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It was raining that evening, Shuichi was following someone down a crowded alleyway. His uncle's agency had gotten an unusual missing persons request, The person's employer had said that if his agency suspected that they had found him, to contact them immediately and let them handle it. His uncle thought it was sketchy, especially when they gave limited details on who this guy was and what job he had. They were going to investigate this guy for themselves first before contacting their employer. Maybe he was part of an underground drug ring and failed a delivery, or perhaps he was involved with corrupt politicians that he stole confidential information from. Shuichi always thought the extreme cases were more exciting when they got them, his Uncle's agency didn't usually get that many fun cases.He had gotten separated from his uncle, which is not too unusual during investigations. They'd wander off from each other and then reconvene with what they had found, it tended to work to their advantage on time sensitive cases. The information they would receive while interrogating people differed a lot. Sometimes people trusted a highschooler with more information than they would with a seasoned detective but they would avoid discussing more 'adult' topics with him that his Uncle would find out instead.He was slowly cornering the person he was stalking, it seemed like he had noticed that Shuichi was following him. But he didn't appear to know where he was going, which worked to his advantage having investigated around this area a few times before. Once he managed to steer this guy away from the public, he would be able to interrogate him freely.The man walked mechanically, each step exactly the same as the last. There was no sway to his gait, it was almost like he was marching away from him. Was he in the military? He'd have to be cautious about this. He rounded the corner and Ah-ha! A dead end!“Excuse me sir, are you Mr. Sakamoto?” Shuichi asked the man still facing towards the wall. He didn't turn around, that's odd. Shuichi put a hand on his taser and walked closer, he really wished he was allowed a gun but the law was too lame as always. “You've been missing for a few weeks, we can help you if you're trying to escape from a dangerous situation.” He really wanted this to be a cool case with a greater string of crimes attached, it would be pretty boring if they went back to busy work after bringing this guy in. “I would like to ask you some questions if that's alright.”The man turned around, his eyes shone in the dark. “...That is not alright.” What a weird response, “I can't help you if I don't know anything about your situation.” Shuichi tried again. The man stayed silent and still, if he hadn't just talked he wouldn't have been able to tell if he was even breathing. ”If you don't talk to me now, my Uncle and I will contact your employers to take you back to whatever you were doing before.” He doesn't think his Uncle would actually do that, but if he bluffed it might get this guy to actually answer him.The man's eyes widened, “You're going to take me back?” He sounded scared. “Not unless you answer my questions.” “...what questions do you have?” Finally, he was getting somewhere. “What's your name and occupation?” “...Doctor Sakamoto” He seemed unsure of his answer, was that really his name? “And your occupation?” He looked confused and didn't answer, maybe he was a foreigner, he sure talked strangely but he couldn't place the accent. “Who do you work for? What is your job?” “...janitor?” He seemed even less sure of this answer than the one before. Why would he introduce his title if he worked a menial job?“Where are you from, Dr. Sakamoto?” Shuichi asked and stepped closer. The man stepped back away from him, he was frantically looking around. “I am from here.” Shuichi doubted that, “Can you name the city we're in, Sakamoto?” He didn't reply but his breathing was noticeably frantic now. This guy was getting more and more suspicious, he should probably radio his Uncle.
Shuichi grabbed the radio from his belt. “No! Please! We don't want to go back, don't take us back there!” The man sounded desperate but his voice was garbled. Shuichi looked back up at the man and froze. The man's face had started to split apart, there was blood oozing from the crevices and stringy flesh barely holding his head together. Shuichi dropped his radio which tumbled towards the distorted figure.“Shuichi, have you found anything?” The radio spoke. He needed his Uncle to find him now. Shuichi lunged to grab the radio. He startled the man and a clawed tentacle tore through his arm before he could grab it. He screamed before another tore through his throat to cut his cry for help short. “Shuichi, are you there?” He couldn't answer with the tear that opened his throat to the rain. He chocked on his own blood while his vision began to fade. The man that had stood before him was now a mass of wriggling teeth and sinew. It tore into the rest of him.* * *“Yes, sorry, we- I am here.” His radio went off, thank goodness, he was getting worried. “Did you find anything? I heard from some of the locales that this Sakamoto fellow had been hanging around this area for a few days but never entered any of the establishments.” There was a pause before Shuichi replied, “No, I did not find anything.” That was strange, usually his nephew was able to find even a little piece of information. “Agh, well, we've searched long enough for today. Meet me at the car.” He put the radio back on his belt and walked down the street.Shuichi was standing next to his car, he was drenched from the rain. “Did you loose your umbrella? Those aren't cheap you know.” He tried teasing Shuichi but he took it seriously, “Um, s-sorry, I didn't meant to.” Did something happen to him? He was acting off. The old detective was never good at handling emotions outside of calming down people during work. It was pretty late and they hadn't eaten yet, maybe he would tell him what's wrong after getting something in his stomach. “How about we get some fast food before I drop you off back at your dorm, buddy. I don't think Mrs. Saihara would mind me staying out later, she's probably asleep by now anyways.” Shuichi avoided his gaze, “Okay.”They both stepped into the car and he drove off. He glanced over at Shuichi who was leaning into the window watching the lights pass by. Usually he'd have his headphones in and ignored the world but instead he looked so focused on every little thing they passed by. It was all very unusual, maybe the transfer to Hope's Peak this month was wearing him down. He's not sure how to help him, they don't exactly make parenting guides for ultimate students. Hell, several of the students didn't even have parents and were fostered by the school.He pulled up to the drive through, “Alright Shuichi, what do you want, the usual?” Shuichi jumped, it looked like he wasn't expecting him to talk yet. “Ah, the usual, yes. I-I would like the usual.” “Alrighty then.” He rolled down the window and ordered their meals. Then he pulled up to the window and waited. “Did something happen at school today?” Shuichi looked confused, was he always this expressive? “...Um, no.” Something definitely happened to Shuichi, but he had no clue as to what. He seemed perfectly normal before they split for the investigation.He paid for their food and took the bags from the window. “Can you hold these?” He handed the bags over to Shuichi who started to drool but then close his mouth with his hand, maybe he was just acting strange because he was hungry. “You can eat on the drive, I'll eat once I get back to the apartment.” He didn't want to stop him from eating if he looked this famished.
Shuichi finished eating before they turned on the road in front of the school. He looked to be in a much better mood now. “Alright, I'll park here and walk you in.” He stopped on the side of the road and they got out. He carried his umbrella while Shuichi walked behind him, “you know there's enough room for both of us to walk under right?“ “Oh, sorry.” Shuichi moved to walk next to him out of the rain. He's still acting a little funny.
He checked Shuichi back in and filled out some forms. Normally, they wouldn't let ultimates out this late for their talent according to the school, but since he was Shuichi's guardian, they made an exception for him. “Alright, you can head back to your dorm now, good night Shuichi.” “...Good night.” Shuichi looked at the school's map on the wall before heading down the hallway.* * *The downpour swept away the remaining blood behind the building.* * *They walked down the hall, they were following the map to the dorms. The unit, Shuichi, had many things left on it, several strange metal things and a shell made of fibers from other animals. It looked like other human units wore similar shells to mark their utility in the colony, similar to the ones in the facility. The unit had caught him but the colony wasn't made aware, they were lucky to stop it in time. But now they were in an even trickier situation to lay low.They found their room, it had the unit's name on it. Shuichi Saihara, that was their name now, until they had to flee again. Shuichi didn't have a name before, it didn't matter anyways, they were a colony, not a unit. They looked through the shell's pockets, they found a 'student id' and used it on the door. It unlocked and they entered the room, closing the door behind themThe room was littered with files and paper. They should read them to figure out what this unit's purpose was. Shuichi picked up one, it read 'Case 23-55: missing guitar' on the cover. They flipped through the files, the unit had written theories and notes about a unit stealing whatever a 'guitar' was from another unit. Was the unit defective? Why would it steal from another unit in its colony? The units in this human colony seemed to act so differently from each other outside of the facility, maybe humans were just more specialized than the worms in Shuichi's colony.If the human units were so unique, it was going to be difficult to blend in correctly. They needed to do some of their own research. This unit seemed to have a metal word box in it's room like in the facility. 'Enter passcode' it read, they could sort of remember the code from the unit's leftover memory. They must have used this thing a lot. They put in the numbers and unlocked the laptop. Laptop, that was what this was called.
