Chapter Text
"Kokichi, no!"
Maki watched as Kaito, sweaty and covered in blood, dove for Kokichi in slow motion. The very boy who had been keeping him hostage here, in the hangar. The mastermind. And Kaito was throwing himself protectively at him. But Maki was faster. Before Kaito had even started moving, Maki released the trigger on the crossbow, sending the poison-tipped arrow soaring towards its target.
Kaito was still reaching for Kokichi, eyes wide, even as the arrow dug itself into the supreme leader's back. Kokichi let out a pained howl, arching back with the force and falling forward, just barely catching himself by slamming his forearms to the ground.
"No, no, Kokichi!" Kaito fell to his knees besides his captor, grabbing his shoulder. Kokichi curled in on himself against the tiles, gritting his teeth and groaning with pain. Kaito's head swiveled to Maki, eyes blown wide with disbelief and horror. "Maki...why?!"
Maki stared back at him with cold, unforgiving eyes. "I had to end the killing game, Kaito."
"This isn't the way!" Kaito exclaimed, his voice catching and choking over something that could even be considered a sob. "You can't end the killing game with more killing! You are better than this, Maki Roll, I know you are!"
"Kaito, he is the mastermind," Maki snapped, pointing down at Kokichi without an air of regret. "If he dies, all of this will end."
Kaito opened his mouth to argue, but was promptly cut off by the sound of weak giggles. He reeled back to face Kokichi. The boy was snickering against the floor, a hysterical smile splitting across his face despite the blood spreading across his back and a haze taking over his eyes. "You...idiot..."
"Kokichi-" Kaito reached out for him, but froze when Kokichi's distant gaze snapped towards him.
"I'm not...the m-mastermind..." Kokichi wheezed, snarling with disdain and disgust. "I-Idiot...you just started the...k-killing game again..."
"Liar!" Maki snapped, slipping down gracefully from the exisal she had perched upon, reaching Kaito and Kokichi in five long strides. "You said-"
"That I was the mastermind..." Kokichi finished for her, eyes rolling up towards the ceiling. His voice was quickly weakening, but he tried to keep his holier-than-thou tone overlaid over it. "But you said i-it yourself...I-I'm a...a liar..." his voice grew soft, and his smile dipped into a slight frown at the ceiling.
"Kokichi, stay awake!" Kaito shook Kokichi's shoulders.
"Why are you defending him?!" Maki snarled with frustration. "Let him die, and then we'll be free!"
"That's not how it works, Maki Roll..." Kaito sighed, bowing his head over Kokichi. "He's...not the mastermind."
"What the hell are you talking about?!"
"I attacked him too, Maki," Kaito explained. "I had shot him in the arm, I wasn't trying to kill him. I just...wanted him to explain himself," Kaito's gaze turned far away. "I don't know everything, but it's pretty clear that he's not the mastermind. He's insane, and he fucked up, but...this isn't his killing game."
"But..." Maki's chest heaved. It felt like someone had sucked the air from her lungs. She took a shaky step back. "No...he said..." But why would she ever believe a word out of Kokichi's mouth? No, she could never trust Kokichi. But what Kaito says... She looked back at Kaito, eyes wide. "You're sure?"
Kaito's eyes pinched sympathetically, and he nodded.
Maki grit her teeth. "There's an antidote," she hissed. "In Shuichi's lab, I'll...I-I'll..." she took another step back, looking down at Kokichi. The boy was now staring blankly at the ceiling, lips parted. He wasn't reacting to anything, and his chest barely moved, except for the barest hint of a breath.
"You'll be executed," Kaito said. "Go. Go get the antidote." When Maki didn't move, he raised his voice. "Now, Maki Roll!"
Maki snapped out of it, whirling on her heel and sprinting full-force out of the hangar. She knew she was fast, but Strike Six may be faster. She had purposefully picked Strike Six for its painful, but swift end to its victims. Maki had wanted to end the killing game as soon as possible, to kill the mastermind as soon as possible. Strike Six was perfect. It was fast, effective. Kokichi already wasn't looking good, and if Maki trusted what Kaito was saying (and she trusted Kaito with her whole being) then she needed to save him before the killing game continued and she got-
No, can't think about that right now. With unrelenting force, Maki stormed back into the Ultimate Detective's lab, launching herself over the armchair and landing in front of the vial cabinets. The antidote was easy to spot. It was a bottle, right behind the empty space that once held the Strike Six. She grabbed it and reeled around, sprinting back out.
