Wistful Warmth. (After Game! Kokichi x Reader.)

Chapter Eight: Faithful and Foolish.

       

(A/N: 02/04/19) - Thanks so much for reading, guys. I'm hoping to have the next chapter out by the end of the week, but no promises. I'm sorry for slow updates as of late. 

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 After being absorbed in my thoughts for nearly thirty minutes, I blinked slowly, slapping my hands against my cheeks in an attempt to bring myself back to reality. I stared ahead, noticing that I was still facing towards the direction Kokichi had went. I sighed softly, shifting my gaze upwards and leaning back against the couch. My eyes narrowed, meeting the ceiling as my mind began to swim once again.

The boy was undoubtedly already in bed, though I knew he was probably having trouble sleeping; who wouldn't in his situation? I realized that sleep wouldn't come for me that night. For me, I knew there was no point in even heading to bed when my brain was so active. Memories of the reassurance I had given Kokichi, the many possible outcomes for tomorrow, and my acceptance of my feelings for the male—it all swirled within my head nonstop. I had told him everything would turn out okay, but I didn't know that for sure. I wanted to encourage him and give him the confidence to move forward, but I may have raised his expectations a bit too much. If things were to go badly, it would undoubtedly hurt him even more now, wouldn't it? Despite my realization, I knew it was too late to go back on what I had said. At this point, all I could do was hope for the best.

Since I had quite the day planned tomorrow, I decided it would be in my best interest to do some research on the killing game. I knew that knowing more information about the events that took place, and the characters involved, would likely help when it came to confronting Maki and Shuichi. Kokichi planned on being truthful with them for the first time ever, and it would be more difficult to support him with the limited knowledge I had. Perhaps doing some research would help me understand Shuichi and Maki's disdain for Kokichi more? Maybe I would even learn more about the violet-eyed boy I had come to room with?

Once I had plopped my laptop upon the kitchen table and began brewing a pot of coffee, I was ready to dive into the hell that was Danganronpa. My fingers met the keys, shaking slightly as they began to type. Before I knew it, I was skipping around within the show, watching highlights, trying to form conclusions, and so forth.

When I made it to the fourth trial, my lips curled downwards into a frown. Kokichi appeared to be losing his cool a bit, which was something he didn't normally do within the trial space, unless it was a joke. At the end of the trial, I found myself theorizing that the kindness he expressed to Gonta, that he claimed was a lie, was the actual truth. Something about the way he snapped in the end rubbed me the wrong way—it was a bit too over the top, even for the self proclaimed evil leader. He seemed...desperate.

By the fifth trial, tears began to glide down my cheeks. When I saw the press crash down once again, and had realized that it was in fact Kokichi beneath the machinery, I bit down on my lip to suppress the emotion swirling within me. S/N had told me that Kokichi hadn't survived in the end, but at the time, that information wasn't important to me. Within no time, the thought of the character's death had slipped my mind. At the time, Kokichi was nothing more than a fictional character to me—now, he was so much more than that. He claimed that everything he had experienced within the game felt real, and that the pain he felt was real. Kokichi was shot, poisoned, and then crushed to death—and to him, it was real. The violet-eyed boy I had come to care for so much, had already experienced what it was like to die, and in the end, he died with everyone hating him. In the end, did he chose to sacrifice himself in a final attempt to save the others, or did he simply want to win against the mastermind? Perhaps, the answer was more complex than that?