Kokichi's POV:

I woke up groggily, groaning a bit as I pulled the covers over my shoulder even more. After laying in bed for what felt like 10 minutes, I realize I wasn't going back to sleep and open up my eyes.

Oh shit. It's 11 in the morning.

Realizing this, I sit up and stretch, adrenaline pumping through me as I now have an hour to get ready before I'm supposed to meet up at the mall with Mikan and Gonta. Luckily, it doesn't really take me too long to get ready, so fifteen minutes later I was ready to go. I noticed that Mikan's bed was already empty, her sheets neatly done up. Makes sense for such a worry wart like her.

Taking just a few more minutes to stretch, I finally open up the door. It was too late for breakfast, but I figured I'd get some food from a vending machine in the cafeteria. However, when I get there, low and behold I find my missing roommate, talking with a chick with an insanely colorful hairstyle.

Mikan's back was turned to me, but I saw the other one eye me for a moment, before continuing to talk excitedly with her- I guess my reputation precedes me. Paying that no mind though, I continue on and get some chips and a grape panta from the vending machines. Figuring I might as well, I walk over to the two girls excitedly and sit down.

"Heya roomie! Who's the scene girl?" I ask, taking a sip of my soda. Mikan jumps a bit, apparently startled by my sudden appearance. Her nervous demeanor rearing its head again, she attempts to stutter out a response "O-Oh, um, t-this is-" "Ibuki's name is Ibuki Mioda, ultimate musician!" she says, already giving off an energetic air. However, something about it felt off, a little artificial.

I guess my reputation really had reached other classes. Not that I cared, but it was good to know how far my infamy went. "Nishishi, nice to meetcha! I'm Kokichi Oma, the ultimate supreme leader." I say, laughing with my usual shit-eating grin on my face. "Uh, yeah. Ibuki knows" she says, avoiding eye contact while scratching the back of her head.

Welp, seems like she's already made her opinions on me. Figuring it's about 11:30 at this point, I turn to Mikan "Anyways, we should get going if we want to get to the mall on time." I say, taking yet another sip from my soda. Mikan looks up at the clock, her face becoming distressed when she did. "Y-Yes, I guess we should. A-Although, since it's just the two and t-the mall doesn't close in a while-" "So? Hmf, I figured a nurse would know the importance of punctuality!"

She cringes, shrinking into her seat "S-S-Sorry! You're right I sh-" "Don't sweat it Mikan, you're still waaay better at that stuff than Ibuki is anyways" says a brightly smiling Ibuki, trying to cheer her up. Honestly, I felt like I going a bit far, so I'm happy that someone was here to cheer her up for me this time.

"Weeell that doesn't change the fact that we should get going. Cmon!" I say, taking one final swig of my soda before standing up. As Mikan stood up, I grab her wrist and begin pulling her along, excited to get to the mall already. "A-AH! Um, b-bye Ibuki" she says, haphazardly waving goodbye to her friend. Ibuki does the same, and we were finally on our way.

We walk to the nearest bus stop. Mikan offered to pay for it, but I declined and handed the driver some of my money instead. Throughout the entire ride, she was stiff and awkward, while I just joked around and acted like an overall little kid while munching on the chips from the cafeteria. Other than that though, the ride went pretty quickly, and we were at the mall before we knew it.

After throwing out the chips wrapper, I return to Mikan in the center of the plaza. "Um, s-so where do you... w-want to go first?" she asks, anxiously tugging at her bandages. I give a playful "hmmmmmmmmmm" before answering her question. "Let's just wait here for a little bit!" I say, placing my hands behind my head. Mikan stays silent for a few moments, before giving a quiet "O-Okay".

We were a little bit early, so I wasn't surprised that Gonta wasn't here yet. Not like I was worried he was going to be late with his talk of "gentlemen". Still, standing in silence like this would just be awkward, especially with how anxious Mikan seemed to be. Sooo-

"So have you ever been to this mall before?" I ask Mikan nonchalantly. This seemed to catch her attention, as her head shot towards me as if she wasn't expecting to have any kind of conversation at all. "N-No, I haven't... b-but I've heard about it before. It... w-was pretty popular with my old school" she says, continuing to tug at those bandages.

"Well then, guess we'll need to look around to find the arcade, won't we?" I say, continuing to smile before looking around and- "Gontaaaa! Over here!" I say, waving him down. The giant catches sight of this, smiles, waves back, and starts walking towards us. "Hello Kokichi and Kokichi's friend! It nice to meet you" he says, smiling at Mikan.

Who was pale in the face and shaking in return.

