What if it Repeated? (Oumasai/Saiouma)

Chapter 3- 2/3

He and Kokichi spent the rest of the afternoon coming up with and telling Kirumi bizarre orders. They had a surprising amount of fun thinking of new things and seeing if Kirumi would do them. The only problem was how quickly she was getting through them. Kokichi had even lied about this giant spider he had 'supposedly' seen in the game room and Kirumi had come out 10 minutes later with a spider fitting Kokichi's exact description. They kept this up until the nighttime announcement when Kirumi finally said she was going to bed and bid them farewell.

"Do you think that will do it?" Shuuichi voiced once Kirumi had entered and closed her dorm room door. Kokichi looked at him and shrugged,
"I guess we'll see." Worry began to creep into every part of his body. They had done what they could. "We can go wait in Ryoma's lab, I can't wait!" They made their way up to the lab in silence. As they made it up the first flight of stairs Shuuichi stopped.

The piano patterned door faced him. Kokichi had noticed he had stopped and backtracked to stand next to him.
"I couldn't save her or Rantaro... I tried and she wouldn't listen." He looked at the dark figure next to him that was Kokichi. He heard a sigh,
"What you're trying to do isn't easy. To sway someone's opinion and actions isn't something you can just change. Kaede wanted to kill the mastermind, that idiot felt strongly about that and wasn't going to back down from it. She probably suspected it was never going to work from the beginning, the outcome was too good to be true, for us all to escape, to be free, but it wasn't going to stop her from trying if there was a small chance of success. Rantaro paid the price for her gamble."
"What are you getting at?" There was another heavy sigh from Kokichi,
"For a detective you really are slow, Shuuchi. I'm saying that you would never have been able to stop that murder. I do have a little advice though," Shuuichi looked at the dark mass beside him curiously. He could only just make out Kokichi's eyes in the dark and they had the same sinister look to them, "If you want to manipulate someone, you have get into their head before they start making opinions. Make them believe what you want them to by making them think it's the only option."

They made their way up to Ryoma's lab and positioned themselves behind some boxes where they could see without the risk of being seen themselves. Kokichi's words playing around in his head the whole way there. 'Making them think it's the only option' it was a lot easier said than done. How was he supposed to have made Kaede feel as though killing the mastermind was never an option? He took a deep breath. There wasn't any point dwelling on it now, he was guessing it was close to 12:00 which was when Kirumi had met up with Ryoma the first time. What if it didn't work, what if Kirumi still killed Ryoma? His body shook violently and he felt ill. This feeling was much how he had felt when he knew what Kaede had been planning a couple of days prior.

A felt something soft on his hand and he looked down quickly to find what had touched him.
"If you keep shaking like that you're gonna make me nervous too," Kokichi muttered softly, and gave Shuuichi's hand a little squeeze. The small gesture of comfort from Kokichi made his body relax slightly. He just had block out everything and focus on something else. Kokichi rubbed the back of his knuckles softly. Shuuchi allowed himself to close his eyes to the touch. He let out a steady breath and opened an eye to look at Kokichi's shadowed mass. He could only just make out his eyes in the almost complete darkness.

"Don't leave." The words had come out of his mouth before he knew what he was saying. He at once wished he hadn't said them. He had just been thinking about how Kokichi had turned out in the end, how Kaede -the person he was closest to- had died even with his intervention. If Kokichi was to go like he had before, he didn't know what he'd do. And unfortunately for him, these feelings had come out in the form of a cheesy phrase. Kokichi hand froze and he could see his dark eyes focus on him.
"Huh? I could've left whenever I wanted. And I'm still here right?" Kokichi pulled his hand onto his own lap and held it tight, "this has been a lot more fun than I first thought, if you wanna keep me with you then I suggest we bring snacks next time you invite me somewhere!"

Shuuchi smiled and nodded, then remembering that Kokichi probably couldn't see this replied,
"We'll bring lots." Kokichi giggled, but it was quickly stifled as there was a clicking sound from very close to them. Shuuichi was the only one who jumped, but he did feel the pressure on his hand increase. The door swung open to reveal a small figure, Ryoma. It must be 12:00.
"Kirumi?" His deep voice reverberated around the room, but there was no answering voice.

Everything would be fine. After a few minutes of waiting, Ryoma would hopefully give up on Kirumi showing up and return back to his room. He watched Ryoma stand in the middle of the room looking around curiously, none the wiser. Kokichi moved swiftly. He was on top of him within a second, a hand clasped firmly over Shuuichi's mouth so he couldn't speak. Shuuichi hit the floor surprisingly gently as Kokichi used his other hand to stifle the fall. He made a muffled sound of annoyance, but then he saw it and the noise got caught in his throat. The reason Kokichi had for acting like this. If Kokichi's hand hadn't been covering his mouth there was no telling what he would've done. There was a shadow creeping up behind the short figure in the middle of the room. He looked up pleadingly at the boy on top of him, but only received a shake of the head in return. Shuuichi wasn't sure what he'd do if he if he could get up, but he didn't want to watch it. He shut his eyes tight and waited.

After a few seconds of anticipation, there was a loud thwacking sound and all sound stopped again.
"I'm sorry..." the strained voice of Kirumi could be heard from their hiding spot, "but I have to get out of here. No matter what." Once Kirumi had left the larger room to the smaller washroom in the back, Kokichi slid the hand away from Shuuichi's mouth and got off him. He didn't say a word, but there was something off about him.
"W-we need to get out of here..." Shuuichi whispered shakily. Kokichi simply looked at him his eyes having an unusual foggy look to them. "Kokichi?" He positioned himself into a kneeling position and leaned closer to Kokichi. When Kokichi didn't do anything he lightly shook him. "We need to go." He said with a little more force. The sound of a tap sounded and the splash of water hitting a large basin.