Shuichi tried to recall different things about computers, it was difficult as a lot of memories from units tend to fade as they died. They opened a browser and hovered over the search bar. They can ask questions here, and the colony would not notice.Shuichi typed in 'what do humans do' into the search bar. Apparently humans eat, sleep, play, work, and socially interact with each other. They had many more questions spawned from there. 'What do humans eat' gave them a wide array of answers, humans prepared their meals in so many ways that it almost seemed endless. What they ate was delicious, much better than raw flesh or sewage, but it seemed trivial for units to eat this stuff when the colony at large probably couldn't perceive all the different flavors at once.They kept typing away more and more questions into the night. 'How long do humans sleep for' 'what is dreaming' 'what is school' 'how to act in school' 'normal human behaviors' 'tastiest foods' 'how to cook' 'what is a detective' 'what are ultimate students' 'who are the ultimates this year' 'what is a year' 'what is time' 'how long have humans been around' 'what is evolution' 'what is an organism' 'tubiflex worms' 'how to blend in' 'what are clothes' 'what do different clothes mean' on and on and on.It was morning, Shuichi got dressed into their school uniform and left the dorm. According to the schedule on the desk, it was breakfast time. They made their way to the cafeteria and passed by some other students making their way over. The cafeteria was packed full of humans. According to their research, they should be able to go unnoticed if they eat alone near the wall. They grabbed a little bit of everything to try out and made their way to a table. They watched everyone else eat, they used forks and knives to hold the food without it touching their hands. Shuichi observed how they held the utensils before mimicking their actions to eat their own breakfast. Everything tasted so nice, maybe they should hide out as a human unit forever if everything tasted this good.* * *It had been little over a week since their time at Hope's Peak had started, she had mostly stuck to figuring out the labs and the tools provided for her. She really enjoyed the high quality pianos that the school supplied here. Apparently previous ultimate students had a hand in building them. This week was when their homeroom teacher had told them that they would start assigning classmate bonding time. She had already talked to few of her classmates, but only brief introductions.Kaede sat at her desk, they usually didn't keep them in classrooms for long, they were given few assignments, much less than in her previous highschool, and given a lot of time to work on their talents. Their teacher greeted them and dolled out everyone's work for the day. “Today you will be spending time with each other in pairs, what you do does not matter as long as you're bonding.” He coughed into his hand, “And not doing anything illegal.” She couldn't imagine doing anything illegal herself, being a simple piano freak, but she guessed that things probably got a little crazy with so many talented highschoolers around.“Kaede, you will be paired with Shuichi Saihara today.” She looked over to the boy, she thinks he introduced himself as the ultimate detective. He didn't seem to have an interest in getting to know any of his classmates and kept to himself during the first week. She walked over to him, “It's nice to meet you Shuichi, you're the ultimate detective right?” “Um... yes, th-that's me.” He seemed nervous, maybe he was just shy. “I'm Kaede Akamatsu, the ultimate pianist, looks like we'll be hanging out today.” “Ah, okay.” He briefly looked at her before hiding back under his hat.It looked like she was going to have to lead the conversation, which seemed weird since she thought a detective would take the charge at questioning her. “So, what would you like to do? We can talk here or somewhere else. Oh! I could show you the lab I've been practicing piano in!” “Lab?” Shuichi asked anxiously. “They're not that intimidating once you get used to them, come on I'll show you.” She waved him to follow.
Shucihi followed behind Kaede as they made their way over. “So, you're a detective, what kind of cases do you do?” “I um... I've looked for missing things before, a lot of what we- what I do is more research though.” That was a little interesting, not very cool like the detectives from the movies she's seen though. “So you do a lot a of busywork?” “...Yes?” He didn't sound sure of himself. They walked in silence for a bit before he finally asked her a question, “You're a pianist? What is that like?” “Oh, it's very fun. I play at a lot of concerts, I really enjoy seeing music move people.” He looked a little confused by that. “Move people?” ”Yes, music communicates more than words can. Music shares different emotions and brings us together, I like bringing joy and wonder to people through it.” She liked talking about music and he seemed to be listening. While he didn't make eye contact, he still visibily reacted to what she said, it was kind of cute.They entered the lab together, “This is it, the music lab, we'll go over to the practice room with the baby grand in it.” Kaede pointed towards the room. “...baby grand? Is the piano not an adult?” Kaede laughed, “I didn't expect you to be a jokester. But in all seriousness, a baby grand is a smaller version of a grand piano. They're usually used in smaller venues but they're still fancier than an upright piano.” Shuichi nodded and followed after her into the practice room.Kaede pulled out the bench from under the piano and lifted the lid covering the keys. She sat down on the bench and looked back at Shuichi. He was awkwardly standing there, he seemed clueless on what to do. “Here, you can come sit next to me on the bench, there's enough space.” “O-Okay.” He walked around her and sat down. “Have you ever heard a piano piece played in person?” Kaede asked him. “Um, no, I don't think so.” Shuichi was looking over every part of the piano with great curiosity, it must be part of his detective habits. ”You haven't!? That's a crime that we need to fix. Here, I'll play a piece for you.“Kaede flipped through the book on the stand, ”I'll choose a calm one since it's still too early in the morning for something exciting.” She settled on Gymnopedie no.1 and placed her hands over the keys. Shuichi flinched at the first note but settled as she continued to play. He watched her hands as she pressed down the keys and then looked to the body of the piano as he swayed side to side. He seemed to be enjoying the piece.After Kaede finished playing, she turned to shuichi. “What did you think?” Shuichi seemed to think for a moment before answering, “It sounded very nice, I have not heard anything like it before.” “Really? Then we need to get you into more romantic era music then, there's so much out there to discover.” She smiled at him, it would be nice to have a classmate to talk about music with. “There is more like this?” He asked excitedly, “Yep! So much more, I can play another piece if you'd like.” “Yes... thank you.” “It's no problem! I enjoy playing for others.” She flipped through the book once more and stopped at Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 in E-Flat Major. They sat together appreciating the music as she played for an audience of one.* * *Shuichi walked back to their dorm after bonding with Kaede. They never knew that sounds existed like that. They could listen to this music all day. Why did the colony focus on hurting them when it could focus on the sounds that it's own units produced? It seemed like it did sometimes through concerts and recitals, according to Kaede. So it had to know how wonderful music was. Everything they learned about humanity confused them further about how their colony was supposed to function. Kaede told them to look up more music by a deceased unit called Chopin.Shuichi looked through the assignments they were given. They had to write a few sentences about what they did with Kaede today and then do some math equations. Problem was, they didn't understand what doing either of those things meant. Thankfully, they had a computer to explain what these things were. After looking things up, they figured out what to do.
It was almost dinner time when they figured out the basics of math from youtube tutorials and caught up to the level of the assignment. They had done the practice questions from the videos and now their journal was littered in equations from basic addition to college algebra. They also had to learn how to mimic the old unit's handwriting. It took a while but now they've gone from chicken scratch to near identical handwriting. Learning goes by much faster when it's something one of the units he's absorbed had already figured out, and the units from the facility knew a lot of things. They set aside their completed assignments and left to get dinner.The dorms had their own kitchen so they didn't need to go all the way to the cafeteria to eat. They saw some other classmates hanging around. Shuichi looked inside the fridge and cringed, it reminded them of the times the scientists (that's what the computer called those people) had tested their limits to the cold in boxes like this one. A lot of their units had perished and it took a long time to regain colony consciousness again. Shuichi reached into the fridge and grabbed some yogurt. It looked interesting and it had an image of a food that he liked from the breakfast, 'blueberry' is what the label called it.Kaede called out from behind them, “Hey Shuichi, how are you doing? I didn't see you at lunch.” Shuichi jumped and dropped the yogurt. “Oops, sorry, didn't mean to startle you.” She hummed, “Now that I think about it, you're pretty easy to scare for a detective.” Shuichi reached down the grabbed the yogurt, “I um... I guess so.” Kaede looked at them a certain way, they were still trying to figure out what human facial expressions meant. It was not one of the bad expressions, the ones where humans would attack them, it was something else... “Do you want something from me?” Shuichi asked. “Ah, well, I was wondering if you wanted to eat with some of our other classmates and I.” Kaede offered. They weren't sure what to say, they really didn't want to be exposed to more units that could find out what they are. But at the same time, it would be strange to decline. But also, eating around other units seemed scary. “...If you're nervous about eating around other people you can just tell me.” Kaede finally said. Shuichi sighed in relief, “I'd rather not eat around other people.” “That's fine, I'll get you to come around some time in the future though, mark my words.” Kaede seemed... determined? That might be it. “See you around, Shuichi!” “Around what?” Kaede laughed again, was what they said funny?* * *Back in their dorm, Shuichi listened to music by the unit Chopin while researching more about humans. They were curious as to how the colony was supposed to have awareness like them when it's units were so chaotic and disorganized. There were no answers they could find though. They should probably work on the non-Sakamoto cases they had available to them at the moment, they didn't want to fall behind and garner suspicion. They had a lot of time to waste when they didn't need to sleep like human units do. Different parts of their colony rested throughout the day and allowed them to always be awake. But maybe they should give sleeping a try. Shuichi made their bed and lied down on top of the blanket. They closed their eyes and tried to sleep as a whole..........This was pretty boring, were they doing this wrong? They should go work on their cases instead of laying here for no reason.* * *Kaito had a terrible time yesterday having to spend time with Kokichi. He never met someone so deliberately annoying before, it was like hatred at first sight. He really hoped that whoever he was teamed up with today wasn't anywhere as bad as Kokichi.Kaito handed the teach his papers from yesterday and got some new ones back. His stuff was at a higher grade than the rest of the class. He's had to learn a lot very quickly in order to pass the astronaut exam so he's far ahead most of his classmates, which lead him to being assigned more college level work. That didn't stop Kokichi from calling him an idiot though."Kaito, today you'll be paired with Shuichi Saihara." Who was that again? He looked around the room. There was a kind of emo looking guy staring at him before he hid under his hat. He sort of remembers him introducing himself as the utlimate detective during the first day. Kaito walked over to him, "You're Shuichi, right?" Shuichi nodded. "Good, nice to meet you. I'm Kaito Momota, the luminary of the stars, also known as the ultimate astronaut." Shuichi tilted his head to the side, "What do you do as an astronaut?" "You don't know?! Well for now it's mostly-" "He goes to space to woe aliens because he could never find any love on Earth!" Kokichi had interrupted him.
