#BUT I HAVE SO MUCH PLANNED FOR OUMOTA WEEK

[spectralreplica]

But do you think the plan will work?

Oumota: tarot reading edition! I had this idea during Oumota Week and just got around to finishing it now 😔. At first I thought about giving Sun to Kaito and Moon to Kokichi (a la Reversed Sun by grayimperia), but I think it works better to have them both in each card, to highlight the parallels. (If you want more explanation of my design thoughts, I'll put it under a cut at the end.)

General tarot meanings:

The Sun: happiness, confidence, success, optimism, innocence/childhood, inspiring others, internal motivation, truth

The Moon: illusion, imagination, uncertainty, secrets, confusion, intuition/the subconscious, fears influencing you, insecurity

The Star: hope, regaining inspiration, renewal, healing, moving on, new purpose, calm after the storm (Reversed Star: despair, lack of faith, pessimism, boredom, anxiety, being overwhelmed by past problems)

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I feel like while Kaito is naturally more Sun coded and Kokichi more Moon coded, they have some qualities of both cards. And Star vs Reversed Star is so temping to bring in for DR.

I was thinking of it as a past, present, future kind of reading, but also maybe situation, action, outcome. Starting out with high self confidence and some childish black and white thinking. (Maybe a little over confident and childish to the point of egotism and inflexibility, shades of reversed sun...). Covering for insecurities by projecting a fake persona to everyone around, doubling down on the lies and self-deception a la chapter 5. Finally, either coming through everything stronger, with renewed hope, or else crashing and burning, overwhelmed by unacknowledged issues that have built up.

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As for the specific imagery...

Sun: I stuck pretty close to the traditional imagery here. The flag/banner has their respective prints on it, and I put Kaito on Mars while Kokichi remains on Earth. It's also sundown or sunset for Kokichi; is he moving towards the Moon or away? The horse is obv. very chess piece inspired. Kokichi gets his King Horse a la the mask on his bed, and I gave Kaito a pegasus because flying.

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Moon: Moving a little bit away from traditional imagery as more of the canon situation seeps in, but still pretty close. The moon floats "outside" the cage, wearing their respective false faces. (We know from the ending that the skyline on those glass panels isn't real...) They both have an Exisal in the background in place of one of the towers, but Kaito has a bamboo grove a la Princess Kaguya; Kaguya came from the moon and she will go back, no matter how much people on Earth love her. Kokichi has one of the racks that sits beside shrines where you're supposed to tie bad/unlucky omikuji (paper fortunes) so that the bad luck doesn't follow you; living in purposeful denial of bad things, but they lurk there on the horizon.

They both still have at least one dog/wolf, but I gave Kokichi a fox because of their association with being tricksters. Also, wolves and foxes, as predators, are framed as villains in stories, but at the same time it's also not uncommon to see them as heroes (stereotype of predator/hunter vs stereotype of bravery/nobility and cleverness). Also, contrast of fox and hound, like the clash of Kokichi presenting himself as childish + annoying vs a genuine threat. Kaito has the dog, monkey, and pheasant that accompanied Momotaro, continuing his fairytale theme.

Everyone seems to argue over what the crawfish means in the original, but I went with the interpretation of moving from water to land, evolution, things coming to the surface. So, Kaito has a koi. I think most people know about the "koi climbs a waterfall and becomes a dragon" thing because of Magikarp, but here it is again just in case! Kaito's got an aquatic creature struggling against its nature in hopes of someday actually transforming into something grander. Kokichi has a poison dart frog. Already amphibious, so it can go between water and land freely, but visibly harmful to anyone who tries to get close.

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Star: The least traditional imagery and the most V3 canon imagery. There's still a tree, but it's a pine tree. ...I dunno, no explanation for that, it just looked nice 🤷‍♀️The two jugs are replaced with the poison and antidote bottles. Originally, they're supposed to represent the conscious and subconscious and pour in two different places, but here they're mixing together directly. V3 resolves the "truth vs lies" theme by arguing you have to accept ambiguity. Also, Kaito and Kokichi's whole plan rests on them managing to work together to obscure exactly who is in the Exisal in the end.

There's a figure in the foreground in Kaito's jacket, but they're just a silhouette (a la the culprit); it's not either of them, it's both, and they're reaching beyond the bounds of the game. The star in the sky is ringed by the trial podiums, since all of their hope for the future rests in derailing the next trial. Can they win? Well, Shuichi and Kiibo are at the top, the two people they (or at least Kokichi...) know can be problems, but Tsumugi is specifically blocked from view, always overlooked...

[michtheclown]

Oumota week day 3! Jealousy….

I feel like they’d be a biiittt jealous sometimes

Which ends very dumbly

there’s the alternative of them being jealous of eachother.

They have what the other lacks n such.

Kaito has more people on his side, people care a lot about him, but he often feels like his only use is to be a cheerleader rather than be able to figure a way out or help with the investigation and trials

Kokichi is very observant and is always thinking of a plan, he’s very smart, but he’s mostly alone and incredibly paranoid, nobody trusts him enough for a lot of his plans to even work the way he wants

I love them so much they’re fun to draw and write about lol

[andromebaa]

My 2023 Writing Wrap Up

Stole this idea from Lovova lmao. Let’s see if I can figure out what I’ve been writing this year. I mean, we all know what I’ve been writing but let’s just see it in words:

January

Starting the year strong by not really doing much. Might have been dabbling with some OCs but nothing too notable.

February

Uploaded the start of a fic version of my play-by-post Danganronpa AU Despair’s Legacy to my brand new AO3 account before promptly leaving it to rot. Also uploaded the first chapter of a silly little Oumota fic that I wrote for funsies. This is the start of the Just the Two of Us brainrot. To prove it, I then proceeded to write and upload five more chapters.

Addendum: Completely forgot that the first fic I ever uploaded to my AO3 this month was my Ishimaru/reader smut I wrote like six years ago lmaoooo gotta remember your roots

March

Went cazy and uploaded six more chapters of Just the Two of Us. I was officially obsessed.

Also started doing some initial planning for my other two danganhorror fics.

April

Brain started exploding so I only uploaded three Just the Two of Us chapters this month. Also wrote the side smut story for it, Defragmentation, over the Easter weekend.

May

Started the far more sustainable action of writing only one chapter of Just the Two of Us a month. Also started planning the Moulin Rouge Oumota au that I never finished - sad!

June

Began planning for Oumota Week 2023. Wrote a small sci-fi/horror fic called Facsimile for a Kaito/Maki writing week. Published another two chapters of Just the Two of Us.

July

Through some unholy will I published seven seperate short fics for Oumota week ranging from a mermaid au to a silly family au and a short Haiku poem based on the origin of the Tanabata festival. Somehow published another chapter of Just the Two of Us as well.

August

Wrote my official oneshot smut for Oumota as part of the package deal which I’m doing for each of my main danganhorror fics. Also managed to complete another chapter of the Just the Two of Us. Also started writing REDACTED.

September

Another chapter of Just the Two of Us successfully uploaded!

October

The final chapter of Just the Two of Us is uploaded and I finally allowed myself to rest for like a week or two before going back to the grind.

November

Ceremoniously failed to work on an original junior/YA story for NaNoWriMo and just like start working on my next Danganhorror fic Every Day is Exactly the Same.

December

Uploaded the first chapter of my next Danganhorror fic aka the one where Yasuhiro ends up in a time loop. Got nasty bad Togakure brainrot and proceeded to spend most of the month jumping between the main fic and the smut one shot.

Aaaaand that’s a wrap up! It’s been a very very productive year and although it’s almost all been fic stuff I’ve never been more proud of myself. I started and finished a 140,000 word fic and also wrote almost a dozen short fics on the side too.

I can’t wait to see what this new year will bring! I’m definitely not going to go too hard and burn out but I hope I’ll still be productive! My biggest goal will be to finish Every Day is Exactly the Same and hopefully start a new non-fic project too.

Let’s see how it goes!

[shslstraws]

Oumota Week Day One:

Phantom Thief / Stuck in a Small Place 

HEY, IM SO SORRY IM LATE ON OUMOTA WEEK. I WAS SUPER BUSY AND I’M SLOWLY CATCHING UP, SO I MIGHT BE A DAY OFF EACH DAY. IM SORRY. But I also was busy writing my first fic, just for this piece, so I hope you like it? ;; 

Until We Meet Again 

Word Count: 1987

A slam from the door echoed across an empty apartment building, Momota sighed as he began to undo his tie and threw it across the room, not caring where the piece of fabric ends up. He can always pick it later, when he’s in a better state of mind. 

It was a long day at work for Momota; the endless lecture his boss has given him from failing to capture The Phantom Thief, yet again, to the simple little things of just having his coffee be a colder than he’d like to, everything seemed to tick him off. He swears he’s on the verge of blowing up.

It was getting stressful for him day by day The Phantom Thief wasn’t caught, and every time he was face to face with this notorious criminal, Momota always somehow let him slip away from his grasp. 

The Phantom Thief, the leader of the city’s known gang, D.I.C.E; infamous for thievery and causing a ruckus to citizens and the officers with petty pranks. Property damage, mainly, Momota remembers coming into work and seeing little colorful faces spray painted on the front doors of the station. Alongside the gang’s logos and the provoking message the phantom thief always leaves, “Until we meet, my beloved~”. What does that even mean? Who is it even directed to? 

“Ugh, fuck me.” Momota groans from the memory, the stress is just too damn much. He collapses on his couch with a heavy sigh. The more he is involved and invested in this case, the more he thinks the messages are specifically for him. 

He closes his eyes, taking a deep breath in and out and releases some of the tension in his muscles he didn’t know he had. Momota groaned from the pain that was let go, his breathing started to slow down naturally as he felt himself drifting into sleep slowly. The night breeze was cool on his skin, as the wind blew through long curtains and from his balcony into the apartment, it felt nice. Finally, finally, he can rest-

“Wait a second,” Momota suddenly lifted his head wide eyes, immediately on alert. “..I...never left the door open, I always keep it locked. What the hell?” He was on his feet in an instant, becoming more aware of his surroundings. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary...except for the petals all over the floor. Momota kneeled to pick one of the withered little floral leaves. Getting a closer look; the petal was crimson and crumpled a bit, “A rose petal…?” muttered Momota, noticing the petal to be shriveled, which must have meant that they’ve been here for awhile. After inspecting it for a second more, he found that there was more petals that were in such a noticeable pattern, leading to his bedroom, for it to be such a convenience. Okay, so far Momota has concluded that; one, someone broke into his apartment building. And two, that someone purposely spread rose petals all over his apartment leading to his bedroom. Sure, Momota should be more alerted or even scared from these conclusions, since there could be potential robber or even a murderer in his own home.

But for some reason, Momota couldn’t help but feel relaxed a bit after having a strong sense of knowing who this certain someone is. 

Now, there’s two ways he can go about this, assuming the home invader is still here; 

He can run into his bedroom and catch the culprit red handed and finally solve all the solutions to his stress, or he can play along. 

Momota stands up and slowly start to make his way to his bedroom, following the petals. For a moment, his conscience is screaming for him to run in and arrest this culprit once and for all, before the opportunity misses him. But his gut, told him to play along. 

“Ah, why hello there, Officer Momota!” 

And there he was, The Phantom Thief, himself. Laying right on top of Momota’s bed; who quickly changed his position the moment he noticed Momota entering, to move his slender body to lay on his side while his left arm supports him, as he lays his hand on his cheek. 

“It took you quite awhile to get home, do you know how rude it is to keep such an important figure waiting?” his voice was soft and his tone sounded like he was seducing the officer in question. Which seemed fitting to his pose and the rose petals all over the bed, it was exactly like in the romance movies. But Momota brushed that thought right away, he scoffed, “Don’t you know how illegal it is to break into people’s apartment and trash the place?” 

“How insulting! If anything, I made an improvement on the trash it already was before!”  The Phantom Thief immediately sit up and crossed his legs, giving a pout. 

