It All Started By One Single Tear (Rantaro x reader x YandereMastermind Kokichi)

Chapter 5 Part 10: A Mystery Hidden in the Vault

Rantaro's POV:

A couple of hours after ten o'clock p.m., I found myself restless, unable to sleep. So much has happened today, and there was a couple of things going through my mind.
The concern about (y/n) and the fact that she didn't do anything to Miu, however Miu came back to life. The other thing was the fact that my research lab was unlocked, and there was some sort of vault.
Normally, I was one who just went with the flow of things. I wanted to be a neutral party, but now... this was literally what I was waiting for. I wanted to find out my talent, and I still had not much of an idea from the look of my lab.
I knew I needed to investigate my lab my own way. That's why I decided to do this now. I could investigate without being interrupted, without being distracted.
I slowly opened the door that led to the so called "common area" of the dormitory was. I knew the walls weren't soundproof, so I had to be quiet. One wrong move, and someone might think I'm planning a murder. That was defiantly something I didn't want.
I snuck out of the room, shutting the door as slowly and as quietly as I could possibly manage. I felt myself let out a sigh as I stared at my dormitory door. I knew I needed to investigate my lab.
"I swear (y/n) is going to be upset that I didn't ask her to come with me..." I muttered to myself, "I hope I don't regret my choice..."
I walked to the exit of the dormitory with my hands in my pants pockets. I felt very frustrated that I felt I had to sneak out of the dormitory. The fact that I was sneaking out during night hours... that was very suspicious for me to do, even if I say I'm not suspicious in any way.
I made sure to silently leave the dormitory, making sure I was as quiet as possible. I couldn't let anyone find out what I was up to. My talent was my own business and this was something I was waiting for. I didn't even know if I would figure out what it was. I had to be smart. I knew I was.
I could feel the cool night air cascade over me as I made it outside. I felt myself look up slightly to look at the stars for a moment. For some reason, that felt slightly natural to me, as if I did it before.
"Maybe I should star gaze with (y/n)," I muttered, "I think she would really like that."
Thinking about her... always put me more at ease. I was trying to find out more about myself because of her. She constantly motivated and inspired me to be better. If it weren't for her, I would've been dead, and I wouldn't be able to trust anyone. I was really thankful for everything she's done for me.
    I'm sure she would understand if I found out my talent on my own terms. Once I found out, I knew I would be able to tell her. I was however feeling unsteady. I still wasn't aware why I didn't know my talent, but I do know that my Survivor Perk Monopad would come in handy. I just had to wait until my lab was unlocked, and now it was.
    "I need to figure out that vault before I can proceed..." I muttered to myself, "let's see..."
    I took a moment to think as I was making my way to the school. The vault from what I remembered had two different vaults. One had zodiac signs, while the other had what seemed to be the Chinese zodiac. I felt like I had the first answer to the puzzle, but the fact was... I needed to remember where I saw it.
    I made my way up the steps that led to the entrance hall of the school, entering the doors. As soon as I did, I stopped in my tracks to try and think about where I saw the code for the vault. My mind soon thought of the first thing that was written on rock. In other words, it was the process in the message Kokichi continued to add to.

    "horse a"

