Mikan's POV:

I woke up to the usual: Kokichi still in deep sleep, most likely exhausted from staying up too late. I sigh a bit, getting up to get ready for breakfast. I do the usual self care stuff, but look down at my wrist. Since it wasn't a school day, I didn't have the long sleeves that the school uniform normally provided. Realizing this, I take out my concealer once more and put some onto the bruise.

Despite that one abnormality, the rest of my morning routine went normally: Including Kokichi still being fast asleep as I leave the room. I tried not to think about it on my way to breakfast, not wanting to bother him with it again later in the day.

I enter the cafeteria, doing my best to ignore Teruteru's passing comment as I pick up my food and sit down by Ibuki. However, she already seemed involved in a conversation with Mahiru, so I decided to let them talk as I began eating my breakfast.

"I didn't see her yesterday either: I heard from Akane that she's still sick but... to not come to breakfast is still really unlike her. I'm starting to get worried" says Mahiru, seeming to be a bit tense. "Well Ibuki thinks that they're probably still okay so... wait Mikan's here, let's just ask her!" she says, turning to me with an excited and expectant look on her face-

"H-Huh?! W-What are you talking about?!" I ask, tensing up a bit due to the unexpected attention. "We're worried about Sonia: She wasn't here at all yesterday, and since she's sick she probably went to you. I think Ibuki's asking weather or not you think she's okay" says Mahiru, nervously tugging at the strap of her camera.

Fiddling with my hands, I think over the question best I could: "W-Well, considering how she was on Friday-" I was cut off with a yelp, the door to the cafeteria opening. In came Sonia, seemingly feeling better- although it looked as though her nose was still a bit red.

"Sorry for being late- I know that it is rather rude, however there were some things that I wanted to catch up on" she says, sitting down at the table with somewhat rugged breathing- she must have hurried to get over here.
"It's okay, but what were you doing?" asks Mahiru, cocking her head a bit. Sonia's face brightened- "Ah, well it seems that quite a bit happened while I was sick! I was catching up with my favorite blogs on my phone, when I realized that I had lost track of time" she says, letting out an awkward laugh.

"Huh? But aren't all of the blogs you look at like- those really freaky ones about serial killers?" asks Ibuki, a confused look on her face. Sonia nods "Why yes, they are. It appears that the amount of murders had become quite a bit higher during the time that I was sick." she says. The room goes quiet, a tension in the air as the words that seemed so innocent to Sonia set in.

Mahiru was the first to speak up. "Um, what do you mean by that?" she asks, tension in her voice. Sonia, who seemingly caught onto the air of the room, became a bit more cautious with her next words. "Well, I am sure you saw the news recently, correct?" she asks. My mind immediately flashed back to that news story at the cafe.

"You... y-you mean the roses thorn coming to the T-Tokyo region... right?" I say softly, fidgeting with my hands in my lap. Sonia nods enthusiastically- "Yes, that's right! Well it appears that their victims in the Tokyo region has risen to two as of last night" she says, her voice becoming rather grave.

"Um, the way you phrased that... there are more than two regions they've been in?" Asks Mahiru hesitantly. Once more, Sonia nods "Yes. Ours is actually one of the last regions that they've been in. It is part of the reason why they have been making such a name for themselves: It's only been a month since they've been identified, and yet they have over 20 murders linked to them in almost every region of Japan. Sometimes multiple murders are committed in a single night" she says without fault, making it even more obvious just how knowledgeable she was about this kind of thing.

"Uhg, I don't want to hear about this freaky serial killer stuff anymore! Don't you know how to shut your mouth?!" cries Hiyoko, covering her ears and nustling her head near Mahiru, who instinctively wrapped her arms around the small girl. "Ah, I am sorry Hiyoko- I did not mean to upset you-" "JUST KEEP YOUR STUPID MOUTH SHUT!" she shouts, once more leaving the room in a deafening silence and thick tension.

It was Ibuki who broke the silence this time, an awkward clearing of the throat being her means of doing so. "Ibuki thinks we should probably stop talking about this scary stuff and eat our food" she says, doing her best to give a reassuring smile before awkwardly picking up her fork.

We all nod, silently beginning to continue breakfast once more. Nobody said a word as we all took in the information that Sonia had given us in our own ways. Something about the idea of a killer like that being anywhere near where we were- it chilled us to the bone. A part of me was actually curious to learn more about them- but the other part was too scared to even break this pensive silence, much less bring the topic up again.

This kept up throughout the rest of breakfast: Even when people started leaving, all that was said was a quick "see ya", with silent nods from the others following. Soon enough it was my turn to leave as well, only parting with a small wave of the hand.

