"I'm gonna walk away quietly and go mourn my dead kids! Later!" you heard Monokuma announce.

"...It's over," you mumbled. You felt Kokichi hesitantly unwrap his arms from you. With more movement, you were able to wipe away your tears and attempt to calm your breathing. Although, it wasn't as if anyone else was doing much better than you.

Shuichi had a grave look while he cried, Himiko was still crying and sniffling, and Tsumugi was sobbing excessively. The tears rolling down her face were exceptionally fast.

"Dammit! Why did it turn out like this!?" Kaito was sweating, hand clenched into a fist.

Actually, there is someone faring better than me, you thought. Maki had a placid look on her face, as always, even though she was glaring at Kokichi. "Hey, Kokichi...why don't you tell us now? What is the secret of the outside world?" she asked him. "If we don't know it, then we won't be able to understand or accept it."

Tsumugi quickly wiped away most of her tears to shout at the boy. "I...can't accept it either, Kokichi! What is the secret of the outside world!? What kind of secret would push Gonta that far!?"

You nervously looked back at Kokichi. He was looking down, face covered in a shadow.

"Kokichi," Kaito grumbled in a warning tone, "explain yourself to everyone and—"

"I don't...want to..." he muttered. Something was off in his tone, you just knew it. When he looked up, madness swirled in his widened purple eyes. His lips had formed a crazed grin.

This isn't the Kokichi that was crying on my shoulder just a few minutes ago.

"I don't want to, stupid-head! Ah-hahahaha! Oh man, did you fall for all that fake crying!? You're so dumb! I would never cry for Gonta!"

"F-Fake...crying?" Tsumugi repeated.

Like the new Kokichi...?

It's not fake, it's not fake crying... you repeated mentally. Not even Kokichi could pretend to cry and make it look this real...

"If I said the actual truth back there, Gonta would've been reeeeal mad!" Kokichi chirped. "That would've interfered with the game, so I simply lied to calm him down... See? As long as you lie for a good purpose, right?"

"What do you mean, what really happened? Why did you make him do that!?" Shuichi interrogated him.

"Obviously, so it wouldn't be boring! I gave Gonta an incentive, 'cause I thought it'd liven up the game. C'mon, think about it. If I actually wanted to save everyone, like what Gonta did... I wouldn't have betrayed Gonta. You should've realized that."

"Th-Then...why did Gonta—"

"Nishi...nishishishi..." The hysterical look returned. "Who cares about that idiot!? I wanna enjoy this game filled with suspicion and betrayal from the bottom of my heart!"

This isn't the real you, it can't be... Stop acting like this already!

"I am the supreme leader of evil, so it's obvious my personality would be twisted. The more you suffer, the more I enjoy it. There are people in this world who spread grief and misery for no reason than the thrill of it! And I'm one of those people. Nothing pleases me more than inflicting pain on others!"

How do you know that this isn't what Kokichi was like all along...?

"I...just know it," you muttered to yourself. It almost felt like you were trying to convince yourself into believing it entirely.

"S-Seriously... Who the hell do you think you are?" Kaito asked. Sweat was rolling down his paled face.

"So...for your own entertainment, you sacrificed Miu and Gonta?" Maki asked.

Kokichi put his hands behind his head. "What's so bad about that? You kill people for money...right, Maki Roll?"

"Someone like you has no right to call me Maki Roll." Her red eyes seemed to glow with spite. "...Do you want to die?"

"Nishishi...you look so much better with a scowl on your face, Maki Roll. But hey, you guys are just waaay too trusting. If only you had suspected me more, then... Ah-hahahahaha! Miu and Gonta wouldn't have died such meaningless deaths!"

"M-Meaningless deaths!?" Kaito repeated while scowling at the boy. Then he screamed, and sprinted up to him—

WHAM!

Next thing you knew, Kokichi was facing away from everyone and had his hand up. "Oops, sorry! I tried to dodge you...but I punched you instead. By the way, Kaito, is it just me...? Or are you waaay slower? Maybe, just maybe...Kaito is hiding something from us, too."

