"Maaan, that was one of the best meals that I've had in a long time!" Kokichi chirped.

"...It was just a bento box..." you mumbled.

"Eh, whatever." He then chugged down what little was left of his Panta. "I'm going to go to the restroom now, okay?" He hopped out of your bed and excused himself.

You sighed and stood up from your desk, walking over to look at your bed. If you were to be honest, you were quite surprised to see that he didn't drop any grains of rice or something like that in the sheets.

You picked up the box that he had left. Completely empty... He must have been really hungry. You took the box over next to your own. I'll probably have to return these to the dining hall later on...

"Alright! Your supreme leader is back from the dead!" Kokichi appeared from the bathroom.

"From the dead...?" you repeated, slightly amused.

"Yep! Now I feel like I have the energy to do anything!"

You chuckled a bit. "That's great, Kokichi...but I just now thought of a question that I'd like to ask."

"Oh? Well then, go ahead."

"What will we do tomorrow?" You looked down to the ground nervously. "I mean... I figure that you'd want to do some more work on who the mastermind is and how to end this game... So I was just wondering if you would want to meet up again in the morning, just like today, or if you had some other plan..."

The boy looked off into the distance, poking a finger into his cheek while he was thinking. Then it seemed like he finally had an answer. "Doing the same thing tomorrow sounds fine with me. But don't you think that it's quite early to be that worried about tomorrow? I think that we should decide on something to do for the rest of our day."

"If you wanted to, we could get a head start on our work?"

"Sure," he replied with a shrug.

"...Oh, um, have you seen my lab yet?" you asked him. "Perhaps my lab will have some equipment that will help us organize our information."

"Ooh! Sounds great. I'm curious about how your lab looks now."

"Alright then, let's go."

You led him over to your door. "Oh, wait... We should probably be careful. You said that you didn't want to be seen, right?" He nodded at you. "Just be careful... Hopefully no one will be in our way. We do kind of have a long way to go..."

Kokichi tilted his head at you. "Eh? Exactly how long are we talking about?"

"My lab may or may not be on the fifth floor..."

The boy blanched. "...Great..."

You bit on the inside of your lip nervously. "Ah, we'll be fine...! Just... Just stay by my side. If we run into someone then you should just hide or something."

"Hmm... Maybe my skills at hide and seek will help us!"

"Sure... Now let's go, for real this time."

You opened your door, letting Kokichi go out first. You quickly locked the door before turning around and making your way out of the dormitory. Kokichi grabbed your hand and started running.

Your mind flashed back to a time where he had done the exact same thing. It seemed like forever ago, back when everyone was alive... You frowned slightly, and started to long for those times—

"Watch it!" Kokichi whisper-shouted.

Snapping into reality, you found that you were about to run into him. Aimlessly, you dug your heels into the ground and put your hands out in front of you. You were able to stop yourself before you could actually run into him, but you still ended up trapping him up against the academy building's door.

"..."

"..."

A bead of sweat rolled down Kokichi's face as he looked up at you. His cheeks were red, but that very well could have been from the few seconds he spent running. Other than that, his face was unreadable.

"...I am so sorry, Kokichi...!" you said once you grounded yourself. You glanced around behind your shoulders. It was one thing for you to and Kokichi to be seen in the situation that you were in, it was another thing for Kokichi to be seen as the public enemy—and then it was one more thing for you to be seen in the situation that you were in with the "public enemy".

You quickly pulled away from him. "Y-You're—You're f-fine," he told you breathlessly. A bit slow in his actions, he turned around him to open the door for you. Awkwardly, you walked through.

The boy followed right after you as you raced up different flights of stairs and then across the fifth floor until you two were standing right outside of your Ultimate Lab. You reached forward, nervously placed your hand on the doorknob, and opened the door. You held it open for him to enter before letting it shut.

"Ohhh... Nice lab," Kokichi commented.

You simply shrugged. "It's nothing much, really..." You cleared out your throat, about to continue when Kokichi stopped you.

"Hey, what's this note?"

You looked over at him, seeing that he had a small piece of paper in his hand. You quizzically stared at it for a moment before you finally remembered what it was. "Oh, it's some strange note that was already here when I found this place. I'm not quite sure if it could be from one of the other students, but...I have a feeling that it isn't. Whoever made it was also smart enough to type it out, so I can't check handwriting."

