Chapter Text
Kokichi looked around, finding the place to be quite enormous. It was the hotel’s restaurant with wooden tables and chairs around. There was a buffet counter, providing food, utensils, and drinks. Water was in a beverage dispenser; oddly enough, another jug of oil was next to it. Looks like there would be oil provided for those robots after all. Not even a moment of peace later, he noticed that there was someone else in the restaurant with him. However, she didn’t notice him in turn, looking panicked and stressed as she pulled on her short pigtails.
The leader smirked to himself. Someone else to mess with and get acquainted with! How fun. Preparing himself, he launched himself towards the girl. She wouldn’t have an idea of what hit her!
With his arms stretched forward, he jumped onto the girl from behind, laughing loudly as the girl responded with a shriek. What Kokichi didn’t expect was for the girl to stumble (well, he expected that) and fall flat on her face (that he didn’t expect as much, though it was hilarious so he won’t complain). The blue-haired girl groaned, using her palms to lift herself but couldn’t due to him sitting on her back.
“Owww…” she moaned in pain before trying to turn around to see her attacker. “Hey, what was that for?!” she asked, looking peeved that she was knocked over as she rubbed her face with a hand.
He laughed. “For fun! What else would that be for?” he smiled.
“Wow, some kids these days can be brutal…” the girl mumbled to herself. “Um, do you mind getting off of my back? Please?”
Kokichi paused to try to look like he was thinking about it. “Hmmmm… Nah! Only if you tell me your name and what made you look so bummed out before I graciously hugged you in comfort!”
“I wouldn’t say that was comforting…” she frowned. “But oh well, alright. I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I was trying to look around this weird place we woke up in but then I found two small kids in here… And when I kept trying to talk or walk up to them, they always ran off!”
He raised an eyebrow. “Maybe they don’t wanna play right now, Marinette! Ever thought of that before disgracing them with your presence?” he snickered.
Marinette’s nose scrunched up, though she looked too concerned to be annoyed at his remark. “It’s not that, I know it! The thing is, the kids were barefoot and their clothes were so ragged…” she sighed. “I can’t see past the layer of dirt on them! You can’t blame me for being so worried… But now I can’t find them!”
Whatever he expected to hear, it wasn’t that. With his attention caught, Kokichi began to scan the place to see who Marinette could be talking about. If there were kids here in poor condition… He’s not gonna let some suffering kids be left to their own devices.
Especially if they need help.
…After all, helping a kid in need is an easy way to get a favor back when they’re all grown! All he’s aiming to do this for is himself when they grow up and ask their savior to join his organization.
He wonders if these kids liked candy. Maybe there’s some back at the supermarket. Not just for them, though, he supposes he’ll get some for himself. He’s generous, but not that generous. Hopefully, they’ll accept his candy (and help).
“Oh jeez, what if you were right?! I must’ve scared them off somehow with stupid… Arggh, clumsiness!” she exclaimed, frustrated as she pulled at her hair. “What if they keep running from me? Or they get hurt and nobody’s there? What if the sight of me scares them and I can’t help them?! What if-”
Kokichi rolled his eyes before getting off of her. “Man, if I knew you were such a worrywart, I wouldn’t have talked to you… You sucked the fun out of this, you fun-sucking vampire,” he huffed, crossing his arms. Jeez, this girl worries her thoughts out loud as much as Shirogane does. “Quit babbling and get up. I’m Kokichi Ouma, Ouma if you will, and I will so kindly lend you a hand in helping you track these kids down!”
Marinette stood up, dusting her clothes off. She looked down at him (though not by much, they were surprisingly similar in height), a hopeful spark in her eyes. “Really? You’d help me?”
“What, are you implying that I’d lie about that?” he snickered. Then, before she could respond, he quickly added, “Uh, duh I’d help you! I’m not a cruel person who kicks puppies for fun! Everyone knows puppy kickers go to hell, and I know when I die I’ll be seeing the bright and shiny gates of heaven!” Never mind the fact that he doesn’t recall an afterlife and that he should be dead at the moment…
“Thank you Ouma!” she said with a sigh of relief. She seemed like she didn’t like his sense of humor and ignored what he said, though she tolerated it to find and help those kids. “You shouldn’t be able to miss them. They were cutting into a paper bag for some reason, so they should be too occupied to run and hide again until they see us!”
