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The light circling Shuichi dissipated, dizziness fading as he admired the room around him. Digital, bright, and horribly artificial; nothing looked real. He was amazed--after all, his consciousness had just been transferred into a digital program; it was difficult not to be awestruck.
A few moments later, more circles of light began to appear in the room, and as they dissipated, too, Shuichi could make out the forms of his friends: Kaito’s spiked hair, Gonta’s slightly bigger physique, Miu’s goggles, and Kokichi’s curls
Everyone had arrived, and Shuichi marveled at how much detail the avatars had, despite them being exceptionally small. Gonta was just slightly taller than everyone else, and Himiko was just slightly shorter, yet every little detail of the uniforms remained present and of good quality.
Shuichi’s gaze trailed across the room, inspecting the forms of his peers: Maki, K1-B0, Gonta, Tsumugi, Miu, Kaito, Himiko, and--
Kokichi.
The short(ish) boy was standing nonchalantly, observing the other Ultimates around him with a neutral expression. Shuichi’s face immediately flushed and he looked away from the group.
Kokichi was so adorable !
All of Kokichi’s features that Shuichi found most adorable had been accentuated: his button nose, the curls in his hair, his small, child-like build, it was all too much for Shuichi.
Everyone besides Shuichi, Kokichi, and Kaito had dispersed to explore the virtual world, and Kaito immediately began shouting.
Apparently, Kaito wasn’t as experienced in hiding his feelings--not that everyone wasn’t aware of that already--and rushed over to Kokichi.
“Dude, look at you! You’re so…”
Kokichi’s expression warned Kaito of the dangers in continuing that sentence. Kaito didn’t acknowledge that.
“You’re so cute lookin’!”
Shuichi chuckled to himself. He actually said it.
Kokichi’s scowl would have killed Shuichi if it were directed at him, but Kaito had no such weakness, as he continued raving over Kokichi and how cute he looked.
Kaito stopped ranting, and the room was dead silent for several moments before Kokichi grinned. Shuichi’s brows furrowed in confusion, the cogs in his mind turning as he tried to piece together what Kokichi thought of to make him crack that malicious smile (that didn’t look as intimidating with his big eyes and small eyebrows and that button nose that scrunched ever-so-slightly like it always did when Kokichi smiled.)
Suddenly, Kokichi lunged at Kaito and tackled him to the ground, the astronaut hitting the ground and making a soft grunt in pain.
“J-Jeez, dude, what’s with you?!” he shouted. Kokichi stood atop the taller(ish) man victoriously.
“Isn’t this awesome, Shumai?! Miu did say we all have equal strength now, but wowza , this is more fun than I thought it was gonna be!” Kokichi shouted, obviously very happy with himself. Kaito pushed Kokichi off of him, sending the leader down to the floor next to him with a loud yelp.
“Even in the virtual world, you’re light as air, dude,” Kaito commented, the pair sitting up and hissing in pain. Shuichi giggled to himself, as he usually did at their antics.
“Yeah, idiot, I wouldn’t be able to escape the cops if I wasn’t,” Kokichi winced, standing up and rubbing his back for a moment, the lie rolling off his tongue as easily as the truth. Kaito rolled his eyes, cracked his back, and looked around the room again.
“So this is pretty crazy.”
“Ah, yeah…”
“‘Course it is, stupid.”
Kaito’s head snapped over to Kokichi, who was sneering at him again. “Hey! I’m not stupid! C’mon, why does everyone call me that?” he whined, sounding defeated at the end of his complaint. Shuichi put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. He, at least, thought Kaito was quite clever--getting into the space program at his age and taking the courses involved wasn’t a feat just anyone could pull off.
“I don’t think you’re stupid,” Shuichi offered. Kaito smiled. “Thanks, sidekick! At least someone respects me!” the jacket-clad Ultimate shot an accusatory glare at Kokichi, who stuck his tongue out in return.
“So, we should go check this place out, right?” Kokichi asked, starting towards the door. Kaito rushed to follow him, slowing his pace as he caught up with Kokichi, grinning and starting small talk as they walked to the door, the Ultimate Supreme Leader looking up at the Ultimate Astronaut with what could have been genuine interest. Shuichi also caught up with them, joining in on the conversation as they all walked about the virtual mansion.