Somewhat relieved to be out of that tense atmosphere, I thought about what to do next. When nothing came to mind, I gave up and decided that going back to my dorm might be the best course of action. I just had to try and keep myself in check, right?

Right.

Telling myself this, I head back to my dorm in a still somewhat anxious state. As I enter the dorm, I see that Kokichi had finally woken up- and was on his laptop again. He looks up from it briefly, gives me a short wave, and returns to using his laptop. At this point it was clear that not only had he skipped dinner last night, but he had also skipped breakfast.

Don't say anything don't say anything don't say anything- I had to keep telling myself that so that I wouldn't bother him anymore, but somehow doing so just made it even more difficult to hold back. And yet... there... could be a different way to try and persuade him, right? Something that wasn't as on the nose... Then maybe.

"Um... K-Kokichi?" I ask apprehensively.

Kokichi's POV:

I raise an eyebrow, pausing my game and lifting up my head from my laptop a bit agitated- due to the tone in Mikan's voice, I could tell I was probably going to get another lecture from her. It's not like I didn't appreciate the thought, but the least she could do was take the hint. Still, there was a possibility that wasn't it, so I played along. "Yeeees?" I ask.

"Um, w-well the thing is-" fidgeting with her hands. I was pretty sure where this was going, so I was about to stop her right then and there when- "Y-You aren't really running the world f-from your laptop... are y-you?" she says, voice barely above a whisper.

I had to resist the urge to laugh out loud- she hadn't really taken it at face value, had she?! Because if so- "Noooo, you don't say! Well it was an obvious lie. Geeze, how did you ever figure it out?" I ask sarcastically, still in disbelief that this is what she wanted to talk about.

She fiddles with her hands some more, once again taking her time with answering- "W-Well um, I g-guess it was really obvious. I don't think I ever r-really believed it but... w-with some of the crazy things people here d-do..." she tugs at her bandages, something I had recently recognized as a nervous habit of hers.

"Welp, ya caught me! That was, in fact, a lie!" I say, smiling wide. "So, now that'cha know, what're you gonna do with that information?" I ask, cocking my head. Mikan tenses up, an obvious sign that she hadn't thought about that. "W-Well... I g-guess I just wanted to know what... w-what you're really doing on there... a-ah, but if that's too much for me to ask then um, p-please forgive me!"

Well... she's certainly making it hard to say no. I suppose it was a rather useless lie, so there'd be no harm in letting her know. It not like she's going to stop nagging me whether I tell her or not.

"Weeell... I suppose you've earned the truth, nishishi" I say, sitting up a bit more. "If you must know, I talk with my evil organization and play games on here" I say, smiling wide as I turn around my laptop to show off the pause screen of the game I was playing. This one was an rpg, and I had just been walking around one of the towns to stock up on items.

Mikan's eyebrows furrow, as she cocks her head in confusion- "You... y-you can play video games on your laptop?" she asks. I raise an eyebrow once again- "Uh, yeah. Why wouldn't you be able to be?" I ask, a bit too much of my confusion showing through.

Mikan cringes, taking a step back. "A-Ah, sorry if that was an irritating question- I'm just... n-new to video games" she says, tugging at her bandages. That, of course, wasn't the problem. "Well, I guess I can forgive the question- but isn't that kind of common knowledge?" I ask, cocking my head.

Mikan tenses, confused by my words again. "It... i-is?" she asks. I scoff in disbelief "Geeze, you weren't kidding when you said you're new to video games- you're practically new to technology itself. Are you sure you didn't grow up in the wild like Gonta?" I ask in a teasing tone- to which Mikan shook her head vigorously, before realizing what she was denying. "W-Wait, he grew up in the wild?!"

Disregarding her question, I sit up fully and bring my laptop a bit closer to myself. "Well, since it seemed like you were having fun at the arcade, I'll do you a favor: I can show you how to play computer games by example!"

Mikan's eyes widen in surprise. "You... y-you would be willing to teach someone... l-like me?" she asks. "Hmm- sure why not!" I reply, a nonchalant shrug on my shoulders. "You just need to be willing to sit on the floor" I say. "H-Huh? The floor?" she asks. I laugh- "Well duh. I don't know if you noticed but there's no way these beds can support the weight of two people." I say, smirking.

"B-But that's terrible for your back- not to mention-" "For once, maybe forget about the small things and do something fun? Y'know, unless you wanna be a stick in the mud" I say, shrugging. Mikan hesitates for a moment, before shaking her head. "N-No, I don't... a-and I really want to learn about this s-so..."
Hopping off my bed with my laptop and sitting on the floor, I get comfy- "So sit down and watch already" I say. Mikan once more hesitates, before sitting down just behind me. She adjusts her position a few times, obviously nervous for some reason. I don't pay that much mind though, as I unpause the game and get started.