Momota barked out a laugh and leans on the door frame, “You know you’ve been a real pain in the ass for me lately, Phantom Thief.” 

The Phantom Thief smiles and taps his finger on the side of his cheek. “Hmm? Have I? I thought you enjoy our games together, Momota-chan?” 

Momota blinks and suddenly feels hot on his face, “M-Momota-chan?!” This was new. Sure, The Phantom Thief calls him nicknames from time to time in their confrontations but “chan” was something that just caught him off guard. 

“Nishishi, I totally got you there! Look at how red you are for me, don’t tell me Mr. Officer has developed a crush on little ol’ me?” The Phantom Thief teased, it was lucky Momota was too flabbergasted to noticed the blush that appeared on his own face.

It took a few moments for Momota to regain some composure and respond, but even then he couldn’t help but stutter, “A-As if, anyways, it looks like you’ve just trapped yourself. Coming into my apartment and really, I’m blocking the only exit to your escape.” 

“It seems you’ve finally got me,” The Phantom Thief stood up on the bed, causing some of the rose petals to fall off the bed, “whatever shall I do?” A surprise rose was shown as he revealed his right hand and lifted the flower to his face. A smirk was directed at Momota, challenging him. 

Momota wasn’t liking this one bit, he lifted his chest up as he spread more of his body to cover the door frame, there was no way he was letting The Phantom Thief escape him this time. Not when he was right there, absolutely cornered. And there was no possible way for him to sneak out of his bedroom’s window, they were just too high up, the only exit was Momota’s front door. 

 “Hm?” The Phantom Thief lowered his rose and gave a curious look, “it looks like Mr. Officer isn’t going to let me go that easy, huh?” He jumped from the bed, landing gently, and slowly walking towards Momota. Momota looking and studying the thief’s every movement, being very aware, in case he were to try and pull something to sneak around him. But as the little thief came in front of him, he looked up and rose both of his hands together to him as he continued to hold the rose, “then arrest me.” 

Shit. 

Momota thought, he doesn’t have his handcuffed equipped to his belt, and his only pair was around his apartment somewhere. Maybe if he used his tie? Nope, he threw that thing also in his messy apartment. 

“Looks like you can’t, Mr.Officer! You have no handcuffs or anything to arrest me with!” the thief giggled as he started to lower his hands. And for some reason, Momota’s instinct kicked into action as he found himself grabbing onto both of The Phantom Thief’s hands. Letting go of the rose, the smaller gasped as the unexpected contact.

“I’m. Not. Letting. You. Go.” Momota growled, staring intensely at the criminal, he was dead set on capturing the little rat once and for all. A blush went deeper on the thief’s face at how intense the situation is, it was heart pounding. But The Phantom Thief wasn’t going to allow himself to be caught like this, he smiled as he tried to keep his composure, “then I guess this is the part we kiss?” 

“EXCUSE ME?” Momota choked but still remaining a strong grip on the thief’s hands, very determined to not let go. 

“Weeeeelll, when you say it like that, usually in the movies, this is the part where people are supposed to kiss! Silly, Momota-chan, don’t you know anything?” 

“I- What?! What are you even saying!?” 

Momota’s hands seemed to have lightened, this is good he’s getting embarrassed. All he has to do is push it a little more… 

“I mean, I was expecting our first kiss to be more romantic. But I guess it doesn’t get more romantic as this? Rose petals all over your apartment, I’m all over your bed, right where you want me-” 

“SHUT UP!”  Momota quickly lets go of his hands to bring it to his face, The Phantom Thief doesn’t miss this opportunity and quickly squeezes beside the officer. Momota instantly realizes his mistake and turns around to see The Phantom Thief not run towards the front door, but to the doors to his balcony. He takes action and runs after him, seeing him slip outside past the blowing curtains. But as soon as Momota takes a step outside, he sees The Phantom Thief balancing on the railings of his balcony, Momota stops at a sudden fear of the boy accidentally falling off. 

The thief smiles as he takes off his hat, giving a bow to the officer, “it was fun as always, Momota-chan!” he looks up at the officer’s shocked expression. 

“But it seems I win this game,” The Phantom Thief stands straight as his hands dig into hands into his hat. He leaps backwards from the balcony, Momota immediately running to try and save him from falling but was met with rose petals in face. As soon as Momota got a clear vision, he sees petals everywhere around him and The Phantom Thief; who has seemed to carelessly falling in mid air, rose petals surrounding him as he put on his hat and smiled at the officer, “until we meet again, my beloved~” 

The scene to it all seemed so unreal, like something you’d definitely see in a movie. And Momota would be more allured to the sight before him, if he wasn’t too worried about the boy falling to his death. He went to grab the railing and reach out for the thief, but saw The Phantom Thief gently land on a rooftop. The building wasn’t very far from Momota’s balcony and not too high for the thief to stumble. How could he forget such a building was even there, I guess Momota was more worried about the thief’s safety at the moment. But Momota should have known the criminal better than to assume he didn’t have an escape plan outside his balcony, it must have been how he entered his apartment in the first place. 

The Phantom Thief looked up at him and gave him a last smile and laugh, as he turned around to run off into the night. 

Momota let out a long breath that he didn’t even knew he was holding, and his muscles relaxed once again. Fuck. He thought, he let The Phantom Thief escape from his grasp yet again. But Momota couldn’t seem to be stressed at the time but to have some sort of excitement build within him, and the happiness that their games will continue. 

He’ll let himself stress about it another time, but for right now, everything felt right. Momota sighed but smiled, 

“I guess we will meet again…”

[fuwahiko]

NOT ME TAKING LITERAL DAYS TO FIGURE OUT HOW MUCH BACKSTORY I WANTED TO GIVE THIS AND ACCIDENTALLY CLOSING THE APP AND LOSING WHAT I HAD WHEN I WAS FINALLY GETTING SOMEWHERE I-

Im a disaster but i finally got my head on straight alright HERE'S SOME OUMOTA FOR YA

SO. The V3 kids have gone on the town to hang out. Why? They were sick of always going to Amami's house. They needed a change of scenery. What are they doing? Karaoke? Bowling? Who knows. But they're all making fun of each other.

Their collective love language towards each other is bullying.

At some point, a lot of people get hungry. Miu, for some ungodly reason, yells at Kokichi to go and order for them. And bring the food down when it's done. For some even ungodlier reason, Kokichi agrees. Without an argument. Not even an insult.

He does kiss Kaito while flipping everyone off before walking off, but now everyone's scared of what the gremlin's planning. Only Kaito's safe if Kokichi's got something planned. Boyfriend priveleges work...sometimes.

With Kokichi, he's waiting for everyone's food when someone shouts his name...or something close to it. Intrigued, he turns around and immediately tenses up. But only slightly.

It his ex-boyfriend. Kokichi never wanted to see this ex (who i call Fuckface McAsshole) again. It wasn't healthy, and when he tried to break it off, said ex lost it and dragged shit out for a week and a half. Kokichi was about to turn and rush towards Kaito and the others, because safety in numbers (plus Kaito could throw a mean punch), but the ex got there first. He had also accidentally left his phone on the table with the others.

There was no calling for help. Kokichi was stuck.

So he was forced to play the long game. He didn't wanna make a scene in such a public place. He let his ex talk and talk and talk while retaining none of what he was saying. When the ex noticed Kokichi wasn't listening, he commented. ("...why aren't you listening to me, Ko? Got somewhere better to be? With people that actually want you around? Fucking doubt it.")

When he hears that, Kokichi snaps. Not completely, but enough to get snappy

"Actually, my friends and boyfriend are waiting on their food. I'm here to get their food. And I can't hear the person calling out numbers because of your blabbering. So be quiet."

Kokichi knew he shouldn't have snapped. He knew as soon as his ex's eyes widened, then narrowed. He'd never admit it, but that look made him slightly nervous.

From there, everything escalates very quickly. Quicker than Kokichi anticipated. It's about to get real ugly in two seconds. And everyone's going to hear and stare at whatever's going to go down.

......soooooo now i hand it off to you. What exactly happens between Kokichi and his ex? How do the V3 kids find out about all this, and how do they react? How does Kokichi react after that fiasco? And what do they all (extra emphasis on Kaito bc Oumota) do to try and comfort and/or cheer up Kokichi after THAT?

(Did i listen to "Happier than Ever" by Billie Eilish when i thought of this...maybe i did and maybe i didn't. You can't prove anything.)

this is a really interesting scenario! kokichi feeling so backed up into a corner like that is certainly unusual, for one thing.

ok ok so I like the idea of like, kokichi trying to work on himself a lot. dude needs therapy. and in this au I can see it being the case that kokichi has been working through stuff a lot and has managed to become so close with everyone because of that - like I'm sure in a non despair au he wouldn't be quite so... ~the way that he is~ anyway, but he'd likely still have a lot of issues and struggle to get along with everyone at first, but then with some encouragement from someone he trusts and gets along with more (kaito? maybe someone else? maybe it's more of a slowburn with him getting closer to kaito?) he'd eventually start going to therapy and start slowly working on himself, as well as starting over with some people he maybe started off on the wrong foot with before. it might take some time, but eventually even the people that really didn't get along with him start to open up a little and try to understand him more, and he does the same for them. everyone sees how hard kokichi is trying, and he's really changing for the better, and that inspires them to work on themselves too and it brings everyone a lot closer.

so. when kokichi's ex shows up, it stirs all of this awfulness inside of him, all of this bitterness. it ends up starting to pull at the worst things within kokichi, trying to bring it all to the surface, and kokichi is trying his hardest to stop himself from saying something horrible, from making a scene, from making every stranger in the area turn to look at him with that look that makes him want to disappear. he's trying so hard not to fall back into old habits and old behaviours; he's been working so hard and finally things are looking up for once.

but then he slips up.

he knew he shouldn't have said anything, but his ex wasn't going to leave him alone anyway, and suppressing his own emotions was getting too difficult, so he had to do something. but now his ex was glaring at him even more than before, and kokichi could feel the rage radiating from him, and he immediately regretted ever opening his mouth. but he'd already come this far, and his ex had backed him so far into the corner that all kokichi could do was bite back just as hard.

kokichi's ex raised his voice, and it was like the floodgates had been opened. everything he was saying was blurring together into an endless string of sharp needles that pierced into kokichi, targeting all of his weak points, hurting him over and over, each needle piercing deeper than the last. kokichi snapped back, his own voice just as loud, throwing insult after insult and trying to dig up all that he could think of to hurt him back, trying to find just the right words to hurt his ex even deeper than he had hurt him, all the while a smirk spread across his face as kokichi pretended like he was enjoying himself, enjoying this conflict, but with every word he fired back he only felt more hatred towards himself. it was a form of self destruction, and now that he'd started hurting himself, kokichi didn't know how to stop.

just when kokichi felt like his own self hatred was going to swallow him whole, he half-registered footsteps growing louder just out of view. then, before he knew it, suddenly his ex was being lifted off the ground in front of him.

kokichi's eyes widened as he finally processed what he was looking at. it was kaito. kaito was here and he had grabbed the ex by his shirt and lifted him up, a furious expression spread across kaito's face.

