Chapter Text
Staring at him, Kokichi knew he was going to like him immediately.
Maybe not as much as he ended up liking him, but he was still sure.
He’s standing in that classroom, next to the glorified roomba Kiiboy, and Akamatsu-chan and the mystery boy are by the door, looking at him as he explains himself and his talent. He’s keeping a grin on his face, despite his own nerves about their situation.
“Saihara Shuichi,” the shaking boy tells him at Akamatsu-chan’s prompting, “The- The Ultimate Detective.”
He’ll go on to elaborate; he’s just an apprentice, he only solved one case faster than the police, he really doesn’t deserve his talent, everyone else must be better, and the like.
Self depreciative, huh?
And, honestly, looking only on the surface level, one wouldn’t think he’d be that interesting to Ouma Kokichi. But Kokichi is a master of analysis - a master of people. He doesn’t look surface level. He sees the intelligence in the boy before him. He sees the probing questions, the nervous way he bends to conversations in easy conformation to gain more information. He sees the way he makes simple deductions casually. He has a brain on him. He knows that those eyes of his that are hidden by his hat are probably calculating and observant. Just like his own.
And despite him not being quite comfortable with his talent yet, Kokichi knows he could be.
No, he knows he will be.
In a killing game like this, an Ultimate Detective is going to be useful. Whether he likes it or not, Saihara Shuichi is going to become confident in his abilities. By the end of this, he’ll either know his limits inside and out or he’ll be dead. There’s no inbetween.
Kokichi only hopes it’s the former.
---
It’s during Akamatsu-chan’s trial that Kokichi finally gets to see what he’s been looking for all along.
For the first part of the trial, he watches the boy closely. He’s calculating, taking in every piece of evidence and looking it over. Akamatsu-chan is leading this trial, but Saihara-chan is solving it. Kokichi thinks the difference is both distinct and important.
Still, he was starting to get almost-sort-of-worried.
With Akamatsu-chan’s positive reinforcement and Kokichi’s own forceful pushes, he thought Saihara-chan would’ve said something by now. But he’s still silent. As helpful as Akamatsu-chan is for boosting Saihara-chan’s confidence, the way she takes careful steps with him, doing all the hard work for him, is actually limiting his abilities.
Still, when the time is right, Saihara-chan comes into his own.
Trembling and riddled with nerves, Saihara-chan directs his attention to Akamatsu-chan.
“...Akamatsu-san is the culprit.”
For the rest of the trial, many people attempt to disprove him, even Akamatsu-chan herself acting oblivious, but Saihara-chan rolls on. Through it all, he combats ideas and theories with cold, hard facts. He sets aside his emotions for Akamatsu-chan in exchange for a harsh truth. For real logic.
Saihara-chan looks up, scanning the room.
Kokichi sees he’s looking for threats. People who would think to raise good points out of a misguided sentiment.
And Kokichi was right. Those eyes are observant.
He just didn’t count on them being so beautiful.
Saihara-chan’s eyes are intelligent. They are grey, yet golden. They sparkle with calculations and theories and yet, they also shine with grief and determination, hope and despair tangled into one blend of truth and lies.
He adjusts his hat, but he doesn’t hide his eyes. Kokichi is ever thankful. He mourns the idea of not being able to see such beauties again.
And if when, the next morning after the trial, Saihara-chan shows up to breakfast with that emo hat no longer on his head, Kokichi rejoices, that’s his secret to keep.
---
Saihara-chan is intelligent. He’s thoughtful. He’s beautiful. He’s a bit of a nervous wreck, but he’s getting better with it.
These are all traits Kokichi already knew about him.
But when Saihara-chan seeks him out in order to talk with him, Kokichi also learns this: He is unpredictable. He is interesting. He analyses Kokichi’s lies instead of scoffing and turning away. He gives things Kokichi says some thought, instead of immediately dismissing them. He doesn’t catch every lie, but who could? It’s certainly an achievement that he catches even half of them.
He’s amazing. Talking to him is amazing. Kokichi wants him to come back. He welcomes the distraction Saihara-chan gives him from the itching worry about DICE from that terrible motive video.