When I thought about Mikan's reaction to not knowing Gonta was going to be here, this was not what I had pictured. Though I guess I should have seen it coming, since I forgot how intimidating Gonta can be when you first meet him. "Ah, did Gonta do something wrong?" he asks, looking at me with a worried and panicked expression.

Looking at the still panicked Mikan, I turned back to Gonta and shook my head with a smile on my face. "Nah! Just give her some time" I say, hoping I didn't just fuck up this interaction from the get-go. Should have just told her.

Gonta gives a disheartened "Oh... okay", while Mikan just continues to stay quiet. Welp, this was getting way too awkward. "Weeeell since we're all here now: c'mooooon let's go to the arcade already!" I say, trying to relieve some of the tension. Both Mikan and Gonta nod, Gonta brightening up just a bit.

We finally got going, though it was a way bumpier start than I would have liked. I occasionally oogled at some of the stands as we wandered aimlessly, the tension slowly fading: although I still caught Mikan looking anxiously at Gonta every so often. Guess she was suspicious of others as well, even if it was for all the wrong kind of people.

"Um, Gonta see bright colored lights up ahead- does that... mean something?" He asks, looking down at me. I look ahead, and low and behold "Why yes it does! Arcade ahead! Get ready for some video games!" I say, rushing forward. Man, I haven't been to one of these in forever... so I maaay be letting a bit too much genuine excitement show through.

I reach the arcade, the other two catching up not too far afterwards. "Cmoooooon let's play some games!" I say, heading in and rushing up to the token dispenser. I insert some coins, and happily take my tokens. I turn around to find both Mikan and Gonta standing behind me, seemingly at a loss as to what to do.

Gonta's pretty detached from the modern world, so I expected him to be a bit absent in this: I wasn't expecting Mikan to though. "Hey, aren't you two going to do anything?" I ask, pouting a bit. Gonta spoke up first "Um, Gonta not really good with this tek-nol-low-gee stuff" he says, scratching his head. I turn to Mikan, a questioning look on my face. She shrinks into her shoulders, tugging at her bandages. "I, um... d-don't want to get in the way of your f-fun" she says softly.

Well, guess I'm not changing their minds. "Hmmm alrightie! If you say so! Guess you'll just have to watch me dominate at video games then, nishishi" I say, choosing to forget about it for now and just enjoy the arcade. A majority of the games were new, however, a select few of them were old school: perfect for me, since those tended to be harder. But I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of being a black hole for my tokens!

I settle on a side-scroller, picking a character with some difficult but powerful combos as my avatar. Level 1 went by pretty fast, and so did level 2. 10 minutes later and I was on level 6. I had lost about one HP throughout the entire experience. Even if my back was turned to them, I could pretty much feel the awestruck expressions on Mikan and Gonta's faces.

Mikan's POV:

I watched intently as Kokichi continued to exceed at the game he was playing, momentarily forgetting about my anxieties about the new person, and Kokichi's motives for inviting me here. He had a kind of reflex that I could only dream of having, calculating what the enemies would do in just a fraction of a second.

...Why am I invested in this like it was real life? Taking awe in something like a videogame? I mean it was true that I admired the kind of reflexes needed to do something like this, but it wasn't anything that really mattered in real life. Even so... it still felt fun. I hadn't played video games since Chiaki had set them up on the second day, so the experience was still new to me. And I was finding out... that things like this were really fun.

Too absorbed in my own thoughts like usual, I yelp as Kokichi lets out an excited cry "Alright! Onto the final boss!" He leans into the machine closer, focusing as he played through the level that lead to the end of the game. I set aside my thoughts for the time being, and watch closely as he fights the flashy boss.

"Damn! I knew I should have ducked instead of jumped!" Kokichi said in frustration as the "continue" timer counted down, before laughing it off and turning back to us. "Well then, that was fun! Told you I'd dominate" he says, smirking. Gonta nods "Yes! Gonta didn't really understand a lot of it, but Kokichi move really fast and what happened on the box look really cool! Um, could Gonta try?" he asks, starry eyed. Kokichi does an over exaggerated thinking pose "Hmmm... sure, why not" he says, laughing. "Feel lucky! It is not every day that the supreme leader of evil decides to be so generous!" he says, before handing the token to Gonta and walking towards where I was. I stand there in an awkward silence for a few moments, before Kokichi speaks up.

"Sooooo what'd you think?" he asks, looking at me with a somewhat smug face. "A-Ah, you did an amazing job! I c-could never do something like that on my first try" I say, trailing off and once more tugging at my bandages. "Hmm... yeah probably!" he says, laughing to himself as he places his arms behind his head.

