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

Chapter 5 Part 40: Silent Dinner

    Empty, ceramic ramen bowls were cleared out of the ramen that was once inside of them. Everyone had a look of slight content from being able to have a very good and relaxing meal, not mentioning that Kaito had to be taken down a peg. Kirumi got up from the dining hall table with her usual courteous smile. As soon as she stood up, she bowed slightly, dipping her head as her arms stayed by her sides.
    "I hope that everyone enjoyed the meal," Kirumi explained, as her head went back up.
    "It was very tasty, Kirumi," Tsumugi spoke up. Tsumugi had a calmer look on her face. She said as even smiling a little bit, some red dusting her cheeks from the hotness of the ramen that was eaten. Everyone else had similar expressions, "to be completely honest, I missed your cooking when I was in my room."
     "Kirumi always takes care of us!" Angie exclaimed, her aura exhibiting a bubbly feeling. The bright smile on her face was plastered.  "I feel a lot more relaxed with that meal! Right now I feel like I can talk about anything and not be as stressed!"
    "I do as well," Kaede explained, but her expression was different. Kaede was smiling sure, but she was nervously sweating a bit at the thought of the conversation before, "thank you so much for making us this meal Kirumi. Even though the start of the meal was a bit shaky, I think it was lovely!"
     Similar things were said by everyone else. The food Kirumi made was able to help soothe their minds and nerves for at least a little while.
    "If you all don't mind, I will take care of those bowls now," Kirumi explained, "and once I get done with that, we can discuss what we are planning, so please don't go anywhere."
    Everyone was in agreement to Kirumi's words. Everyone who was gathered at the time waited for Kirumi to gather the bowls. She did this by stacking them up on the silver cart she used to serve the meal originally. She cleared the table, and once she did so, she gave a quick and polite "excuse me" before rolling the cart with the dishes into the kitchen.
    Kirumi, sporting her Ultimate Maid talent was able to clean the bowls with ease, being able to fully clean the dishes up in around five minutes. She was more of a clean as she went sort of person, so before she even served everyone, most of the cleaning was already done. It helped that she didn't want to keep everyone waiting for too long because the only way they could bait Kokichi was by discussing the false plan out in the open.
    Kirumi put the dishes away before walking back out to join her classmates. As soon as she exited the kitchen area, she smiled at everyone. Her head went down once more as she showed her gratitude for the patience everyone showed.
    "I apologize if I kept you waiting for too long," Kirumi said as she bowed her head. Even if five minutes wasn't too long, she didn't want to have to make anyone wait for too long.
    "What on earth are you talking about?" Kaede asked in response. Kaede was always shocked at Kirumi's ability to do all sorts of tasks, but she still knew that she was relied on a little too much. Yes, she was quick, but overworking the body can cause serious mental strain. "That took you like five minutes. There is no way we all were waiting too long, and you know that. You need to not overwork yourself. You may seem fine now, but burn out is real..."
    "I can't be bothered with relaxing much, especially with all that is at stake," Kirumi replied as her head rose back up. She walked over to her own seat, carefully sitting down. "I'm sure we all know how this conversation is going to go now, correct?"
    "I don't think a couple of us know what's going on still..." Tsumugi muttered. She had a nervous look in her eyes as she said that. She wasn't exactly told by Rantaro what exactly the plan was, and she wanted to know so she could help out. "I know for plain certain that Keebo and myself don't know what the plan is, so would you mind filling us in?"
    "I'm assuming Rantaro didn't tell you, did he?" Maki asked in response. Her arms were crossed, and her eyes were closed as she spoke, her tone being more flat yet confident at the same time. "If he wasn't smart enough to give you the rundown, then I guess I will have to explain it. Why does it feel like I'm the only one who's truly thinking among everything?"
Rantaro couldn't help but chuckle nervously while feeling slightly offended. He didn't explain the plan to them because he thought it would be better to explain around everyone else. He couldn't help but feel that he somehow annoyed her while he was taking the utmost caution.
'Maki seems like she's pretty ticked off about something," he though. Rantaro couldn't help but think that there was something that was irritating Maki. While he was usually good with his observations, it was usually pretty hard to tell with her. 'I wonder what exactly that is...'
"Rantaro didn't explain anything because he felt like it would be easier to discuss whatever is going on with everyone who is involved," Keebo explained, "but he did promise an explanation for why everything turned out the way it did with (y/n). That doesn't have to be right now though."
