✧ Chapter 14 ✧
[ The Reason That ]
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Shuichi rubbed his eyes, looking at the book in front of him. Thanks to the medication that was left for him in his bedroom and the twenty hours of sleep he had, he felt alive again.

But of course, he had nightmares. Vivid, horrifying nightmares which he couldn't wake from. Strangely, it all seemed to take place in a hospital, even though he has never been inside one before.

He glanced at the empty desks of Kaito, Keebo and Miu. And of course, a vase of flowers the late Miss Chisa. He wasn't present when Monokuma announced her death, but the other students told him what had happened.

Thank goodness he hadn't seen her corpse... even though he was the Ultimate Detective, he was always queasy whenever it came to corpses or death. Strange, but he wanted to learn more from his senior, Kiyoko Kirigiri.

Rumour has it that she had met more dead people than people who were alive. And she had even tasted the saliva from a corpse just to solve a case.

A little disgusting for his taste. (Oh- a pun- *my sister smacks my head as she's editing this-*)

"Sorry I'm late!" a voice called as Kokichi dashed into the classroom, where their English teacher was about to begin the class.

Everyone didn't acknowledge him, all except Rantaro and Gonta of course. The other students still held a grudge against Ouma. However, Shuichi knew that Monokuma had set this all up. The bear had phrased the whole death of Miss Chisa differently to pin the blame on Ouma.

He just twisted the words around and made everyone think it was the purple haired boy's fault.

Shuichi wasn't going to take sides, especially now that everyone detested Kokichi.

The shorter boy sat in his usual seat beside him, however, to his surprise, Kokichi started to flip through a couple of files and use a red marker to underline words. What in the world was he doing?

Honestly, he was secretly hoping for Kokichi to notice him. To ask him questions and annoy him as per usual, but he seemed focused on the papers instead.

"Shit-." he heard Kokichi swear when a piece of paper dropped to the floor, right by Shuichi's foot.

The blue haired boy sighed and bent down to pick it up-

Kaito.

"Saihara-chan," Kokichi whispered to him in a serious tone, "Give it back."

Shuichi tore his eyes away from the paper and stared at the other boy, finally focusing on him closely.

To his surprise.. Kokichi had a plaster on his forehead and a bruise on his cheek. His eyes looked dark and deprived of sleep.

All at once, Shuichi leaned forward, thankful that they were at the back of the class so their teacher wouldn't notice them. "Kokichi.. what the hell happened to you?!"

"It's fine," the other boy smiled, his smile not matching the tone of his voice, "Now give it back, I'm working."

Something was definitely wrong with him. And Shuichi wasn't going to back down from that feeble lie. "Why do you have a picture of Kaito in here? What the hell are you doing with all these?"

Kokichi looked at him, and for a moment, Shuichi could see a flicker of doubt in his purple hued eyes.

The two boys stared at each other, Kokichi just looking at him as if he could read his mind. Finally, the other boy sighed, tearing his eyes away from Shuichi's.

"Fine," the purple haired boy muttered, "Meet me in the library after lessons, 4pm."

With that said, he plucked the paper out of Shuichi's hands and filed it neatly. Why was Ouma being so secretive?

Shuichi frowned. He could tell that he was stressed about something.

Of course.. it was probably about Tetsuya. He and Ouma were close to each other. Both were almost like more than friends sometimes but Shuichi knew that wasn't true.

Keebo didn't seem like the type to break rules, that's why Shuichi was confused when he found out that the Ultimate Robotics Scientist was taken away.

Of course, there were some people who accused Ouma of setting Keebo up, just to get him into trouble.

But why would Kokichi do that to a close friend? That was what Shuichi kept wondering. The only possibility was that Keebo set it all up by himself, with the help of Iruma.

He glanced at Kokichi again, who was once again flicking through papers and circling words. Shuichi realised that some of the handwriting wasn't his. It was Keebo's.

Did that mean that Ouma was actually going through his things?

Damnit, what was Kokichi planning?

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It was four in the afternoon, and Shuichi was making his way to the student library.

It was a simple two story white building, covered with a thin coat of peeling paint. Monokuma hadn't bothered with the outside, assuming that students didn't seem to like the quiet building very much. Additionally, there weren't any librarians, since Monokuma had not bothered much with that..

Despite its rather worn out appearance, Shuichi loved the inside, since it provided a space for him to relax and study.

He pushed the glass doors open with his hand and immediately headed upstairs, to where him and Kokichi always hung out. Or rather, Kokichi stared at him while Shuichi was studying.