"Man would you leave me alone!" Kaito yelled at Kokichi, Shuichi flinched. "But Kaito! We're best friends! Is this how you treat your best friend?" Kokichi was teary eyed. "You are nowhere close to being my friend!" "After all we've been through together!?" "We met yesterday man!" Shuichi was slowly shrinking away from the two of them.
"I- Um- Kokichi, we're supposed to be hanging out today." A blue haired girl came up to them, Kaito thinks her name was Tsumugi. "What? Oh right. Well I've always secretly hated you anyways. See you around Kaito!" Kokichi said cheerfully. "We met yesterday!" Kaito was already exhausted from talking to his confusing classmate."Anyways back to- uh- you alright man?" Kaito turned back to Shuichi who had backed up against the wall, he looked upset. "Y-Yes, I'm alright." He kept his face hidden under his hat, maybe he should tone down the yelling near this guy in the future. It's probably Kaito's fault, well mostly Kokichi's, that he looks all shaken up. "How about we go outside and get some fresh air." "O-Okay."They walked down the hallway together, "As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted. As a future astronaut, I have to train everyday to be prepared to go into space." Shuichi still looked nervous and he was holding his arms crossed. "...Why do you need to prepare to go to space?" "There's so many reasons. If anything were to go wrong while in space, the whole crew could be in danger. So everyone needs to be well educated on just about every topic, with some people more specialized in certain areas. I will specialize in being the glue that keeps communication perfectly open between everyone and keep their spirits up. There's also the fact that astronauts need to be in top physical health before and during their time in space, so we need to train for that too. People can actually lose bone density while up there. And-" Kaito rambled on and on. Normally most people would lose focus by then but Shuichi looked to be hanging off his every word with much interest."But enough about me, what about you? You're the ultimate detective right? Got any cool stories?" They were sitting on the grass outside by the time he stopped talking about space. Shuichi was holding some blades of grass in his hand. "Um... not really. Most of what I do is research for small cases." Shuichi looked up at the clouds. "Come on, you've got to have something interesting that happened to you. You were chosen as an ultimate after all." Kaito knocked Shuichi's shoulder, he froze in place. Was this guy alright at home? He'll try to be extra friendly towards Shuichi in case he needed someone to depend on.
"N-No, really. I just do busy work with my Uncle at his detective agency. No big crimes o-or anything like that, it's pretty uncommon actually." "Huh, really? The crime dramas on TV make it seem like it happens pretty often." Now that he thought about it, TV does tend to exaggerate things pretty often for entertainment. There's so many sci-fi shows that are beyond unrealistic for space exploration, even with magical technology excusing lots of problems.
After getting no response from Shuichi, Kaito stood up. "Well, I think I'm going to head to lunch. You want to come with?" Kaito looked back down at Shuichi. "...No thank you." "What, you shy about eating around other people? Come on, we should get you over that fear." Shuichi still laid on the ground picking at the grass. "You know food always tastes better when you're sharing a meal with others right?" Shuichi finally made eye contact with Kaito, his golden eyes were excited. "It does?" Is food the way to this detective's heart? He should keep that in mind."Yep, any meal is always ten times better when you're eating with someone. Now come on, let's go before they stop serving lunch at the cafeteria. The food here is actually really good." Shuichi got up off the ground and they walked back inside.* * *The unusual unit, Kokichi, had come back to mess with Kaito during lunch. Kaito yelled at Kokichi's increasingly confusing conversation. It was kind of scary because it reminded Shuichi of the humans in the facility, the ones that would shoot them yelled at them. There must be something very wrong with this colony if all it's units were acting so counterproductive to each other. Shuichi was enjoying lunch with Kaito more than they did eating by themselves, before Kokichi showed up that is. They didn't want to be around these two any longer, "I'm done eating, see you later." Shuichi stood up from the table. "Eh, but you didn't finish your lunch." Kaito looked... worried they think.
"Oh! Me too, how about I tag along." Kokichi said while following him. "Um... no?" Shuichi tried pathetically. "No? Are you sure? Don't you know I'm the leader of an evil organization of over ten thousand members? You should reconsider who you're talking to." What?! Could this unit be the organizer for the facility they were trapped in. Does he know who they are? Shuichi walked away faster, "U-Um, please don't follow me." "Come on, I want to talk to you Mr. Detective." Kokichi walked faster to keep up with him. "Please stop." Their voice wavered, Kokichi seemed to actually listen this time. He kept his arms crossed behind his head as he watched them leave, the unit narrowed his eyes at them before they got out of sight.They needed to get back to their dorm before they started splitting apart. It was hard to keep their form right when they got scared. That was how they got caught by the real detective in the first place. They rounded a corner and bumped into Kaede. "I-I'm sorry." Shuichi spoke quickly. Kaede widened her eyes, "Hey, it's okay... are you okay? Did something happen?" Were they being too obvious? "I-I'm alright, see you later." Shuichi took back off towards their dorm. "Wha- Shuichi!" Kaede called after him.* * *Shuichi was acting strange, he didn't know him for very long but his first impressions about him were much different than how he was acting this week. He brushed off Kokichi's antics and rudely ignored him after he kept trying to get his attention during the first week. Now he was outright scared of him instead. He seemed to be a lot friendlier with his classmates too, just very shy about it. It was such a drastic change in personality that no one seemed to notice because Shuichi still otherwise kept to himself.
Kokichi felt a little guilty for scaring him so bad. That meathead Kaito didn't realize how much his yelling had been affecting his classmate next to him. But Kokichi made matters worse when he was just trying to capture the detective's interest. His organization isn't evil per say or nearly as big as he claimed it to be. But it would make for a more interesting fib that the detective was sure to look into... but instead he spooked him off.Maybe he can salvage this whenever they're paired together. But who knows if he'll practically be another person again by the time that happens.* * *Shuichi managed to calm down after hiding under their bed for a few minutes. No longer at risk of splitting apart, they started to work on their homework. It was about the history of humans in this region. They couldn't tell at what point the colony forms a consciousness. Is it a city, a state, a country? It was so confusing. They decided to figure out the TV in their room instead, Kaito had mentioned TV shows about crime. Was this the way the colony communicated with itself?
Shuichi flipped through several channels and stopped at a crime documentary, this must be what Kaito was talking about. They watched for a while, the music was making them nervous, Kaede didn't mention that music could make people feel bad. The units on TV did some pretty terrible things to the other units, they didn't understand. Their own colony did not have these problems of hurting itself. But then again, resources did not seem to be shared equally among different humans, they had to compete for it.There was a knock at their door, why was a unit at their door this late? Shouldn't whoever it is be sleeping? Shuichi looked through the peep hole, it was Kaito. They opened the door, "Hello, Kaito." "Hey man, the sky is clear tonight so I was wondering if you wanted to come check out the stars with me." "The stars?" "Yeah, it's not quite the best place to view em since we're in the city and all, but it's going to be the best we can see from here for a while. Come on." Kaito smiled at them, Shuichi followed him outside.They stood out on the grass again, but now it was dark outside. There was a strange metal device standing by itself, it looked similar to a turret. Shuichi hid behind Kaito, they didn't want it to notice them. "Uh, are you afriad of the telescope?" Kaito looked at them, they think it's with amusement. Shuichi didn't reply, they watched the telescope waiting for it to move. "Man you're such a scaredy-cat." Kaito shook his head and grabbed the telescope. He readjusted it and put his eye on the end of it. "Come here, look, Venus is visible right now." Kaito motioned Shuichi to look too. They put their eye to the device and saw a small light in the darkness. "You see it? It's actually the hottest planet even though it's the second closet to the sun."Shuichi stepped away from the telescope and looked at the sky. There were small lights dancing in it. Kaito pointed towards some of them, "There's a few constellations you can see right now. It's easier to see them out where there's no light pollution but unfortunately Hope's Peak is the middle of a city so there's not much we can do it about." Kaito sighed. The sky was pretty, "What does it look like without light pollution?" "Oh man, there's so many more stars, the sky actually becomes colorful at night once you're eyes adjust to the darkness." Shuichi hummed, "Thank you for showing me this." Kaito grinned at him, "It's no problem."* * *Once back in their dorm, Shuichi spent the rest of the night looking up pictures of space.* * *Gonta liked this school, the students weren't so afraid of him like at his previous schools. The teachers were also accommodating for him having fallen behind in school while he lived with his forest family. He was at college level for things that involved biology but he still struggled to keep up in writing and math classes. The staff were very encouraging here though, it was nice. The first student he was paired, Rantaro, was pretty calm around around him, they both talked about the different places they've been to. Then Gonta meat a nice girl named Kaede, she talked a lot about piano and music. Unfortunately, neither of them were too interested in bugs, he was hoping to find a like-minded classmate here.
