Story: “A Good Deception”
Recently, Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Detective, has been having trouble solving a difficult case that he came across. There is so much evidence he found already to strongly suspect and narrow down the culprit of this particular case to be one of his classmates, but he can’t figure out who that might be. After staring at the pictures of his fellow classmates on the wall and pondering about everyone’s statements on where that person (or robot) was during the time of the incident for quite a long time, there is only one person who he knew he could trust. And that’s only because that person was his alibi throughout the entire day.
Kokichi Ouma.
Shuichi knows that he can’t solve this case by himself and that he needed another person’s help to see if they can formulate any new ideas or find some new facts that he had previously missed or never even thought of. The Ultimate Detective is indeed quite aware of how smart and cunning Kokichi really is, however, he isn’t sure if his companion would either help or just hinder the case.
Despite this, Shuichi is desperate to gain some new perspective by now and knows that time is of the essence. The longer the case stays open, the more time goes by as possible theories and evidence grow colder with each passing moment.
After carefully contemplating about the issue at hand and planning on how to obtain Kokichi’s help, he immediately spares no second into setting foot to find the talented trickster.
- - -
Shuichi eventually finds Kokichi up to his usual antics. He stops the shorter male from doing what he was currently pursuing and turns his back away from him. The detective knows that Kokichi is peering at him, curious to see what is on his mind. Shuichi tugs on his hat as he sets his plan into motion. With as much confidence he can muster, Shuichi carefully eyes his classmate and speaks to him at once, “Show me how to lie.”
Kokichi momentarily becomes surprised to hear those words come out of Shuichi’s mouth, but shortly after, he then bends down as his teasing smile quickly returns to his face once again. Kokichi is generally intrigued at the detective’s request as he often wants to spend more time with said detective whenever he can. With this interesting proposition, Kokichi decides to cancel his latest scheme at that very moment and go with Shuichi.
- - -
Once they enter the detective’s room and he has Kokichi’s undivided attention, Shuichi makes it very clear that this practice was only to help him with his detective work and only for this case in particular. He suspects that at least one or a few of their classmates might be lying about when and where they were at the time when the incident occurred. Shuichi talks and goes over the case with Kokichi, leaving no detail out. Shuichi even describes everyone’s facial expressions and body movements when he questioned them regarding to the case about their own statements, noting a few odd behaviors that some of their classmates did.
Kokichi listens intently to the facts about the case and notices Shuichi’s keen eye for pointing those things out. He can see that the detective has grown a lot since he first started and proceeds to commend him on his efforts so far. He walks over to Shuichi and places his hand on the detective’s chin. “You’re getting better all the time,” he praises him in a soft-spoken manner, caressing the area of the skin underneath the other’s bottom lip.
Shuichi gazes into the shorter male’s eyes, almost wanting to spend his time just being in that exact moment with him.
Quickly shaking away his confusing thoughts, he remembers that time is of the essence, especially with a case like this. He couldn’t afford to waste any more minutes and needed to solve this as soon as he possible. He internally sighs at the thought before he goes back to wearing his usual serious expression. He asks, “Can you help me with this, Kokichi?”
Kokichi lets go of Shuichi, understanding his question. He grins at the detective. “Well, to understand the mind of a liar, you would have to become a liar yourself,” he easily explains as if it were that simple to do.
Shuichi gapes his mouth slightly open almost in disgust at how nonchalantly Kokichi said that statement. He did previously ask the supreme leader to show him how to lie, but the thought of actually becoming a true liar himself leaves the detective in shock. Shuichi notices that Kokichi never once showed any signs of hesitation or had any moral thoughts cross his own mind prior to speaking those words aloud.
Despite this, Shuichi knows that Kokichi is right. There are many liars out there in the world besides the person right in front of him. He shouldn’t be surprised that their classmates are also capable of telling him such lies as well. Even he knows that he lies from time to time himself, but not as excessively as Kokichi.
But, to do what Kokichi stated, that would mean Shuichi would have to go against the very principle of what makes him a detective; because of this, said detective narrows his eyes with skepticism, but he tells himself that it’s for the good of the case. He proceeds to ask Kokichi, “And how do you propose we do that?”
Kokichi eagerly grabs Shuichi’s hand. “C’mon! I’ll show you!” he exclaims, dragging the detective along with him.
