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

Chapter 5 Part 38: Planning for an Assassination

Rantaro's POV:

  "That is something that makes plain sense," Tsumugi told me, "but if you are saying that people already scolded you, then I won't give any of it. The only thing I ask is that you tell me what it is exactly that you want to talk about with me. Is that a deal?"

    To be completely honest, a part of me wasn't expecting those words to leave her mouth. I knew I messed up, and that was prominent information for everyone. I've been scolded, walked in to the Dining Hall as people were talking about me. I was expecting to be scolded, but in terms of Tsumugi, she surprised me. Since I told her that I've already been scolded, she decided that she wouldn't give me any of it. The conditions for this was that I would cut to the chase. I found that to be pretty reasonable at least.
    "It's a deal," I replied with a slight look of shock.
    "Don't think this means that I'm not still upset with you," Tsumugi spoke, putting one hand up, "(y/n) and I are friends, and it's just plain hard to find someone super nice who watches anime, especially in this situation. Usually people were pretty toxic in communities before we were placed here, but not her. My point is that you hurt her, so I'm not going to forgive you easily."
    I kinda figured just because she wasn't going to scold me about it didn't mean that she wasn't angry. It was pretty bold of her to assume I didn't know that, but in this sense, it was just her telling me the truth. Tsumugi kind of went on a small rant about how hard it was to find someone nice who watches anime in this situation, and she ranted about how the former anime communities could be very toxic.
    Her point was exactly what I thought it was. Tsumugi cared about (y/n) like most of us, and she was upset that I hurt her. Tsumugi wanted to remind me that she may not have been scolding me, but her feelings stayed the same.
    "I already knew that," I replied with a nervous chuckle, "don't worry about that. I know that I messed up, but I'm working very hard to fix it."
    "I guess you're going to have to prove that to me using your actions and not your words," Tsumugi replied, "if you make an effort, it will be seen by not only me, but by everyone."
    "I've literally been doing that," I laughed in response, "I'm sure the others will tell you as much. You may not be seeing it right now, but I've been making an effort."
    "Whatever you say," Tsumugi replied, "so what did you even need to talk to me about? I'm still in the process of processing everything because it feels like everything just gets worse. We find out we are the last seventeen survivors of humanity, and then the person who has kept everyone alive has been taken hostage. It's a plainly messy situation..."
I noted how Tsumugi told me she was still trying to process everything. I couldn't exactly blame her when he was also in the process of that as well, but the only difference was the fact that I chose not to wait. After all, life waited for no one, and it would continue on even if something bad happened. With what happened in my life, I knew that that first hand.
"I know everything managed to get worse," I spoke, "but the reality of the situation is that life waits for no one. Even if the reality we know plunged into disarray, time will still go on. That brings me to the answer to your question."
"Go on?" Tsumugi asked in response.
"To put it simply, the reason why I came here today was to request your help," I explained, "with everything that's happened, I know it won't be easy to agree. I have experience to back me up on that one. We can't let Kokichi continue to take advantage of this situation by keeping (y/n) hostage."
    After I said those words, Tsumugi thought for a moment. I noticed her eyes glance downwards as if she was taking the time to think about what I said for a moment. Just like what I did with Himiko and Keebo, I wanted to keep our true plan a secret until I could confirm that they would meet up with us later as well as to keep Kokichi off of our trail.
    "So you feel the same way?" Tsumugi asked, "despite everything that's happened?"
    I looked over at Tsumugi with a questioning look on my face. The way that she worded her questions caught me off guard, and that was surprising for someone who addressed themselves as "plain" all of the time. Her question gave me an answer of sorts, but it also gave me questions. Of course I felt the same way. If I didn't, I wouldn't be going through all of this trouble. Before I could think of a proper response to what she was saying.
    "That makes me more inclined to believe you when you say you learned your lesson," Tsumugi added on with a small, "to be honest, I've been sitting around trying to figure out anything I could do to possibly help (y/n). She's my friend, and yet I'm sitting here, unable to think of anything useful I could do in order to help her out. I so desperately want to help her, but it's plain to see that I just don't know how."
