Fanfiction: Crowded (Danganronpa V3, Kokichi/Shuichi)
There are two aspects of Danganronpa V3 I haven't been able to stop thinking about recently:
- the optional scene where Kokichi pushes Shuichi onto a bed, and Shuichi is simultaneously terrified and turned on, and Kokichi goes 'lol just kidding' and runs away, and Shuichi's reaction is 'oh my God COME BACK YOU COCKTEASE.'
- a detail about Kokichi's bedroom that
keltena brought to my attention.
Here is the fic I was morally and legally obliged to write.
Title: Crowded
Fandom: Danganronpa V3
Rating: somewhere on the PG-13/R border
Pairing: Kokichi Oma/Shuichi Saihara
Wordcount: 2,200
Summary: Kokichi manages to tempt Shuichi into his bedroom. Shuichi is unsettled by what he finds there.
Warnings: It's hard to work out how to warn for this. Dubcon elements? Less dubcon than it looks like it's going to be at first.
Ding-dong!
Shuichi’s whole body tenses up every time his doorbell rings. It’s worse at times like this, early in the morning. They’re all going to meet for breakfast anyway, so why would someone come directly to his room? Did something happen in the night?
But there’s no reason for any more murders to be committed, is there? Kokichi already revealed the truth. They know there’s no outside world to get back to.
Did someone find Kaito?
He opens the door.
“Good moooorning, Shuichi!”
It’s Kokichi. It’s the mastermind, leaning casually against Shuichi’s doorframe and grinning at him. Shuichi’s heart jolts against his chest.
“Where’s Kaito?” Shuichi demands. “What have you done with-”
“Aww, Shuichi,” Kokichi says. “It really hurts my feelings when we get together and all you do is talk about your exes, you know that?”
“Where are you keeping him?”
“I threw him into space,” Kokichi says. “You know, as he was so desperate to go. He told me to give you a kiss from him.”
“If you’re not going to give me any answers, I’m shutting this door.”
“Well, then, maybe I’ll pay a visit to our delicious Maki Roll instead.”
Damn it. He can’t let Kokichi anywhere near Maki. She might actually kill him, and Shuichi has a strong suspicion the game won’t end with his death, not when Monokuma seems able to operate independently. They’ll be forced into a trial, and Maki will be executed. And what if they can’t find Kaito without Kokichi? What if Kaito starves?
“Leave Maki alone,” Shuichi says. “Just... come in before anyone sees you.”
“You know, that’s the kind of thing you’d say if you were about to kill me, join me or fuck me,” Kokichi says, obligingly strolling into Shuichi’s room. “I’m very excited to find out which it is.”
Shuichi closes the door, never taking his eyes off his visitor. “Why are you here, Kokichi?”
“Actually, I was hoping you’d do one of those three things,” Kokichi says. “Kill me, join me, fuck me. I’ll let you guess which.”
“I’ll never join you.”
“For the Ultimate Detective,” Kokichi says, “you’re pretty bad at this.”
Shuichi frowns. “You wouldn’t want... there’s no reason you’d want either of the other things, so...”
Kokichi folds his arms. “For the Ultimate Detective, you’re really bad at this.”
They look at each other for a moment.
“I’m hitting on you, Shuichi,” Kokichi says. “You’re a useless piece of garbage who wouldn’t know a come-on if someone literally came on you, and apparently I find that irresistible.”
Shuichi’s breathing changes at useless piece of garbage, in a way he’d prefer not to examine. He tries to take a step back and bumps into the closed door. There are a couple of feet between them, but Kokichi suddenly feels far too close.
“So here’s what I’m thinking,” Kokichi says, sitting on Shuichi’s bed, one leg crossed over the other. “You want something from me. I want something from you. The question is, how much do you want to see Kaito again?”
Shuichi could open the door, he could leave. There’s nothing stopping him, other than his understandable reluctance to leave Kokichi unsupervised in his room. But somehow he’s still here, back pressed against the door, his breathing strange and shallow.
“You’re saying-” He has to pause and swallow. “You’re saying you’ll kill Kaito unless I...?”
“You’re calling me a murderer, Shuichi?” Kokichi presses his hand to his chest, mock-offended. “Kaito will be fine.”
“Kaede,” Shuichi says. “Rantaro. Ryoma. Kirumi. Angie. Tenko. Kiyo. Miu. Gonta. Your game killed all of them.”
