spotlights reveal them both as liars, Kokichi crumbles. All of their truths are lying there in a sickly pink puddle on the floor, and there are no devils, no angels, just a pair of actors with no more lines to say.
I understand you, Kaito’s eyes seem to insist. Let me be the hero just this once. Let me save you.
Kokichi meets his gaze with ease. I don’t need you to save me. I need you to put me to rest.
With the press of a button, the curtain falls, and the audience cheers.