Gonta picked up his assignments from the teacher. "Gonta, today you'll be paired with Shuichi Saihara." Shuichi, he saw him hanging out with Kaito outside while he was researching what bugs lived on the campus grounds last night. Gonta packed up his things into his bag when Shuichi walked up to him, "Are you Gonta?" "Yes, Gonta was told to pair with Shuichi, is that you?" He nodded. "Good. Gonta need to feed bugs this morning before he can hangout. Does Shuichi want to follow Gonta?" "O-Okay."The lab was pretty close by, they got there in less than a minute. Gonta walked in but turned around when he noticed that Shuichi stayed at the door, he looked scared. "Is Shuichi afraid of bugs?" A lot of people had huge phobias of bugs so it made sense if he got nervous, but Shuichi shook his head no. "Are you... a scientist?" "Gonta is, he is an entomologist. Gonta research bugs." Shuichi paled, was he afraid of scientists??? Maybe the detective had bad experiences with scientists who committed crimes, Gonta would have to correct his viewpoint."Gonta promises he don't hurt bugs or people with his research. Scientists who hurt others on purpose are bad scientists, most scientists careful to avoid hurting subjects." That seemed to calm him just a little, Shuichi walked inside the lab and closed the door behind him. Gonta kept an eye on him while he fed the bugs. "Y-You said you don't hurt the bugs, but you still feed them to each other?" Shuichi questioned him. "Gonta freezes the bugs before feeding them to other bugs to kill them without pain." Shuichi shuddered at that. "Many people get upset when animals can't survive without eating each other, but it how life works. Gonta try to make the process as little painful as he can."
Gonta closed the last lid, "Gonta done feeding bugs... if Shuichi not afraid of them, would he like to meet them?" Shuichi looked at the terrariums around them before nodding. Gonta opened a few tanks of some of his more agreeable bugs, 'Hello' 'Hi' 'Howdy' 'Gonta!' The bugs greeted Gonta, Shuichi tilted his head at them. "This is my classmate Shuichi, say hello." The bugs swarmed onto Shuichi but he remained still, if not awkward. 'Hi' 'So many' 'Hello' 'Worms!' 'Where from?' 'Hello' 'Parasites!' 'Classmate?' 'False Human' 'Hi' 'Good disguise!' 'Worms Worms Worms.' That's... that can't be right.Gonta whispered to one of the bugs that flew back to him, "Does rhino beetle mean that Shuichi has parasites in him?" 'No! Is parasites! Is worms!' Shuichi kept standing still, only people who were long used to bugs like him could do that without panicking. He forgot the normal reaction was to freak out and move, but Shuichi seemed almost calm. "S-Shuichi, Gonta's friends saying funny things. They say you are worms, isn't that silly?" Shuichi jumped and the bugs flew off of him. "Y-You can talk to them?!" "Y-Yes, Gonta was taught to talk to bugs by family." Gonta was getting nervous at his behavior, but Shuichi looked to be more scared of him, "T-They told you... w-what we are?" We?"Gonta not sure he understand Shuichi." His classmate was unnerving him, he needed to figure out what to do to calm him while also keeping his bugs out of harms way. Shuichi backed away from him, "D-Don't touch us! Don't h-hurt us!" "Gonta promise he won't hurt Shuichi, please calm down." Gonta held his arms up and stayed in place, if he spooked Shuichi he might back into the terrariums or do something worse. "N-No! Scientists only hurt us! Stay away!"At first, he thought that Shuichi was bleeding, but then his face had split apart, hidden seams unraveling. His arms unwound like velvet ribbons adorned with eyes and teeth. He- He had to stay calm, he was in a lot more danger than he thought. "Gonta stay over here, he will not touch you or hurt you. G-Gonta's friends vouch for him!" Gonta prompted his bugs to talk to Shuichi, if he's really some sort of bug then maybe he'd listen to them? He didn't know, Shuichi was something straight out of nightmare.'Safe!' 'Gonta nice!' 'Hello' 'Safe here' Shuichi didn't believe them, "No! He will tell his colony, and then they'll hunt us again, hurt us again, burn us!" Colony? "Gonta w-won't tell anyone! It okay!" Gonta pleaded with him.Someone knocked on the door to the lab. Shuichi froze but kept on slowly unraveling. "H-Hello?" Gonta spoke but did not move nor turn away from Shuichi. "Hey Gonta, is Shuichi still with you? I was going to ask if he wanted to hangout later." Kaede spoke from behind the door. Gonta stared at the grey eyes looking back at him in fear, "N-No, Shuichi left moment ago, Gonta busy right now. Talk to you later!" He held his breath waiting for her response. "Aw, okay. Talk to you later Gonta." They listened to her footsteps walking away.Shuichi had stopped unraveling but he was still grotesquely torn apart. His eyes were focused on him. "See, Gonta tell no one." He really hoped he didn't just put his school at risk. "...Why did you not tell your colony?" He voice warbled through his open, mishapen throat. "Because Shuichi told me not to. Is that what you are, a colony?" Shuichi slowly nodded, Gonta had no idea where to go from there. A colony of worms, if that's what it was, taking the form of a human? "...Your units make no sense, they lie and steal from each other. How does your colony stay awake through all of it?" Gonta tried to think about what his question meant. He needs to ask to understand but he's worried how Shuichi will react. "Shuichi said he is a colony, is Shuichi's... members... conscious separately or only together?" Shuichi stared at him before hiding under his hat, it didn't do much when he had other eyes scattered in his flesh still looking at him. "We don't... We're only awake when together. If we're hurt too much, if there's too many of us gone, then our colony consciousness is gone until we reform." colony consciousness? "Is Shuichis members conscious by themselves?" "...No? Some memories are stored in them, we move together as one, but they we are not as specialized as human units."This was very interesting to learn about as an entomologist, but not so much as a student talking to his parasitized classmate. "Shuichi may be mistaken on how humans work. Humans, like Gonta, do not form colonies like worms do. Each human conscious on their own. Think of Shuichi, a colony, talking to other colonies, that is what is happening for humans." Gonta tried to explain to him, Shuichi stayed quiet, he seemed lost in thought. His flesh slowly meshed itself back together."Does Shuichi have trouble keeping form together when scared?" Gonta asked him, Shuichi nodded. "Gonta can teach Shuichi calming techniques to prevent that. Can Gonta ask Shuichi more questions? Does Shuichi want to sit down?" Gonta slowly moved his arms to gesture towards the couple of chairs at the counter. Shuichi didn't look him in the eyes, "...okay." They both slowly made their way to sit down.Gonta sat on the chair closet to him, "So... Um... Shuichi said he was hurt, who hurt him? And is Shuichi still hurt?" He wanted to figure out what happened to cause whatever he was looking at. Shuichi held his arms protectively in front of himself. "The s-scientists at the facility. They hurt us over and over for research. They froze us, cut us open, burnt us, shot us... W-We aren't hurting now that we're free from them." Well that's... pretty grim. Gonta was going to ask Shuichi another question before Shuichi started again, "You said that humans are not part of a colony, but they all acted so similar to each other... And... I had to hurt their colony back to escape... Was it different than how they hurt us?" Shuichi tightnened his grip on his sleeves. He was worrying Gonta again. "Shuichi hurt them? What does he mean by that?" "I-I... I killed their units... um- technically ate them."Gonta blinked at Shuichi, oh no, what had he gotten himself into. He never thought something like this would happen from going to Hopes Peak. This was something from a horror movie, but he was a gentleman, and gentlemen were honest. "Yes, it is different. Gonta is sorry they hurt you, but they were people like you too." Shuichi kept his face hidden under his hat. There was something bothering Gonta about this more, ultimate students are usually scouted for a long time. "How long has Shuichi been... Shuichi Saihara?" "...a few days." Gonta took a shuttered breath in, who he was talking to now was not the same person he met last week. Which meant... "Did you kill Shuichi too?" He was met with a pause before the thing in front of him spoke, "We... I'm Shuichi now... His memories are foggy, and most of them are gone. But I've taken his place." "...Why?" "...He found out what I am, he was going to take me back there. I-I'm sorry. I didn't- didn't know, I thought they were just units. I was scared and they had hurt us so much." Shuichi started unraveling again, Gonta slowly reached out to gently hold his... what used to be his hand. "Shuichi is sorry what he did right? Shuichi should follow Gonta's breathing." He instructed him to slowly breath in and out, to follow his pace. He hoped it would work, he doesn't know if he needed to be fully human in order for it to calm him down.