Ignoring the fact that what she said about them being unable to hide was kind of creepy, Kokichi’s eyes widened and he intensely stared into her gaze. He stretched his mouth into a thin grin. “Carving? They have a knife?”
Marinette’s bluebell eyes blew wide open. “Oh crud! I forgot they had a knife!” she exclaimed, putting her hands over her head.
You should’ve mentioned that first thing! Kokichi thought with a silent scowl. “I’m going to say what you’re going to do and if you have half a brain to use your ears, you’ll listen.”
Her mouth hung wide open, astounded that he’d talk to her that way. She let her hands fall, her arms dangling from her side. “…Excuse me? I’m sorry, but what gave you the right to-”
Before she could finish getting a word in, Kokichi interrupted her and cut her sentence off. “We’re going to split up in this room and approach them separately. If we do it together, we’ll scare them off like you did earlier,” he said to rub salt in the wound. “When you’re walking up to them, you don’t want them to think they’re cornered- you’d be a predator to them in their eyes! You don’t want to scare them off again, do you?” There was almost a threatening undertone to his voice.
Marinette looked to be hesitating, clearly still caught up in the harsh words he aimed at her. Then, she shook her head so fast he almost thought it was going to fly off. “No, of course not! I don’t want them to be scared of me… Those poor things need help.”
“So let’s split up! Appeal to them! Your brain got that?” he grinned, leaving no room for refusal in his voice.
She frowned. “You don’t have to talk to me like I’m incompetent. But… Alright, yes, I got it. I’ll do it.”
“Then get to work!” he said, snapping his fingers in her face. “Chop chop, Marinette!” Marinette gave him a look with furrowed eyebrows before she went to do what he told her to, looking around the area. Kokichi himself began to search around as well, though with his eyes rather than walking around. Marinette had said that the kids would run when they saw either of them approaching, so it’s best to observe what to do at a distance before striking.
Soon enough, he finally caught sight of the two kids. They were crouched behind a menu sign and some plants. Instead of moving towards them, he silently moved to the side to see a good angle on them. He couldn’t see their entire bodies, but admittedly, he was stunned. If he had less of a poker face, his face would’ve wrinkled in…. Eugh. Empathy.
They both wore long sleeves so he couldn’t assess all the damage but the ones he could see with his eyes were horrifying enough. Their skin was covered in dirt, bruises, and scabbed-over cuts like their skin was some kind of messed up painting targeted by whatever pain they received. Their hair was covered in grease and their clothes were in a condition he wouldn’t even wish upon Harukawa (though he would wish that upon the mastermind of his game, whoever they might be). He’s certain that there would be more terrifying injuries on them if they washed all of that dirt away.
One of the kids had a collared dirty blue long sleeve and the other had his head down, a brown trench coat enveloping him. The poor kid in the trench coat was trembling while the other kid was doing something. Kokichi wasn’t able to see from here, though he saw his arm movements. Soon after, the boy in the blue long sleeve set something down with a barely audible clink (most likely the knife) and held out a paper bag to the other boy. He practically dove for the bag, taking it from the other kid and opening it. His trembles decreased as he slipped the bag over his head; he was somewhat calmed down now. The other boy smiled at him so small he almost didn’t catch sight of it.
Kokichi now recognized these two kids- their cottages were next to Kenny’s and that girl in the pink beret. So that weird pixel square was a paper bag all along, huh? He wondered why the kid wore it. Maybe he couldn’t see due to all that dirt, but there weren’t any disfigurations or major scars… It’s probably due to personal reasons, at best. Now that he was looking at the two, he noticed a similarity; their faces were covered, even if it was just partially since the boy in the collared blue long sleeves had bangs that obscured his eyes. Then, a thought popped into his mind.
Would they be more at ease if I covered my face? Kokichi wondered. It was all just speculation, but kids tend to be attached to things that are familiar or similar to them. These two were most likely to bolt at any signs of danger and would be wary of him, as demonstrated by their encounters with Marinette. They were obviously traumatized and most likely wouldn’t trust adults or older teenagers if their company had anything to infer. For the first time since he woke up here, he was grateful for his short stature that made him look like a child. The two kids must be scared for their lives right now. If he could decrease that caution even the slightest bit, he’d take his chances.