    Considering that was the first thing that was written, maybe that had to be the first answer to the puzzle I needed to solve. The first vault was labeled as "A", and that vault was for the Chinese Zodiac. The horse was a part of the Chinese Zodiac, so that must've been the answer to the first one. That meant the puzzle was half way done if I was right about it.
    "If the horse is the first part of the puzzle, then I might have to guess for the zodiac section..." I muttered, "that does make sense to me..."
    As if it was my choice, I nodded to myself. I needed to continue to my lab. Since I was well aware of a possibility for the vault puzzle, I had a place to start. I had no idea why I was able to click Kokichi's antics with the vault in my lab, but it was a start.
    I made my way through the halls of the building, going up the stairs in this crazy excuse of a school. I knew where my lab was, and it would take a bit of walking to get to. Since my lab was on the fifth floor, I knew that it was going to be a long walk.
    Even if my talent wound up being something I wouldn't be proud of, I would at least know. I felt that was the most important thing, and certain people here were cheering me on to find that said talent. Hopefully my efforts wouldn't be in vain.
    "Let's just get this over with, yeah...?" I muttered, giving myself words of confidence, "this is the moment you've been waiting for..."
I normally wasn't one who had a bad habit of talking to myself. It seemed that I really was nervous about this whole ordeal. I guess that was what was interesting about this whole thing.
I managed to get to the third floor where Maki and Ryoma's research labs were. I couldn't help but think about everything that happened until now, and how my girlfriend was saving people from dying in this game.
'You really are selfless, aren't you (y/n)?' I thought to myself with a small smile.
There was a lot I was concerned about, but I needed to deal with one thing at a time. I knew that was the only way to keep me from stressing myself out. I was serious about what I was going to do, and no matter how nervous I was getting, I was going to go through with my choice.
I soon made my way to the fourth floor, and I felt a few emotions go through me as I made my way through the floor. I felt a few negative emotions from what Kiyo tried to do. I couldn't frustrate myself right now due to the fact that I had something more to do. What happened was the past, but it still angered me that someone I loved almost got killed twice. I couldn't focus on that now.
I made my way to the staircase that led to the fifth floor. Once I saw the staircase that would lead to my destination, I started to walk up the stairs. As I got closer to the fifth floor, I could feel my heart rate start to pick up. I could feel myself get nervous because I didn't know what I would find. I was used to trying to figure things out on my own.
Once I made it to the fifth floor, I saw the stained glass windows that were a part of the scenery for this floor. I could see the giant statues of the Angel Monokuma and the Devil Monokuma. The statues were something that weighed down the entire floor, showing that Monokuma had a god complex.
I turned down the hallway that lead to the area we just unlocked. I could see the red and crimson door, the silhouette blood stains of a brighter red, along with shapes that looked like weapons. I slowly turned to doorknob, the door slowly creaking open.
As soon as I entered my lab, I could see everything was the same from what I saw before. From when we investigated this lab as a group. The lighting provided was still pretty dense and led to a similar feeling as the fourth floor did. The dim red lights didn't really do me any justice to get over my frustrations. I didn't really have a good feeling about my lab, but what could I do about it? I didn't know my talent, so I needed to use this room to figure that out.
"I guess it's time for me to try and figure out this vault, huh...?" I muttered to myself.
    With a small sigh, I walked to the back of my research lab, closer to the two vaults that seemed to tower over my lab. The one thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was the vaults. The one other thing that stuck out was the dim green light of a laptop that was set up on the strange circular table that was present in the center of the room.
    Once I got to the vaults in the back of my lab, I decided to start with "Vault A", the one set with the Chinese Zodiac. The animals Rat, Ox, Tiger, Dog, Dragon, Monkey, Goat, Rooster, Snake, Rabbit, Horse, and finally the Boar were on this vault. Each animal was some sort of Monokuma picture, connecting it to the said animal. The same was said for "Vault B".
    I had a general idea for the first part of the puzzle, which was the zodiac animal, the horse. As I was setting the first vault to the horse, it felt very slow as I continued to skim past the animals on the vault. I knew I had to turn the vault in order for the hose picture to be next to the arrow. It was a bit harder to turn the vault than I thought it would be. Considering it's metal, it was a tad bit heavy.
    I could feel myself sigh in relief once I managed to get the Monokuma image of the horse right next to the arrow on the first vault. I knew that I had to move on to the second one. That much was obvious to me. Turning to the second vault, the zodiac was now different. As I thought before it was the astrology zodiac on "Vault B". The signs this vault consisted of were Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Cancer, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Virgo, Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Capricorn. These also had a Monokuma picture linking them to the sign they were listed as.
    There were only about 12 ways I could guess at this point. One of them had to be correct, but there was only one way to find out. The default for this vault was Aries. I decided to start by pulling on the vault, but it didn't open. I didn't let myself get frustrated from this because it was only the first try. The vault was in order for what zodiac sign went next, so I decided to switch the machine to Taurus. I pulled once more, but the vault didn't budge an inch. I was just going in order based on how the vault laid everything out. I was just guessing at this point, so there was no way to ensure I was right. I had to keep guessing until this thing unlocked.
