✧ Chapter 49 ✧
[ Though Alone I Try To Repair ]
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[ Kokichi's PoV ]

I stepped forward; a towering building greeting me with its stone walls and glass windows. As the Ultimate Supreme Leader, it was only fitting I would attend Hope's Peak Academy, an all-around, talent-filled school. I shouldered my bag, as Monokuma hopped out of the car.

"Alrighty," he cleared his throat as the gates slid open hauntingly slowly. "Ya know the rules, no falling in love, no roaming around on the grounds past ten, blah blah blah." he waved his paw absentmindedly.

"Could you repeat the rules again, Monokuma?" I asked with a sly grin, "I think I forgot them." Lying was such a great way to confuse and distract people. And also a great way to tell the intelligence of an individual..

"Whaddaya mean-." Monokuma stared at me with his beady red eyes, and I recalled something. A girl called Miu Iruma, who liked gadgets and fixing things. Weird, why would that memory resurface now? "You're lying again, you little bugger. Heh, I like ya!" he jumped up and clapped me on the back.

"Now goodbye! Till next time!" he practically cackled and suddenly vanished before I could say another word. He didn't even answer my question but oh well, he was smart enough to know I was lying. Smiling to myself, I felt my cheeks hurt once more. Ugh, seriously, when was the last time I smiled?

Still rubbing my face, I headed into the school, wearing my school uniform and carelessly swinging my bag. With each step I took, more and more memories returned.

Miu Iruma, Kaito Momota and Maki Harukawa were suspended from school due to some fight Monokuma had told me about while he drove me to this school.. hmm.. maybe I ought to investigate that, it sounded like a great way to kill time. I was already bored with the idea of studying in school.

And from what I could vaguely recall, Rantaro Amami was currently travelling the world, along with Kaede Akamatsu. I've always liked Amami-chan.. he always treated me well. Kaede was well, a super Piano Freak, so I wasn't very worried. However, they were probably touring the world because of music or something.. Amami liked to play the guitar after all.

Oh great, I thought with a frown, all this left me with those other weirdos in my class.

"Ouma!" I stopped when hearing someone call my name. But I grinned to myself and continued walking. If they wanted to talk to me, they should run. I wasn't expecting the owner of the voice to do so, though. Why would anyone want to talk to a liar like me?

"Kokichi Ouma!" the voice sounded closer, so I turned, expecting to see another one of my boring classmates. Instead of seeing annoying Tenko or creepy Korekiyo, a teenager with perfect, spikey-ish gelled white hair ran up to me. He had the bluest eyes I've ever seen, along with pale skin as if he'd never seen the light of day. Man, he's scruffy.

He was wearing a pair of strange green-tinged glasses, a tie, with a grey shirt with a black jacket and electric green accents. With black jeans and loafers, he seemed to look like those office workers. How boring.

"What do you need, weirdo?" I asked him, folding my arms as the boy struggled to catch his breath. He placed his hands on his knees, bending over.

"Thank goodness you stopped.. I saw you walking in from our dorm room window. I ran down all the way because.. well, why wouldn't I-?"

"Our?" I asked, confused as the boy straightened up, tilting his head slightly. I continued before he could open his mouth to reply. "Whatever do you mean, weirdo?" I seemed to prefer calling him a weirdo. It felt somewhat fitting.

"Well, yeah! Don't you remember me? I'm Keebo Tetsuya!" he looked momentarily confused, before suddenly looking as if he realised something. "Oh.. oh no."

"Oh no what, weirdo?" I demanded. Seriously, what's his problem? He called my name and now he's acting strange. The word 'weirdo' definitely fits him. "If you have nothing more to tell me, I'm a busy person." I lied with a smirk and started to walk away when he grabbed my wrist.

I jerked my hand back from him, glaring at him, "Hey! What gives? Why do you keep.." I blinked, surprised to see that there were tears glistening in his eyes. What a crybaby. But I felt a pang of guilt, as if I had committed a crime.

"You don't remember me," Keebo muttered, "Of course the serum would erase your memories of us."

I held up hand to stop him, a strand of my hair falling in front of my face, "Excuse me, what? What serum?"

"You don't remember me and I don't remember much about you. What are we supposed to remember?!" he suddenly blurted out, reaching up to his head and holding it.

I stopped, my hands outstretched to stop him from pulling out his hair. A flash of déjà vu hit me. Has this.. has this happened before?

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"It's going to be alright Keeboy!" I grinned at the boy, who was covering his face as tears streamed down his cheeks. "It's all just a prototype test after all, right?"

Keebo nodded glumly as we sat in front of another failed attempt. He was trying to program a toaster to talk but.. y'know. I had to resist the urge to burst out laughing when the toaster started spewing strings of profanity.