- - -
When they reach the destination in Kokichi’s room, Kokichi lets go of the detective and walks into his closet. He brings out two different folded outfits and happily tosses the white one over to Shuichi. “There! Go ahead and try it on for yourself,” Kokichi tells him. “I’ll put this one on as well,” he says while holding the black outfit. “Oh, make sure you put everything on,” he says, enunciating one of those words in a slight enticing manner while he sinisterly grins, having some kind of idea in mind.
Shuichi decides not to question it and heads into the bathroom to try on the outfit. Once it is in place, he looks at himself in the mirror and sees that the style, the color, and the fabric of the material is similar to the uniform that the supreme leader normally wears. He also notices a dark purple wig and purple eye contacts that accompanied the outfit as well. He puts it on, not knowing what to expect. After he blinks a few times and gets used to the feeling of wearing contacts, he looks at himself in the mirror once again, finding that the hair and eye color looks exactly like Kokichi’s.
Shuichi walks out of the bathroom and finds a smiling Kokichi wearing a similar outfit to his own dark uniform. He also sees that Kokichi is wearing a wig and eye contacts whose colors also match the detective’s as well. He raises an eyebrow towards him and questions, “What exactly are we doing?”
“We’re cosplaying, duh!” he gladly answers in a matter-of-factly tone. Kokichi pokes his own cheek and continues to speak, “I’m the Ultimate Detective!” Then, he points towards Shuichi. “And you’re the Ultimate Supreme Leader!” he happily shouts with a giddy expression on his face. He links his arm around Shuichi’s and makes them both look at their reflections on the huge mirror in his room. He chuckles softly with his signature laugh. “Nishishi. With this, we would be messing with everyone’s minds and turning all of the world’s logic wayyy upside-down on how they all supposedly view us!” He leans closer towards Shuichi and snickers. “Neeheehee. Now you can lie all the time while I’ll be the one figuring out the cases and making all the deductions on what you’re lying about.”
Shuichi can easily see that the lighthearted trickster is clearly amused with the idea. The detective has to admit that even he is a bit impressed with this setup and wonders where, when, why, and how Kokichi ever found the time to do this, but he tables the thought for another time and respectfully declines the offer. “Even when we switch outfits, it’s still not easy being you.” He smiles genuinely towards the smaller male. “I need someone who’s good at spotting out people’s lies like you to help me figure out what happened and who might be lying about this case.” Shuichi removes his arm from Kokichi’s and walks back to the bathroom to change back to his own uniform.
Kokichi quickly changes back to his uniform as well in his room and patiently waits for Shuichi. Once he sees him walk out of the bathroom, Kokichi decides to challenge him from across the room. “And how do you know that a talented liar such as myself isn’t going to lie to you as well?” He puts his right hand on his hip and places his left forefinger on his chin. “After all, being able to detect other people’s lies and calling them out is an art that’s hard to teach.”
Shuichi slightly clutches at the air, knowing fully well that Kokichi is up to his usual antics once again. However, he isn’t planning to back down now. He answers Kokichi’s question in a sure tone, “Because I know that you’re curious to know who the culprit of this case might end up being too. You can’t figure out who did it, can you?”
Kokichi rests his hands behind his head and beams widely. “Did I get caught?” He quietly laughs. “Well, you got me! I knew I shouldn’t have ever underestimated your abilities as the Ultimate Detective!” Kokichi happily compliments Shuichi. He raises his hands up midway and forfeits. “Okay, okay. I surrender.” He places his arms by his side, strides on over to Shuichi, and smiles at his taller companion. “I’ll help you out.” He leans his face towards Shuichi’s and offers in a low tone, “Let’s go over the case one more time, shall we?”
- - -
Shuichi and Kokichi spend the next few hours going over every aspect of the case. They both take turns asking each other questions of what might have happened and they both keep shooting down those theories with a lot of fact-checking. However, there is something bothering the expert liar about the entire case.
Kokichi has a neutral expression across his face. Shuichi could tell that during these rare times, Kokichi is either being serious or telling the truth about certain situations. Kokichi meets Shuichi’s eyes and inquires what is on his mind, “Are you sure that that is everyone’s statements in those exact words?” He tilts his head towards the small black notebook on the desk.
Shuichi nods and hands him his small notebook that he carries around during investigations. He watches Kokichi as he flips through the pages and reads every single statement.