She had been moving too loudly, though. She barely registered two sleepy, defeated heads peeking out of their rooms. Himiko, and Shuichi. Those two had been holed up in their rooms ever since Kokichi revealed the truth of the outside world. However, her sprinting and rattling around the Ultimate Detective's Lab must have stirred them, been enough to get them out of their beds. They watched with bags under their eyes as Maki flew past them, pigtails rippling behind her like a cape.
"Maki...? What's going-?!"
Maki turned the corner, abruptly cutting off Shuichi's exclamation. No time, no time. Her heart pounded in her chest, threatening to come up and out her throat. She couldn't let him die, she couldn't. If she did, she would be executed. Her friends would be trapped here. She would have accomplished nothing. Mind reeling, Maki sprinted back to the hangar, stumbling back into the bathroom.
"I've got it! I-"
Kaito looked up at Maki, tears running down his cheeks unapologetically. He was hyperventilating now, chest heaving up and down, in an unbelievable show of vulnerability that was uncharacteristic of the proud astronaut. "M-Maki..."
Maki's eyes snapped towards Kokichi. Unmoving Kokichi. Not breathing Kokichi.
She grit her teeth. "No." She fell to her knees, on the other side of Kaito, and grabbed Kokichi by the jaw. She forced his mouth open in a way that certainly would have been painful, if he had been conscious, if he had been alive-
"Don't die, bastard!" Maki yelled, shoving the mouth of the bottle down Kokichi's throat. Surely, he would choke, but there wasn't time. She watched as the contents drained out of the bottle, but...they were seeping out the corners of Kokichi's mouth, pooling in his throat. "No, no!"
A strangled gasp came from the door to the bathroom, and both Kaito and Maki's heads snapped upwards. Shuichi stood slightly in front of Himiko, a bit protectively covering her with his shoulder. The gasp came from him, and he covered his mouth in horror.
Ding dong dong ding...
"No!" Maki screamed at the sky. "He's not-!"
A body has been discovered! Please make your way to the exisal hangar!
Maki froze. The room froze. The world froze. Slowly, she lowered her head, making horrified eye contact with Kaito. Then, her chin lowered further, looking down at Kokichi's pale face, covered in antidote that never reached his stomach. Shakily, she reached out and took the bottle from his mouth, closing his jaw. Kokichi didn't twitch. Didn't breathe. Kokichi, the Ultimate Supreme Leader, who was never the mastermind at all, was...
The trial was mercifully quick. Even if her crime hadn't been witnessed by Kaito, and her attempt at rescue hadn't been witnessed by Himiko and Shuichi, Maki would have confessed.
"B-But...I just plainly don't understand!" Tsumugi exclaimed. "If Kokichi was killed, why are we here? Why has the killing game continued?!"
"Isn't it obvious?" Maki asked darkly, defeatedly. "Because Kokichi isn't the mastermind. Wasn't."
"Then why would he-?!" Tsumugi tried.
"Who knows?!" Maki snapped, glaring up at her. "He's insane?! He wants to torture us?! He had some secret plan this whole time?! We never knew who he was. We never knew if Supreme Leader was actually his Talent. We knew..." she trailed off slightly. "Nothing."
"S-So...it's done, right?" Himiko asked, wringing her hands together nervously. "The trial? We have to vote for..."
"That's right, Himiko," Shuichi sighed once he realized the mage wasn't going to be able to finish her sentence. "We need to vote for Maki. The culprit is Maki Harukawa, the Ultimate Assassin."
"I can't accept that!" Kaito growled, gritting his bloodstained teeth in the face of his friends, of Monokuma, of the killing game that just kept taking and taking. "I won't let another friend die!"
"Kaito, that's enough," Maki said, quiet, unintrusive. Still, Kaito's eyes snapped to hers as if she had screamed at him. "I won't let your stubbornness get in the way."