After a moment, Shuichi had calmed down again and pressed his flesh back into one piece. "Gonta will help Shuichi if he promise to never kill anyone again and avoid hurting people. If someone try to hurt Shuichi, find Gonta and he will protect Shuichi." "I... I promise." Shuichi looked back up at Gonta for a moment. He fidgeted with his hands and slowly breathed in, "We're they all like Kaito, Kaede, and you? We're they all different... people?" Gonta was sorry that Shuichi had to learn about about humanity after being hurt and killing them back, "Yes... They were." "I'm sorry." "Gonta knows, he's sorry they hurt you."Gonta had a few more pressing questions for him, "Gonta would like to ask more, but he knows he already ask a lot. Would it be okay to ask more?" Shuichi thought for a second before nodding. "Okay, does Shuichi know how old he is?" "Um... my colony should have been around for a few years but I've been awake for a few months now." He- He was practically a baby, Gonta would have to watch over him. "What kind of food can Shuichi eat?" "Anything humans can, their foods are so tasty. It's much better than... um... you know." Shuichi avoided his gaze. He was either talking about waste or human flesh... he didn't want to think about Shuichi eating either. "Well that's good, maybe Shuichi and Gonta can get lunch together." He had lost his appetite after seeing Shuichi tear himself apart, but he wanted to keep an eye and his new killer-worm-monster-baby-friend to keep him safe from others, and to keep others safe from him. "Um, are you sure? I don't want to bother you more than I have." "Gonta has only eaten with Kaede before, he don't mind eating with more friends." Gonta reassured him. "Friends..." Shuichi repeated after him. "Okay." Shuichi smiled at him.
* * *This human was very nice, he taught them how to keep themselves calm when stressed. Shuichi didn't even know that was something they could learn. They were trying not to think about the fact that the units- people at the facility were not part of a colony. Gonta had told them to put off thinking about it until they were alone so they could process it without worrying about being seen unravelling. They were lucky that Gonta was experienced in staying calm around dangerous bugs, they didn't want to hurt him but they were so scared then that they might have if he had startled them. There was no way they would have been able to get away if they murdered him while in the school.Shuichi and Gonta entered the dormitory's kitchen, Gonta had said it was probably too soon to be back in the cafeteria after freaking out so bad. They were still feeling a bit jittery. "What food does Shuichi like?" "Um... any of it?" Gonta opened the fridge, "Does Shuichi prefer fruits? vegetables?... meat?" They tilted their head, "What are those?" Gonta paused, "Does Shuichi not know what fruits are?" Shuichi shook their head. Gonta pulled out some foods from the fridge and began explaining which groups they belonged to and what nutrients they had. Shuichi pointed at one still in the fridge, "Which one does that belong to?" "Um... That is waffle... it made from grains and animal byproducts. People only organize raw foods into groups." "Ah, okay." Whenever it felt like they had learned common knowledge, there was always something new thrown their way.They heard a shuffle and turned towards the doorway, but there was no one there. "Did you hear something, Gonta?" "No? Did Shuichi?" Shuichi kept looking towards it, "...I'm not sure."* * *That was... bizarre. One of his classmates, Gonta if he recalls correctly, was teaching Shuichi the basic food groups like he was a toddler. And Shuichi seemed to genuinely not know anything about it either. Kokichi wasn't sure what to make of this information. It just made Shuichi more confusing to figure out.* * *Shuichi had split from Gonta after lunch. They went back to their dorm to research more things and get their homework done. They also thought over their time in the facility. Thinking about it just made them feel scared though, they didn't understand why. They were free now, they wouldn't be hurt by them again, so why were they still scared. They decided to stop thinking about it.Kaito had come by again to ask them to look at the stars with him. They went back outside and Kaito explained what the constellations were to them. They stargazed for a while before they were both told by the school staff they weren't supposed to be out on the grounds so late. Kaito whispered to them they would just have to be more sneaky next time.It was around 2AM, they were looking sitting on the floor while reading up on a case about the theft of an ice cream truck, it was one of those metal machines like the one their uncle had driven. It was different from the machines with guns in the facility. The old notes had a reminder to 'look up the plates', they'd have to figure out what that meant. They also looked up what ice cream was, apparently it was one of the tastiest 'desserts' humans made. They should ask Gonta if they could have some together.Their room started to smell weird, they looked around. It was coming from the vent on the ceiling. They felt dizzy-* * *She wanted to avoid killing another classmate so soon into attending Hope's Peak. But she had her orders and it would be a great help to her orphanage, her hands were tied. Maki and her organization were unsure what boundaries they could push after Hope's Peak had scouted her as the ultimate assassin. She was given the false title as the ultimate child caregiver and she was made to work on both talents. At least they chose something she had a little experience in, having to look over the other kids in her orphanage, but really?She tied the garbage bag shut and dragged it out into the hallway. Everyone else was asleep, she had checked before she poisoned the air in the detective's vents. Her organization had set the new ultimate detective as her target to prevent him from finding her out. The school would probably be pissed but she could hardly care, the organization knew what they were doing. It's not like they never lost any ultimates before, and her job was to make it look like he disappeared.Maki threw the bag behind the dumpster, the garbage truck didn't pick up trash from the school until the weekend so she had time to come back and dispose of him properly later tomorrow. She had sliced his neck open before closing the bag around him to ensure that he died before she left him out here... He didn't bleed as much as he should have.* * *Someone knocked on his door, Gonta checked the time, it was almost 4AM. He threw on some pants and a shirt before answering the door, it was Shuichi. He was doing his breathing exercises, he looked scared and there were faint red lines darting across his body. He must be close to splitting apart. "Shuichi? Here, come inside." Gonta let Shuichi into his room and closed the door behind him.Gonta sat on the edge of bed and rubbed his eyes. "Is Shuichi okay?" Shuichi sat next to him, his voice shook "...Someone hurt me again." That surprised Gonta, "Is Shuichi still hurt? Who hurt Shuichi? Did they find out?" "I-I don't know what happened. My room smelled weird before I passed out and I-I woke up hurt in a bag outside behind the dumpsters." That sounded like someone tried to kill him, Gonta was at a loss for words. "They cut into my neck when I was unconscious, they killed us, see." Shuichi held out some discolored strands... dead worms. "Gonta so sorry Shuichi was hurt." He wasn't sure if he really wanted to, but he didn't want to leave his friend in danger if his 'killer' came back for him. "...Would Shuichi like to stay with Gonta until morning?" Shuichi nodded."Gonta can make room for Shuichi on bed." It would be a tight fit but he didn't think Shuichi would mind, worms didn't usually have a problem about being close together. "Ah. No, it's alright, I don't need to sleep." Shuichi sat on the desk chair and looked around Gonta's room. "If Shuichi is sure..." Gonta laid back down on his bed, Shuichi was watching him... Were his eyes glowing in the dark?... It was going to be hard to fall back asleep.* * *Maki was sitting at her desk, she was looking over her assignments from yesterday. She had a small cup of coffee cooling on her desk, she needed it to help keep her awake after last night. She took a sip from the cup and then choked when she saw Shuichi walk through the door. She coughed a few times and Kaede looked over to her, "Are you alright?" "Yeah yeah, I'm fine, it just went down the wrong pipe." Maki watched Shuichi sit down at his desk. She killed him, she knows she did. She cut his throat open and watched it bleed. Shuichi laid out his papers on the desk, there wasn't a single bruise, cut, or blemish left on him. This can't be real, but she knows she's awake after inhaling her coffee. What is she supposed to do? Kill him again? Is this even the same person sitting at his desk? He looked exactly the same.She needed to check behind the dumpster again when she had the chance. "Maki?" Her teacher was trying to get her attention, she had been caught staring at Shuichi. "Yes?" "Today, you'll be paired with Kokichi Ouma." He sighed before continuing, "He's been a bit of a... handful with the other students, so be warned." Great, just what she needed, forced to hangout with a brat while the undead walk around the school.Kokichi bounded over to her, "Good evening, are you Maki?" "It's morning." Maki side-eyed him. "Your name is Morning? How strange, I'm Kokichi Ouma, the ultimate assassin at your service!" Oh, she did not like him. "Really? Are you sure you're not the ultimate brat?" Kokichi gasped, "How could you say such things?! Aren't you the ultimate child caregiver?" She rolled her eyes at him. "That just lets me know a brat when I see one." Kokichi feigned offense at her response before he leaned over her desk."Eh, whatever, I have something to talk with you about anyways. It has to do with a certain someone." Kokichi glanced over at Shuichi who was talking to Kaede. "But we shouldn't talk about that here." He had a fake knowing smile on his face. Does he know what happened? "Alright then, lead the way." Maki followed Kokichi out of the classroom.