"You're an idiot, but you're the most brilliant idiot I know and that's not a lie!" I grinned cheekily as Keebo rolled his eyes, giving me a hug. I rolled my eyes, but leaned into his embrace. He's my best friend, after all.

"Wow, thanks Ouma. You're an idiot too." he smiled through his tears.

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I lowered my hand, helplessly watching him cry. Was he my friend? I don't recall.. but what I do remember was waking up in that bright white place and having memories of Kaito and the others. But not this Keebo person..

"Oh would you stop crying already?!" I demanded, annoyed by his quiet sobbing, "It's getting on my nerves so can't you act your age?" I folded my arms to show I was being serious.

Keebo suddenly looked at me, tears trailing down his cheeks as he stared at me. "You remember something!" he exclaimed excitedly, now snuggling back tears, "You used to say that to me whenever I cried."

"..." I blinked, my anger vanishing completely. "Excuse me?"

Keebo looked puzzled as he pushed up his glasses, "I don't remember much either, but.. I found something that might help. Follow me."

I watched as he wiped his tears away with the sleeve of his jacket. I didn't really know what to make of this strange Keebo person. He was definitely weird, however, I couldn't help but trust him.

As he led me to who knows where, I caught flashes of strange memories of my former classmates. Gonta's weird fondness for insects, Kirumi's excessive cleaning and Tenko's protests whenever someone talked to Himiko. "Hey weirdo," I finally broke the silence as the white haired boy led me up the second flight of stairs, "I'd love to know where we're going."

Keebo flinched, "Don't use that word.."

"What word?" I grinned, obviously knowing what he was talking about, "Weirdo?"

"The L-word," he replied tiredly as I watched, mildly interested as he pulled out a blue lanyard and scanned his ID on the machine, "It's forbidden here, don't you remember?"

"Nope!" I lied, making Keebo pull a face and open the door of a room, "You're probably lying again, aren't you?" he sighed as we stepped into a rather tidy place. Was this my room? Boring. "This place sure is messy." I told him.

"Liar. But anyway, it's our dorm room, Ouma. Oh my gosh- please don't-." Keebo started to say as I grinned and pushed over a stack of papers, making them flutter to the floor. "Whoops."

"I didn't know that those doctors made you a complete.. asshole." He muttered, that last word must've been strange for him, since he hesitated. Jeez, was this guy really my friend?

"Nah, I'm always like this Keeboy," the name slipped out naturally, but I kept talking, "It seems that you haven't known me well enough to know that."

Keebo sighed, before suddenly snapping his fingers and looking around, "Since we've lost our memories of our friendship together, maybe this can help. I gotta admit.." he pulled out a battered looking notebook. "You were smart to do this."

"I remember," I smirked as Keebo stared at me with a look of confusion, "No wait, I don't. That was a lie. Nishishi~!"

"Good lord, I was hoping you'd forget that strange laugh of yours." he groaned, but I could tell he was lying, and furthermore, he seemed rather relieved? Whatever for? Man, this guy was weird.

"Here, take this and read it." he held out the notebook, but I rolled my eyes, "I hate reading. It's terribly mundane. And nerdy. And bor-." before I could even finish my sentence, Keebo rolled his eyes as well and shoved it at me.

Huh. He was rather serious yet fun, so I guess I like him now. However, I could always change my mind later. I stared at the notebook in my hands. It was a simple journal, black cover and a piece of white masking tape with my name written on it. 'Property of Kokichi Ouma. Do Not Touch Unless You Are Me.'

I looked at Keebo, who had gone back to his desk and seemed to be playing around with a small figure connected to a bunch of wires. I looked around at the room, moving to sit on a very familiar bed.

Running a hand across the sheets, I could somehow remember the nights I slept here, staring out at the dark sky peeking through the curtains. This seemed about right.

I opened the book Keebo handed to me, and almost immediately, a necklace or pendant of some sort dropped out and landed on my lap. That's strange. I don't recall wearing it. Examining it closely, I realised it was shaped like a dice, a flat, metallic charm about the size of a quarter.

Passing the charm from one hand to the other, and slid it open to reveal a picture of Keebo and I. Man, we looked so much younger. Did that mean he was telling the truth? We actually knew each other before? But why don't I remember?

I turned my attention back to the book, seeing a rather childish handwriting and random drawings of planes and police cars. Did I really do this? Man, I'm so damn childish.. heck, I loved being childish but not this childish. Past Ouma, what were you thinking?

I raised my eyes to the ceiling and looked down at the book. Right in front of me, was a picture of a rather cute boy. He had his hat pulled low across his eyes and he seemed to be lying in the shade of a tree. With soft looking navy blue hair and slightly tanned skin, he looked gorgeous.