"For someone who claims to be bad at fighting, you were pretty agile just now," Maki growled while glaring at Kokichi.

"Ah-haha! And you believed a lie like that!?"

"You...really want to die, don't you!?"

"Oh, did I finally provoke you enough? Is it 'cause of Kaito?" The boy pressed a finger up to his lips that were curved into a mischievous smile. "What am I thinking? Maki wouldn't lose her cool for a guy like Kaito. He's waaaay too pathetic. He's all bark and no bite. Let's face it. The Ultimate Astronaut is just a trainee anywa—"

He was cut off by the sound of trampling footsteps. It seemed like nobody cared for what he was about to say anymore. They were all busy rushing over to Kaito.

And that left you. Clueless and hopelessly lost, standing in the middle of Kokichi and the group around Kaito.

"Kaito, are you hurt!?"

"Can you stand? Do you need to lean on my shoulder?"

"S-Sorry! My MP's at zero, so I can't use any recovery magic!"

Kokichi looked behind you. Why wouldn't he look directly look at you? He's done it with everyone else... "Hey...why are you all so worried about this pathetic gu—"

"Pathetic? Look at yourself, Kokichi," Shuichi snapped, tone cold and harsh. "Kaito always has us by his side, see? But no one wants to be around you. You're alone, Kokichi. And you always will be."

"Hah... What are you talking about? Are you blind? There's clearly someone who didn't rush to Kaito's side, along with you mindless zombies."

It took you a moment to register that he was talking about you. You can't be serious, you thought, you seriously aren't going to put me under this pressure...are you? You glanced over at Kaito's side. They were all looking at you with expectant looks.

"J-Just because someone's in the middle doesn't mean that they're on your side!" Himiko shouted.

Kokichi's mouth opened up to say something before Shuichi interrupted.

"Whose side are you on, (Y/N)?"

This can't be happening. This has to be a dream...right? You started to panic, more than you already were. Part of your mind starting to think, and it made you realize that up until this point, you hadn't really been forced to confront a conflict like this.

Think about this. Would you rather join the majority and be safe? Or would you rather side with the boy whom you have a silly little crush on, and be hated by everyone else?

"This is too much," you muttered. He's hysterical, he isn't thinking correctly.

How could you convince the others of that if you were to justify him?

You bit your lip harshly. You weren't sure if you wanted to scream, cry, or do both at the same time. It was cliche, but you just wanted everyone be to peaceful. Maybe they could work together...? Maybe could do...something...

"You're scaring them!" you suddenly heard Tsumugi shout. "I bet that (Y/N) wanted to calm everyone down and bring us together!"

"But it's impossible with you," Himiko added. "It's just unnecessary stress!"

"We're not going to let you do the same thing to (Y/N), or anyone, that you did to Gonta!"

You didn't fail to notice how Tsumugi was slowly pulling you away from the middle and closer to Kaito.

"It's not my fault that they were stuck at a fork in the road," Kokichi responded, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "They must have trusted me, and now they're going through emotional problems. This is why...I don't bother myself with friends."

His eyes finally met yours. They seemed to soften. "At least now you know better." He paused for a second before sighing. "Geez, this is getting boring. I'm no longer interested. I don't care anymore... But, I will tell you this... The one who will win this game...is me."

The boy then turned around from everyone...and left.

"...Guys, I just really want to go back to my dorm... Maybe sleep some, recollect myself..."

"Go ahead, we'll take care of Kaito," Kiibo told you.

"Th-Thanks... And, erm, I hope you're alright, Kaito..." Then, with shaky legs, you made your way to the elevator. The door was starting to close. Your eyes widened, and you immediately rushed inside right before the doors shut all the way.

It was just you and Kokichi in the elevator, making the treacherous ride back up to the surface. You heard Kokichi make a sound that was probably supposed to be a scoff, but it just came out as a choked exhale.

"Do you trust me?"