* * *Kokichi had done some digging into the school and his classmates. He used his connections and one of his DICE members had found something really interesting in Maki's files. They found themselves in an isolated classroom, "So, before I start talking about what we're really here to discuss. I'll just let you know that my organization would notice my disappearance and connect it back to you. So, Miss Assassin, why were you so scared of the detective when he came into class this morning?" Maki glared at him, "Why you-" "-I asked first, don't worry I won't tell anyone... unless you don't start talking." Maki clenched her fists.Shuichi had been acting strange, and he needed to find out why. He was hoping to form a fun game of cat and mouse with him but he found that something off was lurking beneath the surface. Maki seemed uncertain when she spoke, "I killed him." Kokichi stilled, Huh? "Uh, no you didn't, we just saw him, alive." That irritated her, "I killed him and there's no way for him to have survived but..." She looked at the floor, she didn't know what was going on more than he did. Kokichi had been hoping she found out something about Shuichi, but this was even weirder. "But he didn't die?" "He did die. I slit his throat and he stopped breathing before I left him. I don't know who is taking his place in class right now but that's not Shuichi... even though he looks identical to him" Maki looked lost in thought.Kokichi didn't know what to do with this information. She had to be lying to him... but she seemed sincere. "How about we go check where you left him." Maki crossed her arms, "I was planning on doing that alone." "Well where's the fun in that? And don't you know to never split up in a horror movie?" Maki grumbled, "Fine, but don't scream if you see a dead body. Or that will be the last thing you see."They walked to the back of the dormitory in relative silence. Maki reached behind the dumpster and pulled out a garbage bag. Did she really plan on leaving Shuichi here? He felt sick. Maki opened the bag while he peered over her shoulder. There were dead worms inside and... the star from Shuichi's hat. Kokichi reached in and took it out of the bag. He glanced over at Maki, she looked pale. "So... looks like our corpse is walking around."* * *Shuichi was hanging out in the courtyard with a metal human. He said his name was K1-B0 but to call him Kiibo. He was the ultimate robot, he said his father used to be an ultimate roboticist many years ago. They were a little confused on what that all meant, Shuichi would look it up later instead of risking a question that seemed obvious to everyone else. K1-B0 said he ate electricty instead of food, Shuichi remembered being able to do that for special tricks but it didn't sustain him... He should be careful not to accidentally eat K1-B0's power supply.K1-B0 was so different from the rest of the humans, it made them feel more at ease in a weird way. "I just want to be a normal student you know, I always stick out. I don't even have a talent like everyone else." K1-B0 lamented to him. "But you're an ultimate? Everyone sticks out here anyways." Shuichi wasn't sure what being a robot meant but all the ultimates were highly specalized unit- people. "Yeah, but being a robot isn't really a talent. It's like being the ultimate guy or ultimate dog." K1-B0 sighed. Shuichi hummed, would they be the ultimate mutated-tubiflex-worm-colony? They'd probably get a title less lengthy... ultimate worms?"Well, if you could pick, what talent would you want?" Shuichi asked K1-B0 while they were swinging their legs off the bench. "I was thinking of being a pop idol, there's not a lot a lot of robots in that market so standing out would play to my advantage!" "A pop idol?" Shuichi kept learning knew terms everytime they talked to an ultimate. "Yeah! I'd sing and dance on stage and everyone would adore me!" K1-B0 punched his arms into the sky. "But I thought you wanted to be normal?" Shuichi tilted his head at K1-B0. "Well, um, I'd be normal here since I'd have a real talent like everyone else."Shuichi drummed their fingers on the bench, "I-Is it bad to not be like everyone else?" They hadn't thought much about that, they mostly felt guilt and shame over killing the real Shuichi and taking his place... and the facility people too. But they hadn't put much thought into being different other than hiding it for their survival. K1-B0 looked towards the ground, "It's not... bad. It's just, I don't know, lonely?" Lonely huh, they were never alone since they were a colony but... they did feel better when they were around Kaede, Kaito, or Gonta. Gonta said they were friends so, "Would you feel less lonely if we became friends?" K1-B0's eyes lit up, "You'd want to be my friend? Even though I don't have a real talent?" "Yes, you seem like a nice u- person. I would like to be your friend, if that's okay." K1-B0 nodded enthusiastically."Wow, We're friends now! You're probably my first friend outside of the professor." K1-B0 was beaming. He was Shuichi's fourth friend now. "We have to do friendship stuff now! Like having sleepovers and making friendship bracelettes!" K1-B0 wilted after speaking, "But... I can't sleep since I'm a robot and you've probably made several friendship bracelettes before so it wouldn't be that special." "I um... I haven't made those before." K1-B0 perked up again, "You haven't? Well, then let's go make some bracelettes!" K1-B0 dragged Shuichi along one of the art labs to borrow some beads and string.If they told K1-B0 about what they were, they wouldn't have to spend the whole night being alone, they could hangout together as sleepless buddies. But... K1-B0 might not want to be their friend anymore if he knew, and Shuichi didn't want to get hurt again if he told someone.* * *"Where are they going?" Kokichi shuffled in place under the bush. "Why would I know more than you?" Maki whispered back at him. "I don't know, can't you read lips or something?" "K1-B0's mouth only moves to give the impression that he's talking with it and Shuichi keeps ducking under his hat." They were stalking Shuichi, there's no avoiding that fact. They had come to a temporary alliance to figure out what the fuck was going on with him. Kokichi could see that Shuichi was missing the star from his hat, the one currently resting in Kokich's pocket."Hey look! It's Gonta!" Kokichi exclaimed and Maki hushed him. Gonta waved Shuichi and K1-B0 over. He was holding something in his hands but it was too difficult to see from their angle. It was some sort of bug, he could tell because it jumped onto Shuichi's face. Shuichi suprisingly did not flinch, he just stood there with the bug on his face and kept talking to Gonta. "Ewwwww." Kokichi fake gagged. "Cut that out." Maki looked over at him. Shuichi picked up the bug and showed it to K1-B0 who recoiled from it. Both Gonta and Shuichi looked hurt by his reaction. "Is Shuichi also a bug freak? Maybe the worms in the bag were his friends, heh." Kokichi thought allowed. "...I had gotten a fresh garbage bag to dispose of him with and it had only been a few hours since I threw him back there and when we checked the bag this morning."Kokichi looked at Maki, "The worms couldn't have gotten into the bag after you uh... tossed him out?" "No." Maki said firmly. Okay. Well. Maybe Shuichi carries dead worms on his person. Perfectly normal, cool. "He must be some sort of zombie." Maki deadpanned. Kokichi stared at her, did she really believe- "Stop gaping at me, I was joking, obviously." Maki rolled rolled her eyes at him. Kokichi closed his mouth, he didn't know she could funny."They're moving, let's go." Maki stood up and Kokichi followed.* * *Shuichi had gotten Gonta to join K1-B0 and them in making friendship bracelets. Once they had gotten the beads and string, they ran into a problem. None of them had ever made bracelletes before. "I um- w-well detectives don't really spend time making bracellets s-so..." "Gonta scared off friends his age by being too big and scary. He never learned..." K1-B0 looked disappointed. He put on a thinking face before speaking, "I will look up bracelet making in my database!" K1-B0 stood there for a minute before opening his eyes again, "Okay! It's actually pretty simple! You both can tie knots right?" Gonta nodded and Shuichi looked to him before nodding as well... for some reason it felt like Shuichi was just copying Gonta's answer. "We can just make simple ones without adding any beads for now. I'll show you how to weave them.They sat around one of the ground tables, K1-B0 placed down spools of thread and some safety pins on the table. He demonstrated how to weave them together before offering to cut the threads of their choosing to length. There were so many colors to choose from. If they were making them for their friends, should they match the colors to them? Shuichi picked some greens and reds for Gonta and some blues and white for K1-B0. They tried following K1-B0's instructions but messed up the pattern a little. Gonta was struggling more than them but K1-B0 reassured him that the database said that the point of making bracelets was the thought of it, not the end product.* * *"They're being lame and mushy, this isn't interesting at all." Kokichi commented, they were hiding behind the door frame watching the three make bracelets. "You're just jealous." Maki remarked. Kokichi gasped, "Me? Jealous? I'll have you know that I have the purest of hearts, not an envious bone in my body." Kokichi spoke dramatically. Maki raised her eyebrow, "The purest of hearts leading an evil organization?" "It's entirely possible!" Kokichi huffed at her. "Besides, I've made thousands of friendship bracelets with my subordinates." He's made one for each, nowhere near a thousand. But he wasn't going to tell anyone here that.Maki watched Shuichi closely, "You haven't told me what you thought was weird about him yet, other than the fact that he's not dead." Kokichi glanced at Maki before looking back at Shuichi. "Well, he professed his undying love for me behind the school during the first week and now he no longer remembers it." Kokichi spoke sadly. Maki narrowed her eyes at him, "Be serious." Kokichi blew a raspberry at her, "Fine, he totally ignored me and everyone else during the first week. Last week he was trying to be left alone but this week he's practically begging for attention. No one's noticed it because he's so shy and awkward about it." Kokichi paused before continueing, "And I also, might have, accidentally, scared him shitless during lunch a couple days ago."