Why would I have a random picture of this boy in a journal?

I flipped the page, coming across another photograph. This time, it was the boy again, with another student I recognised. Kaito Momota. The two seemed to be talking away, smiling and seemingly in a heated yet playful discussion.

I flipped yet another page to see the boy once more, this time he was sitting on a bench, his eyes focused on the moon above him. In his hands, he held a loaf of bread, which was filled with pink cream. Wow, the camera quality was actually pretty great. And he probably made the picture ten times better.

My heart pained slightly, after minutes of staring at the photographs. "..."

I flinched when something fell on the book. Then another. What the heck? I reached up to touch my right cheek to realise that.. I was actually crying tears. I stared at my fingers. Why was I crying for someone I didn't know? That's weird.

I flipped to the next page, and to my surprise.. there was a piece of paper folded and nestled amongst more photographs of this strange blue haired boy.

I picked up the paper and unfolded it, all the while, hearing Keebo muttering to himself and clicking buttons. I secretly wiped the tears off my face as I unfolded the paper to see a letter written by.. myself.. ?

To: Kokichi Ouma
From : Kokichi Ouma (Nishishi)

Dear Ouma,
Hi. It's me, your past self. Yeah, I totally know you're super confused by now aren't you? Don't worry, I won't sing that dreaded popular song.

'The old Ouma can't come to the phone right now'

'Why?'

'Because he's dead'.

Sorry, am I being too cocky for you? Wow, I'm a douchebag even to myself. Nishishi~!

Yeah, my past self was definitely and perfectly insane. I thought to myself.

Anyway, those pictures you see in front are of our beloved Saihara-chan. Or, Shuichi Saihara. He's the Ultimate Detective and he's super hot. Can't you tell? I dunno how the serum will work, but if you're reading this and you're confused, I'd say that the serum did it's work well.

Whatever it is, you used to love Shuichi Saihara. Remember that. Maybe you could, maybe you can't, but just save him from the Hospital. No one deserves to be in there just because they fell in love.

Just keep looking at these pictures, maybe you'll remember. And by the way, if you forgot about Keeboy, he's basically our best friend and all around A-star student. Snobby. Rude. And fun! Just kidding about the snobby and rude part.

Back to topic. Ask him about the numbers '11037'. Maybe that can remind him of something. Because I found a clue in the camera's security systems that give us evidence that.. you'll see. It's not fun when I explain every single thing to my future self! That's not fun at all!

So, good luck and don't be afraid to love. Blah blah blah- I just wrote something really cheesy, yuck.

From, (-no wait-) Love,
Kokichi Ouma, future boyfriend (hopefully) of Shuichi Saihara!

I probably should cancel out that last part... eh, deal with it, Future Ouma.

I placed down the book, absolutely confused as I stared at the ink. What was I thinking as I wrote this? It sounded exactly like me so I was sure it were real. Hmm..

I closed the book and looked at Keebo, who was still working away. Did Keebo know of what I wrote? Nah, it can't be, since my past self had written to talk to Tetsuya about whatever 11037 was.

It looked suspiciously like Leon Kuwata's name, but upside down. But man, I hated that guy. He used to throw stuff at me. However, I knew he didn't have anything to do with this mystery.

Shuichi Saihara.

If I kept repeating his name, would I remember him?

Wait-

I stared at the mirror across the room, at my reflection.

I'm gay?

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[ Monokuma Theatre ]

Heya peeps! Guess who's back! It's me! Your friendly neighbourhood, all around great bear, Monokuma! Today, we've got lotsa people to thank, so here goes!

A couple o' thanks goes to Sunsetlover34 and  Sassuar who's been commenting tons for almost every chapter! You two deserve my upmost thanks! *mumbles* what does upmost even mean-?

Next one goes to JustChara and PARTOFSUNSHINE ! Thanks for always commenting on author's amino page JustChara_ ! Your comments are always always appreciated! -PARTOFSUNSHINE , thanks for commenting on this book too, ya know!

Andddddd finally, thanks to
HibiyaMomo32 and urie-cookie as well, thanks for voting and commenting! Your theories are great, ya know! It helps shapes the story and whatnot. I dunno what mumbo jumbo author does, but your comments sure help! And thank you for sharing this book 'round! It really.. *sniff* touches my soul to see that ya like it!

Once again, thank ya for reading and I'mma end it here right now. I'm a busy bear, lots to do and so little time! Uupupu! Thank YOU dear readers, and we're all grateful! But now, I have to get ready for the grand re-entrance soon. Sooooo, ciao ciao! Bye bye!

A/N: Ouma is very gay.

♥ End of Chapter Forty-Nine ♥