"the fuck are you doing to kokichi?!" kaito practically roared as he held his free hand in a fist.

after maybe a brief moment of relief, kokichi felt fear and panic grab hold of him, and when he met eyes with kaito he seemed to immediately understand exactly what he was feeling.

kaito let go, letting kokichi's ex drop and stumble as he found his footing. "sorry. I wasn't gonna do anything, I didn't mean to scare you." kaito looked ashamed now, and he turned away from kokichi for a moment. kaito had been working on himself a lot too, specifically dealing with anger issues and his tendency to resort to violence when things got hard to deal with, and he'd been making a lot of progress. kaito knew he would've decked this guy if kokichi hadn't looked so upset, and he felt horrible about it. he felt awful that he was just reverting back to his usual ways, and he felt even more awful because he'd made kokichi feel worse, even if only for a second. he felt like such a disappointment. kokichi felt horrible too, and he felt like it was his own fault that kaito had gotten so worked up, that if he'd just dealt with his ex in another way then kaito never would've gotten dragged into this. kokichi had brought the worst out of himself, and now he felt he was doing the same to kaito, pulling him down with him.

just then, security showed up and asked them to leave. kokichi and kaito both had the thought of telling them that the ex was the problem and that they'd just been going about their day until he started shit, but neither of them said anything, just left without making any more fuss. they gave them their money back for the food at least, but now the whole thing had just been a waste.

when they grouped up with the others outside again, kaito holding kokichi's hand as they walked, everyone was chatting and laughing together as they had been doing all day, but they all quickly realised something was up as they saw how shaken kokichi looked and how kaito's face was scrunched up with frustration. of course they'd also seen that the two of them were empty handed, but that wasn't their main concern.

"guys? what's wrong?" kaede rushed over to see them, a look of worry spread across her face. kaito squeezed kokichi's hand a little tighter as he told them all what he'd walked in on. he decided to do the talking himself, knowing kokichi was struggling at the moment and not wanting him to have to explain everything on top of that. he didn't really know what had been happening exactly, but he'd gathered that this guy had been kokichi's ex, and he knew he'd started something with kokichi because he knew that kokichi would never start anything like that himself now.

maki suggested they all move to somewhere quieter, so they headed down a nearby street that lead to an open area with a park that was surrounded by a long wall that was low enough to sit on. kaito sat with kokichi on the wall, pulling him in close at his side and wrapping his arm around him firmly, reassuringly. kaede sat on kokichi's other side, speaking gently and offering to let him borrow her earphones to listen to some music to help him calm down. he refused, but he appreciated the thought. himiko sat on the grass at his feet in silence, but he knew her well enough now to know she was trying her best to support him, even if she didn't know what to say or do. shuichi and maki sat down beside kaito, who was calmer now, but concerned for kokichi and still upset with himself.

"it's all my fault..." kokichi mumbled sadly, his head resting against kaito and his hand clinging onto his shirt. "it's not your fault. he started it, didn't he?" kaito questioned, already knowing the answer. "not that. I mean... I got you involved." kaito ran the hand that was holding kokichi up and down gently along his arm to comfort him, his free hand reaching to stroke his hair. "don't worry about that, that's not your fault at all. I shouldn't have lost my cool. ...sorry again about startling you." kokichi shook his head. kaito felt kokichi's body start shaking, and he realised he was crying. "I'm the worst... I'm the worst, I'm the worst, I'm the worst." kokichi cried as he buried his face further and tried to hide away. "nothing's changed, I'm just as shitty and horrible and worthless as I always have been... I should've just... done things different... but I did the same as I always do..."

of course. kaito finally realised the real reason why he was so upset. sure he was upset over his ex showing up and the nasty things he'd been saying, but now that they were away from him he was more upset with himself than anything, because he'd worked so hard and he felt like none of that work had actually gotten him anywhere. he felt like change wasn't possible, because if he'd reacted that way then to him that surely meant that he was exactly the same as he'd always been, despite how much he'd tried.

"hey. that's not true and you know it." kaito was about to continue, but miu interrupted. "yep, that's bullshit. ha! if you think you're terrible, that guy sounds ten times worse! what a loser." gonta also spoke up, obviously very upset that anyone would raise their voice at his friend. "hmm... that not how gentleman should act. should be polite, even if ex doesn't like you."

"kokichi, we can all see how far you've come and how hard you've been working, so please don't beat yourself up over this one time. that guy is the one at fault, he put you in a difficult position, a really difficult position, and you wouldn't have reacted that way otherwise." kaede reassured him. "she's right, you wouldn't do that unless you felt you had no other choice." shuichi agreed as he handed kokichi some tissues. kokichi had calmed down somewhat, but he needed to get his emotions out still, so everyone waited patiently, offering words of support every so often, kaito still holding him and placing a few kisses on the top of his head, until kokichi stopped crying and pulled away, sitting up and drying his eyes.

angie jumped up off of the grass. "we should do something fun!" rantaro looked up at her from where he was sitting. "you mean like a distraction?" "nyahahaha! yes! doing something fun will help kokichi take his mind off things and feel better!" "do you have something in mind?" kiibo asked. angie thought about it for a moment. "hmm... nope!" rantaro sighed. "we shall just have to think of something, and we should also find somewhere else to eat as well." kirumi said as she stood up, dusting off the front and back of her dress.

ideas began getting thrown around and the atmosphere lightened up quickly - everyone chatting and suggesting fun things to do together, kokichi just quietly listening, but feeling a lot more comfortable again and appreciating his friends' efforts to cheer him up. it wasn't too long before kokichi was joining in, though, and everyone was relieved to see him slowly returning to his usual self; a bit immature, sometimes annoying, but funny, sweet, so full of life. kokichi was someone they'd all grown to love, no matter how things might have started out for some of them with him, and he wasn't at all who he thought he was when he was feeling down on himself. they hoped that one day kokichi would finally understand that.

[lakesandquarries]

oh it’s you (that i lie with)

for Oumota Week Day 2 - Timeloop

warnings: major character death (temporary but graphic)

notes: title from as the world caves in by matt maltese but i just listened to the cover by sarah cothran. happy oumota week everyone!! consider joining my oumota discord maybe!

AO3 Link

Kokichi lazily spins a french fry through his ketchup as Momota takes a seat across from him. The movement makes the table jostle. Kokichi doesn’t move.

“Getting used to it, huh?” Momota asks. “I guess this is just life now. Beats being dead, at least.”

“You failed, then?”

“I think every smoke alarm is busted.”

At 6:15 pm, the cafeteria will explode. A stray spark will hit an errant gas line and the entire place will go up in flames. There will be no survivors. 

Kokichi knows this because he has experienced it eleven times already.

The first time was unexpected. Obviously. When he woke up this morning (eleven mornings ago) in his dorm room he assumed today (eleven todays ago) would be normal. 

That assumption was disproven before he died and the day reset, but that’s unrelated.

The first time he died, the last supposedly normal minutes of his life, he and Momota were at this very same table. They weren’t alone then. Their friends had been with them, and Akamatsu had been in the middle of telling a story about a bird flying into the room during one of her classes, and suddenly there had been the loudest sound Kokichi had ever heard. He’d felt an intense, searing heat for just a moment, and then something large and heavy falling on top of him, and then he didn’t feel anything because he was dead.

When he woke up in his bed again he’d assumed it was a dream. Even when the morning played out much like the morning in his “dream” - well, that wasn’t too strange. Saihara had lost his favourite socks, but he did that often. Yumeno fell asleep in the cafeteria during breakfast, but she did that every day. Amami tripped down the stairs and had to go to the nurse, but he never paid attention to his surroundings. 

And then, right at the end of breakfast, Momota got down on one knee, presented Kokichi with a ring pop, and asked him to go on a date with him after dinner.

The beginning of the day had been typical. It wasn’t strange for his dream to match with reality, because his life was predictable.

That was not something he could have predicted, unless he had suddenly developed a new superpower.

The first time, he’d beamed at Momota, took the ring pop, and said he would be delighted to and that if this was a prank he’d have Momota killed.

The second time, he’d just said “What the fuck,” and then took off running.

The rest of the day went differently, but it was just close enough to make it clear. Kokichi had snuck around unused halls, spying on the classes he was skipping. Chabashira still had a five minute argument with the teacher during math, Hoshi still spilled a beaker in science. This time he got to watch Akamatsu’s unfinished bird story play out.

Just like before, he went to the cafeteria, and just like before he felt his bones flattened and then nothing at all.

In the present, whatever that really means, he tells Momota, “I hope I don’t get crushed again.”

Momota frowns. “At least it’s quick. The fire was the worst.”

“Well, I at least want some variety. It is the spice of life and all.”

Leaning forward, Momota rests his chin on his hand. His eyes keep darting to the clock on the wall. “I’ll toss you into the fire this time, if you want.”

“My hero.” Kokichi folds his arms behind his head and leans back.

They’d really tried, this time. They’d tried every time. This time, Kokichi had barely broken into the kitchen when he was caught. At least it was one of the kinder chefs. They’d given him french fries and instructed him to stay in the cafeteria where they could see him. 

“We still have some time,” Momota argues. “I mean, 6:15 is in like, an hour. We can at least prepare for next time.”

“Hm, would you like to scope out some more interesting places to die? I’m getting bored of the cafeteria. At least maybe something different will crush me.” He’s fairly certain it’s a table that keeps killing him, at least in the last few loops. For a second he’d felt the texture of the wood crushed against his face. 

“We’re gonna figure it out,” Momota says. His voice is full of empty confidence, a thin soap bubble that will pop if looked at for too long.

“Well, of course. You still owe me that date, after all.”

Perhaps it’s his imagination, but the glint in Momota’s eyes gets sharper. “I do. I’m a man of my word, you know.”

“You’ve given me your word more than a few times. I think you might owe me a few dates, my dearest Momota-chan.”

Momota’s eyes dart to the clock again, and Kokichi follows his gaze. 5:25.

“I’ll take you on as many dates as you want, Ouma.”

Momota had asked him out again in the third loop, and the fourth. Kokichi had accepted those, though in the fourth one Momota hadn’t bothered to drop to one knee and hadn’t even offered him a ring pop. He’d just turned to Kokichi and asked, “Will you go out with me?”

“I want a ring first,” Kokichi had said in response. 

“A ring,” Momota repeated. “What kind?”

“Grape.”

Momota had presented the ring pop, and Kokichi said yes.

In the fifth loop, Momota got down on one knee again.

“Ouma,” he started.

“Will you go on a date with me?” Kokichi asked. Momota reeled back, looking around the room in surprise. 

“Uh….yeah.” He stood up, blinking heavily. “How -”

“I have my ways,” Kokichi said with a wink. 

He’d skipped his next classes. That had been the first time he broke into the kitchen. He did a decent job sneaking, and his little recon mission was how he figured out the likely cause. He’d only gotten a brief glimpse before the chef kicked him out.

Momota was waiting for him at that same table. “Ouma,” he’d called out, waving him over, and Kokichi obliged him by taking a seat in the same chair he’d died in four times. “Are you hiding something?”

“Always. Are you?”

“You knew what I was doing this morning.”

“I’ve known you were in love with me for months.” Kokichi leaned back in his chair, twirling a strand of hair around his finger. “Obviously I knew what you were doing.”

“But you didn’t! The first - Uh, I mean...Oh, fuck it. You know what’s happening, right?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He kicked his chair back, balancing it on two legs. He was not going to be the one to say it first, and it was so fun to get him worked up like this. “I mean, I know everything, but -”

“The loops! You’re the only one acting different! The first loop, you were surprised, the second loop you were - and now you’re stealing my lines!” Momota leaned towards him, hands on the table.

Kokichi raised a single eyebrow. “Your first performance was your best, Momota-chan.”

“So you are aware. How?”

The chair’s legs thudded against the ground. “I could ask you the same thing.”

“I…” Momota hesitates, bluster wavering before it comes back full force. “Obviously, the universe knew I was the best person to task with fixing this. I’m gonna save everyone, just you watch.”

“Oh, good. I was worried I’d have to do something.” He stood up abruptly, almost knocking the chair over. “I’ll see you for our date, then.”

A hand grabbed his sleeve, pulling him back down. Momota was reaching across the entire table, gripping Kokichi’s sleeve tightly. His brows were pinched together, face unguarded and open and desperate. There was only a second of hesitation before Kokichi ripped his sleeve away, narrowing his eyes at the man across from him.

“You can’t seriously plan to do nothing,” Momota insisted. “There’s gotta be a reason -”

“Maybe I’m supposed to be working against you,” Kokichi said. His expression fell away to blankness. “You’re so eager to trust, Momota-chan. It’s very stupid of you.”

