This Is Not Okay

This is Torture

The comfortable bed provided a faint sense of relief for Shuichi as Tojo, Harukawa, the Amamis and the Akamatsus led him into Tojo's dorm. Concern filled every orifice of his best friends and they didn't attempt to obscure it.

"Do you mind if I remove your shirt and jacket?" Tojo asked as she rested a hand on Shuichi's uninjured shoulder. In between focusing on the knife in his shoulder and breathing deeply, Shuichi barely heard the Ultimate Maid. He nodded and began unbuttoning his jacket with his free arm, helping Tojo remove his upper clothes whilst keeping them hanging from his injury.

Under normal circumstances, others seeing his warped torso would mortify Shuichi, but anxiety tended to disappear when you had a knife embedded in your body. Nothing mattered to his mind aside from the pain in his shoulder, throbbing with each heartbeat.

"Woah!" Akamatsu Kokomi gasped, covering her mouth with a pale hand. "That's a nasty scar! You have a bunch of them!"

"Do you want to die?" Harukawa spat, shooting the woman a glare that would make Satan himself beg on his knees for mercy. "Don't say that like he doesn't already know."

Shuichi ignored the conversation and focused on maneuvering his arm whilst Tojo attempted to remove his clothes from the knife's grip. She further ripped the outfit, although not by much, and Shuichi didn't give a shit about it anyway. He hissed gently as she removed his clothes, revealing small streaks of blood that escaped the knife which acted as a plug.

"Lift your arm as much as you can, please," Tojo requested. Shuichi responded by following her order although he wasn't strong enough to move it much. Amami reached forward, taking a seat beside his friend to help keep Shuichi's arm in the air.

With a warning that Shuichi didn't process until the last moment, Tojo slowly removed the knife and dropped it onto the detective's ruined items. He watched her drop antiseptic onto a cotton bud before dabbing it over his wound, making Shuichi yelp and squirm in pain. To try and dull the horrid stinging sensation, Shuichi bit down on his thumb and squeezed his eyes shut. Amami's grip on his arm tightened, preventing the patient from pulling away.

As Tojo finished her task, she turned to Harukawa and allowed Shuichi to recover from the mental anguish. "I do not have numbing cream, is that going to be a problem?" The maid asked. Harukawa followed, declaring that she would perform the stitches instead of Tojo - who made it known that she'd never done them. Shuichi didn't care who did them as long as he could return the blade to his boyfriend.

Shuichi wasn't too fond of the idea, but he also wasn't too fond of bleeding to death either. "Do what you need to," he muttered and kept his gaze on the floor, thumb resting on his bottom lip.

Harukawa nodded and searched Tojo's medicinal belongings, pulling out a needle and sutures. It was a little odd how the ultimates could find anything when they needed it, but Shuichi didn't want to focus on that right now. "This is going to hurt, especially with your pain tolerance," she warned the detective. "Hold him tight."

"Maybe he doesn't need stitches?" Akamatsu Kokomi argued with wide eyes. Her sister seemed just as terrified but didn't voice any concerns. "There might be a better way to do this! You know... Without the pain?"

"No," Harukawa responded. "It's not a wide wound, but it's deep." Both Amami and his mother held Shuichi tight, keeping him sitting in place. The woman gently eased his hand from his mouth, pinning it to Shuichi's side.

A whimper fell from Shuichi's throat as he felt the needle pierce his skin without any warning. Fuck, he wasn't prepared enough for this. His shoulder burned white, adrenaline surging through his veins as he unintentionally squirmed. The pain was almost unbearable, but the adrenaline helped him manage, along with the urge to faint as he felt the sutures move beneath his skin.

It felt like forever but Harukawa finished quickly and stepped back, allowing Tojo to apply gauze and begin dressing the wound. Shuichi felt his head bob as he tried to shake his lightheaded aura. Amami's mother rubbed circles on his back as the two released him from their grip. "You're doing so well, everything's over now." Those words stabbed deep into Shuichi's heart, a place he didn't know existed. A place awakened by a mother's loving words, ones he'd yet to experience... Now he knew where Amami's charisma originated.

"May I repair your clothes, Shuichi?" Tojo asked as she cleaned her mess, folding the ripped and bloody clothing. Shuichi didn't answer, prompting the woman to pick up his clothes to prepare them for mending.

"I'll go get you a new shirt!" Akamatsu Kaede offered with a wide grin. Shuichi was about to let her, hesitant to walk around in public without a shirt, but then he remembered his... uh... secret.

Jumping up, he ignored the way that the room spun and grabbed his friend's arm to stop her from leaving. "N-No, it's okay! I'll do it!" He smiled, ignoring the confused glances from everyone around him. "I'm okay."

"You need rest," Amami argued.

"I need to investigate," Shuichi countered. "The least I should be able to do is walk to my room." He averted his gaze to the ground again, carefully filtering his thoughts so he didn't reveal anything incriminating.

"He is the Ultimate Detective," Harukawa muttered before leaving the room in a single, swift flash. She moved like the night, which Shuichi thought odd for the supposed Ultimate Child Caregiver...

"We're not letting you out of arm's reach then," Amami frowned. Akamatsu nodded, crossing her arms with a pout as the two glared at their best friend.

"It wasn't Kagehara's fault," Shuichi whispered. He felt like a young child after their teacher called home to report disruptive behaviour.

"We're not saying it was, but we can't risk leaving you alone right now. Not just because of your injury..." Akamatsu sighed and rubbed Shuichi's uninjured upper arm. Pulling away, Shuichi tried to leave the room but as soon as he took a single step the dorm flipped upside down and he tripped. Amami's mother hurried to catch him, cradling him as he regained his vision. The shock and adrenaline began wearing off and Shuichi realised that he wasn't okay, his shoulder burned and his head was fuzzy. Despite this, he wasn't about to give up on his mission.

"You need to rest," Amami reiterated.

"I need to investigate," Shuichi repeated in a harsher tone. "Please."

Amami's mother rubbed Shuichi's lower arm, keeping a soft hold on him. It felt uncomfortable, Shuichi didn't appreciate the contact, but he didn't want to offend her by saying anything. "I understand that you may feel responsible for your father's-"

"I don't give a shit about him!" Shuichi shouted, stepping out of the woman's grasp. He maintained direct eye contact with each person momentarily, his fringe creating a dark shadow over his bowed head. "Just let me do what I can to save everyone else," he added in a whisper. The detective had one mission and he wouldn't fail, he couldn't. No matter how much the truth would hurt him, no matter how much he wanted to pretend that none of his friends could be a murderer, the evidence stared him in the face. How could he kill everyone when he'd uncovered the murderer upon seeing his father's corpse? That wasn't what it meant to enforce justice as a detective.

The room fell silent, people shifting awkwardly as no one dared make eye contact with anyone. Shuichi rarely raised his voice, his anxiety made him too embarrassed to bring attention to himself, but people behaved differently when lives were endangered. Especially when you're a detective and everyone seems to be focusing on that aspect rather than investigating themselves.

Taking the cue, Shuichi turned and left the room. He stumbled through the main foyer toward his room beside Tojo's, only stairs separating the two. At least he didn't need to descend a staircase, his shock-hazed mind wouldn't appreciate that much.

Now he needed to prepare himself for the class trial. The investigation phase was a cake walk and there'd be a lot of evidence he'd need to back up his claims. His issue lay in who those claims likely targeted.