Liar, Liar, the Mage's Desire Vol. 2 (The Oumeno Strikes Back)

Miu and the Mechanic (8)

  "Wh-Wha?!" Kaito exclaimed. "You mean, you tried to get them to start a relationship with each other?!"

   "No, Kaito, I mean we tried fishing them out of the ocean," Kokichi replied sarcastically. "Yes! We tried to get them to start a relationship together. Jeez!"

   "Why would you two do that?" Kirumi asked. 

   "I read it in Miu's diary that she wanted a boyfriend," Kokichi replied. "So, I told Himiko about it, and we both decided to try and find Miu a boyfriend."

   "Sounds like it turned out to be a dumb idea," Maki said. "Why would you think hooking Miu up with anyone would be a good idea?" Kokichi shrugged.

   "You're totally right, Maki," he said with a cheeky grin. "That was my bad for coming up with that idea. Buuuut I thought if Miu was in a relationship, she wouldn't be so annoying, anymore."

   "Yeah, that worked out," Kaito replied sarcastically. "Seriously, Kokichi, you gotta stop meddling in other peoples' lives!"

   "You got it, dad!" Kokichi teased. Kaito scoffed and rolled his eyes at Kokichi. Later that night, Kokichi and Shuichi had dishes duty. As Kokichi scrubbed the plates, Shuichi kept quiet as he waited to rinse the dishes. Breaking the silence, he decided to ask Kokichi a question.

   "Kokichi, I want to ask you a question," he said.

   "What's up, Shumai-Don't-Bother-Me?" Kokichi asked, scrubbing a plate, and dropping it into Shuichi's side of the sink.

   "Was it really your idea to hook Miu and Kazuichi up together?" Shuichi asked. 

   "Yeah, why?" Kokichi asked. 

   "Well...I just feel like you don't care enough about Miu to find a boyfriend for her just so she wouldn't feel lonely anymore," Shuichi said. 

  "I told you, I did it so Miu wouldn't be annoying anymore if she had a boyfriend," Kokichi said. 

   "But, I don't know if you really believe that," Shuichi said. "Also, you said earlier that you read her diary, right?"

   "I did," Kokichi replied. "What about it?"

   "I think that if you read her diary, you'd use the information you learned against Miu, rather than for her own benefit," Shuichi said.

    "Wow...you really think I'm heartless, don't you, Shuichi?" Kokichi asked. 

   "Maybe not heartless," Shuich admitted. "But I'm sure you would have used that information from Miu's diary to pull a prank, or something, not really to get Miu a boyfriend."

    "But, that could have been my prank," Kokichi pointed out. "To hook Miu up with Kazuichi, y'know...like a blind date. Like, maybe she wrote in her diary that she liked someone else, so I set her up with Kazuichi as a prank."

   "No, you would have admitted that before," Shuichi replied. "If it was your idea for a prank, you would have happily admitted it, but you saying that you wanted to give Miu a boyfriend seems a bit too...generous of you, even if you did it so that she'd be 'less annoying.'"

   "Oh? Then, if it wasn't my idea, whose idea do you think it was?" Kokichi asked. 

   "I think it was originally Himiko's idea," Shuichi said. "I can see her coming up with the idea, since I noticed that she and Miu seemed to be getting along these past few months. And I bet you lied about it being your idea so that she wouldn't take the heat from the others like you did." Kokichi shrugged in defeat.

   "Welp! Looks like ya got me, Shuichi!" he replied. 

   "What's that?" Shuichi asked.

   "You're right, it was all Himiko's idea," Kokichi explained. "And it's just like you said, I didn't want the others giving her crap for it, so I took the blame."

   "Wow...that's...really nice of you, Kokichi," Shuichi said, raising his eyebrows with respect.

   "Welp, she is my HimiCocoa Bean, after all!" Kokichi replied. "A supreme leader always has his supreme lady's back!" 

   "I see," Shuichi said with a smile. Kokichi turned to Shuichi and smacked a friendly hand onto his shoulder.

   "Y'know, Shuichi, you'd better hope there's not a zombie apocalypse one day," he said.

   "Uh...whyyyyy...?" Shuichi asked with uncertainty.

   "Because they'll definitely try to eat your brain first!" Kokichi replied with a creepy smile.

    "I'll, uh...I'll keep that in mind," Shuichi mumbled. 

    "Nee-heehee...yeah!" Kokichi said as he went back to scrubbing the plates while Shuichi waited in apprehensive silence to rinse.