    "If I'm wrong, I won't stop until I unlock this thing..." I muttered to myself, "there are only so many guesses I can make. One of them will have to be correct."
The next zodiac sign was Gemini. In order, Gemini was after Taurus, and I was trying to do this in whatever order the signs came in. I switched the machine to Gemini, which was the zodiac that resembled twins. The picture showed a white Monokuma, and a black Monokuma. It reminded me of Yin and Yang. Twins but opposites...
As soon as I switched the machine to Gemini, I heard a slight click one from the vault. After that point, the vault swung open, each vault being some kind of door that led to a massive storage chamber. I would think this would be used to store money or valuables, but that wasn't the case here.
I stood there in shock for a moment as I saw that the vault was open. I wasn't expecting that the first part of the puzzle would be right. I wasn't even expecting to guess the combination this soon. I was really expecting myself to be figuring this out all night, but I guess that wasn't the case.
"So Horse, and Gemini," I muttered to myself, "I'm wondering why that was the code..."
I didn't understand why the code was what it was, but that didn't really matter at the moment. I got mattered was what was inside of the vault. As explained before, the space behind the two vaults was pretty big, but it was basically barren. There was barely anything in this vault except for a small black and white thing that laid in the middle of the vault floor.
I decided further inspect the item that laid on this vault, so I picked it up. The object was half black and half white. It was something with a Monokuma design, and that much was obvious. The object looked to be about two inches long, and half an inch wide. There was a Monokuma cap on it, showcasing Monokuma's head design. I took the cap off and...It had a USB plug in at the end of it. I knew very well what it as at this point.
"A flash drive, huh?" I muttered, "what information does this hold?"
A few things seemed to click after I saw what was in the vault. I knew very well there was a laptop on the table. I was guessing that was there for this flash drive. It had to be that way. Why else would there be a laptop in here. I wasn't even sure if there was wifi in here or not.
I found myself walking to the table in my lab, sitting down in front of the laptop. I adjusted the laptop so it was in front of me. I wanted to have a good view on what I would see once I plugged the flash drive in. I could feel myself get slightly nervous from this little object, but I've dealt with worse.
With a slight bated breath, I plugged the flash drive into a USB port in the laptop. Almost instantly, something popped up. There was only one file on the flash drive, but that file contained a singular video. I found myself slightly confused at this point.
    "I thought there would be more than a video..." I muttered, "but I guess I should watch the video to see what it is."
    I decided to not procrastinate any longer on this. I opened the video file, and... what happened next was enough to link some of the past things that have happened in the past. Things that frustrated me beyond compare.
     I saw that the color scheme of the video was similar to my ultimate research lab, and in the center of the screen, I saw myself, sitting down in a chair, arms rested on myself's lab, hands clasped together. There was a serious expression on the me that was being recorded.
    "Hey there," I heard my voice come from the video, "guess I don't have to introduce myself, huh?"
    Upon hearing that, I instinctively paused the video. I could feel the shock cascade over my features as I heard myself speak. I heard that line before... I defiantly heard that before.
    I could feel my hands start to tremble as my mind went back to the day after Ryoma was brought back. I heard myself say that first line. There were other things I heard myself say, but I had no idea if it was from this video or not.
"Did I somehow remember part of this...?" I asked myself, "I wonder why I'm on screen here..."
I was slightly shaken up. Despite that, there was only one way I would find out more. The only way I would find out more about this is if I pressed on. There was no other alternative to that sadly. Because of that, I used my trembling hand to press play.
As soon as I played the video, I noticed that I was silent for a moment. I mean the *me* that was in the video. I was silent as well, but that was only because I was watching whatever this video would entail for me. I could feel my heart rate pick up as I wondered how long this video was going to be, as well as what I was going to find out in this said video.
"I get that this is probably pretty confusing, seeing...yourself like this," I heard my voice speak once more, "guess I should start from the beginning."
'Start from the beginning...?' I thought.
In all honesty, it was confusing to see myself like this. That much was true. But I had no idea where this was going to start, or where it was going to end. I had to be silent and listen to whatever I was going to be told. I knew this was addressed for me. It was like the video version of me was talking to me right now. It was strange, that much was for sure.
    "First things first, I...am you," the video stated, "no tricks, no actors. It's you. The reason you don't remember recording this is because that memory was erased. Think of this as a message from the Rantaro before you lost your memory...to the Rantaro after you lost your memory. So, let's get to it, then. The reason I recorded this footage."
    I felt myself understand more on what was happening. What I thought before was correct. This is a message from myself, before my memories got wiped. It was like some sort of intro before getting into the nitty and gritty part of the information I was about to receive.
