Dream land - An Oumota story

Chapter two - Kaito?

Kaito had woken up hours ago, alone and mortified.

He wasn't dead. The realisation crashed down on him as soon as he awoke.

The weight of everything and the...mistakes, and his new label of 'murderer' piled down onto his shoulders all at once. No amount of midnight training could prepare him for the aching in his chest. Tears prickled in his eyes and when he hadn't wiped them away quick enough, the tears started to blur his vision with a painful sting.

He let his tears pool. He deserved some sort of repercussion. He deserved more than just repercussion.

...But, as a good hour of nothing but brooding and mulling over questions he was sure he'd never know the answer to passed, he slowly and carefully gained his composure. Eventually he picked himself up off the ground, steadying himself on his feet, and rubbing the tears out of his eyes. He could see again.

Everything was bright and sunny. Rolling hills of perfect green grass went on for miles and a light breeze pressed gently against his skin. While Kaito was utterly terrified by this revelation, that he wasn't completely dead and in some sort of afterlife—alternate universe—whatever, which had brought a million new questions to his mind...the simplicity of it all actually calmed him down quite a bit.

Kaito was aware that if he didn't get moving he would stay there forever, drowning in a new, pathetic, self pitying train of thought he could barely bring himself out of. So, he decided to walk instead, and see wherever the sun took him, similar to how he would train in the killing game. A nice yet fleeting distraction.

The sun just happened to take him to Kokichi Ouma.

The same Kokichi Ouma he had stolen a life from. A life of unraveling lies and inner workings Kaito wasn't sure he'd ever understand.

...And he was standing right in front of it, watching Kokichi's chest rise and fall.

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"Ohh... I get it! You had the same nightmare as me?" Kokichi's eyes lit up with the bright scarlet Kaito knew all too well.

He was half convinced this was all some prank, some sick joke he had concocted much like his others. A fucking nightmare? What?

...but as he saw Kokichi's expression shift from a sceptical frown to a small but uniquely genuine smile... one Kokichi's had only really shared with Kaito before in his last few moments.

Kaito had learnt that hours in a hanger, while strung with poison and ridden with illness, can make you pay unique attention to literally anything and everything that isn't that poison and illness. Kaito just happened to pay a lot of attention to the boy sharing the hanger with him, and more particularly, how he was when the poison rendered him defenceless. When he had to tell the truth...because he didn't have the energy for anything else. For that hour Kokichi gave up on lying, as it wouldn't serve him much good.

Kokichi had a more carefree expression now, far more relaxed than it ever was in the killing game. His eyebrows were slightly lower, as Kaito had realized that when Kokichi told a more absurd lie, his eyebrows would lift slightly. It was subtle, but Kaito was confident he could spot it, along with a few other details. Maybe, because he hadn't been given much of a life—or—death reason to lie... Kokichi just decided to lay it off a little?

With Kaito's new found confidence, he knew that kokichi couldn't be lying.

But if Kokichi wasn't lying... what would that mean?