The New Motive

The Last Stop

"Yes, ma'am. I'll have someone gather a search party right away. Alright I just need you to- hey, you!" The officer Shuichi and Kokichi had met the day before was working with a woman who had lost her dog when he spotted them. He quickly finished speaking with her and showed her to the door, turning to yell at the two boys again afterwards. "What are you two doing back here?"

"Well," Kokichi began, "we thought you could maybe drive us and some friends to a few places real quick. So, what do ya sa-"

"I say no," he interrupted. "Why on earth would I ever agree to that? I'm a busy man, you know? And I work for the law to save people. I don't just drive random kids and their buddies around town. Especially not yours."

"Wow," he sighed. "First of all, um, rude. And two, what kind of person working 'for the law to save people' gets a search party together to find some lady's dog and doesn't get one to help find 14 different kids who were presumably dead and just found alive? Some, man of the law you are."

"I thought I told you to leave and not come back here."

"Huh, did you say that? I don't know. Anyways I was just thinkin-"

"No, get outta here. I don't wanna see you two back here. I already told you once. I won't do it again, so leav-"

"Saihara? Pardon my intrusiveness, but did he agree or not?" Kirumi asked from outside the door of the station where the rest of the students were waiting for them.

"And who the hell are you?"

"I am Kirumi Tojo, the Ultimate Maid. My comrades and I would like to request that you please assist us in traveling to a few places, that is, if it's not too far out of your way," she said, bowing gracefully.

"No way. There's no way you're Kirumi Tojo. She's dead. And so are whichever kids you two are pretending to be."

"Actually-" Shuichi began, but he was interrupted when Miu pushed through the door, leading everyone else inside.

"Hey, what the fuck's taking you so goddamn long?"

"And who are all you guys?"

"I'm the brilliant girl genius Miu Ir-"

"No you're not. What's your real name? All of you, real names and I want the names and numbers of all your parents. You're all going home, right now."

"Yay!" Kokichi shouted. "Come on you guys! Get to the car! Or the van! They probably have a van! Let's go! Yahoo!" Then he ran outside, jumping down the stairs and racing around the side of the building.

The officer quickly got up and chased after him, but he was too fast for him. And everyone else, lead by Shuichi, walked out of the station to meet them.

Shuichi just stood by a black van that was parked in the lot with his classmates watching with them as the officer kept chasing Kokichi around almost catching him a few times, but not quite. This went on for a short while before he actually agreed to take them all home. Wherever that happened to be for each of them.

They all loaded up in the vehicle, Kokichi forcing himself into the front seat, and the officer started driving, not even paying attention to him anymore.

"Alright then," he said once they were on the road. "Who's first?"

. . .

It was pretty late, around maybe eight or nine-ish when their driver pulled up to the last house.

"Okay, we're here," he announced.

"Yep!" Kokichi said excitedly hopping out of the van and heading to the backseat to get the rest of the passengers.

Everyone else had had family somewhere around the area, but none of them were to close to each other, so they'd been driving for a decent amount of time. The others were all met with open arms and smiling, and crying, family's. Mothers, fathers, gradparents, sisters, brothers, some even had pets that came to the door and thanked them all. But Kokichi hadn't had a location of any nearby family. Or any family for that matter. And neither did Shuichi.

So the last house they'd come to wasn't either of theirs. It actually belonged to the third and last passenger in the vehicle. It was the home of none other than Kaede Akamatsu the Ultimate Pianist.

The three teens stepped out into the cold night air and Kaede waved good bye to the officer before he drove off for the last time. Kaede's house was neat and tidy, surrounded by a picket fence, and homey to say the least. It was simple, but you could also tell that important memories had been made there. It was overall pretty nice.

She'd offered to let the two boys stay with her since she had told their driver that they were all friends and that her parents wouldn't mind. Kokichi almost wished she hadn't though.

Her family met her at the door crying happily like all the others they'd visited and showed the two males to an upstairs bedroom where they said it'd be alright if they stayed.

They were really nice people and they seemed to like the boys as well, which wasn't a bad thing considering their current situation, and they made sure to express their gratitude whenever they could. Because it really was a great thing that they'd accepted them into their home on such short notice. And they all knew it.

. . .

Once they were all settled, Kaede showed them both around and wished them a good night's sleep before returning to her room and heading to bed.

The house had only one guest bedroom, which probably annoyed Kaede more than she let them all see in this situation, but it was just as nice as the rest of the house, but the two males didn't get a lot of time to enjoy it before sleep began threatening to take over.

Then the violette suddenly came up behind the taller, grabbing him around the waist and hugging him tightly.

"Oh, hey," Shuichi gasped.

"Hey," he said back, holding him close and smiling.

Neither of them really remembered when it happened, but sometime soon after they were both sleeping soundly, next to one another on the bed. And it almost didn't matter.