Kokichi knew everything that would happen... Is that why he kept asking me that question?

The motion of the elevator made you dizzy, and you started to wonder if you were beginning to feel nauseous. You felt as if nothing was real. How funny would it be if that were the truth? Would it be possible to break out of a nonexistence? I bet if would feel like waking up from a terrible nightmare—

"I know I'm irresistible, but can that really be said now?"

Kokichi's voice was quiet, but you knew that he had actually spoken and you weren't being delusional.

"You must have had a reason to follow me in here where we're alone together."

It was at that moment that you completely forgot your purpose of following him. It was true that you wanted a moment alone with him...but now what? Did you seriously not have anything planned to say?

"Aww, you're like a lost puppy! So cute...and pathetic."

Your eyes widened, and he turned around to face you. His eyes were glossy as if he were about to cry again. "Like I said... I will be the one to win this game. You should be afraid of me. You should hate my guts now that you know the true me! I'm not going to let simple emotions hold me back from my goal! So, whatever you think we have...stop lying to yourself."

"But what about all of our moments we've had together!? We've cared for each other, we've comforted each other...you were begging me not to watch Gonta's execu—"

"It's a lie, alright!?" Kokichi brought a hand up to his head, grabbing a handful of his purple hair in frustration. "The tears were fake, you...i-idiot! I was just gaining your trust to give me all the more satisfaction once I revealed my true self!"

Your heart ached. However, you still couldn't find yourself to believe his words. You tried to ignore his remarks.

"Calm down, Kokichi...! And stop that, you'll hurt yourself—" You lightly grabbed at the hand that was pulling on his hair. He flinched, almost looking like you had shocked him.

The boy stared at your hand for a few moments before dragging his gaze back over to you, locking his eyes with yours. "You're... Y-You're the one who...who should be careful! You idiot! I've told you this about a million times, I'm evil! I'm dangerous! So you better get off of me!"

You could sense that he was...nervous. You examined his features some more. His eyes were widened, and sweat was forming on his forehead. A random blush was also splattered on his cheeks.

I might be coming off a bit too strong...

"I'm sorry..." you mumbled. You retracted your hand from his, letting it rest at your side.

All of a sudden, both of you were jolted in your place. The elevator finally made it to the top with a small thud. The doors opened and Kokichi sped walked away.

You ruined everything...

"Sh-Shut up..." You walked out of the elevator, the doors closing right behind you.
***

You groaned and threw the covers off of yourself. What time is it? You looked over at your clock. It's already three in the morning? Geez... You pulled yourself to where you were sitting on the edge of your bed.

Every time that you closed your eyes and tried to fall asleep, all you could do was think about what had happened just a few hours. First was the execution... You could remember the sound of buzzes, blood gushing, and then fire. The sound of fire brought the putrid smell of flesh being burnt... You were just glad that you didn't have to see it. If you had seen it, you weren't quite sure how you would be holding up at that point.

After you would shuffle through memory's of Gonta's execution, Kokichi was the only thing you could think about. The crazed expression that he wore, his malicious words to the group...and then, that one moment in the elevator. It could have gone better, but it also could have gone worse.

With so much running through your mind, it was impossible for you to even get a wink of sleep. At this point, you just gave up.

You groaned once more in defeat. You kicked your legs back and forth. Ugh, I just can't stay still, can I? Well... Maybe I could take a quick walk around the school. Maybe that will help clear my mind. You waited for a second to think over it again before deciding, "why not?"

You stood up from the bed. Feeling around in the dark, you found your shoes and slipped them on. Your hands felt around the walls until they found the door. You opened it and exited your dorm.

After exiting the dormitory, you looked up at the sky. The moon was shining bright, but you couldn't see any stars. It had a strange empty feeling to it. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, you looked back down and let your legs carry you around the academy.

You didn't really feel conscious about anything you were doing. You just wondered around outside...until you heard a strange noise, like metal being hit. You looked around, starting to grow paranoid. Your eyes landed on the Ultimate Inventor's lab.