“Let’s not pretend Kiyo wouldn’t have murdered people either way,” Kokichi says. “Anyway, I’m not planning to kill anyone right now. There are only seven people left in the universe; it just gets boring with less than that.”
Shuichi tenses. “I’m glad we can entertain you.”
“I’m asking you to entertain me right now,” Kokichi says. “Are you going to let me into those oh-so-tight trousers or not?”
Shuichi glances down at himself, thrown. “They’re not - they’re not that tight.”
Kokichi laughs. “Oh, I wasn’t complaining.”
This can’t possibly be real. Can it? Kokichi couldn’t actually be interested in Shuichi in that way.
But he could want to humiliate Shuichi, he could want to corner him. Shuichi can believe that.
The thought sends a strange shiver through him.
“You said you won’t kill Kaito if I say no,” he says, to be sure.
“Oh, damn, I did say that, didn’t I?” Kokichi asks. “There goes my leverage. I guess I’m not blackmailing you into sex, then.”
“You could tell me where Kaito is in exchange,” Shuichi says, almost before he’s registered what he’s saying.
Kokichi cocks his head, with a delighted, malicious smile. “If I didn’t know better, Shuichi, I’d say you wanted to be pressured into a night of debauchery.”
He doesn’t. He doesn’t, does he?
The room is too warm and his head is a mess and he still doesn’t seem able to take a normal breath.
“Well,” Kokichi says, getting to his feet, “you won’t be getting that pressure from me.” His smile broadens into a grin. “Which isn’t to say that sex is off the table.”
He takes a few steps closer. Shuichi’s heart picks up, hard.
“It won’t make a difference to Kaito,” Kokichi says. “I’ll keep him as long as he amuses me; I’ll probably let him go when I start to miss watching you fawning over him like Gonta over a bug. Whether we bang or not, that’s up to you. I’m playing hard to get, Shuichi. I’m not going to let you get me without admitting you want me.”
He reaches towards Shuichi, and Shuichi’s insides seem to clench, to crumple inwards like tinfoil in someone’s fist. But Kokichi just reaches past him, to the handle of the door.
“Are you going to let me out?” Kokichi asks. “Because you could keep me here. If you wanted.”
Shuichi takes two deep breaths, or as deep as he can manage.
And then he steps to one side.
Kokichi pulls the door open and pauses for a moment, looking at him.
Just leave, Shuichi is thinking, just leave, don’t leave this choice in my hands any longer.
“I have a few things to take care of in my room,” Kokichi says. “If you start to miss me in the next hour or two, that’s where I’ll be.”
-
Shuichi can’t stop thinking about it.
It feels like a betrayal. Of Kaito, of Kaede, of everyone. But he can’t stop.
It’s been twenty minutes. He’s still standing where he was when Kokichi left him, his back against the wall; he’s not sure he’d be able to stay on his feet without it. Time is ticking past so slowly, and he wishes it’d reach the point where he can be sure Kokichi isn’t in his room any more, he wishes he didn’t have to be haunted by this possibility.
Maybe he won’t be free even then. When the opportunity’s gone, maybe he’ll just be haunted by the fact that he didn’t take it.
He’s not... he’s not in love with Kokichi, obviously. It’s nothing like that. But something about that interaction got under his skin, or maybe just under his clothes. Raked its nails up his back.
It’s not that he has feelings for Kokichi in particular. It’s that Kokichi hits the perfect combination of fear and suspense and humiliation to leave Shuichi trembling, and he obviously knows it.
Shuichi is trying very, very hard to stop being turned on through sheer force of will. It’s not working.
-
Kokichi takes just long enough to answer the door to put Shuichi very on edge. What if he isn’t there? What if he is? What is Shuichi doing here?
Eventually, though, Kokichi pulls the door open, sending Shuichi’s stomach and heart rocketing wildly off in different directions.
“Glad you could make it,” Kokichi says, smiling a little too widely. “So are you here to stop me, or are you here to get railed so hard you forget Kaito’s name?”
Shuichi hesitates. Is he doing this?
“Both?” he says.
Kokichi laughs. “I knew you couldn’t resist me. Maybe I should invite Kaito to watch.”
It’s a horrific thought (although it does not, troublingly, do anything to reduce Shuichi’s arousal). But if he could see Kaito, if he could have that assurance that he’s still alive...
“Maybe you should,” Shuichi says, trying to keep his voice level. It’s probably too late to pretend to be composed if he’s taking Kokichi up on his messed-up proposal.
