✧ Chapter 28 ✧
[ The Plague That I Have Caught ]
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"Data collected."

Kaito held up a hand when a sudden beam of light shone down at his feet. In front of him, the Maki who had saved him faded away into tiny pixels. Kaito gasped, reaching out for her but he just grasped at air.

"What..?" the purple haired boy muttered as everything slowly drifted away. The walls, which were once black and metallic, became blank white walls. Kaito turned around, realising that he was in a room, with nothing in it. Just himself.

"This was.. this was all just a fake?!" Kaito exclaimed, standing up as the reality of what just happened came crashing down upon him.

"Welcome to the Neo World Program, Kaito Momota." a familiar voice spoke to him through an intercom. "You've been a great help and now you can continue being one."

In front of him, a door slid open hauntingly slowly to reveal a brown haired male, one of his eyes with a Monokuma mark.  He was wearing a black suit with a half black and white tie. With each step, Naegi Makoto walked towards Kaito.

"You.. you're one of them as well?" Kaito muttered as Makoto just pulled out another syringe filled with clear liquid. "But of course," the Ultimate Lucky student smiled serenely, "The Neo World Program was my idea after all."

He gestured to the room, "This program simulates a scenario which you desire most. And sure enough, you wanted to be saved by the person you love, who turned out to be Maki Harukawa."

"And my hunch was correct, we have her in custody-."

Kaito slammed his fist across Makoto's face, making him fall to the tiled floor. He needed to find Maki. If they had her in the hospital, he needed to free her.

Leaving Makoto behind, Kaito sprinted for the doorway. He realised that he was just wearing a simple pale blue hospital gown,  and barefooted. Behind him, multiple wires pulled at his arms, making him forcefully pull them off. He needed to find Maki, save her from this hellhole and just run for it.

Kaito burst out of the room, disoriented and slightly weak from the sudden burst of excessive exercise. He stumbled and hit a wall; he had to concentrate.

"He's over here!"

Kaito gritted his teeth and opened another door, this time stepping out to a regular hallway filled with patients and doctors. He needed to find Maki. That's all he had to do.

"Escaped patient, Level 54!" a voice blared from the intercom overhead, making Kaito wince. The noise was making him confused... and whatever Fuji had injected into him, was slowly ebbing away.

He couldn't believe it. Makoto Naegi was one of those Heartbreakers... and he realised that the other person must've been Chihiro Fujisaki, the Ultimate Programmer.

Who else was behind this? And why?

Just as he turned down another hallway, he was slammed against the wall with brutal force. Kaito froze, feeling his arms pinned to the surface, "Let me go!" he yelled, looking at the person holding him back.

"He was never supposed to die," Chihiro snapped, her nails digging into the skin of his arms, "Mondo was never supposed to die in my plan. That's why I'm taking my anger out on you."

"Why are you doing this?" Kaito snarled, trying his best to get away from her. Even for such a small person as her, she seemed to have a lot of strength.

"Mondo made me realise that even the greatest plans can backfire," she looked at him. "That's why I have to make sure he didn't die in vain."

"But Monokuma was the one who killed him!" Kaito tried to explain, eventually getting the gist of what happened. Mondo must've died while Kaito was trapped in this hospital.. and he knew that Owada and Fujisaki were pretty close friends.

Even the closest friendships were broken apart.

"Don't you see what's happening?" Kaito tried to reason with the girl, who was glaring at him with glistening tears in her eyes, "Monokuma brainwashed you, thinking that.. that whatever happened was because-."

"Shut up," she snapped, "You know nothing, Momota. He didn't deserve to die. But you do. Simply injecting you with the serum won't work, seeing that your love is stronger than it."

"So you can say goodbye to your personality and memories while you try this new vial that annoying Seiko Kimura made.."

With that said, Chihiro plunged a needle into Kaito's neck, making him slowly start to lose consciousness as his last thoughts of saving Maki faded away.