"It could be Monokuma's doing?" Kokichi suggested. "He is the one who runs this place and all."

"Technically it's the mastermind... The note makes it sound like they want me to collect more information."

"But why? If the note was written by the mastermind... Are they trying to frame you?"

You looked around the room. "Hm... Well, it doesn't really look like a mastermind's hideout. And in plain sight where anyone can at least see the door? The room that Shuichi and Kaede found is more likely to be some special room just for the mastermind, I can tell just by it's more hidden placing."

Kokichi frowned, trying to make sense of it. "Do they want to be exposed...??"

"Ugh, I'm not sure... But first, we should actually find out who the mastermind is. Maybe we could examine their personality in order to find a motive for writing such a weird note."

"Sounds good to me!" the boy chirped. "So...are we just going to start pointing fingers or what?"

You walked over to the filing cabinets. "Let's start with some notes about the remaining students. Strange enough, some students' files already have some notes in them, albeit bad ones..." You looked around. Next to your cork board was a small tray with some supplies in them. The most obvious supplies being the pencils and scissors sticking out from the top. You walked over to retrieve them before returning.

You opened the cabinet of each person who was still alive, grabbing the file folder out of them and closing the cabinets so you wouldn't trip over them or something stupid like that. After grabbing everything, you walked over to place them on a table.

You looked up. Kokichi had already sat down on one of the chairs that was next to the table. His eyes were following you everywhere, wide with wonder and...admiration?

You cleared your throat. "Ahem... Um, are you alright?"

Kokichi seemed to snap out of it. "Oh, yeah. Sorryyyyy! Was I staring? I just can't help it... You seemed so professional and serious just now. It was cool."

You sat down on the chair across from him. "Well, we are kind of doing important work here... Sorry if it's too boring for you."

"It's fine," he responded. "As long as we take some tea breaks then I'm good. You know, back at my organization—which you promised to me that you would join, remember?—we have mandatory tea breaks."

"Oh, that...actually sounds quite nice."

"Yep! And whoever slacked off the most has their blood mixed in with the tea!"

You gave him a strange look. "..."

"Psh, it's not a big deal though. We make a big batch of tea to distribute it out to 10,000 people, so it's not like you'd really be able to taste anything wrong."

It's not even that late in the day and I'm feeling exhausted... You just gave him a tired smile and glanced back down at the files on the table, hoping that Kokichi would get the message. Thankfully he did, and he instantly became much more serious.

Oh, how I'd love to just be able to joke around with you...but I'm sorry. We have more important things to focus on if we want to survive. Hopefully a day will come when we can just sit around for hours, talking to each other and joking around—

"Are you okay?" Kokichi suddenly asked you, snapping you out of your thoughts.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine."

"You seemed to do that on our way here, too..." He narrowed his eyes at you before softening his gaze. "Is something wrong...?"

"No, nothing's wrong. I was just lost in thought."

"If... If you say so..." He sounded a bit nervous but still continued. "Anyway, you said that we should start with everyone's notes. You meant that we're filling notes out, right?"

You nodded. "Exactly. Even for the files that already have some stuff in them, I want to rewrite the notes because like I had said before, they...aren't the best."

"Alrighty then! We can do this!" The boy pulled out the first folder in the pile. "Shuichi Saihara."

"Here, give it to me." He did as told, flipping the folder around so that you could see it properly. "This is what's already here... Detective; seems to take lead in the trials; everyone likes him."

Kokichi scoffed. "Well that isn't very detailed..."

"I know, that's why we should make new notes." You got up from your seat, grabbing some sheets of paper that was conveniently placed inside one of the filing cabinets. Then you returned, quick to grab your pencil and hover it above a new sheet of paper.

"Hmm... What do you think we should write down? What are your thoughts on Shuichi?"

You glanced up at Kokichi, who was tapping his chin with his index finger. "Well, he is the Ultimate Detective. He does take lead in the trials, and everyone does like him."

"..."

"Alright, alright!" He held his hands up as if he had been defeated in something. "What kind of notes are we even looking for? Events, relationships with everyone?"

"Both sound nice, but I'm pretty sure that the both of us don't want to write all of that down..." You looked off to the side, tapping the pencil against your chin.