Kokichi glances back up and tosses the notebook back to him. “Well, if that’s the case, then most of these people are lying to you,” he answers with certainty.
Shuichi raises his eyebrows at the new revelation. He initially suspected that at least a few people might not be telling the truth when he heard their answers, but he didn’t think that a lot of their classmates would lie to him as the trickster made it out to be. He feels the need to ask Kokichi, “How are you so sure?”
Kokichi explains to him, “Because I heard from the other day that a whole lot of them were going to the mall together as a group, so if all of them are claiming that they don’t have an alibi, then they’re wrong. Unless they all just happened to cancel their plans on that day and never saw anyone as they said in these statements, then they probably lied to you.”
Shuichi places his fingers on the brim of his black cap, trying to think that if Kokichi is telling the truth right now, then why would they all say that they don’t have a single alibi? Were they all involved with this situation in some way? He contemplates on the thought a bit. Hmmm…This case became even more complicated than I initially thought it would be, Shuichi ponders to himself.
The detective looks back at Kokichi. “Could you tell me who you saw then when they had that conversation?”
Kokichi shakes his head. “No, I only heard a lot of different voices at the time, but I couldn’t be sure who was in there since they were all talking so quietly. I didn’t even bother going inside the room to see what they were all discussing about or to see who was in the room.” He lets a sly grin appear before saying his next statement, “But I did hear one person’s voice that I definitely recognized no matter how far I was away from him.”
Shuichi carefully notes the last word in that sentence and cautiously decides to ask whom Kokichi was referring to. “Who was that?”
Kokichi’s grin never loosens up. Instead, it becomes even wider as if he is enjoying prolonging his response to add dramatic effect to the answer of that question.
“Kaito Momota.”
As soon as those words left Kokichi’s lips, Shuichi becomes instantly shocked. His eyes pop wide open, and he considered that the supreme leader was probably lying right now. The detective was about to counter back with words of his own saying that it couldn’t be him when suddenly, he remembers in his own mind and in Kaito’s statement in those exact words, “I-I was alone. I was very much indeed quite alone at that time. All I did was stay in my room for the duration of the entire time... So I saw no one… Because I was alone… Where no one could see me…”
Shuichi believed Kaito at the time because they really were close friends, but now, he isn’t so sure. During that statement, Kaito was slightly fidgeting and being quite talkative. But, he didn’t answer Shuichi in his usual positive, upbeat tone. It sounded more like he was hiding something the more time the detective thought about the conversation. Kaito did keep insisting that he was alone the entire time, but knowing the taller male, it’s quite rare to see him all by himself at all. Shuichi failed to mention Kaito’s behavior to Kokichi when he was describing everyone else’s behaviors prior to this point because he thought it was not relevant to the case. But now, Shuichi has to suspect his best friend for giving a false testimony, even if he didn’t want to believe that someone like Kaito would ever lie to him.
Shuichi has a stern look across his features. Now, he is going to have to question his closest friend once again as well as every single one of his classmates and figure out who is probably lying to the detective. He glances at Kokichi and says to him in a calm, but powerful tone, “You’re coming with me. We’re going to ask everyone again about the whereabouts of where each of them were during the time of the incident.”
Kokichi smirks at the Ultimate Detective’s determination and places his hand near his face as if he was about to salute him. But, instead of congratulating him, the smaller male warns Shuichi, “Be careful of who you might be planning to accuse. You never know what kind of clever word might set off an unsuspecting herd.”
The detective already knows what the Ultimate Supreme Leader is saying. He has already committed the risks into his own heart: the risk of defamation of his own character, the risk of losing his own life, and even, the risk of losing friends and allies. Even though he knows all of this, this isn’t going to stop him from being what he is truly meant to be: someone who won’t rest until he uncovers the whole truth.
“Let’s go,” Shuichi commands Kokichi while walking out of the room.
- - -
Shuichi and Kokichi try walking around in their school, trying to locate where any of their classmates might be. This was very strange for the Ultimate Detective to note. Usually, the hallways, the dining room, the classrooms, or some of the other rooms in the entire school would be bustling with people chatting or doing some kind of activity. However, all the sounds were quiet… way to too eerily quiet for both boys to definitely notice.