He wants to play more games and see more of Saihara-chan’s reactions. He wants to watch him stammer and get flustered, he wants to watch him pick apart Kokichi’s statements, his eyes watching every tiny shift in Kokichi's body language. Way more than a tiny part of him wants to watch the Ultimate Detective shine. And that’s not a lie.
He wants more.
And he gets more in the worst way possible.
It’s a sickening realisation when they find Hoshi-chan’s corpse. It’s the horror of a magic show turned murder scene. Well, he already knows that Yumeno-chan is most definitely not the killer. It’s too convenient, and besides, he doubts anyone would be stupid enough to so obviously set themselves up. Someone wanted to frame her.
Still, he gets the trial started as he always does, and watches, with fascination, as Saihara-chan takes the reins. As always, he tackles debates head-on, pushing back argument after argument in order to prove contradictions incorrect with evidence. He thinks ahead, linking evidence to each other. There are moments where he stands in silence, deep in thought, pretty eyelashes on display.
He proves fact after fact, piecing the truth together as though it’s a jigsaw puzzle. And the most impressive thing? He doesn’t have all the pieces yet, but he’s already halfway done.
Kokichi’s awe only ceases when idiot Momota-chan influences Saihara-chan. Emotion? In a class trial? It’s ridiculous.
He wishes he was close enough to set the other straight. But he can’t be. Not like Momota-chan is or Akamatsu-chan was.
And then Saihara-chan lies.
He says that he heard Harukawa-chan talking with someone that night. Kokichi doesn’t call him out on it. But he can’t help but watch.
He remembers Akamatsu-chan lying, too. Sometimes lying is necessary, even for ‘good people.’ But Kokichi just wasn’t expecting it from Saihara-chan.
People lie differently. Most people have tells. Saihara-chan certainly does. His eyes flick around the room the moment he says it, as if waiting for someone to argue. They land on Kokichi, likely remembering what he’d said in the first trial about always knowing when people are lying. Kokichi grins slyly at him. Saihara-chan smiles back weakly.
He also tells his lies oddly. The moment he’s finished the sentence, he piles on explanations, like that will justify the existence of his lie. Most people take what’s said at face value, so explanations like that shouldn’t be supplied unless prompted. It just makes what he’s saying more suspicious.
Saihara-chan lies, and Kokichi can’t decide whether or not he likes the way the falsified truth falls from his lips.
---
It’s later, after the wave of despair he won’t let himself feel from Tojou-chan’s execution clears, that he reflects.
He draws more lines on his board. He thinks of the, Trustworthy? he’d almost feverishly scribbled under Saihara-chan’s picture.
He thinks of the ringleader. Though Saihara-chan seems to have completely written off the possibility of a ringleader, Kokichi is confident in this initial deduction.
Or maybe he’s just paranoid.
Well, he is paranoid. He always has been. Paranoia keeps him alive. Trusting others is difficult enough normally, but in a killing game? It’s incredibly idealistic. No one knows what the others are thinking. If they’re drafting up plans for murder as you speak to them… And with the potential for a ringleader amongst them, trust is a concept even more distant.
It’s later that very night, when his thoughts drift back towards the Ultimate Detective, that something sour fills them. That thought he’d had earlier today…
He can’t be close to Saihara-chan.
He can’t be. He can’t be because of the half-formed plan based on suspicious wording from Monokuma and odd occurrences. And besides, he learned the hard way the comradery won’t be tolerated in this killing game. Why hasn’t everyone else? Why are they so blissfully ignorant?
He suddenly feels a tingling sensation in his throat. It feels like he has to cough, but there’s nothing to cough up. He tries to get whatever it is out, but he’s unsuccessful.
Kokichi groans, annoyed. Whatever.
He collapses into his bed. The odd feeling will probably be gone tomorrow.
---
He wakes up and coughs. Something feels like it’s gotten stuck in his throat. He flashes back to last night, and that same exact feeling. Maybe he did swallow something by accident.
But no matter how much he tries, he can’t get whatever it is unstuck. Eventually he gives up and resolves himself to feeling like this the entire day. If he doesn’t cough it up by the end of the day, maybe he’ll just force himself to throw up.
