Building Trust- Korekiyo Shinguji x Fem! Reader SFW
Art by Yuiji on Pixiv
Summary: After the first trial, you feel uncertain about your budding friendship with a certain mysterious anthropologist.
WC: 1,924
A/N: No mention of that goofyahh sister shit cuz who tf wrote that
It’s been three days since everyone woke up here. And two of their classmates were already dead. Not just dead, because “dead” implies some sort of peaceful rest following, they were murdered. Rantaro, passing at the hands of Kaede and her misguided sense of justice, leaving her to be brutally executed by monokuma. The silence following her death was one that would not be soon forgotten by any of the remaining 14 of them.
However, the next morning had held a far more hopeful note than the Ultimate Historian found appropriate. That much was obvious based on her complete silence. She was normally one of the brighter spirited people there. She stayed agreeable and when things were tense within the group, she was quick to moderate. She served as a calming presence amidst the chaotic nature of the other students and the hopelessness of their situation. Having someone like that to keep the peace in a place like this is not just nice, but critically necessary. And they already lost Kaede. They were running out of hopeful people to lose.
That’s how Korekiyo saw it at least. In their short time at the Academy, She and Kiyo often found themselves together. It didn’t even start intentionally. They just both happen to spend most of their free time on campus in the library. She found his more reserved nature comforting and she was interested in anthropology herself, being the ultimate historian. They had a lot to talk about. It was nice to be able to have discussions about their interests with someone capable of keeping up and making meaningful contributions.
It’s not as if they magically became thick as thieves inside such a short and intense timespan, but they certainly held a level of trust towards each other that was not shared with their fellow classmates.
So her silence in the morning meeting was noted. At least by him, it was.
The moment she finished her breakfast, she excused herself with a quiet “thank you” to Kirumi, who had taken it upon herself to cook breakfast for everyone, and stalked out of the dining hall. Her muscle memory guided her feet down the basement stairs and down the dark hallway to the side entrance of the library. She always enjoyed reading in the early morning hours, it helped calm her. But the moment she opened the door, she froze. Her eyes instantly locked onto the hardwood floor. This is the room where Rantaro lost his life. In a careless accident caused by the ignorant planning by the same person they senselessly elected as their leader.
Her jaw clenched as she stared at the floor where Rantaro's lifeless body lay mere hours ago. Now he’s gone. Who even knows how monokuma disposed of the body, she can’t imagine he’d give him an honorable burial. An angry sort of heat rushed through her body at the memories of the whole trial. She didn’t realize how long she’d been standing there until she felt a hand grasp her shoulder, causing her to whip her head around quickly, instinctively pushing the figure back from her as she did, adrenaline pumping through her veins.
“Khehe… seems I startled you.” He lets himself be pushed back without resistance. Her eyes widening when her brain bothered to register who exactly it was standing in front of her.
“Jesus, don’t just sneak up on me like that…” she said with a deep sigh of relief. Her hand came to rest over her now pounding heart as she looked over him again, as if cheeking if he was hiding something.
“Apologies.. I assumed you heard me walking down the hall, but alas, you were too lost in thought.” Korekiyo offers his explanation quietly as he takes a step into the library, passing her to enter first, as it seemed her shoes were fused to the floor.
She watched him walk in so simply, as if they weren’t just here, investigating the murder of one of their friends. His boots make a sort of satisfying, echoing click as he crosses the length of the library in a few steps, finding a shelf interesting enough to examine more closely. She wants to scoff, to join him, to yell at him; but in this moment, the only thing she could bring herself to do was stare.
“Do you intend to join me?” He asks, not looking up from the book opened in his hand.
She stands wordless for a few more moments before finally snapping out of her daze and willing herself to follow him. She walks slowly, as if one wrong step would magically trigger another stray shot put ball down the ventilation shaft.
She forces herself to look away from the corner in which they found Rantaro’s body yet it seemed as though her brain couldn’t spare enough concentration to make sense of the words scrawled on the spines of the books on each shelf. She glances over to see him still reading through the first few pages of a book.
“How… are you so unbothered?” she finally asks after a few long moments of silence. Her voice is unjudging, merely curious and seemingly jealous.
He closes the book he was occupying himself with in favor of meeting her gaze. His golden eyes fixed on her clearly distressed figure as he spoke.
“...When you’re trapped in a place like this, humanity’s beauty all but surrounds us. It’s a matter of perception that creates a different reaction, I suppose…”
She’s sure that there is a great deal of truth in those words, but her emotions moved faster than her head.
“What part of last night was “Beautiful” to you? Rantaro’s corpse or Kaede’s execution?” she retaliates quickly, her tone sharper than she means it to be.