“Nice try,” Kokichi says. He grips Shuichi’s shoulders, pulls him down to kiss him, and this is really happening, isn’t it? “We’ve got business to do, and I’m not going to go aaaaaaaall the way to fetch Kaito. It’ll totally kill the mood.”
So Kaito isn’t nearby, Shuichi concludes. Not being held in the dorms, at least. But he still keeps his eyes open for signs Kaito might have been here as Kokichi pulls him into the room, laughing quietly between kisses, a hand on the back of Shuichi’s neck.
It’s hard to be sure. Kokichi’s room is a mess. Cardboard boxes everywhere, documents scattered over the floor. And...
“Is that an inner tube?” Shuichi asks. “Is that Kirumi’s inner tube?”
“You didn’t think I wouldn’t keep trophies, did you?”
This is so fucked up. Shuichi needs to get out of here.
And yet somehow he can’t make himself leave, he’s still letting Kokichi manoeuvre him around. Fingers in his hair, hooking under his belt. He can’t breathe properly, he can’t concentrate.
Kokichi pushes him onto the bed, and Shuichi is suddenly very, very aware of an aspect of the room that previously escaped his notice. It was obscured, when he entered, by the corner of the bathroom, but it is extremely noticeable right now.
Rantaro is suspended upside-down over Kokichi’s bed.
Shuichi’s breath catches before he registers that, of course, it’s not the real Rantaro. It’s the wax effigy Angie created, eerily lifelike. Eerily above Kokichi’s bed.
“Okay,” Kokichi says. “Here’s the issue. I’m a sub, you’re a sub, we’re never going to get anywhere. So I’ll take charge, this time. But I am going to expect some reciprocation, Mr Detective.”
Shuichi stares up at Rantaro’s lifeless wax form.
“Kokichi,” he manages to say.
Kokichi kisses him, on the mouth, on the throat. Starts to undo the buttons of his jacket, and Shuichi feels the smirk against his skin when Kokichi clearly realises it’s already half-unbuttoned. Shuichi had kept catching himself unbuttoning it and doing it up again, determined not to touch himself while thinking of Kokichi. So much for that.
Rantaro watches the scene through wax eyes that are starting to feel increasingly disapproving.
“Kokichi,” Shuichi says. It’s a little difficult to form a coherent sentence right now, but he makes the effort. “Could you, uh, could you... could you... move Rantaro?”
Kokichi glances up. “Oh, he won’t bother us.”
“I think he’s bothering me already.”
Kokichi breathes very loudly into Shuichi’s ear. It’s not very sexy. Shuichi has a feeling it’s not supposed to be. It’s half a step short of just blowing in Shuichi’s ear.
Shuichi shifts uncomfortably against the bed. “I’m not - I’m not going to forget he’s there if you just ignore me.”
Kokichi sits back on Shuichi’s shins. “You’re so cold, Shuichi. We can’t just kick Rantaro out. How else am I supposed to get in the mood?”
Kokichi has you pinned down here, you’re in danger, Shuichi’s mind is hissing, as if he hadn’t made the conscious decision to put himself in this vulnerable position.
“Tell you what,” Kokichi says. “Knowing when to compromise is the foundation of any healthy relationship.” He reaches over the side of the bed and comes up with-
He comes up with-
He comes up with a hacksaw.
Shuichi’s blood runs cold.
“I want Rantaro here.” Kokichi reaches up from his position (still sitting on Shuichi’s legs, still keeping him trapped) and grabs Rantaro’s wax head. “You don’t.” He presses the hacksaw against Rantaro’s neck. “So we just need to find a middle ground that keeps everyone happy.”
Shuichi can only stare in wordless, frozen horror as Kokichi saws through the wax Rantaro’s throat. It takes several minutes, and Shuichi can’t move, can barely blink.
“See?” Kokichi says, hefting Rantaro’s too-lifelike head in his hand. “Now he can’t watch us.” He throws the head across the room. “But his body is still here, and that’s enough for me.”
Shuichi manages, with a great effort, to swallow.
“I think I’m going to leave now,” he says. His voice seems strangely small.
He thinks Kokichi might not let him go, and the idea digs claws into him in a way that he can’t entirely describe. But only a heartbeat passes before Kokichi climbs off him.
“Fine,” Kokichi says. “You owe me a Rantaro statue.”
Shuichi takes a moment to try to piece himself together. He can’t stop staring up at Rantaro’s dangling, headless body.