°•×•°
Kaito had suddenly been removed from the virtual reality, Kokichi and Shuichi staring at the circle of light where the taller man had once been in shock.
“Noooo!! My beloved Kaito is- is-! He’s DEAD!!!” Kokichi wailed, getting on his knees in front of where the circle was and punching the ground dramatically. Shuichi sighed.
“It’s fine. I’m sure it was just an error,” he reasoned. Kokichi popped back up with a cheeky, tear-soaked grin.
“Ohh, okay! Thank you, Shuichi, I feel much better now!” he said cheerfully. Shuichi just gave him a small nod, kindly conveying his lack of interest in Kokichi's theatrics.
Suddenly, the door to the roof opened, and Miu walked out, her hair and skirt swaying against the frigid winds. She saw the duo there and stopped in her tracks.
"W-What the hell, you shota?! You weren't supposed to bring anyone with you!" she shouted angrily. Shuichi looked between Miu's furious glare and Kokichi's condescending sneer in confusion.
Did they plan to meet up here? But… why?
"You really think I'd trust meeting up with you here unprotected? How dumb do you think I am?!" Kokichi shot back, before his hateful glare morphed into something more… sinister. "Actually, scratch that– How dumb are you ?"
Miu's expression quickly shifted into horror, and she pulled one of her hands forward in a physical surrender. "I-I wasn't gonna try anything! I just wanted to talk to you about the program, t-that's it!" she rambled. It was a lie, plain to see, at least for Shuichi. Though the detective was certain Kokichi knew it too.
"What's that behind your back, then? Huh? Why you only got one hand up?" Kokichi asked innocently, tilting his head to the side—Shuichi almost became mesmerized by the way his curled hair bounced as he did so—and Miu's face somehow got paler.
Then, it got red as her face scrunched up into an expression of hatred and fury. She whipped her other hand out from behind her, revealing a hammer.
"Yeah, I brought a hammer! What about it?! I didn't know if your twink ass was gonna try anything!" she spat.
Shuichi perked up. "No, that's wrong!" he shouted. Miu recoiled and dropped her hands. Kokichi looked over at him, waiting for him to explain what all three parties already knew.
"You said you deleted any and all harmful objects here!" Shuichi shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at the Ultimate Inventor, who had begun to tremble slightly. "You had to have intentionally left that hammer, and only you could have known, so you-..." he trailed off, both Miu and Kokichi's expression darkening.
"...you were going to try and kill Kokichi."
Several seconds of silence passed before Miu flared up defensively like an angry cat.
"S-Shut the hell up!" she spat. "Of course I would try to kill that g-grape twink! Who wouldn't ?! He's just a problem, and the world needs my- my genius!" the blonde girl rambled, gesturing to Kokichi as if he were a lowly bug inconveniencing her.
Horror shot through Shuichi's body. Kokichi and Miu had always argued, but they had their caring moments. When Miu was suffering after Kaede's execution, Kokichi had been there with tissues and excessive amounts of candy. Kokichi would definitely deny ever caring about Miu's feelings, but Shuichi could see how concerned he was for someone he'd considered something akin to a friend.
Why would Miu try to kill? And why would she try to kill Kokichi ? They were friends, weren't they?
Despite the insults being thrown at him, Kokichi's nonchalant grin didn't falter. He just… smiled . He just stood there and smiled as Miu hurled disgusting words at him and wished death upon him repeatedly.
Shuichi's lips pursed in a sorrowful expression of pain while he watched Kokichi's lips tremble as if he were barely forcing his smile to persevere. Under any other circumstances, he surely would've been gushing over how that smile looked impossibly cuter than normal on his avatar, but it was difficult to acknowledge anything but the way Kokichi struggled to keep it up.
Finally, Shuichi had had enough and snapped his head toward Miu, expression angry—or as angry as he could bring himself to make it, his avatar being as chibi as it was—and he did something he hadn't done for as long as he could recall:
Shuichi screamed .
" STOP IT !!"
Dead silence.
The Ultimate Detective huffed as he caught his breath, his glare at Miu never wavering. He could breathe again, and took that privilege—one many of his peers no longer had—to stand up for Kokichi when he wouldn't do it himself. The shorter boy stared up at Shuichi in what seemed like a mixture of awe and shock.