“I only meant to imply that willing yourself to kill for the salvation of the suffering is a beautiful thing.” He clarified, placing the book back on the shelf.
“Her intentions were fine enough, but her plan was so deeply flawed… she could've killed anyone who walked into the library, she had no real guarantee it would be the mastermind…and now the only person with any information about the ultimate hunt is gone..” She sighs, forcing her anger to calm. Getting frustrated wouldn’t assist her here.
“That may be true..” he concedes as he crosses his arms over himself.
“But there is no use in dwelling on the past now, it will only create more despair.” He continued his reasoning with a sigh, knowing it hardly offered any real comfort.
She let out a huff.
“Do you know who you’re talking to?” She asks quietly, referring to her talent as the ultimate historian. Her eyes flicked back over to the now spotless section in the otherwise dust covered library where Rantaro's body once was.
When she felt a hand on her shoulder, she didn’t jump away this time. She turned her head back towards him, letting his touch serve as a distraction from her spiraling thoughts.
“Please, do not let this trouble you. Paranoia and anxiety will only create more obstacles,” He gently squeezes her shoulder.
“It’s only natural to be distressed after such a sudden loss, and it is just as natural for humanity to come together after one as well…”
She looked back to him as he finished speaking, running a hand through her tousled hair. She knew that to an extent, he was right. This morning, the others were just trying to create a sense of unity, not be insensitive or ignore the death of their friends. Still… it just felt odd to her. To move to acceptance so quickly.
“‘Coming together’ is fine… but they can’t possibly think the killing game will stop if they just forget about last night..” She starts quietly, leaning back against the bookshelf .
“Saying Kaede’s a hero for being responsible for manslaughter makes me nervous enough..”
“She is their hope.” He interjects, raising a finger at her like a scolding mother.
“Hope is a very dangerous thing to lose in a place like this. Do not take it away from them.” He warns, his voice holding a certain quiet intensity that she wasn’t familiar with. She only stares back at him, unsure how to get her point across without being talked into a corner. If last night's trial was anything to go off of, that was certainly one of Korekiyo’s talents.
“...I’m not trying to...” she starts quietly, her eyes retreating back to the bookshelf she was currently leaning on.
“I’m just saying that when all of us were cooperating with each other and working to get out of here, that’s when a killing happened. We can’t just ignore that… someone else will die. If everyone has blind trust in each other, it’s only a matter of time before someone gets wise..” She explained quietly.
“Is that such a crazy thing to say?” She prompts him nervously at his lack of response.
“What do you propose then?” he questioned, mirroring her posture, leaning against the shelf next to her.
She’s relieved when his voice drops the edge it held moments ago. Korekiyo is the only person here that she trusts enough to share her insights with, if he shut her out, she’s sure she’d end up holed up in her dorm for the rest of the day. Honestly the thought was already appealing. She felt like an open target standing around like this.
“I… I just think we shouldn’t get too comfortable. That’s when people are easiest to kill… I don’t want everyone to be paranoid but exercising caution is reasonable. The blind hope Kaede was selling should have been a lesson to everyone. She seemed the most trustworthy of us all yet she was the first one to break under the pressure..” She explained her line of thinking quietly, her eyes still staying away from his golden ones.
He only nodded once as he thought over her words.
“I can see your logic.” He concedes, his voice taking on an amused tone.
“However, I wouldn’t say you’re following that advice right now..” He gestures between the two of them.
“You’re still here with me. Alone.” She can’t see his mouth through the mask but she is sure he’s smiling if his eyes were anything to go off of.
“That’s… not the same.” She argues quietly.
“I trust you.” She admits shyly as if she was a school girl confessing to her crush. Though those words help meaning far deeper than a love confession here.
She didn’t expect him to laugh.
“Is that right?” He inquired, sounding quite pleased with himself.
Her face faltered at that. Why did he sound so smug?
“Yeah..” she said, looking up to meet his eyes again, a sort of deep uncertainty twisted up her stomach.
“You don’t sound so sure anymore.” He muses quietly.
“Cause I was expecting you to say it back- not laugh at me.” She mumbled quietly, smacking his chest.
He laughs again.
“I simply wasn’t expecting such a bold declaration.” He mused lightly.
“What were you expecting then?” She muttered as she crossed her arms over her chest, her hands squeezing her own arms tightly.
“Ah, I suppose I don’t know either.” He admits with a masked smile.
“I trust you as well.” He admits after a long few moments. She nodded once, acknowledging his reciprocation.
A moment of silence falls between them, the two only looking at each other with interest. It seemed they would be sticking together in this killing game after all.