Rantaro squeezed his eyes shut, awakening to the sound of his alarm. He blindly reached around his nightstand, taking a few attempts to actually locate his phone.

His eyes fluttered open as he tapped at the screen, exhaling when the bothersome ringtone finally stopped. He briefly wondered how Kokichi slept through it, before turning his head to look at him.

Surprisingly enough, Kokichi wasn't there.

Okay, no big deal. Rantaro blinked a few times, sitting up and sliding off of the bed. Kokichi was probably in the bathroom taking a shower.

As he got dressed for the day, Rantaro listened for the sound of the water running, but was unable hear any noise aside from the rustling of his clothes. Perhaps Kokichi was downstairs eating breakfast.

Rantaro could see the chair in his room from the corner his eyes. After doing laundry over the weekend, he had neatly folded up Kokichi's uniform and placed it on the chair.

It was gone now.

He turned his head towards the laundry basket, noticing the clothes Kokichi was wearing last night at the top.

His heart skipped a beat.

Rantaro left his room quicker than he normally did- almost forgetting to grab his bag and his phone on the way out. He glanced back towards the bathroom before he went down the stairs. Perhaps he was in there doing something else.

The door was wide open- he definitely wasn't in there.

As he expected, he saw Fuyumisa in the kitchen, cleaning the stove. "Good morning," He greeted, green eyes glancing around. "Do you need help with that?"

"Hello, Rantaro," Fuyumisa stopped what she was doing to smile warmly at him. "I've got it, thanks," She resumed her chore.

"Have you seen Kokichi?" His voice disguised how anxious he was starting to feel.

"Yes..." Fuyumisa furrowed a brow slightly in confusion. "He left not too long ago. Why do you ask?"

"Ah, no reason." Rantaro answered her a bit too fast. "Was just curious."

His heart instantly sank into his stomach. Fuyumisa hummed. "Whatever you say. Would you like breakfast?" She offered.

Rantaro shook his head. "No, thank you," He looked at the time on his phone, fixing the bag on his shoulder before turning around. "I'm gonna head out now." He slipped his phone back into his pocket.

"So soon?" Fuyumisa inquired. "Are you sure."

"I showered last night, and I have everything I need for the day." Rantaro answered. "There's something I want to do before school starts."

Fuyumisa took a moment before responding. "Whatever you say. I'll see you later."

Rantaro sighed, his hand lingering over the doorknob. "Yeah," He opened the door after a brief hesitation. "I'll see you when I come back."

As soon as he left the house and closed the door behind him, he found himself breaking out into a run down the sidewalk.

All in a matter of minutes, Rantaro felt himself on the verge of a breakdown. With only a few words, he found himself back on that island all those years ago, searching desperately for his sister as if his life depended on it.

He didn't know why he was feeling this way. Deep down, he knew he was overreacting; Kokichi had probably gone home for one reason or another and was doing perfectly alright. But that memory, that horrid feeling from years ago would be stuck with him for the rest of his life. There would always be a part of him that would panic whenever he wasn't 100% sure where anyone he loved was.

...Loved?

Rantaro slows down to an almost jogging pace, taking a moment to think over his words. Had he just...?

"Dammit," Rantaro curses under his breath and quickly shakes his head, ignoring the question that arose into his mind as pulled his phone out again, checking for any texts from Kokichi he might've overlooked in his haste. As expected, there was nothing of the sort. (Strangely enough, the two had never actually exchanged numbers until the past Friday.)

With the anxious feeling still tingling throughout his entire body, he decided to give Kokichi a call- biting his lip anxiously as he listened to the tone.

After what felt like ages, he finally heard a voice. "Hello?"

Rantaro let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, stopping in his tracks. "You picked up," He whispered, laughing slightly. "You had me worried for a moment that you wouldn't pick up-"

Suddenly, Kokichi started laughing. Rantaro immediately stopped his sentence, the confusion evident on his face. "Oh, you thought I actually picked up, huh?"

...Huh?

"This is a voicemail, silly!" Rantaro blinked. "Goteem!" Kokichi's laughing intensified, only to come to an abrupt halt after a few seconds. "...Or is it?" Kokichi's voice spoke once again. He could hear the smile behind his words.