“That shit stopped working on me last year.” Momota jumped to his feet, hands pressed against the table as he leaned dangerously forward. Kokichi doesn’t need to have time traveled to know he will inevitably topple forward and crash into the table. Perhaps he would be the one to die to it this loop. “Ouma, I know you. Fuck, I asked you out this morning, you really think I’m still gonna fall for your evil bullshit?”

“I mean, it’s worked before. Recently, even.”

“You broke in through my window! Look, you’re missing the point. I know you wanna save everyone as much as I do.” His eyes were alight, grin too sharp for Kokichi’s liking.

“It’s in the kitchen.” 

Momota leaned forward again, and there it was - he fell face first onto the table.

“Idiot. Maybe the universe did choose me to help you. You’re clearly too stupid to figure it out on your own.”

Momota didn’t waste a second. He pushed himself back up as Kokichi spoke, completely ignoring his words. “See! We’re a perfect team, Ouma. What’s in the kitchen?”

A mess was in the kitchen. Every surface had at least five distinct fire hazards, and all together it combined into something unfathomably dangerous. A stray spark ignited a chain, and at the end of that chain was a crater.

Since that loop, they’d tried different ways to fix the kitchen. They’d tried scoping out times where no one was there (there weren’t any), they’d tried convincing the chefs something needed to be fixed (they’d been kicked out), they’d tried fixing it themselves (the explosion happened three hours earlier that loop), they’d tried setting off every smoke detector they could find (none of them worked). 

It’s starting to look a little hopeless.

Students begin filing into the cafeteria, happy and carefree and unconcerned. Akamatsu’s voice carries as she rushes to their table. “Ouma-kun, Momota-kun! I was wondering where you’d gone. The strangest thing happened in math earlier -”

Kokichi lays his head on the table. In his mind, he could only see Akamatsu’s broken body, her flesh beginning to bubble. Her screams were always the loudest.

It‘s always the same. Akamatsu starts her stupid story. Saihara arrives late, feathers in his hair, and Harukawa trails after him and glares at Kokichi. 

She usually survives the longest, from what Kokichi can see. She stays standing until the end. Saihara crumbles quick and quiet.

“Are you alright?” Saihara asks as he takes a seat next to Kokichi. 

Kokichi looks up at him. He’s too tired for expressions. “You’re going to die in twelve minutes.”

“Right,” Saihara says, and then he turns to Akamatsu and asks if she can help him get the feathers out of his hair.

They smile, and laugh, and talk, and at 6:15 exactly, that spark is set off.

Kokchi lives a moment longer than the last few loops, long enough to see Momota crushed by a falling piece of ceiling. 

“Liar,” Kokichi says to him, and then he too is gone.

---

He wakes up in bed.

[magioftheseas]

Oumota Week Ficlets #2

For @oumota-events

DAY 2: Cuddling & Time Loop AU

Warnings: Referenced death and violence. Also the first entry wasn’t a ficlet, but I’m still marking this as the second as to not make it too confusing.

Momota kept staring at him this time. He stared and stared with a deeply pensive stare and a frown so deep it could have left a tacky scar over that tackier goat. How frightening! How exciting!

(It’s seriously annoying, especially when he knows Momota can act worth a damn this time with how easily he tacks on a smile and laughs when prompted. How quick Momota is to reassure Akamatsu as per usual, how Momota still keeps a close eye on Saihara and Harukawa when the two are nothing more than strangers. It’s pathetic, isn’t it, that Momota’s stare keeps going to him, of all people.)

...

(Something must have happened.)

Normally, he’d shrug off whatever Momota had going on. After enough loops, he’s not even in the mood to pretend to care. He’s just exhausted, and that isn’t a lie. So, if he doesn’t bother with his usual act, well...it doesn’t matter.

None of them know him. Not even Momota. Especially not Momota. That Momota would even insist otherwise is a filthy fucking lie, one so disgusting that Ouma can’t stand it at all.

It doesn’t matter, but he needs to put forth an effort anyway. What’s he going to do if Momota outshines him? Cry?

Probably.

But for now, he feels like he needs extra sleep. It might be funny, too, if the others are startled by his shift in personality after he spent the whole first day quiet and demure. Might put them on their toes, might make things this loop more interesting.

That was the plan. The genuine plan.

Unfortunately, Momota just likes to genuinely fuck up his plans. For example, right now.

It’s the middle of the fucking night. Momota is standing in front of him, in his doorway, with his arms tightly crossed against his chest.

“...want to kill me?” Ouma asks, cheerful on the surface with an irritated belly. “I’d let you. Because it’s you.”

Momota’s lower lip puffed out and...seriously what the hell does this guy think he’s doing, having a mouth that full? If not for that hideous beard, you could even lie to yourself and find him attractive.

(Well. He did have two assistants hanging on his every fucking word at one point. When Ouma couldn’t even get Gonta to trust him half as much.)

“Maybe I’ll kill you,” Ouma says, laughing. He reaches out for Momota’s neck. His fingers can’t help but twitch. “That’ll be fun.”

He doesn’t expect Momota to let him. He expects a punch or something. Anything to vent off frustration, but instead, when Momota steps towards him—

He’s left completely, sincerely baffled as he’s drawn into a tight embrace.

“You got executed, idiot,” Momota huffs into his ear. His tone is steady but those warm arms are shaking. “You... I don’t know what you were thinking...”

Ouma couldn’t have known either. You don’t always remember the loops where you die. It’s not consistent, which is a real pain. As if there really is a god looking down on them.

(This loop, should he maybe speak to Angie..?)

It’s hard to think. Momota—Kaito is holding him so tightly. Kaito is shaking.

“You can stay the night if you want,” Ouma founds himself whispering rather dumbly. Kaito crushes him more thoroughly than even a hydraulic press.

[golden-redhead]

55) things you said under your breath - for oumota? :D

Look, @caeboa I actually wrote it! : D 

-

“I’m sorry.”

The words are quiet, muttered under the breath, so quiet in fact that Kaito almost doesn’t catch that.

He freezes, fingers wrapped around the doorknob just as he’s about to leave. These are the first words Kokichi has uttered in a long, long time, maybe the first since that day he woke up, screaming and scratching at his own face, the sight of pure panic in his eyes still keeping Kaito up at night while he waits for the sleeping pills to kick in. More often than not they don’t, leaving him staring at the sterile white ceiling, the night passing at a excruciatingly slow pace.

Kaito turns around, his heartbeat loud in his ears and mouth dry. 

Kokichi’s small form is propped against the pillows the same way it’s always been in the last few weeks, dark hair tangled and matted, the tips curling around his neck and the sharp outline of his collarbones peeking up from beneath the five sizes too big hospital gown that makes him look even smaller, his bony limbs drowning in the layers of the thin material. 

He’s looking at him now, though, eyes dull but as perceptive as he remembers them from the game, observing him with careful resolve in a way that in a different time and place would have made him feel intimidated.  

Kaito gulps, taking a step closer.

“What are you apologizing for?”

Kokichi’s lips twist into a grimace, brows pulled in a deep frown and he picks at the verge of the blanket in nestled in his lap, pulling at the loose threads.

“I killed you, didn’t I?” He asks, his voice quiet and raspy from misuse and carefully devoid of emotion, simply a statement. 

Kaito tries for a smile, hoping it doesn’t come off as more of a grimace. “Kinda,” he says, shrugging. “I mean, I agreed to your plan. I knew what I’m getting myself into. And I wouldn’t have survived much longer anyway. That way at least… at least... “ his voice cracks and his eyes dart to the floor, He takes a deep breath to steady himself, squeezing his eyes shut for a second before he opens them up again and looks into Kokichi’s eyes. “At least it was not all for nothing.”

Kokichi’s watching him closely, lilac eyes searching Kaito’s mauve ones, looking for a tell, for the evidence that he doesn’t mean it. He doesn’t say anything, though, lips pressed into a thin pale line and Kaito braces himself and continues. “I mean, yeah, in the end none of it was real but back then… We thought it was, you know?”

He shifts in place unsurely, smiling at Kokichi crookedly. 

Kokichi’s expression doesn’t change, still staring at him in watchful, cold consideration.

“Is that why Momota-chan’s been here every day since the day I woke up? Just staring at me as some creep?”

A blush blooms on Kaito’s cheeks and he rubs the back of his neck, avoiding Kokichi’s eyes. “Er…”

It became part of his routine, coming here for at least a few minutes, hovering near the door and staring at Kokichi’s form on the bed, alive but unresponsive, pointedly ignoring Kaito’s presence… That is until today.

“Is this what it is?” Kokichi presses, his grasp on the blanket so tight his knuckles turn white. His eyes squint slightly and Kaito can’t help but feel like he’s a frog in a laboratory, carefully dissected. “Does Momota-chan feel guilty and trying to make up for his sins?”

“What? No!” Kaito protests, frowning in confusion. “Where did that come from?”

Kokichi stares at him for a long moment, silent. Kaito thinks that he sees some emotion pass through his eyes, something between pity and regret, gone before Kaito could even wonder if he’s really seen it or if it’s only his imagination playing tricks on him.

“Whatever,” Kokichi says suddenly, looking away from him and shifting in bed, turning to lie on his other side. “I’m going to sleep now.”

Kaito looks at him, taken aback by the sudden announcement. Judging by Kokichi’s tone he considers their conversation to be over and while Kaito feels a pang of frustration at that, he decides not to press, accepting that he’s no longer welcome here. At least not today. 

“Yeah, fine” he grunts, turning back to the door slowly. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Same time as always.”

Before he leaves for good, he could swear that he catches Kokichi nodding his head slowly. 

[phara]

Oumota Week, Day 1: mastermind(s) AU

„They always give you a pretty pretentious backstory, don’t they?”

Kaito flinched. “Don’t say always.”

“But it’ll be always pretty soon now, Momota.” Kokichi stood in front of him, calculating. After he counted down something on his fingers, he started again.

“Hey, how many runs has it been now?”

Kaito scoffed. “Don’t ask me. You’re the one they didn’t touch during preproduction.”

A strange glint entered Kokichi’s eyes before they narrowed to slits in one of his shit-eating grins. It had taken Kaito a long time to learn that that, too, was a lie.

“Nishishi, you really should’ve behaved yourself better. Making out with the lead is a no-go, cute little asstronaut.”

Kaito dropped the glass he was holding. “What?”

“Especially since she was the director’s ex. You really know how to start off the season.”

“You’re joking.” He knew Kokichi was lying, he knew, but –

“Of course I am,” Kokichi’s grin made way for an exasperated expression for a second before returning in full force. “Or am I?”

“Cut the shit, Ouma,” Kaito spat, still shell-shocked. He leant down to pick up his drink which was now sadly spread all across the AV room floor. With a curse he put the glass on the table, liberated a tissue from his backpocket and began wiping down the wet carpet.

Kokichi giggled. “Always so expressive. This is why the audience loves you, Momota.”

In moments like these, Kaito never really knew what to say. He’d have liked to be able to converse with Kokichi, he thought. To see if he didn’t hurt himself when he cut Kaito with his sharp-edged words; because, as ever, they were both equally fucked. After multiple rounds, he sometimes thought he had the measure of the analyst, the technician, the supreme leader, and other times he felt like he was running headlong into a wall and hoping it’d break with repeated exposure.

���As if you’d ever have had a chance with Akamatsu anyway. Wow, big-headed much?”

That stopped his hand from moving. Kaito leant back up and mustered his counterpart critically. Kokichi just stood there, hands behind his head, gaze trained on Kaito’s face like he was waiting for something.

“You really want to work together?” Kaito asked. “Doesn’t seem like it with the shit you’re saying.”

“Now, now, Momota,” Kokichi liked saying his name, Kaito noticed. Rolled the syllables like he was tasting every single one, formed the word peculiarly for someone who never grew tired of belittling him. “If we want to prevent what befell poor Akamatsu from ever happening again, we have no choice but to work together.”

“You killed her.”