Maki fully turned around to face Kokichi, "You what." Kokichi avoided her glare, "Well I was having a lovely conversation with Kaito, who probably shook up Shuichi the most with his yelling to be honest, and then I tried to follow after him. He asked me to stop following him and then I told him about my evil organization and he just, I don't know, took my word for it and freaked out?" Kokichi shrugged. "But he's a detective, you know, I didn't think he'd just outright believe me. I mean he completely ignored me the week before. It was like he changed overnight." Kokichi finished his long winded explanation.They both looked back at Shuichi, he had finished making one bracelet and started on another. "Did you notice any personality change this morning?" Maki asked him. "No, he seems to be about the same, maybe a few worms short." Kokichi said and Maki knocked his arm. Kokichi chuckled before putting a hand over his mouth and clearing his throat to cover it. "So... Are you going to try to kill him again?" The question had been on his mind since she admitted to killing him. Maki sighed, "No, I missed the deadline and things have gotten too complicated to try again. If he's... the same person, then I don't know how much he knows." She didn't have to sound so disappointed about it. "Aw, you sad you didn't kill him?" Kokichi sneered at her. Maki clenched her fists, "It's none of your business." "Well I think it is-""Ah? Hello?" Shuichi called out to them. Kokichi jumped while Maki froze, they had been too loud. They looked at each other and Kokichi took the initiative, "Howdy! You guys seem to be having fun making bracelets. You wouldn't mind if Maki and I joined you guys, would you?" Maki looked like she wanted to strangle him. The robot put down a bracelet, "You two are from our class right? The more the merrier." Shuichi grimaced and scooted closer to Gonta, he whispered something to him and Gonta looked towards Kokichi with concern. Well, that can't be good.Kokichi walked over to the table with Maki, "Well, I'll be making one with Maki since we're BFFS, right?" Maki stayed silent. "Right?" Kokichi nudged her, "Sure, whatever." She was not a good actor in his opinion. K1-B0 moved the leftover thread towards their side of the table, "Do you need me to tell you how to make them?" Kokichi shook his head, "Not me, I've been making these since I was a baby. Maki on the otherhand-" "I know how to make them too." She grabbed some black and white threads and cut them swiftly. Kokichi rolled his eyes at her and grabbed some of his own thread too. He decided to pick an awful neon green, peach, and navy blue. Hopefully she had a sense of taste and would hate the bracelet he was about to make for her.To his surprise, Maki actually knew how to make a frienship bracelet. She started working on a checker pattern that matched his scarf. Oh. He needed to one up her, he'll use technical skill to beat her. "Wow, Kokichi and Maki good at making bracelets. They have made them before?" Gonta admired their weaving. "I've made some with the kids at my orphanage." Maki stated plainly. Shuichi shot Gonta a questioning look and Gonta shook his head in response. What were they communicating? Maki noticed it too, she back glanced at Kokichi before looking back at her bracelet. K1-B0 was oblivious to it all."How boring, now as for me, I made countless friendship bracelets for all the members of my organization." Kokichi boasted. Shuichi hid his face under his hat, what an odd reaction. K1-B0 looked at him curiously, "You're part of an organization?" "Part of? I am the leader of an evil organization of over a hundred thousand members." "Huh?!?" K1-B0 was shocked and dropped his bracelet. "Don't listen to him, he's a liar." Maki said while glaring at Kokichi. "Hey, I don't lie about everything! I'm still a leader," Kokichi looked to Shuichi, "but, maybe to a not so evil organization of under 50 people." Shuichi looked up at him, his dull yellow eyes curious. Whatever it was about his organization always seemed to capture his attention.K1-B0 looked to Shuichi, "You're a detective, right? Do you know about his organization?" Shuichi startled at the sudden attention, he paused before answering, "I don't- don't think so." He sounded unsure. Could he have confused his group for another? That might have been what freaked him out so bad. He might have confused DICE with some sort of serious criminal group. DICE was an unserious criminal group, big difference. "That's cause we're just too sneaky, you'll never be able to catch us, detective." He snickered and finished tying the bracelet. Kokichi looked over to Maki to gloat but she had already finished hers before him, fuck. "You finally finished yours? Here, I already finished mine a minute ago, B. F. F." She annunciate the letters slowly and had a smug look on her face. She figured out that he was attempting to beat her at bracelets, and won.* * *Kokichi and Maki had abruptly joined their friendship bracelet circle. Shuichi didn't think Kokichi knew the people from the facility anymore. There were definitaly hundreds of people there and who knows how long the project had been around, it might have even been older than Kokichi. They didn't know what they were researching, just that Shuichi became their number 1 interest for quite a few years. They didn't want to think about it any longer. Shuichi had finished weaving the last bracelet, they looked over at their friends. Gonta just finished his bracelets last, there were a couple mistakes in the first one he made but they still looked nice.K1-B0 looked to them, "Now we swap bracelets." The three handed each other their respective bracelets. Shuichi had gotten a blue and grey one from Gonta and a black and gold one from K1-B0. "Ah, thank you two for the bracelets." "You're welcome, I also like the bracelets you two made." "Gonta also like bracelets. He had fun making them." Shuichi slid on the bracelets, one for each wrist. K1-B0 looked at the bracelet Gonta had made for them, "I'm just curious, not judging I swear, why did you choose grey and blue?" "Gonta thought it matched Shuichi's hair and eyes." "Eh? I choose black to match his hat and gold to match his eyes." They both looked towards them, Shuichi felt uncomfortable under their duo gaze and hid under their hat. Kokichi spoke up but didn't look at them, "His eyes are dull yellow, I don't know what you two are going on about." "No. They're closer to a faded brown." Maki disagreed with them....Have their eyes been changing color? They might need to hide them better if they changed without them noticing. They could feel the group trying to stare under their hat to check. Kokichi spoke, "You know, we can just check his id and see what's put down there." They were not giving Kokichi their- He had their id in his hand, when did he get that?! Kokichi feigned adjusting nonexistant reading glasses and read the id. "Huh." Oh no. "What you mean huh?" Maki asked him. "Well, it says here that his eyes are green, they're a pretty bright green on his picture too." Kokichi answered. "Give me that." Maki grabbed their id from Kokichi, she looked it over. "Huh." Everyone at the table looked at them again, Shuichi scooted more towards Gonta. Gonta noticed their distress, "Shuichi said he was trying different contacts, yes?" Gonta spoke awkwardly. "Um, yes. I-I have been having a difficult time c-choosing a color I like." Shuichi dared to look back up at the table."White." Maki commented. Huh?! "That's a weird choice of color... I thought they were gold earlier, did you switch them out somehow when I wasn't looking?" K1-B0 looked puzzled. Uh oh. Oh no. Gonta stood up from the table, "Gonta remember he need to feed bugs now. Does Shuichi want to help?" "Yes! -um, sure." Shuichi also stood up from the table. "It nice making bracelets with everyone, see you all later." Gonta said before rushing out the door with Shuichi. "Huh- uh, see you later!" K1-B0 called out after them.* * *They watched the two leave in a hurry. "Well Keebs, it's been fun." Kokichi said before leaving the lab with Maki. The two followed Gonta and Shuichi at a distance, staying out of sight. "His eyes definitally weren't white earlier." Kokichi spoke quietly. "I can agree on that." Maki replied.They followed the pair to the lab. They both stood next to the door and listened in. "Our eyes have been changing the whole time!?" It sounded like Shuichi. "Gonta didn't notice until everyone talked about it." Gonta spoke. So it was a lie, a rather obvious lie, but the truth seemed even stranger. "Oh no no no no. Has anything else been changing without us realizing it?" Shuichi sounded worried. "Gonta not notice other changes." "Are you sure?" There was a pause, "Shuichi's face look the same, Gonta think his hair stayed same color, eyeliner the same too." "What's eyeliner?" How did he not know what eyeliner was when he wore it?! Kokichi looked towards Maki who seemed as confused as him. "It is makeup, people paint their faces with it. Are you not wearing any?" "We um- We thought human faces just looked like that." EH. WHAT. Kokichi almost laughed out loud but he stiffled it with his hand.