All was silent for a few moments, until a crisp smacking sound filled the air; The sound of Rantaro facepalming unnecessarily hard. He groaned just as loud. Of course Kokichi would pull a stunt like this. He looked at his phone- there was no indicator of whether or not this was Kokichi's voicemail.

"Not funny." Rantaro lightly scolded with the brotherly tone he sometimes used with his sisters. "I'm sure I can figure out whether or not this is a voicemail. I don't think these messages can last forever if it is."

"Wow, so you're waiting it out, huh? You're no fun!" Kokichi whined.

"Okay, there is no way this is your voicemail." Rantaro said. "That was too convenient."

There was a brief pause. "Are you underestimating a Supreme Leader as grand as moi?" Kokichi gasped. "How dare you!"

The slightly off timing gave Rantaro a few doubts about whether or not he was actually talking to Kokichi. He decided to get to the point of his call- it was too specific of a question for a prank voicemail to cover; surely he could figure it out with this. "Where are you?" He asked. "Fuyumisa said you left."

Kokichi cooed. "Awww, it's so sweet to see that you care about me, Taro-chan~!" Rantaro's heart skipped a beat when he was addressed directly.

But that didn't mean it was a real call. Kokichi would totally make a message directed specifically for him just for the hell of it. The broadness of his answer left him with doubts.

Kokichi continued on. "I left you a little something in your backpack- how could you have missed it?" He heard a "tsk" from the other side of the line. "It's in little pocket in the front; you'll know it when you see it."

There was nothing at all in the world stopping Rantaro from hanging up and calling again to determine if this was a voicemail- but he'd be lying if he said he was annoyed with it. If anything, he was actually intrigued with the matter, enough so that he actually took his backpack off and set it on the ground, unzipping and rummaging through the front pocket.

He pulled out a rather large envelope, with a label that read "D.I.C.E. Confidential." This was definitely what Kokichi was talking about.

Rantaro opened up the envelope with eager hands- only to reveal 6 more little envelopes inside, each with a name on them and random D.I.C.E. stickers on them. (Where did he get those from?) Rantaro found the one with his name on it and set the others back in the big envelope, opening up the envelope designated to him in a swift motion. Inside of it...

...Was a third, smaller envelope. Rantaro sighed- he should've seen that one coming. This envelope had "Sorry! Couldn't help myself!" written on it. He decided to believe it, opening it up and taking the contents out.

The text on the third envelope spoke the truth- Rantaro unfolded the letter he was holding and read it over carefully.

Sorry to leave out of the blue like this! By the time you read this I'll probably be back at home, lounging about. Or maybe I'll be stirring up more trouble with D.I.C.E. Who knows? I had a lot of fun staying at your house- I'm definitely coming over again whether you like it or not! Make sure to give your sisters and Fuyumisa their envelopes! I worked extra hard to make them look nice in order to make up for my sudden disappearance. If you ever miss me, just text me or something ;) See ya soon! Nishishi!

- Kokichi

The handwriting was a bit messy, yet there was a method to the madness that Rantaro liked to look at. There was also a little doodle at the bottom; It appeared to be green grapes and purple grapes.

Rantaro chuckled to himself, setting the note back into the envelope, then setting the envelope back into the bigger envelope, and finally setting that envelope into the main one, before putting it back in his bag.

"Thank you, Kokichi." He put his bag back on his shoulder and stood up. "I'm not gonna ask why you had to leave so suddenly, I assume that you have your reasons. Even if I did, you'd probably find some sneaky way to avoid it. Let me know if you need anything. I'll see you in a week." He smiled as he hung up the call, tucking his phone back into his pocket. Now that the mystery of Kokichi's whereabouts was solved, he resumed his walk to school, finally able to relax knowing that Kokichi was alright.

~1.6k Words

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter came out so late; I gotta stop doing this DX I had something planned for this chapter and I... totally scrapped it! Originally Rantaro was gonna find Kokichi at the school and give him a piggy back ride back home- only for Kokichi to stop him halfway and tell him he was going home. The chapter would've ended with Rantaro watching as Kokichi walked away (ofc he would've offered to walk him there but Kokichi would refuse for mysterious reasons). I couldn't think of a good reason why he would be at school other than to stir up trouble, so I decided not to do it.