He’d killed her just as surely as he’d killed Rantaro, and the staff had really outdone themselves with the execution: Even weathered as he was, Kaito had been about to spew right there in the courtroom. A cynical voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Kokichi had murmured that they must’ve gotten a bigger budget approved.

“And thanks to that, all the others are still alive. You know, you never thanked me for that.” Kokichi tilted his head sideways. “Nevermind, are we really doing this? We have more important things to worry about.”

This was going nowhere except maybe into a nasty headache. “You started it!”

“Me, me, me – honestly Momota, can we get past my humble personage – as difficult as I know that is – and concentrate on how to beat the Killing Game?”

Kaito laughed bitterly. “You can’t beat the killing game.”

Suddenly, Kokichi was in his face. Purple eyes stared unblinking into violet ones.

“Exactly.”

Unsettled, Kaito leant back. “So what do you propose? You just giving up?”

“The same thing you’ve been trying to do, without much success,” Kokichi smiled one of his most unsettling smiles yet. “If we can’t beat it, break it. We’ll smash the playing board.”

 ..

 Kaito sat there for a long time after Kokichi left, chin in his hands. The evening announcement came and went, but he couldn’t bring himself to move just yet.

Kokichi’s plan made sense, or it sounded like it did to Kaito anyway. There were a few suspicious blank spots that meant he wouldn’t like whatever they would have to do, but at this stage, there was no point getting choosy. Whatever the outcome, this was their last chance: he couldn’t imagine the network keeping them around much longer. They were getting older, after all.

Kaito contemplated the possibility that this would turn out to be the last season. He considered trusting his longtime opponent with his life and goals and ambition, his entire being in the small hands of an overly mischievous child.

But that was unfair. Kokichi was smart, everyone knew that, and still they constantly underestimated just how smart he really was. Because he was devious and underhanded and, from time to time, beyond malicious: in other words, exactly who they would’ve wanted on this show, if only he didn’t hate it so goddamn much.

Two games ago, Kaito had despised him; last game, he’d despaired, because if only he had the other’s brain, his schemes, his brilliance, maybe he would’ve finally been able to break this charade. Last game he’d looked at Kokichi and saw something worth having, and he’d been so heartsick with that knowledge he’d barely been able to look at the fucker. Them working together now felt predestined, and if Kaito was anything like his adversary, he’d have wondered if that was what Team Danganronpa was aiming for the whole time; but as it is, he discarded the thought. Kokichi would have calculated that, too.

Kokichi said if he had a choice, he’d never have trusted him even this much; but Kaito knows that’s bullshit: He’d had a choice to continue as he was, and he’d decided that working together with the rival he professed to hate was a better option.

Kaito, even after all this, doesn’t hate himself. He knows what he’s good for, and he’s aware that all he’s good for in Team Danganronpa’s eyes is to act as a stimulant so the Killing Game doesn’t get boring, an adrenaline shot for the slow boil. But this time, he feels it’s different, that with these people he might really make the difference: because the body they released him in wasn’t a carcass about to twitch its last, because this time, it was still struggling against its captors, and with a bit of help it might finally break free.

Because even with the ultimatum, not one of them had chosen to kill.

And now he had a hand guiding him that knew where to set him, that could apply his strength with surgical precision. For the first time in a long while, Kaito felt… brave.

He remembered Kokichi sauntering out the door, all confidence and swagger, and turning around just before he left: “Let’s drive this fucking franchise against a wall.”

“Dammit.” Kaito covered his face with his hands. “You better come through on this for me, Kokichi.”

[toxicpineapple]

my (personal favourite) writings from 2019

I don’t have anything for January because I guess I didn’t write/didn’t post anything then? At any rate, here are my favourite writings from every month of 2019.

---

February:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17764769/chapters/41916899 : “To Give Life Meaning”, a 5+1 things Hinanami fic I wrote over the course of several days, mostly at night. The honourific situation with this one is messy and there are the beginnings of a lot of good lines? Like I know what I was trying to say. But it’s not the kind of thing that I would be happy posting nowadays. (Ignore the fact that it says it was completed in September of this year; I went through nine months later and separated the different sections into chapters so that it would be easier to read. I wrote and published all of it back in February.) This was the second Danganronpa fic I ever wrote.

Content warnings: Contains talk of suicide, and mentions of being suicidal. Generally in the past tense. Nobody is proactive in this fic.

---

March:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18232343 : “Hold his hand”, the very first Amasai one-shot I ever wrote. I got the idea for this one late at night thinking about how Shuichi would react if his mom died. I was actually going to write this with Ryoma comforting him, or Kiyo maybe, but I ended up doing Rantaro because I watched all of his FTEs with Shuichi and was like… I do like this green man. Anyway, I’m glad I did, because if I hadn’t I don’t know if the Amasai series would… even exist. That’s really weird to think about.

Content warnings: Minor character death on the part of Shuichi’s mother. The focus of the piece isn’t her dying (as it is in fact from Rantaro’s perspective) so much as it is the conflicting emotions that it stirs up for Shuichi, but it’s still, y’know, someone’s mother dying. Anyway, read with caution.

---

April:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18468478 : “Does it matter?”, a late-night fic where Aoi is conflicted about her sexuality and calls Makoto to talk about it. I wrote a lot of one-shots in April (I actually surprised myself going through them haha) but this one is my favourite because it touches on things that I don’t see addressed a lot. Makoto and Aoi are good friends. 10/10.

Content warnings: Internalised homophobia. It hasn’t triggered anybody that I know of because it’s mostly just Makoto giving advice and Aoi coming to the conclusion that she really likes Sakura in a not-so-platonic way, but y’know.

---

May:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18776947 : “Shuichi thinks too much”, another installment in the Amasai drabbles series, and… wow. I literally only posted Amasai in the month of May. This one is my favourite (of the ones I posted in May, obviously) because it’s the one where Shuichi realises that Rantaro is claustrophobic and then they have a messy first kiss in the wake of Rantaro’s panic attack. I like fics where Character A kisses Character B and B has to be like… slow down partner… ur panicking. I also just like milking Rantaro angst so it’s a win-win. I go back and read this one periodically :)

Content warnings: Panic attacks, claustrophobia. Shuichi is exhausted in this fic haha but at least he has his shit together enough to know exactly what he’s feeling through the whole thing.

---

June:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19210423 : “Quiet Moments”, an introspective drabble/character study in which Peko thinks about how much she loves Ibuki. Damn, I love Pekobuki. I haven’t written nearly enough for them. I wrote a lot of things in June (including an Undertale one-shot which was a strong contender for this spot just because this list is dominated by Danganronpa stuff) but this one is my favourite because it was just me… rambling about how much I love Ibuki… and projecting onto Peko. Which I do every time I write this pairing, but I didn’t make this list to call myself out, so yeah I’m just going to move on.

Content warnings: Peko briefly mentions that Fuyuhiko had to get an appendectomy within the piece, but it’s nothing intense.

---

July:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19974424 : “Take his soul with a kiss”, a Grim Reaper AU in which Maki is Death and Kaito is a guy with the audacity to tell her to wait a week before grabbing her soul. I’ve finally hit the part of this summer where I was eating one meal a day and spending the rest of my time on my laptop writing fic. 14k words a day, babey! I wrote all my favourite pieces in July (Shuichi’s love hotel, the one where Rantaro pierces Shuichi’s ears, the domestic Hinanami, the one where Shuichi has a breakdown and everyone comforts him, that one where Shuichi is mean to Kokichi and then apologises) but this one definitely deserves to be here because it’s my favourite. I like Momoharu/Kaimaki/Harukaito (idk what y’all call it man) so, uh. Yeah.

Content warnings: Death is talked about a lot but I don’t want to spoil anything about the ending by saying shit so I’ll just??? It’s a Grim Reaper AU, procede with caution. Oh, and Kaito has a lung disease.

---

August:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20442290/chapters/48499868 : “Causation and Correlation”, another 5+1 things fic (I have a good chunk of them) where Kyoko can hear death and so she goes around saving people. Also, in the end of the fic, someone saves her. It’s a cute fic and I love writing Kyoko so obviously this one is my favourite. (The one where Kokichi has parents and the Kaemugi fic I wrote that month are ones I really like too… this isn’t easy for me gamers ;w;) This is one of those fics where I was feeling extremely confident about my writing abilities the whole time I wrote it, and I’m still really proud of it.

Content warnings: Again, uh, death? Attempted murder, near-drowning, sickness, head injuries, and also attempted suicide. (Nobody dies in this fic, though.) Kyoko has her work cut out for her in this one.

---

September:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20577251 : “Cigarette smoke”, a vaguely nonsensical Saimota piece I wrote where Kaito breaks down and Shuichi comforts him. I’ve only written Saimota twice and both times it’s been Kaito angst because you guys, you just, you don’t address his sadness at all unless it’s in Oumota (and we all know how I feel about Oumota). I should start referring to September as “the month of angst fics I wrote in the middle of the night” because that’s exactly what all of it was. This one wasn’t a vent fic, but there were a lot of them. September is also the month I started doing Amami week, so there’s a lot of that, too.

Content warnings: Kaito really… berates himself in this one. His internal dialogue is hard for me to read in this one because he’s super hard on himself. He also has a meltdown and starts hyperventilating at one point (and the way I write breakdowns is always super descriptive) so please make sure you’re happy and healthy before reading.

---

October:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21195527 : “In the forever sense of the term”, what is probably my favourite Amasai fic at this moment, where Shuichi and Rantaro are forced to address Shuichi’s abandonment issues, and also there’s crying. A lot of it. From Shuichi mainly but a little bit from Rantaro too. I was surprised at how many fics I wrote in October because I was mostly focusing on Inktober I should think? I wrote a lot of original works in Inktober (though I ended up falling off the wagon at the end due to burnout) and it was a really fun experience! I think it strengthened my skills as a writer. Anyway this one is cathartic as hell.

Content warnings: The self loathing is strong with this one. It’s one of many mental breakdown fics that I’ve written this year. And there’s obviously the abandonment issues thing. Yikes.

---

November:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21399748 : “One hundred and twenty six tiles on the ceiling”, where Himiko ends up bailing on plans she made with everyone to hang out and instead stays at home, stewing in self deprecation, until Ryoma shows up, and then everyone else comes to take care of her. Another one of those ones where everyone is there for someone after a breakdown. I like this one because Himiko is my baby and most of the angst the fandom puts out for her is centered around Tenko and Angie, which sucks because I headcanon her as having depression. Like, depression that is entirely unrelated to the people she knows kind of depression. I didn’t write a lot in November because I had a relapse, but I like this one anyway.

Content warnings: Depressive episode, disassociating, suicidal ideation, all the ugly things that come with depression. This isn’t a pretty fic. I don’t write depression as something that’s pretty or poetic because it’s not. It fucking sucks and that’s just how things are going to be.

---

December:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21976864/chapters/52442179 : “An Ode to Yellow Carnations”, a 5+1 things fic where Tsumugi is a florist and Kaede takes different people to her shop until eventually she goes by herself. Is anyone surprised to see this one here? I wrote it for Tumblr’s Danganronpa Secret Santa Gift Exchange 2019 and went waaaay overboard with it. Which is probably why I like it so much. It took me ten days to actually complete, and I’ll frame it like I was diligently writing the whole time, but anyone who knows me knows that I never do things in that way. In truth I switched ideas for the fic four different times and then wrote half of it all in one night when I was hit with a surge of inspiration. I was really nervous that the person I wrote it for would hate it since it’s so long, lol. (Hi Alerane, I love you.) Anyway, I’m gonna think of December of this year as the month where I spent a really long time on a bunch of fics and then posted them all at once.

Content warnings: Very minor character death, mentions of alcohol use (nothing egregious, just recreational use on an outing with friends and all the characters are of age), also Kaede doesn’t go outside in this fic.