"...Well, I personally don't think that he could be the mastermind. I don't think that the mastermind would be taking the lead in the class trials. They'd probably be in the background to make sure everything goes right..."

"Oh...! Good point!" You looked down at your paper and wrote some stuff down.

"He also seems pretty trustworthy because even though his friends are the culprits, he still sells them out..."

You continued to write. "Mhm, mhm... You seem to really respect Shuichi, don't you?"

"Yeah, so what?"

You looked back down, finishing up some notes. "Nothing..." You smiled a bittersweet smile, even though it would be hard for him to see it. You could sense that he was about to say something but you cut him off, already pulling out the next file. "Himiko Yumeno."

"Useless mage!" he immediately spat out.

You raised a brow at him as if to say, "Really?"

"She's too lazy and dumb to be the mastermind."

"Maybe it's an act...?"

"Non, non!" the boy snapped. "Just think about it... Do you really think she could be the mastermind?"

"Well, it's hard to imagine any one of us being the mastermind," you admitted, "...but it is especially hard for me to imagine her as the mastermind." Ah, but that's not very descriptive of her... Oh well. You lazily jotted down some notes before placing the file over to the side.

Kokichi grabbed a new file. "Hm... Who is this? Ah, there the name is." His lips curled up into a smirk. "B*tch."

You gave him a weak smile. "...It's Maki, isn't it?"

"No, it's 'B*tch'."

"Right..."

Kokichi leaned back in his chair, lazily twirling a strand of hair around one of his fingers. It was kind of endearing... "Well, let's see. She's a stone cold b*tch who tried to strangle me...!"

"I do think that she overreacted when she did that..." you mumbled.

"She certainly is shady enough to be the mastermind, don't you think?"

"You're jumping to conclusions and you're also letting your personal opinions get in the way."

The boy groaned. "Ugh, fine... We can get back to her later."

You set aside Maki's folder and pulled the next one out from the pile. "Tsumugi Shirogane," you read. You grabbed a new sheet of paper since she already had some notes in her file.

"She's so plain that she's suspicious," Kokichi casually remarked. "I mean, no one bothers to look at the boring blue square when there are so many different shapes of different colors and designs around it... Perhaps she's using that to shield herself from suspicion!"

You hummed in thought. "I guess that she does stress out about how plain she is all the time... I guess I should write that down. It is an interesting possibility." You did just as you said that you would.

"...You're really helpful, you know that?" The words were out of your mouth before they even registered in your mind. "I mean, you've been saying everything, and I've just been writing it down... And I'm supposed to be an expert at doings things like this, according to my talent..." You smiled a bittersweet smile and looked away from him.

"(Y/N), sweetheart..." You could hear him sigh, and then the sound of a chair being moved a bit.

A warm hand was placed on top of yours, and another was placed on your cheek to make you look forward again. There was care and concern in Kokichi's enrapturing purple eyes.

"I'm not even giving the best answers here," he murmured. "You're so much better and smarter than me... If the problem is that I'm not giving you enough time to speak than just say so and I'll shut up."

"..."

"Your Ultimate title just says something that you're exceptionally good at. You shouldn't let yourself feel like you have to meet some sort of expectation that isn't even there."

"...Thank you. I feel better, at least for now..." You reached up a hand to the hand that was on your face. Yes, this is real... You smiled softly. "Who knew that you could be this serious and kind?"

"Well," he started to fade back into his bubbly personality, "I only let certain people see me like thi—"

"..."

"Hm?"

You were confused as to why he stopped himself short. You decided to examine his face. His eyes were widened, his jaw was hung open slightly; his normally pale face was full of color. You then looked down.

Your hand was still on his, but... Oh god, I remember what happened.

Without thinking, you had somehow brought his hand over to your lips and placed a small kiss into his palm.

You weren't quite sure what color your face was turning. Was it redder than all hell because you had did that or was it as pale as snow from the realization that you actually did that to him—and without even putting much thought into it!?

Kokichi was glancing around the room, his eyes landing on everything except for your eyes. And then he blurted out, "Are we friends?"

Panicking and unsure of what kind of response he wanted, you responded with a meek "maybe".

Great going! Seriously, what kind of answer was that!? You could have responded so much better...!

You looked away, hoping that the boy in front of you wouldn't notice how much you were cringing at your response. "Maybe"? Yeah, that was just a friendly kiss. Romantic kiss from the spur of the moment? No! That's a sin!

