HOSPITALITY

[015] KAEDE'S SURGERY.

"Can you believe Kaede's having her surgery the day before Halloween?"

Shuichi looked over at Kokichi, the leader shuffling their deck of cards and stacking them neatly on top of the table.  He had his hair tied up into a pony tail, a couple of frizzy hairs sticking out of the hair tie messily.  His nails were painted a combination of black and white, his hospital scrub completely purple with gems and stickers stuck on the short-sleeves.

And sure enough, the news of Kaede's surgery spread like wildfire amongst the group of teenagers. "Ah... I guess it is a little out of the blue... Why bring it up?"

"Because it isn't fair!" Kokichi crossed his arm, a pout digging at his lips. "Kaede spent almost all day helping everyone set up Halloween decorations! And now she doesn't even get to spend Halloween with us?!"

Shuichi leaned his cheek on his hand, biting at his bottom lip. "I guess that isn't very fair, huh..?"

"Duh-doy it isn't fair!" Kokichi slammed the cards on the table.

Though, that didn't last long because he scrambled to pick them back up and start separating them for the game.  "I thought you'd be a little angry about this!  I'm so mad, I feel like hiring all my D.I.C.E. members to go and kill the doctors!"

"Sorry,"  Shuichi sighed.  "I've just had a lot on my mind..."

"Whatever,"  Kokichi rolled his eyes, handing Shuichi a stack of cards.  "Well!  Since you're a detective...and I'm an evil supreme leader...  We should work against the doctors and save Kaede from her surgery!"

Shuichi smiled softly at Kokichi's determined grin, picking up his deck and looking at his cards.  A queen, two hearts, five diamonds, seven diamonds, nine spades.  That was a really bad deck, but whatever, Kokichi probably was going to win no matter his deck.  After all, he won the last four rounds.

"Don't you think we should let her recover instead?"  Shuichi put in 50 chips, "I mean, it's really stressful for her right now.  The faster she recovers would probably be for the better..."

Kokichi stayed silent, heightening the chips to 250 which Shuichi reciprocated.  "It was just a lie, anyway."

Suddenly, he looked up at Shuichi, his eyebrows pinched together, "What about your old memories?  Have you gotten them all?"  He looked at his card deck and back at the three cards on the table, "What were you like back then?  Before Danganronpa."

Shuichi gulped, looking off to the side a bit.  "I just...  I wasn't a very good person."

The leader deadpanned, his eyes flickering back to Shuichi's eyes slowly.  Then he waved dramatically at Shuichi's face, "Elaborate, that's an order!  From the Ultimate Supreme Leader.  Chop, chop!"

Shuichi blinked.

"W—well, I know I killed animals and was really obsessed with Danganronpa...  I lived with my uncle, like in the game, my parents were pretty much the same parents.  The only thing that really changed was the fact I was really deranged in the head?  Erm...some of the details are blurry...  I can't remember much,"  Shuichi bit the inside of his cheek, "Sorry."

Kokichi scrunched up his face, a sour look painted at his lips.  Shuichi couldn't tell if it was toward his deck cards or toward Shuichi's explanation.  

"Killing animals?  Well that's just cruel!"  Kokichi side-viewed the window, his eyes darting back to Shuichi as quickly as they left.  

"Y—yeah...  It was really gross."  Shuichi added.

Kokichi flopped his deck face-down onto the table, crossing his arms and scrunching his nose.  "That's it!  I forfeit, you win!"

"What?"  Shuichi gaped, looking down at his cards.  He didn't have a good deck like the ones in the other games.  "Why?"