Kokichi grew used to it. He grew used to coming home to see Leader sitting or standing somewhere randomly in his room. Whenever he came home, Leader would immediately greet him. However, today was a little different.
Leader was sitting on his case. His finger tracing circles on the brown, high quality, wood. He looked deep in thought. "L-Leader?" Kokichi asked. Leader snapped out of the trance and looked at Kokichi. "You're probably wondering what I was thinking about, right?" Leader immediately asked, his face twisting into a grin. Yet, Kokichi thought he could see some sadness in his eyes. "S-sort of.." Kokichi answered as he shifted on his feet. Leader beckoned him closer. When Kokichi approached him, Leader beckoned his face to go closer as he placed his hand on the side of his mouth. Kokichi understood and obeyed, moving his head to the side. When Kokichi turned his ear towards Leader, Leader began to whisper.
"I was just thinking about people you don't know. Yet they're people I know too well."
Kokichi furrowed his eyebrows as he moved his head away. "Then.. why are you.. so sad..?" Kokichi hesitantly asked. Leader broke into a maniacal laughter. "Really? Me? Upset? They were all stupid and naive! I could care less where they are right now!" Leader said, his tone bitter and menacing. Kokichi wanted to point out the lie but he didn't want to anger him.
"But.. there is one person that's perhaps interesting and trustworthy. But I won't tell you, you're going to have to figure that out yourself." Leader said with a mischievous smirk. As he said this, he placed a finger over his lips, concealing his secret. Kokichi blinked. "Are they.. all from Danganronpa..?" Kokichi asked slowly and Leader shot an annoyed look. "Why of course they are. I was made for it, remember?" He responded. Leader then began to look down on his case again. His fingers moving towards the Team Danganronpa logo.
"You know, I can't help but to wonder if they're in the same situation as me." Leader said to himself, not looking at Kokichi. "By situation, you mean in terms of other participants receiving their counterparts?" Kokichi asked and Leader nodded. He finally turned his head to face Kokichi. "Perhaps you know someone who took part? I heard that Danganronpa ended so everyone must be reunited~ ah I wonder if the other objects remember who I am, y'know, when we were all once organic, when were all once human beings." Leader rambled on. "Um.. m-my friend actually t-took part.." Kokichi said as he shifted his feet.
Yes, he remembered still seeing his face asleep on the pod as he left. Danganronpa ended, so does that mean that his friend's counterpart actually survived? Leader was now intrigued. "Really? Then forward my question to them. Ask them if they received their special prize yet. I await their answer." Leader ordered as he crossed one leg over the other, a smile on his face. Kokichi nodded. "I-I'll do that.." Kokichi replied.
"You better. Now pushing that aside, I want to speak about something else." Leader said with a grin on his face. "W-what could that be..?" Kokichi asked. "Ah, it's simple really. That is regarding my current state." Leader said as he raised a hand and looked at it, his eyes focusing on every balljoint. "W-what about it?" Kokichi asked. Leader turned back to Kokichi, his hand still standing next to his face. "I can't help but to remember when I was just as human as you. You know, when my body didn't have these accursed balljoints and was actually made of real skin, tears, blood, and organs." Leader responded. Then he took one of Kokichi's hands and held it, crossing their fingers.
"See how I've been reduced to a pile of Resin, elastic, clockwork, and artificial fluids meant to look real?" Leader asked. Kokichi tightened his grip. When he first touched Leader's face, he thought it felt soft like human skin. However, holding Leader's hand now, he could instead feel the artificial and heavy porcelain-like texture on Leader's palm and fingers. It was definitely different to the lightweight feeling of human flesh, the only sturdiness coming from the denseness of the bones in each finger. Slowly, they undid the lock of their hands as Leader proved his point.
"You know sometimes I can't help but to wonder. Wonder whenever or not I'm sturdy, if it's possible for me to shatter." Leader then said. Concern started to bloom in Kokichi's eyes. "I wonder if just by falling down the stairs will cause this skin of mine to shatter and my joints will break off. Or if I was beaten hard enough for my entire body to break into hundreds to thousands of pieces." Leader continued with an amused grin on his face. "No! Don't!" Kokichi cried out and before he knew it, he lunged towards Leader and hugged him.
Kokichi felt himself break into tears just imagining the scenarios. Of seeing Leader broken beyond recognition, of seeing the figure he admired completely destroyed. As his arms were wrapped around Leader, his fingers could feel the wind up key slowly turning and turning, replacing the sensation of a heartbeat. "I.. I care about you.. I really.. do..!" Kokichi cried out as he broke into tears, staining Leader's bandana. "Why do you care so much? I'm just property made under Team Danganronpa! I'm just a piece of property that's legally bound to your name!" Leader called out as he pushed Kokichi away.
"I'm used to being destroyed beyond recognition! I was crushed under a hydraulic press for crying out loud! It was completely shut and no one even knew I was the dead one inside until that idiot came out of the machine!" Leader then continued, his tone was as strong as usual. Even if he was speaking about something so tragic, he still sounded and looked so empowered. Kokichi could feel himself quiver as he tried to control himself from crying out any further. How could Leader openly talk about his demise as if it was nothing?
Leader then smirked as he looked at Kokichi in the eyes. "Right, you don't know how my death was presented. Well, imagine this case here." Leader gestured to the case he was still sitting on. "Except it is closed shut and all there is is pink blood, splattered and leaking everywhere." Leader then explained, an ear to ear thin smile spreading across his face. Kokichi did not know how to respond. To think that he died so horribly..