Curiosity grew stronger than your paranoia, and you found yourself walking over to the lab. When you got closer, you noticed that the door was still open, just by a crack, but the lights inside were turned off.

"Hello? Is anyone in here...?" you called out, first inside the lab, and then around it outside. You heard nothing.

Perhaps I'm just imagining that I'm hearing things... Gah, get a grip. You shook your head a bit and started to walk to the academy building.

You entered with no problem. You started to wonder around the halls. You made it downstairs, grabbing a few books from the library to take back to your room later, and returned to the first floor. You remembered that you couldn't enter the gym or the dining hall during nighttime, so you decided to travel to a different floor of the building.

Up a staircase, walking around—

You thought that you could hear something again.

Ignore it.

But...I'm curious... You attempted to listen again. Is that...a person? It sounded like it was coming from the Ultimate Entomologist's lab. Slowly and carefully, you began to approach the door.

This is a bad idea—

The door was open, just by a crack. You did your best to look inside with how dark it was. In the room, you could see a standing shadow. Whoever was inside seemed to be hunched over a table with something in their hands. Your eyes finally fully adjusted to the darkness, and you could see that the person was clutching a bug cage in their hands.

You looked at the shadow once more. Without a doubt, it was...Kokichi. You determined that the sounds were sniffles, and they were coming from him. Is he...crying?

Slowly back away, now—

You accidentally nudged the door. Even though it made little to no noise, Kokichi seemed to notice. You instantly moved away from the door, almost jumping an entire foot away.

The door was swung open all the way open. You could practically feel the color drain from your face when you were caught.

"Ah! So who has the balls to stalk me? And at this time of night as well? Is it Maki?" Kokichi looked up with a smirk on his face. Upon seeing you, however, he dropped it and held a blank face.

Now that he was a bit closer to you and you could see a bit better with the lighting in the halls, you were able to get a good look at his face. His eyes were glossy, slightly reflective from the small amount of moonlight that was invading the halls. They also seemed a bit puffy. His cheeks were dusted in a red tint.

"..."

The boy looked off to the side. "...What are you doing here." The statement was probably supposed to be a question, but with how flat his tone was, it sounded more like an accusation.

"I couldn't go to sleep..." you mumbled. "Then I started to walk around and, um...happened to find you here. What are you doing here...?"

"I...also couldn't sleep..."

"Kokichi, you've been crying," you pointed out.

"No I haven't, what gave you that idea? Why would I even be crying, anyway?"

"Your eyes are puffy and glossy, I heard sniffling noises that could only have came from you. Not to mention that I found you here, at the Ultimate Entomologist's lab... Say, I actually heard something clattering in the Ultimate Inventor's lab, but when I got there I found nobody... I wonder if you were also there...?"

Kokichi seemed to tense up a bit, still looking away from you. "S...So you have been stalking me! Well, I will admit that I've been to Miu's lab, but I was grabbing something that I needed. And what does my location have to do with anything, hm?"

You were crying in my arms when Gonta was being executed... Those tears couldn't have been a lie—

"Oh, please don't tell me that you thought I was mourning!" He tilted his head back over in your direction. His lips curled up into what vaguely represented one of his signature, creepy grins, but it was obviously lackluster. "An evil supreme leader like me doesn't care about anyone! Don't you get it? I sure as hell never cared about any of you, in fact, I only feel happy when I see you all in despair!"

You held your breath. You heart was pounding, but you felt determined. "Stop acting like this. We both know that you're just lying."

An angry red painted itself on the boy's cheeks. You could already sense that he was gathering his ammo. You could just imagine it: Kokichi at the end of a long hall, with you trying to reach him, but his words are in the way.

"God! I can you feel you dumbing me down! I'm like a broken record at this point with how many times I've told you this! Even Gonta is smarter than you!! I'll say this and only this for as long as you keep pestering me about it... I don't care about what the others feel! I don't care, I don't care! I only care that they're all left in utter despair! I can't even be bothered with what anyone else thinks about me. As long as they know how evil I am...that's all that matters!! That's the truth..."