Kokichi begins the day by heading to the Ultimate lab of the assassin who just strangled him and presenting it to everyone. Harukawa-chan can’t be trusted. She’s already proved she’s prone to violence. He’s warning the group of her.
He then gets to explore the new areas. Some of them are pretty interesting, especially that Ultimate Anthropologist lab. Though the murder weapons are kind of lame in comparison to Harukawa-chan’s.
By the end of the day, his airway still feels clogged.
Kokichi finds himself staring at the board across the room. It’s only a part of the whole that is his plans and theories, but looking at the physical manifestation of his attempts to end this game fuels him. He clenches his fist. He doesn’t have time for random itchiness in his throat. He’s in a killing game.
Staring at the whiteboard, he finds his eyes drifting towards Saihara-chan’s picture.
Trustworthy?
Though Saihara-chan can be trusted to solve the trials, he’s not sure if he could trust the detective beyond that. He’s Ouma Kokichi; he doesn’t trust anyone.
Not even beautiful detectives with intelligent eyes and lips that curl when they tell even more beautiful lies.
Kokichi coughs.
Whatever it was in his airway seems to have finally given him a break and decided to get out of his throat.
He continues for a few more dry coughs, and eventually his throat feels free as something lands on his hand. Kokichi glances down at his open palm, curious to whatever morsel was annoying him the entire day.
It’s a blue flower petal.
That is… not what he expected.
A flower petal? Did he swallow a flower petal? How? And even if he did, why did it get caught in his throat? He surely would’ve remembered choking on a flower petal, of all things.
Mildly disturbed yet curious, he holds the petal up to his eyes. It’s smooth and vaguely heart-shaped. Kokichi doesn’t have enough flower knowledge to figure out what kind it is, but he’s pretty sure he hasn’t seen one like it in the outside area. Especially not this colour blue. It’s very beautiful.
It’s deep and rich, reminding him of the wavy hair of a certain detective.
Suddenly, his throat feels clogged again. He coughs and coughs, but nothing comes out. A sarcastic part of him goes, Imagine if it’s another petal.
A terrified part of him echoes, What if it's another petal?
---
The next morning, Kokichi leaves the dorm and learns… Angie-chan’s starting a cult and has already brainwashed multiple students. What a wonderful thing to wake up to.
Thankfully, Saihara-chan, the only intelligent one here, isn’t brainwashed. Small victories.
Momota-chan, who’s apparently deathly afraid of ghosts, vanishes to his dorm. The student council patrols the area with an iron fist. Angie-chan reigns over her domain from her Ultimate lab, secluding herself off from the world in an attempt to bring back the dead. She proclaims her God is the only salvation for the school.
Kokichi wonders what God has been doing, if He’s been here the whole time.
He coughs. Nothing comes up.
But when Saihara-chan approaches him again, he slips on a grin to hide a moment of weakness.
They play more games, exchange more riveting conversation. Kokichi rigs the cards. Of course he does. But it was all worth it for the look on Saihara-chan’s face.
Kokichi wonders if he suspects the truth. It’s highly unlikely to have two sevens in a row, after all.
After the blue-haired detective is gone, Kokichi realises he isn’t faking the smile anymore.
That night is filled with more theories, but not as much coughing. Whatever is stuck in his airway doesn’t come up.
It’s not another petal. He’s probably just coming down with a cold or something, which’ll suck, but he’ll deal with it. No one will know.
It’s not another petal. Because flower petals don’t magically appear in people. That’s not how anything works.
It’s not another flower petal.
---
Kokichi explores the school. He doesn’t waste any time investigating the new areas now that they’re more empty because of the Student Council. He’s had a vested interest in the secret tunnel the entire time, thus his designs for those hammers that jam electric signals. He’s almost completed the blueprints. He’ll have to give those to that inventor once he’s done.
There’s not a lot that’s interesting about the new Ultimate labs. Well, except for Angie-chan’s, since he couldn’t check it because she won’t leave.
During one of his moments of downtime, Saihara-chan stops by once more. It surprises Kokichi to see him back so soon. Well, it’s not like he has any complaints.
