Memories Can Be Deceiving

Chapter 2

"Its been a while, huh Kaito?" Kokichi looked up at the last face he'd seen before what should have been his death. His hair was down, jacket laying on the floor of his room, dark circles under his eyes. It wasn't surprising, though. The situation was...awful. Awful, because there were no words to describe just how awful it was.

"Yeah, guess it has. You can come in, if you want." He shrugged, before turning and sitting on his unmade bed, head in his hands. Carefully, Kokichi approached him. "I guess Shu told you that I wanted to talk to you, huh? Just...God, I don't even know where to start. It didn't work, our plan. Shuichi figured it out. I got executed and all, but not really. I died of my illness. One last fuck you to Monokuma, I suppose." He let out a humorless chuckle. "Thought you deserved to know."

"Yeah, yeah thanks. For everything. Kaito, why did we fight so much? Even if I was a little shit, we always took things a little too far."

"I've been thinking about that too. And you know, I think I figured it out. We both wanted Shuichi's attention. I mean, that was the main factor of it all. No more fighting though, yeah?"

"No more fighting. I'm sorry for trying to take Shuichi away in the game, by the way. He was, like, nearly the only person who considered me worthy of kindness, after Rantaro died. Everyone just decided to hate me, he at least tolerated me. It wasn't until around the second trial that I really decided with my whole plan, but I knew I had to do something when Monokuma brought up the time limit. If everybody wanted to hate me, at least I could use that hatred to do some good, you know?"

"That's stupidly heroic of you. What about that whole message thing? Gonta found that after Kaede's trial."

"It was already like that. Twins B. I think it was connected to this other clue I left for Shuichi. No idea what it could've meant, though. And it sucks that he barely remembers anything still."

"Yeah. Actually, there is something I need to ask you. Did you think he's acting strange? I mean, I get that everyone's acting strange, with all that's going on. But he knows things that no one else does. Like, did he tell you about the whole audition thing?"

"I agree. He was lying about remembering things in order, and some other stuff too. Plus, he's weirdly calm about all of it. There's no way he's not hiding something."

"Glad I'm not the only one. Maki won't talk, neither will Himiko or Kiibo. I haven't seen Tsumugi. So, I have no idea what happened. Hell, Shuichi's the only one who's talking like everything's normal. Especially after he revealed that all our memories are fake. It's fucked up, man!"

"Totally." Kokichi finally sat down beside Kaito. "Even I'm at a loss this time. I'm nothing, Kaito. My group, my family, they never existed. You all have your talents still, and it's messed up that I lost mine, along with everything else. Do you believe that we actually signed up for this shit?"

" I don't know man. But shit, dude, I didn't even think about that." He hesitated a moment before wrapping an arm around Kokichi, who immediately leaned against him. "Do you want to tell me about 'em?" Kokichi nodded.

"We were all orphans. Eleven of us, including me. I was their leader of sorts, but we were all family, the only one we had. We'd run around at night, committing petty crimes. We'd vandalize a lot of shit, which was super fun, steal quarters out of wish fountains to buy snacks with, run away from the cops." He laughed. "It was so fun. We had eachother's backs, no matter what happened. Some of them went off to college in the past few years, but we always kept in touch. I was the second youngest of the group, actually. They still treated me like the baby, though. DICE was my home. I miss them. And honesty, I don't know how I'll manage without them. My mama adopted me when I was twelve, and I love her to death, and she's gone too." Kokichi looked up at Kaito, immediately turning red with embarrassment before turning away. "Sorry, you probably didn't want to hear all of that."