"Maki Roll...why?!" Kaito begged, asking her the same question he had asked when Maki had shot that arrow into Kokichi's back.
"Because, you will all die," Maki explained calmly, trying to fight the waver in her voice, the catch in her chest. "I won't let my friends die over someone like me. You have to vote for me, Kaito. You have to live." She lowered her gaze to the floor, ashamed. "It's the only choice now."
The group was silent. Then, without any preamble, Maki reached up and pressed her button on her podium, voting for herself. After that, one by one, her fellow students pressed buttons on their own podiums. Voting for Maki to die.
Monokuma's shrill, unwelcome voice sliced through the tension unrelentingly.
"And, the votes are in!"
Maki's eyes lifted to meet Kaito's. He looked exhausted. He looked bloody. He looked close to death. But still, he stared back at her, a soft, sad look in his eyes. A refusal to accept, but the knowledge that he could do literally nothing about it. Maki tried to remain steadfast under his gaze, but it hurt.
She didn't want to die. Not now, not when someone finally has become her friend. She had finally found a person- no, she had finally found people who accepted her for who she was, and wanted to stay friends despite everything. People who loved her.
And who she loved back.
"Now, who will be chosen as the Blackened?"
This was all Kokichi's fault.
"Will you make the right choice?"
If he hadn't been messing around, if he hadn't lied... Maki closed her eyes with a grim acceptance. She never truly did understand Kokichi, did she? Until the bitter end, she could not have understood what he was trying to do.
"Or the dreadfully wrong one?"
What could she have possibly done to change this? To save her friends? To stay alive? To stay friends with Kaito? There were so many questions unanswered, so many choices she could have made.
"What's it gonna be, what's it gonna be?"
I'll see you in Hell, Kokichi, she thought to herself as she heard the sound of chains rattling, getting closer and closer. And when I get there, you better have some explaining to do.
Kokichi's eyes opened.
Okay, that alone was a surprise. He blinked, trying to clear his vision, but there was only darkness. He was standing up. He moved, trying to reach out his hand, but it hit something and halted in its track. Okay, he was stuck, in a small space. All of this was very concerning, of course, but what was more concerning was that...he was supposed to be dead.
Of that, Kokichi was certain. He had died. That mean bully Maki had shot him in the back, and then the pain...Kokichi shivered inwardly, thankful it was gone now. Pain, like lava coursing up his spine, and out his arms and down his legs and up his throat. He had been poisoned.
So how did he get here? Surely Hell wasn't just dark, cramped space. He ran his hand up the length of the wall, inches away from his face. It felt like metal. No, surely it couldn't be...
He gave the metal a good slam, and the door flew open. The locker door. Having lost the support, Kokichi stumbled forward, nearly face planting onto the tile floor. He shot up, looking around him in shock and...
Oh.
Oh no.
"Oh! Um...hello?" Kiibo was in front of him, rubbing his neck sheepishly. "Are you alright?"
"What the hell is going on here?!" Kokichi snapped furiously, his carefree mask unwilling to form in the face of these...very concerning events.
"I-I don't know! I just woke up here, myself. My name is Kiibo."
Oh, that can't be good.
Kokichi snarled and slapped the robot's hand away. "I know who you are, Kiibo. And don't touch me, I may get robot cooties."
"Impossible! Robots do not have germs of any sort!" Kiibo exclaimed. "Oh, but did you say you knew who I was? Is it possible I have met you before and forgotten? I apologize, I have a relatively small memory bank, you see-"
"Yeah, can it, tin can," Kokichi waved him off, looking around to confirm his suspicions. Yep. This was definitely the classroom he had woken up in that fateful day. The first day of the killing game. Perhaps that had all been fever dream? Except, to dream of a place this specific and then wake up there again...not to mention-
"Why would I have a dream involving Kiiboy? More like a nightmare," Kokichi mumbled to himself, though it seems Kiibo had caught it.
"Was that a robophobic comment?!"
"Kiiboy," Kokichi turned around to plant a casual hand on Kiibo's shoulder. "Assume every word out of my mouth is a robophobic comment."