We watch Gonta figure out how to get the machine to start for a bit, before he finally does. He takes a few more moments to get used to the controls before finally braving the rest of the map. "Hah, look! Gonta did it! But... where do enemies go when they disappear?" he asks, turning to Kokichi. It was just for a moment, but I swear he had a distressed expression on his face.

And of course he goes back to that smile. "They're hallucinations, so when you hit them they go poof!" he says, avoiding the actual answer. I didn't know why, but Gonta seemed to take the explanation well and continued to play the game happily, if not somewhat clunkily.

"Um, w-why didn't you tell him the truth?" I ask Kokichi cautiously, glancing over at Gonta every so often. "Hmm? Oh yeah, Gonta's a pacifist, and if he knew you were killing them he'd stop playing. That'd be a total waste of a token!" he says childishly.

I... suppose that's true. I wasn't expecting something like that from someone who was so... scary looking, though. "You're gunna try too, right?" I hear Kokichi ask nonchalantly, attention still on Gonta. "Um... y-you mean the game?" I ask cautiously.

"No, punching someone into smoke!" he says laughing. "Buuut that's a lie. Yeah, the game." he says, still in high spirits. I tug at my bandages even more "A-Are you sure I wouldn't b-be wasting one of you tokens?" I ask, not wanting to do something he doesn't want me to.

He sighs, a slight tone of annoyance in his voice "If I don't consider Gonta playing a waste of a token, then why would you be? The only way you could waste it is if you died in the game intentionally." then he gasped "Is that your plan? You fiend!" he says. "A-Ah, I promise I wouldn't do that!" I say frantically, trying to reassure him that I could be trusted. He laughs playfully "Hmmm... then prove it! Play the game when Gonta's finished" I wait for a few moments, hesitating in my answer, but... "O-Okay" I say softly. Kokichi grins, and we return to watching Gonta, who's still somewhat struggling with the controls.

About a minute later, Gonta's avatar died, and the "continue" counter popped up once again. "Ah, what happen? Why little person in screen no longer there?" he asks. "You lost Gonta, we need to insert another token to play again" says Kokichi, stepping up closer to the machine. "Oh, that what happened. Um, then who go next?" he asks.

Kokichi smirks and turns to me, hands behind his head. Realizing what he wanted me to do, I gulp back some anxiety and walk forward. "U-Um... me" I say softly, raising my hand while tugging at my skirt hem. "Well then, here ya go!" Kokichi says, handing me a token and walking with Gonta to get out of my way. I take a few more steps towards the arcade machine, take a deep breath, and insert the token.

Kokichi's POV:

I watch Mikan from the sides, leaning on one of the arcade machines that was close by. As jittery and anxious as she was, she actually had pretty good reflexes when it came to controlling the avatar. You could still practically feel the anxiety coming off of her when she played, though. "Wow, Mikan doing very well!" says Gonta, flashing that usual dopish smile of his. She gives a small whimper, her body language indicating she was flustered by the comment. I decide to join in. "Yeah! It's almost like you've played this game before! Heeeeey, you weren't lying when you said you'd never come here before, right?" I ask.

Mikan flinched a bit, causing her avatar to lose some health- "N-No, I promise I wasn't!" she says hastily, before noticing the amount of enemies surrounding her avatar and quickly getting back to the game. I chuckle a bit "If you say sooooo" I say in a teasing manner, leaning on the arcade machine a bit more. Mikan was actually doing pretty well, so Gonta and I took up chatting a bit. "Um, Gonta wanted to thank Kokichi for invited Gonta here. This a lot of fun, and Kokichi's friend seem really nice too!" he says, once more flashing that smile.

"Hmmmm, it's whatever" I say, looking at the screen of the game Mikan was playing. She was already at level 5, and doing pretty well for it as well. "How many more tokens does Kokichi have?" asks Gonta. Not entirely sure myself, I check in my pocket. "Hmmm... about 7. Why?" I ask. "Oh. Gonta was just wonder... if he could play game again. Gonta has never done anything like this before, but it really fun, and Gonta want to learn!" I raise an eyebrow. "Well then, we'll see. Nishishi" I say, smiling to myself and paying attention to Mikan's playing again.

"A-Ah, No no no no no no no-" Mikan cries, as her avatar dies to the boss on the sixth level. She honestly had been doing well- however the sixth boss kind of amps up the difficult attack styles, and Mikan had hesitated. Not exactly the best thing to do when projectiles are flying towards you. "S-Sorry... I died" she says, tugging at her bandages. "I mean, yeah but spectacularly!" I say. Gonta nods "Yeah! You still did better than Gonta did, and Gonta think you did great job!" Mikan looks at Gonta in surprise, before- "I... t-t-thank you!" she says, shutting her eyes tight as if bracing for something. Gonta's smile widens "You are very welcome!"