    "I won the right to a special perk for participating in the killing game," I heard my former self explain, "part of that perk is this video message. Monokuma said he was going to make some kind of puzzle for you...but the fact that you're watching this means that you've solved it already. Also, you can't share this with anyone. If you catch Monokuma shooing anyone away from you, that's why."
    'I'm not allowed to share the information I receive with anyone?' I thought, 'so, even if I brought (y/n) to watch the video, Monokuma wouldn't let that happen.'
    It was apparent to me that this video really was only for me. I couldn't show it to anyone else, and I didn't even know if I could tell anyone the contents of this video. I knew one thing though... this video was far from over, and I still had a lot to watch.
    "There's another part to this perk, something you get at the start of the game," my former self explained, "I bet you know what I'm talkin' about. Something you've had from the start, yeah?"
    'This must be referencing to the Survivor Perk, huh?' I thought to myself.
    "Now, I *thought* that if you were smart, you'd have used it to end the killing game," my past self explained, "but if you're watching this, that obviously didn't work out. Life's never easy, huh? Well, anyway, that's the perk. Other than that, you're just like all the others."
    I knew very well that aside from the fact that I had a perk, I was like the others. I was no different aside from the fact that I had something that could potentially help me. Sadly, I knew that plan failed because I didn't listen to a certain person.
    "You go in, they wipe your memories, and you start killing," my past self explained, "that's the way it is. Now, Monokuma probably already told you this, but just in case... This killing game will continue until there are only two people left. Now the important part of that rule is that—"
    My past self was cut off by an alarm sound ringing through the video audio. A red light cascaded the screen, and as that happened, I realized something. I *was* being monitored when I recorded this. I didn't remember recording it, but that was proof in itself.
    There was a shocked look on my face in the video, but after a few moments, that turned into a slight smile. The red alarm light that made itself present in the video was now gone.
"Hahaha..." my past self laughed, "looks like they didn't want me sayin' that, huh? Guess you'll have to solve that little mystery. But hey, you're smart. I know you can do it... Oh. There is...one more thing. Well, the truth is...this isn't your first killing game."
I could feel my eyes grow wide in shock from that line. This...wasn't my first killing game. How was that even possible. It felt like the information I was getting was getting more intense at this moment. I had to hide the shock and press on.
"You're the Ultimate Survivor," my former self explained through video, "you survived the last killing game. That's why you get this perk—the Survivor Perk. But it's not all fun and games. Anyone who finds out who you are is gonna come for you... So watch your back. Trust no one. And never forget... You wanted this killing game, so you have to win no matter what... No matter what."
The video stopped playing after that, and I couldn't help but be shocked. I could feel my heart hammer to myself. I buried my face into my hands as I let out a nervous laugh.
"I wanted to find out my talent so badly, but now that I know..." I muttered, "I feel my whole future crashing down..."
I continued to laugh as a way to release my frustration. According to the video, I wanted this killing game. I couldn't even remember wanting to be in a situation like this, but another thing concerned me.
"If I tell (y/n)..." I trailed off, "or anyone for that matter... I was warned that they would come for me..."
With what happened in the video, I realized how much of myself I didn't even know. I didn't even know who I could trust anymore. My thoughts went straight to (y/n). She was there for me, always helping me while I helped her...but...what if it was some sort of ploy.
What if she was trying to get close to me, figure out my talent... and end me. My head was spinning, and I was questioning myself. It would make sense if (y/n) wanted me close so she could end me. Why else would she use her ability on me.
It seemed that my mind was defying logic, but...I decided to go along with it. I knew what I had to do. It was going to be hard, but I knew I had to. I couldn't take that warning lightly.
"I have to keep my distance from everyone," I muttered, "even (y/n)...."

Gonna be completely honest with you all. This chapter wasn't easy for me to write. It's been a bit since I've had to write as Rantaro with his character type and whatnot, but this chapter is all in his point of view.

I understand I left you all on a cliffhanger, so I decided to release this a day early. Take it as a little bit of a forward to the new year. I started writing this in around 2017, and now... it's gonna be 2022. Time flies, I know. We just have to live our best life.

I wanted to take a moment to thank all of the Wattpad users who read this for supporting this book despite the hate that was said on Wattpad. To all of you Quotev readers, I didn't post the warning there because I've only received support from Quotev. To everyone who has been here since the beginning, and to all who decided to read later in the future! Thank you so much for being there. I love you all!

Everything is going according to what I've planned for this book. This chapter is a very important piece to what's going to go down later in chapter 5. That's why I had to write a chapter based off of this moment. Rantaro actually got to see his lab, as well as his video. I had to try and write how he would react to it, so I hope I did a good job.

The next update as you know will be Friday. We will be in the new year by then, so I will say happy New Years to you all, and I hope 2022 isn't a pile of crap like 2020 and 2021! See you all in the new year! Ciao- yuki_no_fuyu