"L-Leader p-please.. s-stop.." Kokichi cried out between sobs as he went on his knees and put his hands over his ears. "Eh? Showing weakness already? Are you really going to cry over something that's not even living?" Leader asked, he sounded amused. "L-Leader.. y-you don't.. understand.. I-I see h-hope in you.. h-hope for me to become strong.." Kokichi continued to say between sobs, his face felt hot with overflowing emotions and tears, all of it falling at once. Leader widened his eyes for a moment but then quickly hide it with an exasperated sigh as he closed his eyes.
"Guess I can't stop you for thinking such a thing." He said to himself as he rested his hand against his cheek.
~
The next day, Kokichi went to school per usual. The last time, he left Leader under his bed (which gained a complaint when he got home). So this time, he chose to hide Leader's case in an oversized bag that Kokichi found in his closet. Kokichi bent down on his knees to say his farewell to Leader and then left.
When Kokichi reached the door to his home, he sighed. Luckily, this day spared him some mercy, there was no beatings but there was still malicious insults. At least it was better than gaining new bruises. Kokichi unlocked the door and entered. His eyes widened and he felt tears well in his eyes when he saw the sight before him.
Leader was lying down at the end of the stairs with his eyes closed and his lips parted as if he was dead. A cracked hole was formed on his cheek, a small bit of resin near him. A bit of pink blood dripped from the otherwise hollow crack on Leader's cheek. His right hand was detached. It seemed like he tried to break his fall with it. His entire leg also seemed to be detached from his body, both pieces were only merely hanging on through a string of elastic that was barely visible due to Leader wearing his uniform that covered majority of his body.
"L-Leader..?" Kokichi asked and Leader shot his eyes open as a grin formed a smile on his face. "Hah! You fell for it, it's a lie!" He said with light hearted tone. "B-but your condition isn't..!" Kokichi cried out as he ran to Leader's damaged body. Kokichi began to carefully pick up the small pieces of resin that made up the now empty space of Leader's cheek. "I-I can fix it..! I-I will fix it..! S-stay still..! I-I'm going to bring you upstairs, okay?" Kokichi asked. Leader just went with it as Kokichi lifted him up and carried him to his room.
Kokichi slammed his door shut and ran towards his drawers to fish through them for materials. When it seemed like he got the things he needed, he ran back to Leader to repair him. He was holding a tube of glue and a paintbrush. "S-sorry I don't have any high quality materials so I hope g-glue will do!" Kokichi quickly apologized as he began to apply it to the edges of the hole. Leader just closed his eyes as Kokichi placed the piece into his cheek. Kokichi pressed on the piece and stepped back. It seemed to stick to Leader's cheek but there was the awkward outline of clear glue that surrounded the piece. "I'll get paint to fix it tomorrow.." Kokichi mumbled to himself.
Kokichi then focused his attention on Leader's detached leg and hand. "P-please forgive me b-but I'm going to have to u-undress you..!" Kokichi nervously called out. "Well, since you care so much, I have no choice." Leader only responded, his tone sounding like a bitter mumble. Kokichi began by untying Leader's bandana before lifting off his shirt. Kokichi saw the copious amount of detail put onto Leader's body. The detached arm immediately fell to the floor, however Kokichi found himself looking at the details. The upper chest, that was attached to a separate waist piece, had a molded on collar bone, subtle indents indicating a ribcage, and even small molded nipples. The waist piece had indents around the abdomen to indicate the belly button and other small details such as the hip bones. Whoever made this must've been really dedicated.
Leader flicked Kokichi's forehead with his left hand. "Are you going to fix me or what?" He said, sounding annoyed. Kokichi apologized and moved his eyes to the large hoop of elastic that was sticking out from the shoulder piece. Kokichi looked down to the right hand dissembled to various parts. Luckily, none of the pieces were damaged. Kokichi got up and began to look around his room for pieces of string. "Are you sure you'll be able to actually repair me?" Leader asked with a teasing smile on his face but Kokichi ignored him.
Kokichi pulled out an old sweater and began to pull at it, undoing various pieces of thread. Throwing the long strings of thread on the floor near Leader, Kokichi went to work. As Kokichi managed to successfully string Leader's arm together, Leader couldn't help but to feel some shock. Kokichi smiled at him. "I-I never did this before so it's not perfect.." he said humbly.
He repeated the process in taking off Leader's pants to reassemble the fallen off leg. Kokichi stood up when he finished. "Can you stand..?" He asked nervously. Leader attempted, limping and struggling like a person with a broken leg but he finally managed to stand up. "Wow! What a piss poor job!" He said with an amused tone and smile. Kokichi scoffed. "Yeah I was lying. It's probably not so nice to toy with your fleeting self confidence." Leader continued in an amused tone as he carelessly placed his hands behind his head. Kokichi couldn't help but to admire his success, Leader was moving around as seamlessly as before. Leader turned around to the pile Kokichi made of his clothing.
As Leader got dressed, he turned to Kokichi. "W-what were you doing?!" Kokichi scolded. "Well, I was proving my point." Leader answered with a smirk. "W-what point..?" Kokichi asked hesitantly.
"Well that I can break afterall." Leader replied with a smile.