"You have no right to be saying these things about him," he said firmly. Miu's brows furrowed tighter as she scowled at him. As difficult as it was, Shuichi refused to stand down. "Kokichi jokes and teases us, sure, but he hasn't done anything unforgivable. And he certainly hasn't done anything to deserve your… your hatred . He was there for you after Kaede, I saw it!"
Miu scoffed. "You weren't there, for all you know, be coulda been banging me into next week! He coulda been beating the shit outta me, you don't know!"
"Bet you'd like that, huh~?"
"Kokichi," Shuichi warned. The violette silenced. He turned his attention back to Miu. "I saw him enter your dorm with arms full of tissue boxes and candy bags. And I heard loud sobbing when he opened the door. I assume that was you?"
Miu's expression unraveled into one of shock. Kokichi looked away, probably chastising himself for letting anyone else see that side of him. Shuichi assumed he also took drastic measures to keep Miu quiet afterward.
"I don't think he's been anything but a friend to you, so tell me, please ," he begged. "Why would you attempt something like this…?"
Miu was silent for some moments before she scoffed again.
"I already told you, the world needs me! Dammit… Now I'm really stuck here. Fuck you, Hoe-kichi, go tattle to your boy-toy somewhere else!" Miu turned, dropped the hammer (probably so Shuichi wouldn't pursue her), and left with her middle finger raised high.
Shuichi sighed in either relief or exhaustion, and let his shoulders slump before he directed his attention to Kokichi.
He also chose to ignore the racing of his heart, and the hurt it felt at the fact that Kokichi would have died in his absence.
The curly-haired boy was staring at the door from which Miu exited with a completely blank expression. Shuichi grabbed a hold of the Supreme Leader's hand. Kokichi looked up at him, enlarged purple eyes meeting Shuichi's reassuring smile.
"Are you alright?" he asked kindly. Kokichi smiled. "'Course I am!" he responded.
Shuichi nodded. "I know that must have hurt, but you always have Kaito and I. I'm sure you were an amazing friend to Miu; she doesn't know what she's missing."
Kokichi shrugged. "'Course she doesn't. I call her a pea-brained bitchlet for a reason, y'know," he said casually. Shuichi gave a soft chuckle.
"Sure. Do you wanna head back to the real world now? We can get Kaito and sleep in my dorm tonight," he offered. Kokichi looked up at him with stars in his eyes—something Kaito would've appreciated, had he been there.
"Duh-doy! Let's go, servant!"
°•×•°
Shuichi had trashed the poison bottle planted on Kokichi's chair, pieced together Miu's plan to frame Kaito, and warned all the others about the inventor's attempted murder. Meanwhile, Kokichi had gone to Shuichi's room together with Kaito.
Now, all three of them were together in the Ultimate Detective's dorm, Shuichi and Kaito chatting about whatever came to mind while Kokichi slept away peacefully between them.
Shuichi shifted positions, moving to prop his upper body up on his left elbow, looking down to admire Kokichi's face as Kaito stopped talking.
"How does someone end up so pretty?" Shuichi asked—a rather bold thing for him to say, but he could always blame it on the stress of that day. Kaito shrugged.
"I dunno, how do you do it?"
There goes that confidence, Shuichi thought dismally as his face flushed a deep red. He flopped down on the bed, wrapping his arms around Kokichi and hiding his face in the leader's cotton candy-scented hair.
"I'm not pretty," he pouted as Kaito gave a hearty laugh from across the bed. He felt another pair of arms wrap around Kokichi's waist. "Sure you aren't," Kaito complied, voice muffled from also being buried in Kokichi's hair.
Kokichi seemed to process the warmth of two bodies sandwiching him, as he gave a small content sigh, gently wrapping his arms around Shuichi and turning his head slightly closer to Kaito's shoulder. Shuichi giggled and pressed a soft kiss to the crown of Kokichi's head before returning his head to where it belonged: nuzzled into Kokichi's soft, sweet-scented curls.
Eventually, he felt his thought process slowing as he succumbed to the euphoric sensation of sleep, his last thoughts just appreciating and thanking every deity imaginable that Kokichi was alright, unharmed, and just as Kokichi as he'd ever been, and that Kaito was also unharmed, unframed, and as Kaito as he'd ever been.
Though he certainly wouldn't mind seeing Kokichi's adorable little virtual avatar again.