He laughs, dragging Saihara-chan over to the dining hall and setting up a tea party for them. He talks of his organisation and how they had to take mandatory tea breaks, and then he slips some morbid lies amidst this in order to throw Saihara-chan off. Despite how bewildered he seems, he keeps up with the conversation. His eyes sparkle as he does.
Saihara-chan is a surprising person. There’s been a few times where Kokichi says something that should mess him up, but he responds coolly and calculatedly instead.
Sometimes he calls Kokichi out on his lies, and sometimes he just goes along with him. Either is fine. Saihara-chan makes everything entertaining.
Kokichi’s looking at him now. Watching him drink the tea carefully, his pretty lips placed up the teacup, eyes closed dark, long lashes that flutter as he moves.
He really is otherworldly.
Kokichi’s heart beats faster and he places a hand over it to feel the unsteady rhythm. It’s an odd feeling. It’s almost like adrenaline, with how fidgety yet energetic it makes him. It’s something giddy, something warm that encourages his childishness.
It’s only when he bids Saihara-chan a goodbye that he realises that whatever was clogging his throat hasn’t bothered him in hours.
---
Later that very day, he happens to stumble across Harukawa-chan and Saihara-chan’s nightly training. He watches from afar, taking in the way the two interact.
Isn’t Momota-chan usually with them? He must be too scared to come out.
Even from his hiding spot, Kokichi can see the easy smile Saihara-chan gives the assassin when she speeds through her exercises. He can see the untense expressions when the two talk, even on Harukawa-chan’s face. Kokichi’s never seen her so… non-murderous.
He’d warned the group of her talent and isolated her in order to protect them, but Saihara-chan and Momota-chan went out of their way to include her amongst the group once again. Why? Some mockery of friendship? In a killing game?
They must be out of their minds.
Then Chabashira-chan approaches them and Kokichi skulks off to avoid being detected. When Saihara-chan and the two girls pass, he taunts Chabashira-chan briefly, though his eyes are on Saihara-chan the entire time.
He blows the detective a raspberry as he leaves. Saihara-chan’s cheeks pink, but he doesn’t react otherwise. Kokichi can’t help but feel disappointed. It reminds him of the feeling the realisation he couldn’t be close with Saihara-chan had given him.
Kokichi coughs.
But it’s not a small, weak one from earlier.
He coughs, and he coughs, and he coughs. Quickly the entire thing transforms into a fit, where Kokichi’s leaning against the wall as his body trembles.
There’s a scattered pile of blue and purple petals, still falling slowly to the floor, and one still remaining on his lips. He peels the leftover petal from his face with surprisingly steady hands.
It’s no longer just a part of him that’s terrified.
---
Kokichi doesn’t get the time to do anything about it. The next morning the group returns to Angie-chan’s lab, and Kokichi is already pretty sure what they’ll find. Angie-chan should respond to Student Council members, if she’s alive. But she doesn’t.
He picks the lock to her door with steady, practised hands, thinking of the petals still tickling his airway and the eyes of the detective currently watching him.
And then they open the door, and discover a corpse.
After the announcement, Kokichi slips away to do his own investigating. As he watches Harukawa-chan and Saihara-chan investigate together, he can’t help but feel the petals come up. This time the pile is all that same Saihara-chan blue, none of the purples. He wonders what it means.
Kokichi stuffs the flower petals into his pocket. He’ll toss them outside when he next gets the chance. That way no one will find them.
Today is going to suck, and not just because of the trial. After the incident last night, Kokichi just couldn’t stop coughing up petals. It’s like the realisation that he could sent his body into overdrive. Like, wow, we’ve always wanted to cough up flowers, we just weren’t sure it was possible! Time to make Kokichi suffer!
It’d be infuriating if it weren’t so terrifying. Actually, it’s a bit of both.
He didn’t get any restful sleep the night before because of the rampant coughing fits. His room is stuffed full of petals in all different shades of blue and purple. He finds the most common colours are the Saihara-chan blue and a purple that matches his own hair colour. The purple ones piss him off, but he couldn’t bring himself to stomp on the blue ones.
They still annoy him, though.
---
Chabashira-chan is dead.
Kokichi never expected a double kill.