---

I’m going to try and get out one more fic before the year ends. To be honest I wasn’t expecting to have updated Search by now so I’ve been kind of sitting around wondering what I should write. Maybe I should just start on the Aki chapter, but I’m kind of putting that off because writing those chapters takes a lot of energy and Aki’s is probably going to double Tsubaki’s in length. (Which is great, since Tsubaki’s was already a monster of a chapter on its own.) I’ve had a really great year for writing, y’all. I’ve made lots of friends and learned a whole lot about myself, and my writing style, and the characters I’m trying to portray.

I didn’t include any long-term multi-chapters in this list, like The Best Lies or my Fanganronpa (rip… I swear I’ll pick it back up again soon, I love those characters) but if you want to track my progress as a writer without reading eleven different fics, I’d really recommend reading one of those, because you can see it happening as the chapters go on. There’s so much that I’d probably write differently from where I am now as a writer, because that’s just how things work. Life is like that. You do things a certain way in the moment, and then later, you wish you could’ve done them differently. It’s impossible to live your life without regrets, or things that you’d like to do over again.

But for what it’s worth, I’m really happy that I don’t have to. Thank you guys so much for sticking with me this year. It hasn’t been the best, but it’s been all that it’s been capable of being.

Here’s to a new decade.

[detectivesplotslies]

An Anthropologist and a Pianist walk into a School

Oumota Week 2019 - Day 2: Talent Swap / Monster AU 

Description: The Ultimate Anthropologist, Kaito Momota, wants to make quick work of getting to know everything about his classmates, but a certain Pianist seems to be making that troublesome.  Word Count: 1719

Read on AO3 here

“So, you’re a pianist? That’s quite a profession to get into, lots of glory and greatness in being a musician! Who would you say inspired you?”

Kaito barely wastes a moment after introducing himself and jumps straight into questions. He’s already had a long discussion with Kaede about her inventions and Rantaro about his organization, and Kokichi happens to be hovering when he finishes.

“You cut right to it, huh. Well of course the greats, Beethoven, Wagner, a bit of Handel gives you a good handle on it.”

“So you’re into classical stylings? Are they hard to learn? What about your teacher?” Kaito talks a mile a minute, quickly committing the names to memory. Sure music isn’t his expertise, but he knows the big names. Symphonies that inspired others, and ones inspired by others.

“Oh my teacher’s a real gem, but he’s so strict, there was one time I got one note wrong in Beethoven’s 10th Symphony, and he made me play the entire thing backwards from that note and THEN start over. My poor fingers!”

“Oh cool, you must be really skilled then! Sure must have been a pain, that’s crazy punishment for a mistake! Did it even sound good?” Kaito looks up, his face genuinely excited.

Kokichi pauses before grinning and continuing.

“...well of COURSE it still sounded good, I am the Ultimate Pianist after all.”

“With training like that, can you compose? Do you improvise? Or after that rigorous training are you forever bound to the classics? Would it feel wrong to play something modern, or do you like the jazz era too?”

“Wow Momota-chan, how dare you speak of jazz in my presence. I do not play that filth, only the best for my hands!”

“Ah… okay, well, then what made you keep at it? You’re inspired by the classics and your teacher was harsh, but there’s not much for those outside of concerts. Are those what you play for?”

“Silly Momota-chan, of course it’s about the audience. The audience is always who matters when you play music, because only they can hear what you really want to say with it! You really ask a lot of questions, ya know? Are you sure you’re an anthropologist and not Ultimate Journalist? Ultimate TV Show Host? Ultimate Cop? Hmmm?”

“Hey I know a thing or two about audiences, but I’m still an anthropologist, don’t you forget it! Been on lecturing tours at universities all over to show what I’ve put together. I bet those aren’t too different from touring concerts.”

Kokichi laughs and continues to poke. The interview devolves into defenses, Kaito’s illustrious experience and credentials taking the spotlight and questions forgotten. Soon enough they part and he’s off to interview another classmate. An anthropologist’s work is never done as long as there are people to learn from!

But that was hardly the end of what he heard from Ouma that day. You’d think a musician would be more considerate about the volume of their voice.

---

During lunch the elegant cosplayer approaches the pianist, poise exquisite. He seems to consider the boy’s clothes before posing a question.

“So, do you wear the classic tails and tie when you perform, Ouma-kun?”

“Oh yes all the classics. The tie, tails, knuckles, sonic-”

“I’m sorry the-”

“Gotta go fast, Shinguji-kun! You know that one right? Ever worn a mascot costume? Huh?”

After a moment of awkward silence to Ouma’s exclamations Korekiyo excused himself. Kaito, also in the dining hall figured that… could be a way he could show interest in the cosplaying talent. Maybe. But from his interview he knew mascots and simple designs were the farthest from what the cosplayer’s actual interest was.

---

During an argument about her tastes, it isn’t long before the artist tries to push back on the other art talent in the room, and prove herself more cultured.

“Well, I bet you don’t have any more recent musical influences hmm? All long dead men, who’s music is gathering dust. A real artist has to live in the now,” Tenko huffs.

“Oh but I love to stay current! Why just last month I attended a very inspiring concert.”

“Oh really? Tenko would like to know who!”

“Have you, my dear, heard the musical stylings of the Wiggles?”

The jazz hands are met with a nose thrust in the air as Tenko turns heel to leave. Kokichi calls something about artist temperaments after her, to which her heels in her exit from the courtyard clack a bit louder and angrier, like little daggers stabbing the pavement.

Possibly artistic differences? Competitive sort of field? Kaito isn’t sure he’s got a good enough grasp of Tenko’s stance on it all yet to judge.

---

This time the sound of a strange song with no tempo played obnoxiously that caught his attention, and the anthropologist stops in the doorway to look into a classroom.

“Why do you keep playing that thing? I thought you were a piano man, or something.”

To the astronaut who was pointing at the kazoo in his mouth, Kokichi holds it out with some flare.

“The kazoo, which we in the music industry like to call the tongue piano, is a very technical instrument to get right, but if you listen closely you can hear the nuances of a master, c’mon lean in.”

A sharp sound, a spray of spit and a string of profanities later, Miu storms out muttering about getting that key wiggling twink back while Kokichi laughs himself breathless. Kaito stumbles out of her way, his face pinched into a frown as he glances back at the classroom.

Perhaps this called for a follow-up interview.

---

Kaito returns from the library, fists clenched, looking around. Eventually he spots Kokichi, snapping his suspenders and chatting away at the magician, Shuichi, backed into the corner with something between fear and confusion on his face. His top hat is precariously close to tipping off his face while he pushes against the wall.

“Hey Ouma, I wanted to ask you some more questions!”

The pianist turns, tilting his head to the side, face blank for a moment before a cheshire grin spreads across it.

“Momota-chan! Of course, of course. Want to hear more from the master, couldn’t resist, I get it. Well I have plenty of time! Saihara-chan here won’t tell me the ritual he cast to get so powerful because I’m not a wizard like him! Maybe your interrogation will work!”

Kaito hesitates a moment. Wizard? Isn’t Shuichi a magician? “Ah, no I just have questions for you, not Saihara.”

That’s all it takes for Shuichi to take his chance to dart behind Kokichi and leave the room in a run. Neither of them have ever seen the kid move that fast. They are left alone.

“Right, so I just wanted to check a few things with you. You said Beethoven, Wagner, and Handel were your inspiration?”

“Why Momota-chan, were your ears taking a vacation? Yep! Those are my favourite piano composers! And I won’t repeat it again, so you better listen!”

“And when you messed up in Beethoven’s 10th Symphony your teacher made you play it backwards?”

Kokchi flutters his fingers in front of him dramatically. “Back and then front again, like a puppet!”

“And you despise jazz?”

Kokichi gags. “Won’t touch the stuff!”

Then without missing a beat, Kaito grins and asks a new question.

“So your entire interview with me was bullshit, huh?”

Kokichi scoffs and crosses his arms in front of his chest. “My, my, Momota-chan, what nerve you have to tell a musician he doesn’t know his own taste! Next I’ll be telling you about anthropology journals or whatever boring things you are inspired by!”

Kaito sighs and pulls a book out of his bag and flips it open, citing pages as he talks. “Wagner was a terrible pianist, and while he did write some pieces for the piano, apparently they pale in comparison to most other composers of his time. Beethoven only wrote 9 symphonies, so whether you can play one backwards or not you should have corrected the number when I repeated 10th back at you. And you say you dislike jazz but that’s the beat and style you’ve been playing on your kazoo all day.” He claps the book shut with a satisfied smirk on his face.

There’s silence between them for an uncomfortable moment, until Kokichi puts his arms back lazily behind his head and smiles.

“Wow, Momota-chan’s such a nerd.”

Kaito’s smirk drops and indignance rushes onto it, red and unready for its turn.

“Wh- No I’m not! How is finding out a liar nerdy? You’ve been messing with people all day I had to fact check, I-”

“Ohhh, not a nerd, my mistake, a stalker! Wow, I haven’t had one of those since that one time at one of my concerts when this guy grabbed me by my tails and-”

“Ouma, I don’t want to hear another story, I want to hear about you!” Kaito may have shouted it a touch louder than planned, as Kokichi’s tale about his tails abruptly cuts off.

“Why?”

“What? What do you mean ‘why’?”

“Momota-chan can ask questions, but he can’t answer them? Why don’t you want to hear a story. Stories are much more fun! Stories about hedgehogs, teachers, fun kid shows, wizards, and strange instruments. Why wouldn’t that be what anyone wants to hear? It only matters if you like what you hear, afterall.”

“I don’t care if it’s what I would like if it’s not about you. What’s the point in getting to know someone that way?”

“I don’t know, maybe you should tell me, you’re the one studying humans, and they tell some pretty stories when there’s nothing very pretty at all.”

Kokichi smirks and starts to walk out of the room. He’s almost out when Kaito says something to himself, quietly, but Kokichi’s trained ears hear it clearly.

“So you weren’t lying about that then.”

Kokichi turns, raising a brow. “What do you think was true, then, oh Ultimate Questioner?”

“That it’s all about the audience. You change your tune based on who’s listening, and if what you want them to hear? Then I wonder what your audience when you actually play is like.”

Kokichi frowns for a moment and continues walking out, no reply ready.

[end note]

Hope you guys enjoyed a taste of the dumb talent swap I’ve been nursing in headcanons for ages hahah <3 As a bonus, about their designs, some fun details. Kokichi tucks his hair behind his ears so he can better catch what people are saying quietly, and Kaito ended up wrecking his eyes and needing glasses from trying to read things in dark places on expeditions after dark or before the crew would set up. For @oumota-events week!

[zepheon]

Cramped

Oumota Week Day 1: Stuck in a Small Space Read on AO3 here!

(I’m here with a fic! I can’t believe it either!! But I love this ship and I thought of a fun idea for today so I gave it a shot)

-----

It was no secret that Kaito Momota could be a bit impulsive.

He wouldn’t call it a flaw himself, not really. He was always up for whatever life threw at him! Be it stepping up to a challenge or helping a friend he thought was in need, he was ready to do whatever he thought was needed at the drop of a hat. Shuichi had called it “a lack of impulse control” and Maki referred to it as “being an idiot.” The latter especially when it involved Kokichi.

But could you blame him? Kokichi was his rival! The one who pushed him to do better and aim higher! So of course he would rise to any challenge the other boy posed to him, especially if the other was insistent that he couldn’t do it. The others could roll their eyes and call him impulsive or reckless or whatever they wanted; it never bothered him.

Well, it bothered him one time.

When they were talking about his and Kokichi’s relationship.

That definitely wasn’t an impulse, no matter what the rest of their classmates thought. That was a result of communication and compromise and learning to understand the other and trust built on months and month of work. There was nothing impulsive about the two being together for as long as they had and keeping their relationship strong.

Now, was yelling his confession at Kokichi in the middle of an argument impulsive? Maybe. And was dragging the other boy into a kiss when those same feelings were shouted back at him also impulsive? Probably!