"S-So, um, what kind of game is this?" she asks quietly. "I don't t-think I've seen one like it". I head into one of the villages shops and answer the question- "Well, you see: This is an RPG, or role playing game. You get to fight epic monsters with spells and strategy!" I say, buying some mana and health potions.

"B-But then... what's this? Why are you in a shop?" she asks, leaning forward to inspect the screen a bit closer. "Uh, because I wanna stock up before going back into the forest" I say. That's when it hits me- "Oh yeaaaaaah, you've probably only played beat 'em ups, haven't you?" I ask. Mikan cocks her head- "B-Beat 'em ups?" Exiting the shop in game, I nod- "Yeah, beat 'em ups. Yknow, those ones that focus on letting you fight things instead of having a story?" I say.

"O-Oh... so RPG is the other g-genre then?" she asks. I laugh- "Nnnope! There are tons of differe- shit an enemy" I say, realizing that a battle had started while I was distracted. Since it had come to me first, it got first hit, and my team had already lost a bit of health. "A-A-Ah, sorry!" Cries Mikan. I ignore her apology and set actions for each of my party members. They each carried out the actions, and the enemies wound up losing a lot of their health.

"W-Wow" Mikan exclaims, eyes glued to the screen. "I-It looks so... pretty" She says, gawking at the flashy spell animations that were playing on the screen. I chuckle a bit, figuring I might as well show off- "If you think that looks cool, then watch this!" I say, making one of the party members perform their strongest move. These were pretty low level enemies, so I didn't really have to do that, and they died immediately after- but Mikan seemed pretty entertained.

Back in the open world, I check what the enemies had dropped. Just some crafting materials and potions, nothing much. But Mikan seemed fully invested at this point. "Hmhmhm, that was really f-fun! Is the entire game like that?" she asks. I shrug "More or less. I'm mainly here for the crazy battle system, but there's a story going on as well. It's pretty bad, but the game mechanics keep it interesting"

Mikan cocks her head- "Games can have... stories?" she asks. "Eeeeyup. A lot of them do" I say, surprised she didn't even know that. Mikan nods, hugging her knees as she looked at the screen a little bit more intently than before. As I continued to explore the open world, I couldn't help but wonder why she knew so little about things like this. Even people who hate video games know about the stuff she's asked about today- her level of knowledge on the subject was like she had never seen one in her life before this.

Eh, well I didn't care enough to interrogate her on it, so I continued to play the game- wasn't my place anyway. Seems like she has a sensitive past. Neither of us had much to talk about, so I continued to play the game with the occasional comment from Mikan. However, a thought occurred. I pause the game.

"So, you gonna make me play this the entire time?" I ask. Mikan tenses, cocking her head- "I- w-what do you mean?" she asks, startled. I pout, faking distress. "Geeze, you're so mean! Making me play this much just so you can watch. I thought the *sniff* point of teaching was so you could do it yourself. You're so mean!" I say, ending the charade with some fake tears.

"A-AH, sorry! I'll do it, I'll do it right now- so p-please stop crying!" she says frantically, tears of her own comting to her eyes in her panic. Immediately becoming cheerful again, I smile wide. "Okay! Then let's trade places!" I say, stretching my back a bit before getting up. Mikan nods, and the both of us take up our new spots.

"Um, s-so... how do I unpause the g-game?" she asks. Crap. I didn't teach her what keys to press yet "Oh, right. The controls" I say, leaning in and pointing out the different keys to press on the laptop. I wanted to tell her that the unpause button was alt F4, but I could practically hear her apologizing at the thought, so I held back. Within a few minutes, Mikan assured me that she knew what to do, and sat back to watch her.

Mikan takes a deep breath, before resuming the game, and carefully hitting the control to move around the world. Where she was supposed to go was marked on the map, so I didn't bother with giving her any further instructions. Didn't need to either- even if she was new to this, Mikan caught on pretty quickly. That was until we got to the battle portion of the game.

You see, the battle system was fun, but took a lot of getting used to. You pick it up at the beginning of the game, along with its nuances. Not exactly friendly to just jump into. It didn't take long before the entire party died. "Woooooooooooooow. You really suck at this, don'cha?" I say, smirking as I hold my head in my hands. Mikan whimpers, sniffling and wiping her face. "I'm s-sorry- you m-must have worked so hard to get here, a-and I messed it up" she says, already tearing up.