It could be two separate killers, but why would another one strike now? Did they think there was going to be two class trials held? He supposes that could make sense, especially since they’d have the added advantage of their crime probably being investigated less… If they weren’t a moron.
Who killed Chabashira-chan is beyond obvious. Wow, gee, wonder who the killer could possibly be when she died in the middle of a seance that a certain person suggested, set-up, and was the only one to know all the facts for.
The empty room is suspect, too. As is the Necronomicon and Shinguji-chan’s ritual. But, unfortunately, halfway during his investigation, a floorboard just decides, Hey, Kokichi isn’t suffering enough!
Okay. He knows that’s not what happened. When he awakes from passing out, he sees that the crosspiece had been cut, so it was intentional, not unlucky. But it sure does feel like the universe is out to get him today.
Perhaps this is Angie-chan’s God’s persecution for being a heretic.
Well, at least he’s alive.
That’s better than Angie-chan can say.
He hobbles out of the room, bleeding from a heavy head wound from that stupid floorboard. At some point, he must’ve passed out again in the hallway, because when he wakes up once again, there’s a certain Saihara-chan and Harukawa-chan standing over him.
“It’s a lie!” he exclaims with as much energy as he can, though it ends up just sounding manic.
Harukawa-chan’s expression is cold-faced, but Saihara-chan’s is worried as he asks Kokichi what he’s doing. It makes him feel all warm inside to have the detective show a bit of care towards him - though it’s probably more worry to what happened rather than Kokichi himself.
That realisation makes his throat itch, and he swallows harshly.
He explains the incident and hands Saihara-chan the book, watching his beloved detective scan over it with his ethereal eyes.
Kokichi leaves to prepare, and the moment he’s alone he coughs. The liar watches as petals a Saihara-chan blue fall into droplets of his own blood. Huh. Was that pool made from his head wound? The blood there is sort of drying by now.
His lips taste like copper.
This trial is going to suck, but at least Saihara-chan will make it bearable.
---
He was right about the trial.
Kokichi knew that Chabashira-chan’s death has more importance than everyone else seemed to think it did. So he has to direct everyone's attention to it. Unfortunately, having the status as a liar who likes to mock others and do meaningless things really doesn’t vibe with him just outright stating his intentions, so he has to dig his claws into Yumeno-chan’s still-raw wound and have no mercy.
The look that Saihara-chan gives him is a cold one. He swallows, keeping the petals down. It can wait until the trial is over.
“Yeah, I did it. I killed Angie-chan,” he lies, smiling casually like he’s talking about a favourite candy instead, “I picked the lock, snuck inside, and wham! ”
Saihara-chan narrows his eyes, and goes on to poke and prod his statement until the lies are too ridiculous for even Kokichi to keep up with.
Yes. Saihara-chan will make it bearable.
He does, at least, until he locks eyes with Harukawa-chan in a silent agreement that only sappy, moronic friends have, and lies once again.
After giving it some thought, Kokichi has decided he likes the way Saihara-chan tells lies. He isn’t great at it. The lies themselves are fine, but he has a lot of tells, if you’re looking hard enough.
Still.
He watches the way Saihara-chan moves along with his lie, allowing Kokichi’s medium to envelop him fully just to get closer to that oh-so idolised truth. It’s poetry. It’s irony. It’s beautiful, just like his beloved Saihara-chan.
Kokichi has always believed that lies are better than the truth. Most people don’t actually want the truth. And besides, lies are more fun, anyways. There’s infinite possibilities to be found in a lie, after all.
But Kokichi finds he loves both Saihara-chan’s lies and Saihara-chan’s truths. They both make him giddy. He wants to dissect and unravel both, either, anything related to this intelligent, anxious detective that keeps saving their lives.
He isn’t like Kokichi, though. He doesn’t lie for logical reasons or entertainment. He lies when he emotionally believes something that can’t be proven with evidence. He lied to cover Harukawa-chan, and he lied to make everyone believe Chabashira-chan wouldn’t have betrayed them. Both lies were formed of belief, but that’s not really what lying is about.
It’s probably just like Saihara-chan to only lie when it’s a contradiction to lying itself.