Laughing a bit, I interrupt "This is nice and all, but let's get back to playing!" I say, taking out another token from out of my pocket. I was starting all over again, and I had already played through most of the game my first run, so the first few levels were pretty tedious. Due to that, I found myself listening in on what Gonta and Mikan were talking about. "So, how Mikan meet Kokichi?" asks Gonta. Mikan lets out one of her signature squeeks of surprise, and takes a few moments answering. "U-Um, well we're... k-kind of roommates" she says softly.

I couldn't see their faces, but I could only imagine the confusion on Gonta's. "But... Kokichi boy and Mikan girl... isn't that kind of strange?" he asks. I laugh to myself, thinking about how weird it was in retrospect. "It... r-really is. We don't know w-what happened but... nobody's told us there was any mistake after all t-this time so..." There was a bit more silence between the two. "That... very strange. But if it mean that Kokichi and you become friends, then is good thing, right?" he asks. I could practically feel that dopey smile of his that he was probably flashing.

"I... wouldn't r-really say we're friends though. A-Ah, not to be rude! It's just... w-we don't really talk that much... I d-don't even really know why he invited me here" says Mikan, her tone somehow softer than usual. "Huh, really? Hmm... that is mystery... but Mikan seem very nice, so Gonta can understand why!" he says. I heard a flustered squeal from Mikan. "Ah, is Mikan alright?" asks Gonta. "A-Ah, yes! Y-Yes I am-" she replies in a hurried tone.

"Is... Mikan sure? She seem... troubled" says Gonta, his voice soft and somewhat concerned. "Um... y-yes, I am. S-Sorry for m-making you worry about someone like me-" she says. I furrow my brows, wondering just what the hell was going on over there. Turning around for just a moment, I check out the situation. Mikan was looking pensively at the floor, seemingly shaken by something. Gonta, on the other hand, had a worried expression on his face. Wonder what that's about. Hearing the sound that meant that my character just took a hit, I turn my attention back to the game, though my mind was now racing with what the hell what I just saw meant.

Within a few more minutes, I was finally back to the final boss. Furrowing my eyebrows, I concentrate heavily on the patterns. They were complex, but patterned. With just a bit more concentration, a bit more effort, a few more hits, and a bit more time- "YES!" I say, dramatically taking a step backwards as the "congratulations" screen popped up. Mikan and Gonta rush forward, both smiling- to varying degrees.

"Wow, that amazing Kokichi!" says Gonta, an amazed smile on his face. 'Um, h-have you played this before?" asks Mikan. I shake my head "Nope! Nishishi~" Mikan's eyes widen in surprise, and- "Just kidding! I have! Or am I. Guess you'll never know" I say, laughing a bit more. Mikan's eyebrows furrowed in confusion: the exact kind of reaction I was going for. "Aaanyways, Gonta's turn! Go ahead" I say, taking a token and tossing it to Gonta.

Since I had already beaten the game, I let Gonta and Mikan use the rest of my tokens- after a bunch of protesting and insisting that they weren't worth it from the latter. By the end of the tokens, Mikan had managed to get to level 9, while Gonta had gotten to level 4. Feeling satisfied, we all left the arcade together with large smiles on our faces.

"So where to next?" asks Gonta, looking inquisitively at Kokichi. "Hmmm... how about the cafe? I hear they have smoothies so sweet it'll make your teeth rot just by thinking about them!" I say, laughing a bit. "Um, it's p-probably best if we... d-don't drink something like that then-" says Mikan, cautiously wringing her hands, though a faint smile was still on her face.

...then it wasn't.

Mikan's POV:

I wish that the entire time here could have been happy. Could have been carefree. But... that's not how the world works for me, is it? As we walked, I spot two oh-so familiar figures in the distance, staring at me. Once I had noticed, I felt my heart stop- my legs followed suit soon after.

"Huh? Is Mikan okay?" asks Gonta, a worried look on his face. Kokichi stops as well, his expression more inquisitive. I nod, doing my best to put a smile on my face "U-Um, yeah! I just... f-forgot something! I'll b-be right back so-" taking a few steps back, I get one last look at their confused faces, before walking over to the two figures.

"So what the hell have you been up to?"

My my, whoever could Mikan have run into? puhuhuhu...

I hope  you enjoyed this chapter! And if you did... then stay tuned for the next one