After a few more minutes of searching and not finding anyone, Kokichi suddenly laughs maniacally while bending down and holding his stomach, making Shuichi turn and face him. He is kind of a bit worried to ask but also curious to know what is on his mind.
The supreme leader soon regains his composure and stands back up. Kokichi closes his eyes and happily asks Shuichi, “Are you sure you want to solve this case? I mean, nobody died or whatever!” He chuckles to himself at the thought before continuing, “I don’t really see why it’s that important to solve the mystery of this random case that you opened. Like, all you saw was this strange file on your desk one day, and nothing about the facts made any sense to you.”
Shuichi catches sight of Kokichi’s tone and words. He covers his mouth and closely scrutinizes the supreme leader. New thoughts appear on his mind as he continues to ponder and gaze at Kokichi’s current actions. How did he know about that? Was it possible that he was just tricked all this time? Did he fall into one of Kokichi’s traps? What this all Kokichi’s doing?
Kokichi rests his hands behind his head. He beams towards the taller male. “You’re thinking way too hard about this, Shuichi,” the supreme leader points out. He takes a deep breath and relaxes his tone. “Just take a breather and just step back into line. You can figure this out.” He winks at him. Kokichi takes a few paces towards the taller male. “C’mon, I’ll show you where they really are,” he reveals and beckons with his arm to have him follow.
Kokichi walks past the confused detective, leaving Shuichi alone for a few moments while he collects his own thoughts. Why does he know where everyone is right now? He continues to think more carefully about these new facts before he asks himself this, “Was this whole case never real in the first place?”
Shuichi tries to figure a few things out at that moment, but he still isn’t completely sure about what just happened. The detective tells himself that he won’t know the truth until he investigates further and asks Kokichi what is going on. With that thought in mind, he turns around and quickly picks up his pace to follow the Ultimate Supreme Leader.
- - -
Kokichi leads him to a set of doors and gestures with his hand for Shuichi to go in first. The detective was about to ask him what was going on when the leader puts his forefinger vertically across his lips, nonverbally telling Shuichi to not say anything. Kokichi cocks his head over to the door and gently pats him on the back as if he is saying that he would be right behind the taller male the entire time.
Shuichi gives up trying to talk with the person who tends to lie a lot and stares at the handles of the doors. He hesitantly waits a few moments and wonders if anyone is really in there. He doesn’t hear a single sound except for his and Kokichi’s breathing. He wants to know where everyone is, but he also wants to know why did Kokichi bring him over here to this place.
Thinking that Kokichi won’t ever tell him what’s on the other side until he actually opens the doors and steps inside, Shuichi takes a deep breath and places his hands on the two doorknobs. He turns both knobs simultaneously and pushes the doors.
At first, he was greeted by darkness, but then someone switches the light in the room and reveals all of his fellow classmates in party hats. They all yell and cheer out, “Happy Birthday, Shuichi!”
Shuichi looks super surprised about all of this. He had somehow forgotten that today was his birthday, and he feels his face redden at his own embarrassment, but then it quickly turns into a wide smile. “You all did this for me?”
The room greets with elated students just beaming at their classmate. All of his classmates, his friends, are there to celebrate his birthday today. And they all managed to surprise someone like the Ultimate Detective on this day. Shuichi blushes at the thought and produces a cute chuckle from his mouth. He walks over to each of them and thanks them for the surprise party.
- - -
The more time passes and the longer the conversations with his classmates were, Shuichi eventually pieces out exactly what had happened and how everyone in the room was able to hide and pull off this party altogether without letting the birthday boy know about their plans.
Shuichi walks on over to Kokichi who just happens to be holding a Panta in his hand while standing by himself near a wall away from everyone else.
Kokichi places his Panta on a nearby table as soon as Shuichi reaches him. The leader smirks at the detective, being able to read Shuichi’s genuine smile and gambogeish grey eyes as he carefully watches him. “So, you already figured it all out, huh Mister Detective,” Kokichi playfully teases.
The detective nods as he begins to summarize the whole plan. “It all started some time ago, probably like last week or so. Everyone here knew that they all wanted to throw this huge surprise party for me, but they weren’t sure how to plan it or make sure that I wouldn’t become suspicious enough to know what they were doing. That’s when you came up with this clever idea on how to surprise me.”
Kokichi smiles brightly at the detective and slightly tilts his head to the side. “Oh, and what is this ‘clever idea’ that you’re talking about?”
