Brats & Brains (Shuichi x Kokichi)

3 - The (Almost) Unsolvable First Case

~ Shuichi

A shot put ball is covered in Rantaro's blood—he himself is lying in a pool of his own blood. It's beyond sickening. I fear that I'm going to throw up all over his corpse as everyone around me is either crying or stunned in silence.

The monitor in the library starts playing above our heads; the screen shows Monokuma sitting in a chair, probably in the mastermind's room—the very room Kaede and I were trying to lure the mastermind out from.

"A body has been discovered!" the sadistic bear exclaims through the monitor above our heads. "Thank goodness, this game was starting to get boring! The Ultimate 'Who Cares' is dead!  You will all have some time to investigate before the class trial begins! Good luck everyone! Puhuhuhu..."

I try swallowing without gagging, so I look away from the cold, lifeless body and push the image of his corpse out of my head. I can't believe someone was actually murdered... I was hoping Kaede and I would catch the mastermind before this happened.

"The killing game has officially started!" Kokichi exclaims. "Yay!"

His statement worsens the intense nausea in my stomach. How could anyone be excited about this? I briefly wonder if he's the mastermind or if he's somehow in on this whole game. Or maybe he's just a sadist and finds it entertaining to see others in despair.

"How the hell could you celebrate something like this?" Kaito shouts angrily, cracking his knuckles. "You're such an inconsiderate prick."

"Calm down, Mr. Astronaut. Jeez. Learn how to take a joke," Kokichi groans.

"This isn't exactly a time to joke around," K1-B0—the Ultimate Robot—says. "Someone just died."

"Don't worry, everyone!" Angie—the Ultimate Artist—says cheerfully. "Atua will be with us during the investigation and trial! No need to worry."

"Shut up with this 'Atua' nonsense," Himik—the Ultimate Mage— complains.

"Was... Rantaro the mastermind?" Kaede asks herself, completely ignoring Kokichi and his insensitive comments as well as Angie's enthusiasm.

Everyone turns their heads away from Kokichi and Angie and they veer their eyes towards Kaede. Nobody else knew about our plan except for Miu, and she didn't even know all the details of the plan. She just knew we needed cameras to capture a picture of the mastermind—but it turns out those cameras went to waste.

"What are you talking about?" asks Maki, the brunette with twin-tails—the Ultimate Child
Caregiver.

Kaede doesn't say anything; her mouth is open, but not a sound escapes her lips, so I speak up instead, "Kaede and I set up a trap to catch the mastermind, but it wasn't supposed to end like this..."

"So," Kokichi says, dragging the word out for a long time, "you and Kaede killed Rantaro?"

I gasp in disbelief. "No! We didn't use the shot put ball in our trap at all! We just used cameras and this receiver"—I show Kokichi the small remote—"to try and catch the mastermind. But since the game is still going, the mastermind couldn't have been Rantaro."

I glance at Kaede and she's avoiding eye contact with me. I wonder why.

"Well," Maki says calmly, "we should begin our investigation now."

Everyone starts inspecting the body and searching around the school for any clues regarding Rantaro's murder. As I'm inspecting the shot put ball used to kill him, the small purple-haired boy squats down next to me. He just sits there for a while, not doing anything.

"May I help you?" I ask, standing up.

Following me up, Kokichi stands at his feet as I write down every detail I can find in my notepad. "Just trying to help!" he exclaims enthusiastically.