"I think that the best way to start this out is to summarize what has happened over the past few days," Kirumi spoke, her voice calm and collected. In order to make things easier on her classmates, she thought that summarizing the information would at least suffice for now, "Tsumugi and Keebo have both been locked in their rooms over the time, and we are still missing some people. I hate to be the one to recommend this, but I think explaining what happened with Rantaro should wait until we manage to gather everyone else."
"Wait a minute..." Tsumugi muttered, shock was written on her face. She wasn't exactly expecting Rantaro's words to be fully true back then, "you mean that you guys actually do have a plan to rescue (y/n)!?"
"Y-Yeah, we do," Kaede spoke, a small nervous smile forming on her face, "we think it might work."
"It definitely will work once we gather everyone!" Angie exclaimed. Her hands clapped together as her eyes closed, her aura emitting happiness and joy. It was how Angie normally was, "Nyahahaha~! You shouldn't be so much of a downer, Kaede! Atua doesn't like any sort of doubt!"
"S-Sorry," Kaede stuttered in response, "it's hard to not doubt anything after I almost killed Rantaro. Especially when the plan I originally came up with failed in the beginning."
    Doubt was an emotion at play here, that much was obvious. The atmosphere of everyone in the dining hall always held some sort of doubt of what was being planned. Even though to most of the people in the room, they knew that the plan they had was a lot more in depth. There was still doubt, but the lot had to push that doubt to the back of their heads, and continue to focus. In the end, all that could be done was trying. The end result would hope to bear the fruits of everyone's labor.
    "So, what exactly is the plan?" Tsumugi asked, "I was told that whatever it was, it would work a lot better in numbers."
     "Well," Rantaro spoke. He glanced towards Tsumugi after she asked her question. He crossed his arms as his gaze looked down to fully think about how to explain before he did, "the plan is to do a frontal strike on the Exisal Hanger."
    Rantaro was straight to the point when he said those words. His tone was calm and serious as he spoke. Tsumugi was right when she mentioned his words before about how he mentioned that it would work better in numbers.
    "In order for this to work, we do need as many people as possible, you are right about that," Rantaro told Tsumugi, "the reason for that is because we plan on using the Electrohammers Miu made in order to bypass the barrier. That's however only a simple summation. There are factors to consider such as the Exisals, Monokuma, and we have to stay on our toes if another motive is introduced. And it's the motive I'm personally worried about."
"That is understandable," Keebo decided to chime in. His gaze was looking down as his metal hand was on his chin, thinking about the information he was just given, "it makes sense to need as much help as you guys need. I'm concerned with the simplicity of this this though. Are you *sure* this is going to work?"
"I hate to say it, but I agree with Keebo on this one," Tsumugi's nervous tone of voice replied, "this seems like something I could even think of? Is there any other information such as *who would group up together*, because I highly doubt that it would be beneficial to charge straight in!"
"You both raise valid concerns," Rantaro replied, "but I promise you, we've thought about how simple this may sound. Right now however, we cannot change that. I am confident that we will get this to work. But the fact is, we don't have much time when a motive is going to be introduced soon."
    "And just to be clear," Maki interjected. Her eyes gazed over, giving everyone a quick glance. The glare in her eyes was meant to show her being serious. "And this doesn't just mean Tsumugi or Keebo. Everyone should be taking this seriously. Kokichi for sure isn't going to hold anything back, and it's going to result in (y/n) being the motive in some way."
    Silence befell the dining hall after those words left Maki's mouth. Her tone was sharp, clear, full of anger and frustration. Rantaro already found out that (y/n) was going to be used in a motive by her accord, even despite the risks. Everyone else however probably had some sort of sneaking suspicion. Now however, Maki's words were meant to tell everyone that there was no time to hesitate.

I know this chapter was two days late, I'm sorry! There was a bit going on, one of those things involving me trying to catch a stray kitten that made its way into my apartment complex. I wanted to catch it so I could save it's life. I didn't want it to get hit by a car. But it did, and I faced sadness for the past couple of days. Yay... it was either speaking the truth, or doing the AO3 writer method and saying I got hit by a bus. I spoke the truth .

I tried a new writing style, and I don't know how this will go. It might be surprising because I usually write first person. I wanted to try something different. I feel like I can do better without describing every little phrase. It's kinda a change, but I hope it's a good one. Maki got annnnnngry with Kaito. And the image shows his state of mind. Peeps gave him a lot to think about. 😬

In any case though, this is probably the last update I'm gonna do for a minute because school starts. I'm taking four classes this time, (ugh...) I'm probably gonna be overworked, and that's okay ig. Used to it at this point. I'm sorry for the delay once again. I hope you all have an amazing week! Ciao for idk... when I get a break from assignments 😅- yuki_no_fuyu