"Core of Petals" // SaiOma (REMAKE)

Lungs of a Bouquet

All art found in this story does not belong to me. It is reserved to the original and talented creators.
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The sound of hushed footsteps that strolled past his room was ignored by the depressed being. Spiders sewed their homes in the corner of the small, crammed room, wind slightly shaking the cobwebs made. Kokichi stared up at the old and frail dorm ceiling, his mind focused on a singular thought.

"You're nothing, Ouma. You will NEVER be anything. Get that hammered into that tiny head of yours."

He looked back on the words with glassy eyes, yet he stayed as quiet as a graveyard at midnight. Soft talking sounded from down the hall, but he hadn't budged. Creaks from the aged floor were almost louder than the gossip itself. Although abruptly, it had ended. 

Kokichi's eyes darted to the door in a hurry due to the curiosity that discovered him, his eyes locomoting to the crimson wood. The world blurred as he sat up and he was struggling to keep himself from falling off the edge of the mattress like the weight of his heart and the thoughts in his head were weighing him down. 

It was distant and only scarcely audible, but he knew what he had heard.

"Shuichi, what are you doing? Shuichi?"

"Huh?"

"We need to get going back to our rooms before Monokuma catches us. Who's dorm is that?" 

"Uh... Kaito's."

The footsteps become broad and the room, once again, fell silent.

Kokichi forced his head towards the clock beside him. 4:06 AM  "Only a few hours until the meeting," he breathed to himself. He threw himself back onto the frail bed, feeling the dizziness in his head before his tiredness overpowered him like soldiers against mice. 

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The wake up alarm sounded and Kokichi, in his unique sleeping position, sprung up, hitting his hand on the sable wall beside him from the fall. Blood leaked from his arm, fuscia pink. He bit back a yell, scrunching his eyes to avoid tear spillage. 

He grabbed his arm and looked around the room in an attempt to find something, anything, to hide the blood that dripped onto the carpet of the dormitory. Although the room was empty, apart from the large bed, wardrobe and chairs. Kokichi's eyes dropped down to his clothing. He tore the sleeve off the opposite arm to the wound, writhing the fabric until it ripped off.

He flinched wrapping the injury in the fabric, obviously not meant for scars before he noticed the time.

6:10 AM. He was late.
"Shit."

"Saihara-chan~" The violet haired boy skipped into the room, a sudden mood swing from a moment before. An annoyed face turned towards him, as the blue-haired being scrunched his profile.

"You're... late." Kokichi stopped in his tracks to look at the voice direction. Maki.

"I had a few things to do." He said jokingly, staring her dead in the eyes.

"Ugh." Maki sneered, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes.

She whispered something to Kaito, who was beside her, but it was too distant to be heard from where he was standing.

"Come on gu-" Shuichi's voice broke off, as he stood staring at a spot in the distance with a brief horrified face.
A sudden, familiar call was announced. A body has been discovered!

The indoor breeze and creaks from the frail flooring were the only sounds heard amid the silence.

And... as expected, Maki turned straight towards Kokichi. "You weren't here."
"I know."

Shuichi shot Kokichi a quick glance of annoyance before going back to writing his thoughts in his notebook. "You're no help right now, you know."

Kokichi, his hands rested behind his head, felt a harsh, sharp pain shoot down his body. He flinched at the intense ache that felt like hot knives piercing his stomach. 
"I have to go do something now," Kokichi laughed, his voice cracking under the pain. His heart was racing like a car speeding from the police and in a panic, he turned to leave.

Kokichi felt a hard grab on his arm, his scar swelling under the pressure. "You're not going anywhere. What, are you working for Monokuma?" 

And with his elbow, he hit Miu in the face, right then and there, before pushing himself out of the stadium, feeling the burning eyes stare into his back. 

The pain in his chest was close to unbearable and he clenched his chest, coughing up what looked like drops of hot pink blood before he fell to his knees. Flower petals. He stared at them, trying to solve what had just happened before his eyes. Admiring their beauty for a while, each silky texture soft as a feather, he felt the aching slowly drop.

Kokichi sat in silence. "No." His vision started to disappear. The world surrounding him seemed to become blurry. "No, no, no, no, no. Not him. Not him." He repeated the words, as panic shot through his veins. 

He got up to leave, clutching the flower petals to the point he was crushing them under his grip.

But the dizziness had gotten to him, and he hit the floor harshly, blacking out.