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[ Kokichi's Room ]

Kokichi paced around his nearly empty dorm room, a box of his things packed and ready to be moved to the upper floors of the dormitory.

Keebo was back at Hope's Peak, but with no recollection of his memories.. how could it be? How could his best friend forget him? The serum must've been improving and upgrading after years of use..

He turned when Keebo stepped out of the bathroom, wearing a plain white shirt that read, 'Robo-Man' and grey pants. Kokichi felt a pain in his heart, remembering how he had gotten that particular shirt.

"Hey Keeboy," he greeted him, making the other boy look up at him. "Uh.. hey.?"

"It's Kokichi. Kokichi Ouma, your roommate for the past three years so far." the purple haired boy sighed. He shouldn't be taking his frustration out on the guy, but whatever the doctors did in the hospital really messed Keebo up.

"Are you really though?" Keebo frowned, looking hesitant. "I mean.. you seem vaguely familiar but I can't remember anything else about you. I'm sorry.."

Kokichi dug his nails into his arms, immediately letting go when he almost peeled off the scabs of his healing skin. The cuts he received from the fishing lines really took their time to heal, Kokichi thought with frustration.

"It's not your fault, Keebo." he sighed, staring at the mirror in front of him. "But can I just ask... don't you remember anything else? The day you stepped into Hope's Peak? The lessons you learnt?"

Keebo frowned, his eyes narrowed as if he were straining to remember memories he couldn't quite grasp. "I do remember little things.. but all I can recall is doing everything alone.. no one else was with me.."

So the serum did seem to remove every memory Keebo had made with Kokichi and replaced it with false memories.

How did these doctors even manage to accomplish such a feat? They must've needed someone really smart, or someone with a lot of brainpower to create such a powerful serum.

"But pictures can't lie, can they?" Kokichi turned to his best friend, gripping onto the necklace he always worse around his neck. "Do you believe that pictures can lie?"

"I mean, don't get me wrong," Kokichi managed a grin, "I love lying as much as the next guy, but tell me, do you believe that pictures can lie?"

Keebo tilted his head, looking right at the purple eyed boy. "I.. I'm not sure. But-."

"Explain this.." Kokichi held out his necklace and slid it open, to reveal that it was a locket. One side was a picture of all his old friends. The friends he's made before entering Hope's Peak. The members of DICE.

On the other side was a picture of Keebo and Kokichi, making faces at the camera. Kokichi gazed up at Keebo's face, which seemed to be a look of confusion. "I.. don't remember taking that, Kokichi.. I'm really sorry but-."

The leader made a small sound of annoyance, snapping the locket shut and just turning away. Of course Keebo wouldn't recognise it. Why would he remember anything after what the doctors did to him? Was he hoping for a miracle? Or a stupid cure for the serum?

Kokichi just gritted his teeth, "It's okay Keebo.. don't worry about it." he kept his eyes trained on the floor, wondering why were his eyes feeling hot.

He flinched slightly when he felt Keebo place a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Kokichi.. I'm sorry if I upset you.." the blue eyed boy told him quietly.

"You seem like a good person, and I actually..." Kokichi heard him falter, "If what you're saying is true, then I wish I didn't have this amnesia. This whole process, made me forget a such a great person as you."

"..." Kokichi raised an eyebrow, looking at him with surprise, which he immediately masked with a smirk, "You used to say all this crappy, stupidly inspirational talks all the time, you hunk of junk."

"Excuse you!" Keebo looked mildly offended, "I'm not a hunk of junk! I'm a human like you!"

Kokichi just smiled wider, punching Keebo's arm. "Fine. Let's just pack up, and forget our old memories. Tell me I'm cheesy, but heck, let's make some new memories that even the old Keeboy would be jealous with..."

He picked up the wooden box, and waited for Keebo to lug his things out of their old dorm room. If those stupid scientists at the Heartbreak Hospital think that Kokichi was going to be upset, boy, they were going to be disappointed.

♥ End of Chapter Twenty-Eight ♥