The Ghost of You

Both Living and Dead, March Forward

The sun rose, and along with it came morning time. It came faster than Shuichi would have ever liked it too. Images of the hung Kaede flooded his mind, the picture of her lifeless body swinging from side to side at the front of it all. "Can I possibly get over that? I feel like something like that couldn't just leave.." He told himself, and in all honesty, he was probably right. Death isn't something one could just get through easily. But here, in this twisted killing game, it's something he might just have to face again. With that thought in mind, he finally got out of bed.

Having gone to the bathroom, in the mirror he saw a solemn, grave looking face. Had he not known any better, some sort of monster would've been his first guess. But, sadly, no. It was his own. "I can't be looking like this. Everyone else is probably sad enough. This would just make them feel worse." He noted, turning the sink on and splashing his face with a handful of water. That's what he saw in a few detective films when the main character was feeling down. Though, unlike detective films, it didn't suddenly cheer him up. In fact, now he felt worse with a wet face.

"Um... Shuichi. That doesn't work, you know." An embarrassed Kaede spoke from the doorway. She had been there a couple minutes, just watching him to see what he'd do. "I think a little self-encouragement would work better than water."

The blonde waited a couple seconds for a response, and to the surprise of no one, she didn't get one. Shuichi splashed his face again, aiming for his eyes this time. To him, this was just a bad dream. If he kept pelting himself with water then eventually he'd wake up in his bed. Of course, Kaede would still be dead. There just wouldn't be a corpse of her following him, nailing his mind to the event. Keeping him miserable.

"I.. I could give you a motivational speech!" Looking at the bright side of things, Kaede stayed positive and took a step next to Shuichi. In instinctual response, he took a step further away to keep distance. "You can do this, Shuichi! I know you can! As the ultimate detective, you can find out who the mastermind behind this is and solve the case and escape from—"

Cutting her off, the doorbell rung. Not just once, multiple times. It didn't stop. It wouldn't stop until it was answered. "I-I'm coming!" Shuichi took a small towel hung on the wall and wiped his face of the water, heading into the main room. He opened the door and, without permission, Kaito barged inside.

"Hey! You coming to breakfast or what? I was gonna eat with everyone, but I noticed you weren't there." He scratched the back of his neck. "So I came to get you."

"I... don't recall making plans to go to breakfast this morning."

Back at the bathroom doorway, Kaede listened to the conversation between the two. Kaito apologized for hitting him last night, and they started heading out the door. She was about to follow until Shuichi said, "wait a minute. I need to grab something.."

"Alright. Just make it quick! I'm dying to eat something! Breakfast only lasts so long, and it only happens once a day!"

"He somehow makes that sound so brave." Kaede passed through the walls and stood next to Kaito. She waved her hand in front of his face, testing to see if he could even see her. "Yoo-hoo? Kaito? Can you see me?"

He didn't even twitch at it. That told her every she needed to know. Why could only Shuichi see her? Well, maybe someone at the table could.. hopefully.

Shuichi exited his room finally. There was one detail different from before. He had his hat on, his eyes pointed towards the ground. "Let's go. I don't want to hold up your breakfast."

"Um.. yeah! Let's go!" Down the hallway the both of them went.

Kaede was at a loss of words. Why was he still wearing his hat? He needed to be more assertive, that's something she knew she told him. With that hat on, always facing down and avoiding everything he didn't want to see, how was that possible? "Shuichi.. can you take the hat off for me?" To her dismay, her words were drowned out. Kaito's loud talking made anything she had to say all too silent. "I guess... I'll never see him like that again, huh?"

The morning continued with Shuichi making his way to the dining room. There was what seemed like an important conversation going on, which quickly died out when everyone turned to see him. Tension had clouded the room. His face hadn't gotten any less monstrous. "Um.. good morning, Shuichi." Tsumugi was the first one to speak. She was trying to be polite.

"Good morning.." Shuichi tilted his hat down ever-so-slightly. The crowd staring at him made him want to disappear. Being the center of attention was never really his thing. This was even worse, however. Everyone staring at him and expecting him to say something.

"Wow! You look like hell!" The always helpful Kokichi spoke. Not a lie, surprisingly. Still harmful.

"Quiet, you male! Learn some manners, why don't you?!" Tenko eagerly shouted and pointed at him.

"Geez. Still as rowdy as ever." Kaede softly chuckled. Nobody had their eye on her. If they did, they probably would have said something by now.

"Anyways," Kaito tried to steer the conversation into a better direction than that would have gone, "don't be late again! Make sure to eat breakfast each morning!"

"I agree with that. After all, I made us all breakfast." Kirumi's motherly soft voice voiced out. "We have plenty here to eat. Enough for even a hungry animal to be satisfied by, so please don't hesitate to indulge yourselves."

After a bit more spoken words, everyone quieted down and ate.

Kaede stood next to Shuichi's chair. "I can get why you won't talk to me now. You'd probably look crazy. You could have talked to me earlier though. Did I do something wrong?" In the corner of his eyes, Shuichi could see just how upset her eyes were. "I thought coming back to see you again after that would have made you feel better."

The boy was dying to answer her now. Whether to unleash anger or apologize was something he was unsure of. So maybe it was better that he had to keep his mouth shut. He tilted his hat down even further, only allowing himself to see the meal in front of him. "Sh..Shuichi." Kaede sounded like she was about to start crying. "You could at least look at me now. It's rude to not do that when you're talking to someone! I'm not saying you have to talk or anything. I just want you to acknowledge me.. please."

"This food is great! Atua shines his grace down upon it!"

"Gonta agree!"

"Yeah! It's even good enough for Kaito, Luminary of the Stars!"

"Kaede.. just leave me alone for a bit."

"Could you cook breakfast for us every morning?! Even if I have to share it with these degenerate males!"

"I can't eat, but it looks delicious. I think?"

"Yeah, yeah. Shut the hell up, you good-for-nothin's! I've tasted fever medicine better than this!"

"Shut up, you filthy bitch!"

"F-FILTHY?!"

"Wait. What was that, Shuichi?" Maki stopped the flurry of compliments coming towards the maid. "You said something about Kaede?"

The spotlight was on him again. He didn't even need to see that to know, the silence was hint enough for that. Talking out loud was a really stupid idea, but that was the only way he could've gotten the point across. "Uh.. nothing. Forget I said anything."

"Yeah! She's dead anyways, so why even bother talking about her? Her goody-goodiness led to her being killed. Maybe if she stopped looking out for everyone and tried to look out for herself, she would have survived!" Kokichi said.

Kaede couldn't really deny that. It was the truth. Not that she's ashamed of herself, that was just apart of her.

Nobody really had the gull to reply to something like that. Not even Tenko went on a long spiel about why he was such a degenerate, although some had kind of hoped she did. It would've brought some kind of satisfaction rather than just letting him get away with it. The graffiti would just have to wait until later.

Time passed and everyone finished eating. No one had anything to say to anyone then. Maki had even planned on leaving. When she tried, a certain bear stopped her, making her take a few steps back. "Wowie! Talk about a buzzkill! Amirite?"

"What do you want?" Maki took another step back.

"Hey, hey. No need for the cold shoulder! I was just about to give you all a prize! Isn't that neat?"

"A prize..?"