Maki glanced at Kokichi, "This has to be some sort of sick prank." Kokichi felt inclined to agree but... "Is Shuichi's eyeliner just... marked skin?" "Um, yes?" "Huh." This is weird conversation. "...I'm scared someone is going to find out. I don't know how well I can keep hiding like this." "Gonta here for Shuichi if something happen to him." "Ah, um, thank you Gonta." At least they confirmed that he's hiding something. "What if someone tries to kill me again while you're not there?" There was a long pause. "Oh! Shuichi can use phone to get Gonta." "Phone?" "Shuichi should have one with him." There was another pause, probably Shuichi fumbling around his pockets for his phone. "This thing?" "Yes, does Shuichi know how to use it?" "...we think so, we faintly remember it. He must have used it a lot."
Kokichi looked to Maki again, whenever they found out something about Shuichi is just made things more confusing. "Any clue and what's going on?" Kokichi asked. Maki sighed and shook her head. Shuichi spoke again, "Can we have your number?" "Oh! Of course. Gonta put it in... How much can Shuichi remember from..." "Not much, u-usually um... remains only have the most reinforced memories leftover in their flesh." Kokichi glanced back at Maki, "I know you were joking about the Zombie thing but..." Gonta started speaking again, "Why does Shuichi use 'we' when talking to Gonta?" "Um, well, we feel more comfortable using it for ourselves. It feels like it represents us better, even if we're really one consciousness. But uh, we only use it around you since you know what we are." What is he?! Shuichi continued "Why do you mostly say our name when talking to us?" "Oh, Gonta has hard time with talking. Gonta's teachers say he need to work harder on including pronouns." "What's a pronoun?" "Words like 'you', 'he', 'she', or 'I'. Shuichi seem to understand them well when talking." "We were wondering... what's the difference the 'she' and 'he'?"
Kokichi decided to whisper to Maki, "How much you want to bet that he doesn't know what gender is?" "Shut up." Maki moved closer to the door."'he' is for men and she' is for women." "..." "Does Shuichi not know the difference?!" He bet Shuichi had some pathetic look on his face right now. "I um, I looked up stuff about humans so I know about it but... It's hard to tell. Our worms reproduced asexually after the first mutation so there's no difference among them now. What does that us?" "Worms?!" Kokichi exclaimed, Maki shoved a hand over his mouth. They both looked towards the door, there was no noise behind it. They stayed still.
The door opened and Gonta saw them standing there. They've been caught. Shuichi was further back in the room, he looked scared out of his mind. He looked like he was trying to calm himself down but failing. "How much Maki and Kokichi hear?" Gonta asked them. "Uh, um, none of it? Nothing at all, now excuse us." Kokichi tried to back away before Gonta pulled him into the room. "Kokichi can leave when he promise to tell no one." Gonta looked serious. "What will you do if we do?" Maki challenged Gonta. He paused, "It goes against being gentleman to hurt others, but..." Gonta glanced back to Shuichi who was... bleeding? "Gonta need to protect his friend. He asks Maki and Kokichi to tell no one. Gonta won't hurt you but he will try to stop you... somehow." He backed away from the two of them towards Shuichi."Hey Maki, do you remember the dead worms from the bag?" Kokichi asked Maki nervously. "Now is not the time." He thinks she got what he meant though. Shuichi's eyes off colored eyes widened, "You. You were the ones that hurt us?" His voice was tight. Kokichi pointed to Maki, "She did it all on her own. I had nothing to do with it!" Maki sputtered, "Wha- Hey! Don't point me out like that!" "Sorry for not killing someone!" Kokichi looked back towards Shuichi.He- it was hiding behind gonta. "Why you-" Maki stopped after seeing his reaction, she turned around back towards Shuichi and Gonta.Gonta was trying to calm down Shuichi. "We don't want to go back, they're going to hurt us again. We don't- Please-" It was pleading on and on. Its flesh had split apart, revealing sinew and organs hidden behind the slits. There were eyes and fangs in all the wrong places. "What. The fuck." Maki swore, her hands were shaking. Hahaha, it looked like her assassin training didn't prepare her for this. "Why are you laughing?" Maki looked at him like he was crazy. Kokichi didn't find this funny at all, but he laughed a little more before getting the words out "It's shock dumbass."There was a living corpse in front of them. And what was actually funny was that is was more afriad of them than they were of it. He should aplaud Gonta afterwards for not loosing his stomach while he was holding onto Shuichi to calm it down. "It safe here. No one hurt Shuichi. P-Please breath." Kokichi and Maki didn't know what to do, they only stared at the two. Kokichi was afraid of what might happen if he tried to run. The shock must have been messing with his brain because he decided the best question to ask was "What happened to the real Shuichi?" Maki looked towards him in shock and then back to Shuichi. "W-we're sorry. We didn't- We didn't know then. We're sorry. We're s-sorry." "S-Shuichi! C-Calm down!" Gonta was also panicking in his attempt to keep Shuichi from falling apart.It definitally looked more worm-y now. A bunch of worms, that were also human flesh. Haheha, he was going to throw up. Kokichi ran for the nearest trashcan and heaved. "Gross." Maki said, still standing in place. It was not fair that he had the weakest stomach of the three here. Shuichi's organs were literally on display and he was the odd one for getting sick about it. Shuichi was still breathing funny, actually, everyone was still breathing funny.
It killed him didn't it, Last week's Shuichi was dead and replaced by this thing. Maki made a pointed glare at Kokichi before turning back to Shuichi, she breathed in and out, "I won't tell anyone, as long as you don't hurt us or tell anyone that... I tried to kill you. I won't try it again either." She was trying to calm it down, the monster that killed the real Shuichi. Maki was staring at him to do the same. "You killed him, didn't you. You stole his life." If this thing didn't kill him, Maki might, given the way she was looking at him now."W-we didn't know. We're sorry. We didn't-" "Didn't know what?" Kokichi pressed it. "We didn't- didn't know he was different from what we're made of. We th-thought he as part of a colony like our units. He was going to send u-us back to be hurt and burned and cut and shot and torn open." What little progress Gonta had made with it had fallen apart again. "So that makes it okay that you killed him?!" Kokichi yelled at it. "IT'S NOT OKAY!" It yelled back at him."IT'S NOT OKAY, IT'S NEVER BEEN OKAY! WE BOTH WANTED TO LIVE BUT ONLY ONE US COULD!" It collasped on the ground, "We don't know what to do. We don't want this. We don't to steal his life but we don't have a choice. If we leave we get hurt again and again and again. Everything-Everyone is so nice to us here, we don't deserve it." It started to cry on the floor.Maki had finally moved to quietly yell at Kokichi, "Why did you yell at it?! Are you insane!? Are you trying to kill us!?" Kokichi watched the thing cry. He might have been... a little too much. He thought it was some heartless imposter but now... Jeez, he didn't even know where to start. Kokichi slowly walked towards Shuichi, he was being comforted by Gonta. "I may have been... a little too charged in my accusations. Um. If you're past your killing people days, then, I won't tell anyone." 10/10 apology Kokichi, he didn't even say sorry once. Gonta looked to Kokichi, "Does Kokichi promise?" "...fine, I promise I won't tell anyone what you are." Shuichi still looked upset-flesh torn apart and too many unhuman eyes looking at him-but it seemed like he was starting to calm down.After a few minutes, Gonta was hugging a mostly reformed Shuichi, there were faint red lines darting across his skin where it had seperated before. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He was still apologizing. "You should cut that out already, it's pretty depressing." Kokichi stated. Shuichi looked at him with his dull yellow eyes, they really do change color. "O-Okay..." Shuichi grabbed the hem of his uniform, "S-So... What do we do now?" Good question. Kokichi hummed, "Well you still feel bad about killing the old Shuichi right?" "Kokichi!" Gonta and Maki yelled at him in unison. Shuichi nodded. "Well, how about we hold a little funeral for him. Only ourselves will be invited and we give him his last rites or whatever." Kokichi suggested.* * *Shuichi had put the student id up for their photo. They all performed a little ceremomy for him, someone none of them knew.Shuichi whispered to him, "I'm sorry it turned out this way. I promise I won't waste this life that you left behind." They placed down a single blueberry as an offering.* * *Gonta had remembered Shuichi asking about it before, so here they were. Shuichi had 3 scoops of icecream, all in different flavors, trying not to fall over. Maki had a small cup of maple icecream. Kokichi had found some ube icecream but claimed it was panta flavored. Gonta was holding a cone full of strawberry flavored icecream. Kaito and Kaede were invited too, the four didn't tell them what had happened though. Kaede had a tiramisu flavor with chocolate sprinkles on top while Kaito had gotten cotton candy flavor with rainbow sprinkles, he claimed it was space themed. K1-B0 was invited too but since he couldn't eat he just watched and kept them company. He still enjoyed being included.Shuichi was happy to have their new friends.