And the fact that the two of them were currently hiding in a dark janitor’s closet while trying to catch their breath from running? Okay, that was definitely impulsive. But dammit how was he supposed to just let Kokichi taunt him about never pulling a “real” prank before? The shorter boy did them all the time, how hard could they be?

Turns out the answer was not very hard at all. It was the getting away part that took some extra effort.

Kaito sighed and leaned against one of the walls of the small closet, eyes trying to adjust to the darkness. It was pitch black, no light even from under the door. His hand went to his pocket but found it empty, his phone forgotten in his room when he ran after Kokichi. He heard the other boy lean against the door near him, fits of giggles mingling in with his pants as he tried to catch his breath as well.

“I… told you it… was easy!” he huffed out and Kaito could practically hear the grin in his voice. He felt a hand brush his arm before patting his shoulder a few times. “And you were a natural! I knew you would be; some of my natural talent for pranks had to rub off on you eventually. I bet D.I.C.E. will be thrilled when I tell them—“

“Yeah yeah tell them we pulled it off, they’ll be so proud,” Kaito cut him off, lowering his voice. “But aren’t we trying to lay low and, y’know, not be found right now?”

Kiyotaka Ishimaru was definitely not his first choice for a prank target, especially considering his boyfriend was in one of the scariest biker gangs in the city. But unfortunately Kokichi was very much a go big or go home person when it came to pranks, and he certainly wasn’t about to let Kaito back down from it either. So after a bit of planning and preparation, the astronaut’s first attempt at a prank was a success.

Well, it would be after he knew they were safe from the angry hall monitor. Who knew he could run so fast?

“It’s fiiiiine, we totally lost him by now,” the supreme leader explained, voice still its normal volume. “I hide in closets like this all the time, not even Kiyotaka would think to look for us here!”

“I guess…” It was unnerving not being able to see the boy next to him with how close together they were. Kaito wasn’t claustrophobic by any means, but it didn’t mean he was completely comfortable. “Can’t we find a different spot then? Or loop back to our dorms?”

He heard Kokichi scoff. “And risk getting caught? That’s the first place he’ll look for us.” He paused for a moment and Kaito was ready to speak again before the other boy went on. “Buuuut if my dear Kai-chan is scared then I guess I can come to his rescue and find us a better spot!”

“Not scared!” he asserted, clenching his fist. But if it got them out of the closet then he’d suffer through the teasing. Kokichi laughed and Kaito heard the door knob jiggle, but the door didn’t open. He sighed. “C’mon Kichi let us out of here.”

“Uhhh, yeah…” He felt his heart sink as he heard the door knob jiggle again and heard the leader slam his body into it but no light to signal the door was opening at all. “Sooo uh.”

“No…”

“I’ve never hid in this specific closet before...”

“Don’t tell me….”

“Aaaand the door’s not budging. SO. Guess we learned this door locks from the outside!”

Kaito groaned and buried his face in his hands, slowly sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. This couldn’t be happening. He felt Kokichi plop down next to him, bumping their shoulders together.

“Welp. Looks like we’ll be here for a while.”

-----

“I spy…”

“—Kichi.”

“With my little eye…”

“Kokichi.”

“Somethiiiing purple!”

“That’s bullshit and you know it, you can’t see anything in here.”

“Of course I can! I can see in the dark you know.”

Kaito sighed and rested his head on the wall behind him, Kokichi following suit and leaning his head back against the astronaut’s chest. It hadn’t been long before the smaller boy was complaining about how uncomfortable it was being cramped in a closet and decided that his boyfriend’s lap was much more comfy. Kaito hadn’t complained; for one it would keep Kokichi happy and hopefully put a stop to the whines. But it was also nice to just be able to hold the other boy for a bit. Kokichi was finicky about physical affection and it was rare for him to be the one to initiate it. So when an opportunity presented itself he certainly wasn’t going to say no.

“Really now?” he asked sarcastically, gently squeezing the leader’s midsection. Sometimes it was just easier to go along with the lies. “This is the first time you’ve told me about it.”

“Well you never asked me about it!” Kaito snorted at how offended he sounded. “I have to keep some secrets from you, it adds to my mysterious evil charm.”

“You’ve got some kinda charm alright,” he agreed, rolling his eyes even though he definitely knew the other couldn’t see. “So you can see anything in this room? Right now?”

“That’s what I said Kai-chan!”

Kaito couldn’t hold back a grin as he raised one arm to hold up a finger in front of Kokichi’s face. “Then how many fingers am I holding up right now?”

“That’s an easy one! It’s—“ He felt the other boy reach forward and grab his hand, grin turning into a full blown smirk when he heard the gasp the signaled the leader had figured out which finger he was holding up. “Kai-chan! Flipping your boyfriend the bird when he can’t even see it! The nerve! The gall!” Kaito couldn’t even reply, laughing so hard he doubled over and rested his forehead against Kokichi’s shoulder. Kokichi tried to keep up the offended act but it was only a few more moments before he joined in on the laughter, lacing their fingers together as he leaned his head on Kaito’s.

Their laughter filled the closet for a few more minutes, eventually dying down to a few scattered giggles and then into comfortable silence. Kaito sighed as he lifted his head, pressing a soft kiss to Kokichi’s hair before leaning back into the wall. He heard the other boy hum softly before he spoke again. “You didn’t give me a guess.”

Kaito raised an eyebrow. “A guess for what?”

“For I Spy! I spied something purple and you have to guess what it is!”

He chuckled as he gave their joined hands a squeeze. “I know you can’t actually see anything.”

“It counts if I know that something purple is in here!”

Of course he would have some sort of work around rule. He was the supreme leader after all. Kaito hummed in thought, mind going over anything purple he could think of. One item stood out, the most likely option. “Is it my coat?”

“Ding ding ding! Correct!” Kokichi cheered, and Kaito felt a hand reach back to pat him on the cheek. He lifted a hand to playfully bat it away. “The answer was Kai-chan’s stupid space coat!”

“I know you don’t actually think it’s stupid,” he countered, arm going back to wrap around the other boy. “You know you like my awesome coat.”

Kokichi made a noise of disgust. “Awesome? No. Definitely not. It’s stupid and lame and definitely not comfortable at all,” he asserted, shaking his head. “And super tacky. Who even wears galaxy print anymore?”

Kaito just smiled and unwrapped his arms from the other boy, leaning forward slightly as he shrugged said coat off of his shoulder. Hoping he wasn’t going to hit the other in the darkness, he swung it around in front of Kokichi, draping it over him like a blanket.

The reaction was immediate; Kaito’s smile softened as his boyfriend made a happy sound, tugging the coat around him and snuggling into it. The astronaut wrapped his arms around him again, feeling Kokichi wiggle and adjust before placing his hands on top of his and lacing their fingers together again, feeling the coat’s cuffs brush against his wrists. He must have stuck his arms through the sleeves, effectively wearing the coat backwards and still being wrapped up in it. Kaito chuckled as the smaller boy relaxed against his chest, letting out a content sigh. “See? Totally not comfy at all.”

He hummed in agreement, placing another kiss on the top of Kokichi’s head. He rested his head against the wall and let his eyes slip shut, enjoying the peaceful quiet before his boyfriend eventually thought of something new to entertain himself again.

-----

They were halfway through one of their usual arguments when a quiet knock on the closet’s door surprised both of them. They had been in there so long that Kaito had almost forgotten that they were stuck. A familiar voice followed the knock. “Hello? Is someone in there?”

“Occupied! Come back later!” Kokichi called before Kaito even had a chance to reply. He huffed and moved to stand up, dragging the other boy with him.

“No wait, don’t leave! Kiibo it’s us, let us out!” he yelled, praying the robot hadn’t already walked away. He did have the unfortunate habit of taking anything the liar said seriously. Thankfully he heard the door knob turn and the door swung open, light pouring in and revealing a confused Kiibo staring at them both.

“Why are you two hiding in a janitor’s closet?” he asked, stepping to the side so the pair could finally leave the small room. “We’ve been looking for you all afternoon.”

“Well it’s—“

“It’s our way of coming out of the closet!” Kokichi interrupted him, throwing his arms in the air excitedly, Kaito’s coat still backwards on his arms. “We’re gay, Keeboy!”

All Kiibo could do was blink at him. “But. I already knew that. You’re very explicit about it actually—“

“Because we ARE and we’re PROUD and we’re not gonna let a ROBOT tell us otherwise--!”

Kaito sighed and began pushing his boyfriend away. “We just got stuck is all. Thanks for letting us out, man, we’re gonna head back to the dorms,” he explained, giving a small wave behind him. “Tell the others not to worry.”

“Ah, alright then! I’m glad that the two of you are okay!” he heard Kiibo call after them, nodding and intending to give Kokichi an earful about picking better places to hide after pranks. Until of course, the robot called out again.

“Oh! And Kiyotaka was looking for you both too!”

Shit.

[trans-shuichisaihara]

Oumota Week Day 2 - Talentswap

for @oumota-events​, I dug out my old Mountain Climber!Kaito and Traceur!Kokichi talentswap au. I’ve always wanted to write something for this but never got around to it xD

"C'mon, you're falling behind!" Kokichi's voice from two stories up was barely audible from the rush of wind around Kaito's ears. "If you don't catch up, I might have to claim your title for myself, you know."

"Like to see you try to climb a mountain next time," Kaito grumbled as he readjusted his grip on the too-sleek surface of the building they were climbing.

It had all started as a dare.

One of their classmates had made the mistake of comparing their talents, stating that all Kokichi and Kaito did was "climb stuff." Which was very wrong, and of course led to the two of them loudly declaring each and every difference between a Mountain Climber and a Traceur.

Then, Kokichi said something that made Kaito's blood boil. "It's not like Momota-chan would be able to climb a building anyway."

Kaito's rebuttal eventually led to Kokichi daring him into climbing one with him, to prove that Kaito could scale buildings if he wanted to.

Now that he was actually doing it, however, he was beginning to see that it wasn't as simple as he had initially believed it to be.

The building wasn't even that big. Certainly nowhere near as big as most of the mountain's he'd climbed in his life. But it was steep, and the walls had little friction or secure places to hold. These factors led to Kaito climbing more cautiously than he normally did. It annoyed him that Kokichi was already poking fun at him, when they were only a few stories off the ground.

"Momota-chaaaaannn! Pick it up! If you climb any slower, you'll be an old man by the time you get to the top!"

"Shut it, I'm still getting used to the walls! I'll catch up, so stop worrying about me and go already!" He didn't want Kokichi to win the race to the top, but having him breathing down his neck was getting annoying. Also, his throat was getting hoarse from yelling up anyway, so if Kokichi really did leave him in the dust, at least he'd have two less distractions.

"Aww, but if I leave, you might slip and fall to your death! I can't have that!" With finesse attributed to his talent, Kokichi easily dropped down to Kaito's ledge. "You can't be looking for holds; just find the next window and figure out how to jump to it! Less pulling up and more pushing off the ground and corners."

To demostrate, he kicked at the thin wall that held the window in place. "Put your foot here, then just--" He pushed off the ground with his other foot, the one on the wall holding him midair so briefly that if Kaito had blinked, he would've missed Kokichi pushing off that as well, again reaching the next window sill and grabbing it. He hauled himself up with practiced ease, grinning down to Kaito when he was adjusted.

"See? Easy."

Kaito huffed. Sure, easy. He began trying to mimic Kokichi's instructions, but the positioning felt all off. He felt like if he tried to push off in the same manner Kokichi had, that he really would just slip and plummet down.

Kaito put his foot back down. "Look, I think I should just do this my way. I have my own method for climbing, and you have yours." He again started looking for a good place to hold.

But when Kokichi didn't respond immediately, he paused, looking up to meet his face. It was oddly serious, and so Kaito waited to see what he would say.

"Listen, Momota-chan. Just like how if I started jumping around on your mountains, it would be a bad idea, you trying to go about this with your technique... It'll get you hurt, if you even get anywhere at all. Parkour does involve planning, but if you never take any risks, you'll never get to where you want to go."