    "Not knowing what to do in a situation like this one is completely normal," I explained in response, "I do feel the same way as you put it, and even at first I had no idea what I could do. Seems to be something that is easier to do when you work with others."
    "I guess you're right about that," Tsumugi laughed sheepishly in response, "I'm guessing then that this isn't a solo effort on your part?"
Tsumugi was able to get the general idea that this wasn't something I was planning only. She seemed to know from what I said that I was working with others. I couldn't help but think that she had some pretty good observation skills for someone who insulted themselves a lot.
    "No, it's not," I replied, "I've been working together with mostly every one else. We've managed to come up with a plan too, but in order for it to have the best chance at working, we need as many people as I can convince."
    "So if I meet with you guys, I can help (y/n)?" Tsumugi asked, "I don't really get what a plain person like me could do."
    "I can promise you that everyone will have a task," I replied, "so there will be something you can do that will help us out. I can promise you that."
    With how in depth everything was, it was more or less obvious that we gave tasks to those who were best suited for them. Maki is good with stealth, so she was going to watch over Kokichi, and Miu had her hand in creating a new device. Tsumugi wouldn't learn of this however until she met with us.
    "I'm not going to beat around the bush then," Tsumugi stated, "where and when do you need me to meet with you guys?"
"We will be meeting at the dining hall during dinner time," I explained in response, "I told the same thing to Keebo and Himiko."
"Dinner time is not that far around the corner is it?" Tsumugi asked, "I swear I have a plain hard time keeping track of the time in this place."
"Doesn't everyone?" I asked in response, "so I can count on you coming to the dining hall soon then?"
"Yes you can," Tsumugi replied, "with that out of the way though, I need to clean myself up. Maybe a shower will help rejuvenate my state of mind. I can think about my favorite shows, and try and put a smile on my face."
'Well that took quite a turn...' I thought with a nervous chuckle.
I couldn't help but laugh slightly at that. This conversation was relatively quick, and the subject underwent a brief change to a topic that more or less interested her. It was refreshing, but it was almost out of place here, but to each and their own I suppose.
"You do whatever will amp you up," I laughed, "I'm not one to judge since I can be pretty weird myself."
"You have no right to judge when you judged everyone else," Tsumugi spoke, "but I will see you soon. I hope I won't be getting my hopes up for nothing."
"Alrighty then," I replied, "I will talk to you soon."
Tsumugi nodded in response, going back into her dorm room and shutting the door. Once she was back in her dorm room, I walked away from her door, a small smile on my face. I was able to get a couple of people to join the group today, which was definitely a good start.
    I was already at the bottom of the stairs, so my thought was to give myself at least some down time before dinner. So, that's what I decided to do. I walked to my dorm room, my room not being too far of a distance from Tsumugi's because of its placement on the bottom floor.
As soon as I got to my door, I used my key to open the door before walking inside. I was successful in convincing Keebo and Tsumugi to join us today. Whether Himiko would join us or not depended on her. I knew I couldn't force anyone to help.
"So far, Keebo and Tsumugi have agreed to help," I muttered to myself, "there's still a ways to go until we have all of the help that we need... but it didn't go as badly as I thought it would."
I was pretty content with how things went today. Not content with the situation happening, but I was content with the progress being made. Not only did I have information about the hidden room now, but now some of the others were going to start helping us out too. I was starting to feel more confident about that this could be pulled off.
I however wouldn't know how everyone would work together until we met up for dinner. There had to be at least a half an hour until then. Being able to speak to (y/n) really helped get rid of the impending stress in my mind. It was a lot easier to think, knowing that I was able to explain myself. While that didn't change what had happened before, it was something that I was learning from, and I knew I would become a better person as a result of that. But first this situation had to be dealt with.