Voided Truth (Hollow Lies Sequel) (Danganronpa)

Chapter 23 ~ All You Wanna Do

🌿I heard this song and immediately thought of Kokichi. So this song kind of inspired this chapter.🌿

...

Kokichi fidgeted in the chair, the cushion being very thin and not helping with the feeling of hard metal. Not to mention the anxiety he had been getting from the past few days. Between checking on Maki's health and working with Future Foundation to restore the rest of his memories, it was never ending stress. And as if that wasn't enough, Kiibo and Shuichi were still playing tug of war with him. While they did try to hide their intentions with it being more like a suggestion of doing things together, he could easily read between the lines and read the expressions they threw at each other. Honestly, it was tiring. Especially when it came to Shuichi. While he didn't seem as mentally unstable as the other night, he'd occasionally get a crazy look in his eye and hold Kokichi a little too tight for his liking. Not that it truly mattered how Shuichi acted, Kokichi refusing to get close often anyways. That lead to Kiibo trying to keep him contained in one room or following everywhere he went. The only place he couldn't go was the current room he is in.

He wanted privacy while Yuki and some others worked on retrieving his lost memories. While in the room, they had him sit in the chair and placed a machine on his head that was hooked up to some monitors. A woman named Ayano would then give him a therapy like session to try to unblock whatever was keeping him from remembering. The machine was for trying to pick up the block and seeing how well Kokichi was easing into it. While they did make a little progress at a time, they wanted to make sure it didn't cause Kokichi to have a mental breakdown if they uncovered anything too traumatic. So far it hadn't been any worse than what he'd already been through, which was for better or for worse. He almost decided to quit the project, seeing no reason to continue just for more memories of his mom's neglect or actually remembering what the students did at the last school to get him to like Danganronpa. He already had a bit of those so there was no need to continue this.

As Ayano continued with her questions, Kokichi couldn't help but find himself zoning out, focusing on the thought of his mom. He wasn't sure if he missed her or not. While she was neglectful, there were a few times she cared. Part of him wanted to believe it was her caring that made her take him out of that last school, even if it did end badly. Though, it was hard to be sure. As he thought on her more, he realized he didn't even remember what happened to her. All he remembered was getting kidnapped by Shuichi, then taken by Kaito, and then entering the killing game. Not once during that had he took the time to think about her. He doesn't even remember wanting to return to her while Shuichi slowly broke him.

He twitched a bit at that thought. Not once did he wish to return to her while being Shuichi's captive. No, all he wished for was death. There was another twitch, Ayano pausing her sentence in surprise. His body began to shake as he asked himself why he didn't think of her at all. Even if she was neglectful, it was still better than being with Shuichi or dying. There wasn't even a thought of her before Shuichi began torturing him. It was like her existence was erased from his mind. He tried thinking further on it, a few memories popping up of the days before Shuichi took him.

Suddenly, he tossed the device off his head and screamed, the picture of his mom's dead body clear in his head. Not only that, but the killer standing above her body. His breathing picked up and he hugged himself, shutting his eyes as he ignored everyone's panic. At first, he didn't recognize the killer, their face a blur. But as it came into view, the face took a form into a familiar one. He began to remember how his mom moved them away so quickly. She had a boyfriend a few towns over, the two moving in after she was only dating him for a few months. The boyfriend actually attempted to be a father to Kokichi for a few weeks, allowing Kokichi to put his guard down long enough to add another trauma to the list. Kokichi screamed at the memory, bolting off the chair and out the door, as if he could run away from his memories. The Future Foundation members tried calling out to him, but it was no use, their voices not reaching him.