He lies, and unlike Kokichi once again, he has someone to cover him. Harukawa-chan lies too, less elegantly than Saihara-chan does. They lie together, not because lying is beneficial, but because it’s a necessary evil they’ll bear together, as friends. He feels ill.
He coughs, but he hides it by sliding on his joking mask, and laughing. After he’s done speaking, everyone looks away.
Except for Momota-chan.
Momota-chan is staring right at him.
It’s unnerving, almost.
---
That trial made him sick, for so many reasons. Shinguji-chan is a monster. He murdered two people for such a stupid reason, and admitted to having killed more. Murder is wrong. Morally. Lawfully. Subjectively and objectively wrong. And yet Shinguji-chan does it casually. He doesn’t even have enough respect to regret it. To hide in shame as he lists his reasons.
Instead, he holds out his arms and insists, “All of humanity is beautiful, even the worst of it!”
Okay, creep.
Kokichi is the first to flee the trial grounds fully. The moment he’s back in his dorm, he collapses to the ground, hacking petal after petal. This fit isn’t the same as the last few. It actually hurts. His throat burns so badly.
When Kokichi looks up, there’s tears blurring his eyes, but he frantically wipes them away. He can’t show weakness, not even to himself.
Glancing down, there’s blue and purple petals pooling in a pile of blood.
Blood. There’s blood.
Coughing up petals is concerning enough already. But now there’s blood.
More tears sting his eyes, but he refuses to let himself cry. Instead, he turns and kicks over one of the purple piles. The flower petals fly around him, a few more landing in the blood spots.
Once he’s done watching the destruction, he packs as many petals into his pockets as possible and goes to dispose of them outside. Then he returns with a rag to clean up the blood, and afterwards he makes sure it’ll never be discovered again.
Well, he supposes it’s about time to figure out what is wrong with him.
He first goes to the library, scouring books about flowers, but all Kokichi gets are books on flower care and growth. Like, hello? He doesn’t want to care for these flowers; he wants them dead, actually.
Okay. He’ll try illnesses, instead. Though here’s nothing about flowers that he can find in multiple flip throughs. Annoying.
Almost as an afterthought, he wonders if the anthropologist would’ve cared for something like this.
With more unread books about flowers and illnesses in his hands, he returns to the Ultimate Anthropologist lab and scours through the books there.
Ooh! ‘Mysterious Illnesses’ sounds perfect for what’s going on here.
He flips through until he gets to where anything with ‘flower’ in the name would be set, and sees the title: ‘Hanahaki Syndrome’.
Sounds promising.
The document is broken into overview, causes, symptoms, history, and possible cures, so Kokchi does some reading.
Overview:
In Hanahaki Syndrome, often called Hanahaki Disease, or just Hanahaki, a flower grows inside the victim’s lungs. The flower will continue to grow until a treatment is provided, blocking airways until the victim suffocates. This disease, while curable, is very often fatal because of the physical and mental toll it takes on the victims. How long it takes Hanahaki Syndrome to kill its victims is very dependent on the person, and can be anywhere from weeks to a year.
Oh. ‘Very often fatal.’ ‘Blocking airways until the victim suffocates.’ And the time is ‘dependent on the person,’ so he doesn’t even know how long he has left to live. But ‘anywhere from weeks to a year ’ is not promising.
At least it’s curable.
Causes:
Hanahaki Syndrome is often referred to as “The Disease of Unrequited Love,” and this title is definitely accurate. The victim is always very enamoured with someone they do not believe loves them back, and when these feelings of love and despair intertwine, it is believed the flower seed of Hanahaki Syndrome is born. This is why the flower type changes between cases, as flower symbolism is very important to Hanahaki Syndrome, often representing the victim’s feelings. The loved one of a victim of Hanahaki Syndrome is often referred to as the “beloved.”
No.
Kokichi? In love? Impossible. He’s the Ultimate Supreme Leader. He doesn’t do stupid things like fall in love. It’s ridiculous. Is he reading the wrong disease? Everything else was fine before this. Or, maybe, he has a strain of Hanahaki unrelated to love?
Seriously. Who would he even be in love with, anyways? There’s no one that-
-No one that… he’s shown any interest in…
…
Oh. Oh.