“I’ll be honest,” Kokichi says, laughter just under the surface of his voice: “I’m sorry we’re not doing this, but that was worth it.”
- the optional scene where Kokichi pushes Shuichi onto a bed, and Shuichi is simultaneously terrified and turned on, and Kokichi goes 'lol just kidding' and runs away, and Shuichi's reaction is 'oh my God COME BACK YOU COCKTEASE.'
- a detail about Kokichi's bedroom that
keltena brought to my attention.
Here is the fic I was morally and legally obliged to write.
Title: Crowded
Fandom: Danganronpa V3
Rating: somewhere on the PG-13/R border
Pairing: Kokichi Oma/Shuichi Saihara
Wordcount: 2,200
Summary: Kokichi manages to tempt Shuichi into his bedroom. Shuichi is unsettled by what he finds there.
Warnings: It's hard to work out how to warn for this. Dubcon elements? Less dubcon than it looks like it's going to be at first.
Ding-dong!
Shuichi’s whole body tenses up every time his doorbell rings. It’s worse at times like this, early in the morning. They’re all going to meet for breakfast anyway, so why would someone come directly to his room? Did something happen in the night?
But there’s no reason for any more murders to be committed, is there? Kokichi already revealed the truth. They know there’s no outside world to get back to.
Did someone find Kaito?
He opens the door.
“Good moooorning, Shuichi!”
It’s Kokichi. It’s the mastermind, leaning casually against Shuichi’s doorframe and grinning at him. Shuichi’s heart jolts against his chest.
“Where’s Kaito?” Shuichi demands. “What have you done with-”
“Aww, Shuichi,” Kokichi says. “It really hurts my feelings when we get together and all you do is talk about your exes, you know that?”
“Where are you keeping him?”
“I threw him into space,” Kokichi says. “You know, as he was so desperate to go. He told me to give you a kiss from him.”
“If you’re not going to give me any answers, I’m shutting this door.”
“Well, then, maybe I’ll pay a visit to our delicious Maki Roll instead.”
Damn it. He can’t let Kokichi anywhere near Maki. She might actually kill him, and Shuichi has a strong suspicion the game won’t end with his death, not when Monokuma seems able to operate independently. They’ll be forced into a trial, and Maki will be executed. And what if they can’t find Kaito without Kokichi? What if Kaito starves?
“Leave Maki alone,” Shuichi says. “Just... come in before anyone sees you.”
“You know, that’s the kind of thing you’d say if you were about to kill me, join me or fuck me,” Kokichi says, obligingly strolling into Shuichi’s room. “I’m very excited to find out which it is.”
Shuichi closes the door, never taking his eyes off his visitor. “Why are you here, Kokichi?”
“Actually, I was hoping you’d do one of those three things,” Kokichi says. “Kill me, join me, fuck me. I’ll let you guess which.”
“I’ll never join you.”
“For the Ultimate Detective,” Kokichi says, “you’re pretty bad at this.”
Shuichi frowns. “You wouldn’t want... there’s no reason you’d want either of the other things, so...”
Kokichi folds his arms. “For the Ultimate Detective, you’re really bad at this.”
They look at each other for a moment.
“I’m hitting on you, Shuichi,” Kokichi says. “You’re a useless piece of garbage who wouldn’t know a come-on if someone literally came on you, and apparently I find that irresistible.”
Shuichi’s breathing changes at useless piece of garbage, in a way he’d prefer not to examine. He tries to take a step back and bumps into the closed door. There are a couple of feet between them, but Kokichi suddenly feels far too close.
“So here’s what I’m thinking,” Kokichi says, sitting on Shuichi’s bed, one leg crossed over the other. “You want something from me. I want something from you. The question is, how much do you want to see Kaito again?”
Shuichi could open the door, he could leave. There’s nothing stopping him, other than his understandable reluctance to leave Kokichi unsupervised in his room. But somehow he’s still here, back pressed against the door, his breathing strange and shallow.
“You’re saying-” He has to pause and swallow. “You’re saying you’ll kill Kaito unless I...?”
“You’re calling me a murderer, Shuichi?” Kokichi presses his hand to his chest, mock-offended. “Kaito will be fine.”
“Kaede,” Shuichi says. “Rantaro. Ryoma. Kirumi. Angie. Tenko. Kiyo. Miu. Gonta. Your game killed all of them.”
“Let’s not pretend Kiyo wouldn’t have murdered people either way,” Kokichi says. “Anyway, I’m not planning to kill anyone right now. There are only seven people left in the universe; it just gets boring with less than that.”