Shuichi continues to talk to Kokichi, finding himself smiling even more when he explains exactly how did they all pull this stunt off without a hitch. “Kaito told me that you volunteered to hang out with me all the time these past few days, claiming that you were very good at keeping a detective like me preoccupied and distracted for all this time while everyone else was setting up for this party. At the time, I just thought you wanted to hang out with me more often than usual and I didn’t even think more about your true intentions.”
Kokichi raises his arms behind his head and grins. “Well, it’s not a lie. I really did want to hang out with you more!” He smirks at the detective and says with a low tone, “And I always get what I want.”
The detective slightly blushes at the thought and continues to converse more with the supreme leader at that moment before Kokichi could even notice. “You even created this elaborate unsolvable case that involved everyone’s cooperation about their testimonies, even Kaito’s.”
Kokichi snickers childishly and openly states, “Well, of course I had to write down that idiot Kaito’s line out for him. I even made him practice in front of me a bunch of times and had to tell him what to do in order to not screw this up!” He beams a look at the tall gel-spiked purple haired male across the room before returning his eyes back towards Shuichi.
Shuichi feels content in his heart after hearing about them teaming up with each other for something like this, but it would be better not to bring it up to either of them in a casual conversation. He gazes at the supreme leader in front of him and continues on with his explanation. “You snuck the case file on my desk one day without my knowledge, knowing that I would be looking at it for a while and wondering where it came from. You somehow knew that I would be interested in picking up a case like this, and you made sure that I would be spending a whole lot of time looking for any clues and asking for everyone’s alibis during the said incident. You also knew that I would be asking for your help in particular simply because you have a smart mind and you were with me the entire time, which in turn, verifies your alibi.”
Kokichi chuckles at the detective’s deductions. “Nishishi, well that last part was exactly right, but I get bonus points from you thinking about me in that way!”
Shuichi happily smiles at Kokichi. “And while you were keeping me distracted these last couple of days and on this day in particular, everyone else was setting up for this party. They all made the preparations here and when they all told me that they were all mostly alone during the time I asked for their whereabouts, they were lying to me about that. They all went out together as a group to go shopping for supplies and gifts at that exact time. And you made sure that while they were gone, you were with me the entire time to distract me and make sure that I didn’t get suspicious about any of them.”
Kokichi places his hands behind his head and has a carefree laugh. “Neeheehee! Well, don’t look at me. I didn’t influence any of them to lie to the Ultimate Detective about anything.”
Shuichi knows very well that that was definitely a lie, but it was all for a good cause. “Everyone trusted you today to play your role into diverting me away from this place so that they can finish their final preparations and surprise me.” Shuichi’s content smile flashes across his face while he thinks about how helpful, meticulous, and how thoughtful the trickster in front of him was when planning all of this. “I’m really glad that you came up with this, Kokichi. Thank you.” He holds out his hand towards the boy to show him his gratitude for his participation with this surprise event, finally being able to see the supreme leader eye-to-eye.
Kokichi takes Shuichi’s hand and shakes it, both hands feeling warm at the touch. There was no way Kokichi could try to hide that. As a final diversion to steer away his own feelings from the detective, he grins at him and happily exclaims, “Happy Birthday, Saihara-chan!”
Shuichi’s smile falters at the sound of the suffix at the end, knowing fully well that Kokichi is still being Kokichi no matter what day it is.
- KᴀɪʙᴀSʜᴀᴅᴏᴡ ♥
Fan Art Sources:
1. [0:00] 井ノ上 [pixiv.net] - (User might have deleted artwork)
2. [0:01] 壱紀 [pixiv.net]
3. [0:02] うなぎ [pixiv.net]
4. [0:03] still [pixiv.net]
5. [0:03] ???
6. [0:05] 巣鴨 [pixiv.net]
7. [0:06 – 0:08] Official Sprites from Danganronpa Wikia page
8. [0:09] ゆづる [pixiv.net]
9. [0:10] Chiwi [pixiv.net]
10. [0:11] なでか [pixiv.net]
11. [0:12 – 0:17] みきもと@ティア125は01a [pixiv.net]
Edited: July/August 2018 Uploaded: September 7, 2018 Shuichi Saihara & Kokichi Ouma - A Good Deception