He’s in love with Saihara Shuichi, isn’t he?
That’s what those bubbly, giddy, adrenaline-esque feelings are. That’s why he wants to learn so much, why the smallest pieces of Saihara-chan are both the best gifts he could receive and yet not enough at the same time. Why he wishes, nonsensically, that he didn’t have to be the hated one, so that he could be close to Saihara-chan.
Ouma Kokichi is so in love with Saihara Shuichi that it’s killing him.
Of course. Ultimate Supreme Leaders aren’t met to fall in love, and especially not in killing games. This is his punishment for being stupid.
“The Disease of Unrequited Love.”
… It’s beyond obvious that his love would be unrequited. Saihara-chan could never like him. He likes kind people, like Akamatsu-chan. People that build him with motivation instead of bringing him down with pressure. His lungs obviously don’t like this train of thought, though, because soon he’s hacking up more petals to stuff into his pockets.
The history section and symptoms part are definitely interesting, but Kokichi will have to read them later. Right now he’s frantically looking down for cures.
Cures:
There are only two known cures for Hanahaki Syndrome. The first of which has been around since the disease was first discovered. It is where the “beloved” of the victim reciprocates their love and means it. Just saying the words is proven to not undo the effects of Hanahaki Disease. However, if the love is truly reciprocated, then the plant inside the victim will wither. The victim will then throw up the remaining flower. The second cure to Hanahaki Syndrome is a possible surgery. However, it is still experimental and, while the plant is successfully removed, there is yet to be a surgery without side effects. These side effects are usually either complete loss of memory of the “beloved” or a loss of ability to feel romantic love.
Well, those both suck. Saihara-chan ever reciprocating his feelings is impossible , and he’s currently trapped here, so there’s no chance of surgery. Just makes him more desperate to escape, he supposes.
And even if he could have the option to have the surgery, would he take it?
Yes. He would. There’s no question.
(He thinks of intelligent, sparkling eyes, deep blue hair, a nervous laugh and determined words. The way that his whole being lights up just being around that gorgeous detective. He thinks that, truly, he doesn’t know. )
He would. He would. He just has to get out, and without murder.
He thinks of saying, I want the Hanahaki Syndrome surgery, and wonders if he’d be able to say them. Truths are always harder for him.
He isn’t sure. Some part of him thinks it may be easier than he thinks.
Kokichi glances down at the book. His hands are shaking like Saihara-chan’s would. He then feels the sensation of another petal at the stray thought of Saihara-chan, and something like fear grabs at his chest.
---
After realising he had been sitting on the floor of the Ultimate Anthropologist’s lab for a little too long, he dusts himself off and returns the books to the library. He holds onto the Mysterious Illnesses book, though. It’s not like Shinguji-chan will miss it.
When he returns to his room, he opens the book and flips to the symptoms part of the Hanahaki Disease page. There’s two different parts of this one, so he reads them one at a time.
Symptoms:
Symptoms of Hanahaki Syndrome mainly focus on throwing up or coughing up petals and blood. Because of this, Hanahaki Syndrome often comes with suffocation, nausea, delirium, and high chances of unrelated illnesses. Depending on the flower type, thorns on the plant may also do severe damage to the lungs, which may cause death before suffocation. The rate of the progression of the disease is based on the “beloved” of the victim. Being around the “beloved” often has a positive effect on the victim, however thoughts of or things that remind the victim their “beloved” does not love them back often has visceral reactions.
Kokichi really hopes his flower is one without thorns. It’s bad enough just suffocating.
And apparently, being around the “beloved” - oh wow, now Saihara-chan really is his “beloved” detective - is both good and bad. Hooray. It just depends on whether Kokichi’s brain decides it likes him or not, and he does not have a good track record.
He reads the second part of the section.
Hanahaki Syndrome occurs in three stages. The first stage is the beginning, where the victim only coughs up petals. The second stage occurs when the victim starts coughing up blood as the flower disturbs their system. The third stage is when the victim starts coughing up actual flowers or bouquets as well as blood, instead of just petals. The third stage is the final stage, and death will occur at the end of this stage. After the victim has passed, the flower will then open the victim’s mouth and bloom out of it.