To his surprise, he saw Kokichi already there, papers spread out around him and coloured pencils strewn across the table. He looked a little panicked and more beat up than usual.

"Ouma." Shuichi put down his bag in the seat in front of the other student, who looked up.

"Yo, Saihara-chan," he gave Shuichi a wide grin, despite the huge bruise on his cheek. "You're approximately five minutes late."

"What-?" Shuichi looked at the clock, which was hung over a wooden door.

"Nishishi~!" Kokichi giggled, "I'm just kidding. You're right on time, now sit!" he waved a hand at the chair in front of him.

Shuichi took a deep breath, pulling out the chair and sitting in front of Kokichi. "So why did you call me here? To play another game with me?" he asked.

Kokichi just shoved a few papers away and propped his legs up onto the table, his hands behind his head. "Hmmm. Now that you mention it, it seems like you actually want to play a game? My, Saihara.. I didn't know you liked my games so much."

"I.." Shuichi glared at him, "Excuse me, I came here because you asked me to! If you've got nothing to tell me, I'm leaving you to your kindergarten project."

Kokichi sniffled, rubbing his nose in a haughty way, "Kindergarten project? Saihara-chan.. this isn't a little kid's project. It's a clue to the mysteries of Hope's Peak!"

Shuichi's eyes widened at that, "What?"

"You heard me," Kokichi grinned, looking like he owned the place, "I figured that much, from these papers Tetsuya left for me. Do you wanna know more?"

Shuichi hesitated, not trusting the look on Kokichi's smug face. "..."

"Remember Saihara-chan," Kokichi moved his legs off the table and leaned forward, "This is all about trust! Do you trust me or not? Hmm?"

"Just.." Shuichi felt his face heat up a little when he realised that Kokichi was leaning forward, "Tell me what's going on. I trust you to tell me the truth." he added.

Kokichi smiled, leaning back. He looked satisfied by Shuichi's answer and held out a paper. In fact, it was a cut out of the school's newspaper article. It was dated back to almost one and a half years ago.

"Go on, read it. And read carefully, Mister Detective," the purple haired boy twirled a strand of his hair around his finger, "Afterwards, tell me what you think."

Shuichi looked at the headline of the first article. It was about Kaito's arrest, and the headlines were atrocious as always. Monokuma himself probably wrote it.

Shuichi narrowed his eyes at the picture. It showed the scene of the outside of the girl's dormitory, the moment where Kaito was taken away.

Someone had taken a picture to post on the newspaper, and it was definitely not from Monokuma's cameras. At first glance, it didn't seem like much..

Shuichi frowned, looking at Kokichi's smiling face.

"Are you talking about how the picture was taken?" he asked as Kokichi grinned, "Hmmm.. yes and no. But to answer your question.."

The purple haired boy slid another newspaper article to Shuichi to compare. This photograph was taken a few weeks after they had been enrolled into Hope's Peak. It was the Komahina case...

"What's the difference between these two pictures, Saihara-chan?" he heard Kokichi ask in a quiet voice.

Shuichi frowned at the two pictures. The first was of Kaito, and the other was of Komaeda and Hajime, getting taken away together. Nothing seemed wrong..

Except..

He looked at Kokichi again.

"The photographs were taken differently. Aren't they?" he held up Kaito's article, "This one's taken by a digital camera, and the second is taken by a surveillance camera. But I don't get what's wrong with that, Ouma."

He placed both pictures down, making Kokichi raise his eyebrows. "Man, Saihara, I thought you were smarter than this!" he laughed. "Fine. You're too dumb to piece the puzzle together, you dummy.."

"The first picture.." he tapped on Kaito's arrest, "It's taken by a student. Since Monokuma is in charge of running the school newspaper, he managed to get this photograph from whoever used a digital camera to snap this.

Which means.. he has a student working for him. To watch what's going on behind the scenes. It must be recent too, since this came out in the latest newspaper."

Kokichi placed down a new piece of paper, which showed Keebo and Miu's arrest. Again, the photograph wasn't taken from a surveillance camera. It was a digital camera.

So the Komahina photograph was taken by a surveillance camera but the other two were taken by a digital camera?

"He really does have a traitor spying on everyone then.?" Shuichi leaned back in his chair, his mind full of everything he had just learnt. "Damnit.. we cant trust anyone!"

"It's not just that, Saihara.." Kokichi sounded serious, "I told you, you only answered one mystery of the newspaper."

"Now, see if you can spot the next difference. Or rather," Kokichi smiled, placing a finger over his lips, "Spot the odd one out."

♥ End of Chapter Fourteen ♥