With that assumption in mind, he unraveled his scarf from his neck and lifted it to his eyes. It was large enough to wrap around his head twice, covering his eyes underneath his bangs. He separated the folds of the two wraps by a bit so that he’d be able to see, a single violet eye peeking out. The air that landed directly on his neck with his torn collar felt weird and caused him to shiver, but he tolerated it even if he had to take off his precious scarf from its usual spot.
He crouched and crept toward the two, pausing once he reached the plants. He wasn’t stupid to even try to go around and meet them face-to-face directly. That would be a recipe for disaster. “Psst! Hello!” Kokichi whisper-shouted, keeping the volume of his voice down so they didn’t get startled.
However, his effort was for naught as the two kids jumped and turned their heads so fast that he thought they’d get whiplash. The boy with the paper bag over his head got up in a crouching position, looking ready to bolt. Oh no, not on my watch! “I didn’t know there were other kids here too!” he lied, pitching his voice up somewhat to make him sound innocent and curious. No matter how much it hurt for those words implying that he was a child to fall from his lips, he must play a role to get what he wanted, and what he wanted was to make sure these kids didn’t run.
The kids were still tense, though the paper bag head didn’t seem like he was about to run anymore. Even with his lie, he felt them eye him in suspicion despite their concealed eyes. They looked him up and down before stopping, seeming confused.
The kid in blue opened his mouth to speak before frowning. He coughed and cleared his throat into his hand. “…You? A kid?” he rasped quietly. Children were usually vulnerable and easy to read even if they started developing walls around their emotional state, however, Kokichi was stuck debating whether that was more of a question or more of suspicion. He then decided it was likely a mixture of both. If these two kids were certainly a tough nut to crack and that made their further reactions unpredictable, he’d just have to test their buttons, then.
“Yeah! I’m a kid, just like you guys,” he said, tipping his head as he used a single finger to twirl his hair.
“Why… How… Clothes so clean?” a quiet voice came from under the paper bag. He sounded so utterly confused which blared alarms in Kokichi’s mind. How long have these kids been in this condition that his clean clothes were a foreign concept to them?
“Never mind that,” Kokichi smiled. “I want to know what you guys were doing hiding behind here. Oooooohh, wait, let me guess! Are you playing a game? Hide-and-seek?”
The blue boy frowned at him. “…Not a game…” He looked around cautiously as if there was something about to pounce on them. “Quiet…” he then whispered, pointing at him.
“Quiet?” he repeated with a laugh, tilting his head to the side. It gave him a better angle to look at them since one of his eyes was concealed.
“Shhhh!” the paper bag headed kid shushed him, holding a finger to where his mouth was to be if he didn’t wear a bag over his head. “Hiding. Be quiet…”
Kokichi would laugh if these two didn’t seem to be taking this situation more seriously than he was. Their body language was frozen and tense as they looked around, seemingly alarmed at how much open space there was in the restaurant. For some reason, they were waiting for danger when there seemed to be none (yet). For scared little kids, they read more as cornered prey which was not a good connotation.
“Hiding from who?” he lowered his voice, deciding not to test the waters with them further and getting straight to the point. The kids spoke with limited words, which means they were not that literate or they didn’t want to bring too much attention to sound with their voices. Kokichi had a feeling it was a blend of those two things. If they were confused by his clean clothes, they might be confused or even stressed out further if they don’t understand or feel comfortable with how he is using his words. Maybe he can cut a few of his sentences short…
Blue Boy frowned. “From monsters,” he whispered as though it was basic knowledge. If anything, he looked confused Kokichi asked as though he was supposed to know this already.
Monsters, Kokichi thought. A lot of kids believed in monsters as it was a classic childhood fear. However, with the way he said it with such causality and considering how the kids looked… The leader felt monsters represented something more than a childish dread. Maybe they call the people who have hurt them monsters… He had read and seen a couple of cases of abuse where kids looked at family members who hurt them as though they were nothing but that concept of fear. To them, they may as well have been monsters and he’d agree.
“No monsters here,” Kokichi smiled. “I checked. Only me and my friends.”
At his words, they looked unsure and suspicious. They seemed to be mulling over what he said before cautiously observing the open space they were in. They hardly looked to be believing in his words which was expected.