Shuichi tenses. “I’m glad we can entertain you.”
“I’m asking you to entertain me right now,” Kokichi says. “Are you going to let me into those oh-so-tight trousers or not?”
Shuichi glances down at himself, thrown. “They’re not - they’re not that tight.”
Kokichi laughs. “Oh, I wasn’t complaining.”
This can’t possibly be real. Can it? Kokichi couldn’t actually be interested in Shuichi in that way.
But he could want to humiliate Shuichi, he could want to corner him. Shuichi can believe that.
The thought sends a strange shiver through him.
“You said you won’t kill Kaito if I say no,” he says, to be sure.
“Oh, damn, I did say that, didn’t I?” Kokichi asks. “There goes my leverage. I guess I’m not blackmailing you into sex, then.”
“You could tell me where Kaito is in exchange,” Shuichi says, almost before he’s registered what he’s saying.
Kokichi cocks his head, with a delighted, malicious smile. “If I didn’t know better, Shuichi, I’d say you wanted to be pressured into a night of debauchery.”
He doesn’t. He doesn’t, does he?
The room is too warm and his head is a mess and he still doesn’t seem able to take a normal breath.
“Well,” Kokichi says, getting to his feet, “you won’t be getting that pressure from me.” His smile broadens into a grin. “Which isn’t to say that sex is off the table.”
He takes a few steps closer. Shuichi’s heart picks up, hard.
“It won’t make a difference to Kaito,” Kokichi says. “I’ll keep him as long as he amuses me; I’ll probably let him go when I start to miss watching you fawning over him like Gonta over a bug. Whether we bang or not, that’s up to you. I’m playing hard to get, Shuichi. I’m not going to let you get me without admitting you want me.”
He reaches towards Shuichi, and Shuichi’s insides seem to clench, to crumple inwards like tinfoil in someone’s fist. But Kokichi just reaches past him, to the handle of the door.
“Are you going to let me out?” Kokichi asks. “Because you could keep me here. If you wanted.”
Shuichi takes two deep breaths, or as deep as he can manage.
And then he steps to one side.
Kokichi pulls the door open and pauses for a moment, looking at him.
Just leave, Shuichi is thinking, just leave, don’t leave this choice in my hands any longer.
“I have a few things to take care of in my room,” Kokichi says. “If you start to miss me in the next hour or two, that’s where I’ll be.”
-
Shuichi can’t stop thinking about it.
It feels like a betrayal. Of Kaito, of Kaede, of everyone. But he can’t stop.
It’s been twenty minutes. He’s still standing where he was when Kokichi left him, his back against the wall; he’s not sure he’d be able to stay on his feet without it. Time is ticking past so slowly, and he wishes it’d reach the point where he can be sure Kokichi isn’t in his room any more, he wishes he didn’t have to be haunted by this possibility.
Maybe he won’t be free even then. When the opportunity’s gone, maybe he’ll just be haunted by the fact that he didn’t take it.
He’s not... he’s not in love with Kokichi, obviously. It’s nothing like that. But something about that interaction got under his skin, or maybe just under his clothes. Raked its nails up his back.
It’s not that he has feelings for Kokichi in particular. It’s that Kokichi hits the perfect combination of fear and suspense and humiliation to leave Shuichi trembling, and he obviously knows it.
Shuichi is trying very, very hard to stop being turned on through sheer force of will. It’s not working.
-
Kokichi takes just long enough to answer the door to put Shuichi very on edge. What if he isn’t there? What if he is? What is Shuichi doing here?
Eventually, though, Kokichi pulls the door open, sending Shuichi’s stomach and heart rocketing wildly off in different directions.
“Glad you could make it,” Kokichi says, smiling a little too widely. “So are you here to stop me, or are you here to get railed so hard you forget Kaito’s name?”
Shuichi hesitates. Is he doing this?
“Both?” he says.
Kokichi laughs. “I knew you couldn’t resist me. Maybe I should invite Kaito to watch.”
It’s a horrific thought (although it does not, troublingly, do anything to reduce Shuichi’s arousal). But if he could see Kaito, if he could have that assurance that he’s still alive...
“Maybe you should,” Shuichi says, trying to keep his voice level. It’s probably too late to pretend to be composed if he’s taking Kokichi up on his messed-up proposal.