I raise an eyebrow, wondering why she was so broken up about this, when I realized- this must have seemed bigger since in fighting games, when you die, that's it. She must have thought that applied here too. I chuckle, and then burst out laughing- "Oh my god, you think it's gone for good? I saved like just a few minutes before you started playing! You really need to stop freaking out about everything"

Mikan sniffles again, looking back at me. "Y-You *hic* really mean it?" she asks. Playfully hugging my knees and leaning into them, I nod- "Yup. So ya don't have to cry, kay?" I say, raising an eyebrow. She sniffles one more time, looking at me in disbelief, and then nods. We stay like this for a few moments, before I get impatient and lean back. "So, you gonna continue, or not?" I ask.

Mikan snaps back to reality, and goes back to the laptop. "R-Right um- sorry!" she says, figuring out how to respawn and trying again. And then dying. And then trying again. And then- you get the picture. At this point i was lying on my stomach, head propped up by my hands. "Wow, you actually suck at this, don't you?" I ask, smirking. Mikan, who had curled up into a ball in defeat, sniffled and nodded.

"I d-don't know why- Whenever I get into that battle, I panic a-and choose something, and t-then I die" she says, tearing up again. Even if she might eventually get it, I didn't need her getting even lower self esteem yet- if that was even possible. "Aaaaalright, I think you're not getting it. Maybe you'll do better later" I say, taking the laptop away from her and putting it on my lap. "Or maybe you just need to watch some more" I say, leaning forward with a smirk.

She thinks for a few moments, awkwardly shifting her weight as she does so. Mikan opens her mouth to say something, thinks over it and says "Um, if it's really okay then- t-then I'd really like to watch you play!" she says, making a big deal out of it like usual. "Well then! We gonna switch places or not?" I ask. The both of us switch places once more, and I continue to play the game.

It took me one try to beat the fight that Mikan was having trouble on- something that she sulked about for a bit. However, as I continued to play, that turned into wonder at what the game looked like, and its concepts. And where I thought the story was dumb, once she was brought up to speed, Mikan was completely entranced by it. A simple story about a man traveling the land to rescue the woman he loved: Really cliched, but I guess it had its audience.

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch- about the one time of day I consistently ate. Once Mikan had pointed that out, I sighed- "Welp, guess we better go eat then before I starve heh" I say playfully, pausing the game. Mikan squirmed uncomfortable, and says "P-Please don't joke about that" with a whimper. I shrug, exiting the game and closing my laptop- "Whatever! Let's just go eat" I say, standing up and stretching. Sitting on the floor is fun, but it's murder on your back.

I turn to her, laptop still in hand- "So, are we gonna do this again or something?" I ask. Mikan jumps- "H-Huh?! What d-do you mean?" she asks, panicked and confused. I roll my eyes- "Well obviously, you liked watching this. If it'll keep you from nagging me about eating then I'm willing to let you watch" I say, putting on my most shit-eating grin. Coming to the realization, Mikan's confusion seems to grow- "You'd... r-really let me watch you again?" she asks, hope edging the question. I nod- "Eeeeeeyup! Just means you owe even more to me"

Mikan tenses up a bit, stunned, before laughing- "Hmhmhm, um, okay!" she says, before realizing what she just did. "A-AH! Sorry! I d-didn't mean to laugh it's j-just that- um... n-nevermind!" she says, standing there awkwardly for a few moments, before taking a few steps back and going out the door. So she figured out that kind of lie, did she? I have to say, I'm impressed. Still amused by this, I put my laptop on the bed before following after Mikan to the cafeteria.

Lunch goes as usual, and I head back to my dorm to waste time on my laptop. My members won't be back until tomorrow, so I just do random things to deal with the boredom. Soon enough it's past dinner time, and Mikan had come back. She seemed a little tense, and didn't talk to me as she took a book off her desk. Things went on business as usual, and once again she fell asleep while I stayed up late into the night.

Even I have my limits though, and at around 2 pm, I turn off my laptop and turn in for the night. I put the laptop on my nightstand, and get a quick glance out the window before leaning into my bed. However, in that quick glance, I saw a flash of something that shouldn't be there: bright red. Doing a double take, I look out once more, and see brunette twintails exiting the campus: Maki, exiting the campus.

I stare at that spot out my window for a while, even long after Maki had left. Just what the hell was she doing going out this late? It's like she was trying to make herself more suspicious.

I wasn't going to stalk her at night tough- the girl has a temper on her, and I was too tired to be bothered.

But that doesn't mean i'm not going to keep a closer eye on her from now on.