"So stop thinking so much and take some chances. Trust yourself, and trust me. The skills you already have can help you, if you let them evolve into something new."

Kaito swallowed. Against his better judgment, he looked down, and for the first time in years experienced the dizzying sensation of being too high up.

Then, he looked up, his eyes locking with Kokichi's. The other nodded, and Kaito exhaled. He readjusted his stance...

Then, he jumped.

[andromebaa]

Anything you’d have added to the previous chapters in retrospect? Scenes that only occurred to you after the chaps were done?

Ooh that’s a great question! I have to say, because I was not planning on Just the Two of Us to become such a big work I definitely have scenes I wish I’d included.

- If I’d have known I was going down a scarier route with it, I’d have included more horror straight up. I kind of wish I’d made the killing sequences at the beginning a chapter or two longer and more unhinged.

- Similarly, I feel like I could have included more slice-of-life, especially before and around that year Kaito and Kokichi spent together. Even some of my more domestic focused chapters had drama or sad stuff occurring. I just needed more fun fluffiness. Gardening seems to be one concept I keep coming to? Or just being silly and playing games together? I have a bunch of cute one shot ideas though so I might end up writing some in the future. I have at least one planned for Oumota week!

- in a similar vein, I keep kicking myself that I didn’t include more scenes of them testing the limits of the program too. Not even for more serious escapes I could just imagine Kokichi being like “Do you think I could make a giant water slide??” Or something crazy like that. I briefly considered them creating a pet cat but then I realised that if I have a cute living creature they’d probably die horribly and I couldn’t do that to myself. That’s how we got Shadow Child dying horrifically instead!

- More relationship building stuff?? I feel like I might have rushed that part a little bit and reflecting on it I wish I’d kind of given more time to building their relationship. This is actually the first time in a long time I’ve written anything remotely considered “romantic” so I’m definitely rusty at it. I think I’d have been more satisfied with it if I’d just given some more explanation as to why Kaito kissed Kokichi in the chapter after the wall broke. It wasn’t that he was in love with him at the point, I think it was more to prove to himself and Kokichi that he wasn’t the monster the leech made him into in the previous chapter.

- Different perspectives. Mild spoilers but I’m planning on having a chapter soon focus on a very specific character, and it’s made me realise how much I wish I’d included a Miu focused one as well, especially when Kaito and Kokichi were trapped in the bathroom and she’s observing them with the P.A.L. leech thing. I might write a one shot about her eventually who knows.

- Probably should have made Defragmentation an offical chapter lol my weird ass was like I can’t put a sex scene in this it’d make it crass then proceeded to write some of the most horrific content I could muster. Plus it has themes and lines I want to reference.

All in all I think my biggest regret is not making the first half of the fic a bit beefier. Eh, you live and learn. Thanks for the ask ❤️

[roomed-boii]

Oumota Week Day 5: Caught in the Rain/

[I mean they're technically not caught in the rain but it's a rainy day outside so- anyway this is my first time writing anything like this so I hope it turned out ok]

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Rainy Day Rivals

Ouma never liked the rain

It's not like he hated it or anything. There was plenty of pranks to be pulled even when it was practically flooding outside, but he couldn't help but think it brought the mood down. On days like these he didn't necessarily feel like teasing Kiibo,playing around with Gonta, chatting it up with Amami, comically insulting Iruma and he definitely DEFINITELY didn't feel like hearing the mouths of the Ultimate Astronaut and his two lackeys and that was the truth! But maybe not so much today…

Safe to say he was surprised seeing said astronaut sitting at a lone dining table staring into space, seeming lost in thought, making a face Ouma couldn't describe. He stood in place silently at the door. Okay… maybe-just maybe he wouldn't mind seeing Momota. After all he never skimped out on any chance of messing with his fated enemy; and he always told Momota as such. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that the two had declared themselves rivals. Ouma always challenged Momota and the spaceman returned it tenfold, usually leading to hesitant glances from the rest of their class. Ouma had always coerced Momota into chasing him through the halls and he followed. Despite the complaints afterwards, he could have just easily ignored the other boy. Yeah yeah, they fought a lot but that's just what they did. Ouma couldn't help but enjoy the pursuits and from the small smirks Momota had when he thought the supreme leader wasn't looking he enjoyed them too, at least a little. Wait what was he doing? Right he was messing with Momota. Right. Geez…

Momota hadn't noticed him yet, most certainly out of it. He snuck up behind the astronaut and dug both hands deep into his sides watching Momota yelp and turn to glare at him.

"Ow…! What the hell, Ouma!!" Momota screeched.

"Wha? How do ya know it was me Momota-chan?" Ouma brought finger to his mouth. "I just came to check on my favorite imbecile is all, but I bet you don't even know what that means~" Momota was about to shoot back as Ouma continued, face growing more sinister. "For all I know, it could've been a ghost…"

Momota tensed, "D-don't screw around like t-that asshole…!"

Ouma bounced up with a giggle. "Nishishi~ you know I'm just kidding! Man, you sure are easily spooked, huh?"

"Of course you are.." The tension left his rivals shoulders with a huff.

"Anyways whaddya want? Don't have anyone to annoy cuz of the rain or something?" While he was right that everyone, even people like Chabashira or Iruma were a lot more quiet and tired on dull days like these, Ouma let out a dramatic gasp.

"Bold of you to assume that feeble raindrops can stop yours truly! You should feel grateful anyways, Momota-chan! After all, I took time out of my busy schedule just to talk to the little people..."

Momota wasn't buying it "Yeah sure," He turned away from Ouma.

Seems like someone was in a mood. Maybe it had something to do with the rain? I mean, he always did train and talk outside with Saihara, killer girl and the rest of his class. Ouma didn't know the answer but he wasn't here to find it. Instead, he had an idea.

"Actually…" Momota turned at that. "I have a little game we could play…"

The astronaut scoffed at that "Like hell I'd wanna play a game with you!"

Ouma smiled "Aww… I'd be really hurt iiif I didn't see this coming sooo…". Without a second thought, he dug his nails into Momota's sides again before he let out another undignified yelp. Ouma let out one of his own when Momota turned to him, looking about ready to squeeze him.

"Why you little…." he hissed as he shot at Ouma but the supreme leader was already at the door while the heavy footsteps of the luminary followed close behind.

" Get back here you little shit!!" Momota yelled out.

"Only if you and your stupid goatee can keep up!" Ouma teased.

"God damn it! Leave my goatee outta this!"

                                ●

As far as Ouma knew, they'd been running around in twists and turns for a good 10 minutes. He was going up his 5th flight of stairs when big arms suddenly wrapped around his waist.

"Gotcha!!" Momota yelled valiantly. He wasn't able to celebrate for long, however.

 Right after was followed by the screams of both him and Ouma as they rolled across the floor, clutching onto each other. The leader found himself on top of the astronaut's chest while the other caught his breath. Looking at the situation before him, Ouma began to laugh.

That woke Momota up from his daze. "Eh? What're ya laughing for?"

"All according to plan!" Ouma announced, trying to sit up but opting to plop back down on Momota's chest.

He didn't push him off as he muttered, "So this was your "game" huh?" Ouma nodded his head enthusiastically, meanwhile his face felt a bit hotter as Momota's hands wrapped around him, pushing him to be closer to the astronaut.

"Tch.. Ya damn brat. Can't believe you made me chase you around the entire school. " though his words lacked their usual vigor. Ouma turned to see Momota giving him that silent smirk that made him feel a certain way. Nonetheless Ouma returned a wide grin of his own as they lay there.

Yeah, they got into an argument almost immediately after but that's just what they did. They were rivals after all. All in all, this rainy day wasn't so boring.

[dancer-cotillion]

Oumota Week Day Five: Caught in the Rain

@oumota-events

Kaito frowned as he looked at the rain pouring down in front him. The overhang around the school’s exit protected him from it for now so he could maybe get away with standing here until it stopped. But it didn’t seem like it would any time soon and he’d forgotten to check the weather before heading out this morning and thus didn’t have an umbrella. So, now he had to walk home in this nonsense.

It was going to ruin his hair and clothes and all the stuff in his backpack. At least he’d have an excuse for not doing his homework, right? Not that that was much of a consolation.

“Hey space cowboy!”

Kaito snapped his head to the side to see Kokichi had come up from around the school building. He had an umbrella; it was checkered black and white because what other colour would Kokichi of all people chose.

“You look like you could use an umbrella,” he said, smiling in that way that meant he was planning something. What though? And how bad was it? “Want to share mine?”

Kaito didn’t fancy the thought of Kokichi walking him home but it wasn’t super far and it’d be better than getting soaked so… “Depends on what the catch is.” As long as it wasn’t too bad, Kaito would put up with it to avoid getting wet.

Kokichi gave him an offended and hurt look. “There is no catch. I just can’t bear the thought of your hair getting ruined by the rain. Don’t you trust me?”

“No, I don’t trust you. What’s the catch? What kind of game do you want me to play for it? Or what kind of embarrassing thing do you want me to say or do? I really don’t care as long as I don’t get soaked on the way back home.” He had a lot of important stuff in his backpack and well… it would ruin his hair and clothes. He put a lot of time and effort into looking cool, he didn’t want to ruin it.

“Hmmm…” Kokichi lifted a finger up to tap his chin in exaggerated thoughtfulness. “In that case, I’ll reveal the catch when we reach your house. How does that sound?”

“Uh… not good. Tell me what it is.”

“I’ll tell you when we get there.” Kokichi walked forward to stand next to Kaito, lifting the umbrella to be over his head too. “Here, you hold it since you’re taller.” He put it into Kaito’s hand before he could voice a protest. He then hooked his arm through Kaito’s. “Let’s go.”

The physical contact was unexpected but… not unpleasant like Kaito would’ve predicted it’d be if he’d been forewarned beforehand. So… perhaps against his better judgment, he didn’t say anything about it and just started walking.

The loud spatter of rain on the umbrella above them made conversation hard so they walked in silence. Kaito had never shared an umbrella with anyone before it was a bit weird and he was very aware of everywhere Kokichi’s body came into contact with his own. It wasn’t unpleasant though, as long as Kokichi was pretending to be behaved it was fine, perhaps even kind of nice.

The rain was starting to lighten up a bit by the time they reached his grandparents’ house. They walked up the driveway, stopping under the overhang where it was dry.

“Now for the catch,” Kokichi said, taking his umbrella back.

Kaito held back a groan. Things had been going so pleasant, of course Kokichi was going to ruin it. But now that he was home, Kaito could just chose to not do whatever Kokichi was going to try to get him to do so it wasn’t really that bad. “What is it?”

Kokichi hesitated as if unsure. It was the first time Kaito had ever seen him do that. But he shook it off quick, literally even shaking his head a little before looking up at Kaito with an evil smile again. “In return for the use of my umbrella, you owe me a kiss.”

“A… what!?”

“A kiss.”

Kaito stared at him. He should be totally against the idea of kissing him, right? But… he wasn’t? He maybe even kind of wanted to?

“I ain’t got all day,” Kokichi said, bouncing up on the balls of his feet. “I walked you all the way home, preserving your precious hair and clothes from the dastardly rain so you owe me and you know it. So…”

Kaito leaned in to kiss him. He should’ve gone for a kiss on the cheek or forehead but it was too late, he was already kissing Kokichi’s mouth. And Kokichi was kissing him back a second later, standing on his toes to reach. It was warm and soft and… they were both blushing intensely when it ended.

They stared into each other’s eyes for a few frozen seconds before Kokichi broke it with a giggle and ran away. Kaito watched him go, wanting to call him back but not having the words to. They needed to talk about… whatever the fuck just happened. But it was too late, Kokichi was already gone. So… later, they’d talk about it and figure it out later.

Kaito for sure wasn’t going to forget about it though, especially with how much his face was burning now. He’d have to stay out here until it faded some lest his grandparents saw and asked him what happened.