“Nice try,” Kokichi says. He grips Shuichi’s shoulders, pulls him down to kiss him, and this is really happening, isn’t it? “We’ve got business to do, and I’m not going to go aaaaaaaall the way to fetch Kaito. It’ll totally kill the mood.”
So Kaito isn’t nearby, Shuichi concludes. Not being held in the dorms, at least. But he still keeps his eyes open for signs Kaito might have been here as Kokichi pulls him into the room, laughing quietly between kisses, a hand on the back of Shuichi’s neck.
It’s hard to be sure. Kokichi’s room is a mess. Cardboard boxes everywhere, documents scattered over the floor. And...
“Is that an inner tube?” Shuichi asks. “Is that Kirumi’s inner tube?”
“You didn’t think I wouldn’t keep trophies, did you?”
This is so fucked up. Shuichi needs to get out of here.
And yet somehow he can’t make himself leave, he’s still letting Kokichi manoeuvre him around. Fingers in his hair, hooking under his belt. He can’t breathe properly, he can’t concentrate.
Kokichi pushes him onto the bed, and Shuichi is suddenly very, very aware of an aspect of the room that previously escaped his notice. It was obscured, when he entered, by the corner of the bathroom, but it is extremely noticeable right now.
Rantaro is suspended upside-down over Kokichi’s bed.
Shuichi’s breath catches before he registers that, of course, it’s not the real Rantaro. It’s the wax effigy Angie created, eerily lifelike. Eerily above Kokichi’s bed.
“Okay,” Kokichi says. “Here’s the issue. I’m a sub, you’re a sub, we’re never going to get anywhere. So I’ll take charge, this time. But I am going to expect some reciprocation, Mr Detective.”
Shuichi stares up at Rantaro’s lifeless wax form.
“Kokichi,” he manages to say.
Kokichi kisses him, on the mouth, on the throat. Starts to undo the buttons of his jacket, and Shuichi feels the smirk against his skin when Kokichi clearly realises it’s already half-unbuttoned. Shuichi had kept catching himself unbuttoning it and doing it up again, determined not to touch himself while thinking of Kokichi. So much for that.
Rantaro watches the scene through wax eyes that are starting to feel increasingly disapproving.
“Kokichi,” Shuichi says. It’s a little difficult to form a coherent sentence right now, but he makes the effort. “Could you, uh, could you... could you... move Rantaro?”
Kokichi glances up. “Oh, he won’t bother us.”
“I think he’s bothering me already.”
Kokichi breathes very loudly into Shuichi’s ear. It’s not very sexy. Shuichi has a feeling it’s not supposed to be. It’s half a step short of just blowing in Shuichi’s ear.
Shuichi shifts uncomfortably against the bed. “I’m not - I’m not going to forget he’s there if you just ignore me.”
Kokichi sits back on Shuichi’s shins. “You’re so cold, Shuichi. We can’t just kick Rantaro out. How else am I supposed to get in the mood?”
Kokichi has you pinned down here, you’re in danger, Shuichi’s mind is hissing, as if he hadn’t made the conscious decision to put himself in this vulnerable position.
“Tell you what,” Kokichi says. “Knowing when to compromise is the foundation of any healthy relationship.” He reaches over the side of the bed and comes up with-
He comes up with-
He comes up with a hacksaw.
Shuichi’s blood runs cold.
“I want Rantaro here.” Kokichi reaches up from his position (still sitting on Shuichi’s legs, still keeping him trapped) and grabs Rantaro’s wax head. “You don’t.” He presses the hacksaw against Rantaro’s neck. “So we just need to find a middle ground that keeps everyone happy.”
Shuichi can only stare in wordless, frozen horror as Kokichi saws through the wax Rantaro’s throat. It takes several minutes, and Shuichi can’t move, can barely blink.
“See?” Kokichi says, hefting Rantaro’s too-lifelike head in his hand. “Now he can’t watch us.” He throws the head across the room. “But his body is still here, and that’s enough for me.”
Shuichi manages, with a great effort, to swallow.
“I think I’m going to leave now,” he says. His voice seems strangely small.
He thinks Kokichi might not let him go, and the idea digs claws into him in a way that he can’t entirely describe. But only a heartbeat passes before Kokichi climbs off him.
“Fine,” Kokichi says. “You owe me a Rantaro statue.”
Shuichi takes a moment to try to piece himself together. He can’t stop staring up at Rantaro’s dangling, headless body.
“I’ll be honest,” Kokichi says, laughter just under the surface of his voice: “I’m sorry we’re not doing this, but that was worth it.”