That’s creepy as hell. Is that how Kokichi is going to die? Suffocating on flowers until they grow out of him like he’s a greenhouse?
He’s already in the second stage, since he’s got petals and blood. No actual flowers or bouquets yet. At least he’s not that close to death. But he’s ticking towards it by the minute, and he isn’t sure how much time he has left.
Well then. It’s time to bring those blueprints to that idiot inventor.
---
When Kokichi snatched the keycard, he thought it would’ve opened up a secret room, or something. He couldn’t find where it went on his first round of looking.
Pouting, he stops and thinks about where it could go from there.
Suddenly, there’s footsteps.
“...Hey, Ouma-kun.”
He feels a smile tug at his lips before he even thinks to slide his mask of the childish prankster on. Even with the knowledge of his disease, he can’t tamper his excitement to hang around Saihara-chan.
He grins, explaining the fact that he can’t figure out where the dumb keycard goes, and Saihara-chan, like the saint he is, offers to help.
They go around the campus, talking about a ton of different things. As a bit of irony to himself, Kokichi makes sure to call Saihara-chan his “beloved” more often. It’s not even a lie anymore.
He wonders if it ever was.
“This is soooo dumb!” Kokichi complains, “Why give us a motive for murder if we can’t use the motive!?”
Saihara-chan laughs softly, “Maybe that’s for the best. Motives from Monokuma are never good.”
“I suppose my beloved Saihara-chan is correct…”
The detective flushes bright and glances away. Even after a whole hour straight of dealing with it, combined with all the previous instances he and Kokichi have hung out, he still hasn’t gotten used to the pet name. How cute.
Eventually, the two give up on using the motive and return to the outside area. Honestly, Kokichi has been hanging around here more, anyways. It’s easier to cover up the petals by blowing them away in the breeze.
With the two now in a better spot, Kokichi begins the ‘final event.’ Before this was the ‘final event’ because of his plan to make everyone hate him, but now it has the added bonus of he’s literally dying now!
Oh. Making everyone hate him will make Saihara-chan hate him.
Obviously, Saihara-chan was never going to like him back anyhow, but he hadn’t considered what Saihara-chan hating him would do. Would it just kill him on the spot?
He’ll have to be very careful about that particular point.
While playing the game, Kokichi misses the stab on purpose. A small slice makes its way on his fingers, and it hurts slightly, but not terribly. He expects Saihara-chan to be worried, but compliant, just as he was before the last trial.
But no.
Saihara-chan worries, and he rushes to grab a first-aid kit. And he doesn’t just toss Kokichi the kit and leave. He stays and painstakingly takes care of the tiny cut.
Saihara-chan’s hands are clasped right over Kokichi’s own as he works, expression anxious, yet caring. His hands are smooth and, while cooler than Kokichi’s own, not frigid. Just cold enough. Soft. Delicate, yet strong. So, so very much like Saihara-chan himself. It’s perfect.
Kokichi breathes. For the first time since Shinguji-chan’s trial, he breathes deeply, with no trace of the need to cough. He savours it; this moment. All of it.
The feeling of Saihara-chan’s hands holding his, working with a gentle sort of care. The way his brows furrow with worry and concentration as he works. The ability to breathe. It’s such a beautiful thing to be able to breathe. He’s never appreciated it more.
“Are you alright, Ouma-kun?”
“Nishishi~! It’s just a tinsy tiny cut, my beloved! But thank you, anyhow! I mean, what would I do without my precious Saihara-chan?”
He pinks nicely, letting out a half-laugh, half-breath, “Well, that’s good.”
Kokichi stares at the hands around his own. He feels like this moment could last forever (he wants it to - oh, how he wants it to) but it’s already moving forward. Time’s going too fast. He realises this will be the last time he’s alive and feels this way.
Whether or not he dies, he’ll definitely lose this feeling. He doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to. Now he understands why victims of Hanahaki usually die. He doesn’t want to stop loving Saihara-chan, even if it hurts.
And Kokichi knows now that, I want the Hanahaki Syndrome surgery would fall from his lips easily.
Because lies always do.
(Saihara-chan lets go.)