“Promise!” Kokichi said. “You can see for yourself. No need to hide,” he grinned, standing up from his crouched position and being out in the open. It was a risky motion as he ran the chance of scaring the kids into running off. However, he needed to challenge their reactions in the shallow end before he pulled them into the deep end. He knew at this point Marinette was staring at their interaction but thankfully, she was smart enough to not stick her head in their business yet. With how concerned she was, he knew she would sooner or later.
The kids were startled, backing up from his sudden movement. They looked around, their heads darting in every direction and he realized they were wondering why nothing was happening to him. Kokichi laughed before leaning over them. “I’m Ouma! Kokichi Ouma! This place is a safe haven from allllll those monsters you’re scared about!”
Paper Bag Kid hurriedly ushered him to sit down with his hands before stiffening. Then, he did something Kokichi didn’t predict. He stood up even though he knew he felt so much safer crouched and out of sight. Kokichi was pulled by his sleeve when the boy leaned forward, displaying a surprising amount of strength as he pulled the leader over the plants. Kokichi landed on the floor with an Oomf! before he was hastily pushed into a sitting position against the plants.
The blue sleeved boy looked just as surprised at his companion’s actions before he seemed to get over it, instead making himself as small as he could against the plants. Kokichi stared at the boy with the paper bag, a blank expression on his face as his mind raced. Despite how ready the kids were to run, this one took a risk coating his entire existence and mind by pulling him over the plants. The boy with the paper bag urged him to hide with them despite how in his mind, Kokichi compromised himself by standing in the open.
Kokichi couldn’t help but hum quietly to himself. So even with how troubled these kids seemed to be with survival as their top priority, Paper Bag Kid was selfless and wanted to help others. Selflessness was a rare quality to have, especially for a young child with a dreadful past. This kid was interesting now that he knew where his intentions lay. Looking to his left side, he side-eyed the other kid with them. The boy with the bangs seemed to save that quality for people he trusted if he went off of how he took the time to cut holes into a paper bag for his companion. That was a more common reaction and reality traumatized kids held.
He allowed the three of them to sit in silence for a couple of minutes. As the seconds ticked by, the two kids looked to be more antsy than relieved nothing had happened against them yet. “See? Nothing to worry about,” Kokichi whispered, finally taking the chance to speak after letting them see for themselves. “The only one here other than us is my friend. She’s a kid, too,” he smiled, twisting himself to look over the plants and pointing to the teenage girl.
Marinette looked surprised to be addressed even though she couldn’t hear them from the distance. She gave an awkward smile and waved before forming a thumbs-up. Kokichi raised a single hand, pushing it forward slightly. Not yet, the gesture told her. He untwisted himself and sat with the two kids, who looked more frozen solid than ever. If he had to make a guess, the leader would say they were debating with the words he gave them in their minds. Well, it’s not like he expected that this would be easy.
“Tell you what— I’ll walk to my friend and watch nothing happen to me. No monsters, no boogies, no nothing!” the leader offered with a chirp. At his words, they looked at him with alarm, and the Paper Bag Kid grasped onto his wrist.
“Stay,” he rasped. Even with a single word, he can feel the urgent tone behind it. “Safe.”
With how these two act, their concept of safety is flimsy, Kokichi thought. He shook his head insistently, slowly guiding the kid’s hand off of him. “Safe,” he repeated back to the boy, pointing to where Marinette would be. “Promise!”
The kid seemed to know a lost cause when he saw it. He hesitantly loosened his grip on his wrist and Kokichi guided his arm out of his hold. The leader stood up nonchalantly, brushing off his clothes. He offered a lopsided grin to the kids before stepping out from behind the plants. Making a show of his trek to the girl across the room, he moved slowly with each step and swung his arms more than one would when walking. He felt the locked gazes on his back and he knew with every second he took with his steps, they grew more anxious but they would be proven nothing would happen.
“Hey there, Marinette!” he greeted cheerfully with a full wave of his hand. “Are you stalking us over here?” he asked innocently.
The girl in question reeled back in shock at his question. “What?! No! No, I’d never stalk anyone!” she insisted, her smile from earlier falling quickly. “What’s… With the scarf? And how are the kids?”