Kiibo reeled back in shock, mouth agape. "To be so blatant about it-!"
"Yes, yes, my attitude is shocking and offensive, I've heard it before," Kokichi waved him off again, looking around at the classroom for any hint of a difference. A changed poster, a slightly different green shade of chair. But no, it was all how he remembered, and he had a pretty good memory. "How the hell did I get here?"
"That is what I am trying to figure out," Kiibo said. "I have a father, my creator, to get back to. He is certainly worried sick!"
"Yeah, my dad's probably freaking out too," Kokichi commented, cupping his chin. "He is the President of Russia, after all."
"Your father is the President of Russia?!" Kiibo exclaimed in surprise. Kokichi, who now had his mask fully repaired, looked over his shoulder with a cocky smile.
"That was just a lie."
"Oh, I hear voices in here! C'mon, Shuichi, let's take a look in here..." came a distant, eerily familiar voice from outside the classroom. Kokichi and Kiibo turned around, watching as Shuichi himself appeared from around the corner, following...
Kokichi's mind ground to a halt.
"More people!" Kaede, Kaede Kaede Kaede Undead Akamatsu, said, oblivious to the absolute implosion going on in Kokichi's head right now. She was the same as she was before, perky, sassy, and dragging Shuichi along like a puppy. Speaking of which, said Ultimate Detective seemed to fall back into the habit of wearing his hat, and unfortunately, by now Kokichi had a feeling he knew what was going on.
"This is so fucked..." he whispered to himself, out of earshot of Kiibo and the steadily approaching duo of his nightmares.
"Hey!" Kaede approached him and Kiibo as if she didn't just casually appear back from the dead. "I'm Kaede, this is Shuichi. Do you have any idea what's going on?"
"No, we woke up here with no memories," Kiibo explained for the speechless Kokichi. "I'm Kiibo. I'm guessing you woke up with no memory of how you got here, too?"
"Yep, sure did," Kaede planted her fists on her hips. "But we're going to figure it out! Hey, no need to look so afraid, right?" she cocked her head, smiling at Kokichi. "We'll figure this out and get back home soon!"
Afraid? Oh, him. He quickly schooled his face into a bored expression, studying his nails.
"Sure, Kae-doy, whatever you say. I'm sure we totally won't all die in here!"
Kaede's eyebrows furrowed. "What makes you say something like that?"
"Oh, just that we were apparently kidnapped and stuffed into a mystery school with no adults to be found," Kokichi squished his cheeks with his hands, giving her an adorably innocent look. "That's totally not suspicious, or dangerous, at all!"
Kaede frowned and pinched her chin. "Well, you're not wrong. It's definitely a suspicious situation. But that's not going to stop me from trying everything I can to get out of here. We just need to cooperate."
Ugh, this old song and dance. Kokichi didn't miss it, even after it persisted past Kaede's death, in Kaito's stupid platitudes-
Kaito.
Kokichi tried to keep his reaction minimal. Kaito should be around here, somewhere. Kaito, the man knocking on death's door. Kaito, the man who shook him and begged him to stay alive...probably just for Maki's sake, right? So his little assassin girlfriend wouldn't get executed?
But still, if Kaito was here, that means he wouldn't remember any of that, if the pattern continued. That would also mean his sickness wouldn't be bad yet. And now that Kokichi knows about it...
Maybe, he could save him.
"Um, kid? Were you listening to a word I just said?" Kaede cocked her head, and Kokichi snapped himself out of his thoughts. Right. Kaede. The one who starts this whole thing. And if his hypothesis is correct, he had the insider information. He knows what she will try to do.
And he can stop her.
"Sorry, I tend to drown out boring platitudes of friendship and cooperation," Kokichi smiled cheekily. "It's what I tend to do, as the Ultimate Supreme Leader!"
"Ultimate Supreme...?!" Shuichi gasped quietly, mostly to himself.
"I'm sure he's joking," Kaede waved Shuichi off, smiling carelessly with just a hint of doubt. She turned back to Kokichi. "Anyway, I was asking you, what's your name?"
Kokichi smiled and held out his hand. "I'm Kokichi Oma! Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Kaede! I hope we'll be great friends!"