"...Right..." Kokichi sounded a bit...disappointed? "Oh man, I'm feeling tired. I think I'm going to go on my tea break... H-...Have a good day, (Y/N)!" He quickly got up from his seat and stumbled to the door.

He looked back at you one last time. His face was still red. And then he was gone.

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"(Y/N)! There you are!"

"...Eh?"

You turned around hastily, still feeling adrenaline from earlier that day running through your veins. You noticed Shuichi, Himiko, and Tsumugi a few yards behind you.

"We haven't seen you all day!" Tsumugi cried.

"Where have you been?" Shuichi asked you, voice laced with concern.

You rubbed the back of your neck nervously. "Oh, you know, just out and about." Please, I just want to get back to my dorm...

"You didn't even come to the dining hall to eat breakfast with all of us..."

"Yeah...! And everyone likes food," Himiko added.

"Why are you even worried about me?" Your tone was something between anxiousness and exhaustion.

"Well, you know what happened yesterday after the trial..." Tsumugi recalled. "We thought that that might have had something to do with your sudden disappearance... Oh, no! Don't tell me...that Kokichi did something, did he? He didn't do anything to you, did he?"

Himiko gasped. "If he did then I'll attack him! I've stored up all of my mana for when the time is right!"

"I'm fine, really! Now...I'm pretty tired, and I'd like to go back to my room—"

"(Y/N)... It's fine, you can tell us if something bad happened," Shuichi told you with a soft expression.

I know that you all probably have good intentions, but just let me leave already...! You cleared your throat and tried to be as serious as possible. "I appreciate your all's concern, but really, I'm fine. I hope that you all can see that now. I've had a really exhausting day today, so I would also appreciate being left alone."

"I...I see."

"If you insist..."

"Alright, have a good rest. You probably deserve it."

"Thank you..." You then turned around on your heels, glad to be let loose. You had to slow down to a normal walking speed, contrary to your sped up speed that you had been going at before, just so that the other students wouldn't question anything or get even more worried.

Once you were inside the dormitory and out of their sight, however, you bolted into your dorm. Then you jumped into bed. Nighttime should be happening soon, so you figured it wouldn't hurt just to go to bed earlier.

Groaning, you slipped under the covers and shoved your face into your pillow. Great going, (Y/N)... Ugh, how did that even happen? We were just trying to find out who the mastermind, and then I just had to go and...and do that!? How embarrassing...

What if he decides that it's gone too far? What if he doesn't return tomorrow morning?

You lied on your back, pulling the pillow out from under your head and on top of your chest, wrapping your arms around it tightly. If he doesn't return tomorrow? Then... How would I be able to make sure that he's alright? He might do something rash...

You held onto your pillow tighter, shutting your eyes close. Would he really leave me for something like that, though...? We've been close for quite a while, at least I would think that...

What you did was still embarrassing... You could have screwed everything up. Even if you two continue to work together to find the mastermind, what if he sees you differently? Now, wouldn't that just be an awkward and uncomfortable situation for the both of you.

"...Geez, why am I letting myself get so worked up over this?" you mumbled to yourself. You let out a shaky sigh. At the very least, he didn't show any signs that he was upset about it... With how much we've been through, hopefully something as small as this won't affect us too much...

...You should probably go to sleep now. It would be really bad if you managed to somehow oversleep, and then Kokichi could be anywhere, for all you knew.

I guess that I have no choice but to wait and see what tomorrow has to give. At best, it will turn out that Kokichi was perfectly fine with...what I did, and then we can continue working together. That has to happen...

I don't think you should think about the very worst...

That was probably best.

You placed your pillow back under your head, rolling over on your side. You started to slowly trace random shapes on the mattress, trying your best to clear your mind. After some time, you slowly felt yourself drift out of reality. You could barely register the sound of people entering the dormitory in the background.

Your eyes fluttered shut.

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"Th-There's just so much going on...! So much that needs to work out perfectly in who knows how much time... And then I embarrassed myself and... Why aren't you saying anything!? ...You look...calm... How can you be calm at a time like this...!?"

"...I'm not calm."

"Well you look like it—!"

...

"Hey... What if everything is going to be all right?"

"Everything...is going to be all right...?"

"Yes... It has to be."

Word Count: 3667