"That's the truth...!?" Your voice was rising in a mixture of frustration and determination. You were just glad that everyone else was asleep in their dorms, oblivious as to what was happening at the moment. "If what you're saying is true then why won't you look at me in the eyes?"

"Gh...!" Kokichi seemed to tense up even more. "Because I don't want to, duh...! You're... You're ugly, too. But anyway! That's not the point here, dum-dum! Perhaps I should punish you with how much you're fighting me on this! Yes, yes... I could kill everyone else in this academy—it's not like I would care—and  force you to live the rest of your hopeless life here, with me! The person you trust the most, who turned out to be an evil monster!"

You thought back to when you couldn't sleep. You had done something out of pure curiosity, and to confirm something. It felt like a breach of privacy...but almost everyone's videos were mixed up, so it wasn't that big of a deal, right? Even if it was somehow disrespectful, you were glad that you watched it.

Kokichi Ouma's motive video.

"Kokichi, you wouldn't kill and I know that you wouldn't," you told him, voice shaking a bit.

"Oh yeah? Why are you so confident, hmm?"

"I...watched your motive video..."

Kokichi immediately drew his lips into a thin line, expressing no emotion. It was just silent for what seemed like forever. Then, all of a sudden, there was a hand on your shoulder and another around your wrist. The grip was tight.

"Gah! Why did you have to exist!?"

Your eyes widened. "Wh...What?"

Kokichi finally looked up at you, eyes glossier than before like he was going to cry again. "I said, why did you have to exist!? You... You're ruining my plans with stupid emotions! What's wrong with you...? Any logical person would hate me and leave me alone!" He tried to push you against a wall, but you were easily able to turn the tables and push him against one of the hallway's walls.

"You kept coming back to me, you were willing to spend time with me. We've opened up to each other... You probably never even gave any of the other students much of a chance to get to know something new about you. Am I saying that I have you entirely worked out? No, but I am saying that...because of the bond we have, I know that this just can't be how you really are. You couldn't have planned this all out from the very start."

"..." Kokichi frowned at you, but it seemed strained.

I hope I'm getting somewhere.

"Look, I...really, really care about you. I'm almost a hundred percent sure that I'd be completely lost without you." You looked away sorrowfully. "So, please...it hurts me to see you act like this. It...hurts me to hear you say this stuff."

"I-I can't win this s-stupid game with these stupid e-emotions getting in the way!" Kokichi's raspy voice was just barely what would be considered a whisper.

"We can end this killing game together..." you whispered to him. "I'll help you as much as I can..." His body started to tremble violently, and you were quick to wrap your arms around him.

"A...Alright," he responded, voice cracking in the middle. He hugged back as if his life depended on it. "I'll... I'll tell you...e-everything..." He was struggling to get the words out through the sobs that were only increasing as time went on.

You gently ran your fingers through his smooth, silky hair. "...Don't worry. You can tell me later. You should get some rest."

You felt Kokichi nod against your shoulder. Feeling a bit relieved, you let out a breath that you hadn't realized you had been holding for who knows how long. You carefully wrapped his legs around your waist and started to carry him back to the dorms.

Kokichi's sobs eventually calmed down to small sniffles and whimpers, and by the time you made it to the dormitory, he was completely lax in your arms.

You entered his room with the key that you found lazily stuffed inside his pocket. His room was as messy as ever. You smiled a bit from amusement before laying the boy down on his bed. You pulled the covers over him and stood back a bit. The calm and innocent expression on his face made your heart race.

"Mm...can you give me a goodnight kiss...~?"

The words rang inside your mind. You were honestly a bit surprised that you still remembered that Kokichi had said that once...

Holding your breath in anticipation, you leaned down and quickly pecked him on the forehead. After that, you quickly set his key down on a nearby desk and ran into your own dorm.

Word Count: 4170